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Chapter 8
It was the sound coming from my own stomach.
“Oh my goodness, look at me. We came here to eat, didn’t we?”
Embarrassed, I rubbed my stomach for no reason and gave Kate an awkward smile.
Kate chuckled and nodded.
Then she walked toward the kitchen and shouted loudly inside,
“Dear, two servings of food!”
“We haven’t even looked at the menu yet, but you already ordered?”
“It’s fine. The chef, Mr. Thompson, used to be a famous cook at a restaurant. He’ll prepare the most delicious dish for us.”
At that moment, an intense heat burst out from the kitchen along with blazing flames.
Startled, Estelle turned her head toward the kitchen.
Soon, a delicious aroma began drifting out.
Only then did Estelle relax her expression and turn her head back.
“But what did you mean earlier?”
“Hm?”
“The part where you said the previous owners of the inn raised you like their daughter.”
Estelle glanced at me as she asked.
It might have been my imagination, but she looked strangely cautious, as if she was wondering whether she was allowed to ask me.
‘Hmm, thinking about it, I guess I didn’t explain enough.’
I had only told her about the inn.
I hadn’t properly explained my relationship with the Morris couple.
I scratched my head and opened my mouth.
“I wasn’t the Morris couple’s biological daughter. I was an orphan.”
When I opened my eyes in this world after dying in my previous life, I was lying on the street in the body of a small child.
I had been starving for days, my bones sticking out, and my entire body smelled terrible because I hadn’t been able to wash myself.
Everyone looked at me with disgust and avoided me.
Everyone except the Morris couple.
‘They really were wonderful people.’
Was it because I missed them?
As I thought of the two of them, a bitter smile naturally formed on my lips.
“Anyway, Estelle. Before we eat, there’s something I want to tell you.”
“Something you want to tell me?”
“Yeah. Earlier, while we were looking around the festival, you seemed really interested in the academy students’ performance. Was I right?”
While we had been enjoying the festival, academy students had gone up onto the stage in the square.
They all looked young, probably first-year students, and their movements were slightly awkward from nervousness.
But once the performance began, they showed an incredible display.
They pointed and clashed their shining swords at each other as if they were dancing, and dazzled the audience with beautiful and spectacular magic.
Estelle had been one of the people watching them.
Her green eyes had sparkled as she watched everything with interest.
“If you’re interested, how about entering the academy, Estelle?”
“The academy? But the academy doesn’t accept commoners.”
“That’s true. Most of them don’t. But there’s one place that’s different, isn’t there?”
“……”
Estelle didn’t answer, but I felt like I knew what she wanted to say.
She probably meant that getting in wasn’t easy.
I smiled and took out an envelope.
“Actually, Claude came to visit me a while ago. He asked me to give this to you.”
“What is this?”
“It’s a recommendation letter that will allow you to enter this September.”
“A recommendation letter……?”
“If you enroll, you’ll be able to learn not only what you saw earlier but also various other fields of study. So? Don’t you want to go?”
I placed the envelope in Estelle’s hand and asked.
Estelle hesitated for a moment.
But soon, she answered with shining eyes.
“I’ll go. I want to go.”
Hearing Estelle’s answer, I smiled with narrowed eyes as if I had expected it.
“Here, take this. This is my gift to you.”
Then I took out a gift box from my bag and handed it to Estelle.
I had secretly packed it before leaving for the temple.
When Estelle opened the box, she saw various books and writing tools inside.
She quietly stared down at them for a moment, moved her lips slightly as if trying to say something, then lifted her head and looked at me.
“It would be good to study beforehand before enrolling, right? So I prepared these.”
Studying in advance…….
Was this too much of a Korean mindset?
Feeling strangely embarrassed, I turned my gaze away.
But then……
‘Why does that person wearing a hood seem to be looking this way? Am I imagining things?’
It was at that moment when I blinked and tilted my head.
Trust: 28 (+15)
‘Huh?’
My confusion lasted only for a moment.
My entire attention was drawn to the status window that appeared before my eyes.
I rubbed my eyes without realizing it.
The Trust value, which had never increased until now, had gone up.
I wondered if I had seen it incorrectly.
