The Power of Beauty
Kain returned to his seat after giving Jealousy his orders and tilted his head at the three pairs of eyes staring at him. Greed and Layla looked thoroughly displeased, while Arina glanced around nervously with an awkward smile.
"Ah."
With his usual sharp insight, Kain immediately understood why they were acting this way. Yeah, I can see why they'd be upset.
Someone had snatched away food they were about to eat and tossed it into the trash without any proper explanation. It was undeniably rude. Kain knew that much in his head. He simply hadn't cared enough to watch his behavior until now.
Honestly, even at this moment, he didn't think it was that big of a deal. These were people he would probably never see again after today. Still, he called it a mistake because Arina's hard-earned memories were in danger of being ruined in an entirely different way.
"You're back. You make a mistake and then dump the apology on a child before running off. How irresponsible."
Layla Ruby's tone was sharp. Gone was the friendly demeanor from earlier; now she was subtly mocking and criticizing Kain's actions. It was proof of just how angry she was.
Money probably won't fix this one.
This was different from the smartphone store. Kain was the richest man on the continent, but Layla Ruby was also one of the top stars of the era with no shortage of wealth herself.
He never expected his usual blunt behavior to come back to bite him like this. If he'd known, he would've listened to Arina and practiced being more careful with his words.
"Don't you have something you should say first?"
She pointed out his faults one by one, as if speaking to a child. Even this much meant she was holding back considerable anger. Anyone else would have had nothing to say if she had stormed out right then. In fact, Layla probably would have done exactly that if Arina hadn't been there.
"Sorry."
Kain acknowledged the situation and backed down. He turned his head away curtly as he apologized. By his standards, this was already a massive concession, but to everyone else it clearly wasn't.
"Is that supposed to be an apology? How can an adult be worse at apologizing than a child?"
Unable to hold back any longer, Layla shot to her feet and shouted. What kind of person is this?
"Do you even know how much that child apologized to us after you left? What kind of adult dumps their mistake on a kid and runs away? And all you have to say is 'sorry' while turning your head?"
Only now did Kain realize that Layla wasn't actually angry about the doenjang-guk being thrown away. She was furious that he had left a twelve-year-old to clean up his mess without a care.
"I already said sorry. What's the problem?"
He had apologized. She didn't seem to want compensation. What else did she want? Kain asked, genuinely confused by her anger.
"You don't know what the problem is?"
She took the question as a provocation and let out a hollow laugh.
"Nuna, calm down. People are watching."
More and more eyes were turning toward their table. Greed grabbed her arm, trying to soothe her before things escalated into a scandal.
"Let go!"
Layla shook him off and shouted at Kain again.
"I can read the room. I figured out what kind of personality you have. But this isn't okay. If your personality caused a problem, you should fix it yourself. Why make a child do it for you? And you still call yourself an adult?"
……
If he said he never asked anyone to clean up after him, she'd only get angrier. This was getting annoying. What did this woman even want to hear? He just wanted to wrap this up quickly.
Guess the memory-making is already ruined.
Maybe he should just tell her the doenjang-guk had drugs in it. That would at least clear up the misunderstanding. He tapped the table with his index finger, lost in thought.
Just as Layla looked ready to explode again, a voice cut through the tension.
"Master."
People parted to either side like the Red Sea. Jealousy walked through the gap and bowed his head before Kain.
"I brought the item you requested."
Arina's eyes widened at the sight. He's handsome.
Even Arina, who usually didn't care much about appearances, found herself thinking that. Among all the people she had met, he was undoubtedly number one in looks.
But why does he feel familiar?
If she'd met someone this good-looking even once, she would never forget. Arina stared at his face, puzzled by the strange sense of déjà vu.
When Jealousy bowed to Kain and Kain casually accepted the paper he offered as if he already knew him, Arina asked curiously, "Who is he?"
"A subordinate."
What is this guy doing here? And without any disguise, showing his real face.
No, that's not quite right either.
Kain glanced around. Now he noticed the spirits Jealousy had summoned flying around, snickering. Spirits were essentially manifestations created by imbuing magic with ego. While mages caused phenomena with their own power, spirit users gave life to those phenomena. They were like programmers continuously inputting code into an ego to make it grow.
The downside was that spirits moved according to fixed patterns, unlike mages who could freely modify even the same fire magic. But the advantage was that they could trigger phenomena faster and more easily than a mage's casting.
Spirit Art: Illusion. A light optical illusion technique using refraction and distortion of light. By spreading the effect widely with spirit arts, it completely altered the visible surroundings. Since the church had only invited non-awakened people to spread the drugs, this was possible. Right now, only the four people at this table could see Jealousy's true appearance. Everyone else was probably seeing a completely different handsome man.
He went this far, huh.
Unlike Kain, whose information was completely unknown to the outside world, Jealousy's details were relatively well-known to various intelligence agencies. After all, he was a narcissist with enormous self-esteem who loved flaunting it and drawing attention to himself. If he bowed to Kain here, the royal family might realize Kain was the Death King Dark Heaven. Kain had been about to curse at him for coming over without considering that, but it seemed unnecessary.
