Chapter 76
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Back in her room, Eki chatted with Milla through the communication orb in a gloomy mood, then looked through the beauty photo books she had collected, and afterward lay on her bed wide awake.
Nothing is as fickle as the human heart. Not long ago she had prayed to the gods just to be able to sleep properly, yet now that she finally had leisure time she wasn’t sleepy at all. Instead, the idle thoughts and worries drifting through her head chased away what little drowsiness she had.
Eki tossed and turned for a long while, then realized it was almost midnight. To secure at least the minimum sleep time a working adult needed, she pulled her sleep mask over her eyes.
But from far outside her bedroom, in the hallway, she heard thump thump thump! as someone approached. Eki jolted upright in shock. Before she could even fully get out of bed, Cassius knocked on her door.
“Eki, are you asleep?”
“Ah, no. What is it?”
Eki threw on a long shawl and carefully opened the door.
Cassius had never, not once, come looking for her in the middle of the night. He was the kind of superior who respected personal time after work unless something truly serious happened.
‘…Could he have come to see me?’
She knew from his recent behavior that this was impossible, yet a flutter of anticipation bloomed in her chest. But then his next words made her mouth drop open.
“The fairy is gone.”
“Ehh?”
“Did it come here by any chance?”
“No. I haven’t seen it.”
The fairy disappeared?
Eki imagined the palm-sized baby fairy she had last seen. Even though Cassius never updated her on its condition, she assumed he was taking care of it somehow. Apparently, that wasn’t the case.
‘So he didn’t come because of me.’
The fact she still felt disappointment told her she wasn’t any less shameless than she feared.
“How did it go missing?”
“I don’t know. I left it on the shelf in my room and when I went back just now, it was gone.”
“…You didn’t keep it locked in that container the whole time, right?”
Cassius fell silent. He glanced at Eki with an uneasy expression, then crossed his arms and answered.
“You really think I’d let that troublemaker run free?”
Oh dear, unbelievable.
“Master. Even humans go crazy if you lock them in a tiny space like that.”
“Is a fairy human?”
“That makes it worse! From the way it talked, it didn’t seem like anything short of a disaster waiting to happen!”
“Which is exactly why I locked it up!”
Still, his conscience must have pricked him, because he muttered quietly,
“…I did let it out for a walk once a day.”
“Masteeer!”
Either way, the fairy had plenty of reason to escape, or rather, jailbreak.
Eki shoved Cassius aside at the doorway and marched down the dormitory hall. Cassius hurried after her.
“Where are you going?”
“We need to find the fairy. Since I gave birth to it, it might be somewhere I know.”
But the phrase ‘gave birth to’ sounded strange. It wasn’t just Eki. Cassius also pressed his lips together with an uncomfortable expression. Eki sighed dramatically.
“Honestly. I thought you were taking good care of it, but you were just locking it up.”
“W-What… then how was I supposed to take care of it?”
“Obviously…!”
…Come to think of it, how exactly did one take care of a fairy? Were fairies even beings that needed care?
When she had read about them in old texts, they were described as wandering the world freely.
As Eki awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck, Cassius snorted.
“You don’t know either.”
What a terrible master.
“Zip it. You don’t deserve to raise anything.”
“Anything? Watch your wording. A fairy isn’t a child. And if you say it like that…”
He opened his mouth to say something but pressed his lips shut with the back of his hand instead. Damn it. Cassius muttered a small curse. Eki said nothing more either, her cheeks turning red.
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