Chapter 114

Kalian stretched out his hand to me like he was trying to escort me, but I indicated it was fine and walked on my own . He didn’t offer it again, seemingly only doing it out of politeness .

Like that, we walked down the hallway side by side, with our hands to ourselves . Even though Kalian proposed to walk down together because he had something to say to me, he didn’t speak right away .

If it was Anne-Marie or someone else here right now, they might have made some small talk to liven the atmosphere in order to make it easier for him to speak up . But I didn’t bother going through that trouble .

Besides, the silence didn’t even feel that uncomfortable .

So I just kept walking while checking out the picture frames and decorations on the wall . And the main thoughts on my mind were things like ‘as expected of a great noble house, everything looked expensive’ or ‘that’s pretty, I wonder how much it costs’ .

Then a while later, Kalian finally opened his mouth .

“What I want to say is, I don’t know how you’ll take this but…”

Instead of beating around the bush, he skipped the introduction and went straight to the main subject .

“I think you should be careful . ”

And the words which dug into my ears were a little unexpected .

But something about it was familiar and for a split second, I thought the person next to me was Dominic’s avatar .

Maybe I should say like father like son; Kalian said something very similar to his father . In the carriage, I’d already heard Dominic tell me to ‘be careful if you want to live long’ so for a moment, I wondered if Kalian’s words meant the same thing .

However, I didn’t see any sign that he was threatening me . Rather, although it was faint, the emotion in his voice…felt closer to concern .

From the looks of things, Kalian wasn’t threatening me like Dominic but sincerely warning me .

“Mm, I’m sorry but I don’t know what I should be careful about . ”

I wondered if he knew something Dominic did or was going to do to me in the future, so I asked for confirmation .

At that, Kalian frowned slightly as if I’d asked him a difficult question .

“I can’t really explain the circumstances . I know what I’m saying sounds strange to you . ”

He paused for a moment, as though he was trying to organize his thoughts then he opened his mouth again .

“But I think, it’s almost certain that something serious will happen to you soon so…I wanted to tell you to be careful . ”

So in other words, apart from telling me that something bad will happen to me, he didn’t know what that ‘something’ was nor could he tell me how he knew about it .

Just like Kalian said, what I was hearing right now sounded very strange .

I spoke like I was flinging the words .

“If you say that without any other explanation, I could just ignore it . ”

“Of course, you might think lightly of my words but…I hope you don’t . ”

He was looking straight at me and his gaze was very serious .

Kalian’s personality itself was serious to begin with so I didn’t think he was saying this to me casually . Despite that, his expression told me he was a little concerned about how I would interpret his words .

I stared at his face for a while, then soon enough, I parted my lips slightly .

“Thank you . ”

At that moment, Kalian’s eyes trembled . His eyes were a little wide as if he had just heard me say something completely unexpected .

“I don’t know but you told me about it even though it’s difficult for you to explain . So I’ll listen and I won’t ignore it . ”

Since Kalian didn’t intend anything bad by telling me this, I didn’t plan on being frustrating by picking at what was wrong .

“…It’s not something you should thank me for . ”

But why is it that Kalian’s face got a little darker than before?

If someone thanks you, you should just accept it . In some ways, this guy’s character was exhausting .

“Is that all you wanted to say to me?”

“Actually, there was one more thing but…I think it would be better to just forget it . ”

On a closer look, I could see a faint sense of guilt lingering on his face and it made me suspicious . But Kalian quickly looked away from me and faced the front so I couldn’t study his expression for long .

Baang!

A thunderous roar that seemed to rip through my eardrum burst out that very moment .

At that sudden noise, Kalian and I turned to the window at the same time .

The sound didn’t seem to be coming from the mansion but somewhere in the distance . I would guess about 10km(6 . 2miles) from here .

A red light shone in the distance then disappeared, as if something had exploded .

But soon enough, another ‘Bang!’ rang out and a light flashed in my sight at the same time .

“I’m afraid I’ll have to excuse myself . There’s a carriage waiting for you outside so take care on your way back . ”

After saying his goodbye, Kalian quickly dashed ahead . Before he left, his expression was extremely severe .

No surprise there but everyone in the mansion seemed to have heard the noise from outside . I could feel the once quiet mansion quickly becoming rowdy .

I moved my gaze away from where Kalian disappeared and looked out the window again . Somehow, it gave me a similar feeling to the explosion at the shopping mall .

