Chapter 38…………………………………….
“Ah… that’s an elephant beastkin. Looks like a baby.”
Seeing someone leaning on a massive cushion in the shape of an elephant, Lin quietly laughed to herself at how cute it was.
“Maybe I should rest for a bit too?”
The spot with the soft carpet looked really comfortable, even for someone in a beastkin form.
She had met many unfamiliar peers at today’s party, which was fun, but promoting the kids’ mocktails to multiple children had also worn her out a bit.
“Miss Lin, you can lie down if you want,” Julie said.
“Um… is that okay?”
“Of course. Don’t worry about your hair—it might get a little messy, but I can fix it quickly.”
“Hehe, thanks, Julie.”
From the moment they left the banquet hall, Julie had been encouraging her to rest comfortably, which eased Lin’s tension.
She felt all the stress she hadn’t even noticed melt away.
Just as she was about to lie down as Julie suggested…
“Hey, you there!”
A familiar voice called from behind.
Turning her head, she saw the obvious face—it was Payne, with that usual scowl plastered on his face.
Perhaps because he had been scolded by the adults for the previous “hunting game,” his eyes were already filled with malice as he stared at Lin.
“You! Hey, ugh!”
“Oh, sorry. Hahaha, run faster.”
“Eek! …Huh. Stay still, you—ugh!”
“Ignorance! I’m busy right now. Rabbit, I’ll catch you soon!”
Payne, glaring and trying to say something to Lin, stumbled as other beastkin children dashed around wildly, grinding his teeth in frustration.
Since there were no adults in the kids’ lounge other than the attendants, the children, out of their guardians’ sight, were freely enjoying themselves.
Some, driven by their instinct to run, were already chasing each other around the room multiple times.
As a result, cushions and soft chairs were tossed about, leaving traps scattered across the floor.
“You think you can… ugh!”
Payne, pointing angrily at a beastkin who had bumped into him, tripped over the leg of a chair and crashed to the floor noisily.
“Yikes….”
Lin, who didn’t particularly like Payne, couldn’t help but let out a sound at the spectacle. When Payne raised his head, blood trickled from both nostrils.
Feeling pity for the pitiful figure, Lin, remembering what she learned in class, reached out to help.
She even offered a handkerchief she had found in her pocket.
Thwack!
Payne forcefully brushed Lin’s hand away.
“Ouch!”
“Don’t be a crybaby. Hmph! …Ugh.”
Payne, trying to sneer at Lin while clutching his throbbing nose, accidentally worsened his pain as he held his face in his hands and groaned.
“Idiot?”
Lin said in disbelief, watching him.
Payne, embarrassed from hurting himself while trying to act tough, glared at Lin menacingly.
Of course, Lin hadn’t sneezed or made any move.
Even with blood streaming from his nose, raising his eyes only made him look even more foolish.
‘Being around this grumpy brat will only put me in a worse mood.’
Deciding there was nothing good about staying near this relative, Lin bent down to pick up the handkerchief she had handed him and prepared to leave.
But while she was leaning forward, Payne suddenly approached, baring his teeth in a threatening manner.
“You told on me for playing in the garden last time, didn’t you?”
“I said I would even back then.”
“Ha. Hey, don’t act so smug on your own.”
Recalling the embarrassment he felt in front of visiting beastkin friends from another estate, Payne’s eyes burned with malice.
Believing Lin was the cause of his humiliation, he whispered almost inaudibly over the surrounding noise.
“You’re just a mutant destined to die soon.”
“!”
“If you’re a mutant, then die quickly like one.”
Payne smirked as Lin’s eyes widened in shock.
Because the room was noisy, only Lin could hear his whisper.
‘What’s with Miss Lin’s expression…?’
Even amidst the chaos, Julie, who had kept a careful watch on Lin because of the other children running around, immediately noticed something unusual.
Theodore, who had been on high alert in the banquet hall in case anyone said something bad to Lin, instructed Julie to follow her as soon as she seemed about to move outside the hall.
Unlike the banquet hall, knights could not enter the kids’ lounge.
Julie, remembering the instructions to never take her eyes off Lin, faithfully carried out her duty.
“Miss, are you okay?”
So it was only natural that Julie rushed over when she saw Lin’s expression darken after hearing that nasty whisper.
Payne, angered by the sudden obstruction, shouted.
“Hey! Who are you?”
“I’m Miss Lin’s nanny.”
“Eek. Don’t you see I’m hurt? If you’re our family’s servant, you should be attending to me quickly!”
Payne, believing that a servant of the lord’s estate should serve a pure-blood Pegasus like him, made what he considered a reasonable demand.
However, the insolent servant did not flinch or bow in response.
Instead, she crouched down to examine her mistress’s face more carefully and calmly replied.
“As I said, as a nanny, I serve Miss Lin.”
So she didn’t care about the insolent boy who had brushed away her precious young lady’s handkerchief.
Julie’s cold, sidelong glance, full of that resolve, seemed extremely disrespectful to Payne.
“How dare a servant try to teach me a lesson!”
“!”
Payne raised his arm and aimed to slap the servant’s cheek.
“Ah!”
But the next moment, it was Payne who screamed.
As if struck by an invisible force, his arm jerked back in the opposite direction, and he rolled on the floor clutching it.
‘Ugh. What the… what just happened?’
The sudden relief from the pain in his twisted arm made him lift his eyes, and he froze upon meeting her radiant golden gaze.
“……”
A faint light emanated from Lin’s forehead as she silently looked down at him.
Payne, unaware of the unique light shining through her bangs, suddenly realized what had moved his arm and whispered in a trembling voice.
“You… you have wind abilities?”
No… that couldn’t be right. She was supposedly a half-blood who couldn’t even use the family’s powers.
The force she had used felt like a single-point strike rather than a broad wind ability, but Payne, too shocked, didn’t notice the difference.
‘She was supposed to be a half-blood with no family abilities… yet she manifested wind powers first, and I—next in line of the direct bloodline—…!’
Payne’s mind collapsed, his face red with heat, his whole body trembling.
Thud.
Lin, crouching to his level as he sat on the floor, whispered:
“Do you want me to show you what death is?”
Her voice was barely audible over the surrounding noise.
“W-what?”
“Since you keep talking about dying, I thought you must be curious.”
Payne, intimidated by Lin’s unfamiliar gaze, stammered and slowly retreated.
Click.
Quietly, Lin took a round orb from her clothes and shattered it right in front of Payne’s nose.
