Yuri felt Lakis' gaze following behind her, but she didn't turn around till she opened the door to her room and went in.
Click, Slam!
Soon, Yuri leaned the closed door of her room. Air slightly colder than that of the living room' hit her wet cheeks.
Yuri lifted her hand and wiped off the tears that were making her skin cold. After the short dream-like moment passed, a familiar emptiness filled her heart.
As to whether this was a good thing or not, she couldn't tell right now.
* * *
Maybe she was to blame, but the air in the house the next morning was a little awkward.
"Good morning, Mr. Lakis."
Yuri greeted him first, her face calm as if nothing had happened the previous night.
Lakis lay sidewise on the sofa, and stared at her expressionless face quietly for a while before replying:
[Yeah, good morning.]
The both of them decided to just ignore the events from yesterday.
"Well then, I'm off to work."
A while later, Yuri walked out the door at the same time as usual.
[Take care.]
Lakis leaned against the sofa and saw Yuri off like that.
Yuri's feet going through the front door stopped for a moment. She briefly glanced back at Lakis then she left.
* * *
After Yuri left the house, Lakis quietly listened to the departing footsteps. It was still early in the morning. Outside was a little restless with people who were just about to start their day.
Lakis covered his wound with his arm and raised his still aching body from the seat. His footsteps were silent as he moved to the window. He hid himself in the shadow of the window and peeked out through the slight crack of the curtains.
His blue eyes were cold and sharp under the sun, like a broken film over a lake. The air around him was so cold that it was hard to believe he was the seemingly harmless and gentle person that was seeing the house owner off just moments ago.
—Hey, Lakis? I really didn't do anything strange yesterday. Really!
After Yuri left, the bug got a hint of Lakis' mood and made excuses once again.
Its shriveled voice sounded deflated, with a weak sense of accusation mixed in. Lakis had grilled and mentally tortured it overnight so of course, the voice in his head was a little depressed when it talked to him.
The reason for this was naturally due to what happened to Yuri last night. Yuri appeared strange while holding Lakis' hand last night and she had even teared up; that sight still lingered before his eyes.
Lakis was also aware that yesterday's events weren't due to the parasite in his body carrying out some other scheme. But even then, he couldn't figure out what the hell that was yesterday. But at least, he was relieved to see she was feeling okay before she left for work.
—By the way, are you really going out?
'Yeah.'
The voice in his head then asked, changing the subject.
As it said, Lakis was planning on going out today. Of course, as his body wasn't fully recovered yet, it would be too much if he pushed himself. But even if that was the case, he couldn't remain hands-off like this.
In his mind, Lakis once again repeated the name of this place as he'd been told some time ago.
Grey Ferret.
And since this was the east, it meant it was under the jurisdiction of the Crawford family. So as long as his identity wasn't revealed, it was worth moving around.
—But Lakis…All that is good and all, but for now just take some more digestive medicine before you leave. Uuuk, I still want to hurl.
The sound ringing in his head eventually made Lakis' face crumple into a frown.
'Oh, for f*ck's sake…don't retch in someone's head like some ****.
The reason the bug was acting like this was because of the breakfast they ate this morning. Today again, the breakfast Yuri made was vomit-inducing but just like before, Lakis ate it all.
As a result, Lakis was significantly much leaner than when he just woke up this morning. As a matter of fact, Lakis was resistant to most drugs, so it wasn't easy to get them to affect him which meant he had emptied half the bottle of digestive medicine.
That said, it was true his stomach was still feeling queasy so Lakis listened to the bug and poured more digestive medicine down his throat.
—Phew. I finally feel relieved. I mean, this is all because you keep chomping down all that garbage!
Perhaps the courage of the parasitic bug had revived in the meantime, because it shuddered like it hadn't considered Lakis' mood and grumbled.
—Ugh, I haven't tasted anything this bad since the food from when we were in that 'grave'.
Lakis was disturbed by those words. Because he recalled a memory from his past that he didn't even want to remember.
It was a memory from a long time ago, when he was in the 'grave' that the bug was talking about. That place was also where Lakis first acquired this noisy parasite.
It was called a 'grave' because no one ever came out alive. The only exception to that was Lakis. But he had to spend 5 years to get out of that loathsome place. And afterwards, he killed everyone who helped put him there.
To others, after Lakis' father, the former lord of Carnot, died from a disease, his son killed all his competitors and gained the throne, but the truth was different. In the first place, the one who killed his father the former king, was Lakis himself.
Lakis had no reason to let him live. It was not enough for that man to set up that disgusting research institute in Carnot, but he was crazy bastard who used even his son as an experiment.
Lakis smiled icily and tightened his grip on the drug in his hand.
Crack!
Shatter!
The medicine bottle in Lakis' hand broke into pieces.
—Gasp!
The bug held its breath as it promptly realized Lakis' mood had turned foul because of its slip of the tongue.
A ferocious energy surrounded Lakis as he stepped on the broken pieces of bottle and spilled medicine on the floor.
In the end, all who subjected Lakis to that humiliating memory died long ago and the place that reminded him of those memories was now also in ruins. Lakis had made it that way with his very own hands.
So it would be the same this time as well.
The traitor would get a fitting end.
Lakis waited until the noise from people in the vicinity subsided. In order to get information while he recovered, there was somewhere he had to go first.
* * *
(Change in pov)
My day at the coffeehouse was pretty similar to any other day. That is, if you exclude the fact that I couldn't really concentrate because I kept thinking about what happened with Lakis last night.
Last time, I rubbed my face in Lakis' hand and this time, I even cried in front of him. The fact that I did this made me feel something similar to 'shame', an emotion I haven't felt in a while.
I call it 'similar to shame' because what I was feeling right now was so mediocre that it was hard for me to call it shame. If I could feel emotions normally, I'd probably have destroyed a few walls at least.
I guess I was having more useless thoughts since it happened to be an idle time and not many customers were coming in. As I wiped the wet cup with the drying towel, I decided to think of something else to refresh my mood.
As I expected, a request from the client came in this time like always. They wanted me to get something on their behalf from the secret auction. Honestly to me, since they were using their money for an expensive bid anyways, wouldn't it be simpler and easier to just ask me to steal it for them?
But it seems my client doesn't think the same.
Well, I don't intend to lure an honest eastern citizen into the world of crime either.
"Ms. Yuri, this spring festival, would you like to go with…"
"I have a previous engagement."
I turned around after turning down my 19th invitation for the day. There were a lot of people with such invitation today, probably because the day of the festival was drawing nearer. Of course, I refused them all.
And that's probably why the atmosphere in the coffeehouse was somewhat gloomy.
"Wow, Ms. Yuri, popular as expected."
Snow, who came to drink coffee as usual, spoke after watching me for a while. He seemed very intrigued by the current situation.
"So you have a prior engagement, Ms. Yuri. Somehow, I thought you weren't the type to be interested in things like festivals."
Snow's thought was right on the mark. My going to the festival was simply because of Anne-Marie. Not because I was really interested in going.
"Knowing Ms. Yuri is going, somehow makes me want to go too…urgh."
"Yes, I'll take your order."
I turned around before Snow could even finish his sentence and headed for another customer. I heard sulky mumblings about my cold-heartedness from behind me but I ignored that as well.
Snow didn't stay long in the store, he soon paid for his coffee and went out the door.
"…?"
Then I suddenly felt something similar to a gaze and turned my head.
Caw, Caw!
'Just crows, huh.'
When I saw the crows flying around in front of the store, I thought of Odin. The job I gave him seemed to be taking more time than I thought.
I looked away from the open door and walked back to the inside of the store.