CH 19

“I’m really sorry about that, too.”

It was Percyville, not her, who reappeared this time. Because Catherine was the one who stayed in Christopher.

The atmosphere in Percyville, where the sharp edge had stood, quickly subsided. His mood as well as his eyes seemed to still come and go.

“I’ve changed. I’ve grown so tall, and there’s no way my insides are the same.”

“Isn’t it all about being half and half a span at most?”

He opened his eyes narrowly as if measuring the height of Catherine, who had grown up in real life. But soon he turned his head to the other side.

“You’re eating more than necessary and living a good life. This place looks better than your damn hometown, isn’t it?”

“A lot more.”

“—Well, that’s all that matters.”

Did he change his mind, or did he just want to do this? With only that empty word, Percyville crossed the crumbling fence and left her mansion.

“Chew.”

However, while walking well, he suddenly stopped. Then he turned around again and headed to Catherine.

“Have you thought about it? I think you’d better move the mansion.”

Why do you tell me to move from my house? Catherine, who became infinitely sensitive to the mansion problem, stared at Percyville.

“I’m sure I’ll come back again if you keep being silly.”

That word was truly the last. Percyville turned his back without regret. He is confident in the subject of declaring that she would be pathetic. Thanks to this, even the existence of the magic circle shakes the resolve to settle down, though openly.

Soon after, someone called Catherine’s name from a distance.

“Why don’t you just come in?”

It was Cesare. He reached out towards Catherine, who was standing between the collapsed walls.

“Unless you want to make eye contact when that back is turned around.”

Did he hear all the fuss? Of course, he heard everything. Nothing in the world is more exciting and entertaining than watching other people fight. Catherine grabbed Cesare’s hand and moved between the strewn bricks.

“Do you think he’ll look back?”

“I think it would be harder to think that it would not.”

Cesare, who looked closely at her face, continued.

“Of course, I didn’t overhear it because I wanted to overhear it.”

Catherine’s regret increased as she saw the gentle smile on his face. She should have simply kicked him out quietly. Or, at the very least, she moved to another place and had a conversation.

‘Did I always look at others like this?’

If there was no Cesare in the mansion, would she have had such regrets? Catherine put Damian on Cesare’s face.

Hmm. She doesn’t seem to care; it seems that she would have been comfortable anyway.

“Was it Carlos?”

Catherine looked at him with a puzzled expression. She shook her head as she remembered Percyville wearing a paper bag.

“No. If it were him, I would have stuck and made his face blush. It said the mansion was suspicious and wanted to investigate. Because there are provocative rumors that can damage his reputation, he won’t even come close.”

Cesare, who looked down at Catherine, immediately grabbed her shoulder and led her. The words that came out of his mouth were not what he wanted.

“Who was the guy just now then?”

It was hard for Catherine to tell whether his question was about a man’s identity or his relationship with her.

“—Didn’t you hear the conversation before?”

“Just a few last words.”

“What kind of relationship did you see us in?”

Cesare answered in an indifferent voice.

“The enemy? Or the debtor?”

“—It’s similar.”

Looking back, it must have been a very misunderstood conversation. Rather, she thought that it was fortunate that Cesare misunderstood. She didn’t know why, but as her heart became more comfortable, a sigh of relief came out.

‘What am I going to do with such a messy past?’

Just before entering the mansion, when she turned her head, the wall that had been destroyed had returned to its original state as if it never had collapsed.

Catherine was relieved once more.

She saved the cost of fixing the house.

******

Clank!

It was early in the morning. Catherine instinctively woke up without knowing the reason.

At first, she thought the heavens and earth were going to open due to the great roar and vibration, but after a bit of sleep, she was able to recognize that there was a problem with the mansion. If her memory is correct, she’s been in a similar situation before.

“It can’t be—”

Catherine hurriedly left the bedroom without even putting on her outerwear.

“Ha.”

Seeing that the bright sun was floating where the wall of the hallway was supposed to be, the mansion seemed to have been destroyed as it was then. The only difference from then was that the suspect, in this case, was horse head, not goat head.

「Khahahaha! This body has finally reached Eden! The long-awaited summoning was successful!」

How come they all sound the same while destroying other people’s houses?

Catherine leaned against the wall holding her dizzy forehead.

“Where did the cat go?”

Seeing that she couldn’t see it in the morning, he seemed to have gone out to play under the sun. On days like this, he has to pay for his meal!

Still, it was fortunate that it wasn’t as big of a problem as she was worried about the heavens and the earth. No, since the mansion is half-destroyed, would it be a big deal?

