Chapter 34: Miss Adelle’s True Feelings

“Lilith, let me out of here, ahhhhh!!!”

“If Adelle finds out, I won’t even need Alicia to do it. She’ll bury me right on the spot!”

Dounia’s panicked wails made Lilith giggle.

“Be quiet.”

“Remember, you are just an observer,” Lilith said in the tone of a charlatan.

In the bathroom tiled with pristine white, steamy, hot mist spread out.

Dounia wrinkled her nose.
She could smell the moist vapor and even feel the sauna-like temperature of the entire bathroom.

‘If she has senses, how could she possibly be just an observer?’

Water droplets poured down from the showerhead, splashing onto the white tiles with a crisp sound, yet it couldn’t conceal the swirling thoughts deep within the young girl’s heart.

A strange feeling, slightly sour, a little bitter, and mixed with fiery anticipation, rippled through Dounia’s heart.

Just as the surprised Dounia was about to speak, she heard a cold voice ring out in the empty bathroom.

“What’s… wrong with me?”

Adelle stood quietly under the stream of water, her silky, grayish-blue hair already drenched and clinging to her fair skin.
Crystalline water droplets slid down her long neck, past her delicate collarbones, and then flowed down her naturally alluring curves, finally merging into the stream of water at her feet.

Her pure gray eyes held their usual indifference, but with an added touch of confusion.

Adelle tilted her head back slightly, her eyes tightly closed.

Water droplets clung to her fine eyelashes, like dewdrops on blades of grass at dawn.
The hot water streamed down her lovely face, giving it a intoxicating blush.

“Hah… so hot…”

Adelle panted slightly and, as if in retaliation, twisted the X-shaped showerhead off.

The water vapor, like a layer of soft, light gauze, shrouded Adelle’s graceful and alluring figure in a hazy mist.

“Why… won’t this heat subside?”

Adelle said plaintively.

She couldn’t stop recalling the scene in the lecture hall, nor could she stop recalling the sight of Dounia.
Her long fingers slowly moved down from her heart.

“Don’t make me think of you again… get lost…!” Adelle shouted. “There’s no way I could fall for you, another girl!”

She slammed her fist against the adjacent wall, her body trembling slightly from the intense emotion.

“Adelle…”

Dounia, who was almost completely synchronized with all of Adelle’s senses, also felt the burning pain in her fist.
But that tiny bit of burning pain couldn’t stop the sour juice flowing from Adelle’s heart, which felt as if it had been sliced open like a lemon.

An image of the reluctant young girl stuffing black bread into the hands of the hungry guard appeared before Adelle’s eyes.

‘She was too naive, too childish.’

‘Someone like that couldn’t survive in this apocalypse.’

‘This was a conclusion she had proven with her entire childhood.’

“Damn it…” Adelle slammed her fist against the wall again, the knuckles turning slightly red.

Click—

The showerhead was twisted, and Adelle let the scalding torrent rain down on her hair, yet it couldn’t fill the cold emptiness in her heart.

Adelle hugged her arms and slowly slid down the wall, sitting on the mirror-like floor.

Dounia silently covered her eyes with her hands, peeking at Adelle only through the gaps.

“Dounia…”

Adelle’s longing was inescapable; she desperately wanted to rush to Dounia’s bedroom.

‘No, it wasn’t just longing, but also some thoughts she was ashamed to admit.’

‘It was a boundary she had crossed.’

Her lips parted slightly as she softly called Dounia’s name, her voice so quiet it was almost drowned out by the sound of the water.
But Dounia heard it clearly, and her heart stirred.

“Feel like going out to comfort her?” Lilith mocked. “Putting aside whether you can do it, even if you could, she would just run you through, and then borrow your fingers…”

“I wasn’t thinking of comforting her… and what the hell is this about fingers!” Dounia denied.

Adelle’s left hand unconsciously caressed her own feverish cheek, feeling its burning heat.

Her right hand gently supported her left wrist, as if it weren’t her own hand.

“Dounia…”

The call, filled with emotion, made Dounia can’t help but take a step back.

‘What is she trying to do?’

Adelle supported that hand, slowly sliding it down from her collarbone.

Dounia looked at the chalice in her hand.
The pinkish-purple liquid inside seemed to be continuously and slowly accumulating.

Adelle unconsciously writhed her body slightly, as if seeking an invisible embrace, a fiery passion burning in her heart.

“At least… you will never know any of this.”

The indifference in her gray eyes faded somewhat.
A trace of well-protected innocence surfaced, reflecting a faint light.

Her flushed face looked even shier under the cover of the mist.
The longing and anticipation in Adelle’s eyes made Dounia’s heart tremble.

“Mmm…”

Adelle supported her other hand.

“In a little while, I will return it to you a hundredfold.”

Hearing the maid’s slightly teasing tone, Dounia felt the blood rush to her own cheeks, the sting making her red ears hurt a little.

Dounia’s toes curled up together.

‘You bastard, don’t just say things like that to people! What are you fantasizing about!’

Longing fell like a damp rain, moistening the land that yearned for its dew.

Whoosh—

After the sound of wind rushing past her ears, Dounia saw the pinkish-purple liquid in the Chalice of Malice swirling, as if a storm were about to descend.

Her face flushed, Dounia clenched her small fists.

‘She was in a state of high empathy with Miss Adelle!’

“Lilith! You’re messing with me again, aren’t you!”

“Don’t hold it in~” Lilith wagged her little heart-shaped tail. “You are my Apostle, after all.”

“Hold it in my ass! Your whole family should hold it in!”

Her belly full of anger, no, a belly full of bad ideas, Dounia could only retort angrily.

“Aiya, aiya, such foul language,” Lilith mocked. “The little kitty is angry~”

Adelle leaned against the wall, imagining the scene of meeting Dounia again.
Her heartbeat grew more and more rapid, the blush on her face deepened, and the heat that surged up felt as if it would set her entire person on fire.

Pinkish-purple flames ignited the edges of the image as well, slowly rolling up like a scroll.

Feeling the sour love swaying in her heart, Dounia opened her eyes again.

The intoxicating fragrance drew Dounia’s gaze to the Chalice of Malice.
The pinkish-purple liquid in the cup was about halfway full.

A stream of information surfaced in Dounia’s mind.
She understood that this liquid was enough for her to exert some simple influence through the chalice as a medium, or to use the accumulated “malice” to make a wish.

But right now, she had more important things to do.

Dounia bolted into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind her.

“Lilith, I curse you to always find the toilet occupied when you need to go!”