Miss Diaz Hates Me
Many people feared him, but Lina’s feelings were on another level entirely.
It wasn’t some vague reverence for the Emperor’s authority.
It was far more specific than that.
Why?
His identity wasn’t the issue.
Edwin’s heart pounded with unease.
He had a terrible feeling about this.
I had really done it this time.
I carefully avoided Everett’s eyes, which looked strangely troubled.
No, I only meant to give him a light warning.
I’d been worried that something might happen before I could join the Blue Hawk and gain access to important information.
If nothing came of it, the words could be brushed off as nonsense. But if something did happen, he would realize exactly what I had meant.
While strolling through the fresh air, I suddenly remembered something I had overlooked when I was exhausted, and I just couldn’t hold back any longer.
That adjutant had already messed up on another matter right before this, so he was feeling down. In that state, he drank the liquor handed to him by one of Duke Camelot’s closest aides and ended up making yet another mistake.
He doesn’t have a habit of escaping through drink, does he?
When I asked, testing the waters, his answer was perfectly textbook.
If only he hadn’t replied so quickly to the extra comment I’d added, I might have felt relieved.
Did you memorize your interview answers or something?
I rolled my eyes toward the sky instead of at Everett.
Difficult problems can be solved with help from those around you, but mistakes that ruin important tasks… well, everyone makes mistakes, they say.
The chance that you would handle things so leniently, then escape into drink when an unbearable incident occurred and get yourself forcibly removed was a whopping 33.3 percent.
Everett was far too calm about it all.
Completely different from me, who still carried anxiety in the corner of my heart even now.
That was why my warning gradually took on a clearer shape.
In the end, I gave him such a specific hint that I wondered if I had said too much.
And yet.
Everett simply laughed it off.
If he weren’t standing right in front of me, I would have pounded my chest with my fists.
My insides felt as choked as if I’d tried to swallow a sweet potato without any water.
This is the true hardship of someone who knows the future.
On the way home I even considered stopping for a beer.
No. I’ll buy some and drink at home. I don’t want to start babbling nonsense.
“They say His Majesty has been rather prickly lately. What will you do if he doesn’t tolerate any mistakes?”
The words finally burst out of me.
Because Everett’s eyes sparkled as though he had heard something amusing, and it was driving me crazy.
Still, it didn’t feel like the sweet potato lodged in my throat had gone down.
When I mentioned his direct superior, Everett asked,
“Do you hate the Emperor?”
Very, very carefully.
“The Emperor?”
What was I even saying a moment ago?
His expression was so grim that I actually backtracked to check whether I had said something that might count as lèse-majesté.
It wasn’t anything that serious, but maybe I sounded too stern?
After the sword-drawing incident and the adjutant’s punishment, the Emperor had become a figure I needed to watch out for.
On top of that, I had been frustrated that Everett wasn’t picking up on my warning, so my tone might have come across as disrespectful.
This was the downside of a one-sided acquaintance.
But officially, the Emperor and I have no connection whatsoever.
Which meant there was no reason for me to display open dislike.
I smiled first.
It was the kind of polite, painted-on social smile.
Then, hoping the mood would lighten, I asked playfully in return.
“It’s not that I hate him. Isn’t it generally hard to like your boss at work?”
Since almost no one actually likes their boss, I thought it would pass as a light joke.
But it was the wrong move.
At my words, Everett’s expression grew even darker.
“Why do you hate him?”
Everett asked with strangely sorrowful eyes.
As if I really had said I hated him.
Those golden eyes looked oddly moist and forlorn.
To the point that anyone watching might think I had brutally dumped Everett with the cruelest words imaginable.
“I never said I hated him…”
I hurried to deny it.
The Emperor was dangerous, but if we were talking personal preference, I didn’t exactly dislike him.
I simply needed to stay on guard and preferred to keep my distance.
Besides, when he asks “why” like that…
His reaction was so unexpected that I was thrown off balance.
Perhaps because of the association, scenes from the original story of what the Emperor would do over the next six months flashed through my mind like a panorama.
Well, even you, Everett, would find it hard to like him if you knew what’s going to happen.
Right after ascending the throne you already struck one-fourth of the noble register from existence, and in the six months before the heroine appears, another fourth is scheduled to disappear.
And of that second fourth, there’s a 33.3 percent chance you might be included, Everett.
That was why I had been unable to like the Emperor lately.
While I silently added the reason I could never say aloud, Everett gradually wilted.
He looked like someone who had received a devastating wound because I hadn’t told him I liked the Emperor.
Knights really are loyal, huh.
Was this the mindset of treating their lord’s honor as their own?
I regretted not handling the situation with a little more tact.
A damp silence settled over us like air during the rainy season.
As we continued walking through the Summer Rose Garden, I tried speaking to Everett several more times.
Each time, he forced the corners of his mouth upward into a smile, but his eyes remained sad.
He answered when I asked him things, yet it was obvious his mind wasn’t in the conversation at all.
In the end, I gave up trying to talk to him.
Next time I’ll come prepared with a hymn of praise or something.
Or maybe I should memorize an entire book like 101 Ways to Respect Your Company Superior.
Not a single one of the fully bloomed roses caught my eye.
I simply walked toward the end of the path, stealing glances at Everett trudging beside me.
It was an incredibly awkward walk.
When the entrance finally came into view, I let out a breath like a worker who had just finished a grueling shift.
“It’s gotten late. I’ll escort you home.”
With those still-moist eyes, Everett walked me all the way to my door.
I thought that today, at least, I could go alone, but he had already taken the lead.
Even on the way back he remained silent, as though lost in deep thought.
Those eyes still moist.
I really thought the imperial palace was so far from my house.
After meeting Everett, coming home felt welcome for the first time in a long while.
As I opened the front door, I swore to myself that I would never utter even the syllable “Em” from “Emperor” in front of Everett again.
After seeing Lina home, Edwin no longer had the energy to return to the imperial palace and instead headed for Kylus’s café.
“Welcome.”
At the clear ring of the bell, Kylus turned from the doorway and greeted the customer with a smile.
The coffee still wasn’t great, but it had improved enough that customers were slowly increasing.
Kylus’s smile as he welcomed guests was bright and free of any wrinkles.
That is, until he confirmed who had just walked through the door. The smile vanished instantly.
Edwin entered the café without sparing Kylus so much as a glance, trudging heavily.
Seeing his lord and friend acting as gloomy as if dark clouds hung over his head, Kylus let out a sigh.
“Watch the shop for a bit, please.”
After leaving the café to Emily, Kylus approached Edwin.
“Shall we step inside?”
With quite a few customers present, it was more efficient than casting a soundproofing spell.
Edwin, who seemed to want to pour his heart out to someone, obediently followed Kylus.
Kylus led him to the guild’s reception room—dark gray walls with nothing but a simple receiving set inside.
The moment the door closed, Edwin collapsed onto the sofa. At the same time, Kylus asked,
“Did a major disaster break out somewhere?”
Or was he reminiscing some faint memory while staring at the sofa?
Judging by the look of him, the probability of the former seemed low.
I’ll bet this entire café that this is about Miss Diaz.
It was closer to a plea for him to stop making those misty eyes because they were giving him goosebumps.
However, Kylus’s words had the opposite effect of what he intended.
Edwin, who had been stubbornly silent since entering the café, suddenly began to complain as though a curse had been lifted.
And he started from the exact phrase he had been repeating to himself the entire time, without any context.
“Miss Diaz said she hates me.”
Edwin spoke with clear despair written across his face.