"Would you like so?" rlin offered her his unopened bun.
Margaret hesitated for a mont, but the mory of its delicious taste ca back to her.
Swallowing, she nodded shyly. rlin chuckled as he shook the bun.
"If you want it, just take it," he said casually.
Without hesitation, Margaret stood up and walked over. After picking it up, she paused for a mont before whispering softly, "Thank you..."
"[Ding! The heroine Margaret's affection increased by 10 points! Current affection: 15 points! Cheer up, Master!]"
The system notification echoed in his mind, making rlin smile despite himself.
'Looks like my efforts are starting to pay off,' he muttered with a soft chuckle.
Margaret quickly turned to go back to her seat, but her steps halted when rlin called out.
"Instead of eating alone, how about you eat with ?"
He patted the empty spot on his right.
Margaret was silent for a mont before giving a small nod and sitting down beside him.
Still, her caution was clear—she kept about forty centiters of distance between them.
rlin didn't mind. Getting this girl to sit beside him was already an achievent.
They ate in silence, the atmosphere slightly awkward.
Margaret occasionally glanced at rlin and realized that the boy beside her was very handso. Even the princes she had t weren't this handso.
However, she quickly dismissed the thought and looked away with an embarrassed expression.
"[Ding! The heroine Margaret's affection increased by 5 points! Current affection: 20 points!]"
rlin was taken aback by the panel in front of him. He frowned and asked, 'System, aren't you mistaken? Why did her affection suddenly increase?'
Gaining Margaret's affection wasn't difficult, but this was too fast, wasn't it?
"[Hmmm... Master, are you bragging? If so—huh! Turns out you're a jerk!]" the system sneered.
rlin: "..."
He didn't understand anything—so why was the system angry at him?
No matter how much he thought about it, rlin couldn't find the answer and finally decided to ignore it.
"By the way," rlin said, glancing at Margaret beside him, "how did you get kidnapped?"
It still puzzled him. It was strange, almost impossible, that Margaret could be captured by those n.
After all, she should have been protected by the Beethoven family soldiers.
What's more, rlin just rembered Margaret had a loyal maid nad Lisa, who possessed extraordinary strength.
If he wasn't mistaken, Lisa ca from the Batrum Knight Kingdom, and her power was at the Eighth Awakening level.
It's just that, since the story hadn't entered the main plot yet, Lisa's power shouldn't have reached that far—at best, it should still be at the Seventh Awakening level.
Even so, that was already very powerful—on par with Jas, who was at the Third Spirit Core level.
Margaret fell silent at his question. If her mask had co off, rlin would have seen her face as red as a tomato.
"That's…" She hesitated, but rlin quickly cut her off.
"If you don't want to tell , that's fine. Sorry if I was being presumptuous."
"That's not what I ant!" Margaret hurriedly clarified.
But a mont later, she surprised herself. She didn't even know this boy, so why was she acting like that?
Suppressing her confusion, she looked away and whispered, "I was taking a walk in the city of Droswen to see its beauty. Then suddenly, a thin man bumped into , and I fell. Before I could even process what happened, my head hurt and I lost consciousness. And when I opened my eyes, I was already in this prison."
Having said that, she let out a long breath.
Normally, she was cautious and calculating, but sohow this ti she had been so careless that she ended up in such a situation.
"Thin man?" rlin raised an eyebrow. "No wonder you got caught by him—I went through the sa thing."
Margaret's eyes widened. "You too?"
"Yes," rlin admitted honestly. "That bastard ran into and knocked out cold. Luckily, I was only kidnapped. If I had been taken far away and had my organs harvested… huh! I don't even want to imagine it."
As he spoke, a brief shiver ran through his body. In his previous world, cases of organ trafficking were common—especially in developing countries plagued by weak governnts and corruption.
Many children, even grown n, were kidnapped and had their organs sold. He didn't know if sothing similar existed in this world, but it was still a possibility.
Upon hearing his words, Margaret imdiately got goosebumps. Her body stiffened, and her breathing grew quick.
Without realizing it, she moved closer to rlin, even clinging to him.
"Please don't say things like that! You're scaring !" She complained in protest.
Yet her left arm was gripping tightly at the cloth of rlin's right sleeve—a clear sign that she was truly frightened.
rlin let out a small chuckle and apologized. "I'm sorry, I didn't an it that way. Like I said, I was just afraid it might happen. But the truth is, it won't. Earlier, I overheard that these kidnappers only wanted ransom from the families backing us."
"Asking for ransom?" Margaret frowned. "How did you find out?"
"I happened to overhear their conversation. Besides, I've also morized the layout of this house—at least enough for us to escape."
"Oh!" Margaret's eyes lit up. "Then let's escape now!"
"Ahem! Miss, you know the saying, 'There's no free lunch in this world,' right? Well, how about you pay to get us out of here?" rlin joked with a giggle.
To his surprise, Margaret didn't get angry. Instead, she nodded eagerly and said, "I knew it! My father used to repeat that saying until I got bored of it. So, tell —how much? Two hundred thousand gold coins? Or two million? I'll give it to you!"
rlin: "..."
'Wait a minute… What the hell is that amount? Two million gold coins? Is this how rich people have fun?'
The corner of rlin's mouth twitched. He had only been joking, but he hadn't expected Margaret to take it so seriously.
Co to think of it, it did make sense. This girl had grown up in an environnt where every problem was solved with money.
To her, money was the answer to everything—and that way of thinking could be very dangerous.
After all, there were things money couldn't buy.
Letting out a long sigh, he stood up and patted the dirt off his backside.
"I was just joking. I don't need your money," rlin said with a faint smile.
"Don't need my money?" Margaret gave him a doubtful look.
Most people approached her only because of money. But why was this boy different?
"Could he just be pretending?"
As the thought surfaced, Margaret quickly focused on his expression. She was used to dealing with hypocrites, and she knew the signs of soone lying.
But to her surprise, she didn't find the slightest trace of falsehood on rlin's face—and that made her gasp in shock.
'This boy is really… strange…'
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