Chapter 24
“Hey… are you really gonna keep talking to me like that?”
“What did I even do wrong?”
“I was saying I’d hang out with you, so why are you being so rude?”
This time, she couldn’t even laugh.
‘Hang out with me?’
Rubbing the arm that Babel had touched, Eki slipped back into the tower.
“Making deliveries to this place a few times has really gotten to your head, huh? When were we ever close? Why do you keep asking to meet up?”
Babel’s fish-like lips quivered.
While he was at a loss for words, Eki shut the front door and was about to quickly run off, but Babel stuck his right foot between the door and the frame.
“Hey!”
“I’m not done talking.”
“I already turned you down! What else is the problem now?”
“Ha, unbelievable.”
Babel’s foot wriggled as it pushed further inside. Eki swallowed a shriek and forced her eyes wide.
“Hey, are you really in any position to reject me? I felt bad for you being stuck in that Pinon Forest, so I was gonna take you to the capital.”
“What?”
“Know your place, would you? You’ve been rotting away here for seven years. Sure, you became Cassius’s disciple, but it’s not like you’re some archmage now, right? Don’t you think you should try getting on the good side of someone like me who has connections in the Association?”
Now she understood why this ugly guy was coming on to her.
‘He thinks I’m on the same level as him.’
He clearly thought that being a courier instead of an official, and her being stuck in the Thousand Dog Tower endlessly drawing magic circles, put them in similar positions. Like they were ‘the same league’, as people say.
She’d never met a human this stupid. It wasn’t enough that he was looking down on her, he actually thought he could get away with it.
‘If I needed connections, I’d have gone to Milla or Giyote, who are actual officials!’
Ugly and stupid. Eki’s hands trembled with rage.
“And, ahem, well. If something happens between us in the process, wouldn’t that be good for you?”
Eki’s last thread of rationality snapped.
Maybe she should just kill this guy and go to prison.
“So, have you changed your mind now? Come on, open the door.”
Babel grabbed the squeaking oak door and kept pushing against it.
Eki pictured herself slitting his throat in a thousand different ways, but finally let out a deep sigh.
Part of her wanted to hit him with an attack spell and teach him a lesson, but she needed to hurry and deliver the news about the deadline change to Cassius. And she still had magic circles to catch up on…
Suppressing her boiling anger, she responded.
“My mind hasn’t changed. You can just leave. I’m going.”
“Hey, hey! Wait! At least let me finish what I was saying!”
“Then go ahead, let’s hear it. I’ll listen.”
The sudden cold male voice made Eki turn her head, while Babel flinched and stepped back. Behind her stood a towering figure nearly two meters tall.
Cassius, leaning an elbow against the doorframe, was looking down at them.
“M-Master. When did you come out?”
“Just now. You were taking too long to come back.”
Those vivid green eyes scanned Babel with a mixture of exhaustion and irritation. From Cassius’s expression and tone, Eki could tell he was livid. About an eighty on his annoyance scale, maybe. For reference, when she’d once dripped water on the cover of one of his tomes, he’d been at about an eighty-seven.
Eki offered a moment of silent condolence for Babel before speaking even more forcefully.
“I told you to leave, didn’t I? Stop making a scene.”
“Uh, uh…”
“Master, it was nothing. Let’s go upstairs.”
“No, he said he had something to say. Let’s hear it.”
But instead of letting Babel go, Cassius held him there. Eki jabbed his side, flustered.
“Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”
“Stay still. Stop poking me.”
Eki pouted and looked back at Babel. The guy glanced between her and Cassius, then hunched his shoulders and awkwardly spoke.
“Ah, n-no. It’s just, I, uh… I had business with Eki…”
“Then say it. Eki’s right here.”
“I… I wanted to talk when it was just the two of us…”
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