I felt an immense crisis seeing the suddenly blooming flowers around me.

‘Is it going to be exposed that I’m a fairy like this?’

Nervously swallowing saliva, fortunately, Johan overlooked it. So, I casually opened my eyes and said to Johan.

“What’s this? I was the only one surprised! Are you going to keep playing like this?”

“Sorry. Your reaction is too cute, so I keep playing around.”

Johan made a mischievous smile and raised both hands.

The atmosphere was warm.

However, Johan’s red eyes, which met mine, were locked in an unusually deep darkness.

‘Is there some problem?’

While tilting my head, Johan held my hand, indicating that he would take me somewhere again. It was stairs leading below the cruise ship.

“Be careful. The stairs are steep.”

“I won’t slip on the stairs, you know?”

“But what about tripping alone in an empty corridor?”

“That was a mistake!”

To be precise, I was walking and talking with the tree when I lost concentration and fell.

The inside of the ship was also neat and beautiful like a luxury cruise ship.

‘Something must be there…’

I was originally sensitive to the emotions of others. Especially if the person was Johan, whom I cared about the most.

There was a change in Johan’s heart just now.

Thinking that way, an inexplicable fear rushed over me. I even felt uneasy about going down to the underground of the cruise ship.

‘…What trouble is he planning this time?’

I asked Johan while walking with a wry smile.

“Johan, you won’t really startle me this time, right?”

“When have I ever lied?”

Johan shook the hands that were holding each other slightly and asked gently. But I asked with skeptical eyes.

“You lied just now, didn’t you?”

“It’s not a lie. It’s more like preparation for a brief surprise.”

“Regardless of the reason, a lie is a lie, right?”

Johan smirked at my face like that.

“I didn’t know you would be so untrustworthy.”

“So, just do better. Don’t make me anxious all the time.”

The atmosphere was so natural that my true feelings unintentionally burst out.

“If you keep deceiving me, it’s hard to distinguish what’s real.”

“…”

At the end of the corridor, I saw a room. Johan looked at me silently, watching the room. The smile on his lips remained the same, but his red eyes contained an inexplicable emotion.

I quickly added a word.

“Of course, no matter what you do, I’ll trust you.”

“Yeah, that’s all you need to do.”

Johan nodded slowly.

“No confusion. Everything is real. Everything you see, feel, and experience is real. Don’t worry about unnecessary doubts and anxieties.”

Johan affectionately whispered, gently holding my disheveled hair and tucking it behind my ear.

“But it’s my fault for confusing you. I’m sorry for not giving you trust.”
“No, Johan has nothing to apologize for. I also made a light comment.”

Without realizing it, I clapped my hands lightly to make my seemingly hidden feelings not feel too heavy. Then, Johan kissed my forehead and slowly opened the door.

“I’ll try not to make you anxious in the future.”

And he whispered in my ear.

“So, open the door once. If you open this, your mind will be less uneasy.”

Another gift?!

‘Surely there won’t be a person this time, right?’

I believe that the dark figure wouldn’t prepare such an inventive gift two times in a row.

Still, without relaxing, I cautiously entered the room.

Near the gray pillar, newspapers were piled up in heaps.

Looking at Johan, he nodded approvingly, as if saying, ‘You did well.’

‘These are my newspapers?’

Unlike the ones just now that were hanging on reporters’ necks, these were professional newspapers. Even with a quick glance, my name was prominently written.

‘All of this is about me…’

There were dozens of stacks of newspapers. Moreover, all the newspapers gathered were issued on different dates.

“Johan, why are these newspapers…”

“I collected them while investigating your rumors.”

Johan looked at the newspapers in my hands with a peculiar gaze.

“Then I found out that there was a mastermind behind the strange spreading articles.”

I swallowed saliva.

‘I thought I would definitely find it from Mireu in the prison.’

“So, who’s the mastermind?”

“Marquis Libertan.”

With his hand in his pocket, Johan kicked a lump of newspapers with his foot. While the gentlemanly Johan was smiling with a crooked smile, he looked strangely delinquent.

“Of course, it wasn’t only Marquis Libertan. Many other nobles participated. But the one who started it all was Marquis Libertan.”

In the backlight, his red eyes shone. Even while scattering newspapers like trash, Johan’s gaze was solely focused on me.

“It’s strange.”

“…”

“All the time I investigated you, not a single word like this came up. Until recently, these journalists had no connection with Libertan at all.”

“…But suddenly evidence related to Libertan came out?”

I barely managed to detach my lips that wouldn’t part.

“How can that happen?”

Johan raised one eyebrow slightly.