Chapter 170

Chapter 170. Revenge (III), Part VII

“... I'm so glad I came out with you.”

“So am I.”

It was the cry of a child who fell on the ground and cried out that stopped her from looking around for such a long time. As a random voice filled the noisy street, Asher and Aria's gaze also turned toward the sound.

“Argh! My money! My leg! Argh!”

At the direction of the child, rolling on the ground, was a man running away from the crowd like a loach. The man was very quick, even though he was big. He disappeared in a flash within the crowd, and the screaming child was still crying, unable to get up from the dirty ground. No, he tried to get up, but he couldn't. One of the child's slender little legs was twisted in a strange direction. The child seemed to have fallen wrong, pushed by the man's strong power.

“Argh! My leg…!”

The child was injured by a pickpocket, but no one reached a helping hand because the child was so shabby. Aria's beautiful forehead was naturally frowned upon by the overlapping images of herself from such a child.

“Are you all right?”

At that time, he reached out to help the child in haste, but all the child could do was roll on the ground, let alone hold his hand in the pain of his broken leg. While watching all this, Aria bit her lip and hesitated a little then took the hourglass out of the box.

‘If the child had lost only money, I would have finished this by giving the child some money…'

It was only a matter of time before a child in such a slum would die if he had a disability. She had seen such a child so many times and was able to decide because she had lost them. Anyways, today's schedule was all about a walk, and most of all, he was around her. If he woke her up again, she could get up somehow.

‘So, please, it's not too late.' Aria turned the hourglass back. And time went back, except for herself.

“Lady Aria? When did you take out your hourglass? More than that, why…?”

As he was holding her hand, he suddenly pointed out the hourglass that Aria was holding, but she had no time to answer him. Looking straight back and grasping the child's position, Aria found a dangerous man in a hurry approaching him.

‘That's him...!'

She shook off Asher's hand and hurried to push the child back as hard as she could.

“Ouch!”

“... Lady Aria!”

The child, who was suddenly pushed out, rolled on the ground, and instead what remained there was Aria, who suddenly moved violently and gasped for breath.

‘What the hell is she?' Because of the sudden turn of events, the eyes of the people were gathered to the fullest extent, and Asher hurried to Aria. The man surprised by her sudden action might have changed his target, but the man had long been gone.

“Are you all right?”

“Why do you ask her that? I'm the one who fell down!”

Compared to being pushed hard, he didn't seem to be hurt, and the child stood up on the ground and screamed. He had a nervous face.

Aria replied with a sigh of relief. “It's okay. I suddenly found a bug, and I was surprised, so... and I'm so sorry to you. This isn't an expensive thing, but it's an apology.”

Aria took her bracelet off her wrist and handed it to the child. It was the cheapest bracelet she had, but the bracelet's value was enough for the child to live on for the next few years.

The child, who had received the unusual bracelet, opened his eyes and asked her several times if he really deserved it and quickly disappeared from the street. He seemed to be afraid that she would ask him to give it back.

“I'm sorry. I think I'll have to go back to the lodge.”

It would have been better if she had caught the pickpocket, but the frail Aria had no power to do so. So Aria, who had given up catching him, put the hourglass back in the box. However, Asher's expression was strange.

“... Well, Mr. Asher?”

“... Lady Aria, the color of the ring…?”

‘The color of the ring?' Aria lowered her gaze to her own hand in response to Asher's serious reaction.

“... Why did the ring's color change?”

The ring had no problem, so Aria cocked her head. Asher looked at Aria's ring for a while and then looked at her. He was dumbfounded.

“Mr. Asher?”

“I'm sure the color changed...”

He blurted his words and furrowed his forehead. He could not talk about it anymore because the color of the ring had returned to its original state as if it had not changed at all.

His ring's color also came back after a while, but its color took more time to come back. He knew that the remaining energy in the ring after using the ability changed its color, but there had been no such case as the energy disappeared so quickly like this at least as far as he knew.

Strange as it was, he rubbed his eyes again and identified the ring. However, the color of the ring still remained unchanged. He must have seen an illusion because he had used his power a lot for the past two days

“I must have seen an illusion.”

“You must be tired as expected.”

“No, not like that, but…”

Nevertheless, Aria's worried eyes caught him, so he nodded. Aria also had to go back to rest because she had used the hourglass. So the two soon turned to their quarters.

It was only a short time since they had come out, so they were able to get to the accommodation quickly. Aria checked the time. There was still plenty of time before sunset, but it wasn't enough to pay for the price after using the hourglass.

“I'll knock the door when the time comes.”

Aria called Asher, who was about to return to his room, “I'm sorry, Mr. Asher, but could you please wake me up when the carriage arrives?”

“All right, I'll do that.”

“If I don't get up... Please wake me up by hitting me.”

“... Yeah?” When he was told to wake her up by beating her, Asher opened his eyes wide.

Realizing that it was a strange request for others to hear, Aria hurriedly added an excuse. “I tend to sleep deeply once I fall asleep, so it's not really easy to wake me up. Don't just call me outside. I was hoping you'll come inside and shake me to wake up.”

However, the problem was that it was not a good excuse. Asher's eyes narrowed when he was told to come into her room alone and wake her up. It was the look she had seen yesterday. It was the look that was saying that he understood Aria's intentions, but he couldn't tell if it was real or not. So he confirmed the reason with his subtle tone.

“... Do you mean I can go inside while you are asleep? Without permission?”

“Yes, that's not that difficult for you who have sneaked into my room several times already.”

It was Asher who was teased. Sometimes she got embarrassed, but basically, she had lived longer than Asher, and she was good at dealing with the opposite sex.

Sure enough, he answered Aria with the look of surrender. “All right. I'll wake you up and have a sound sleep.”

* * *

After Aria fell asleep, Asher went over the documents he had not read before without a moment to reconsider her ring. Everything he had planned had been in the final stages, so he carefully examined it for careful consideration.

‘Now soon...'

It would be possible to regain the imperial power that had been controlled under the hands of the nobility for a long time. It was a great opportunity to break up the Aristocratic Party and even the rest of the party.

Asher, who had checked the documents carefully until just before the sun was down to the west, had the final report in his hand. It was a new report from Lane in the morning. Because he had been with Aria, he hadn't heard the details, so he thought it was a work-related report, but after reading the first sentence, he realized that it wasn't.

‘Why did he get it so quickly? It's been just a few days since I gave the order.'

He had to check several times to see if this was really the report he had ordered. It was because it had arrived earlier than he had expected. It was not long before Asher found out the report was correct and began to read it slowly.