Three weeks had passed.
It was a ti that felt short if considered brief, and long if thought extended, rapidly changing the once awkward silence that had settled between us.
We spent a week without words, in awkward silence.
Another week went by with the exchange of stiff greetings.
During the final week, we faced each other and had serious conversations.
I apologized for the terrible incident that had occurred, thanked her, and we talked about my arm.
As we continued talking, the young lady's tears beca more frequent, but the awkwardness between us began to subside.
She cried looking at the arm.
She cried seeing a forced smile.
She even cried looking at the night stars.
As if she had beco a man in the throes of a midlife crisis with heightened sensitivity, the young lady began to regain her smile as the ti spent talking and facing each other increased.
That day, the young lady said she would cut back on swearing and being picky with side dishes. And that she was truly sorry.
We got to know each other better and made sincere apologies.
The young lady confronted my arm once more, saying that now was the only chance; her hands shaking, she slowly unraveled the bandage and looked at my arm.
I can’t forget the expression on her face, still drenched in shock.
"Did I…did I do this?"
"I…"
After a mont, the young lady, who had kept her mouth tightly shut, nodded her head and covered her face with her hands and wept.
The young lady had gradually returned.
Not to the dejected person she had been, but as Olivia, the bold and food-loving villainess.
While she hadn't turned bad like in the past.
"Ricardo, what do you want to eat?"
She had beco a magnanimous villainess who gave the choice to pick the nu.
Although she still welled up with tears at the sight of my face, and if I scratched an itchy arm, she would murmur in startled eyes, ‘Does it hurt?’ But the lady of three weeks ago and now seed much changed.
She wasn't the lady who was deflated but the bold lady.
I liked that better.
I preferred the lady who was a bit shaless, speaking her mind and asking for what she wanted, rather than hiding guiltily in her room.
Because I had been hiding the scar on my hand for fear of the suffocating mood, perhaps sothing like this isn’t so bad.
*
In the serene room of the young lady.
Sitting on the bed, she furrowed her eyebrows and concentrated on one spot.
Like a surgeon in an operating room, she held a cotton swab in one hand and an ointnt in another, her intense gaze fixed as she focused.
I was reminded of what the adults used to say.
If she had studied that much, she would have gone to Seoul National University, they said. If the young lady had focused on her studies as she was now, she would have easily topped her class.
At the School of Magic, she was first in practical exams, last in written.
With a cotton swab full of ointnt, the young lady hiccupped.
"Burrp."
Biting her lip and concentrating, the young lady's hand trembled as she spoke to .
"If it hurts, tell ."
"Ah…"
"Yikes!"
Before even making contact, when I said it hurt, the young lady jerked her shoulders. I laughed at her reaction.
"You haven't even touched yet."
"That…really?"
"Sigh."
The young lady took a deep breath and focused on her bandaged right hand.
With an expression as if she would cry if she touched the wound, she was focusing on the injury. It was almost maddening to tease her.
I held the corners of my twitching mouth and looked at the sparkling right hand.
Only white ointnt was visible, not the black scars. The concern was excessive, and I laughed.
"Lady."
"Be quiet. I'm concentrating."
"If you apply so much, it might get into the steak tonight for dinner."
She flinched. At the ntion of food, the young lady stopped her hand, nodded awkwardly, and spun hopeful thoughts.
"The at is injured too, so if you apply the ointnt, it might grow."
"Please, make sense."
"No?"
"Yes."
The young lady made a dejected face and muttered softly, ‘Then I’ll just eat it a little less tasty.’
The young lady was generously applying ointnt on my arm.
Applying too much on one spot.
Applying even where there was nothing wrong.
To my eyes, there was no more space to apply, but to her eyes, it still seed insufficient.
Like a bubble bath, the sticky ointnt began to pile as she was reaching for a yet unopened ointnt from the first aid kit.
The young lady murmured.
"It shouldn’t hurt."
"It doesn't hurt."
"Still…"
Applying the ointnt even in spots that weren't injured, she said.
"It shouldn’t hurt."
She didn't pay attention to my words.
Touching the wound carelessly, she watched my reaction intensely, and when I flinched because it tickled, she looked crestfallen. ‘It shouldn't hurt, right?' she would mumble to herself.
Applying ointnt to a rotting skin from dark magic was aningless, but because I liked the touch of the young lady's hands full of care, I offered my arm to her.
I rember that ti when I showed her the wounds properly, the next day. She spoke to seriously, and I thought my heart would burst from the tremors.
"Take it off."
"What?"
In that instant, a profane thought crossed my mind, causing an internal struggle, but the young lady, with her eyes tightly closed, said to .
"I'm going to look at the arm. Take off your clothes."
"Are you talking about the arm?"
I awkwardly hid my arm behind my back, but the lady's stubbornness, having realized everything, couldn't be bent. If I didn't show her, she might lie in bed all day and be gloomy, saying, ‘I am a bad girl…' so how could I refuse?
When I rolled up my sleeves, the young lady, wiping the tears that had welled up in her eyes, bravely said.
"I will apply the dication."
She spoke so decisively.
Reluctantly, I showed my arm to her, and right there, she began to apply the ointnt while crying.
"Huh…Huh…"
"Why are you crying again?"
