How To Save A Time-limited Young Master - Chapter 20

“Let’s just go.”

“Didn’t you say that you wanted to get your fortune told?”

“Now that I think about it… there’s no need for that anymore. This place is also a bit scary. I want to leave.”

“Scary?”

Zenon tilted his head slightly and asked with an uncomprehending expression.

Heloise grinned and dragged Zenon by his hand.

She didn’t forget about Sienna, who was standing there in a daze.

The gangster spat on the floor as he cursed, but he didn’t come closer, perhaps due to Zenon’s chilling gaze.

My apologies for interrupting your work of watching the doors to the underworld, Mister Gangster.

As she dragged the duo out of the underworld, Heloise asked Sienna with disappointment.

“Miss Sienna, when would the astrologer come again?”

“Ah…… I’m not too sure about that. She’d occasionally appear during the Harvest Festival, the New Year’s Festival, and the Emperor’s Birthday Festival, but there are times where she doesn’t appear for an entire year. I had heard about it from a lady at the place I work part-time.”

“I see….”

As Heloise played the game without referring to guides, she wondered if there’s a spot that she was unaware of, but it seemed to be at random, just like she had experienced.

The trio who had finally escaped from the underworld entered a market.

Unlike the quiet and dreary underworld, the market was noisy and lively.

“Buy some pears, they’re fresh and very cheap!”

“There are fine silks that just arrived from the East!”

Sienna’s expression, which had stiffened at the sight of the gangster, finally relaxed after entering the market.

She seems to be relieved.

Anyhow, Zenon had a nonchalant face.

Rather, he was in a good enough state that he was looking at the trivial bracelets that were on display at the stalls.

“I’m sorry. I’m the one that suggested going there, but it turned out like that…….”

Sienna offered an apology that cut through the noise-filled silence first.

However, this incident naturally occurred due to insufficient stats in the system, hence it wasn’t Sienna’s fault.

Heloise eased the atmosphere with a smile.

“No. I managed to sightsee an interesting place thanks to you. Although it was a little scary, I think it’s better to undergo various experiences.”

She tried to comfort Sienna by making up words of comfort, but something felt strange.

Heloise poked Zenon in the side to get him to add something, but he was too busy looking around the market to pay attention.

Giving up on getting Zenon involved, Heloise proceeded to give more words of encouragement to the sullen Sienna.

“I’m being serious.”

Just as she was being indecisive and wanted to say something.

“Young Lady…!”

A loud voice that originated deeply from within his core emanated, looking for his ‘Young Lady’.

While Heloise didn’t know which young lady he was looking for, from his voice, the lady sounded like someone that was very much guilty.

“Young Lady Sienna…!”

“Heok! Soma!”

As Sienna trudged along, her hair, with slight exaggeration, seemed like a cat with its fur standing up.

On the opposite side of the market, a man in a black butler’s suit was glancing towards this side through a gap, his hands on his waist.

“My Lady.”

“So—Soma. I didn’t… I didn’t run away in order to escape…”

“I’ll listen to your words when we’ve returned to the mansion.”

“What do you mean mansion…! It’s just a two-story house!”

“Have you finished speaking your final words?”

It’s a familiar face from the illustrations.

Sienna’s butler, Soma.

Despite his strictness and peckishness, he followed Sienna from the fairy world as a butler that cared very much for Sienna.

Heloise gazed with contentment as Sienna was taken away.

‘Even if he looks like that, it’s for your sake.’

Also, no matter how she handled it, she was bound to be scolded for running away during the Flower Maiden parade.

As Sienna cried out, “Mi–ss Lor-ca–,” Heloise merely waved her hand silently, before turning to look back at Zenon.

He turned his head slowly and raised an eyebrow lightly.

As expected, he showed no signs of interest in Sienna.

“Why?”

“It’s nothing. Come to think of it, what should we do when your first outing ended up like this? Isn’t the market very unfamiliar for you?”

Heloise wasn’t unfamiliar with the market, as she had experience entering and exiting while playing the game, but it would be the first time in Zenon’s life.

“Well…… It’s nothing special.”

As he said that, Zenon’s expression was reserved.

Who would say that he isn’t a young master?

“What should we do? Should we end the outing here and return?”

“Alright.”

But for some reason, there were traces of regret on Zenon’s face.

It could have been her delusion.

Because Zenon has been expressionless since a while ago.

However, was it a sense honed through the few events they had experienced together?

This kid seemed to feel a little regretful now.

Even if he himself wasn’t aware of that fact.

“Uhm, or shall we go to the shopping district?”

It was the right moment to say that.

Zenon looked downwards at Heloise dazedly, but when he raised his head slightly, his expression became brutal in an instant.

“Zenon?”

“Heloise.”

“Hm?”

He clasped Heloise’ hand tightly.

“Run.”

Immediately after the word left his mouth, he started to run while pulling Heloise by her wrist. Perhaps due to his strength, the bracelet that had been hanging loosely on fell off with a clang.

“Ah, my bracelet!”

