episode_0041

— Squeak!

— Hey you crazy bitch! Look straight ahead!

Downtown East Tan.

A red-haired girl runs across the street.

She ran, not caring about the commotion around her.

Crunch!

My expensive shoes were covered in mud and black stains stained my dress, but I didn’t care.

‘I can meet you, I can finally meet you.’

A note held tightly in hand.

Because Lee Han’s address was written here.

Claire’s lips, which had been like a withering flower, bloomed.

Even the blurry eyes sparkle with hope.

That’s how she arrived at the Institute of Social Sciences.

In front of the lab’s door.

“Haa, haa.”

Place your hands on your knees and take a few deep breaths.

Thump thump thump.

A fast-beating heart.

Just coming near her made her nervous and excited.

But at the same time, the mana in the body calms down.

‘The doctor was right.’

As he said, it was Lee Han who calmed his mana. In other words, it was also said that Lee Han was here.

Lee Han. Where Lee Han is.

Looking back, his side was always a place of refuge.

Even though it was you who kicked that resting place away…

‘……..’

Claire shook off the bad thoughts and put her hand on the door.

Dok-dok, knock, knock.

A slightly trembling knock.

But at the same time, I was confident.

Lee Han is confident that Claire will not treat him coldly.

The confidence that I would somehow be able to strike up a conversation with him.

Then I am confident that I can clear up the misunderstanding.

Such baseless confidences floated through Claire’s head.

Until there was no response from inside.

– ……

Quiet surroundings.

“Uh… Uh.”

Didn’t you hear the knock?

Claire knocked again, a little harder.

– Knock. Knock. Knock.

Yeah, you probably didn’t hear it.

If there is a real Lee Han inside, there is no way he would do it without knowing me.

For whatever reason.

Claire swallowed dryly and thought about that.

But still no response.

Originally, things called proximity did not last long.

When there was no response from inside, Claire’s face slowly began to show signs of anxiety.

— Knock! Knock! Knock! Knock!

The knocking begins to get louder.

I look down at the note again, wondering if I’ve come to the wrong place. Social Science Research Institute. This is the right place.

Above all, isn’t your mana calm?

Clearly, Lee Han is inside.

Claire’s lips tremble.

Boom, bang, bang.

Before I knew it, the hand that was knocking on the door had changed from a knock to a punch.

“Hey, are you there?! Hey, over there! ”

Claire started screaming.

Passersby turned around and looked at me, but I didn’t care.

The unfounded confidence disappears, and the questions that were buried deep in my heart and buried in pain continue to surface.

‘It’s obvious that you hate me.’

Because he didn’t do anything to stop the child from dying. Lee Han isn’t stupid. Of course he would know that.

Claire’s touch gradually weakens.

Knock, knock.

She put her hand to the door as if to scratch.

‘Should we go back like this?’

The instinct to avoid arises in my mind.

Let’s go back. Let’s focus on the top.

Surely there must be a way…

“……..”

The gazes of the employees that come to mind.

People who looked at him like he was crazy. The butler who was threatened with murder and turned into a pile of ashes.

“Wow.”

Claire retched without realizing it.

There was no place to return to.

There was nowhere to lean on.

That’s why I came to see Lee Han.

embrace.

The fact that he would hate himself.

embrace.

How much of a bad thing he had done to him.

I just hid it deep in my heart. Because I couldn’t possibly forgive my own evil deeds. Because I felt like I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself even if I regretted my stupid, idiotic, disgusting choices.

Still.

Claire stood here.

Because there is nowhere else to go.

Because if it weren’t for Lee Han, there would be no one who could save him.

I’m standing here like this, knowing that I’m disgusting.

Let’s admit it, Claire could see.

Something has to be given.

In order to meet Lee Han, you have to give up something of yourself.

Whatever it was, Claire was desperate.

” I came because I had a request! ”

– Squeak.

Only then did the door open.

◆

The entrance to the research lab.

– Knock. Knock. Knock.

A knocking sound is heard from outside.

Lloyd sat there with his arms crossed, lost in thought.

Even without opening the door, I felt like I knew who was standing outside.

A familiar knocking sound.

Red hair glimpsed through the slightly open crack of the door.

Claire Harold.

Standing in front of the door, Lloyd listened quietly to the knock for a while.

I think back to the plan I had made to take over East Tan.

