chapter 34
Messi muttered sharply toward Lavian, who was irritatingly ruffling his hair.
There had already been more than a few members of the organization who had suffered at Jenny’s hands.
“Hey, boss, what’s with this kid who looks like a mini version of Merci?”
It was only then that Smokey, who had just noticed the boy who was both Merci and Messi, asked in confusion. But Lavian had already turned away.
“Tch, such a nuisance first thing in the morning…”
Bang!
The smoking room door slammed shut.
Abandoned in an instant, Smokey and Messi stood there for a moment, looking at each other forlornly.
“Wonder if he’s going to wander off again somewhere…”
“Yeah.”
“Anyway, who the heck are you?”
“Can’t you tell by looking?”
Lady Jenny was sitting in the lounge early in the morning, dressed up and perfectly put together.
Though it was early, there were a few hotel guests in the lounge drinking coffee or flipping through tourist brochures.
Thinking there was no need to worry about things getting noisy, Lavian strode right over to Jenny.
“Is it okay for a young lady from a fine family to be hanging around a hotel this early in the morning?”
Jenny only rolled her eyes lightly at his sarcastic jab.
“Oh, you’re alive? You hadn’t been heard from in days, so I thought maybe you’d died somewhere.”
“You told me not to contact you. Don’t you remember?”
“And you actually didn’t? If I didn’t know you, I might have actually believed the rumor that you’ve been busy babysitting.”
Jenny pouted like she was sulking.
Since it was so unlike her usual self, Lavian tilted his head.
“Are you sick?”
“What?”
“You just seem… off today. I don’t know what kind of act this is, but I’m not used to it.”
“I’ll have you know, if you behave like a gentleman, I can be quite the lady.”
“And if you don’t provoke me, I can be quite the gentleman.”
Lavian crossed his arms, one corner of his mouth lifting.
He could see right through her sudden lady-like demeanor, but in his current exhausted state, he didn’t mind it.
If Jenny had come at him like usual, eyes flashing, he probably wouldn’t have been able to take it well.
“Have you eaten breakfast?”
Jenny suddenly asked.
Anyone could see he’d been up all night, so it was obvious why she was bringing up breakfast. Still, Lavian answered obediently.
“No. I’m dead tired.”
“How many nights have you stayed up?”
“I don’t know, don’t even ask. My head’s killing me.”
Come to think of it, ever since Nina had arrived, he’d hardly slept at all.
A worry crossed his mind — at this rate, wouldn’t he age early? Then, a sweet suggestion reached his ears.
“Want to go somewhere quiet with me and have a cup of coffee?”
“Coffee? You? Not alcohol?”
“Are you coming or not?”
“Sure.”
Either way, if he went back to the penthouse now, he wouldn’t get any rest. And he was desperate for a distraction.
As he readily accepted and uncrossed his arms, Jenny’s hand slid into his.
It’s all because of you.
Diana looked exactly the same as the last time Nina had seen her — still beautiful as ever.
The deep pink hair, the elegant sweep of her dress, and those coldly glinting blue eyes whenever she looked at Nina… not a thing had changed.
All because of you. If not for you…
Fourteen-year-old Nina in the dream couldn’t bring herself to ask what that meant.
She couldn’t even shake off Diana’s strong hands gripping her neck.
All she could do was plead helplessly.
M-Mother, please don’t…
I should never have given birth to you! If not for you, His Majesty wouldn’t have acted that way, and that man wouldn’t have ended up like that! You wretched thing — are you trying to devour even my daughter now?!
The next moment, Nina was flung to the floor like a ragdoll.
Tears welled up.
When she lifted her head, still crying, Diana was smiling.
It was a beautiful, yet chilling, smile.
Do you understand? This is all your fault. So you must take responsibility… and make sure your little sister returns safely.
“Haa…!”
Nina woke with a gasp, breath ragged.
For a moment, she was disoriented, unsure where she was.
The unfamiliar ceiling spun above her, and she still felt as though something was wrapped around her neck.
She thought she was awake, but suddenly, she couldn’t tell what was reality and what was a dream. Panic welled up in advance.
Hamelin?
“Ugh… Mister, Mister…!”
Whimpering, Nina soon realized what was around her neck — it was just her own long hair.
“…Ah.”
Good thing she was alone.
Feeling embarrassed, she began untangling her hair and sat up, when—
“What’s wrong?!”
Crash! Bang!
Kiss burst in with incredible force, and Nina froze.
“What? What?! Who was it, huh?! Who tried to go after the baby?! Where are they hiding?!”
Kiss looked even worse than he had the night before — his face a complete mess.
And here he was wildly swinging a kitchen knife (when did he even grab that?), looking like some vengeful spirit.
Any normal six-year-old would have burst into tears already.
Nina didn’t understand why he was acting this way, but she tried to calm him down first.
“M-Mister Kiss, put the knife down! Just put it down!”
“Don’t worry, baby, there’s nothing to be afraid of! They call me Brother Kitchen Knife—”
“You’ll hurt yourself! Put it down, now!”
Only after Nina shouted at the top of her lungs did Kiss finally calm down and lower the knife.
“Ugh, sorry… I’m such a fool…”
When Kiss squatted at her feet, teary-eyed now that his senses had returned, Nina did her best to comfort him.
“It’s fine. You were just trying to help me. I’m sorry for yelling too.”
“B-but… they say showing violence in front of a baby is harmful to their emotional well-being…”
He didn’t realize that his very appearance right now was the harmful part.
Nina gave him a searching look.
A big, suspicious-looking man, his eyes darkened with bruises, sniffling like that — it was oddly pitiful.
Weren’t we the other way around before?
In her dreams, Nina had always been the one crying, while Kiss scrambled to comfort her.
Thinking back, it seemed like Kiss had been reading parenting books every day back then.
His personality’s kind of different now… or maybe this is how he’s always been?
The Kiss in her memory hadn’t felt quite this much like the village fool, so she felt a bit confused — but didn’t show it. Instead, she changed the subject.
“Mister, you’ve got a huge bruise here… and here. Doesn’t it hurt?”
“Huh? Oh, no. For a man, these little scratches are nothing—”
But as he tried to grin manfully, he suddenly clutched his swollen lip with a groan.
“Ughhh!”
“You okay?! I think we should put some medicine on it.”
“I-I’m fine! Real men don’t need medicine.”
“Why not?”
Nina asked in genuine puzzlement.
Rubbing his throbbing lip, Kiss answered proudly,
“Because… that’s the spirit of a real man— Argh!”
“See? You’re making it bleed again! We have to treat it!”
“Nngh… as a man, this much is—”
What was with this obsession with “being a man,” anyway?
Nina had to hold back the urge to smack his back.
“I’ll do it for you. That way, you can still keep your ‘real man’ spirit.”
Only then did Kiss look up at her with a dazed expression.
“The baby knows how to do that…?”
“Of course I do.”
That much she could certainly manage.
Maybe because of the dream, Nina suddenly felt sentimental and smiled meaningfully.
“But… what if the bruise spreads to the baby?”