"It's disgusting…and it looks so painful…"
From then on, showing my hand to the young lady beca a daily routine.
When she brought chocolate, and took out a gold coin from her chest pocket, she told to buy ointnt, of course, the warmly heated coin is well stored in my drawer.
I keep the gold coin with a deep story from being given to soone else. Certainly not for any perverse reason.
"That's enough."
The young lady wrapped up with a satisfied smile.
"Hee…!"
With a proud posture, she showed the hand that had been wrapped with the bandage. I looked at the masterpiece infused with the young lady's soul with an indifferent smile.
"What is this?"
"Treatnt."
"As a treatnt, isn't it wrapped too thick? If the maid sees it, she would think you have broken your arm."
The clumsily wrapped bandage looked as thick as a cast. It looked like I could nail sothing with my arm because of how much the young lady had layered it.
"Hihi…"
She wore an expression of pride that it was hard to complain.
The young lady picked up a pen and began to draw on the bandage.
"What are you doing?"
"Magic spell."
"For a magic spell, the drawing looks rather hopeless."
"Be quiet. I’m focusing."
The young lady swiftly drew on the bandage.
An orc and a goblin.
She left a gracious ssage, [Get well soon], but I couldn’t quite get used to this monster family portrait.
I looked at the orc with a fierce expression and said.
"Is this, by any chance, ?"
The young lady nodded vehently.
"Yes."
"…"
I wanted to flick her on the forehead.
I then pointed to the goblin with an unnervingly ample bosom. It reminded of the goblin’s provocative design containing the young lady’s ergency fund.
When I pointed with my finger, the corners of the young lady’s mouth rose.
"Is this supposed to be you?"
She nodded just the sa. She looked at with bright, expectant eyes, as though awaiting an appraisal of the masterpiece she had invested her artistic soul into.
"How was it?"
I turned my head toward the window.
"Why don't you answer?"
"…"
"Are you too astonished because it's so well drawn?"
Giving false hope to soone with a desperate lack of talent should not be done. What if she mistakes this opportunity as a sign she has artistic talent and decides to beco a painter? My pride wouldn't allow to offer such light praise for talents that were, in actuality, despairing.
The young lady stared at intently.
Pouting her lips, she gave a threatening glare without uttering a word, and I spoke with slurring diction.
"It's…well drawn."
"Right?"
"Yes, the goblin and…"
‘Ah… I made a mistake.'
The young lady frowned.
"That’s not a goblin…"
Disappointed, the young lady hung her head low.
I tried to offer her so consolation.
"It's a good thing you don't have high aspirations for art."
The young lady threw the pen.
***
The warm sunlight entered my eyes.
Today, the mansion's garden was once again sunny.
The young lady sat in a chair outside after a long ti inside.
She ca to attend to as I practiced swordsmanship, saying it would be a problem if I got hurt. She declared herself my dic and graced with her noble presence.
I swung my sword vigorously in front of the young lady. I thought it best to show her flashy swordsmanship if I was going to show off anyway.
Whoosh, whoosh. The sound of slicing the air resounded through the mansion's garden.
As I showed off my sword skill, leaving afterimages in the air while channeling aura into the blade, the young lady clapped, her eyes wide with amazent.
"Oh…!"
I wiped the sweat from my brow like a protagonist in a romance novel while making an artificial sound of breath.
"Hoo… How was that?"
The young lady looked at with unimpressed eyes, focusing instead on my right arm rather than my swordsmanship.
I thought she would be pleased when I heard the clapping, but she just looked on with disinterested eyes and a perfunctory clap.
The young lady then said to .
"Don’t you have sothing like teor?"
"No."
"What about a whizzing laser?"
"That's impossible."
"Boring."
The young lady had struck a blow to a man's pride. Bored, she patted her full belly.
"Can't you do sothing like split a mountain or even the sky?"
"Even a Swordmaster can't do that."
The young lady stared at intently.
"Can’t Ricardo do it?"
"Well… That’s…”
She was asking to demonstrate sword techniques that not even a Swordmaster could perform. I felt a switch being pressed in , provoked and my pride challenged by the young lady.
The young lady left one more comnt, "Ah, boring," then leaned back in her chair lazily, showing a nonchalant deanor.
"I’m hungry."
The young lady who had touched my pride.
This won’t do.
Even if it ans fainting, I must hear her say, "Oh…! That's amazing." If it ends like this, I’m sure to be rembered by the young lady only as a butler who uses a kitchen knife well.
I raised my aura.
[Limit Break (L) tests the limits of your aura.]
Seeing my sword glowing red like the sun, the young lady's eyes sparkled.
"Can you see it?"
"Oh…"
The young lady showed an interested reaction. Just as I was about to gather more aura into my sword,
"Oh…"
"Oh…"
I heard familiar voices of a man and a woman.
Two people with bright brown hair.
They were uninvited guests.
I laid down my sword and looked at the two n and won standing at the entrance, watching quietly.
"Hanna?"
The Histania siblings stood side by side at the entrance of the mansion.
Hanna held a bandaged sword and a bundle of presents as she smiled warmly at .
"It's . Butler."
They were guests I hadn't seen for a while.
"I ca because I was hungry."
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