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Chapter 11 ,…
“Not you…”
“Then who? Ah, Mr. Veilt? That guy is definitely annoying.”
I totally agreed. Just earlier, I almost clutched the back of my neck because of him.
“…Not him either.”
“Oh, the Saintess?! Just between us, Boss, she’s a little annoying too. I mean, you’re trapped here and yet she comes in smiling so brightly… it’s a bit much.”
I was even about to side with him by talking behind the saintess’ back for his sake, but then he muttered softly:
“…Not her either.”
“Then who?”
“Why are you skipping one person?”
“…You mean you, Boss?”
He just looked at me silently. After a moment of thought, I tilted my head.
“But you’re not an annoying or pathetic person.”
Mr. Veilt, sure. But not him.
At my unexpected words, his lips pursed. With his big frame and handsome face making that expression, he looked surprisingly cute.
Maybe it was also because of those perfectly round glasses. They doubled the cuteness.
Fidgeting with his long bangs that nearly covered his eyes, he muttered timidly.
“…I can’t even say a word to the Saintess.”
“Was there something you wanted to say? If talking is too hard, you could’ve just written it down and handed it to her.”
He frowned.
“That’s not the problem.”
“Then what is?”
“The problem is how pathetic I am, not even able to say a single word.”
“There are plenty of people who can’t say a word to her. That’s normal.”
“…”
“And when it’s someone you like, it’s even harder to talk. That’s just how it is.”
After a quiet pause, he suddenly jumped to his feet. Startled, I craned my neck back to look up at him towering over me.
Even from this humiliating angle, his good looks didn’t fade one bit.
Boss frowned deeply.
“I don’t like the Saintess.”
His unexpected confession made me blink in surprise.
“What? You don’t like her? Why not?”
“What do you mean why not…? I did have a bit of fondness, but it never turned into love.”
At his completely unanticipated answer, I jumped up and shouted.
“No way!”
“Why are you the one yelling?”
Because in my head, the “second male lead” is supposed to love the heroine until the day he dies!
I calmly retorted inwardly and shrugged my shoulders.
“Maybe I was brainwashed by all the articles that called it ‘the unrequited love of the century.’ I just assumed it was natural for you to love the Saintess.”
He slumped his shoulders and returned to his usual crouched spot.
“People twist things however they want…”
I looked at him curiously as he plopped down.
“But if you don’t even like her, then why couldn’t you say a single word to her? You’re talking to me just fine right now.”
He bit his lip as if tormented. His clenched fists opened and closed, his gaze turning hazy—like there was something between him and the Saintess I didn’t know about.
Could it be that the confident, arrogant second male lead had been pushed into such a corner emotionally that he couldn’t even speak to her?
If he had holed himself up in his room, isolating himself, he must’ve been overthinking.
Thinking too much, drawing his own conclusions.
And if loneliness and gloom kept him confined for too long, it would only get harder to step outside.
If his thoughts turned dark, it could even lead to self-loathing.
That’s exactly what happened with Haena.
“So pathetic…”
It seemed Boss was showing the same symptoms.
“But you talk just fine with me, with Mr. Belt, and with Joshua.”
“They don’t count.”
“Then…?”
“I mean, they’re the only exceptions.”
“…You can’t even talk to the regular servants?”
“I can talk… but…”
“But?”
“It’s hard.”
Just like Haena.
She isolated herself, and in the end, she got so caught up in her own thoughts she avoided people out of fear of getting hurt by anything they said.
“Well, it’s true that when we first met, conversation didn’t go very smoothly either.”
Considering that the very first thing he said to me was “Don’t smile and get lost,” he actually did pretty well for someone who finds it difficult to talk. But I decided to overlook the details.
“What does the past matter? You talk to me just fine now!”
“…Because you’re easy.”
This guy.
At my expression, he twitched his lips and then bowed his head, clutching it in distress.
“…You must think I’m ridiculous.”
