NOVEL NEXT chapter 150
150 – Masquerade Ball – 4
As predicted to Cordelia and Seol-ah, finding Hestia wasn’t too difficult. It’s a simple guess. She has a similar physique to Hestia, wears a wig, and looks around eagerly as if she is looking for someone. She feels like Holmes.
She looked around in the exact opposite direction from me, holding her tiptoe up. It’s true that Cordelia has nothing to say, but Hestia definitely has a corner in her strange side. While Messenger is a bit inappropriate, it’s hard to deny. Well, even that looked cute in my eyes. You have humanity. A person who is too perfect feels distant.
I shrugged her shoulders and sneaked up behind Hestia. Then he poked her finger into her side.
“Hukkiaaa?!”
Hestia let out a cute scream. However, the follow-up from the scream wasn’t cute at all. Her hand flashed and then it flew towards my face. Fighting with mana, I don’t think anything good will happen if I get hit as it is. I grabbed her wrist and screamed.
“Hestia? It’s me, me!”
“Uh, huh? Mikhail?”
“Yes! It’s me!”
She struggled with her eyes closed, then opened one eye slightly, as if brought to her senses by my voice. Then, I was so surprised that I could tell through the mask. Her voice trembled.
“Uh, uh, how?!”
“There are ways.”
“I was surprised!”
Hestia grumbled. The white aura on her hand also slowly faded. No, I understand you were surprised, but isn’t the response too hot? I’m surprised twice and I’ll catch someone. If the wind blew into his ears, he might have blown a destructive ray. I’m glad I adjusted the level properly.
“More than that, how did this happen?”
“Over there.”
I nodded and pointed at Seola and Cordelia who were hiding behind me. Hestia’s expression strangely changed. Do you think the two of you sold yourself? I added her supplementary explanation before she misunderstood anything.
“It wasn’t that the two of them specifically taught it, they came first and everything was broken by me. And since he didn’t come after waiting for a long time, I came to find him first.”
“So you just found me?”
“Yes. I asked the two of them in the first place, but they kept their mouths shut and didn’t teach me.”
Hestia kept her mouth shut for a moment, then asked back as if she didn’t understand.
“Then how… ?”
“This is disappointing. Hestia, did you think you could fool my eyes with a wig and a mask?”
Hestia’s body trembled at my answer. Her playfulness rises. Can she tease me a little more?
“Really? I see Hestia must have thought of me that way. Is this really disappointing?”
“Oh no!”
Even when I heard it, it was a playful voice, desperate to hold back laughter. However, Hestia strongly denied my words, waving her arms around as if my reaction was genuinely taken aback.
“I didn’t think so! I just thought it would be fun… , I never thought of the real Mikhail like that!”
“But why did you think of such a childish prank?”
“Ugh, that….”
Hestia was almost on the verge of crying. Shall we make fun of this? Well, this isn’t even a male elementary school student bullying the girl she likes. No, maybe they’re better than me, at least for the purpose of getting attention. I’ve felt it before, but Hestia has a taste for bullying. Irrespective of talking about the shady world of S and M, should I just say that I can get my hands on it by itself? It has a magical charm. I don’t know if I can call this a charm. I calmed her down a bit.
“Okay. That’s just what i said I don’t think Hestia would have thought of me that way.”
“Not really!”
“I got it. And, to be honest, even if I thought so, I’m not too disappointed.”
Hestia was crying all the time. Embarrassed, I hugged her by the shoulder. Was it a bit of a prank? To be honest, it’s weird for me to figure this out. No, to be honest, if it weren’t for the keen eyes of Mikhail’s body in the first place, I honestly wouldn’t have guessed. And I’m not a sensitive adolescent girl, and I’m not even upset about things like this. I tried to wipe her tears, but realized that her hands were blocked by the mask, so I just patted her on the back.
“So, wipe your tears. Why do you cry on a good day?”
“No, Kheung. I didn’t cry.”
“Yes, yes.”
Hestia sniffed and said. It seems to be in that state where water forms around the eyes just before the tear ducts explode. Even Hestia sheds a lot of tears. I always seem to whimper when something happens. It looks like some kind of ice princess. She murmured in a low voice that only I could hear.