For a while, I watched the darkness outside the window quietly until a surprised Anne-Marie quickly ran over to me .

* * *

“Mr . Lakis?”

When I got home, Lakis was nowhere to be found .

I guess he had gone out while I was gone . This situation wasn’t that unusual anymore, so I wasn’t as shaken as before .

I went to my room to change and while I was at it, I went to the bathroom and washed up . When I came out after all that, Lakis was now sitting on the sofa in the living room .

“Oh, you’re back, Mr . Lakis . ”

But for some reason, the moment he saw me, he sprang to his feet . Lakis was still wearing his outdoor clothing but he was staring at me and his face was sternly cold .

Seeing that, I was a little confused .

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

However, Lakis didn’t answer me, instead he approached me with long strides and quickly narrowed the distance between us .

He drew close till he was right in front of my nose and his frame cast a shadow over my head then he grabbed my arm .

“I can smell blood from you . ”

When I heard those words, I shut my mouth .

Seeing that, Lakis looked at me as if he was searching every inch of my face .

“Did you get hurt?”

“Why would I get hurt?”

I retorted, feeling embarrassed by the sudden situation and Lakis’ eyes sharpened .

“Don’t play innocent with me . Another explosion happened downtown, and you said you were going there with the girl next door . ”

It was only after hearing this that I understood why Lakis was acting this way .

Ah, so the explosion happened downtown of all places?

It felt kind of weird to tell Lakis I was going to the Crawford’s, so I just told him I was going to look around downtown with Anne-Marie .

“Mr . Lakis…are you just coming back from there?”

“I went out for a bit because it was noisy outside and when I heard people talking, it seemed like the place you went to . ”

Lakis’ eyes were still cold, and he was looking me up and down as he spoke . He looked like he was trying to see if there was any sign of injury on my body .

In other words…Lakis was worried that I might be caught up in an explosion again, so he went to the scene of the incident himself and was just coming back from there .

Of course, I was in a different place at that time, so I had no involvement with the explosion whatsoever . So it was only natural that Lakis couldn’t find me even though he was looking for me .

“I guess we missed each other on the way but just tell me where you got hurt . ”

As I watched Lakis urge me, I felt my conscience hurting a bit .

“No, I’m not hurt . I wasn’t there when the explosion happened . ”

For a moment, I pondered how honest I should be and when I opened my mouth, Lakis’ face crumpled .

“Although it’s faint, I can definitely smell blood on you but you’re telling me you’re not injured?”

The look on his face told me he didn’t believe me at all . Lakis gave me a sharp look as though telling me not to lie .

I guess he felt more suspicious because he could sense the slight hesitation in my voice . I felt like he wouldn’t believe it until he took off my clothes and checked himself . So in the end, I had no choice but to be honest about the identity of the bloody smell .

“It’s just my menstruation, you know, the bleeding that happens once a month?”

Instantly, Lakis froze over but for a different reason from before .

His mouth fell open slightly .

His blue eyes were filled with embarrassment and I watched as he blinked a few times . Still, Lakis quickly regained his composure . Then he spoke to me in a calm voice, as though confirming .

“Really?”

“Really . ”

I’m not sure if I should be thankful or not but Lakis wasn’t suspicious anymore . Although after that, he quietly looked away from me and there was still some ripples in his eyes .

As expected…Seeing as he was convinced so easily, he obviously had a rough idea of my menstrual cycle even though he hadn’t said anything so far .

Since his five senses were much better than normal people, it was inevitable that he was sensitive to smells so I guess it’s only natural that he knew .

If my face wasn’t so thick, I might have run into the room and covered myself with a blanket in embarrassment .

“I’m glad you’re fine but I don’t want you to get involved in dangerous things in the future . ”

Lakis who seemed like he’d regained his inner peace, looked at me with a serious look in his eyes .

His tone was like he was pleading with a trouble-making child, so I narrowed my eyes a little .

“If something dangerous is going to happen, don’t go there at all . ”

“How would I know if something dangerous is going to happen?”

“Just try not to go out as much as possible and stay at home . After all, everything outside the blanket is dangerous . ” [1]

While borrowing the words I said in the past, Lakis’ face was somewhat serious . Once again, he looked down at me with a serious look in his eyes .

I said it as a joke back then but like before, Lakis was serious .

Then after quietly staring at my face for a while, Lakis slowly opened his mouth .

“Seriously, I’m worried . ”

His voice was very soft, almost like he was talking to himself and hearing those words, I felt strange .