There Is No Hidden Villain in This Novel Chapter 38

“Shall we stop here?”

After making Ryuseong try on all the clothes the designer brought out, I smiled with satisfaction.

Ryuseong seemed to be grinding his teeth, murmuring, “Stop here? You call this stopping here? After making me try on everything, you call this stopping here?” But, Ryuseong, seeing my favorite character looking pretty is a real thrill. You must have absolutely hated the process of having your hairstyle changed to match the clothes and having this and that pinned on you, but all of that combined is what makes my heart pound.

“So, which products would you like to purchase…”

“Is there anything to weed out?”

My mood improved, and I smiled refreshly.

“Wrap everything up from beginning to end.”

At my words, the designer repeatedly praised me, saying, “As expected of Mr. Cassis,” while Ryuseong, who had placed a hand on his forehead in despair, cut in with a rotten expression.

“I know I’m reacting in a stereotypical way.”

“Haha, please speak.”

“…Do you really have to waste money like that?”

Pfft, hahaha… I couldn’t stop laughing. It was because the word “stereotypical” he used was so perfectly fitting. The very stereotype of a commoner loved by a chaebol in a romance novel, who, during a dress-up scene like this where money is being thrown around, tells them not to do it because it’s a waste of money.

“I suppose I have no choice but to react stereotypically as well. In a situation like this, there isn’t a man alive who would want to be looked down upon by the person he loves. I’d rather die than have my pride wounded and have to endure it.”

“If your pride is so fragile that it gets hurt just by not wasting money, then just die…”

“Charge it all at once, please. No need for installments.”

I ignored Ryuseong’s curse and took out a black card to continue my flexing. That’s how it is. Ah, this is the ‘coolness’ of a chaebol…

“How are you going to carry all that…”

“My, don’t say such unsophisticated things. Professionals will package and deliver it.”

“If we put all these clothes in our room, it’s going to burst…”

“I’ll have them put in my villa near the academy.”

“Why there? They won’t even fit you.”

“Didn’t you understand? I’m saying I’m going to lock you up in my villa and not let you out until you’ve worn each and every one of those outfits and then thrown them away.”

“…”

Then, from the side, a small scream, “Kyaaah,” erupted. The apprentice designer, who had barely been maintaining a professional demeanor, finally seemed unable to hold it in.

Ryuseong pressed his brow with a tired expression.

“Cut the crap, unless you want to see a rain of Fs on your report card.”

“You’d be sexy drenched in rain, wouldn’t you?”

“…”

This one must have been a dud because no one laughed. Only I did. I cackled and said it was a joke, that I had no intention of imprisoning him in the villa, so he could rest assured.

Like that, we exited through the back of the store. The limousine was too conspicuous, so a different Rolls-Royce was waiting, and we got in it.

“Is this goddamn charade over now?”

I gestured toward the driver with my shoulder and shrugged.

“Stop trying to drag me to bed all the time, and try enjoying a normal date for once.”

“…When did I ever.”

“You’re always like this, it makes me feel like you’re only seeing me for my body.”

“…”

When I put on an act full of hurt feelings, Ryuseong spoke as if he had reached enlightenment.

“…I was wrong.”

“Yes, you admit it.”

“I… made a grave mistake in my choice.”

“You’re pretty when you’re obedient. What a good boy. Continue to be gentle and pliant from now on.”

“Hah…”

The fact that he squeezed his eyes shut as if he wanted to kill everyone was, as usual, none of my business, so I became cheerful. Hehe. Teeheehee.

It was because my brain was automatically filtering Ryuseong’s enlightened state with various outfits at will.

Ryuseong in a suit that I saw earlier. Ryuseong in a tailcoat. Ryuseong in a hanbok with a durumagi overcoat. Ryuseong in a modernized hanbok. Ryuseong in a mix of hanbok and a modern suit. Ryuseong with a shirt and slacks under a hanbok overcoat. Ryuseong in techwear. Ryuseong in a hoodie with a cute character on it and shorts. Ryuseong in riding clothes. Ryuseong in a sweatshirt and cotton pants. And even Ryuseong in a white short-sleeved t-shirt and jeans…

‘This is the number one way to use a good brain for this kind of crap, really.’

I have always been very good at visualizing images in my head in concrete detail. And now, whether it’s because Cassis’s head is good or because I’ve been stimulated by studying various things, I can visualize things even more concretely. The only downside is that I have to have seen it in person at least once to be able to memorize it, but I’ve heard that most people can’t memorize something after seeing it just once. Anyway, I was better at remembering appearances and shapes than text, so my foreign language skills were quite high. Just memorize the squiggly pictures and roughly piece them together, and that’s a foreign language, isn’t it?

So, just by looking at Ryuseong’s face, now back in his martial arts uniform, I could imagine all the clothes he had changed into and grin.

Well, there were some disappointments. The fact that I couldn’t make him wear strange clothes because I was conscious of the staff. Things like aprons or fishnets. Ahahaha.

“…Wipe that disgusting look off your face.”

“Why might our lover be in a bad mood?”

“Because you’re smiling like a pervert.”

Ah, did I get caught? My apologies. It has come to this. But I think Ryuseong needs to give me a break. Because there will never be another man as detestable as him. If you’re going to touch me, then touch me, and if not, then don’t come near me at all. A bad guy who just half-heartedly teases and gets a person all worked up.

That’s exactly who Ryuseong is.

“So where are you thinking of going now?”

“Do you like fruit bingsu? Or cake?”

“Patbingsu.”