So why had Jealousy gone through the trouble of using spirits just to approach him? That smug look hidden behind his loyal expression was seriously irritating.
……
Without a word, Kain unfolded the paper Jealousy had given him. Written on it was the secret code of the underworld, a unified cipher system used across the continent. Despite its secrecy, the content was simple.
— I came because I thought Master might be in trouble after seeing the situation earlier. If you just stay still, I'll handle this.
Just stay still.
When Kain looked at Jealousy, the man bowed again before turning toward Layla.
"It's been a while."
……
Layla's mind went completely blank. She forgot she had been angry just moments ago and stammered. She fell into extreme panic. It was that shocking. Why was this man here? The person who had never once replied to her messages despite how much she contacted him…!
"I heard what happened. It seems you're angry because of Master."
His demeanor was serious, completely different from the thuggish attitude he'd shown when beating up Freddy last time.
"I'll apologize in his place. I'm sorry."
"N-no…"
Layla stepped back in surprise as he bowed his head.
"Master didn't have any ill intentions. As you can see, he's just not very good at talking to people because he's so self-centered."
……
"That apology earlier was probably sincere too. I've never seen Master apologize to anyone before."
Honestly, this part genuinely surprised him. Master apologizing to someone? Even if he was wrong, if someone pointed it out, he would usually get annoyed and start a fight instead.
This is all thanks to the young lady.
At that thought, he glanced toward Arina, only to accidentally meet Kain's eyes. Ah.
Kain was resting his chin on his hand, staring at him with indifferent eyes. Those eyes were saying: if you can't resolve this after openly gossiping like that, just wait and see. He could forget favors, but he never forgot grudges. In other words, the pettiest and most persistent being in the world when it came to holding grudges was his master, the Death King Dark Heaven.
"There was that incident last time too, so please let it slide just this once, for my sake."
There was no verbal reply, but her expression said this was enough. Jealousy turned back to his master.
"Then I'll be on my way."
He bowed and withdrew. Kain's brow furrowed. What? He said he would handle it, but this wasn't much different from what Kain had done.
"Ahem."
Yet the result was completely different from before. Layla cleared her throat and sat back down, her anger seemingly subsided.
"I'll let it go this time, but you should be more careful when dealing with others. That attitude of yours."
What? Why was the outcome so different from earlier? Kain's brow furrowed even more at the dramatic change he couldn't understand. He thought about the difference between what Jealousy had said and what he himself had said.
"By the way, you two seem close. What's his name?"
At her next words, Kain finally understood the difference. So the answer was the face.
Come to think of it, Jealousy had once said that people tended to be more lenient toward handsome men and beautiful women. At the time, Kain had dismissed it as nonsense, but seeing the effect right in front of him, it was certainly impressive. His own looks were above average, but objectively speaking, he couldn't compare to a celebrity or Jealousy.
From now on, if someone like this shows up who can't be handled with money, I'll just call Jealousy to deal with it.
Kain nodded as if he had gained a new realization. Watching him, Arina shook her head beside him. That's not it.
Her uncle was learning the wrong kind of social skills. How was she supposed to correct this misguided common sense? If this continued, her uncle would grow into an even more messed-up person. A deep sigh welled up from the bottom of her heart as the twelve-year-old Arina exhaled heavily.
But where have I seen him before?
Meanwhile, even after Jealousy had left, the strange sense of déjà vu hadn't faded at all. She hadn't seen his face or heard his voice, yet something about him kept bothering her.
"Could you ask him to reply to me just once? It seems like he listens to you pretty well."
The situation had been resolved thanks to Jealousy, but the backlash was starting to become annoying. Layla kept clinging to him. Now he understood why Jealousy had been ignoring her messages.
"Well, if I tell him, he'll do it, but I don't think you'll become friends."
"Then what should I do to become friends with him?"
"Try getting on good terms with this kid instead. He seems to be pretty well-liked by those guys."
That was why Jealousy had volunteered to guard her himself. If he had disliked it, he wouldn't have listened even if Pride ordered him.
Come to think of it…
When he saved Kain last time, he had said it was because of the young lady. Someone had been looking forward to her concert. Looking at her now, it seemed this girl was the one.
Just what is her identity?
She was close with a princess and could freely order around that monstrous man. Maybe she was a high-ranking noble hiding her identity? But then she wondered if that even mattered. Right, the saying went that if you wanted someone to like you, you should win over the people around them first.
"Let's be good friends from now on."
"H-huh?"
Arina, who had been lost in thought about Jealousy, tilted her head in confusion at the sudden development. Watching her, Kain thought, Guess the memory-making worked out somehow.
Since the conclusion was good, it didn't really matter how it happened. As Arina rapidly grew closer to the diva she adored, exchanging personal numbers, Kain calmly picked up a piece of meat from his plate and ate it, ignoring Greed who was just rolling his eyes around while watching the entire process like air.