CH 60

I couldn’t understand their reaction at all, so I stood at a distance like a totem pole and thought.

‘…Why are you two laughing…’

Confused, I stared at the mother-and-son duo who broke out in laughter.

After laughing for a while, Bella wiped the tears from her eyes and expressed satisfaction.

“No one has ever comforted me in that way, and strangely, it’s a great comfort.”

“I’m glad I comforted Madam Bella.”

‘I am serious, I don’t know why you laughed.’

I looked at the atmosphere that seemed to have softened a little. One more question remained.

“I heard that there is one shark demibeast that you didn’t kill even though she wasn’t a young demibeast. May I ask why?”

Bella replied with a still-smiling face.

“Because the little sharks need at least one adult to lean on.”

I didn’t know how the sharks took it, but it was a small consideration from Bella’s point of view.

“She’s the only one who bowed to me.”

Uh… huh? I guess that’s the real reason…?

“Because she was left behind, the young sharks who were spared then have grown up and are now making a mess in the Weil territory.”

Bella let out a small sigh as if she was tired, then smiled, the corners of her mouth lifting.

“Shall we stop talking about dark things?”

“Yes. It must not have been easy to bring it out, but thank you for telling me.”

“Thank you. Lia, you’re born with hair like that, so you have to know about it anyway.”

…She did not call me a killer whale.

Even though it was a small difference, I felt strangely relieved.

Bella asked with a gentle smile.

“This morning. I heard that you froze the sea with the magic wand you received from Suradel. It was amazing?”

“It was awesome.”

For no real reason, I brushed my hair once.

Although it was a mistake, my shoulders rose upon hearing it was great.

“As expected, I should have taught you animalization and magic…”

“I’ll show you next time, once I get used to using magic.”

“Oh, really?”

Suradel intervened in our friendly conversation.

“By the way, the two of you are having a meal without me?”

When I looked at him like there was something wrong with him, he nodded with an expression that was not at all sad.

“Mother aside, I feel sad when you and Lia come out like this.”

“There are many other things to be sad about.”

“So it is.”

To Bella and my nonchalant reply, Suradel responded with gathered brows.

“Lia, you always think of yourself.”

“Even if it’s so, what are you going to do?”

“I always think of you too.”

…I didn’t call him because I knew it would be like this, but I wonder if he knew.

As if noticing that my eyes were gradually blurring, Bella cut in.

“Stop and sit down. Lia is tired. A man who behaves badly is unattractive.”

However, Suradel, on the contrary, only made a deep, painted smile.

“Hmm. I guess Mother doesn’t know yet.”

“What?”

Suradel smiled, causing the corners of his eyes to fold.

“Lia’s preference is me.”

“What are you talking about?”

When I asked with a frown, he raised one corner of his mouth crookedly.

“You don’t remember, Lia? You said before at Weil Street that I was exactly your cup of tea.”

“…Didn’t I say that it’s just the shell?”

“So, am I not attractive?”

Suradel stared at me with his signature relaxed expression.

Even though I knew that appearance and charm were two different things, I could not bring up the words that he was not attractive.

“No face attacks.”

I shifted the subject by pushing his face with my hand.

“Ah, give me the notebook I left with you yesterday.”

Suradel slowly tilted his head.

“Why? Did you find the owner of the notebook?”

“No. It’s not that. But if we wander around like today, we might meet someday.”

“Well. I don’t know if we’ll be able to find it because the Weil territory is wider than I thought, but here it is.”

I received the notebook that Suradel handed me and flipped through the pages.

“Sit down and eat. I’m done eating, so I’ll take a look.”

Actually, I was able to read the language here thanks to all my efforts when I was a penguin.

But I wasn’t very familiar with it, so I couldn’t read as easily as I could in my native language, Korean.

So, I thought I would skim through it for now and read it later with Iprus.

The moment I quickly flipped through the pages, I noticed something and doubted my eyes.

Hangul.

(TL/N: alphabetic system used for writing the Korean language.)

It shouldn’t exist here.

