Quietly Hiding that I am a Man chapter 86- Fake Guppy

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We left the academy’s main building and headed toward Luna’s guildhouse.

As we walked, Cedrick noticed I kept looking around and asked curiously, “What are you so wary of?”

“There’s someone I’d really prefer not to run into…”

Memories flashed through my mind like a film reel.

Ever since that incident in the carriage with Jerome, I had been avoiding him.

Though it wasn’t entirely because of that…

After our conversation at the Asylum, my feelings for Jerome had changed subtly, and I was painfully aware of it.

Before, I had thought of him as someone I’d never want to deal with, like a madman you’d see on the subway.

But now?

It was more like…

It felt like watching an overachieving office worker who takes English classes after work, goes to the gym, and even films a vlog afterward.

The madness was still there, but now it seemed… impressive in a strange way.

‘And this is a bit sad, but… since people like me don’t get many heart-racing experiences, it’s hard not to notice someone after something like that happens.’

Of course, I couldn’t avoid him forever, so I decided to stay away until I sorted out my feelings.

I had a mission to destroy Mephisto, and I couldn’t afford to get distracted.

Passing the northern spire, I pointed toward Luna’s log cabin in the distance.

Smoke was rising from the chimney, probably from the rabbit twins who had just lit a fire.

“That’s it. It has a certain charm, don’t you think?”

Cedrick’s face stiffened when he saw the shabby log cabin.

“… It certainly has an air of crisis.”

“Even though it looks like that, the land is actually quite valuable. It’s grade-one soil, perfect for growing high-quality herbs. You can even breed new species here. The possibilities are endless.”

Listening to my explanation, Cedrick walked ahead, extending his hand.

Was he asking me to take it? I reached out, but he slapped my hand away with a sharp “smack.”

Cedrick frowned.

“What are you doing? Give me the key to the guildhouse.”

“Oh, right. Be careful not to lose it—it’s a special key that takes weeks to craft.”

“Only you would be dumb enough to do that.”

Suppressing my irritation, I fumbled in my pocket for the key and handed it to him.

It was a special key designed to only allow guild members inside.

After the Pluto Guild caused a commotion, I had it custom-made at a magic workshop.

“What’s that over there?”

Cedrick pointed to the storage shed next to the vegetable patch.

Despite being reluctant to join, he seemed curious now that we were here.

I couldn’t help feeling excited.

Laughing, I approached the shed and grabbed the handle.

“This is where we store farming tools. Since it stays cool, we also use it to dry sweet potatoes. Want to try some?”

“…You dry what?”

“Sweet potatoes! I’ve gotten pretty good at drying them. They turn out nice and moist…”

As soon as I opened the door, I locked eyes with Ber, who was cleaning tools inside.

He had been plowing the vegetable patch so much that shadows were cast all the way to his knees.

Upon seeing Cedrick, Ber began trembling.

His voice quivering with emotion, he yelled, “M-Master, you must leave this place at once! This land is cursed! Run now, if you don’t want to become a slave!”

Bang!

I quickly shut the door and locked it from the outside.

Cedrick gave me a look as if to say, “Why is the lock on the outside?”

Ignoring it, I turned around.

“Well, we’ve seen the garden. Now let me show you the guildhouse.”

“Don’t just brush past that. What was that all about?”

“Oh, don’t mind him. He’s like the guild’s mascot.”

“More like the creepy old man you meet at the start of a horror novel.”

Cedrick turned back with an uneasy expression.

When we reached the guildhouse, the rabbit twins, lying on the floor doing homework, turned to look at us.

‘Hmm, good. With this scholarly atmosphere, Cedrick might just be impressed.’

The sudden appearance of a new figure brightened the expressions of the rabbit brothers, who quickly sprang to their feet.

“Hello!”

“Could it be, a new guild member?”

Cedrick, who had been staring at the rabbit brothers without expression, shifted his gaze to their unfinished homework.

Picking it up from the floor, Cedrick grimaced and said, “How could you get such basic problems wrong? Are you even paying attention in class? Don’t just write the answers—show the full solution. You must not even know that proof is the foundation of math, idiots.”

At Cedrick’s sharp criticism, the rabbit brothers’ smiles quickly disappeared.

It made sense why the Duke of Carlotte took Cedrick to every imperial financial meeting.

There was probably no one else in the empire who could make others so uncomfortable without batting an eye like Cedrick.

“Is this your guild ledger?”

“Huh? Uh… yeah.”

Cedrick pulled the guild ledger from the shelf and slowly examined its contents.

With each page he turned, his expression grew darker.

He read it with a serious face and said, “Unless a monkey’s managing this, there’s no way anyone would waste money this recklessly. Unless your heads are just for decoration, you wouldn’t keep such an awful ledger. This is the worst—it makes me feel sick.”

Cedrick flung the guild ledger into the air, and the rabbit brothers barely caught it in time.

Still with his hands clasped behind his back, Cedrick walked over to the window, wiped the windowsill with a finger, and revealed the thick dust clinging to it.

