CH 87

It was shocking.

Because I had never thought about what it meant that all the demibeasts had a fear of him.

At that moment, I didn’t know what I was thinking.

I bit my lower lip and walked aimlessly toward Suradel.

After spotting me, Suradel approached me with a smile as usual.

We were able to face each other right away because we drew towards each other.

“Lia, did you manage to reattach the fallen decorations back on your dress?”

Suradel kindly asked, but I was in no mood to answer.

I just thought that I had to get Suradel out of people’s eyes.

With a firm expression, I held him by the wrist and led him.

“Lia…?”

I was about to leave the banquet hall in a fit of anger, but I restrained myself when I remembered the reason I came here.

I had to check what the penguin they found looked like and whether my dad really thought the penguin was me.

“…Let’s go to the terrace, Su.”

In the end, I led Suradel to the terrace, where curtains could be drawn.

When the gazes of others disappeared, I was able to breathe.

Suradel looked at my face with a somewhat perplexed expression.

“What happened? You don’t look good, Lia.”

‘…Something happened to you, not me.’

It wasn’t even me, so I didn’t know why my chest hurts so much, and I didn’t know why I felt like I was going to cry.

“That’s what I want to say, Su.”

—Are you really okay?

I couldn’t bear to say the last words and gazed at him.

It was then.

I overheard the conversation on the neighboring terrace.

“Ah, coming out to the terrace makes it a bit easier to breathe.”

“I know. I think I almost fainted from making eye contact with the killer whale earlier.”

“Oh, that mutant?”

“It’s funny. Honestly, that madman is probably the only one who is sincerely attending the banquet to celebrate the penguin’s birthday?”

“I don’t know what kind of play this is. Everyone was forced to come because if we don’t show our faces even as a formality, we don’t know what kind of revenge the tower lord will retaliate with.”

“Haha, the madam of Weil must have trembled after giving birth to that mutant with her own belly?”

I was forced to swallow my anger at Suradel’s motion to not step forward, but my mind went blank at the last words.

The distance between my terrace and their terrace was quite far.

It was dark, so I could only see their silhouette. I couldn’t see their faces very well.

I climbed onto the railing of the terrace, eyes half-focused in anger.

“Lia, it’s dangerous!”

Suradel hastily grabbed my leg. But I didn’t care whether he caught it or not.

I shouted ferociously, with the momentum to jump over to the terrace where they were at any moment.

“What did you guys just say?”

“What, what!”

“Who are you?”

I took off my gloves and threw them in their faces.

“It’s the crazy killer whale’s favorite penguin, you punks!”

I couldn’t stand cursing at Suradel and I anymore.

“From today, I withdraw my support for Suradel.”

I gathered mana and summoned my magic wand.

It was an added feature. Suradel thought it would be cumbersome to carry around every time.

“I withdraw my support, and from this moment on, Suradel and I are united as one. Any attack on Suradel is considered an attack on me.”

In other words…

“You guys are dead.”

Time to blow mana into the magic wand.

“…Lia, calm down!”

Suradel put his hands under my armpits and made me come down from the terrace railing.

I struggled with all my might, flailing with my eyes wide open.

“Oh, let go! let go! If I don’t get those bastards, I won’t be able to get rid of my anger!”

Then Suradel whispered in my ear, as if telling me to calm down.

“It’s really touching that you stepped up for me, but what you just said was a bit risky, Lia.”

“What’s wrong with the remark I just made!”

“It’s like spreading rumors that you’re a penguin.”

However, my desire to kill those bastards was stronger than the thought of hiding my identity.

“Whatever. I’m going to make those bastards pay for what they said!”

Suradel finally burst out laughing and blocked my way.

“I’ll take care of them, Lia.”

He kept me from jumping out with one hand, and lightly flicked his fingers with his other.

Kwak—!

Then, the two demibeast, who had just been standing upright and looking over at us, collapsed on the spot.

It seemed like they were put to sleep with magic.

But that didn’t satisfy my heart.

“Su, that doesn’t pay for their sins…!”

Suradel spoke quickly as if to listen to the end.

“Lia, if you want to get even properly, you have to touch the family. If we hit them, our hearts will be relieved, but we could be accused of being the perpetrators.”

“I can just sneak up on them!”

“I can’t really deny that.”

But this time, he waved something in front of me, asking me to leave it to him.

It was a recording.

As soon as I checked it, my body relaxed.

“…It eases my mind a little.”

Seeing this change in my attitude, Suradel rolled his eyes.

“What?”

Well, he was the one who had been disturbing employees more diligently than anyone else.

Maybe he would tighten it much more systematically than I would ever.

Being in pain would be only for a moment, but a ruined family would last a lifetime.

They insulted me, Suradel, and even Bella in a brief conversation.

They should pay the price for making fun of us.

“By the way, Lia.”

I responded with a huff, trying to suppress the anger I still hadn’t fully digested.

“What.”

“I’m really touched. You weren’t interested in me being criticized before, right?”

“…There wasn’t even a drop.”

With a pleasant smile, Suradel gently stroked my cheek.

“I’m so glad that you stepped up for me.”

Just as he said that, an indescribable joy bloomed on his face.

“Especially, I like the phrase ‘the crazy killer whale’s favorite penguin.’”

I licked my lips and made excuses.

“It was just out of anger…”

“You said ‘Suradel and I are united as one’.”

He laughed softly.

A terribly sweet voice coiled around my eardrums.

“Isn’t this the same as proposing to me?”

The eyes of Suradel which stared at me were eyes dripping with love.

There was only me in his bright gold eyes.

When I met those eyes, a strange feeling that I couldn’t explain in words came up.

Like a corner of my heart was tickling.

‘This feeling is definitely…’

It was then.

“Lord Reynos, Master of the Magic Tower, and Lady Adelia are coming in!”

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━﹤⋆

At the appearance of the main characters, I hurriedly left the terrace while exchanging glances with Suradel.

But as soon as I came out of the terrace, a scene that made me doubt my eyes popped into my field of vision. I sucked in an empty breath.

Dad, who entered the banquet hall, was holding an Adélie penguin I had never seen before.

My body began to tremble at the sight of the incredible reality.

I thought it was possible that Dad didn’t recognize me as I became a human.

Because even I was amazed at how different my appearance was from when I was a penguin.

However, it was quite shocking that Dad did not even recognize me as a penguin.

At that time, Suradel gripped my shoulder tightly as if telling me to calm down.

“Lia. That penguin is an illusion created by magic.”

“…What?”

I blinked quickly and looked back and forth between Dad and the Adélie penguin.

Then I looked closely and noticed that Dad’s posture as he held the penguin was rather awkward.

‘Why did Dad fool people with illusion magic and lie that he had found the penguin?’

I was confused, and I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

“Lia. Are you okay?”

Theodore, who appeared suddenly, noted my pale complexion.

He knew that I was the penguin from the Magic Tower, so the appearance of a new Adélie penguin was shocking.

At that time, the gaze of Reynos, who was greeting the other demibeast, reached me.

Suddenly, I remembered the last time Dad looked at me; it was with contempt. My heart started pounding like crazy.

Dad left the demibeasts he was talking with and moved on, fixing his eyes on me.

I was taken aback by his sudden action.

‘Why, why are you coming to me?’

My head was pounding and I was dizzy. And I felt rising heat.

Being mentally unstable. It was a precursor to returning to being a penguin.