Chapter 69
This was the first ti in 27 years of life that Serwin was sincerely afraid of losing soone. Even if he felt a little heartburn when he lost his beloved subordinates, that was all. He thought grieving and the sense of loss was an emotion long destroyed in his heart.
But lately, Serwin has been struggling to endure an unfamiliar fear.
After the Imperial Palace party, he beca uneasy when Alie disappeared from his sight. He couldn’t stand it because he was worried that she might be in danger if he wasn’t watching. The sa was true even if he was within yelling distance.
His anxiety was so great that he had to hug her tightly or he would be unable to sleep. In such a state, he couldn’t have left her alone to do anything. When he was apart from her, he couldn’t even see the letters on the docunts he was reading. Even if he was in the sa space, even if he continued to feel her presence, if he couldn’t keep her in his eyes, he was anxious and kept looking for her.
Of course, he knows that Alie is special. She wasn’t as fragile as he thought. She had the power and the brain to protect not only her own body but others too.
Nevertheless, it was Serwin’s own problem so he suffered his anxiety alone.
The disaster deliberately enticed Renia to attack Alie and dragged her into the lake. Serwin clearly saw Alie’s blood spreading through the lake.
It wasn’t a coincidence or a whim that the disaster chose that lake and used Renia in a cumberso way. Disaster, as always, this ti, he wanted to bring utter despair to Serwin.
‘That way the disaster would be able to break free.’
It was clear that the disaster had deliberately touched on Serwin’s deepest fear.
He clenched his hand in disgust.
‘I’ll never lose Alie that way. Never.’
He wasn’t only worried about Alie’s safety.
‘Did you see it? Under the lake? The corpses?’
Pretending to ask what it was all about, Serwin wasn’t confident enough to trick her skillfully. But he couldn’t ever tell her frankly. If she knew the truth she would surely hate him. She was so bright and upright, it was clear that she wouldn’t forgive the atrocities he had committed.
While he was lost in thought, the flas in the tal bowl gradually subsided, and the room returned to its original brightness. All the parchnt and potions were burned away, leaving only ashes in the brass bowl.
“It’s a success.”
Alie smiled brightly. Herssage sent through magic should be delivered to any witches. No matter where the witches are, whether Alie knows the place or not.
“Good job.”
Serwin looked at her and smiled. Anxiety had disappeared from his face in an instant. Because hiding emotions on his face was one of the things he was most familiar with.
*****
The next day, Alie did not rush Serwin to work. Instead, she expressed her intention to follow him.
“To the office? You’re going to stay with the whole ti? People who co and go will look at you.”
Serwin seed surprised. Alie shrugged.
‘If I’m not there, you will be anxious, and you work, so I’ll have to follow along.’
However, she seed to be wary of her just following him. She didn’t want to hear that they were now dating in the sacred workplace.
So Alie transford into a hamster again. When he saw Alie, he opened his eyes wide.
“Mouse?”
“It’s not a mouse, it’s a hamster.”
Milena corrected from next to them. Serwin reached out his finger to Alie with curious eyes. Alie wasn’t a real hamster, so she didn’t bite strangers hands, but she thumped his finger to et Serwin’s expectations. As the pink nose twitched, the long-stretched beard also shook.
“You always transform into sothing like yourself.”
Alie frowned hard.
‘I’m transforming into sothing small and timid? Is this an insult or a complint?’
Serwin smiled and held Alie in his hand.
Cik, cik.
‘Let go of , let go!’
Alie struggled with her eyes wide open and her short arms outstretched. Aside from believing in Serwin, it felt bad to be gripped by his hard hands. Serwin tickled Alie’s chin with his index finger as if this was cute too.
‘It’s a cri to touch soone like that. I’ll bite you!’
Alie’s small but sharp teeth touched Serwin’s finger. In Serwin’s eyes, even threatening him seed cute.
“I can’t understand animals, but I think you behave more freely when you are an animal.”
Oh, she got caught.
Alie smiled awkwardly. How does he know that? Is he a ghost? Anyway, he’s very witty. Alie rubbed the spot where her teeth touched out of slight guilt at being caught.
“Shall we go then?”
As Alie nodded, Serwin put her in the pocket of his jacket. The pocket on the chest was a little narrow, but the front was white and easy enough to see through. Alie wriggled and positioned herself comfortably.
‘Let’s go!’
When Alie stretched out her arms, Serwin set off for the Imperial Palace with light steps after a long ti of being grumpy.
*****
For the next few days, Alie went to work with Serwin. On one side of Serwin’s desk was a small, fluffy cushion for Alie, and she could lay around and eat snacks whenever she wanted. The snacks changed little by little every day, from dried sweet potatoes to crispy snacks.
‘It’s comfortable, but I’m bored.’
Alie rolled around on the desk. It was good to be lazy, but she was very bored. She couldn’t read or chat while she was a hamster.
She ate snacks, took naps, and beca lazy. When she got tired of even that, she climb Serwin’s body and played. He was so huge that it was fun to climb to the top of his head.
Despite Alie’s interruption, he worked hard with great concentration. It was thanks to having Alie sit in front of him, which made him feel at ease.
‘It’s a relief that there are results.’
Alie climbed to Serwin’s both shoulders and then ca down to the desk. And for no reason, she wandered around near the paperwork Serwin was looking at.
‘The event of the hunting day schedule?’
Hunting Day was a celebration that involved staying up all night eating hunted at and drinking alcohol once a year.
It was an event made in the early days of the Empire, during the devastating days, and now it is a day to buy at and eat it without hunting.
However, the Imperial family used to hold a hunting competition every year to celebrate the Hunting Day.
