Episode 2
Yeorae brought her laptop and quickly typed “Duke of Etsina” into the search bar. But nothing relevant came up.
Hmm, so he’s not someone from the past.
Leandros looked at the laptop with curious eyes. He took a sip from the vitamin drink he’d just been holding in his hand for the first time, then pursed his lips and frowned.
“Tell me a bit more. Um, something I can search—names of people or places, preferably.”
“Uh, search? Names of people or places…”
Yeorae turned the laptop so Leandros could see it too.
He blinked like a fool at the brightly lit monitor and the letters on the screen.
“To start, I’m from the Levatein Empire. It’s a country bordered on one side by the sea, with very fertile land. We have four seasons, but summer is much longer than winter. The current emperor ruling our nation is His Majesty Veros, who also happens to be my fifth cousin.”
“Hmm…”
She didn’t really get it. Searching for “Levatein” or “Veros” yielded the same results as before.
Leandros didn’t understand the concept of a search engine, so he just stared blankly at the monitor.
Then suddenly, he turned his head.
Since they were both leaning toward the laptop, their faces were very close together.
Looking into his gem-like, mysterious eyes made Yeorae feel as though she were being pulled in.
“But are you not planning to tell me about yourself? I don’t even know your name yet.”
His breath touched the tip of her nose.
Yeorae slowly leaned her upper body back against the chair.
“My name is Lee Yeorae (李麗崍). It means ‘beautiful mountain.’ And I, too, have the surname of an old dynasty.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Yes. About seven million people have it in this country.”
Leandros’s expression, with his mouth wide open, was a sight to behold.
Yeorae couldn’t help but let out a giggle. Maybe it was because the tension eased, but her stomach suddenly ached with a tingling pain.
The country called Levatein. Emperor Veros. The Duke of Etsina’s family. She tried pulling out and searching a few more pieces of information after that, but there was nothing meaningful.
“So much for the so-called sea of information. It seems the internet can’t tell me where you came from or how.”
“Hmm.”
Leandros tapped the monitor lightly with his fingertip. As if something might come up if he did.
While he continued to curiously touch the keyboard, Yeorae let out a long sigh.
It was already nearing midnight. She had morning classes tomorrow—it was about time to sleep.
Yeorae got up from her seat, dragging her especially tired body.
But the moment she brushed past Leandros’s blue cape, she suddenly faced a huge problem she hadn’t noticed until now.
When Yeorae abruptly stopped next to him, Leandros turned his eyes away from the laptop and asked,
“Why? Do you have more questions?”
…Oh no. How are we supposed to sleep?
It was a tiny one-room apartment, barely ten pyeong in size—there was no spare mattress or anything like that.
After some deliberation, Yeorae brought out as many blankets as she could from the wardrobe and laid them on the floor.
“This isn’t exactly a house that treats guests like royalty.”
She placed a pillow on the blankets at the end.
“I get the bed. You get the floor.”
Leandros looked between Yeorae, who stood in cat-print pajamas, and the pile of blankets on the floor a few times. Then, before getting up, he looked intently at the corner of the laptop screen.
He knows where the clock is. His observational skills were sharp.
He took off his cloak, folded it neatly, and got under the blankets in his uncomfortable outfit, only his face sticking out. Because of his height, his feet stuck out from under the blankets.
“Sorry. But I go to school, and even if a strange man suddenly fell from the sky, I can’t stay up too late. Let’s find out more tomorrow.”
“No, thank you for your consideration.”
Yeorae closed the laptop, passed Leandros, and lay down on her bed. She stared at the white ceiling for a while in that position, then curled up and turned to the side.
“Why?”
Leandros, who had been squinting at the ceiling light, sensed Yeorae’s gaze and asked.
“It’s just… You seem like someone from a noble family, but you’re sleeping on the floor without complaint.”
“I’ve slept on stone floors on the battlefield. I’m not picky about such things.”
That’s right. He said he’d been to war. Twice, even.
Yeorae couldn’t quite grasp the reality that someone who looked this young had been through war.
She thought maybe she should watch a war movie tomorrow and studied Leandros’s face, illuminated under the bright light.
She was trying to find any traces of age she might have missed. But there were no wrinkles to be found.
“Hmm…”
Under her persistent gaze, Leandros cleared his throat and looked away awkwardly. His next words were slightly muffled.
“Do people here usually sleep in such bright places? I guess people in this world can fall into deep sleep even in the light.”
“No. Usually, we turn off all the lights to sleep. But today, because you’re here…”
At that, a puzzled look flashed in Leandros’s mysterious eyes.
Yeorae smiled softly.
“This house is usually off-limits to men.”
“Ah.”
His ears turned slightly red.
I’ve overstepped. Leandros whispered as if trying to crawl into the ground.
Yeorae shook her head to say it was fine, then turned her body to the other side and pulled the blanket over her head.
Maybe when I wake up tomorrow morning, this man will be gone.
Honestly, Yeorae still felt like this was all just a dream.
***
“…Hey!”
Yeorae’s brow furrowed.
Someone was tapping her shoulder.
A familiar song was playing from somewhere far away.
The hand tapping her shoulder grew bolder and began to shake her.
“You have to wake up! Come on!”
A man’s voice? Did I come to some training camp or something…?
Just a little more sleep. Yeorae murmured and curled up.
But just a few seconds later, she jolted awake as if struck by lightning.
‘Right, Leandros.’
Yesterday’s memories flooded in like a torrent, making her head throb.
Still curled up, she turned only her head toward the noise. The unrealistically handsome man was pale, holding a phone.
“Th-this thing doesn’t even have a mouth, and it suddenly started shouting on its own!”
Ah… Yeorae groaned.
“It’s just yelling at the owner to wake up.”
Yeorae groggily got up and swiped the screen with her finger, and the phone immediately went silent.
Leandros let out a shocked gasp.
“Come to think of it, the phone was definitely broken…”
7:00 sharp. The numbers flashed clearly on the screen.
• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •By Esraa• ❁ • ❁ • ❁ •
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