「Hmm, it smells like a good prey somewhere—」

The horse’s head, which was seen below the collapsed second floor, moved toward the hall.

It was fortunate that Rose was going down to the downtown area to buy groceries.

‘Then how about Damian?’

No matter how competent a knight is, he will have a difficult time dealing with ‘it.’ If he runs into it and gets crushed like a sandwich—.

Catherine, who was working hard on her brain, managed to find an answer that could be expected. She took out the small key that she had always hung around her neck just in case. It was the object she received from Cesare a few days ago.

‘When you come and go to my mansion, you often move through the door.’

So wouldn’t she be able to meet Cesare through the door, too?

Catherine put the key into the closed bedroom door.

Click.

Even though it was much smaller than the hole, the key went in just right. Catherine opened the doorknob without delay. There was no choice but to express exclamation in the sight that appeared soon.

Instead of a bed with a transparent pink canopy hanging over the door, an office room with a splendid wall with a soothing woody scent appeared. Cesare was sitting at his desk, scrawling something.

It was not long before he looked up slowly, and the two made eye contact.

‘You wear glasses, too.’

Thin gold glasses and a vest over a loose shirt. The Cesare she saw in the newspaper was just in front of her.

“—What’s going on?’

Catherine, who came to her senses, ran in front of him. Cesare took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes while she approached him.

“First of all— I apologize. I’m sorry for being rude to you, Cesare. I need your help right now and I can’t help it. This time a weird horse-headed monster is destroying my mansion!”

In a rush, she cried without even breathing.

“Horse head?—Ah.”

At first, he asked as if he didn’t understand what Catherine was saying, but he tilted his head with a face that he didn’t understand even more.

“If it’s that problem, you don’t have to come to me.”

Huh?

At those words, Catherine had no choice but to shut her mouth. This is because it sounded like why she was trying to solve her own problem through his help.

‘It’s not wrong. There is no reason for this man to do my favor.’

Catherine covered her cheek with one hand in a subtle but certain sense of shame. Cesare, who was looking into Catherine’s sullen face, shook his head a little urgently.

“No, I hope you don’t misunderstand that. I’ve already given you something useful.”

It was like hearing a story that only he knew. Catherine answered with her face covered.

“What are you talking about? Are you talking about this key? It’s useful because I can visit you whenever I want. But what I meant was—.”

Squeak. Before Catherine finished speaking, Cesare stood up pushing his chair. He lifted the jacket he had put over the chair and covered Catherine’s shoulders. He then slowly led her shoulders and talked.

“Okay. I understand what you’re talking about. I’m not at all kind enough to go out and understand what you’re saying— but I can’t help it.”

It’s annoying, but does it mean that he’s going to help her this time? Through the open door, the two returned to the mansion. The dust that had been in the hallway had settled down to some extent due to the collapsed wall.

Cesare took the key from the doorknob on the other side. Instead of handing it over to Catherine, he stiffened up and took her key and examined it closely.

“Did you always wear it around your neck?”

Along with the question, the gaze on Catherine contained complex languages that could not be defined in a single word. It felt weird.

“Well, that’s right.”

She said it casually, but it felt like it was nothing. Catherine pushed Cesare back toward the stairs to change the subject.

“Come on. What if something happens in the meantime?”

Moving slowly in the direction she pushed, Cesare touched the string of the key.

“The string isn’t that good. I’ll change it later.”

At this rate, it would take 10 minutes to find the horse’s head, so she took the key from his hand and went down the stairs ahead. And on the floor of the hall, the head of a hideous horse was rolling like a ball.

Not the head of a horse running through the meadow after eating fodder, but the head of a horse monster that destroyed the mansion.

Catherine called the name of a man wiping the sword with a hateful face in front of her.

“—Damian?”

The man suddenly looked up at her question.

“—Lady? Are you alive? Are you okay?”

Damian approached while vigorously wiping the black liquid on the sword. He bowed his back toward Cesare, who was standing next to her with an indifferent face.

“Did you go to call Cesare? I was in the midst of mourning because I thought you had been preyed on by a horse’s head!”

‘That’s what I’m going to say.’

Still, thanks to this, she was able to realize what Cesare’s words meant belatedly. Damian’s usefulness he said seemed to have been this point.

Damian was a man with great swordsmanship worthy of his status as an imperial knight, and he could be protected as the owner of the mansion, at least while he was staying here.

Cesare is taking care of her safety. Damian was living proof of him.

Pretending to stare at the horse’s head that disappeared into ashes, she looked at Cesare’s sideline. It’s as if he was filled with satisfaction instead of tea in her own cup of tea. How is she supposed to express this feeling?