Yves kept staring at the fruit juice I made for a while now. He tilted his head, seemed deep in thought about something, then frowned and drank the juice in one gulp.
He put down the empty bottle and looked at me.
"Thanks, but don't make any more."
"....?"
When I just stared at Yves, he turned his head and spoke. His expression didn't seem too good.
"It's awkward because you're the one doing it."
He fiddled with the empty juice bottle.
"The only people who were kind to me without reason were one of two types. They had their own plans or they were perverts."
At Yves' words, I put down the sandwich I was eating for a moment. I wanted to clean my ears to make sure I heard properly, but I stopped myself because I was mid-meal.
I didn't know that he was still wary of me. I became curious about his past seeing how he couldn't even take small acts of kindness like this.
I didn't really believe his words about the only nice people in his life being slimy or perverts, but Yves probably didn't get like how he was now without reason.
No, it seemed that Yves was just protecting himself instead of having a bad personality.
I was looking at Yves with sadness until he asked me with one raised brow.
"You're a pervert, right?"
At Yves' serious question, I clenched my fist and mangled the sandwich in my hand. Yves smirked. I sighed and took a bite of my mangled sandwich.
"If we're talking about random acts of kindness, you did that first, proxy. How funny."
I laughed loudly.
"You prepare meals for me, carry me on your back when my legs don't work, you bought me two chicken skewers, and you even found a carriage for me. And you promised to take care of the guild leader messing with my requests. I guess you were a pervert first."
I felt uncomfortable being so wholesome. It seemed like Yves was on the same boat. Every time I spoke about Yves' kind actions, his expression grew darker ever so slightly.
"Or you're preparing to stab me in the back while pretending to be nice in front of me. I'm honestly kind of afraid."
When I said the last part sarcastically, Yves glared at me in full force.
"Those were things I did without thinking, but it'll be a real issue if you can't trust me at this point."
His pretty face stiffened into a cold glare. It was especially frightening because of the duality.
"How am I supposed to trust you if you look like you're going to die of malnutrition before you pay me? If you want to earn my trust, then eat well and work hard and fill up my bank account. Lots and lots."
Yves seemed to be unable to respond at my words and quietly listened. He just stared at my face.
"Oh, and take less medicine too. You've probably gained enough resistance to it to the point that it's not doing anything except ruining your body. Tell me if you're still getting headaches. You keep rubbing your temples. If you want, I can just clear it out with magic. You'd even feel the breeze in your skull."
"...."
When I added some magic to my fingers and ripped a hole through a thin book, Yves meekly shook his head and hid his temple behind his hand.
I cleaned up the glass bottle and smiled bitterly.
"You're the only source of money I have. Try not to die."
Yves quietly listened before smiling at my words. The corners of his eyes curved into a smile. I'd never seen his happy face before, so my eyes widened.
"You got me as your golden goose."
"Yup. Absolute gold."
I gave him a thumbs up.
Well-paying rich bosses were the best. Timely payments were the best. Guild leader sons were the best. I wanted to hold up a flag and cheer.
I was sorry, but it was true that Yves was my golden goose. He was absolute gold. The fact that he paid as much as I worked made me want to keep being loyal to him.
"Great choice."
Yves stared at my thumbs up and seemed a bit more comfortable.
After I received permission to take care of Yves' meals, I consistently prepared juice and porridge. At first, he seemed to dislike me caring for him, but he later seemed to get used to it and resigned to his fate.
If I focused on things he could drink first, I slowly added things like cherry tomatoes for him to chew on. He sometimes threw up because the food didn't work for him, but now he chewed on his food.
Currently, the food he could eat were cherry tomatoes, apples, oranges–fruits that went into fruit juice.
Usually, people who found it difficult to receive things from others pay them back in spades. Yves was the same. My meals became more and more fancy.
"Haha. Today's meal is lobster that even royals can barely afford."
"It's your lunch. Throw it away if you don't like it. I'll resell it to the palace under your name."
"Then his royal highness is going to eat the leftovers of a baron's child...…"
Yves smiled as if he enjoyed my reaction.
I didn't know this, but I had the same unfamiliarity and burdened feeling towards others being nice to me. It'd gotten a lot better, but I felt awkward receiving things from others because of my past life as a child breadwinner for my family. Yves seemed to figure that out and used it for his revenge. He got the most expensive, rarest items he could for my lunch. Every time I tried to refuse, he would threaten me with some bizarre claim like reselling it to the royal family or something and made me eat.
