CH 93

“I heard a dog from far away?!”

At that moment, a beautiful and cold face appeared next to Kyle, who had made a confession of love and a declaration of war.

The purple eyes narrowed.

It was Heinrich.

“…….”

“Kyle, the Marquis of Winston.”

His arrogant, red lips chewed and spit his name out, one syllable by one.

“You were rude to me last time, weren’t you? …If you don’t want to die.”

“I apologize.”

Kyle immediately bowed his head and apologized. Still, he didn’t look submissive at all.

Rather, because of his polite attitude, he seemed more confident and mature.

“…Ah.”

Heinrich’s eyes rose as if he was full of energy.

“You obviously knew I was the Grand Duke of Hyacinth last time. How impertinent.”

There was no one in El Dorado who did not know Heinrich.

The notoriety of this beautiful but bloody ‘Vivantum’ was quite widespread.

All nobles knew Heinrich.

Kyle didn’t seem to have any intention of hiding it, he just stared at him.

“Look at this.”

Heinrich’s arrogant face had a slight irritation.

‘Seeing that kind of behavior, I think it’s okay to exterminate all the marquises in El Dorado?!’

He wanted to make him aware of his place right away, but they were at the party.

He knew how hard Annette worked and how much preparation she had put into this party (especially when she made the third giant cake).

He didn’t want to mess things up.

―Instead, he took a different route.

“Look at this, brat.”

Heinrich pointed to Sislin who was opposite him (Sislin’s face returned to his usual expressionless one, seemingly uninterested in the words and actions of the feral chihuahua and stag).

“This is the Crown Prince.”

Then he pointed to himself.

“This is the Grand Duke, the richest man in El Dorado. Besides, I’m also a genius in magic… Even the most handsome of them all.”

The crown prince was just the crown prince, while he had that many modifiers?

—He’s quite a funny person.

Heinrich then grabbed Kyle and narrowed his eyes.

“You are ‘only’ a flimsy Marquis.”

“…….”

“Men are ‘money and power’. Just by looking at it, you are lacking in many ways?!”

Kyle, who listened silently, smiled with his characteristic noble attitude, and struck back without any hesitation.

“It’s up to Miss Annette, right?”

What’s with the self-confidence?

Even though he ignored the dog, there was no sign of crumpling at all, which made Heinrich even more annoyed.

Of course, a marquis was also a high-ranking nobleman, especially the Winston family, who was in charge of subjugating magical beasts. It was even a noble family with more power than most of the grand dukes.

However, this attitude did not emerge from the family position.

“You really don’t understand…”

Peace of mind subsided coldly. Heinrich brought his face closer to Kyle, licking his red lips in a wicked way.

“You’re going to die playing around like that. With your dog-like men.”

“……!”

The unshakable green eyes hardened coolly. It was quite provocative to mention the knights of Winston. To the point of killing.

However.

“…I was so scared.”

“It was really… scary. I was going to apologize…”

In an instant, he thought of Heinrich, who was over 180cm tall but scrunched himself up and slipped into Annette’s arms, making a ‘Heuk!’ expression on his face.

“…….”

‘Let’s put up with that fox. You don’t know what else you’d be framed for.’

If he showed such a rough appearance one more time, Annette might think he was really rude.

Kyle stood up, biting his lips gently.

“Excuse me.”

He bowed to Sislin and Heinrich, then left.

‘What, are you just going?’

As if he was puzzled, Heinrich stared at Kyle’s back, then he said to Sislin, who was still sitting there silently.

“I’ll tell you, for sure, I’m going to kill that bastard.”

“…….”

“Don’t even think about touching.”

With a brief warning, Heinrich also left the place.

As the noisy chattering humans left, Sislin, left alone, quietly raised a glass of wine.

It was then.

Tuk—

Something soft and small came and bumped into him.

It was a little girl whom he thought was about three-years-old, with front teeth the size of a grain of rice sticking out.

“I’m sworri.”

The child was light, but the wine had already been spilled on his clothes.

He would normally feel the presence and avoid it, but she was so harmless and small that he was not conscious of it.

Because he didn’t have to live his life worrying about things like marshmallows rolling on the floor in the wind.

“…….”

Red eyes stared at the child, without a word.

“Ung, latwer…”

The child cried and raised her plump cheek just by receiving his gaze.