“… Sorry.”
“I wasn’t disappointed.”
“Still.”
Hestia bowed her head. I took her to her Cordelia and Seol-ah, who was patting her and chatting behind her behind her. The two of them also avoided my eyes, probably feeling a little uncomfortable that they were needlessly testing me. Seriously, why are you kidding me when you’re going to care so much?
“Both of you, why are you avoiding your eyes? Like someone who has been stabbed by something.”
“No, that… , sorry.”
“I’m sorry.”
Cordelia and Seol-ah apologized to me. The atmosphere got awkward. It feels like I was needlessly embarrassed after playing around with disappointment or something. To be honest, I never thought that all three of them would be able to move this far. Somehow, it feels like the position has been reversed. Didn’t I pray to them this time?
“I told Hestia, but it was just a joke. There’s no need to apologize. Did you really think I would be disappointed with such a trivial prank? I was trying to clean it up after seeing you panicked. So please raise your head. Huh?”
I feel like I’ve become a piece of garbage that takes advantage of a weak point that is not a big deal. Perhaps because of my mood, it seems that people around me are buzzing as well. In a heavy atmosphere, Hestia opened her mouth.
“Come to think of it, all three of us. I only got help from Mikhail.”
“What is the help?”
“No. She only got help. When Miss Lily was taken by Her Highness the Crown Prince, when Miss Cordelia was almost injured in a sudden falling accident, when I was kidnapped.”
It sounds like a lot. There must be a few more if you include things she doesn’t know about and things she went through together…. I feel like I’ve spent a little over half a year since I first came to my senses, and I’ve spent a fairly dense time.
Well, that’s it. Just because I saved them, I don’t mean to be condescending. It just means that I did it because I wanted to do it, and there was no need to put it as a debt of my heart.
“I did it because I liked it. You don’t have to be uncomfortable with that….”
“It’s like that every day. I am OK. Never mind. Then decide everything alone, and take on all the difficult and dangerous tasks alone.”
Hestia buried her face in my chest. I couldn’t find anything to say, so I mumbled her mouth. I didn’t know that Hestia would think of me like this. First of all, I think we need to have a separate conversation in a quiet place.
“Shall we move?”
–
Hestia cried. She said she didn’t cry in front of Mikhail because she was shy, but since her tears were stinging, it couldn’t be said that she didn’t cry. It’s just that at one point, I suddenly couldn’t control my emotions on my own, so I cried.
It’s strange. Never had anything like this before. There was no such thing as not being able to control your emotions. Maybe I’m weirder than Mikhail who lost his memory. Hestia sniffed and thought.
That’s the case just now. She wasn’t stupid, and she knew that Mikhail didn’t mean what he said. It was such a laughable voice. And yet, when she heard Mikhail say her disappointment, her heart skipped a beat.
She knows with her head. Mikhail loves Hestia, and she knows that, too, and she can’t destroy that fact just by playing with her. I was anxious nonetheless.
“Come to think of it, all three of us. I only got help from Mikhail.”
Not Lily, nor Cordelia, nor herself. Looking back, I always received something from Mikhail. He was a generous tree. When someone was in danger, he threw himself without looking back. Also, if someone was depressed or sad, he threw himself without looking back either.
An equal relationship is established only when there is something to be given and something to be received. Hestia told her father who ran her giant caravan, and she learned that fact from a very young age.
Mikhail gave ceaselessly for her. The same goes for Lily and Cordelia. By the way, what did we give him? Instead of treating them well, they try to test them in this stupid way.
This is no longer an equal relationship. He is a parasitic who lives by relying on the favor of one side.
If Mikhail leaves her tomorrow, will she be able to stay? Hestia shook her head. Even though she only imagined it, her heart felt like it would break.
But what if she leaves Mikhail? Will Mikhail really break down like me? Hestia wasn’t sure. Maybe she just grunts for a few days and then brushes it off. Her Hestia found it harder than her leaving her.
On the day she was kidnapped by Lira, she couldn’t be sure even though she saw Mikhail putting herself first.
Am I the person he needs?