Give Me Back My Glass Shoe - Chapter 26

Hello everyone! there are changes in the chapter numbering, I had edited it to the correct arrangement as there was confusion in the chapter count. Apologies and enjoy the translation!

There were also drawings presumed to be of people. They didn’t look like people but rather like demons. The diagonally slanted eyes and eyebrows were drawn so long they reached the ears, making them look extremely angry, and the mouths were immensely large, taking up two-thirds of the face. This, despite the description clearly being a ‘kind-hearted girl’.

Aniella wondered for a moment what expression he had on his face while drawing these. Did he draw with that subtle smile he sometimes wears? Or with a solemn face?
“I wonder if he felt proud after finishing the drawings and making the book. Thinking, ‘This is a masterpiece!'”
He was a scary man she could hardly make eye contact with, but secretly imagining his human side made him feel a little less frightening.

As time passed, it wasn’t only Aniella whose tension eased. Paiki also came to observe her less frequently. She wasn’t sure how many days had passed, but it didn’t seem like he visited once a day anymore.
The strange thing was that whenever he did visit, the weather gradually worsened. He had given some complicated explanation about this star-world being connected to his inner self somehow, and that his thoughts and emotions were reflected, stabilizing its construction, and so on… Aniella hadn’t listened carefully. Even when she tried, it didn’t stick in her head.

All she gathered from his long-winded explanation was that bad weather was evidence of his bad mood. Because of this, whenever he visited after a long interval, Aniella behaved as meekly as possible to avoid upsetting him.
Fortunately, Paiki didn’t take out his sour mood on her for no reason.
“The meals are still coming regularly.”

As long as she was fed well and he kept his promise to let her go after two months, that was enough. He was an uncomfortable person, so it was even better not to see him, Aniella thought.

Then one day, it rained exceptionally heavily. The large raindrops beat terrifyingly against the window, and even Aniella, who usually tried not to care, began to feel a little worried.
Looking outside, the heavy rain caused water to gush down, and the water level had risen, making the trees look shorter than she remembered.

“You don’t think the house will get flooded, do you?”
Aniella looked around the bedroom with anxious eyes, checking for any leaks. Fortunately, there were no water stains on the ceiling or walls, and no water was coming in through the window.
Let’s just lie still like a dead mouse and sleep.
Thinking it was fortunate the bedroom wasn’t on the ground floor, Aniella tried to sleep. Just then, a tremendous crash of lightning struck, shaking the mansion so violently that all the many doors on the bedroom wall swung open at once.

Beyond the doors, they all seemed to lead to corridors, except for one. One led to a dark bedroom. Aniella grabbed the doorframe and peered inside. She saw the shadow of a person moving.
Crash!
Another clap of thunder sounded. In the flash of lightning, the identity of the shadow was revealed. It was Paiki, facing away. He didn’t seem to have noticed yet that the door was open.

“Duke,” she called out softly, but her voice was drowned by the sound of the heavy rain. Aniella cautiously stepped a foot over the threshold. The cold feel of the stone floor, devoid of carpet, transmitted through her sole.
She swallowed hard and stepped completely through the door. Whenever she went through any other door, she always ended up back in her bedroom, but this time was different.

As she walked across the stone floor towards him, Paiki, finally sensing her presence, whirled around. His eyes widened even more in surprise upon seeing her than Aniella’s had been when she flinched.
“Why are you here?”
Paiki confirmed the open door behind her and furrowed his brow.
“Dammit. This is the problem when I’m stressed!”