The attendant guarding the door trembled violently.
The leader's condition has been strange lately.
The roughness was the same, but how should I put it? Now it felt like a knife that would make blood gush out just by brushing against it.
Besides, what are those strange books...
"Hey."
"Yes!"
The servant, who had been lost in thought, hurriedly straightened his posture at Noelier's call.
"Isn't there another book besides this one? It's not working at all."
"Th-that book is everything!"
“Damn it.”
Noelier muttered a curse. The servant shut his mouth.
He didn't know what was going on, but the leader kept shedding tears.
Why? Did something get in his eye? The attendant thought.
Even so, he couldn't exactly say, "Shall I take a look?"
Getting close to the leader?
As a Southerner, this was something unimaginable. No, it was something no prisoner could even dream of.
"How dare people like us..." The attendant shook his head involuntarily.
“I can’t do it..."
Then Noelier muttered softly. The Leader used to make a voice like that when punishing someone!
The servant, seized by fear, wanted to quit everything—work and all—and run away.
At that moment, Noelier stood up from his seat.
He was striding toward him with unhesitating steps. The servant's legs trembled. As he saw those red eyes, the wrongs he had committed flashed before his eyes like afterimages.
"Is there any other..."
“S-sorry!”
"Are there no other books? Look around a bit more," he was about to say, but a frightened servant cut Noelier off.
The servant squeezed his eyes shut and began to shout in a loud voice.
"A, actually, I did touch the statue in the hallway! I clearly saw the sign saying to look with your eyes only, but I ended up touching it. I thought that if I touched it, I could gain the Leader's energy. I am truly sorry. Really..."
It was a sudden confession.
Even he himself was dumbfounded.
"Stop it, you bastard!" he scolded himself, but his mouth did not stop chattering.
"I will see better from now on. I will also get my glasses re-fitted. That's right, I bought eye drops a few days ago. I always carry them with me. I brought them again today..."
"For a moment."
Noelier raised his hand. The servant kept his mouth shut.
He shrugged one eyebrow and asked.
"What did you just say?"
"...I touched the statue.”
“Then.”
"...I brought it today too.”
“Before that”
"...I bought eye drops."
“Yeah, that one.”
Noelier reached out his hand.
"...?"
The servant looked down at the large palm with a bewildered expression. He did not know what it meant, but his body moved instinctively, and he found the eye drops deep inside the pocket.
He looked at the small eye drops in his hand, and his eyes gleamed.
This is enough.
'With just this one thing, I can win Eve's heart.'
Noelier smiled brightly. It was a smile that came from the heart.
It was a smile beautiful enough to blind. At the expression he had never seen before, the attendant blinked in disbelief.
It was then.
“Chief!”
Another servant who had been standing outside the door came running in hurriedly.
"What?"
The beautiful smile vanished in an instant.
It was a voice so cold it gave one goosebumps. A servant who had rushed in spoke in a terrified voice.
"Ra, Miss Rachel..."
“Rachel?”
Noelier looked at the clock in front of him. It was well past dawn.
'Is something wrong?'
He frowned and nodded.
The servant opened the door. As if it had been waiting, a red bird flew into the room.
It was Rachel's phoenix.
Noelier looked at the phoenix with surprised eyes. The phoenix, fluttering its wings, landed on his hand.
As the phoenix blinked a few times, a shimmering figure unfolded before its eyes.
"This is...!"
The red eyes trembled slightly from the shock.
Then, with a squeaking sound, Rachel's voice rang out from the phoenix's mouth.
- Found in my sister's book. All the other books are about human regions.
With those words, the Phoenix shut its mouth. Then it pecked at Noelier's finger.
"..."
Noelier's face was flushed with shock.
What the phoenix showed was one of the novel illustrations that Eve had not even seen.
A well-built, masculine body, bronzed skin, a defined jawline, and sharp eyes.
It was an illustration of a hyena beastman.
'To think this was Eve's taste...!'
Of all things, a hyena!
He was so different from him.
Noelier had a beautiful face, if you had to be picky.
His skin was a bit whiter than others, and his jawline was not thick. The only resemblance to a hyena shapeshifter was his physique and sharp gaze.
His head was throbbing. He had forgotten everything else while focusing on the 'pretty crying face'.
'And to think it's the human world.'
The uncontrollable surge of emotions began to gnaw at his mind. His red eyes darkened.
A massive flame, incomparable to Rachel's, shot up with a blazing roar. The restraints around his neck were nowhere near enough.
Bang! The frightened phoenix quickly fled the room.
“Soo, Chief..."
One of the attendants looked at Noelier with a fearful face.
The leader he served seemed as though he would burn everyone here—no, everything that existed—at any moment. The leader's magical power was more than enough to do so.
'You must be more proactive and become the person Eve wants you to be.'
Noelier recalled Eve's ideal type that Rachel had told him about.
Handsome man, sexy, money, and a warm place.
However, an ideal type and a preference are different things.
Noelier recalled the illustration he had just seen.
To think she's like a male like that—black skin overflowing with wildness.
Noelier resented himself for flinching every time his hand touched her.
To make matters worse, his face turned red. It was even more noticeable because his face was pale.
No matter how he looked at it, it was far from being a hyena.
Noelier glared at the books placed to one side.
He had studied hard all this time, so now it was time to show what he could do.
Noelier quickly left the office. A startled servant followed by his side.
"C-Chief! Where are you going?"
“Going north.”
"You went before, and now you're going again? That is not allowed!"
The servant, having adjusted his slipping hat, quickly followed behind him.
“Chief!”
“Don’t follow me!”
“Chief!”
Why on earth do you keep going to the North?
The attendant shed tears inwardly, wondering if our leader had really gone mad.
***
From that day on, I often took Zion and Rachel out. Though that was all—just to buy food and books to read occasionally.
I began teaching Zion in earnest. It was a relief that I had taught him to read without skipping a single lesson.
Of course, Zion grumbled that he didn't want to study, but he had no choice. This level of studying was essential to get to the human zone.
"Sister, here again today!"
"Okay. Don't nag me."
The general store was Zion's favorite place. So, our final destination was definitely there.
“Come back”
"Yeah!"
I let go of Zion's hand, meaning for him to watch.
Wow! Running off as if he had been waiting for it, he looked exactly like a puppy.
"Rachel, aren't you going?"
"Nope, I don't want to go. I've seen too much, so there's nothing left to see."
“Then, even if it’s something else..."
"I don't want to. I won't leave your side."
Rachel said that and clung tightly to my side.
Cute!
I bent down and hugged Rachel.
"Sister, I can't breathe."
Rachel closed her eyes tightly and smiled brightly. I couldn't find the gloom I had read about in the original novel. Feeling a pang in my heart for no reason, I stroked Rachel's head.
“Sister, sister.”
"What's wrong, my little mouse?"
"There is something I want to see."
“What do you want to see?”
Rachel nodded and led me.
“It’s here.”
The place Rachel took me to was a bookshelf in a general store. The place where the red book and the book about the human region were found.
"Hey, why are you here...?"
I looked at Rachel with a sudden pang of guilt.
Unlike me, our innocent Rachel pointed to the fairy tale book up there with sparkling eyes.
“I want to see that!”
“Is that okay?”
"Yes!"
Rachel nodded as she said that.
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