The restaurant was also crowded, but fortunately there were seats available as it wasn’t peak hours yet.
Eustar specifically requested a small private room, almost like a storage space, even offering extra money. Only after the staff closed the door and left did Laila realize he had done this for her sake.
“You should be able to relax at least while eating. Take off your hood.”
Eustar said, and Laila looked at the closed door for a moment before finally removing her hood. The table was low and not particularly clean, but compared to the room they had just seen, it felt almost cozy.
‘At least there are no spiders,’ Laila thought.
“Do you have any favorite foods?” Eustar asked.
Laila shook her head as if she had heard the strangest question. He rang the bell to call the waiter again. The door opened slightly, and the waiter poked his head through the gap.
“Today’s soup and dinner menu, no alcohol, but instead bring two glasses of fruit juice or clean water if you have any.”
Laila worried the waiter might suddenly fling the door wide open, exposing her to everyone in the hall, but fortunately that didn’t happen.
The waiter quickly jotted down Eustar’s order on a small notepad, then rather rudely slammed the door shut and disappeared.
“People who rent places like this are often doing suspicious deals, so that’s probably why. They don’t want to get involved.”
Eustar offered an explanation. Laila understood his explanation but briefly wondered if she should convey that she hadn’t been bothered by the waiter’s attitude in the first place, or not.
As the small private room became isolated from the outside noise, Laila finally had some space to organize her thoughts.
Most were curiosities about what would happen to her in the future, and since it was the first time in her life she had been curious about the future, it felt both novel and vague.
Eustar also seemed lost in thought, but Laila had no way of peering into his mind.
The food came out quickly. It seemed they had probably prepared it in bulk and reheated it as needed, as the bread didn’t look very fresh and the chunks in the soup were mushy and falling apart.
Nevertheless, when Laila smelled the food, she felt a fierce hunger rising.
“It’s been so long since I’ve seen food like this.”
At Laila’s words, Eustar, who was just tasting a spoonful of soup, lifted his head slightly.
To prevent his long hair from falling into the bowl, he had tied it up in a bun at the back of his head. Without the long hair that had been visible all along, his impression looked quite different.
After a brief pause in thought, Eustar spoke:
“What exactly do you mean by ‘food like this’? Are you referring to meat dishes?”
“Yes, that’s right. Meat dishes specifically. When my mother was around, she would sometimes catch rabbits or wild pigeons and cook them, but I wasn’t very good at hunting.”
In truth, it was more the process of catching and preparing the animals that was difficult, but she deliberately omitted that part.
Somehow, she felt it was inappropriate for her, as a witch’s daughter, to mention it. However, Eustar seemed amused by Laila’s words.
“So you’ve been living on herbal soups, pumpkins, carrots, and lettuce from the garden all this time? Along with homemade bread?”
Laila felt like he was teasing her. But it wasn’t unpleasant, and… she wanted to respond wittily, but knowing she didn’t have that level of eloquence, she answered honestly.
“In the fall, we sometimes caught fish too. You know, in the forest where I met you. If you go past there, there’s a small valley.”
“That’s surprising. So you can’t hunt, but you know how to fish?”
“It’s simple if you use a fish trap.”
Eustar nodded.
“Fish trap, I’ve heard of it. Never actually seen one though. They say fish can get in but can’t get out, right? I know the principle, but it’s still fascinating every time I hear about it.”
Laila stared at Eustar with a somewhat puzzled look.
“You really… What exactly are you?”
Eustar, who was tearing off a piece of bread and dipping it in the meat dish sauce, tilted his head.
“Didn’t I explain?”
“I know you’re a knight belonging to Tentinella. But…”
As Laila’s words trailed off, Eustar smiled with that characteristic expression of his, devoid of any malice.
“You think I’m hiding something, don’t you?”
Laila didn’t answer. In fact, she did, but somehow acknowledging it outright felt strange.
Was she unfairly interrogating him, or was she choosing to walk an unnecessarily uncomfortable path? Baseless guilt and awkwardness pricked at the inside of her mouth like a canker sore.
I shouldn’t pry any further, Laila thought. It felt less like a thought and more like some entity within her was exerting pressure. She was curious about him, but it didn’t seem like the right time to know yet. So wait…
Wait? Until when? And why?
Laila blurted out:
“You seem a bit strange. Is it rude to say that?”
A more subtle smile appeared on Eustar’s lips.
