Probably because he’d been wearing those gloves non-stop.
Struggling to ignore it, I focused on fastening the button.
And yet, when he could have just stayed still—
“Hoo-oo.”
Suddenly, a hot sigh washed over me from above.
Startled by the humid breath brushing against my face, I lifted my chin to look up, and found Lucian looking down at me from close range.
His red eyes were sunk deep.
“When your touch lingers this close, Master.”
He murmured with a low, rumbling chuckle,
“……It feels too good.”
The exact moment those words dropped, every conceivable warning alarm blared inside my head, accompanied by a violent wave of goosebumps.
This wasn’t just a casual warning.
……It was a primal alarm bell ringing straight from my survival instincts.
“……That’s it. We’re leaving.”
I snatched my hand back in a flash and stepped straight back.
Then, I furiously wiped my hand off against my knit sweater.
Lucian stared at his wrist with an expression of lingering reluctance, then shifted his gaze back toward me.
“May I ask you to tie my necktie next time, as well?”
Let’s just go home first.
“Shut up.”
Gasp—my internal thoughts had slipped right out loud!
Hurrying out of the department store, the sun was already dipping below the horizon.
For some reason, I felt thoroughly exhausted.
Was it because I ran into the other targets at the department store, or was it simply the fact that hanging out around this guy drained whatever sanity I had left?
Sighing heavily, I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
Wait, there wasn’t a single text or message?
Contrary to my expectation that Adrian or Raphael would definitely have left me a text, my phone was completely silent.
And right at that moment.
Ding—
A notification sound broke the silence.
New message.
[Sender: Cedric]
[Where are you?]
Is it this bastard’s turn now?
Scratching my head furiously, I typed out a reply.
[Why]
Ding—
[Tomorrow’s Political Diplomacy class is replaced with a movie screening. Come to the movie theater by 12 PM tomorrow.]
“Fucking hell!”
My world went pitch black.
Before I could even sort out my thoughts, I had to go face-to-face with Cedric and watch a movie tomorrow?
The two of us in a single enclosed space, in a pitch-black movie theater on top of that?
Or wait…… should I count myself lucky that at least it wasn’t Ludger we were watching with?
“Master?”
Lucian tilted his head, quietly monitoring my reaction.
But I just let out a deep, defeated sigh and checked my phone screen once more.
[What are we watching?]
Ding—
[Whatever just dropped recently. A corrupt legal thriller.]
……I guess I can breathe a sigh of relief.
For a second, I honestly thought it might be some kind of romance movie.
“Master, is something the matter?”
Lucian asked quietly.
I twitched my nose and shoved my phone straight into my pocket.
“No, they’re saying I have to watch a movie for a make-up class tomorrow.”
“…….”
For a brief second, Lucian stared at me in silence.
Then, a slow smile bloomed on his face as he opened his mouth.
“May I come with you?”
“No.”
Meet Cedric.
And bring Lucian along?
It’ll be a miracle if the two of them don’t whip out their swords and kill each other right then and there.
“You’re saying no?”
“Yeah.”
“…….”
Lucian narrowed his eyes and quietly stepped one pace forward.
“Would you mind explaining why not, Master?”
……Because you killed his younger brother, you psycho.
Though I couldn’t actually say that out loud, since I was the one who played the game.
“Just go home and rest.”
“Then, what about after the movie?”
“Huh?”
“Where are you going afterwards?”
Why is he interrogating me with such persistence?
My heart thumped erratically, making it feel hard to breathe every single time he threw a question my way.
Feeling a wave of nausea rolling in my stomach, I slowly pulled out my phone.
Ding—
[And let’s go to a cafe afterward. Because of the team project.]
Fucking hell.
“Ha. Damn Cedric.”
Now I had to deal with a team project on top of a movie date?
I felt like I was losing my mind.
“You must be meeting the wildcat, then.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
I replied mechanically, but a sudden, chilling breeze swept down my spine.
“……Wait a minute.”
Lucian watched me.
Yet, because that serene expression of his felt so utterly bizarre, I asked slowly.
“Why hasn’t your setting changed at all?”
“Pardon?”
“Raphael is an actor, Adrian’s a trashy chaebol heir, Cedric is a law student at the same school, and Ludger is a professor.”
“…….”
“I don’t know if reality got synchronized or what, but everyone else’s settings changed to fit this world. So why are you the only one who stayed the exact same?”
Lucian smiled quietly at my question.
However, that smile carried something deeply ominous.
As if he had been waiting precisely for this question to pop up, he rubbed his chin with his fingertips and slowly opened his mouth.
“The world collapsed, and the others each found a way to survive in their own manner. But I refused all of that, and came straight to the Master’s side instead.”
His tone was languid, and his eyes ran deep.
Lucian’s red gaze stared quietly into mine.
My heart hammered against my ribs, and the oppressive weight made it hard even to draw a breath, causing me to bite down hard on my lower lip.
“Until the time when the Master—”
Suddenly, hearing loss struck me once more.
Accompanied by a dull, echoing roar as if I had plunged underwater, the disjointed fragments of sound tickled uncomfortably at my ears.
I scratched at my ear with my hand to shake the noise away, but my ears remained completely stuffed with that ringing hum.
“Master?”
Whenever hearing loss hit, the other person’s reactions would invariably begin to warp, just like always.
Staring at things through that distorted lens felt like watching a glitch in reality, and it always tormented me.
Those reactions were invariably uncomfortable and unsettling.
Seeing me scratch at my ear, Lucian closed the distance in an instant, but I instinctively shoved him back by the chest.
“……How could you possibly know when that is?”
And so, it had become a habit to grit my teeth after a bout of hearing loss and pretend as though I had caught every word.
At my laboriously forced utterance, his red eyes weighed me up as if appraising my worth, before curving into thin crescents.
“If it’s you, Master, that time won’t take all that long.”
Those words made me narrow my eyes.
A short amount of time?
What on earth is he talking about?
Is he talking about me getting used to this altered reality?
