After Yves bought me the chicken skewers, both of us fell silent. I leaned on his back and gave my best efforts to eat the chicken skewers. I tried not to get any sauce on his back, but it was impossible for me to not spill any so I just gave in and spilled as much as I had to. It was okay. I could just magic it away later. I'd even magic it to make it smell like fresh laundry, so he didn't have to worry.
As we slowly headed away from the city, there were less people around us as well. The silence between us felt larger than before. Yves, who seemed deep in thought, opened his mouth as if to say something.
"Originally, I never thought of dragging a kid like you into this."
"What?"
"Because I lied about dying. Tell me when you think you can't help me anymore. The information you got for me until now is enough. I'll make it so that you can take requests like before."
At Yves' sudden words, the chicken skewer I had in my mouth fell to the ground. What, what was this all of a sudden? When I stared at Yves with a confused, blank expression on my face, Yves kept quiet before speaking again.
"Because the situation is what it is.... I was originally going to force you into some serious situations until I achieved my goal."
"...?"
Wait, I even wrote out a contract stating that I could leave when I wanted. As expected, Yves knew another way to make me unable to leave if he wanted. As I thought, he had plans. But now he was revealing those plans himself.
Yves seemed deep in thought before speaking again.
"I changed my mind."
"Huh?"
I raised my head off of his back. What was Yves saying right now?
"You're not suited for dirty work."
Yves took some time before speaking again. I expected to hear some more details, but he was telling me what I should do after I washed my hands clean from this work.
"When you get requests again, you should probably stop digging after companies."
I was thinking about doing what he was talking about. Jobs like those were in a complicated net kind of formation. I didn't realize that the Lunaasha guild was going to be connected to any of the companies I had exposed to the world. I had taken the underworld too lightly.
If everything that Yves was saying was true, I would've been in a lot of danger if it wasn't for Yvnes. It was only because of his way of helping that I was probably able to be safe until now. This was something that I wouldn't have known if I didn't dig after him.
There wasn't anything wrong in his words, and I quietly listened because I was reflecting on my own actions like that. Yves continued speaking.
"For dirty jobs like this, you're bound to lose however much you've earned. The companies that you've exposed that much are just as eager to capture you and expose you. There are lots of people who are just hoping to rip you apart. And there's just as many people who would put those words into action."
…..I was aware, but hearing Yves tell me how it really was kind of shocked me. I had thought that those people would never find me, and that was true. But I did become more fearful after hearing that they were looking for me with the intent to kill.
"Even if money is important right now, what's the use if it ruins you forever? Nobody would even know. If you get hurt while working so hard by yourself, the only thing you're going to hear from others is that you're an idiot."
His advice was harsh but realistic. Hearing him curse made it really hit home. An idiot.
I felt the night breeze as I listened to him. The slow pace of his walk as he held me on his back, every word felt sincere. I quietly nodded.
At this point, I was confused by Yves' character. I had first thought that he didn't have an ounce of tears or blood in his body because of how callous he was. But seeing how he was suddenly treating me with emotion made me realize that he was a real person. He wasn't as horrible as the original novel. Who was the author? Why were they writing the characters all wrong?
Right before Yves sent me home via carriage, he sat me down somewhere. He took out medicine and bandages from who knows where and began speaking as he treated my swollen ankle.
"You have a home and a good family. You can enjoy that while acting like a child. You're still young."
I didn't say anything as I watched Yves treat my ankle. Yves finished and stood up.
"You have things that other people can only dream of having, so enjoy it when you can."
Yves brushed my hair back. It suddenly hit me that Yves really was around my age.
Yves stopped a carriage and dragged it towards me. Then, he held me and put me in the carriage. I didn't reject his touch this time. Normally I would say it's okay and argue that I could ride on my own, but I just wanted to stay still right now.
"Good work."
Yves said, voice nonchalant. He turned away after settling me in the carriage. Yves disappeared from my sight, but I just looked at where he last was.
Oh, right. I forgot to spell his clothes clean.
The next day, I apologized to Yves for dirtying his shirt as soon as I saw him.
Yves was surprisingly understanding. It was embarrassing, but he told me that he had assumed that I would dirty his clothes and forget to clean it. Because I was a total mess yesterday.
Yves said that he had on another shirt under it, so he could just take it off anyway. I spelled the cleaning spell, fragrance spell, and every other useful magic spell on his shirt that I could. It felt like I was only showing him the embarrassing parts of myself, so I was ashamed.
