novelraw Chapter 141 : Chapter 141
Chapter 141 : Chapter 141
Volume 2
Chapter 65 : Glasses
Inside the dishwashing room, the only sound was the constant rush of running water.
Tears kept sliding from the corners of the girl's eyes, and her bashful cheeks were as red as ripe apples.
A beauty in tears, pitiful enough to stir anyone's heart.
Looking at Sherry like this, Muen could not help feeling his heartbeat quicken.
"Muen, could you think it over one more time?"
Twisting her fingers together, Sherry asked again, her voice tense.
It was as though invisible ripples had spread through the air, and even Muen's resolve began to waver.
Sherry was so adorable.
So gentle and domestic.
She could make delicious pastries and wonderful meals.
Her figure was first-rate too.
If she became his partner, she would surely be perfect.
So perhaps he should just...
SLAP—
The crisp sound rang out without warning.
It startled even Sherry. She shrank back a step on instinct and stared at Muen in shock.
"What kind of scumbag am I?!"
Muen had suddenly slapped himself awake.
Grinding his teeth, he said, "Eating from the bowl in front of me while eyeing the pot on the stove? No. Even if I am a scumbag, I have to be a principled scumbag."
What was the difference between an unprincipled scumbag and some lust-driven Casanova who thought with his lower half?
Was he really that kind of vulgar creature, drooling over someone else's body?
"So... I am still sorry, Sherry. I cannot accept your feelings."
Muen refused her once again, only this time he lowered himself even more, and his voice became much gentler.
To be rejected twice by the same person within the space of two minutes was, no matter how one looked at it, an extraordinarily cruel result for a girl who had finally worked up the courage to confess.
Muen was so ashamed that he wanted nothing more than to stuff himself into a sack and take a thorough beating.
Why did you have to be this handsome?
If you had just looked a little more ordinary, none of this would have happened.
"I... is that so?"
Hearing Muen's final answer, Sherry immediately revealed an expression of overwhelming heartbreak.
She took a deep breath, as if trying to force all her tears back, but they only flowed more fiercely.
"N-no, this is not Muen's fault. I was the one being too presumptuous."
Like the losing heroine in a drama, unable to accept the failure of her confession, Sherry forced out a smile even uglier than crying as she slowly backed away.
Then she turned and ran.
Only to nearly crash into... No, correction.
She nearly ran straight into a soft embrace.
"Oh my, look what I have here."
Senior Anna had appeared by the doorway at some unknown point. Looking at Muen with mild reproach, she said, "As expected of you, junior. In only a few short minutes, you have broken another young girl's heart."
"If I had agreed, that would have made me the real scumbag, all right?" Muen replied with a bitter smile. He did not seem particularly surprised by Anna's appearance.
"That is true."
Anna nodded.
Then she lowered her head, took out a handkerchief, and tenderly wiped the tears from Sherry's face.
As she did so, a faint crystalline gleam flashed through her hand.
"Do not be angry, junior. We will not stoop to arguing with a scumbag."
"So you really are treating me like one!"
Anna ignored Muen's protest. Instead, as she wiped Sherry's tears, she seemed to notice something and let out a small sound of surprise.
"Sherry, you are such a cute girl. Why do you insist on hiding yourself behind those ugly black-rimmed glasses? Girls should pay a little more attention to dressing up, you know. For certain scumbags, the result might have been different."
"Senior!"
"I happen to know a shop that specializes in custom women's glasses. Would you like me to introduce you to it?"
As she spoke, Anna raised a hand toward Sherry's black-rimmed glasses, intending to remove them and wipe them clean while she was at it.
They had already been completely blurred by tears.
Smack.
Sherry suddenly caught her wrist.
Her head was lowered, and her expression could not be seen.
"There is no need, Senior. I appreciate your kindness."
"But..."
Anna looked at the hand gripping her wrist and frowned slightly.
Before she could say anything else, however, Sherry suddenly slipped past her, ran into the kitchen deeper inside, and slammed the door shut with a bang.
Amid the steady rhythm of chopping vegetables, Sherry spoke in a tearful voice.
"I am sorry. Please do not mind me. Let me be alone for a while."
Not long after, the sound of suppressed sobbing came from behind the door, unbearably sorrowful to hear.
"Junior, you really do carry a terrible weight of sin."
Listening to the crying from inside, Anna sighed and cast Muen a meaningful glance.
Muen said nothing.
He could only smile bitterly.
"Then... should we leave first?" Muen suggested cautiously.
Leaving just like this felt irresponsibly cold, but staying here would only make things more awkward.
It would be better to let Sherry calm down by herself.
"All right." Anna nodded as well.
In any case, her objective had already been achieved.
Even so, before leaving, she still could not help casting one deep look at the tightly shut kitchen door.
"It feels... a little off."
Her gaze flicked to her wrist.
The place Sherry had grabbed was already marked with red finger marks.
"Junior."
"Hm?"
"Is Sherry very strong as a warrior?"
"I do not know. She has always been so inconspicuous. But since she takes martial classes too, she should not be weak."
"I see..."
Anna withdrew her gaze and thought no more of it.
Because the sorrow Sherry had shown just now looked, no matter how one examined it, far too real to be an act.
Most likely, she was simply overthinking things.
...
...
After Muen and Anna left, Sherry still remained hidden in the kitchen, weeping.
The tears kept flowing and flowing, as though they would never run dry.
She was so heartbroken.
She had liked Muen so much, so why had he still rejected her in the end?
Was it because she was not pretty enough?
That made sense.
Compared to the woman in the maid outfit from before, and compared to Senior Anna, her looks were nothing remarkable.
She was not beautiful, she did not know how to dress herself up, and she always wore those ugly black-rimmed glasses.
Muen would never like someone like her.
"Ah, right."
At the mention of the black-rimmed glasses, Sherry seemed to remember something.
"I almost forgot. When there are no outsiders around, I have to take my glasses off."
So she removed the black-rimmed glasses, now soaked through with tears, so blurred that she could barely see the road ahead.
The crying stopped abruptly.
As though an invisible darkness had spread outward, the aura around her changed all at once, turning cold and sinister like the night itself.
Through the sink, long since filled with water, she stared at herself.
At that self who seemed like an entirely different person... wearing a strange, twisted smile.
"Ah... ah... why did it fail?"
"The mental suggestion worked very well last time. Otherwise, Muen would never have wandered here by accident."
"What a pity. He is the Duke's son. If I had been able to control him, he would surely have been a great help to the plan."
"But..."
Not only was Sherry not disappointed, she instead curled her lips into an excited grin.
That smile was unspeakably bizarre.
The corners of her mouth nearly stretched to her ears, like... a venomous snake flicking its tongue.
"This really is a fortunate mistake. I searched for so long before and still found nothing. I even nearly let that silver-haired woman catch me by the tail..."
She lowered her gaze to her own hands.
The moment she thought of what she had sensed just now when she touched those pale, fair hands, she could not help clasping both hands together in prayer, deeply moved.
"As expected, O great Moon, it was You who guided me, was it not?"
"If that is so, then I will surely not fail Your expectations. I will bring Your lost divine scion before Your throne."
"Wouldn't you agree, Father?"
In the corner of the kitchen, the silent man kept raising the cleaver in his hand and bringing it down again.
Like a machine, he repeated the same motion over and over.
On the cutting board before him, a twisted shadow struggled soundlessly, then was chopped into piece after piece like fish flesh.
He picked up one piece and put it into his mouth.
He chewed.
Though it was nothing more than an empty shadow, it still made the sound of flesh and bone being crushed apart.
A moment later, he bared a grin, revealing pitch-black teeth.
"Delicious."