So I also brought more high quality food for him next time. I made sure that the sliced fruit looked so nice that you could see the amount of effort put into it. Yves scrunched his eyebrows and looked so burdened that he couldn't take it. But because he felt that his health was definitively improving, he didn't say a word.
Honestly, I didn't know much because I just followed what Yves asked me to do, but Yves said that his plan was almost complete. That we didn't have to do any more undercover investigating or gathering blackmail, and that we could just sit still and organize documents.
I could say that the request was going through quite smoothly. I had thought that his plans for revenge would have been greater and more bloodthirsty, but thankfully that didn't seem to be the case.
I thought that the peace would continue like this.
As per usual, Yves and I were talking in the office. We were discussing strange movements from a certain family, how a small magical device start-up had reeled in immense success, and so on.
Knock knock knock. We heard a knock mid-conversation. Knock knock knock. When Yves looked up from his documents, they knocked again. Yves listened to my words with a soft expression then frowned at the knocking sound.
Soon, two male
guild employees entered Yves' office.
"Hello, sir Yvnes."
"We have a message from above."
Whenever Yves had work to do, he went out himself. We had so few people who came here that I could count the visitors with my fingers. But on that day, two people had visited.
Yves' attitude changed as soon as they entered.
The comfortable expressionless look on his face when he was with me was wiped clean with a smile like the one he had when I first saw him. Yves watched them with a slimy smile on his face. Seeing how sly he was gave me the chills.
"Please speak."
Because his original personality was threatening, the smile on his face was just as scary. I stared at his changing expression and aura in awe.
"Our guild leader would like to discuss the contract with the Van Itasha company with you."
"Oh, tell him I'll be there in ten minutes."
Yves smiled brightly and tried to make them leave as fast as possible. Yves prepared to leave with them and soon turned his face towards me and whispered into my ear.
"Until I return, don't leave this room. Keep the door locked."
The look he was giving me was quite serious. I nodded slightly. When the man tried to look towards me, Yves hurriedly moved away from me.
Yves took a step back and smiled at me. When I looked him, Yves met my eyes and smiled.
"Then, respected Shunivalen. I'll take my leave for a moment."
The smile that I had hated in the beginning looked a bit sad now. I felt sad.
"Yes. Please return soon, sir Yvnes."
I stared at Yvnes as he left with the man. I briefly met eyes with the man escorting Yves out. My body stiffened in fear. Murky eyes without a hint of emotion. Those men looked like they were pretty high up in the guild like Yves was. I could see a small crescent moon tattoo on the back of their hand through their clothing. I was sure that they were part of the underworld.
I was proud of how Yvnes had survived in this world from such a young age. I locked the door as soon as they left. Because unlike Yves, I was just a normal civilian.
For a while, I read the books that were in the office bookshelf. Yvnes read a lot of really boring books. I couldn't find a single fun novel. Even I occasionally read books like romance novels at times, but Yves was worse than me.
His actions alone made him seem like a gangster who lived vicariously until then, but he didn't have a single hobby or interest in his life. Thinking about it, even the novel had explained how Hestia was the first interest, first enjoyable thing he had in his life until then. The more I thought about him, the worse I felt for him. Knowing more about his situation now, I felt like I understood him more.
I skimmed through the titles of the books in the bookshelf until one captured my interest.
'The title is 'The Start of a Tragedy'....."
I hoped it was a romance novel.
Seeing all of the dust on the book, it was definitely a book that Yves didn't read often, and that gave it a higher chance of being a romance novel. I puffed out my cheeks and blew off the dust.
[On the day the crescent moon rose, the information trade began where the moon was the biggest, and the wandering knight bought information as to how to gain the dragon's powers. The poor knight promised to give the corpse of the dragon as payment for the information.]
I had just read the first few pages when suddenly, a loud noise burst from the door.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Just as Yves had said, it looked like a few people had come when he wasn't there. One person tried to come in through the window, and another tried to enter through the door. The door was locked so the person banging on the door left, and the person who tried to enter through the window was blasted away with magic.
I rolled around while munching on the snacks that Yves brought over. Today's requests had been finished for a while. I had even organized the extra information I brought in next to it.
Yvnes returned back to the office after a long time had passed.