Dust-Covered Jeffbery
1.
When Jeffbery stepped into her house, the butler spoke.
“Lord Dwight is here.”
Jeffbery looked down at her own dust-caked appearance.
Cleans was her specialty, yet the cruel catch was that she had no power to Cleans her own body.
Thanks to that, every time she worked she ended up looking pitifully filthy.
With an embarrassed expression, Jeffbery said to Butler Evan,
“Tell him to wait!”
Just then, the sound of boots came from the top of the stairs.
“I should be going.”
It was Dwight.
He looked Jeffbery up and down, then spat out,
“You plan on living with the stench of a sewer on you?”
“...This is my job.”
“Exactly…. You don’t give a damn about me, so you treat your body like garbage.”
Dwight’s gaze slid over Jeffbery’s body like oil. She forced her feet to move.
Ash covered her so thickly that her hair looked platinum; it swayed and sent up clouds of dust.
With a surge of emotion, Jeffbery stared at Dwight.
“So……. You’re saying.”
She bit her lower lip, held her breath, then forced the words out.
“That Double Crown captured me because of me?”
Misunderstanding piled on misunderstanding, sharpening the resentment between them to a razor edge.
“If you’d thought of me even a little, you wouldn’t have chosen something that put you in danger. How do you think I felt? I thought you were really going to die.”
“But you never came!”
A single tear was already sliding down Jeffbery’s cheek.
“You think you have the right to say that?”
Dwight’s voice was ice.
“The only reason I didn’t break our engagement…. was because it was a promise between our houses. That’s all that’s left between us now. Ever since you lied to me.”
“Dwight!”
Dwight poured out the words in torment.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Why did you hide that it was you? I didn’t even know and acted like an idiot…. It’s all in the past now.”
Tears streamed down both of Jeffbery’s cheeks.
Her expression was thoroughly crushed, yet Dwight didn’t care.
Indifferent bootsteps rang across the floorboards.
Just before crossing the threshold, Dwight spoke toward Jeffbery.
“You……. you’re a real fucking bitch.”
Thud. Thud.
Watching Dwight’s retreating back, Jeffbery collapsed.
2.
I sat in the carriage and watched Dwight leave Jeffbery’s house.
Today was the day.
A reunion scene between the two that never would have existed originally.
A scene like rain in a drought that I myself had cultivated.
Readers watching?
In the end, Dwight and Jeffbery met again!
Well, they seemed to have fought a bit, but love without trials isn’t love.
Still, I was worried about how Jeffbery was doing, so I teleported into the mansion.
A silent house.
Dust-covered Jeffbery was face-down, sobbing her heart out.
Oh dear, oh dear….
If she stays looking exactly the way that drives me crazy, what am I supposed to do?
The illustration of ash-covered Jeffbery had caused a sensation among the readers.
That hopeless air of being a Cleans specialist who couldn’t use it on herself.
Even her constantly dust-covered appearance had been drawn so lovingly that the readers’ love for Jeffbery went beyond imagination.
Who draws dust like a galaxy, seriously?
Loneliness.
That was the single word that defined her.
As a child, the sudden death of the cousin she trusted and followed had cut the girl off from the world.
Her clumsy human relationships had produced countless mistakes with Dwight.
Her rigid attitude and fear of opening her heart to people had twisted her fondness for Dwight into actions that tormented him.
The biggest one had been the order she gave during a mission that drove Dwight into a death trap.
In the early part of the novel, Dwight—who hadn’t yet awakened his magic—had suffered every possible humiliation under his superior, Jeffbery.
In this novel’s world where mages worked as both soldiers and police, Dwight had been worked like a dog entirely because of Jeffbery.
Fear and rage toward her had piled up layer by layer.
When Dwight was injured so badly during a mission—because of her own order—that he lost his memories, Jeffbery finally repented her past behavior and began to feel affection for him.
Then came the arc where she nursed the awakened Dwight with devoted care and their love grew.
In the end: work, work, work.
Jeffbery threw herself too hard into her missions, tormented herself, and finally died at my—Double Crown’s—hands.
Dwight never appeared to the very end.
I looked down at Jeffbery, face-down and shaking her shoulders.
As a fan, I couldn’t stand watching my ultimate favorite character suffer like that.
I approached her.
With telekinesis I brushed the dust from her hair and wiped away her tears.
