Seeds of Doubt

Seeds of Doubt

“I have no idea what nonsense you’ve been spouting. If you’re going to say things that don’t make sense, you might as well bark like a dog.”

A forceful yet Deren-like response.

Faced with such a response, Rumi showed her bewilderment, unsure of what expression to make.

As she hesitated, unable to say anything, Deren spoke to her with a somber face.

“So stop talking and go home.”

With that one word to go home, she could understand the feelings with which Deren had spoken to her.

But now, as she could no longer postpone it, she shook her head.

“… N-No.”

In her heart, she wanted to rush to him as usual to show her affection, to face Deren with a bright smile pretending to know nothing, but.

Deren’s precious people were breaking down one by one just by his presence, so he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

‘Even if it was Senior Espin, seeing Delia suffer too…’

He thought that next could be Sien, whom Deren liked enough to have intimate skinship with, or Deren’s sister… and it could even harm the entire Lercier Family.

As that thought crossed his mind.

He remembered the small puppy he encountered on the street when he was young, following him around.

He couldn’t help but shiver, thinking of how the Heaven God Cult people caught the puppy and its mother and dissected them right before his eyes.

‘If things continue like this, I really don’t know what might happen to Deren or the people around him.’

For his sake, he decided not to stay by his side any longer.

So, he resolved to stop relying on Deren’s kindness.

Looking at the faint red blood on Deren’s footprints, he continued speaking.

“I really hate it… when you treat people like dogs and try to control them as you please.”

He started to ‘create’ reasons why he should dislike him, uttering words he didn’t mean, completely opposite to his true feelings, while biting his lip.

“I hate being forceful… I hate not getting attention… I really hate you giving mixed signals while having a fiancée.”

With each word, tears welled up involuntarily, and his voice gradually became muffled.

Thinking that he was ashamed and embarrassed for not being able to speak properly even in this situation, he hated himself even more as he continued speaking.

“I hate how you don’t care usually… and, and now pretend to care. I really hate how you’re trying to tie me down like this.”

“……”

He wanted to draw a line and say reasons why he really should dislike him.

But he only had memories of receiving, so no matter how hard he tried to squeeze something out, nothing else came to mind.

As this reality became clearer, the thought of leaving for his sake rose along with sadness.

“So please stop now. Please…”

Tears covered her entire face, making it impossible to understand what she was saying.

Through her blurred vision, Deren’s expression told her that everything was truly over, causing her to cry even harder.

Deren stared at her silently for a long time.

Then, after hesitating for a moment, he slowly opened his mouth.

“Let’s do that.”

Unlike usual, the composure in his voice seemed to have faded.

The fact that Deren was also shaken made her heart ache even more, so she just pressed her lips together and rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

“T-then, thank you so much for everything. I’ll send you the money as soon as possible.”

“… It’s not necessary. I gave it out of goodwill in the first place.”

Just as she was about to leave, pulling herself together.

Deren grabbed her wrist and spoke in a subdued voice.

“Still, I’ll give you time to sort things out.”

“… Sort things out?”

“I need time to sort out my feelings as well.”

It was hard to believe that Deren was asking for time to sort out his feelings.

But his hand gripped tightly, seemingly unwilling to let go, so she had no choice but to nod.

‘Then in a few days.’

She was determined to leave and no longer be a burden to Deren.

* * * * *

I sighed inwardly as I watched the crying Rumi.

Although I couldn’t tell if Rumi truly felt that way.

Everything Rumi said was enough reason to dislike me.

‘… Could it be that she really dislikes me?’

Come to think of it, it didn’t make sense for her to like me in the first place.

To like a man who not only kidnapped her forcefully but also tried to rape her…

In my opinion, rather than truly liking me, it would be more reasonable to think she had developed something like Stockholm syndrome, feeling love for her captor.

‘Maybe she’s regained her senses as time passed.’

It would be more realistic to assume that when she faced reality, she realized that the emotions she had felt were false.

As these thoughts crossed my mind, I found it difficult to approach Rumi readily.

‘If she really has come to dislike me. Or if she’s been freed from Stockholm syndrome.’