<The world flows according to the predetermined destiny.>

My heart beat fast at the sentence in Korean, which I hadn’t seen in a long time. At the same time, countless thoughts came pouring out.

‘Who is the owner of the notebook? How do you know Korean?’

‘Someone like me, who possessed a character in the novel?’

If so, did the original work change not because of Suradel, but because of the possessed person?

I hurriedly read the small appended sentence below it.

<However, what would happen if someone with an unknown fate appeared?>

After that, there were no more sentences written in Korean.

—The world flows according to the predetermined destiny.

‘Does this sentence imply that this world is a novel trick?’

‘That would be too…’

‘The world in a novel is bound to have a fixed fate.’

‘I don’t know if it’s a novel I’m writing, but the ending of a completed novel doesn’t change no matter when, where, or how one reads it.’

‘If the sentence implying that a deception is correct, is ‘the one whose fate is not decided’ referring to a possessed person like me?’

‘After all, I am not a character in this book.’

According to the original story, the penguin of Reynos, the magic tower lord, remained an animal, it did not become a human.

However, I had succeeded in humanizing and became a demibeast.

Moreover, the fact that Theodore tried to imprint on me instead of Anemone in the hunting competition happened because I got involved.

“Lia?”

Abruptly, at the sound of Suradel’s voice, I returned to my senses.

“What is written on it?”

“…Nothing.”

I shook my head slowly and thought.

‘Let’s stay calm.’

In the first place, even if there were other suspects besides me, it was not very related to my ultimate goal.

‘My only goal is to save my dad.’

This was the top priority.

Finding other suspects was something I could think about after all problems were resolved.

‘I don’t have time to worry about anything else.’

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

The next day.

After practicing with Suradel like yesterday, I waited for Jerome, the shark demibeast.

Obviously, we set a place and time for today before we parted yesterday, but even though it’s been a long while since the promised time, not even a shadow was visible.

“He is late.”

It was when I was contemplating how to punish Jerome.

Hanu opened his stiff mouth and said, 

“We should leave now, Lady Lia. No matter how much I think about it, this doesn’t make sense.”

“…What doesn’t?”

“Why on earth would a killer whale demibeast believe in a shark demibeast and accompany him?”

“But am I not a killer whale?”

“That’s right, but…! Just because you look like one can be dangerous enough. Weren’t you kidnapped before you entered the Weil family?”

“Sir Hanu. Is it the same as then?”

Narrowing my eyes, I put my hands on my waist as if asking him to think carefully.

“Now I have a magic wand and an emergency ring. Above all, Sir Hanu is with me.”

“Yes? what did you just say…”

“Sir Hanu, it’s okay because you’re with me.”

“…Yes, but…”

It was a compliment attack that was quite a lethal technique.

Seeing the lack of response, it seemed that he had not yet been able to erase his uneasiness.

“Sir Hanu.”

“Yes, Lady Lia.”

“Perhaps Jerome desperately needed someone’s help to live freely.”

I looked straight into Hanu’s eyes.

His clear, pretty eyes resembled those of his tribe, the cow.

“The young Jerome is innocent. Madam Bella knew that too, which was why she spared the young shark demibeasts.”

I smiled faintly.

“Jerome wasn’t born as a shark demibeast because he wanted to.”

Hanu stared blankly at me. Slowly, realization dawned on his face and his lips drew a bitter smile. 

“Isn’t that so. The world has always been unfair. Maybe there isn’t a choice in the first place.”

Puzzled, I tilted my head.

I didn’t expect him to accept it so quickly.

“Lady Lia, do you know that my parents died when Iprus and I were young?”

“…I don’t know the exact reason, but I’ve heard from Iprus before.”

“I think I have always resented my situation.”

—Why am I an orphan.

—Why is it that Iprus and I are the only ones who don’t have parents, which everyone else has.

Things like that.

He murmured calmly, then continued speaking with slight embarrassment.

“Iprus, who grew up a little earlier despite being the same age, seemed to have been trying to survive day by day rather than resenting her situation. She pretty much raised me.”

‘Is that why Iprus claimed to be the older sibling?’