When I didn't tell him that I was quitting, Yves gave me work to do as usual. Yves told me to quit when I felt like it, but I didn't feel like it right now. It was because he paid so well. It was probably the best pay I'd ever gotten.
Getting out of the underworld was going to happen after Yves achieved his goals. His goal was emptying the pockets of his father, right? Then getting out of the guild, out of the guild. Getting out of the guild.....what did Yves want to do? Was it earning more money?
After observing him for a few days, I found that Yves wasn't that much of an underhanded person as I thought. He wasn't unsalvageable trash like the novel described him.
I didn't know how he was as the leader proxy of the Lunaasha guild, but he was efficient when he worked under his own name.
Moreover, he had a surprisingly honest side to him. If it wasn't related to the leader, he never really bothered anyone else.
He just, as he told me, wanted to get out of the underworld.
I decided to trust him this once. When I told Yves that I would keep working with him, he didn't show anything but seemed slightly relieved.
Hylli was a genius in terms of instinct, Cory was a genius in discovery, and Yves was a genius when it came to his work. Yves was great at using people to their best abilities. He knew how to split labor for highest efficiency, and was great at playing with people's minds when it came to contracting.
Moreover, Yves was great at reading people. He needed to keep the people he liked by his side.
If I said that I would do something, I thought that it was important to push forward instead of staying distrustful. This was what I was telling myself when I thought about wanting to help him.
Yves was a person that I could learn a lot from. No, honestly, I kind of respected him a lot. To be honest, it felt like I was learning how to work from him instead of fulfilling requests these days.
Anyway, it felt like I had gotten closer to Yves while I was working with him. The biggest change was that he had started calling me by my nickname. From some unknown moment, he had started calling me 'Shushu'. We naturally became close without any awkwardness. The sharp air he kept in front of me grew slightly duller, and even if he wasn't kind he wasn't mean. If he had ignored me every day when we first began working, now he was great at responding.
If I didn't have a job where I needed to be out and about, I usually worked in Yves' office.
"Shushu, eat."
My face was so close to the documents around me that I was almost kissing it until a paper bag was thrown next to me. I tilted my head and peered into the bag and saw a sandwich with meat and vegetables and milk, along with a few snacks. I looked at Yves who had thrown the bag and took something out of my bag and threw it at him.
"This."
It was something I had prepared for Yves, who pretty much never ate anything. It wasn't much: just a green juice that I had made by blending vegetables and fruit.
"What's this."
"Your food."
"....."
"Stop eating raw flour and drink this."
I had figured out the powder medicine that Yves took every day. He ate the powder all the time instead of a meal so I was always curious, but once I learned what it was I couldn't hide my shock.
The medicine was headache medicine, stress-related medicine, and raw flour. That's right, raw flour. Yves was a terrifying individual who ate medicine and raw flour in place of a normal meal.
He didn't like eating, but needed to survive. This was something that he had stressed over to figure out. This world did have a concept of calories and nutrients.
This world wasn't a complete fantasy world. It was a world that was slowly evolving into a more modern culture. Because of that, Yves kept that in mind and cared little by little for his own nutrients.
He knew that carbohydrates were important, so he was eating raw flour. Raw. When I asked if his stomach didn't hurt, he said that he thought it did so he added some stomach pain medicine to the mix. He must've been crazy. He was going to die if he kept eating like that.
Yves looked at the vegetable fruit juice I brought with a stiff expression. It looked like he was being wary of food. I shrunk at his reaction. Was he going to say anything because I was poking my nose where it didn't belong?
Yves looked at me with a frown on his face and spoke.
"Why'd you make it?"
I shrunk more at his aggressive tone. But I tried to put my shameless face and shoved the juice back to him. I responded just as curtly to his curt tone.
"For someone who's working as a leader proxy, don't let others see how you don't care about yourself. You have important plans in front of you, so you have to take care of your health."
I had prepared this because he said he didn't like chewing. He was a fresh, young high schooler that had trouble chewing like an old, decrepit grandpa.
Yves seemed surprised at my cold tone.
"You made this because of me?"
"I did, but hand it over. So annoying. I'll eat it myself."
I pretended to take the juice back, but Yves didn't stop me as if it didn't matter for him. Cold bastard. I returned the juice back in front of him on my own.
"If you're not going to eat it, throw it away on your own."
I finished organizing the documents and pulled my chair back to take out the sandwich. Then, I calmly took out the lunch Yves gave me and ate it.