episode_0456
by fnovelpia-Thump thump.
“… … .”
-Thump, thump.
“… … .”
Darkness where I can’t see even an inch ahead. The only thing I can hear is the sound of my heart pounding in my chest.
With my heart pounding like it was going to burst, I just prayed that this situation would pass without incident.
-Squeak.
“… Lee, release. I’m here.”
“… … .”
I don’t answer. From now on, it was time to somehow demonstrate my acting skills to the best of my ability.
I got out of bed, pretending to be as clever as possible, using my acting skills from the lead role (temporary) in the play Leon and Julia at the Academy Awards.
“Ha, hmm… . Ah, d, are you back, Master Ethan… ?”
“… … release?”
“Haaum, sorry, sorry. I fell asleep for a bit.”
I slowly got up from my bed as if I had been sleeping until just a moment ago.
It was an inevitable choice to naturally overcome this situation. If I hadn’t done this in the first place, I wouldn’t have been able to explain the situation where Isabel was sleeping on the bed.
“I’m sorry. My head is a bit complicated, so I’ll just close my eyes for a moment… .”
“Ah, it’s okay. If you had just stayed quiet, that would have been fine.”
“I think Isabel fell asleep with me. I remember lying down with her, saying that she had to stay with me until the moment I fell asleep… .”
“Because I asked you to do it. You look a little tired because of what I told you to do, so you can sleep a little longer.”
As I was talking to Ethan, pretending to just wake up from bed, I noticed a few paper bags in his hands.
“By the way, what do you have in your hand, Master Ethan?”
“Ah, this. I bought some at a street vendor on the way back. It was the last day, so many booths were open late. They must have leftover food to deal with.”
“Is that so?”
“Let’s have a release together. Let’s sit at the table and have a glass of wine together… .”
-Bam.
“… … !!!”
Ethan put the paper bags he was holding on the table with those words.
His sudden action caused my body to reflexively jump up on the bed.
-Quick!
“Release?!”
“I, I will prepare it, Master Ethan.”
“Yeah, yeah. If you want to release it.”
Ethan moved the paper bag he had placed on the table to the exact center of the table, and he adjusted the position of the table top, which was almost tilted, by holding it with his hand.
‘I almost failed.’
There was nothing I could do about not being able to secure the table top. Because the door opened at the last possible moment, I wasn’t able to assemble the table top and the table legs.
Fortunately, unlike the floor screws that are visible if you look down, this part cannot be seen unless you put your head under the table. It was fortunate that I decided to fix the floor screws first.
The remaining screws that I couldn’t repair are all in my pockets now. I had no choice but to repair them later when I was alone, depending on the situation.
“Release.”
“… Yes, Master Ethan.”
“Come here for a moment.”
“… … Yes.”
… Did you get caught by any chance?
The moment I cautiously nodded my head at Ethan’s voice calling me and approached him, I felt the tightness in my neck being released.
-Clang.
“… I’m sorry for confining you like this. My head was a bit complicated earlier, so I couldn’t think of anything else. ”
“… Oh, it’s okay, Master Ethan. I don’t think he could help it since I didn’t listen to Master Ethan at the time.”
“Thank you for understanding, Lilith.”
“Seeing that you have released my restraints like this, it seems that Princess Mezlen’s matter has been resolved well.”
“Yes. As Lilith said, there were three more vampires that tried to kidnap Princess Mezlen. Fortunately, with the help of the warrior party and my father, we were able to take care of them all, and we also saved the princess’s escort maid.”
“Are you talking about Miss Kate? I have also met her a few times at Princess Mezlen’s side.”
As I continued to talk, pretending to be hearing information I already knew with my own two eyes as if it were the first time, this time I felt someone slowly getting up from the side of the bed.
“Haaah, uh… . Huh, huh?!”
As soon as she woke up, Isabel looked around hastily with a bewildered expression.
Since it was the second sleep spell, I watched her wake up relatively quickly and responded as if nothing had happened.
“Are you awake, Isabel?”
“Huh, huh?! Release… ? Huh, huh… ? Why am I, why am I sleeping here… ?”