Tak. Sislin put down his wine glass lightly and said,

“Go.”

“Yes.”

The crying child calmly answered, then taktaktak— she continued walking.

Sislin brought his body away from the table, and went inside, unclasping the tiny buttons on his wet top with his oversized hands.

‘Owin will have an extra shirt.’

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

As the evening deepened, the party grew even more ripe.

The village band had arrived.

A large bonfire was lit in the center, and the villagers linked their arms, dancing and drinking wine.

The rising smoke spread into the sky along with the pleasant laughter of the people.

“Ah… It’s a great night.”

I smiled broadly and muttered involuntarily as I watched the scene.

‘What would they have done if I had canceled?’

Everyone was so happy and enjoying themselves.

My mood improved as well.

Besides, it was obvious that the bakery would prosper even more in the future.

The popularity of the cake was contributing to the atmosphere.

“Hey~ who wants more cake! There is still a lot left, please take it.”

The self-employed flamethrower who accepted the crisis as an opportunity was boldly promoting the new cake menu at the crazy people’s hell party.

“The cake is so delicious, Annette.”

“It’s a cake that will be on the new menu from the day after tomorrow! You can eat it again. It will be smaller than this.”

“For that date, I’ll reserve one of these cakes.”

“Me too! I’ll make a reservation as well.”

I smiled proudly and handed out sample cakes to customers.

—Will everything go well like this?

A positive mood surged.

‘From tomorrow onwards, business will be better, and today will pass without a hitch.’

I handed out the sample cakes and glanced over at that table.

‘Mr. Kyle is the only one there.’

It would have been dizzying just to see the three of them emitting great energy again, but it was a more reassuring sight.

‘Great.’

Let’s just continue like this.

Running away, dodging, and acting sensibly in moderation.

‘If I’m careful with Sislin’

At the time when I was extremely engrossed in my thoughts.

The twins were running around and hit my cake tray.

Thanks to them, I was covered in a mess with whipped cream.

“Ah, you guys!”

Belatedly, Aunt Marilyn came rushing in to scold the twins.

“Really, why are you causing so much trouble today? Miss Annette, I’m sorry. What should I do? Oh…”

Aunt Marilyn was so apologetic. I lowered my eyebrows and smiled.

“No, it’s okay. I couldn’t avoid it because I was distracted.”

‘I’ll have to change my clothes though.’

I put down the cake tray and went into the house.

The first floor was the hall with the kitchen and food. Avoiding the crowd, I went up to the second floor, and soon reached the third floor, which had been made into a resting room.

“Whew…”

I walked cautiously along the dark hallway.

There might be people in the break room, so I should go into a small, unused room.

Eventually, I arrived at the smallest room at the end of the hallway.

I carefully opened the door and entered.

And…

“…….”

Literally, completely frozen.

Because there was already a man changing clothes inside.

Tuk, tuk.

He tugged the buttons with his large hand, pulling the shirt back, revealing his muscular, beastly back.

“……!”

―It was a body that gave a sensational feeling. In particular, to me, it felt that way.

The bright red eyes flashed.

It was the first male body I had ever seen in my life, and it was so different from my own soft, delicate body.

That heterogeneous gap moved my heart with a strange pounding.

He took off the dirty and wrinkled clothes, tossing it to one side like trash, and picked up a new shirt.

Then he whispered quietly.

“What are you doing.”

I was startled, as if pricked by a needle.

“Standing there.”

He draped the shirt over his tight shoulders as he turned to the girl who was completely frozen, and narrowed his dark eyes.

The girl was barely standing there, cutely trembling.

“Oh, well, I-I’m going out…”

Thud thud.

He walked slowly towards me. My eyes widened.

“……!”

‘I have to run away right now.’

Instinctively sensing danger, I grabbed the doorknob and opened the door.

But he was much faster.

He clasped the small, fragile hand that gripped the doorknob like it was swallowed by a large hand akin to a beast’s.

Then, with both hands together…

Thud!

The door closed.

My heart dropped to the floor.

Her heat felt suffocatingly hot from the huge hands and body that wrapped around her perfectly.

Sislin looked down at the girl. Then he licked his lips, and spoke in a gentle tone.

“Finally—”

His red eyes deepened as if engulfing me.

“You are trapped.”

I felt strangled by that terribly low voice.