LIEWB 40

Chapter : 40

That afternoon.

After sending Sophie away, I lay on my bed alone for a long time, lost in thought, and I seriously felt the need to revise my plan.

And when Sophie came into my room carrying dinner that evening, I finally said the words I’d only been thinking until now.

“I need to leave this house.”

I had finally reached a conclusion.

“W-what? M-my lady… L-leave the house…?”

Sophie, holding the tray, was visibly shaken by my sudden declaration. Her hands trembled.

“I can’t keep living like this, getting treated this way. Not in this crappy house.”

“Whaaat?!”

Sophie looked genuinely shocked at my words, especially at me calling this place a “crappy house,” but I had no intention of taking it back.

Even just looking at the blanket I was sleeping under—it was kept clean thanks to the maids’ hard work, but honestly, it was so old and patched up that it was barely holding together.

No matter how you looked at it, this worn-out comforter wasn’t something a noble lady should be using.

But it wasn’t something as trivial as the Ulmer Duchy’s poverty that made me decide to run away.

‘It’s time to set out on an adventure…’

My core power was embarrassingly low, and I didn’t even own a proper artifact.

At this rate, my plan to trade magic stones with the prince would fall apart, and I’d have to give up on my dream of becoming a wealthy heiress—left to suck my fingers in poverty.

The social route? Well, I couldn’t even debut at the spring ball, so that was already a lost cause. I had no desire to suffer through an unfamiliar route unnecessarily.

First, I should head out with the basic starter equipment, hunt some low-level mobs to upgrade my gear, and then roam around areas with lots of treasure chests.

The problem was… while I was grinding like that, I needed someone to mine at least the first batch of magic stones for me…

‘Can’t exactly make her do it.’

I glanced sideways at Sophie, but her body looked even more fragile than mine.

“M-my lady… wouldn’t it be safer and more comfortable to stay under the protection of the family? At least here, you won’t starve…”

“It’s not like I’m comfortable here, thanks to the Duke and Paula.”

Yeah. Those two were the biggest obstacles.

Sure, Sophie could be a bit of a hassle, but come to think of it… she’d never actually caused me any real problems despite sticking to me every day.

“O-of course, what you want is most important, but… c-could you please reconsider…?”

Sophie looked at me with a frightened face and lowered her head immediately like I might kill her if she met my eyes.

“Well, it’s not like I plan to leave immediately…”

Wait a second.

I suddenly stopped mid-sentence, feeling a strange sense of discomfort, and stood up from my chair.

“W-why? What’s wrong…?”

Sophie flinched and looked up at me cautiously, startled by my sudden movement.

“……”

“……”

Silence.

Nothing but silence followed.

And the only thing I could see in front of me was Sophie, flinching and glancing at me nervously.

Which made it even stranger.

‘Shouldn’t something have popped up by now?’

Lately, Sophie would freak out at just the sight of me, suspecting me of doing something strange.

Even stretching would make her terrified, as if I were about to perform a demonic summoning ritual.

So by now, I should be seeing a system message like “She’s terrified you’ll perform a demonic ritual after running away” or “She fears you’ll start pickling people again.”

But today… nothing.

‘Why…?’

Thinking carefully, I suddenly remembered the “Hidden Reward” from the Spring Ball Quest – Find a Trading Partner.

The hint had been: “Hint: The System’s Silence.”

And right now… wasn’t the system eerily silent?

With that half-sure, half-uncertain feeling, I instinctively opened Sophie’s info window.

And then…

· Status: Method

Normally, the system window would show things like her name and age, but this time… the only thing displayed was the word “Method.”

The moment I saw that, chills ran down my spine.

“…Who are you?”

“W-what? M-my lady? What do you mean by that…?”

Sophie looked up at me, trembling.

Those terrified eyes, that goat-like shaky voice… all perfectly matched the Sophie I knew.

But right now, in my eyes, Sophie wasn’t Sophie.

She was just some disgusting shapeshifter impersonating her.

I mean… how can someone impersonate a maid so perfectly?

What kind of lunatic… or pervert…?

“……”

At first, the intruder tried to play dumb, but when I stepped back with a serious glare, they finally dropped the act.

“W-what? H-how did you know? I thought my disguise was p-perfect…”

And just when I feared he’d transform back into a man with some disgusting cracking sounds like last time… thankfully, Randolph didn’t subject me to that horror again.

But still, watching him awkwardly fidget and mimic Sophie’s tone… it was incredibly creepy.

I quickly stepped back a couple more steps and, grabbing the bell by my bed like a self-defense weapon, glared at him.

“…Why are you here?”

Was this some unfinished execution ceremony?

This bastard… as if being a pervert wasn’t enough, was he now a stalker with an obsession?

“I-it’s just… I was interested… Until now, no one’s ever noticed me, my lady…”

Lunatic.

Not only did he track me all the way here, but he even sneakily blended in… just because he was interested?

The thought that I could’ve been dead if he’d held even a sliver of murderous intent made my blood run cold.

But thankfully, Randolph—still in Sophie’s form—raised both hands and shook his head, showing no intention to harm me. Then he asked with a naively curious voice:

“By the way… y-you figured me out again. How did you know?”

“Cut it out. Don’t talk like Sophie while looking like that.”

When I snapped irritably, Randolph finally answered in his usual tone from yesterday:

“Alright, fine. Anyway… you ran pretty well yesterday. I didn’t expect you to have a Sword Master helping you.”

“…You came to kill me again?”

“Nope. Not today. For one, I wasn’t even hired for an assassination this time… and besides, I’m not the type to obsess over prey that escaped once.”

Randolph smirked—still annoyingly in Sophie’s appearance—and sat casually on the single sofa like it was his own room.

“After you escaped the palace yesterday, I looked into who had put out the hit. It was the first time I ever broke my own business rule of not digging into a client’s identity unless they revealed it themselves.”

“…Why?”

“Because what you said made sense. Your words… gave me a sort of… direction.”

Huh. To think my desperate survival rambling would be taken like that.

Life really was full of surprises.

“But it seems they noticed I was tracking them… because suddenly, I was ambushed by some mysterious group.”

“……”

“They were followers of an evil god. I could smell the stench of foul black magic. Come to think of it, when I helped you get into the palace, they were probably using that power too…”

So… it wasn’t the prince chasing him.

But why was someone like Randolph telling me all this? Someone whose job meant being hunted was just part of life?

Surely, he wasn’t trying to blame me for any of this… right?

My doubts were piling up fast.

And just when I was getting buried under suspicions, Randolph finally cut to the chase.

“Anyway… when I got back to my hideout, I found the entire guild burned to the ground.”

“…What?”

“So… now I have nowhere to go.”

As I quietly listened to him, a troubling thought suddenly popped into my head.

Frowning, I muttered:

“…Hey.”

“What?”

“…Don’t tell me… you came here because your house got raided?”

“……”

“…Seriously?”

Silence.

This time… it wasn’t the system’s silence.

It was the awkward, pathetic silence… of a creepy, trashy assassin with nowhere else to go.