Chapter 21: Fake Cinderella (1).

As I lay down on the bed, fatigue washed over me all at once.

Even though the sun had already set and the moon had risen, Aisha seemed to have a lot of work left, so she left, telling me to rest, and went somewhere.

Did her personality change a bit while I wasn’t looking?

The Aisha I remembered was always polite and serious.

I didn’t know she would become someone who would play those kinds of pranks.

Well, it wasn’t a bad thing that she had that much leeway.

‘Aisha has a lot of work to do… I’m just idle…’

I don’t have anyone to talk to. There’s nothing like an assignment.

It was literally a child’s day. After the sun went down, all I had to do was blink and irresponsibly fall asleep.

I lived almost the same way in the Irendel family where I stayed for a while, but this was the Solenas family mansion, not somewhere else.

Home. The place that is most familiar to me.

But the Solenas mansion was a little different from the comfortable and peaceful feeling that the word ‘my house’ usually gives.

I only remember always learning and training something busily here, so it was a strange feeling to be able to be so idle now.

‘Ilesha said she was coming.’

She was a reliable person, and frankly, I missed her a bit.

I felt like if I revealed who I was to Ilesha, she would believe me willingly.

She would understand the contents of that letter too.

But revealing my identity to Ilesha meant revealing it to Yukomis too.

It would have been less awkward to reveal it at the moment we first met.

‘Can I hide it like this forever…?’

It was no use thinking about it now.

As a result, I was living in the Dukedom again, and while I was here, receiving that cold look from Yukomis that I had received throughout my past life again…

It was still hard to bear.

I failed because of deep-rooted misunderstandings in my past life, but this time I wanted to maintain a smooth relationship with her.

‘By hiding my identity? Isn’t that just running away?’

My head hurt. It was a topic that I had to think about seriously.

‘If Yukomis slowly opens her heart to me now, I can tell her slowly at that time, or…’

That thought sounded pretty plausible. After all, I was the one who saved her life.

Maybe this time we could get along better.

‘By the way, I’m bored. If there’s anything to read…’

This annex was a building that wasn’t used much even when I was there.

It was chosen now to hide me from Ilesha’s eyes, so it was in the most remote part of the mansion. It was usually used temporarily when there was a big event in the Dukedom and a lot of guests came.

If I called out loudly, Aisha would come, but

I had made her work late because I was acting like a real child and complaining about the bath.

I didn’t want to bother her any more by asking her to bring me a book.

Speaking of books, I still had quite a few unread books in my room.

And I was a little curious about what it would look like.

‘Is my room still there?’

After thinking about it for a while, I soon made up my mind.

I couldn’t resist the unusual curiosity of ‘wanting to see my room after I died’.

I’ll just go for a moment. It’s okay if no one finds out.

It was dark, Aisha seemed busy……

I’ll check if my room is still there and bring one or two books.

Wearing shoes, I opened the window and went outside the annex.

It was the first floor, but the window frame was a little high for a child, and my ankle that had been injured when I jumped down throbbed a little, but it wasn’t enough to worry about.

Because it was the house where I, no one else, lived, I knew the security system of the mansion like the back of my hand.

As with any other mansion, security was concentrated on the entrance and fence outside the garden, and only a few selected duty knights were patrolling the residential area of the main building.

Even that would probably be focused on guarding around Yukomis’s bedroom now.

After all, this was a mansion, not a military facility. Even this was enough to be called a thorough security system.

And there was no reason to change this system, so it would still be the same.

‘It’s not like I’m risking my life to sneak in like in the old days, and if I get caught, I’ll just get scolded a little…’

There were a lot of trimmed bushes and trees between the annex and the path to the main building.

As I hid my small body and reached the right end of the main building, there was a tree with a stem that was just right to climb next to the outer wall.

“Oochacha…”

It was very easy to climb a tree with a light child’s body.

The 3rd floor was quite high, but the courage that had ridden Wyverns wouldn’t be afraid of just that.

As I crossed to the branch that stretched towards the building wall from that height…

There was my room window right there.

Rattle. Rattle rattle rattle.

