The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 174

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

*

Getting out of the carriage, I faced the butler who was bowing deeply.

“Welcome, young master.”

“Hello, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you.”

Walking toward the annex where the research lab was located, I asked the butler.

“How is Chloe?”

“She hasn’t been eating and stays only in the research lab. I’m not sure if she’s sleeping at all.”

‘As expected.’

I thought this might be related to Chloe’s past.

While trying to organize things to tell me, perhaps more bad memories had surfaced.

That made me even more worried.

Just as I was carefully about to open the annex door, the butler whispered quietly.

“Um, but a few hours ago, another guest came by.”

“A guest? Who?”

“It was a very tall man with black hair and red eyes, with a rather fierce impression.”

Tesagh had been here?

As I was thinking about the reason, I remembered his words with an “ah.”

‘No wonder he was asking about Chloe. Did he have something to ask about Eivor’s black magic before going to the duchy?’

I had decided to leave the annex matters entirely to Chloe.

Visitors were no exception.

I wasn’t sure exactly what business Tesagh had come for.

‘Still, if she met with Tesagh, Chloe can’t be in too serious a condition…’

Instead of dwelling on the reason, I nodded, thinking it was fortunate.

“Yes, I understand. Then I’ll go check on her.”

Dismissing the butler and entering the annex, I headed to her research lab.

In my hands were donuts that Chloe used to eat often.

It was a gift I bought as an excuse to say I came to deliver this.

However, the moment I opened the door.

“Chloe?”

I threw down the donut box and ran without thinking.

“Chloe, what’s wrong?”

Chloe was sitting collapsed in the middle of the magic circle with her back turned, her head hanging low.

As I supported Chloe’s body that was about to collapse, she slowly lifted her head.

Her dazed eyes gradually came into focus…

“Ah, El, Elisha.”

Seeing me, Chloe flinched and stammered like someone waking from a dream.

Then she looked at my hand that was gripping her black arm.

Chloe’s black hand, and my white hand.

For a moment, Chloe seemed to reflexively try to shake off my hand.

“Are you okay, Chloe?”

But the moment she heard my question, instead of letting go of my hand, Chloe met my eyes.

As our eye contact lengthened.

Taking a deep breath, she slowly nodded.

“Yes. I’m okay, Elisha. …I will be, okay.”

It was more of a resolution than an answer.

“Good thing I swept up all the donuts from the shop. Who would have known I’d spill them.”

I grabbed the second box and bit into a donut, saying anything that came to mind.

I couldn’t just ask what was wrong right away, so I was trying to lighten the mood before broaching the subject.

“By the way, I cleaned up diligently, but what if ants come into the research lab? Is there such a thing as pest control magic?”

After cleaning up the donut crumbs, I noticed the magic circle was damaged in several places.

Was it because I stepped on it?

I was about to apologize to the silent Chloe for damaging the magic circle.

“…I’m sorry.”

Chloe spoke first.

I asked, puzzled.

“What? Why?”

“For suddenly taking time off. I didn’t explain the reason, and you must have been busy but I couldn’t help with the pawnshop work…”

I waved my hands dismissively.

“Hey, time off is Chloe’s natural right, you know? And you’re not supposed to pry into vacation reasons anyway. That would make me a bad employer.”

“But…”

Taking Chloe’s black hand and patting it, I said quietly.

“The person Chloe should apologize to isn’t me, but yourself. You didn’t eat anything today, right? You didn’t sleep properly either, right?”

“…”

“So! Eat all the donuts and get plenty of sleep. Think of it as a work order.”

Giving work orders during vacation would make me a bad employer, but…

This kind of work order is okay to give.

‘I’m curious about what research she’s doing, and what she talked about with Tesagh.’

But now isn’t the time to pry to satisfy my curiosity.

Today my goal is to check if Chloe is okay and be by her side.

“Of course, I’ll also watch to make sure you sleep well. I’ll hold your hand tight and not let go, so don’t think about sneaking out of bed.”

“Bed…?”

“People say that friends are supposed to sleep together, right?”

The Princess said so! Friends sleep together!

Shamelessly insisting, I said with a touch of aegyo.

“Actually, this is my first time sleeping at the Duke of Alchemiya’s residence, so I’m scared. The room is too big too. So Chloe, stay next to me, okay?”

“With me, together…”

Chloe, who had been staring at me blankly, nodded with an expression that looked like she might cry.

“…Yes. I will.”

Only then did Chloe start eating the donut she had just been holding.

After making Chloe eat all the donuts and taking turns bathing, we lay together on the spacious bed.

Though it started half as my whim, Chloe didn’t seem to dislike it.

“I never thought… something like this would happen in my life again.”

She even seemed moved by it.

I quietly listened to her intermittent words.

“Feeling someone’s body warmth in bed, hearing someone’s breathing…”

Chloe’s voice trembled slightly.

The ‘someone’ she was referring to – could it be ‘Tanya’, the name she had called out tearfully when I first saw her?

Some might consider it trivial, but I understand the feeling of missing even body warmth and breathing sounds.

Intangible things evaporate quickly and fade fast.

That’s why… they remain more deeply. Because they blur despite efforts to hold onto them, you keep dwelling on them, and from all that dwelling, only marks get carved.

Instead of hasty comfort, I was quietly putting strength into the hand holding Chloe’s when.

“…Though it’s very late.”

Gulp, swallowing, Chloe held out something as if she had made up her mind.

“This is my story.”

It was a golden orb the size of a fingernail.

“Chloe, this is…?”

“By applying Emma’s magic, I was able to contain my memories in this orb.”

She had actually implemented the magic of “containing memories in an orb” that was used to deceive Rosaline.

“It’s not black magic, it’s just… I thought seeing it directly would be helpful.”

That was all Chloe said.

Instead of asking how, I accepted the orb.

I closed my eyes while tightly gripping the small but incredibly luminous orb.

Chloe’s memories came flooding in.

*

Chloe left the Magic Tower.

She left of her own will, but it was no different from being driven out.

“You’re a curse, you’re cursed! Otherwise, there’s no way I would have given birth to something like a mage…!”

Her family abandoned her.

They were the ones who left, yet Chloe couldn’t stay behind.

Fleeing from her hometown where people would point fingers at her whenever they saw her, Chloe headed to the Magic Tower.

“How disgusting! Get lost, get out of here!”

She thought they were similar people. She wanted to get along well.

She told herself that having her ideas stolen by seniors wasn’t theft but yielding.

She tried to live believing that being exploited by peers who begged her to do their assignments for them wasn’t exploitation but helping.

However, when she accidentally brushed against a senior’s sleeve and saw memories of him bullying another peer, she couldn’t turn a blind eye and reported him.

“Did you read my memories too? D-don’t tell me you saw all my… all my secrets? How horrible!”

It was the moment she saw the peer who had been freed from violence thanks to her report trembling and backing away from her.

Chloe gave up on explaining.

That very day, Chloe packed her things and left the Magic Tower, wandering until she arrived at a dilapidated abandoned cabin.

‘This is my place.’

An abandoned daughter, an abandoned mage arriving at an abandoned ruin—she felt like she had finally reached a place where she belonged.

Like the fate of most lost things, she too would be buried in a place no one knew, with no one searching for her.

She hoped to be forgotten. She wanted to be forgotten.

…She wanted to forget. Everything.

The mage who dealt with memories closed her eyes hoping tomorrow wouldn’t come, as always.

And as always, tomorrow came…

But.

“Meow.”

A small guest came along with it.

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