She lifted her head and looked at me.
“Double Crown…….”
“How long do you plan to stay curled up like this?”
I snapped my fingers and washed her clean with Cleans.
I wrapped her body in a spotless robe and lifted her into my arms; her large eyes looked up at me.
“Have you come to capture me again?”
I spoke as I climbed the stairs.
“You don’t even resist anymore. If you’re going to act like a corpse, it’s no fun!”
I couldn’t help looking down lovingly at Jeffbery, wrapped in the robe and gazing up at me.
From this angle she’s even prettier.
Dwight, you worthless bastard.
Leaving a beauty like this right in front of you, stuck in the past, unable even to notice your own heart.
“If you want to humiliate me, go ahead. Just don’t touch Dwight!”
Whatever came out of her mouth made my chest tremble.
Humiliate?!
I only want to protect you carefully.
But I couldn’t drop the villain character.
I gave a crooked smile and carefully laid Jeffbery on the bed.
“How laughable! Do you think you can escape my sight? Don’t you dare show me that sniveling face. I’ll summon Dwight right this instant and make him sit down.”
Is this what it feels like watching your little sister’s boyfriend?
I’m so pissed I could die.
I set up the reunion scene and he makes the kid cry?
Of course I had Igrian as a biological little sister, but I felt zero emotional connection there, whereas Jeffbery was my lover and the heroine of my life.
No comparison.
I pulled the blanket up to her chin, took her chin in my hand, and said,
“As long as I, Double Crown, exist, I will never leave you abandoned in despair.”
It was an extremely chuuni line, but so what?
Right now I was in a state of having publicly proposed to Jeffbery.
So the words weren’t completely without plausibility.
Crying over something that small.
From now on I’ll make sure you only walk a flower path.
Dwight too…. that brat will come to his senses soon enough.
Just hold on a little longer.
Exhausted, Jeffbery fell asleep just like that.
I left her sleeping and teleported out of the room.
3.
At that same hour, in the chairman’s office on the top floor of the Magic Tower.
In front of Chairman Greighton, the 1st through 3rd Department Heads stood in a rigid line, discipline locked tight.
The three department heads, who had planned to hang banners in the chairman’s office as usual and suck up with expensive whiskey and a karaoke machine, wore thoroughly flustered expressions at the sudden summons.
The 1st Department Head had tied a necktie around his forehead and stood at attention.
Crack!
Greighton smacked the 1st Department Head’s forehead with a spoon.
“Can’t read the room? You still think I’ll just… roughly let it slide when you three run your mouths?”
1st Department Head Dren rubbed his forehead and answered.
“What do you mean, Chairman! We only put Jeffbery on the front lines according to your will….”
The spoon in Greighton’s hand cracked repeatedly against the 1st Department Head’s forehead.
“Look at the atmosphere right now. Double Crown confessed his love. Jeffbery isn’t the old Jeffbery anymore. As long as Double Crown is obsessed with Jeffbery, he can use any excuse to start a terrorist attack. And you’re handling her that carelessly? Huh?”
“T-terrorism?”
3rd Department Head Schlang, who had a necktie with the word “Passion” stuck to his forehead like a steam patch, yanked it off in shock.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Greighton cracked joints on the three department heads in turn as he spoke.
“From now on, manage Jeffbery as a special protection target. Stick two escorts on her each.”
“But Jeffbery doesn’t need escorts….”
At 2nd Department Head Michael’s words, Greighton wore a meaningful expression.
“Exactly. It’s already ridiculous for a high-ranking mage of officer grade to walk around with escorts. 3rd Department Head, you lot will take turns personally escorting her.”
“““What?”””
Greighton glared at 2nd Department Head Michael and said,
“What is it you people even do? You run around the field, have you ever once found Double Crown’s heels? You think just pumping out flashy reports is enough? Do at least this much. Really… put out a thick atmosphere of special management!”
“Th-that is…….”
Just then, a news broadcast appeared on the magic monitor.
Cold sweat ran down Greighton’s spine.
If he had been even a little later, Jeffbery might have been exposed to demonic energy.
If that had happened, he couldn’t even imagine what Double Crown, seized by rage, would have done.
Greighton said to the three department heads,
“What are you doing? Close the site immediately. Full activation of the mana purifiers!”