Cassian’s brow furrowed at the word “project.”
The explanation written in that woman’s modest handwriting flashed through his mind as he frowned.
Was it a project to find people?
The project was supposedly initiated to find the woman of Vincent, that woman’s supervisor.
If it succeeds, not only that Vincent fellow, but that woman too might escape her commoner status.
Even if not, it was clear she would gain many things.
Those who produce such research results are among the top in the Empire, and the Imperial Family tends to reward researchers generously.
Among those things she would gain, would her bloodline be included?
That woman said she had never seen her father since birth.
Someone once said.
That bloodlines naturally attract each other.
If that scholar’s words are true, that woman might try to find her father too.
Everything rushing in builds up fatigue in an instant.
“A setback?”
“Yes. It seems… Lady Fiocel Periot has dried up the Baorbin Viscount family’s money source.”
A Viscountess searching for her daughter.
Development of a tracking device.
A sponsor. A meddler who cut off the money source.
The whole picture is roughly drawn.
An indecipherable smile spread across Cassian’s lips.
Tiobe gulped as he watched that expression.
[This is the timeline separator]The next day, as if nothing had happened, I go to work at the administration office at the usual time.
The surroundings were quiet, having made a habit of arriving earlier than others.
The silence born of stillness summoned shameful memories.
The hand reaching out a branch to that man, the whispered “I love you” disguised as a truth game before him, and also…
The man who lent me his shoulder in the carriage.
He was truly an unpredictable man.
In fact, there was something I wanted to ask him in the truth game.
If he liked me.
Words that lingered on the tip of my tongue but were never spoken in the end.
Nevertheless, I did ask in a roundabout way. And I heard his answer.
He said he hadn’t changed clothes, then said he had done so several times.
To be honest, I had a little hope when the man said those words.
That maybe he had fallen for me now.
But I realized from his words that if he loved desperately, he would have given everything.
To this man, I’m not yet that kind of existence.
The man who seemed within reach yet always just out of grasp made anxiety boil inside.
In reality, he had no reason to give me medicine, and I should be grateful he gives even this much, but at some point I came to hate him.
The tightly wound, indescribable hatred accumulates and builds into loathing.
Other scenes overlap with this man I despise so much.
The man who drove out the lord of Alphonse.
The man who gives medicine to my mother.
The man who supposedly saved my mother from the lord of Alphonse.
He was always the most cruel savior.
The existence of a man who won’t even let me hate him freely is maddening.
As the work hours approach and I submit the project documents to my supervisor who arrived on time, I move along.
My mind was completely blank.
That man alone filled my thoughts.
As if under a curse.
I came to my senses when the bell tolled from the distant spire.
When that man hazily dispersed, I finally noticed the documents in my hand.
The papers held upside down from being in a daze are quite amusing.
After turning them right side up and putting them down, I reviewed the plans as usual.
If things go as scheduled, today is the day the first sample of the tracking device comes out from the Magic Tower.
Fortunately, with ample time left, my steps towards the Magic Tower were leisurely.
As usual, I show my permit to the inspector and enter.
I was quite nervous as the results would depend on the performance of the first sample.
Of course, the talents at the Magic Tower under Imperial supervision are excellent, so there’s nothing they can’t accomplish.
The plans that have never gone awry until now should go smoothly this time too.
And they must.
But…
With each step, the atmosphere around seemed unsettling for some reason.
‘What is it?’
‘Did something go wrong with the sample?’
Putting aside the unsettling atmosphere, all their gazes were fixed on me.
Though I mainly met with the Magic Tower’s vice director and Hael to work, since the project officially started, most of the Magic Tower researchers generally knew my face.
Especially the people in this 1st Vice Director’s office, as they were actively involved in the experiments, were all those I had at least spoken with once.
But why with such expressions…
Noticeably dark faces gradually came into view.
My heart tightened at the gazes that were calm like the calm before a storm.
With each thump of my footsteps, my heart also clamored noisily inside.
Then, at the point where I passed half of the last corridor, someone grabbed me.
“Hael?”
He seemed to have been waiting for me as usual, but his expression was different from normal.
His face, which was even paler than the researchers I had just passed by, caught my attention.
An ominous feeling strongly brushed my mind.
Because it’s not often that Hael has such an expression.
“You… why are you so pale.”
“Well…”
My heart pounded wildly at the hesitant and reluctant appearance of the guy.
After looking around once, Hael finally opened his mouth after taking a deep breath.
“The Viscountess Baorbin said she would… cut off the funding.”
I understood what Hael said a beat late.
“…What?”
Cut off the funding?
She had been half-crazed since losing her daughter.
The tearful voice asking me to please succeed in this project and find her daughter was still vivid in my ears…
The Baorbin Viscount family wasn’t in such dire financial straits that they needed to conserve sponsorship funds.