“It depends on the person. But it’s fine with me. By the way, strange how? What exactly is strange and in what way?”
While pondering how to answer, Laila gently pressed the meat dish, which she couldn’t tell if it was pork or beef, with the tip of her fork.
Now that she looked closely, the plate had a chip on one side, and the fork was full of scratches with its coating completely peeled off. Somehow, its appearance felt awkwardly similar to herself, giving her an uneasy feeling.
Laila said:
“It’s hard to explain. But how should I put it… You seem to disrupt my thoughts. No, you do disrupt them. I can feel it clearly.”
Eustar’s expression became even more peculiar. Now he looked like a pantomime actor who couldn’t decide whether to laugh out loud or put on a serious face.
As if pondering how to act next to completely fool the audience…
“That sounds like something people who have fallen in love often say.”
A hint of playfulness was mixed in at the end of his lowered voice. Nevertheless, the tone was sufficiently impressive, and if Laila had been a more ordinary young lady, she might have blushed momentarily at those words.
But instead of turning her cheeks red, Laila just stared blankly at Eustar. Eustar took a sip of his drink with an awkward smile. They had only pretended to squeeze a lemon into it, so it wasn’t a particularly appealing taste.
“It was a joke. Clearly not the eyes of someone in love. No matter how you look at it.”
Laila immediately replied:
“Whether it’s a joke or not doesn’t matter. Someone like me can’t fall in love, I was told.”
“Who said such a thing?”
“My mother.”
She ended her words abruptly, as if cutting cloth with sharp scissors. She also took a sip of her drink. It didn’t appeal to her taste either.
Eustar now forgot about eating and rested his chin on his hand, staring intently at Laila with an interested expression.
“What kind of person is ‘someone like you’, Laila?”
“You’re not asking because you don’t know, are you?”
“No, I’m asking because I really don’t know.”
Laila’s hand holding the fork moved slightly. The fork that was about to pick up an overcooked, mushy potato stopped with a tick sound at the edge of the plate.
“A witch, I mean. Witches don’t need to fall in love, so they can’t love, she said.”
Suddenly, laughter was heard. It was Eustar who had laughed.
“Is that such a funny story?”
“Well. You don’t need to fall in love, so you can’t love… If what your mother said is true, how were you born?”
Laila said with a serious expression:
“She said love isn’t necessary for reproductive activities. I agree with that. Though I don’t know much about it.”
“That’s an interesting and explicit expression. I agree that love isn’t necessary. I’ve heard that witches have continued their bloodlines that way too. But that doesn’t mean you can’t love. The two aren’t synonymous.”
At the end of his words, his eyes crinkled slightly. Laila found another curious point in Eustar’s words, but she decided it wasn’t necessary to ask about it right now and kept her mouth shut.
* * *
After finishing their meal, the two walked briefly through the evening streets that were starting to get busy before returning to the inn.
Although her feet felt better, Laila finally realized that a full stomach didn’t relieve fatigue. In fact, she felt even more tired due to her body feeling heavier. Moreover, she had another problem.
“Laila, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”
Eustar, who had been carefully watching Laila as she lowered her hooded head more and more, asked while supporting her. Laila lowered her gaze again after glimpsing the dark, opaque shadows visible among the people.
Some of them passed by without noticing her, but others came right up to Laila’s face.
A man whose single remaining eye was so large it took up half his face was persistently staring at Laila and following her, so she didn’t want to lift her head at all.
Laila whispered softly, trying to suppress the urge to vomit:
“…There are too many. Don’t you feel them?”
“Ah, you mean the ghosts? Yes, I feel them. Being next to you, I feel them even more clearly than usual… and I can see them too. But since I’m not wearing the monocle, they’re not that vivid. Are you having a hard time? Should I carry you on my back to the inn?”
Laila shook her head. The motion almost caused her hood to fall off, but she quickly caught it.
“I’m fine. I think I can just walk like this. But beside…”
At that moment, the man who had been following Laila thrust his single remaining eye right under her face. Laila involuntarily held her breath and stopped in her tracks.
The swollen eyeball rolled around. And it stared straight at Laila’s face. It opened its mouth as if trying to say something, and she could see its pitch-black mouth cavity filled with half-rotten fish.
Just as a scream was about to burst from Laila’s lips, Eustar’s voice was heard:
“Excuse me.”
At that moment, Laila’s toes lifted off the ground.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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