- VOL 1 – THOSE UNITED BY THE FATE -
Chapter 3: Final Preparations (4/10)
----------------------------------------------------
Rina sighed and continued to ask questions.
"Huh... That's fine. But I won't let you go until I know exactly what you're involved in. If you have something to hide, then I won't ask everything, but I can't just let this go."
She looked very serious and confident. Minato was shocked to see her like this. Until now he had thought of her as a violent woman who acted like a little child.
But apparently, there were things he didn't know about her. Even though he had just warned himself not to talk too much, he had now changed his mind.
"All right, then. I'll tell you everything if you'll keep it a secret."
Seeing the rather serious face of the man in front of her, Rina kept her serious expression and listened to him carefully. She returned to her chair where she had stood up in anger and listened to Minato's story for a long time.
-
"Hahaha!"
A short, blue-eyed woman was walking through the inn with a tray in her hand. This place, which had been packed a few hours ago, was much quieter now. There were still plenty of people, but everyone was calmly going about their business, so there was no chaos.
She had reached the stairs at the entrance of the inn when she stopped walking. She looked up and began to climb the stairs while muttering something to herself.
‘That's the best Minato could do. But not working with that kid... The kid also tried to tell me that in the beginning, but I wouldn't listen to him.’
She had reached the first floor when her cheerful expression slowly turned serious.
‘So where did he get that scar on his stomach?’
Her destination was room thirteen which was at the end of the first floor. As she approached there, she blushed at the thought that came to her. Shaking her head from side to side, she shook off these unnecessary thoughts.
"Forget it!"
When she reached the door with the number thirteen written on it, she mumbled one last thing and then knocked on the door.
"Huhh... It's been well over an hour. He asked me for food, but I met something unexpected downstairs, so there's not much to do about the delay. MAY I ENTER?"
For a few seconds she waited for an answer from inside, but she could neither hear a voice nor the door had opened. She knocked again and called out. She waited a little longer, and when there was no response, she thought of something important.
‘He was hurt! Has something happened!’
She hurriedly pushed the door. She didn't expect it to open, but apparently, it was unlocked. She hurried inside and looked at the bathtub where the boy had been when she left. But he was no longer there, he was in his bed.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
"Is he, is he asleep?"
The chestnut-haired boy in the bed seemed to be sleeping quite comfortably. There was no expression to indicate that anything was wrong with his wound.
Rina slowly put the tray down on the table and began to examine the boy more carefully. He was lying half naked and the wound that had bled earlier had been bandaged. This bandage was not made of cloth but of green and long plants.
"This is how you get sick. It's bad if you sleep in the cold when you are injured and your body is weak."
The short woman was talking to herself. She didn't mind because there was no one else in the room but her. Except for the young man sleeping on the bed.
The woman took a blanket out of a chest next to the bed and approached the boy to cover him.
"AHH!"
But before she could accomplish this goal, she was startled and dropped the blanket in her hand. The boy, who was standing where he was and looking at her with tired eyes, did not react to her shout. Instead, he seemed to have some other problem.
"Hmm. Is the food service this slow? If I had known, I would have come down and eaten there."
The blue-eyed woman was puzzled, but the boy didn't seem to care about her. He calmly got out of bed and walked over to the table where the food was. He pulled up a chair, sat down, and began to eat as if nothing was wrong.
Rina was surprised at first at the sudden turn of events, but when she saw the boy's unconcerned attitude, she became annoyed. She angrily approached the table and slammed her hand on it, then shouted.
"What do you think you are doing, kid?! Don't you know that your recklessness could cost you your life?"
As she shouted, the boy at the table gave her a very cold and sharp look.
"Will you shut up, Rina-san? It's late, you know. If you want to watch me eat, you can stay, but I don't think it's normal for a maid to walk into a customer's room and just yell."
Hearing this made the short woman even madder. So much so that her anger was clearly visible in the veins bulging in her forehead. She put on a nervous smile and almost laughed, while the boy focused on his food again.
"Is that so, brat?"
The woman walked briskly to the door and closed it firmly. However, she did not leave. She came back to the table and sat in the empty chair opposite the boy.
"Then no one will suspect anything with the door closed, right?"
The boy put down his food for a few seconds and turned to the woman across from him. After sighing and saying a few sentences, he focused on his food again.
"Huh... I have no idea what you're up to, but if you want to talk, I wish you'd call me by my name."
After these words, there was silence until he finished his meal. The only sounds were the sounds of the boy eating and the sounds of breathing. Especially the deep breathing of the blue-eyed woman.
‘Huff... I think I was too hard on him, and he seems to be open to us talking.’
The boy finished the plate in front of him with an appetite. He leaned his back against the chair, took a comfortable position, and looked at the woman in front of him. It was as if he had signaled that he was ready, which the woman in front of him understood and began to speak.
"First of all, I apologize, Shin-kun."
Shin was a little surprised when she put aside her earlier anger and began to speak gently. He decided to listen to her seriously this time as she continued speaking.
"I realized that I can't do anything by yelling, so I want to talk calmly."
Shin's face changed with what he heard. A small smile settled on his serious face. But the smile didn't last long before it was broken by a yawn that followed.
"AarGHghh... I'm sorry but I'm really tired today, how about we talk tomorrow morning? I'll be downstairs, you can be sure I won't run away."
He said this with such an expression that anyone who saw him would not have thought he was lying. Including the woman in front of him. Despite her strong intuition, she too did not sense any deception.
Rina slowly got up from her chair. She had a disappointed look on her face, but she accepted the situation.
"Very well, I will trust you, and if you are lying, you can be sure that you will be punished."
She turned her head away from him towards the door but waited a moment before moving. After hearing no other sound, she walked to leave the room, thinking that her work here was done.
When she grabbed the door handle to leave the room, the boy at the table unexpectedly called out to her.
"I was wondering where you do the laundry?"
"Do you wait for me to come to the door to ask something? Anyway, give it to me, I'll do it."
She held out her hands and waited for him. Shin took the thick coat and a few pieces of clothing from beside the tub and handed them to her. Then he said one last thing and escorted her out the door.
"I'd appreciate a good wash, Rina-san. They're pretty dirty."
As she walked out the door, she turned her head one last time and looked at the boy behind her. The last thing she saw was a boy laughing slyly.
"I wish you had invited Sana-san. I think she wanted to talk to me too. Besides, you must really like watching someone take a bath."
The door closed hard on her face and she was left alone with her blushing face.
"I'll see you tomorrow! You better not run away!"
As she shouted at the boy in the empty hallway, a figure appeared on the stairs in front of her. Seeing this, the short woman fell silent and quickly returned to her work.