No, more precisely, after successfully venturing into mining recently, they were achieving great success by expanding their business portfolio through investments.
So why…
“Are you… sure you didn’t misunderstand?”
My voice trembled miserably, immersed in shock.
While Hael couldn’t continue speaking, a familiar voice was heard from far away.
“What do you mean? Why is Viscountess Baorbin suddenly saying she’s cutting off funding?”
My supervisor’s voice echoed faintly through the space.
Following that, those presumed to be Magic Tower researchers continued the explanation.
“The notification came suddenly to the Magic Tower side as well, so we also don’t have anything to say…”
“From what we’ve heard, it seems the Viscountess’s money source was blocked.”
A loud bang resounded on the floor.
On top of that, people’s urgent voices were layered.
“Vincent! Vincent?”
[This is the timeline separator]In the place where I frantically rushed to open the door, the collapsed Vincent was lying.
I couldn’t tell how time passed while the medical staff hurriedly came and gave frantic prescriptions.
The doctors kept saying diagnoses and prescriptions, and I struggled to pick them up in my hazy consciousness.
After that, Hael handled most things, and all I could do was wait for my supervisor while recalling the doctors’ words that he would wake up soon.
Contrary to the diagnosis, my supervisor, who seemed to have been severely shocked, didn’t wake up for quite a long time.
It was after a long while that he finally woke up.
My supervisor, who repeatedly said he was fine with a face devoid of any blood, went outside with an expressionless face.
At his words not to follow, I couldn’t approach nor move away, and just watched him leave the Magic Tower.
As I stood there stupidly again, I finally saw this whole situation properly.
If we can’t resolve the sponsorship funds, everything we’ve done so far will come to nothing.
Reality hit the back of my head hard.
“I need to go see Viscountess Baorbin.”
My voice, broken by tears, was miserable.
As I got up, my vision shook and my center collapsed downwards.
It was Hael, who had been silently by my side until just now, who caught that.
“It’s no use going.”
“What do you mean?”
What one of the researchers had said earlier flashed through my mind.
That the Baorbin Viscount family’s money source was cut off.
If she was giving up on finding her daughter, which she had staked her fate on, it was easy to guess that the situation was not normal.
She’s probably on the verge of bankruptcy or already bankrupt, one of the two.
My ominous predictions had never been wrong. This time was no exception.
“The Viscountess persuaded other nobles to invest a large sum to buy the Piron mine that was on sale, but the information that it was a mine turned out to be false.”
Words that were even difficult to understand flowed from Hael’s mouth.
“The nobles who vouched for her are now chasing after the Viscountess…”
A laugh, not even a sigh, burst out.
No wonder all the plans had been going smoothly.
God had never once taken my side.
My eyes, now withered and no longer even shedding tears, were dry.
As I stepped out of the Magic Tower with aimless steps, the chilly wind of early spring whipped past my cheeks.
At this point, I wonder if I’m the problem, asking myself.
Because whenever I get involved in something, it always ends up like this, in darkness.
It feels like my supervisor ended up like this because he got entangled with me too.
The last words of Lady Fiocel, whom I met last, lash my mind like a curse.
That this would be the last mercy she bestows.
Telling me to leave.
A strange and chilling sensation prickled over my skin.
If by any chance… Lady Fiocel had a hand in this.
At this timing, just before completion.
The sponsor falls victim to fraud.
The sponsorship funds are suddenly cut off in this absurd situation.
All these unlikely, absurd coincidences brew such delusions.
Yes. It must be a delusion.
It all has to be a delusion.
If all of that was because of me…
If Viscountess Baorbin ended up like that because of me.
If my supervisor ended up like that.
If even my mother goes wrong, how could I go on living?
I tried to push away the crazy assumptions flooding in.
But no matter how much I did so, the conclusion didn’t change one bit.
After wandering for a long time without direction, driven by the chill seeping in.
I came back to the same place again.
Like steps that return to the same place no matter how much you walk, the whole world was full of despair.
The more reason returned, instead of becoming clearer, everything before my eyes only became hazier.
As if knowing my mood, rain sprinkled down from the sky.
Before me, a woman in a splendid dress slowly approached from over there.
Through the hazily dispersing background, nothing could be seen except that she was a splendid woman.
As I was about to pass by, the woman blocked my way.
With her face hidden by an umbrella, only the lower part could be seen, making it difficult to guess who she was.
As I raised my head, a chin gently nodding to the side came into view.
When the knight beside her lifted the umbrella, her hidden face was finally revealed.
Lady Fiocel Periot.
She was standing before me again.
Why do these things never fail to meet my expectations even once?
She approached with a sardonic smile and whispered in my ear.
“I told you.”
“…”
“It was the last mercy.”
“…!”
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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