The venue of the competition was the mountains and forests in the imperial palace. In the past, it used to be done on an outside hunting ground, but Serwin changed the location of the hunt to the Imperial grounds.
‘Do I have to go, too?’
Alie didn’t like hunting. She didn’t want to go unless she had a need to go, but she was pretending to be the Emperor’s lover, and she didn’t know if she might have to attend with Serwin.
‘I’ll have to ask you later while eating lunch.’
As Alie raised her head, she made eye contact with Serwin. He stroked Alie’s cheek with his index finger while holding a fountain pen.
‘Ugh, my beard is pressed.’
Alie stepped back and leaned forward, and Serwin quickly caught her finger. The difference in size made it look like Alie was holding his finger.
Alie hit Serwin’s hand with all her might.
Tuk, tuk, tuk.
‘Hurry up and work.’
The sooner Serwin finishes, the faster they could go back, so Alie urged him with her eyes, but Serwin didn’t want to finish his work quickly. With Alie in front of him, things were going well and he felt good.
“Let’s hurry up and eat.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
On his orders, the aides put down their docunts and got up from their seats. They left the room in a flash. After a while, the servants brought out the al. The table was served with enough food that it seed like too much for one man to eat alone.
Alie returned to her human form after all the servants left.
“Huh! How frustrating it was to not be able to speak!”
Alie enjoyed her al the most. Today’s lunch was salad with smoked salmon, fried rice with a lot of southern-style spices, and grilled mushrooms. She began to eat with a happy face. Serwin ate slowly as if he were full just by watching Alie eat.
“About the Hunting Competition.”
“Hunting Competition?”
Serwin’s expression hardened slightly.
Alie couldn’t see his expression closely because she was focused on eating.
“Do I have to go there?”
“If you don’t like it, you don’t have to go. You don’t have to attend.”
“Then I’ll think about it.”
“Yeah.”
Unlike his peaceful voice, Serwin’s gaze moved uneasily.
Alie ate the grilled mushrooms with a fork. The aroma of the mushrooms spreading throughout her mouth was so rich that she allowed the flavor to linger and fully savored it.
“Oh, right. I have a favor to ask of you.”
“Favor? Say what you need.”
“I’d like to receive data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs on abnormalities in the imperial palace.”
Alie took a big spoon of fried rice and ate it. Contrary to her expectation that spices would be burdenso, the savory taste was excellent.
“—Why?”
Serwin explicitly hardened his face, but when Alie raised her head, she responded back as if it was nothing serious. Alie continued to talk without noticing his change in deanour, focusing on her al.
“There’s no way to know if sothing like Renia couldn’t happen again. Only this ti, aid at , it would be big trouble if a person manipulated by a disaster attacks you, Your Majesty. Before that, we should investigate in advance and figure out counterasures.”
“That won’t happen.”
When Serwin replied in a confident tone, Alie looked at him with a strange look.
“Are you sure?”
“That’s— because I’m strong.”
Serwin blurted out urgently.
“But you can’t let your guard down.”
“Is it worth spending ti on this? It hasn’t happened in a year or two.”
“So we need to find out more. It will be helpful in many ways to figure out when the energy of disaster is getting stronger.”
It was clear that there would be no need to live in fear that a person controlled by disaster might suddenly attack, and understanding the chanism by which the energy of disaster was strengthened would be of great help in defeating the disaster.
Alie eagerly explained her thoughts to Serwin. But Serwin was sowhat indifferent.
“Now that I think about it, did Your Majesty know that the abnormalities that occured in the imperial palace are due to the lingering effects of disaster?”
“No, why?”
“I hope you weren’t too surprised when I first asked about it. You seed very surprised.”
“Did it look like that? Well, I just thought it could be a dead end.”
“Yes.”
“If you really want to find out, I will tell the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Are you getting ready to et the witches?”
Serwin secretly changed the subject.
“I’m still thinking. What should I do to make a good first impression?”
“Does that bother you?”
“Of course! I’ve never seen anyone other than my grandma witch—. I have a lot of questions.”
Alie took the paper out of her clothes pocket. Sbe wrote down what she wanted to ask when she t the witches.
Serwin leaned toward Alie and read the words on the paper over her shoulder.
“How can I be good at transformation? Can I practice it alone or do I need a teacher?”
Serwin chuckled.
“If there’s anything to learn, it’s from a teacher. I want to transform into a bigger and cooler animal.”
“I think that’s going to be hard. Just imagine a pink bear.”
“It won’t be a pink bear! If I do it properly, I can change the color of my fur. But I always fail.”
Alie grumbled.
“What is this? Are you going to prepare a snack?”
Serwin tapped a corner of the paper. Ginger cookies and cakes were drawn there.
“It’s not like I will treat them poorly. It’s like an invitation from my side. Speaking of which, how many servings are we preparing?”
Alie was very serious. It is not good to lack food because more people ca than expected, but it was not good to prepare too much food and have leftovers.
“You can et them and bring them to the Imperial palace. The maids will take care of it.”
“That’ll do!”
Alie wrote down what Serwin said on her paper. Serwin looked still at Alie’s lips, muttering along while writing letters.
‘But no one might co.’
Serwin thought for a mont whether to lower her expectations so that she wouldn’t be disappointed after expecting too much. He usually chose to lower expectations because he was cautious that nothing would happen and hoping for more was a useless and false expectation, but this ti he chose not to.
“You’re excited.”
“It’s a bit obvious, right?”
“Very.”
Alie smiled brightly. She was so adorable that Serwin wanted to bite her cheeks seeing her eyes twinkling with anticipation.
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