LPSB 32

‘As expected! Making raisin bread was the right choice.’

I patted my shoulders and praised my own cleverness to no end.

After sneaking back to my room, I looked at the message floating in midair.

<<Coins Owned: 200 coins>>

200 coins. It wasn’t even that much, but it felt like I had become rich.

I was glad I had saved the previous 100 coins instead of spending them.

I decided to invest all 200 coins into the “Paid-if-you-wait” reward.

With 200 coins, I could watch two episodes back-to-back. No matter how cruel the cliffhangers were, it would still be enough to get useful information.

Now, just before the bakery opened, was the perfect time to spend coins.

<<Paid-if-you-wait: Episode 1 OR Gacha>>

I tapped “Paid-if-you-wait” with my fingertips, expecting the usual white screen to appear like last time.

But no matter how long I waited, nothing showed up.

‘What?’

I pressed the text again and again.

Ding-ling. Unlike usual, the sound was weak and lifeless, as if it had deflated. A new message appeared.

<<Paid-if-you-wait selection unavailable>>

<<Currently under temporary maintenance.>>

What…?

They say there are three sacred swords of the internet world.

Temporary maintenance, scheduled maintenance, and emergency maintenance.

‘This is not it!’

I felt so angry I wanted to grab the message and slam it.

At the very least, they should tell me when the maintenance starts and ends!

But the floating letters slipped away like smoke, impossible to touch.

I felt drained. I collapsed into a chair.

‘If I can’t use Paid-if-you-wait…’

There was only one option left: gacha.

I frowned as I looked into the air.

‘Why is this thing twitching?’

Unlike the plain text, the word “Gacha” alone was swelling and sparkling.

Not only that, it kept swaying side to side as if urging me to press it quickly.

It almost felt like the system was deliberately trying to push me into choosing it.

Suspicious, I crossed my arms and thought carefully.

The memory of my first—and last—gacha was horrifying.

Of course, this time it wasn’t the “special” version, just a normal gacha.

But that somehow made it more frightening. Since it was still called a “reward,” something useful might come out if I was lucky.

But that also meant something harmful might come out if I was unlucky.

What should I do…

‘It’s 200 coins anyway. Should I try just once?’

That’s how human psychology works. If I only had 100 coins, I would never gamble.

But I had 200 coins. And I had a strong feeling I shouldn’t just keep hoarding them.

After a long struggle, I tapped “Gacha.”

The text rippled, and a clear sound rang out. Thankfully, no maintenance message appeared.

<<You selected 1 gacha pull.>>

<<100 coins will be consumed.>>

<<Coins remaining: 100>>

Just like when I pulled the dragon gacha, the letters spun wildly in front of me.

I tried hard to read them as they flashed past.

<<Oily paper someone discarded, a bottomless jar, a tricolor cat, a bent magic spoon, firecrackers that don’t explode……>>

As I watched, I felt like grabbing the spinning letters by the throat.

What kind of trash gacha is this?!

It felt like spinning a roulette full of nothing but losses.

But then something caught my eye.

<<Exactly what you were looking for>>

Unlike the other junk, the letters shimmered in gold.

That’s it! That one! I didn’t know what it was, but it was definitely something I needed.

I clasped my hands tightly.

Please, please, please…

But a gacha is a gacha.

Ding-roong… With a weak, dropping sound, the message appeared.

<<Result: a handkerchief someone lost>>

<<Try again next time~!>>

The moment I saw that infuriating message, I screamed.

“Hey! Are you kidding me?!”

At that exact moment—

Ding!

<<Warning! Invalid behavior detected.>>

<<Accumulated warnings: 1>>

What?!

I hurriedly looked around and made eye contact with a maid who had just entered the room.

Her name was Zena. She widened her eyes, startled, seeing me shout at empty air.

The maids who had stolen the necklace had all been fired and kicked out of the mansion.

Those with red marks on their resumes would probably have a hard time finding jobs.

From now on, new maids would be selected through strict interviews conducted by the butler and the marquis.

Until then, Zena was assigned to serve me alone.

Zena asked carefully with a worried expression.

“Miss, is something wrong?”

“…No.”

I answered flatly on purpose.

Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice anything strange and continued.

“What would you like to wear for tomorrow’s outing?”

With a flushed face, Zena held a pile of dresses in her arms.

I glanced at them and said,

“Something in the middle.”

“You mean this light green dress? That color really brings out your complexion, Miss.”

Zena praised my choice warmly.

Since the necklace incident, she had become especially affectionate toward me.

She carefully checked if anything was bothering me and followed my words as if I were her savior.

I had only told her to “let it go,” but now she treated me almost like a lifesaver.

And I tried my best to be kind to her as well. I nodded awkwardly with a smile.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Ding!

<<Warning! Invalid behavior detected.>>

<<Accumulated warnings: 2>>

“…Ha.”

At this point, I wasn’t even surprised anymore.

Here we go again. The endless warning parade…

‘Do they not have a warning reset ticket in gacha?’

Probably not.

I crushed that foolish hope and focused on wanting the system to give me the next quest instead.

Zena widened her eyes at my thanks, then smiled shyly, her cheeks turning pink.

Seeing that, I didn’t feel too bad about getting a warning.

Through this incident, I learned something.

No matter how much I tried to stop it, what was destined to happen would happen anyway.

Like a fixed trajectory, things were likely to follow the original storyline.

So what I needed to do was reduce the chances of ending up in trouble alone.

I needed to increase the number of people who trusted me and were on my side.

The maids were the ones who spent the most time by my side each day.

For the future, it would be best to make them my people.

Of course, with auto-mode, it wouldn’t be easy.

I blinked my tired eyes. Even while sitting in a comfortable chair, my body felt heavy.

Well, I was exhausted.

So many things had happened today. I returned from the auction and took a short nap.

But then I immediately went to the bakery and baked bread for Isiel, so my fatigue only piled up.

‘Let’s go to bed early today.’

I decided to check the gacha reward tomorrow and end the day peacefully.

But just then—

My bedroom door burst open without even a knock.

“…!”

“Oh my!”

The person who entered was Isiel.

His expression was so intense it looked like blue flames were flickering in his eyes.

I immediately checked his hands, worried he might be holding a sword.

Thankfully, Isiel’s hands were empty…

Or so I thought.

They weren’t empty. He was holding a tray.

A tray with half-eaten raisin bread.

The secret Suen Felicita is hiding.

Isiel felt he was gradually approaching the truth of her hidden intentions, wrapped in mist.

A noble lady, yet Suen clearly knew the secret passage of the auction house.

Isiel simply followed behind her pretending not to know, curious to see what she would do.

Then she ended up witnessing him using magic.

It wasn’t intentional. Seeing her flustered reaction, he had unconsciously used magic himself.

Isiel observed her reaction carefully.

Suen seemed quite surprised that he could use magic.

A natural reaction, yet somehow it felt slightly off, not quite fitting.

What surprised him more were her next words.

“You… don’t use magic in front of other people anymore.”

He was not foolish enough to miss the concern hidden in her words.

It was a single thread of truth finally grasped within the hazy smoke.

At dawn in the garden, Isiel confirmed that truth directly from her.

“I want to help you.”

In those blue eyes, only deep and pure sincerity remained—unshaken.