MISS 10

chapter 10

Now that I think about it, Azel was actually ridiculously handsome.

The kind of face where ten people walk past him and all ten turn around to look again. Honestly, I had never seen someone this good-looking in my life.

Which meant I hadn’t realized something about myself.

I had this much of a weakness for handsome men.

Th-this is too much…

Until now, I hadn’t noticed because he always wore an irritated expression.

But a handsome man staring at me with a deep gaze—without annoyance or disgust—was far more dangerous than I had expected.

“…Azel?”

I called his name as a hint that he should probably stop staring at me now, but his gaze didn’t waver in the slightest.

Then an unexpected question came.

“You’re nervous.”

“…What?”

“Did you know you’re very strange?”

What is this—picking a fight?

I had heard that line plenty of times before, but hearing it now felt completely random.

If we’re talking about strange, you’re not exactly normal either, you know?

I wanted to argue back, but the overwhelming aura of his good looks had already crushed my spirit. The timid part of me was pathetically weak.

“You approach me without hesitation,” Azel murmured, “yet the moment our eyes meet, you freeze up in tension.”

“…!”

“Look at you now. You don’t know what to do with yourself.”

The quiet whisper somehow sounded extremely dangerous.

“At first, I thought it was because you were afraid. But that’s not it. The people who feared me never made that kind of face.”

“…Ah…”

That’s because you’re too handsome…

Apparently Azel had already noticed my condition.

But it seemed he was misunderstanding it in a slightly different direction.

“That’s not—”

Suddenly, Azel’s face moved closer.

Even closer than when I had jumped beside him earlier to tease him. At a distance of barely half a handspan, his red lips moved.

If this were a drama, it would be the kind of scene where someone would scream:

“Aaaah! This is the kiss moment!!!”

“W-why are you suddenly doing this?”

“I’m curious.”

“C-curious about what?”

“What kind of relationship did we have?”

His pleasant low voice dropped even deeper.

A shiver ran across my entire body for a completely different reason now. I hadn’t realized before, but his voice was exactly my type.

“Why do you go that far for me? Why do you look at me like that?”

“W-wait! Time out! Let’s take a step back—”

What kind of look is that supposed to be?!

I wanted to protest, but my mind had gone completely hazy from the sudden close-range face attack.

As I tried to retreat, a firm arm suddenly wrapped around my waist.

Startled, I looked up—and met his crimson eyes staring straight at me, trapping me in place.

“What was I… to you?”

What should I say?

My mind was completely blank.

Reflected in Azel’s eyes, my face looked unbelievably dumbfounded.

But I couldn’t help it.

We were so close that my face was visible in his pupils. There was no way I wouldn’t be nervous.

“And you… what were you to me?”

My heart felt like it was about to burst.

“W-well, that’s… we, we were…”

I was stammering like an idiot, but nothing came to mind.

At this rate, Azel might notice something strange.

Get it together!

My head felt like it might explode from trying not to say something wrong, yet my mouth kept opening on its own.

“Actually—!”

Just as the words were about to spill out—

my mouth betrayed my will.

“…?”

My trembling eyes caught something pale beside Azel’s face.

What is that?

Even my barely functioning sanity couldn’t help but question it. The thing in front of me was extremely out of place.

Looking closer, it had the shape of a person.

But it was half transparent.

Something with a very fascinated expression was watching Azel and me.

Floating in midair.

“…!!!”

At that moment, I was certain.

That was a ghost.

The realization struck me like a sudden heart attack.

“What’s wrong?”

Azel asked, sensing something strange, but I couldn’t hear his voice anymore.

“Hey?”

Because the sudden appearance of the ghost had already caused my mind to shut down.

“Hey! Snap out of it!”

Azel shouted as I collapsed limply, but I couldn’t hear him properly.

Right.

Sorry, but I was weak against the occult.

*

Azel caught the woman as she suddenly collapsed and held her firmly.

“Hey! Hey, wake up!”

There weren’t many ways to call a woman who didn’t even have a name.

So he had to use the word she disliked—but the unconscious woman didn’t respond at all.

Why suddenly? Why?!

He tried several times to wake her, but she showed no sign of regaining consciousness.

She had clearly been about to answer him.

The woman who usually only smiled quietly at his questions had, for the first time, been about to speak about herself.

And then—

she suddenly clutched her heart and collapsed.

This was not normal.

“Don’t tell me…”

All those times she had subtly avoided answering.

What if it wasn’t that she didn’t want to answer… but that she couldn’t?

A sudden realization jolted Azel out of his stunned confusion.

A woman who knew his identity and the Regression Stone.

Yet someone Azel himself couldn’t remember at all.

And on top of that, she never spoke about herself.

An ominous possibility began swirling through his mind.

Finally, the scattered clues formed one conclusion.

…Black magic.

“So that’s what it was.”

The words she had said when she first realized that Azel had forgotten her.

“…All black magic requires a price.”

What if Azel’s memories had been that price?

And what if this current situation—

was the backlash from trying to speak about a forbidden restriction?

Everything about the woman’s mysterious identity and behavior suddenly made sense.

“No… no, that can’t be.”

He tried to deny it, but suspicion had already taken root in Azel’s heart.

*

My whole body felt as heavy as cotton soaked in water.

Did I… faint?

When I lifted my eyelids, the now-familiar ceiling greeted me.

I forced my heavy body upright and looked around.

The empty room came into view.

This was the room I had been staying in recently.

Even in the middle of all that, that nice guy moved me back to my room.

I was grateful—but it would’ve been better if someone had stayed beside me.

Seeing a ghost for the first time in my life had been that shocking.

Damn it.

Just remembering when our eyes met made my hands tremble again.

Even the ghost’s expression was still vivid in my mind.

It had been covering its mouth with both hands, wearing an excited expression.

“Creepy.”

It looked like someone who loved watching romance dramas.

Wait… that’s not creepy at all.

Come to think of it—

Why was it making that kind of face?

The more I thought about it, the more unpleasant it felt.

Damn it. When the mental stress piles up, weird things really start happening.

While I was muttering complaints to hide my fear, a voice suddenly called out to me.

[Are you okay?]

Looking up instinctively was my mistake.

Our eyes met immediately.

“?”

[Are you okay?]

“???”

[…No, I asked if you’re okay. Can’t you hear me?]

By the time I realized what I was doing, my fist had already been thrown.

It was the same ghost I saw earlier.

“AAAAAAAAAAAH!!!”

THUD!

[Urk!]

The ghost was punched and collapsed backward—but that didn’t matter to me.

I had already lost my mind after screaming with every ounce of strength I had.

“G-g-g-g-ghost!”

[Ugh! H-hey… my breath! I can’t— breathe—!]

The thing rolled on the floor clutching its stomach, clearly in real pain.

But I was in full panic mode.

There was no way I could notice something like that.

All I could think about was getting out of this place.

“A-Azel!”

For some reason, a blind belief surged within me that Azel would save me from this crisis.

“Azel!”

I scrambled to my feet, but my body couldn’t keep up with the speed and I tripped.

Crash!

My whole body slammed against the floor, but I didn’t even feel the pain.

I just wanted to escape this haunted room immediately.

“Azel…!”

My voice was already halfway between sobbing and screaming.

“Azel! Azeeel!”

Like someone who knew only that one word, I desperately kept shouting his name.

Finally—

the tightly shut door opened.

“You!”

“Azel!”

Azel stood in the doorway, looking deeply shocked for some reason.

But that didn’t matter.

Right now, I just wanted my savior to help me.

I desperately reached my hand out toward him.

His trembling gaze fell on my outstretched fingers.

But I never learned what that look meant.