I Am the 5-Year-Old Spy Who Kidnapped the Villain - Chapter 232

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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【Special Side Story Episode 10】
Somehow, I found myself seated in a chair, and I swallowed hard.
I had readily agreed to this as a way to get back at Kail, but now things had spiraled completely out of control.
That’s when the Announcer spoke.
“Gathered here on this Golden Night, this is a sacred place where only through voice and gaze can we perceive true sincerity. Three wanderers have come to this hallowed festival to claim love itself.”
Wow, that was quite the grandiose introduction.
Unlike me, who stood there dumbfounded, the spectators erupted in excited cheers.
“The first ritual concerns the voice—that is, we shall hear the serenade of two men vying to claim love.”
…A serenade? Seduction through song?
That’s the one thing Kail is absolutely terrible at.
I glanced over at Kail, who was stretching in the distance.
Sure enough, he who had seemed so ready for physical combat now stood frozen in bewilderment.
“In our festival, a serenade is a ‘confession’—a test to see who can melt the lady’s heart with more eloquent words.”
At least it wasn’t actual singing.
But that wasn’t reassuring, because Kail wasn’t good with words either….
‘What do I do? That man next to Kail has such a way with words….’
I’d noticed it from the start—that man’s honeyed words flowed as smoothly as if his lips were coated in oil.
Judging by his refined manner of speech, he seemed to be nobility.
Kail had lived a brief noble life in his childhood, but afterward he’d spent all his time in the North where Monsters dwell, so his speech and bearing weren’t particularly refined.
“Well then, who shall begin?”
But the Announcer didn’t even give them time to prepare before launching into the main event.
I was beginning to feel sorry for Kail.
When I thought about it, he—and I—had to deliver some kind of eloquent confession in front of all these people.
That would be impossible for me too, let alone for him.
“Excuse me…!”
In the end, I raised my hand to rescue the struggling Kail.
“Would it be possible to cancel the sand selection ceremony?”
“I beg your pardon~?”
The crowd erupted into chaos in an instant.
The Announcer seemed genuinely taken aback, as if this had never happened before, and asked again.
His shock seemed almost exaggerated—I was beginning to suspect he was feigning surprise.
“Though the Golden Sand Festival is indeed as fleeting as sand itself… everyone has stopped dancing for this ceremony. Are you truly certain you wish to cancel it?”
“…Yes. If we resumed the dancing instead… wouldn’t that be more entertaining?”
“No. Watching people struggle for love is far more entertaining than dancing.”
The Announcer spoke with a serious expression.
“It’s also quite amusing.”
That didn’t sound like a compliment to us.
Feeling apologetic for disappointing everyone, I asked carefully once more.
“So there’s no way to cancel it?”
“I’m afraid that would be quite difficult, unfortunately.”
Then why ask in the first place if you were just going to say no from the start?
I nodded with a slightly sullen expression and sank back into my seat.
Even gesturing for him to continue.
‘I’m sorry, Kail. This was the best I could do.’
I regretted the choice I’d made in my excitement earlier.
I could only hope this moment would pass quickly.
Once I stopped my brief resistance, the Announcer smiled with satisfaction and continued the proceedings.
“Now then, who is the brave man willing to start with a serenade?”
“I’ll go first.”
As expected, not Kail, but the man beside him raised his hand.
“Woooow!”
As the Golden Sand Festival’s selection game began in earnest, cheers erupted from the crowd. The man, seemingly accustomed to such situations, stretched both arms wide and moved about, trying to draw responses from the audience.
Was he a jester rather than a nobleman?
In that moment, I thought he was simply an odd man.
“Oh, my little dove!”
Suddenly, the man extended his arm toward me and began his confession.
“Your dancing resembles the fluttering flight of a dove, and your smile reminds me of a dove pecking at grain.”
…What is this? A provocation?
“The moment I met your crimson gaze, I became like an old man in the Town Square feeding doves~”
It really does seem like a provocation.
