Chapter 50
Chapter 50
“The Lord assigned you work again?”
At my colleague’s question, I simply smiled without answering.
“Good grief, you’ve had a rough start to the year. Being capable isn’t always a blessing.”
The employee clicked his tongue sympathetically.
If this were happening because of my ability, I wouldn’t feel so wronged.
But this was simply petty harassment.
Not knowing why he was acting this way only made me sigh more.
I’ll just take the rest home and finish it there.
Fortunately, the task he assigned this time was simple document classification, something I could do at home.
When I report next time, I should tell him that if he keeps assigning this kind of busywork, preparations for the summer monsoon will inevitably be delayed.
Calix Krauvel placed great importance on preparing for the summer monsoon.
If I said that, perhaps he would stop this pointless harassment.
I hoped so as I prepared to leave work.
“Miss Aileen, the Lord is looking for you.”
Ah, that again.
In the past, hearing that the Lord was calling for me made me nervous and anxious.
Now it only irritated me.
What does he want this time?
He told me to bring the report tomorrow.
Surely he hadn’t suddenly changed his mind and decided it had to be finished today.
Just thinking about that possibility made curses rise to my throat.
A normal person wouldn’t say something that insane.
Unfortunately, Calix Krauvel wasn’t normal.
Praying that wasn’t the case, I headed toward the Lord’s office.
After walking this path so many times, I was now familiar enough with it to navigate with my eyes closed.
When I reached the office door, I stopped and took a deep breath before knocking.
“Come in.”
When I opened the door and entered, I saw two men sitting across from each other on the sofa.
One was Calix Krauvel.
The other…
Isn’t that the fraud from District 9?
We had only briefly run into each other before, but he had been memorable.
More importantly, he had the kind of handsome face that was hard to forget once seen.
Why is that man here?
The man seemed to recognize me as well and widened his eyes.
The dull haze in his gaze brightened, and he suddenly stood up with a radiant smile.
“Ugh!”
Then he charged toward me like a wild boar and hugged me before I could even react.
“Finally found you!”
What?
“I searched everywhere for you, but you were hiding here! No wonder I couldn’t find you!”
“What are you talking about—just let go first!”
I pushed him with all my strength, but he didn’t budge.
His build was similar to mine, so where did that strength come from?
“I said let go…!”
“Enough.”
Calix Krauvel had approached at some point.
He grabbed the man by the back of the collar and pulled him away in one swift motion.
The man who hadn’t moved an inch when I pushed him came off as easily as a sheet of paper.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean? I was just greeting someone I was happy to see after a long time.”
The man replied cheerfully.
“You two know each other?”
“Of course. We know each other well.”
The man answered Calix Krauvel’s question first.
“No. I don’t know this person.”
Still frozen in disbelief, I answered a beat later.
The man looked at me with a deeply wounded expression.
“But we met before.”
“We just bumped into each other in passing.”
“Then we know each other.”
He said it as if it were obvious.
“They say even brushing sleeves is fate.”
So that proverb exists here too.
“Then I suppose everyone we pass by would count as acquaintances. As I said, I don’t know this man, and I have no intention of getting to know him in the future either.”
There was nothing to gain from associating with a fraud, so I spoke firmly.
The man looked like he might burst into tears.
Meanwhile, Calix Krauvel’s lips curled upward in satisfaction.
“Rael, it seems you misunderstood again.”
“It’s not a misunderstanding…”
“It is. You’ve done this before.”
From the way he spoke, this clearly wasn’t the first time the man had behaved like this.
“Then this.”
The man took a small bead from his pocket and held it out.
It was the Arcana I had dropped when we collided before.
“What color does this look like to you?”
Hearing that reminded me of something Allen Cranter had told me earlier.
That Arcana appeared in different colors to different people.
And that the colors were only blue, green, or white.
Red didn’t exist.
Now that I think about it, I told this man before that the bead looked red.
Was that why he was acting friendly?
Did he want to recruit me into some strange cult because it appeared red to me?
I didn’t know the exact reason behind his behavior.
But one thing was certain.
I shouldn’t say that Arcana appeared red.
“Blue.”
I answered calmly.
“It’s a clear blue color that reminds me of the sea.”
“What? That’s impossible! You definitely said it was red before!”
“Did I?”
I added casually,
“I don’t remember, but if I did say that, it was probably because of the sunlight. The sunlight was quite strong at the time.”
“No, that can’t be. You definitely said it looked red…”
The man muttered with a blank expression, as if he had lost the entire world.
Then he collapsed to the floor.
Was this really something worth being that devastated over?
I looked down at him, slightly bewildered.
Calix Krauvel, who had silently observed the situation, grabbed the man’s arm and forced him to stand.
“Now that your misunderstanding is cleared up, do what you came here to do.”
“This makes no sense…”
When the man still couldn’t pull himself together, Calix Krauvel sighed and grabbed him by the collar.
“Raelion Silvert. Don’t forget why you came here.”
The man blinked slowly and looked at me again.
The light had faded from his eyes, leaving them dull and unfocused once more.
“…You said it was for a cat.”
“I said feline. I never said it was a cat.”
“Ah, right.”
The man nodded as if he understood.
Calix Krauvel released his collar.
“Then hurry up. We don’t have time.”
“Alright.”
I had no idea what they were talking about.
And I certainly didn’t know why I had been summoned.
While I stood there in confusion watching them, the man turned toward me.
“Ugh!”
At that moment, a sharp pain shot through the back of my hand.
I instinctively grabbed my hand and stepped back.
A cut had appeared on the back of my hand as if something sharp had sliced it.
Red blood quickly gathered on the wound.
What? When did I get injured?
“I need some blood, so give me your hand.”
The man stepped forward and grabbed my injured hand.
I tried to pull it back in panic, but once again he didn’t budge.
He dripped my blood onto a metal ring that looked like a bracelet.
The metal ring absorbed my blood, turning red before returning to silver.
Strange symbols appeared on the surface of the ring.
They were the same bizarre symbols I had seen on the door of the western tower.
The entire process made my skin crawl, and I shivered.
“Is it finished?”
“Yes. Now it just needs to be put on the neck… ah.”
The man looked at me and made a small exclamation.
“I made it cat-sized because you said feline, so it won’t fit around the neck.”
He intended to put that on my neck?
“It should fit on the wrist.”
Calix Krauvel said, pointing to my wrist.
“That will work.”
The man nodded.
Then, ignoring my opinion entirely, he fastened the metal ring around my wrist.
Click.
With that sound, cold metal touched my skin.
Shuddering, I quickly stepped away from them.
“W-What is this?”
I raised the arm wearing the metal ring and demanded an explanation.
“It’s a collar for a pet—”
“A magical device that prevents people like Conrad Marlow or Fabian Nogen from approaching you.”
As the man began speaking, Calix Krauvel cut him off.
He had said something about a pet collar.
Had I heard that wrong?
“I don’t need something like this.”
It would certainly be useful if it blocked people like Fabian Nogen.
But that didn’t mean I wanted to wear such a disturbing object.
“Please take this back.”
“That’s impossible.”
The man shook his head.
“That collar has already accepted you as its host, so it absolutely—”
Before he could finish his sentence, I removed the metal ring.
The man’s eyes widened in shock.
“…That shouldn’t be possible.”