“And what’s with this terrible state of cleanliness? A rat could strut right across your dining table.”

At this point, Cedrick felt less like a strict guild administrator and more like a mother who’d come to visit her child’s messy apartment.

Watching him nitpick at everything made an odd frustration swell up inside, so I couldn’t help but shout.

“Rat? Watch your words! That’s not just any rat—that’s my pet mouse, Ratatouille!”

“Shut up!”

Cedrick cut me off immediately and grabbed a rag that had been thrown into the corner.

With a fierce expression, he ordered the stunned rabbit brothers, who were still recovering from his relentless barrage, “We need to clean this dump first. Hey, you two! Stop standing around like idiots and go wash the rag right now!”

The rabbit brothers scrambled to do as they were told, washing the rag in a hurry.

Cedrick, holding a handkerchief over his mouth as he opened the window, muttered irritably, “Disgusting… The molding, the interior, none of it suits my taste. There isn’t even a proper space for tea time. We’ll have to rip it all out and start over.”

While it seemed like we had recruited a capable administrator, the problem was that he was way too picky.

I started to quietly back away, sensing that I might be the next target of his wrath.

‘Better make a run for it!’

I didn’t want to end up cleaning all day, after all.

✽ ✽ ✽

After leaving the rabbit brothers behind and sneaking out, I figured I might as well stop by the academy library to borrow a book.

Just like a drunkard finds solace in a bar or a sparrow in a mill, as a fantasy novel addict, my refuge was the academy library.

My heart raced as I entered and took in my surroundings, which were filled with interesting books as far as the eye could see.

‘Ah, Mephisto and all that nonsense… How wonderful would it be if I could just sit here all day and read? Maybe when I retire as a noblewoman, I’ll open a small library in Sacré.’

As I scanned the area with bright eyes, I suddenly ducked down.

Damn it! Just like it rains on the day you wash your car or you end up at a restaurant where you have to take off your shoes when you’re wearing socks with holes in them!

‘What on earth is Jerome doing here?’

Not far away, I saw Jerome, engaged in conversation with an elderly man whose hair was streaked with gray.

As soon as I recognized the old man, my jaw dropped.

He was none other than Duke Carmen, the legendary sword of steel, who had once commanded the empire’s knights and was the only person Carlisle acknowledged as his mentor in the original novel.

‘Carlisle’s mentor was also Jerome’s mentor, wasn’t he?’

Jerome and Carlisle had trained under the same teacher since they were young.

I knew that much, but the problem was the timing of their falling out.

The relationship between Jerome and Carlisle was one of the gaps I hadn’t fully explored in the novel.

Jerome, after all, was a side character who exited the story early, so I hadn’t felt the need to flesh out their relationship in detail.

‘Does Jerome really hate Carlisle because he took all the credit for their accomplishments?’

Given Jerome’s personality, I had a feeling there was more to the story than I knew.

As I tried to piece things together, I suddenly remembered something Jerome had said at the Rolobury Asylum.

‘If I were Jeanne, would I have found meaning in this dull life?’

A terrifying hunch hit me.

I had a feeling that the person Jerome visited in the Asylum was somehow tied to the rift between him and Carlisle.

Just as I was deep in thought, someone grabbed my shoulder.

“Why are you hiding like this, Jeanne?”

Startled by the familiar voice behind me, I turned quickly to find Carlisle crouched next to me.

I clamped a hand over his mouth and checked Jerome’s position.

Thankfully, he and the duke were walking away in the opposite direction.

It seemed they hadn’t heard anything.

Once Jerome and the duke were far enough away, I let out a sigh of relief and removed my hand from Carlisle’s mouth.

He looked at me with amusement and asked in a sly tone, “Did something happen between you and Jerome?”

“There’s never been a time when nothing happened between us.”

“That’s a vague answer.”

I slumped to the floor and leaned my head against the bookshelf.

I thought I had everything sorted out, but seeing Jerome again made my heart race.

Clearly, I wasn’t as over it as I thought.

Trying to hide my inner turmoil, I changed the subject and asked Carlisle, “Since we’re on the topic, why did you and Jerome fall out?”

“Our definitions of justice were different.”

“…That’s a vague answer.”

I threw his own words back at him, and Carlisle laughed, amused.

After thinking for a moment, he casually added, “But even without that, we would’ve fallen out eventually.”

“Why?”

“Because we’ve always had the same taste in women since we were kids.”

As he finished speaking, Carlisle gestured for me to come closer.

Before I knew it, I had leaned toward him, and in the next instant, he caught my neck. Carlisle lowered his head and briefly kissed the spot just below my lips.

The touch was so fleeting that I was left stunned, but the words that followed sent a chill down my spine.

“Don’t you think so, Jerome?”

Though our lips hadn’t actually touched, anyone looking from behind would surely misunderstand.

Hoping that Carlisle was just joking, I slowly turned my head.

But to my dismay, Jerome had already approached us, resting his chin on a nearby bookshelf and glaring down at us.

In Jerome’s ashen eyes, from which all light had disappeared, I saw my own reflection.

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