Of course, the window was locked, but my room was originally a pretty secluded and old room.

‘Just twisting the window frame a little from the outside…’

The loose locking hook just popped open.

‘Got it.’

I opened the window and went inside, and there was indeed my room. Thanks to the moonlight that was very bright today, I could see the scenery inside very well. The chair was placed arbitrarily, the book was open, and there was dust…

It was clear that no one had touched it since I last left there.

Everything was the same. It was definitely the room where I lived, where I used to stay.

I slowly got down from the window frame and walked towards the desk.

There was a familiar notebook on it.

When I fluttered it, there was a detailed description of the mixing ratio of tea leaves and the process of brewing them in my own handwriting.

‘This is… right. I wanted to drink coffee…’

It was a trace of countless trials and errors because I missed coffee and wondered if I could make a coffee substitute.

Most of the favorite items I enjoyed could find substitutes in this world.

But I couldn’t find anything similar to coffee beans until the last moment.

‘I miss drip coffee.’

I used to mutter that I wanted to drink even an iced Americano with three shots, but of course no one could understand what I was saying.

All I could find was ‘iced’ out of ‘3 shots, ice, Americano’.

‘Coffee…’

I had only skimmed through one notebook, but already an indescribable nostalgia covered my body.

I closed the notebook and went to the bookshelf and took out a book at random, and there was a detailed description of how to make a carriage body.

After saying goodbye to the car that I really liked forever,

It was a trace of studying in my spare time because I wanted to hold some kind of cool carriage race.

‘It must have been really hard for others to understand. No. I can see a Wyvern race, so what’s the point of a carriage race that’s going to freeze to death…’

The bookshelf was filled with books related to all kinds of miscellaneous knowledge without any consistency in the topic.

The instruments here that I studied because I missed the sound of electric guitars and pianos.

Books related to metallurgy that I skimmed through to ‘make guns’, which everyone should do when they come to another world.

As I traced the traces backwards, there were full of my childish 모습들이 가득했다 in the early days of the first possession.

Of course, the vast majority of these attempts didn’t work out.

No matter how much background knowledge I knew to some extent,

There was no way I, who had fallen into this world without any preparation, had the ‘systematic and vast knowledge’ to recreate guns from scratch,

And at the point where a little breakthrough was visible, I didn’t have the time or the time to cling to this because I was already struggling with the problem of the world soon to be destroyed.

Yukomis would have remembered all the books on engineering she had read, but I wasn’t that smart.

‘The most successful result of these is the high-end inn project of the ‘Three Lanterns Merchant Guild’…’

It was something to laugh about.

This room was full of such traces.

The struggles to find romance in a world that was suddenly thrown.

A world without a cup of coffee, the internet, or electronic music.

The shining power of magic was not mine from the beginning, and the second death was too close than I thought.

It was a vague feeling. Somehow, if I looked outside now,

There would still be familiar and uninteresting things like high-rise office buildings, convenience stores, roads, telephone poles, scrap cars, and passers-by wearing baseball caps and lowering their eyes.

But none of them… were here.

Outside the window, there was only cold moonlight and trees.

Those sceneries would now live only in my memory forever.

“……I’ve been here too long.”

I muttered to myself and shook off the miscellaneous thoughts.

These sentimental thoughts weren’t helpful at all.

No matter how much I tried, it would only fuel the depression without an exit. I knew that very well from experience.

I had to get out of here soon.

If I stayed here for too long, Aisha might notice that I was gone.

I picked up a book at random and stood in front of the window frame, and finally looked at the bed where I used to sleep.

There were two swords that could be hung on the weapon rack at the head of the bed, but it was empty now.

‘Where are my swords now…?

But more than that, I was strangely drawn to the fact that one side of the bed blanket was a little disheveled.

Like someone had recently swept it away, there was no dust on that corner that was lightly spread throughout the room.

‘Something’s wrong? Has someone been here before after all?’

It was then.

Squeak…

At the entrance of the room, I heard the sound of the doorknob slowly moving.

It was the worst. The evening with Yukomis had ended in the worst form.