Just as Heloise was about to pick up the bracelet, Zenon gripped Heloise’s hand and dragged her along.

“Follow me right now.”

“What are you saying all of a sudden…?”

The next moment, Zenon started to sprint.

Heloise couldn’t afford to pick up the fallen bracelet and could only follow Zenon’s lead.

Heloise, who had been following Zenon’s lead for a long time without knowing the reason, tapped Zenon on the back when she was out of breath and couldn’t run any further.

“Zenon! Zenon! Let’s stop! I’m completely out of breath.”

“That’s the most that you can run?”

“It’s you that’s oddly good at running. And I even dropped my bracelet! My bracelet!”

Heloise clasped at her wrist with a teary face.

Her wrist became swollen after being gripped tightly by Zenon for a long period of time, and the bracelet that she had been wearing was already lost.

“Why did you run away like that all of a sudden?”

“There’s someone on our tail.”

“Someone? Who?”

“My uncle’s person.”

“Ah!”

Heloise’s eyes widened.

She thought that she had only informed those that were trustworthy, but she didn’t expect that it would enter the ear of Marquis Velks so quickly.

As such, the meaning of their covert escape was rendered obsolete.

The duo, who stopped running near Felipe Bridge, located the carriage bearing the emblem of the Lorca Viscounty and boarded it quietly.

“Would you be reprimanded?”

As the carriage began to move, Heloise was the first amongst the two to speak after a period of silence.

Heloise, who was the one that tempted Zenon into going out, asked in a worried tone.

Zenon shook his head.

“There’s nothing for him to retaliate with. Even if he wants to retaliate, he has to have something to do so.”

“……”

“So, don’t mind it. Rather than that….”

It was shocking enough to see Marquis Velks’s person, but Zenon’s attention was focused on something else.

The kid shoved a hand into his pocket and dawdled.

“There’s something more important than that?”

“It’s not a big deal.”

After stewing for another moment, Zenon finally took the item out of his pocket and displayed it on his palm.

It was actually a shiny bracelet.

“What’s this…?”

“What else can it be, it’s obviously a bracelet.”

“Where did you get this suddenly… Oh.”

Heloise recalled how Zenon was acting indifferent as Sienna was dragged away from the market.

She wondered about what he was up to, seeing as how he was absentminded, but it must have been because he was buying this. There were several charms haphazardly hanging from the golden coloured bangle type bracelet.

With slight bewilderment, Heloise received the bracelet and fiddled with it.

It looked more like a mage’s enchantment tool rather than an accessory belonging to a noble young lady.

There were various inexplicable decorations, such as hexagons, gales, snow and pentagrams.

“I was in a hurry, so there were a few that I couldn’t add.”

“Is this supposed to mean something?”

“It wouldn’t be useless if it was there.”

It’s only courteous to try on a gift in front of the person who gave it to you.

Heloise put on a bracelet and gave quite a mischievous look towards Zenon.

“What do you think? Does it suit me, young master?”

“It suits you well.”

A faint smile appeared on Zenon’s lips.

Heloise, who was being playful, gave him a cute smile.

Heloise found the bracelet that jingled with each movement of her wrist novel, so she kept looking at it at every angle.

She kept doing that through the entire journey, until they parted ways at Langbert Mansion.

⋄────∘°❃°∘────⋄

The balcony of a fancy party.

A man, who had come out to get some fresh air and sober up, leaned on the railing with his elbow and let out a soft whistle.

Upon that, a masked man dressed in black clothes dropped down from an upper floor and prostrated.

“Your Grace.”

“What happened?”

“Though he went out, he didn’t take any particular actions.”

Marquis Velks frowned at his subordinate’s report and spoke.

“I’ll be the judge of whether he acted particularly or not.”

“He was accompanied by the Young Lady of the Lorca Viscounty, and while taking a stroll near Felipe Bridge, another woman joined them and they made a trip to the underworld together.”

“The underworld?”

The Marquis of Velks snorted. He went to the underworld?

Has that kid already become old enough to enter and exit places like that?

“Also…… at the end, my identity was exposed. The Young Lord probably knows about our existence now.”

“It doesn’t matter. Was there nothing else in particular?”

As the trivial report ended, he asked in a perfunctory manner while guzzling down several mouthfuls of alcohol, like he was about to return back to the venue by himself.

His subordinate agonised repeatedly over what else should he report about, before finally squeezing out his observations as a response.

“And… about the Viscounty of Lorca’s Young Lady.”

“Who? Are you talking about Zenon’s playmate?”

“I watched them together and they seemed to be pretty close.”

The marquis’ moustache flinched.

Was he talking about that cheeky girl from last time?

He might have overlooked it then, but no matter how much he thought about it, he wasn’t satisfied.

“……Convey to the Order that we seem to have found a sacrifice for atonement.”

The marquis flung the bottle he was holding out of the balcony, and returned to the hall without a word.

Only fluttering curtains remained in the place the marquis left, with nary a trace of his masked subordinate.

⋄────∘°❃°∘────⋄