“I said I was a little tired, so we decided to sleep together. Don’t you remember?”
“I don’t remember at all… . Dude, I’m sure we decided to go into the bathroom together… .”
“Really? Were you dreaming?”
“A dream…? Was it a dream…? I don’t think it was… .”
Isabel cautiously observes the vague boundary between reality and dreams.
Then, noticing that the restraints around my neck were gone, I cautiously asked Ethan a question.
“Your Majesty, the leash of release is… .”
“I let you go. I let you go as soon as I got back because the work was done faster than I thought.”
“Oh, I see… . Oh, did the release go out while I was sleeping… .”
“You can rest assured. When I arrived, all I saw was Lilith sleeping on the bed, her body pressed against mine. In the first place, she wouldn’t have been able to escape even without your supervision, with these restraints on.”
“Table….”
“Hmm? Oh, you mean these? Since it’s the last day, I bought these at a street vendor booth. Would you like some too?”
“… … .”
Isabel remembered that I had disassembled the table and looked at it for a moment, but I had already finished putting the screws back into their original positions on the bottom of the dormitory table.
If you think that this whole thing up until the point where I tried to unscrew and escape was a dream, it would be perfect. If that were the case, it would be the completion of a perfect crime that no one would find out about.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I forgot the mission You gave me and fell asleep for a moment.”
“That’s okay. It’s not like Lilith came out while you were sleeping, and you could say that you tied him up because you slept with him.”
“But, but… .”
“It’s okay, so you come over here too. It’s also the last day of the festival, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to console yourself for all your hard work.”
“Yes… .”
Isabelle quietly walked to one side of the round table, looking slightly dispirited at having fallen asleep while leaving me behind.
The moment her hand touched one end of the table, my hand was placed exactly on the opposite end.
-Kuuuk!
“… Phew.”
-dump.
‘phew.’
Isabel sat down, slightly putting her weight on the table. Fortunately, her weight was not that heavy, so she was able to support herself with one hand.
…a dangerous table that could collapse at any moment if even the slightest force is applied to its tip.
The thrilling after-party, in which we couldn’t let down our guard even a little, continued until dawn.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
When I first came to my senses, the first thing I felt was the hard feeling of the floor.
When I woke up in a dazed state, my eyes were filled with nothing but pitch-black darkness, so I somehow managed to get up by feeling around.
‘What the…? I’m sure I went to the after-party with Ethan and Isabelle last night… .’
Did you lose your memory because you drank too much? I think you only had three or four glasses of wine at most.
What was more suspicious was that I woke up on the floor, not on the bed. No matter how drunk I was, there was absolutely no reason for me to sleep on the floor when there was a bed right next to me.
… Even if I had really fallen asleep on the floor alone, Ethan would have carried me up onto the bed.
‘Could it be that Ethan is also like that…? I don’t think he can hold his liquor that well…’
I don’t know. I don’t know why, but my thoughts are not organized well. It feels like I’m floating in a dream.
As I was feeling around to turn on the magic light switch, I got up and felt something touch my hand.
-Bam.
“Huh?”
-Degururur… .
The sound of something made of metal rolling slightly when touched.
I picked it up with my hand because I was curious about what it was, and it felt like a round iron bowl.
‘Did you fall off the table while you were partying yesterday?’
… I’m not sure. I don’t think we used anything like iron utensils at the after-party yesterday.
Most of the festival food Ethan brought was in paper bags or paper trays.
I remember transferring the contents of the envelope to a porcelain plate, but I don’t remember using a metal bowl like this.
In the first place, I’ve hardly ever seen a bowl like this that has no pattern on it. A pot with a handle that fell off would probably look like this, and if it wasn’t thrown away, it would probably be used as a dog bowl or something.
‘Dog food bowl…?’
…I wonder if I’m just imagining something strange.
It was only when I began to think that the bowl I was holding might be a dog food bowl that I became aware of the awkward feeling in my throat.
-Charruk.
“… … Huh?”
The chain of submission that Ethan put on me yesterday.
It was at that moment that I realized that the cold metal collar was around my neck again.
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