It wasn’t Yukomis’s problem.

It was his problem.

The dinner that I had gone to with a face that had forcibly erased the tears and a heart full of guilt was not enjoyable at all.

How’s your body? Or something like that.

I’ll finish the Kiffol work. Or something like that.

Please think about the resignation a little more. Or something like that.

After saying the words that I had to say first, nothing came to mind in my head already.

A dinner filled only with silence and discomfort.

Moreover, Yukomis wasn’t the type of person to lead such a platonic chat.

Okay.

Alright.

I don’t want to.

Only the two of them were in that room, and Yukomis hardly even made eye contact with her.

It was the worst. Everything’s the worst.

Maybe I shouldn’t have come to visit her.

‘Yukomis. You’re not the same as before. I saw the report. Why did you act so recklessly in Kiffol?’

‘I’m sorry for forcing you to take on the position of Great Magician. But please believe me on this. I’m still worried about you.’

‘Then accept my resignation.’

‘I can’t… do that.’

‘Then that’s the end of the story.’

‘What are you going to do if you quit that?’

‘School operation.’

‘Is that all? Are you going to live in seclusion there for the rest of your life?’

‘Can’t I?’

‘There are other ways. Increase your attendants or escorts, or with me…’

Yukomis was still firmly closed to her.

I should have really asked about her well-being and came out after that.

If not, I should have just talked about work lightly as usual.

‘I’m really worried about you……! Yukomis!’

‘Worried.’

Yukomis said while maintaining a blank expression.

‘That’s a good word. There was someone who should have worried before me.’

That was a signal. A signal not to dig into her private area any more.

If it was usual, she would have stopped there too.

But for some reason, she couldn’t do that only today.

I wanted someone, anyone, to understand me, so I was ahead of myself…

‘Yukomis… you know. It’s not like I wanted to do that…’

‘Ilesha.’

Yukomis’s tableware had stopped moving on the plate a long time ago.

And her voice was as coldly 식어있다 as the food that was placed there.

‘Just tell me whether you’re going to accept my resignation or not.’

‘I don’t want to hear any more of those stories from you.’

…I was overwhelmed with emotion.

I stopped my mouth there and came out of the restaurant.

Yukomis didn’t hold on to her, and didn’t even move from her seat.

Why couldn’t anyone understand me?

I had a reason why I had to do that.

There was a reason why I had to.

It’s not like Yukomis is the only one living with burdens.

I’m also someone who can be tired, hurt, and distressed.

After pushing away the escorts outside the restaurant, I wandered around the mansion without a destination for a long time.

When I came to my senses, my footsteps had stopped again in front of ‘that room’.

“…Why is it?”

I chuckled while smiling, but I knew the reason all too well.

The only person who could understand her.

She had come to the room of the person she missed so much.

Without her knowing, her hand stroked the doorknob.

“It’s not okay. It’s not okay.”

She scolded herself with a whisper. She had already dirtied this room.

She had tried to commit lewd and obscene acts without knowing shame in her sacred room that should have been like a temple.

It had only been a while ago. I shouldn’t go in here. I’m not qualified to.

Unlike her heart, her wrist moved downwards at will.

She wanted to see something that would be comforting, anything that would be comforting.

Click. Squeak…

As the doorknob moved, I felt a strange feeling somehow.

‘Ah・・・ Wind?’

…The window was open.

The curtains were fluttering.

Someone was inside.

A girl with black hair flying in the night breeze. A girl sitting on the open window frame.

The pure white hem of her dress, with the dazzling moonlight behind her…

Was fluttering with a beautiful silver light.

An atmosphere that seemed to transcend everything in this world.

A sight like the goddess of the moon had come out of the story.

Because of the backlight, I couldn’t see the girl’s face well.

But somehow I could tell that it was endlessly lonely and faint.

And above all… What is it? This feeling.

A girl I was seeing for the first time, but this feeling was like meeting someone I missed so much.

A moment passed with Ilesha left Bewitched,

Between the boundary of darkness and light, the girl’s mouth slowly moved.

“…It’s been a while…?”