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~Chapter 41~
Yushen tried several more times to carry out his plan after it kept falling apart. But every time he failed, he got more discouraged.
One day, as he was sitting in his office, he heard a knock at the door. Yushen thought it was strange—there was no one in the building who would find his office unfamiliar.
But his guess was wrong.
“This is the report with the Day of Prayer schedules from the last five years.”
He thought it would be a familiar face, so he lifted his head from the paperwork. The person he’d barely seen lately, Letitia, was carefully putting a stack of papers on his desk.
Yushen’s eyes widened a little in surprise. He was shocked to see Letitia show up, but he was also fascinated by how she always seemed to appear just when he might forget her.
He sat up straighter and quickly scanned the top page.
“Why did you bring this? I thought someone else was in charge of these.”
“Senior Sirion had to go out suddenly, so I came to deliver it instead.”
“…Senior?”
“Ah, I just call him that. He told me to use his name, but I’m not comfortable with it.”
Not comfortable calling people by their names?
Yushen remembered seeing Letitia calling Aydin by his name without hesitation as they walked down the hall together.
He gripped his pen tightly—he was surprised it didn’t break in his hand. But luckily, he calmed down quickly. Now that he thought about it, Letitia had called him by name, too.
He felt a little better.
“Sit and wait for a moment.”
Letitia nodded at Yushen’s softer tone and sat quietly on the sofa.
Letitia didn’t really need to wait—this report didn’t need approval. But Yushen still told her to stay…
‘Why did I stop her from leaving?’
He didn’t know why himself. Maybe he just wanted to keep her there for a while.
Letitia didn’t know any of this. She just wondered when she could go back to her department.
For a while, the only sound in the office was the turning of papers. It was natural for things to be quiet—Letitia was only there to run an errand, and Yushen was too focused on the papers to know what to say.
But there was another reason it felt awkward.
‘If I stay here too long, will the rumors get even worse?’
Letitia worried about the rumors about the two of them. Since Yushen and Idelia hadn’t made any progress, the gossip about Letitia and Yushen hadn’t died down.
Letitia tried her best not to pay attention to Yushen, but Yushen couldn’t help himself. He kept glancing at her, and whenever she moved, he’d pretend to go back to reading—but his eyes would always drift back.
Yushen worried about how Letitia was reacting, wondering if he was the only one who cared about the gossip.
But actually, Letitia’s efforts not to care made Yushen more self-conscious.
‘…Does she think she doesn’t have to worry about me anymore?’
A while ago, Letitia had insisted there was evidence of a curse on the Cerberus corpse, and Yushen started to believe she could really be Leana’s twin sister.
Letitia knew it, too, and now that she just had to prove Leana existed, she probably felt more at ease.
She had been accepted into Luche because of her foresight, and now she even had a supporter in Aydin.
‘Does she think she doesn’t need me anymore?’
Yushen felt his mood drop suddenly.
He wanted to get Letitia out of his sight. Looking at her only made bad thoughts come to mind.
He clenched his teeth and called her.
“Miss Montrose.”
Letitia quickly turned to face him, like she’d been waiting for him to tell her to leave.
That annoyed Yushen even more—was she really just waiting for permission to go?
He wanted to take back his words, but forced himself to say them anyway.
“…You can go.”
“Huh?”
“I said you can leave.”
Letitia looked a bit confused. She thought the report would take longer to check, so the sudden order to leave surprised her. But since it was what she wanted, she was happy to go—though she wondered why Yushen’s voice sounded grumpy.
But she didn’t dare ask.
“Okay! Have a good day!”
She hurried out.
Yushen looked back at the report, but he couldn’t focus anymore.
He felt upset that Letitia wouldn’t even call him by name, even though she did with Aydin.
He sometimes wondered why he felt so competitive with Aydin. Now he realized:
‘It’s not that I’m jealous of Aydin… It’s that I was the first one to reach out to Letitia, but she doesn’t notice me…’
That was what really bothered him.
He admitted he was harsh with Letitia at first, thinking she was a witch. But after that, he had only tried to help her. So it was hard to accept how things were now.
There was another problem, too. Lately, he’d started getting other strange symptoms: whenever he saw or thought about Letitia, his heart would beat fast and his face would feel hot.
“Cupid…”
Yushen started to wonder if someone had secretly given him “Cupid,” an illegal drug that made people fall in love. It had become popular lately, causing trouble all over the Empire, but no one had been able to stop it.
Yushen had never had time to investigate it, but now he decided he would—especially with the Day of Prayer coming soon and the need to clean up the streets.
Both of Letitia’s hands were full. And not just figuratively—they were actually heavy.
Sirion, thankful that Letitia submitted the report for him yesterday, had given her lots of the most popular desserts and drinks from the city’s best dessert shop.
She only carried them when paying—Sirion carried everything else on the way back to Luche.
She tried to refuse.
“It wasn’t a hard favor—should I really accept something so expensive?”
“You did my job for me.”
“Thanks, senior! I’ll help you with anything from now on!”
“Because of the dessert?”
“…Well, that’s part of it!”
Sirion only smiled and didn’t seem bothered.
Letitia liked how he quietly supported her without bragging. She thought they could become good friends.
From the front of the Luche building, Letitia carried the bags herself—she didn’t want people to see Sirion carrying things for the youngest team member.
Luckily, her department wasn’t far from the entrance.
“Leti.”
As she put the bags in her locker and sat down, Aydin called her.
At some point, Aydin had started using her nickname. It felt strange at first, but now she was used to it. The people around her were still surprised, though.
“Yes?”
“This afternoon, you’ll go on an outside mission with the division chief.”
“…Me?”
“Yes.”
“Uh… with which senior?”
“You’ll go alone from our department.”
“What?”
Letitia thought she must have heard wrong.
Aydin just shrugged, meaning she’d heard correctly.
“Alone? Why?”
“The division chief called suddenly to say there’s an urgent mission, and asked for a list of members free today. You’re the only one not busy.”
It was true—she couldn’t argue. She also couldn’t say she shouldn’t go just because she didn’t fight. Not every mission needed a fighter.
Actually, Letitia liked going on outside missions. It let her see the world for free.
But this time, the mission was with Yushen, which made her uneasy.
“…Do I really have to go? Can’t our department skip this time?”
“No, we can’t. Every department has to send at least one member, just in case there aren’t enough people.”
Even Aydin, who usually tried to help her, said no. It was clear she had no choice.
She could only hope that Yushen wouldn’t do anything weird in front of people.
“Don’t worry. It won’t be a hard mission. If it were, I wouldn’t have sent you.”
Aydin thought she was worried about the mission—which wasn’t totally wrong.
But since the call was urgent, Letitia guessed the job had to be done quickly, so maybe Yushen wouldn’t have time to bother her.
She sat at her desk and prayed until it was time to go.
‘Any god is fine—please let my wish come true.’