But no matter how much I rubbed my eyes, the status window did not disappear.
Instead, it sparkled brightly, emphasizing its existence.
I raised my head and looked beyond the status window at Estelle.
At Estelle, who was looking at me with a happy expression.
Whoosh—!
I opened both arms wide and pulled Estelle into a tight hug.
I could feel Estelle looking up at me with a startled expression.
Her stiff body in an awkward pose.
Her soft childlike warmth.
‘She’s so, so, so adorable!’
Everything about Estelle was adorable.
However, that feeling lasted only for a moment.
Embarrassed, Estelle pushed me away with all her strength.
Crash—!
I fell backward over the chair and landed on the floor in a completely undignified manner.
Several days had passed since the festival ended and ordinary daily life returned.
As usual, I was taking care of the children.
Then—
“Teacher Reina!”
The children who had been playing in the field ran toward me while shouting loudly.
“This big brother was looking for you!”
“So we brought him here!”
Together with a strange man wearing a hood.
‘Wait, that person is……!’
I had definitely seen that hood before.
The last time I was eating with Estelle at the inn.
It was the same hood worn by the person who seemed to have been watching Estelle and me.
‘Who exactly is he?’
Among the people I knew, no one wore a hood like that.
And the fact that he had found me through the children.
It felt suspicious.
“Um, teacher?”
Just as I stood there silently, feeling doubtful,
I felt an intense gaze from below along with a voice calling me.
The children were looking at me with eyes that clearly wanted praise.
“Oh my goodness, Den and Marco! Did both of you help someone who was having trouble? That’s amazing. You’re both so kind.”
“Hehe.”
“No! We just did what anyone would do!”
Den and Marco fidgeted with their fingers and shrugged their shoulders.
They looked like they didn’t know what to do with their own pride and happiness.
I smiled warmly at the children, bent down, and patted their heads.
“Thank you both so much. Now go on. Your friends are waiting for you.”
“Yes! Brother, see you next time!”
“You have to tell us another interesting story next time!”
“Of course.”
Den and Marco ran back to their friends while waving at the hooded man.
Their faces were full of smiles, creating a warm and friendly scene.
But I wasn’t feeling that way.
‘Story? Story?’
A bad feeling washed over me.
Because I felt like I knew who this man was.
The man who had been greeting the children turned around and faced me.
“Nice to meet you, Reina.”
Then he reached beneath his cloak and slowly pulled back the hood covering his head.
Clink—
A clear metallic sound rang out.
At the same time, the man’s face was revealed.
Black hair that flowed below his shoulders and skin so pale it seemed almost white.
And contrasting sharply with it, crimson eyes and lips.
“My name is Basago. I suppose you could say I am Estelle’s…… reading companion.”
An appearance so beautiful it sent chills down my spine.
Frightening, yet strangely captivating.
Another romance route character from .
The demon Basago.
‘N-no. Why is Basago here……?’
I was bewildered.
Extremely bewildered.
Because of my sudden encounter with Basago.
Basago.
A demon who possessed the ability to see someone’s past, present, and future, as well as uncover hidden and secret things.
He liked new and interesting things, but if something lost his interest or became boring, he quickly grew tired of it.
In other words, to avoid falling out of his favor, you had to constantly bring him new things that interested him.
But for someone who already knew all the knowledge in the world, everything was simply boring.
No matter what interesting things were brought before him, nothing could satisfy him.
‘Because of this guy, how many times did my cyber daughter die……’
That was why, in this life, even if I met other characters, I had absolutely no intention of ever meeting Basago.
But to meet him like this, so suddenly……
‘I didn’t even go anywhere near the cemetery on purpose.’
Unlike the other characters, meeting Basago required completing a hidden quest.
The quest was to find an unnamed grave in the cemetery beside the temple, place flowers on it, then go to the plaza and listen to the bell ring three times.
But neither I nor Estelle had ever fulfilled those conditions.
The moment I realized this was the world of the game, I never set foot near the cemetery.
And Estelle probably hadn’t gone near the temple either because she had been going to the library.
‘Then how is Basago standing in front of me?’
A person who should have been in the demon realm unless someone summoned him.