“Was there such a hideous thing among the choices I gave you?”

Wow, our tastes really don’t match.

‘It feels like lightning is striking and a storm is brewing between us, but it’s probably just my imagination, right?’

…It almost turned into a spectacular fight, but thanks to the butler who was appropriately possessed by Solomon, we ended up at a Korean restaurant. Thanks to the DNA engraved in my soul, I ate more than I usually did, more than I thought I would.

Just as I put down my spoon.

“…You’re done after eating just that?”

Why do you have such a mentally shocked expression? Didn’t you see me eat the school lunch? Though I admit I ate a little less now.

“It’s past lunchtime, isn’t it?”

“Right. So weren’t you hungry?”

“…? When time passes, don’t you get less hungry…?”

“…”

Ryuseong had a bit of a ‘what the hell do I do with this bastard’ look on his face.

“If you always eat like a bird like that, you won’t be able to keep up with your activity level and you’ll end up as a mummy.”

“That’s why I usually stuff myself to the max, as you know.”

“…To the max…”

What’s this. Why are you so shocked? I might eat on the smaller side, but there’s no need to exaggerate that much, is there?

“For a normal person, maybe, but you should know that Awakeners, because they’ve awakened an ability, burn more calories just by breathing.”

Huh?

‘R-really?’

The original never explained it, this kind of setting…!

“…If you want to stay alive… you should pay attention to your meals…”

Ryuseong said, as if he had reached enlightenment, and I ended up nodding my head absentmindedly. And as we were about to return home, Ryuseong, who was looking at his phone, spoke as if in disbelief.

“It would be better not to go to that clothing store.”

“Why is that?”

“Because they’re telling the reporters in detail what happened inside.”

Ah, that.

I smiled like a primrose.

“Aren’t they useful rats precisely because they have loose lips?”

Someone’s going to blab about me anyway, so if that’s the case, I might as well use them as a microphone. I added with a chuckle, and Ryuseong covered his eyelids as if he were tired.

“You are so complicated…”

“I’ll take that as a compliment?”

Soon, the car’s wheels touched the ground, and around the time we were getting out. I got out before Ryuseong and extended a hand to him as if to a lady, and just as Ryuseong was about to slap my hand away and get out on his own.

Sensing something was off, I blocked Ryuseong from getting out of the car, pulled my hand back, and slammed it down on the car door with all my might.

Whack!

My fingers broke instantly, and blood splattered.

Almost at the same time as Ryuseong, surprised by the unexpected action, grabbed my forearm asking what the hell I was doing, blood magic was conjured. My skills had improved so that I didn’t need to chant an incantation, and the mass of my blood, instantly formed with the property of wind, blew off the head of one of the bodyguards standing in line waiting for us.

Slice! Plop, roll!

“You…!”

After that, the head rolled and rolled and rolled and rolled on the ground.

Roll, roll, then squish.

As I pressed down my foot and then lifted it, a disgusting sensation stuck to the sole of my shoe. At that, Ryuseong grabbed me by the collar from inside the car as if to pull me in, but I managed to brace myself on the car door and not fall, so I decided to forgive him.

He might have done that if he couldn’t grasp the situation, I guess.

“What’s a night visitor doing here in the daytime? Are you experiencing jet lag, you sewer rats?”

‘Night visitor’ is a code word for assassin. Yes, that’s right. It’s that very cliché situation. It means that assassins who came to kill me were waiting for us, pretending to be bodyguards.

An event befitting the life of a hell-difficulty final boss bastard. If I hadn’t noticed quickly, I could have been screwed.

But I recognized them immediately, and I threw blades of wind at them and protected the Rolls-Royce with a barrier.

It was thanks to the fact that I had memorized all the bodyguards’ faces through reports, so those clumsy human skin masks were useless against me. They seemed to have tried to hide the smell of blood with some kind of chemical, but the skin on their faces, which had started to go into rigor mortis, was a dead giveaway.

“The sunlight is so blatant, it’s tiring. It shows you everything you don’t want to see, after all.”

So, with the assassins being torn to shreds in the background, with my foot on the head where the skull and human skin mask had separated, I gave a gentle smile, looking only at my lover who didn’t spare me a single glance.

A pacifist. A noble soul who had resolved not to kill people, even if he was fated to be stained with the blood of monsters. Listen up. My pitiful lover, trapped in my car, unable to even rush out.

A lot of people are going to die if they’re near Cassis de Millang. It could be my fault, or it could be someone else’s. So let me give you one piece of advice. Don’t brand every single one of those moments as trauma. Don’t imprint it. So what I’m saying is.

“Close your eyes.”

But his straight, piercing blue eyes are directed over my shoulder. He did not look away from the scene of life being extinguished. Death, where blood leaks and flesh scatters. When you, whose thoughts I cannot read, witness all of that scenery with strangely complex and sad eyes…

“…You don’t want to avoid it?”

I crushed my broken wrist a little more, hidden from his view. As blood flowed like mad down my shattered fingers, fire began to erupt outside the barrier.

It wouldn’t be able to block his vision, but I thought it could at least end it a little faster. The attacks of the assassins, who were charging fiercely at the risk of death, were blocked by the barrier of wind, and we were safe, while the outside of the barrier would gradually become a hell of flames.

No help was needed. Reinforcements were out of the question. Everything was complete, and what was unnecessary was being erased. Then what was needed?

So I decided to kiss you.

“Then, memorize this moment only as me.”

When the barbaric kiss ended, your cheek was stained with blood.

As if captivated by a crushed hand.