1. Stop one of the conspiracies being carried out by the real powers of Eastan.

2. Wait for a rift between the real power and the backline.

3. Embrace one of the two that comes your way, attack the rest, and then devour them both.

The real power in East Tan would be Chilsaldae.

And I thought the back was one of the top ones.

I just wasn’t sure that was Claire’s Harold top.

furthermore.

‘I didn’t know Claire would come in person.’

Boom, bang bang, bang bang bang bang!

The knocking sound becomes increasingly louder.

Nevertheless, Lloyd stood still and thought.

There is no hitch in the plan.

Now that the real power and the backline have been separated, all that remains is to attack the Chilsaldae.

Besides, Claire is the leader at the top.

Having her is a huge boon to Lloyd’s plans.

only.

— The opportunity has finally come, Lloyd. Do you hear that? That desperate knock. She’s whispering.

The problem was Lloyd himself.

To be precise, it was the seed of disaster that had taken root deep in my heart.

— Revenge. You are standing outside that door, desperately wanting her to strangle you. What are you going to do? Are you going to let this go? No. Revenge is sweet. I know it because I have done it many times.

Can you afford it?

Can you calm your desire for revenge by looking at Claire?

Can we avoid handing over control to Ortega?

— Open the door. Feel the vengeance boiling inside you. You can’t just sit back and watch the woman who cut off your throat!

Crack.

Lloyd bit his lower lip.

I wonder if it’ll work.

I have already erased my past colleagues from my mind.

They were not human to Lloyd now.

They are just like long-term horses or mannequins.

plural.

I realized that even revenge was too much for them.

If you make up your mind like that, you can suppress your feelings.

— You’d better not run away from your feelings. They will burst someday. That’s when you hand your body over to me…

Click.

Lloyd took out the bottle of pills and popped two tranquilizers into his mouth.

Crunch, crunch.

Ortega’s voice fades into the distance, accompanied by an unpleasant texture like chewing powder.

The sound outside the door gradually became sorrowful.

– I have a request. Please… Please accept my request. I made a mistake. So. Just this once. Anything… I’ll give you anything. Just this once. Request…

Squeak.

Lloyd opened the door without saying anything.

Some pedestrians looking this way.

I had to look down to find the owner of the voice.

“Just once. Money… lots of money…huh?”

The floor is not clean because I forgot to clean it.

There Claire was lying face down.

A face that has become a mess.

A soiled dress.

In that state, Claire looked up at me and opened her mouth like a goldfish.

“Are you a guest?”

“Ah… uh… that… that…”

Are you to the point where you can’t answer even one thing like this?

Claire’s condition did not seem normal.

“If not, I’ll close the door. I wish you’d stop making a fuss. There are a lot of eyes watching.”

Lloyd pointed coldly down the street.

Pedestrians are watching this side to see if something has happened.

If it had been in the past, I would have felt sympathy, but Lloyd’s voice was extremely cold.

Claire’s shoulders trembled.

“Ah. That, that. I came here to make a request. Is there any… .this…”

“Are you here to make a request? Or is there someone you are looking for?”

“That… That…!”

Claire’s eyes trembled violently.

She had no idea who Lloyd was possessing. Was this boy standing before her really Lee Han? Such questions constantly confused Claire.

The speech was similar to Lee Han’s.

But his attitude towards Claire and his voice were different from Lee Han’s. An infinitely cold voice.

“‘s. To make a request…”

Did Claire not have the confidence to ask you if you were Lee Han?

“Come in.”

Lloyd greeted her coldly.

Kwang.

The gazes of pedestrians are also distracted by the roughly closing door.

Lloyd led her into a room with a counter.

Julia and the village chief, who had been blankly staring at this, notice something and go outside.

“Sit here.”

“Yes…yes.’

Claire sits down with a half-dazed look in her eyes.

Lloyd brought out the tea.

I glance at Claire.

She had been wiggling her fingers with her head down, but then she clenched her fist as if she had made a pledge to do something.

He raises his head and our eyes meet, then looks away for a moment before raising his head again along with a voice.

“Over there…Over there!”

Whatever she felt, it didn’t reach Lloyd. Even if Claire realized that she was a stranger, it wouldn’t make a difference.

So Lloyd placed the teacup on the table without waiting for her to speak.

“Drink some tea.’

“Ah… Yes. Yes. Thank you.’

Claire brings the teacup to her lips.

And after a while.

Knock knock knock.

Tears flowed into her teacup.

“Wow… As expected, you’re Lee Han.”