“Because of you, my world once filled with canaries has turned to shades of gray. Oh, my ashen dove, won’t you extend your hand to me~”
With exaggerated gestures, the theatrical man—or rather, the Attention Seeker—knelt on one knee before me with reverent solemnity, concluding his serenade.
Applause and cheers rained down from the crowd.
Everyone but me was satisfied with the serenade, and the masked man’s eyes crinkled like crescents.
But since he hadn’t actually satisfied me, he didn’t seem to be much of a performer after all.
I’d just call him an Attention Seeker.
Regardless, the Announcer clapped and pointed to Kail.
“Ah, what a splendid serenade that was. Now then, next gentleman, please share your own heartfelt serenade for the lady.”
Once the cheers died down, Kail let out a sigh.
Then, glancing at the man who’d received the applause, he seemed to make a decision and lifted his gaze.
“…Gasp.”
With eyes that rivaled any male lead in a romance novel, I heard the breath catch around me.
I waited for his words with an anxious expression.
Then he opened his mouth.
“…My snowman. Your pale skin shines like crystallized snow caught in sunlight, and your indomitable spirit is as solid as the eternal ice of Crosht that no one can melt-.”
Oh, he adapted the Attention Seeker’s serenade. That’s clever.
Though he did stumble a bit here and there.
“When your eyelids close, it feels like a single snowflake has descended. The moment I first saw your azure eyes, the place where I stood became not the iron bars of a Prison, but beneath the open sky. You are my world, I, I-.”
…Oh… wow.
It was harder to listen to than I expected, but I felt genuine sincerity in his words, and I was moved.
“What is a snowman?”
“It’s a person made of snow.”
“You must be a foreigner. What an interesting way to put it.”
“That’s amazing!”
The people who had been bewildered by the unfamiliar expression regained their spirits and let out cheers.
But Kail remained rigid as stone, his tension still unrelieved.
Such an endearing man.
My lips were just beginning to curve upward with warmth when it happened.
“My dove, please consider who truly deserves you. Who is it that pursues you more earnestly, who is it that will protect you?”
The Attention Seeker suddenly cried out.
It seemed he had grown anxious now that the attention had shifted away from him.
But his next words made me pause for a moment.
“Is it not wonderful to be desired by a man, both day and night?”
His question stirred a subtle sense of déjà vu within me.
A man who desires me both day and night.
The Attention Seeker gazed at me with a gaze that had grown slightly serious, as if he knew I was troubled by the matter of my first night with Kail.
‘…How am I supposed to answer this?’
Before it had been a serenade, but now it was a question.
I had to answer.
The others seemed to realize it too, and all eyes—including the Announcer’s—poured down upon me.
That was when a desolate, low voice cut between us.
“Then naturally, it’s me. I want to be with Aisha—or rather, that woman in the crimson veil—24 hours a day, whether it’s day or night.”
It was Kail.
Clearly, seeing my discomfort, he had interjected to redirect everyone’s attention.
The Attention Seeker, as if this suited him perfectly, turned back to Kail with a question.
“So you’re saying you could spend 24 blissful hours together?”
“A lifetime.”
“Truly, even at night?”
“…!”
Kail faltered at the mischievous and blatant question.
By now, one might expect them to relent for the sake of Kail’s privacy, but did people in this country make such jokes so easily as a matter of course?
Everyone instead sent looks of keen interest.
Here, Kail had two options.
The first was to say yes.
Then the crowd would cheer, and we would return to the Dormitory trembling with awkwardness.
The second option was to say no.
Then Kail would be publicly humiliated… and we would return to the Dormitory trembling with awkwardness.
The conclusion.
Whichever he chose, it meant we wouldn’t be able to stretch out and sleep comfortably at the Dormitory later.
Kail, it seemed, shared my thoughts, for perplexity flickered across those mysterious eyes of his.
He seemed lost in thought, alone with his own mind.
‘How will he respond? Will he make a joke? But Kail can’t do that sort of thing…!’
Watching Kail’s discomfort, I found myself growing equally restless, barely able to breathe.
At last, having gathered his thoughts, Kail opened his mouth to speak.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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