Even my approach like this might be burdensome for Rumi.

So instead of doing something right away, I left some room while postponing the farewell for a while.

‘It would be better to think about what to do for a while.’

Or at the very least, I decided to deal with all the Heaven God Cult members around.

I bit my lip, resolving to improve Rumi’s safety even a little.

*

For now, I decided to return to the lab to sort out my complicated thoughts.

Luna, who was hiding in my arms, pushed her body towards me as if she didn’t understand, and said.

[Humans are too complicated. If you like someone, you just mate, and if you don’t, you just break up!]

I lightly flicked Luna’s head to signal her to be quiet.

Luna meowed and curled up into a ball.

As I was sighing, thinking it was good that she had quieted down, Luna seemed to remember something and pushed her face towards me again to speak.

[By the way, what’s in that glass bottle?]

At the mention of a glass bottle, I remembered the chunk of flesh from the priest that I had collected earlier.

I took out the glass bottle and spoke to Luna.

“Can you revive this guy and extract information from him?”

Luna nodded as if it was obvious and said to me.

[Then pour out what’s inside onto the ground! If it’s trapped in there, we might not be able to hear its answers clearly!]

I thought that wouldn’t matter since the vocal organs were already destroyed.

But I decided to follow Luna’s instructions and poured it out onto the nearby floor.

[Alright, I’ll begin!]

I nodded at Luna’s words and folded my arms.

After waiting for a moment, Luna suddenly raised both feet and shouted loudly.

[Rise!]

The scene reminded me of a photo I once saw of a magic-using cat.

As I thought about how memories of Earth were slightly resurfacing, I closed my eyes.

Then I heard a voice from in front of me.

[Wh■t h◇ppened?]

It was a somewhat bizarre voice.

I suppose due to its current form, the sound was transmitted strangely.

Hearing this, I used mana to adjust the sound and slowly asked a question.

“Explain everything about the Heaven God Cult.”

He nodded and began listing everything he knew.

*

‘Most of it was information I already knew, so it was largely useless.’

However, I was able to extract one piece of useful information from it.

It was the identity of the person who led this operation.

‘Bishop Firens.’

Given that the Heaven God Cult makes even ordinary believers conceal their identities usually,

All information about someone as high-ranking as a bishop was kept secret.

So no matter how much I squeezed the person in front of me, I couldn’t get any other information, which was somewhat frustrating.

‘Especially when I’m already emotionally shaken because of Rumi.’

It’s stressful to have obtained nothing but a name…

I sighed and looked up at the ceiling.

‘So what should I do now?’

Nothing else comes to mind.

If it were Deren, how would he have handled this situation…

While I was pondering what to do,

I realized that this kind of deliberation itself was fundamentally wrong, so I shook my head to clear it away.

Thinking about it coolly, I wondered if there was any need to follow Deren’s actions anymore.

‘It was originally done to avoid suspicion.’

Now, even if I were to be suspected by others, I’ve gained enough ability to break through on my own, so there’s no need for that anymore.

So I decided to resolve this in my own way, not Deren’s, and opened my eyes.

As I was thinking about that while lightly slapping my cheeks, Luna suddenly spoke to me.

[Master! I brought them!]

Brought who?

With that question, I looked down at Luna with a puzzled expression.

Luna pointed at the laboratory door with a triumphant look and shouted at me.

[The boss cat!]

Boss cat…?

At those words, I remembered the original author of ‘Mating solves everything’ that Luna had mentioned before.

No, not the author of a book, but rather the one who first said it, so it would be more correct to call them the original speaker.

Anyway, I’m just bewildered that the cat who said such a nonsensical thing has arrived.

‘Still, I’m curious, so should I open it?’

Since I don’t have anything else in mind anyway.

Deciding to listen to what they have to say, I opened the door.

I see a black cat with a long scar on one eye entering solemnly.

The cat calmly climbs onto my sofa, looks at me, and says.

“Meow.”

Unable to understand what it’s saying, I look at Luna.

Luna smiled brightly and provided a translation.

[They say they’ll teach you how to seduce everyone!]

At that startling statement, I couldn’t hide my sigh.