Chapter 29
“P-Please stop this. I’m going home.”
“Come on, don’t be like that. Let’s hang out together? We’re not weirdos.”
When I turned my head, I saw other women near the fountain who had been caught by creeps just like me. They must have deliberately targeted this time when fewer people were around because of the fireworks, approaching women who were alone.
They were more calculated and rotten than I’d thought. Over there, those guys were even grabbing a woman’s wrist and trying to drag her off somewhere.
‘Those bastards…!’
Just as I started to step forward to stop them, the balding man grabbed me again. He seemed furious, his fists trembling as he clenched them tight, glaring at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Are you crazy? Where do you think you’re going? You think you can spout that crap at us and walk away unscathed?”
Come to think of it, in rofan novels, bad things always happened at timings like this. I never imagined I’d experience it myself.
Far from being scared by his enraged outburst, I found myself utterly dumbfounded. Who was the one who should really be angry here, yet he was the one making threats?
The only silver lining was that the other guy didn’t join in on this idiotic behavior.
Beside the one raging wildly, he muttered with a somewhat shocked expression, I-I’m twenty… Ah, she called me an old man…
I was even more shocked by those words. Wait, that face is twenty? How on earth? I stared at them in disbelief, my face full of surprise, when the completely bald one suddenly bellowed.
“Did we ask for money or anything? We just wanted to hang out a bit, is that so hard? Why, why are you rejecting us like this! Huh? There’s a limit to how much you can look down on us. How dare you say that crap? We called you cute, and now you’re climbing all over us without end. You, you. You picked the wrong people.”
But the man’s threatening words didn’t reach me at all.
Anyone watching might think I was the one who started picking on innocent people. They were the ones who clung on persistently despite my repeated rejections—why the hell were they acting like the victims?
It was so absurd that I wasn’t even angry anymore. I just wanted to get them out of my sight as quickly as possible.
‘I didn’t think I’d have to use this…’
My clear, pure eyes were screaming for mercy at the idea of having to look at them any longer.
I deliberately provoked him.
“I think I told you not to talk to me just now—do you have a learning disability? Why do you keep talking?”
“…What? What did you say…!”
“You asked why I’m rejecting you, right? I’ll answer now. There are a few types I hate. People who push even when I say no, without a clue. People who start yelling when things don’t go their way. People overflowing with baseless confidence. I hate those the most, and you match every single one perfectly. That’s why I hate you. It’s not easy to hit all those marks, but you did it. Congratulations.”
I clapped softly and smiled brightly at him. Then, I added one more thing in a low voice.
“Oh, and I like things that are aesthetically beautiful, but you seem pretty far from that.”
The man, who had been standing there blankly, finally grasped what I meant, his face turning red and purple with rage. He looked like an angry toad, and I furrowed my brow.
Who knew he could get even uglier. If that’s a talent, then it’s a talent.
His small eyes forced wide open as he glared at me didn’t feel great at all.
I could see the muscles around his face twitching uncontrollably in his unhidden fury. This was about the point where the third-rate villains’ signature slap would come flying.
“You little…!”
Just as predicted, the moment the man raised his hand high toward me.
It was the last day of the festival.
Axel, who should have been overseeing the overall management of festival traffic, had delegated all his duties to his subordinates and was now hiding, watching over someone.
‘…There she is.’
She had appeared with a robe pulled low to hide her identity, but it didn’t fool Axel. He recognized at once that the figure in the distance was Judith.
What was so special about this festival? He could sense her excitement even in her footsteps.
Unaware of it himself, a faint smile tugged at Axel’s lips as he watched Judith, before he began carefully scanning her surroundings.
‘…She didn’t come with that mage guy, did she?’
Even though Xenon had reported that the lady would be coming to the festival alone, he couldn’t fully relax until the end.
Fortunately, there was no one around Judith who looked like a companion. Just as he felt a strange sense of relief, Judith, who had been looking elsewhere, suddenly whipped her head in his direction. Axel quickly hid himself.
‘Did she spot me?’
Tension made Axel’s heart rate quicken. Anxiety washed over him, wondering if he’d been caught, but Judith tilted her head slightly in confusion and, not having seen him, soon started walking forward again.
Watching that, Axel let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t felt this way even on the battlefield. It was a tension he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
As he continued following Judith’s steps from behind, Axel suddenly felt a wave of doubt about his own actions.
He stopped in place and furrowed his brow deeply.
“…Wait, what am I even doing right now?”
Clearly, at first, Axel had only planned to confirm that Judith had arrived safely at the festival and then return. But contrary to that plan, he was now trailing after the lady like a duckling.
This was almost like…
Axel identified the reason for the unpleasant feeling about his behavior.
It was like being a stalker.
Even Judith, who followed him around persistently, didn’t do something like this. At least if she was openly tailing him, that would be different.
Axel was deeply shocked by the actions he’d committed without realizing it.
Now that he’d realized it, he should turn back.
But…
His mind knew that, yet his feet wouldn’t budge.
Clenching his fists in intense deliberation, Axel finally found an excuse for his behavior.
Standing there, he shook his head.
…No, that’s not it. This is for the lady’s sake.
Right now, Judith had sneaked out of the duke’s estate without a single escort knight. What if she encountered thugs in that state?
It would undoubtedly cause major chaos in the empire, both internally and externally.
He couldn’t let that happen.
He was simply following her to protect the lady.
There were no personal feelings involved.
…
Really.
The first place Judith headed to was the theater set up in the square.
‘A musical, huh.’
Come to think of it, during their first meeting, she had gone to see a musical with him.
‘To come all the way here to watch a musical—did the lady always like them?’
He didn’t recall hearing any such information.
Just as a strange doubt arose, he saw her fidgeting in her seat in the audience. Peering closer to see what she was doing, she was pulling something out of her bag.
A camera?
Judith, holding his photo and the camera, lifted the photo toward the stage and snapped a picture with the camera.
Axel narrowed his eyes at her actions.
What is she doing? More than that, does she carry my photo around all the time?
As he puzzled over her completely incomprehensible behavior, she looked at the taken photo and nodded with a highly satisfied expression.
But her actions didn’t end there.
Axel’s pupils suddenly dilated as he watched Judith.