“Huh? That’s supposed to be my role.”
“…”
His dumbfounded stare made me shrug lightly.
“It makes sense that talking to people is hard for you. You’ve lived nearly two years with almost no human interaction, right? The only people you met were Mr. Veilt, Joshua, and a few others.”
There was no reason to talk with anyone else, and since his confinement was a secret, he couldn’t socialize anyway. Of course it would be hard to talk with others.
“Honestly, I still find it hard to talk to people too.”
I bet most people feel that way.
The reason he could talk with me was probably because we’d been together so much, and I’d made a conscious effort not to make him uncomfortable. So naturally, he’d opened up to me a little.
“You really don’t think it’s strange?”
“Nope. Mr. Veilt is stranger. Do you know what he said the first time we met? ‘Are you funny?’ Can you imagine anyone with normal social skills asking that as a first question?”
I deliberately shifted the topic to something light, so he wouldn’t keep blaming himself. By bringing up his close friend, I made it easier for him to talk.
“He really is weird.”
“Exactly! What was I supposed to say? ‘Yes, I’m kind of funny’? That would’ve been even weirder.”
“…You are weird.”
“I am not funny.”
“I don’t do humor.”
The fact that he was serious about that just made it worse.
Grumbling, I plopped down across from him.
“You do want to say something to the Saintess, don’t you? For when you see her next time.”
That had to be why he thought so poorly of himself—because he couldn’t say even one word to her.
“…Yeah.”
“What is it?”
“…Get lost.”
“…Ah, my hearing must be going bad lately.”
I stood up, brushing myself off, and walked toward the bicycle.
“How about we think it over while riding the bike?”
He opened the door and came toward me. Then, grabbing the bicycle I was on, he dragged me along and shoved me outside.
“Close the door and get lost.”
“Try saying it to the Saintess like that too!”
The glare through his glasses was so fierce that I obediently shut the door.
When I wheeled the bike out to the front yard, I spotted Mr. Veilt.
“Thanks to you, I managed to kick her out quickly.”
I glared at him as I got off the bike.
“And what if Boss takes it out on me? Just because I lived in a remote mountain village doesn’t mean I don’t know all the rumors about the Saintess and Boss.”
“It’s fine. Boss actually seemed pleased, didn’t he?”
“So what if he did?”
“Before, he would’ve just thrown you out immediately.”
“And what if he had? Wasn’t I supposed to be needed here?”
If things had gone like before and I got tossed out, then what? Didn’t he think of the consequences?
He shamelessly replied:
“You are needed. In fact, even more so now. Boss seems to be getting more and more used to you.”
“…And this was your way of confirming it?”
“I’m busy.”
“Answer me before you leave!”
“I said I’m busy!”
He pretended otherwise but strode away briskly. There was no way I could grab him now.
In the end, the only thing I could do was put the bike back where it belonged.
Joshua and I squatted down with our hands propped like flower petals under our chins, staring blankly up at the sky.
It was a perfectly clear day, not a cloud in sight. The breeze was cool, and the wildflowers blooming on the hill gave off a gentle fragrance that soothed the heart.
“Do you think Boss would like this place too?”
“Who knows. He was always too busy to stop and enjoy things like this.”
“When he finally quits that shut-in lifestyle, I’ll make him take some time to relax.”
“You really believe Zer can come out of that room?”
“Mm? Yeah.”
“That’s just because you don’t think things through!”
For whatever reason, Joshua suddenly snapped and stood up, smacking my arms with both hands.
“Ow! Hey, stop hitting me!”
“You don’t know anything!”
Well, that’s because you never explained anything.
Since he had no other outlet for stress, I just let him hit me. It didn’t really hurt anyway—it was more like a massage.
Eventually he tired himself out, collapsed on the ground, and started pushing at my thigh with his foot.
“I was hitting you like crazy, so why didn’t you stop me? You should’ve told me to quit!”
“…Quit.”
