Chapter 03
Hair like it was made by melting the black night sky, and a sharply defined nose.
Elegant hands placing a teacup down.
Just sitting there, his presence alone seemed to fill the entire room.
“Gerard…!”
“Hey! You brat! Is the Tower Master your friend? Lower your eyes!”
Eloise, who had been staring at Gerard as if entranced, hurriedly bowed her head.
She hadn’t expected to meet Gerard so soon.
Based on her previous life, meeting him shouldn’t have happened until a year from now.
She had planned to look into him after getting used to her second life.
But she had been drowning in work, and a whole week had passed just like that.
On top of that, she hadn’t decided what to say to Gerard, or how to face him.
“Should I tell him that I’ll awaken as an S-rank healer in the future and ask him to wait?”
He would think she was insane.
More importantly, Gerard didn’t like healers very much.
Too many people had approached him with impure motives, using healing power as a weapon.
On top of that, Gerard was allergic to healing energy.
There had even been an incident where someone forcibly locked him in a room with a healer, only for him to come out pale-faced.
“They made a huge mess trying to cover it up. And when Gerard got furious and said he’d find out who planned it, the whole Demonic Energy Management Bureau was turned upside down.”
Eloise shuddered.
Still, she couldn’t fully blame the person in charge who had schemed that incident.
The order had come from the imperial family in the first place.
Gerard was the greatest mage currently alive on the continent.
Without him, who would protect them from the Rainbow Holes?
His absence would mean the end of the world.
That was why everyone desperately wanted him to receive warm care from a healer.
They believed that someday, a healer perfectly suited to him would appear.
While tracing her memories, Eloise cautiously looked at Gerard.
“Is he… okay?”
In her previous life, Gerard had refused healers despite being at risk of rampaging.
It was probably the same now, meaning his condition wasn’t good.
She wanted to help, but Eloise hadn’t awakened as a healer yet.
“Eloise, why are you just standing there? Go handle the complaint, now!”
Colin suddenly raised his voice.
Eloise snapped back to her senses.
“Yes, I should. But the complainant asked for you, Team Leader.”
“Tell him I’m not here!”
“I already told him you are.”
Colin stared at her in disbelief.
Eloise didn’t need to hear his thoughts to know what he was thinking.
“She’s lost her mind,” probably.
Or, “Did she eat something bad?”
It made sense.
The old Eloise had been the model civil servant.
Obey orders, follow rules, avoid risks.
But she had changed.
Because the woman who had died and come back had a goal.
To escape being a low-level civil servant and enjoy a comfortable retirement.
“I’ll be submitting my resignation soon.”
But before that, there were things she had to do.
There were tragedies she had failed to prevent in her past life.
Faces of those who had suffered flashed through her mind.
Merlin, healers, children—and Gerard.
This time, she would save them all.
And of course, keep herself alive too.
“I’ll leave without regrets.”
For a low-ranking civil servant, it was an ambitious dream.
But for someone who knew the future and would become an S-rank healer, it wasn’t impossible.
To achieve her dream, Eloise threw away the servility she once showed toward authority.
She decided to properly use the greatest advantage of being a poorly paid, powerless civil servant.
Job security.
Once hired by the Demonic Energy Management Bureau, it was extremely hard to get fired.
People fluent in the continental language were considered skilled labor, yet were paid very little.
“My small and precious salary.”
On the other hand, the workload was brutal.
And among all departments, the support team had the heaviest load.
“We even get dragged into post–Rainbow Hole cleanup.”
Anyway, Eloise decided she wouldn’t endure things anymore.
Especially not the team leader’s unfair orders and salary-theft behavior, treating healers and subordinates like slaves.
“Aren’t you going back to your desk right now?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll go tell the mage exactly this. That you’re in your office, but told me to say you’re not here.”
“You crazy bitch!”
Colin raised his hand in anger.
Now that she thought about it, he had always had a habit of hitting people.
Eloise instinctively hunched her shoulders.
Just then—
“What’s going on here?”
A deep, refined voice came from nearby.
Eloise lifted her eyes while pulling her neck in like a turtle.
“It’s nothing.”
“It doesn’t look like nothing, given the atmosphere.”
Gerard stepped closer and looked at Eloise.
In that moment, Eloise scanned him from head to toe.
Gerard was completely unharmed.
The white robe symbolizing the Tower Master was spotless.
There were no signs of demonic energy on his exposed skin.
The image overlapped with the last time she had seen him before dying.
A robe soaked in blood. Black demonic energy invading even the whites of his eyes.
Yet even then, he had rushed toward her, trying to save her.
“Gerard is safe.”
Of course he was. She had returned to the past.
But seeing it with her own eyes still brought overwhelming relief—and tears.
A tear rolled down Eloise’s cheek.
At that sight, Gerard’s golden eyes shook violently.
But only for a moment.
“What is this situation? I came to encourage the support team, not to see a superior bullying a subordinate.”
His gaze toward the team leader turned icy.
“What? Sir Gerard, that’s not it! It’s a misunderstanding! Bullying? Hey, are you crying? I didn’t even say anything! Are you acting right now?”
Colin shouted in panic.
Gerard frowned and pushed him aside.
“Don’t cry.”
Despite his soothing words, the tears wouldn’t stop.
Eloise was confused.
She wasn’t someone who cried easily.
After meeting Gerard, she had even tried hard not to cry—she had forgotten how.
Because Gerard hated seeing her cry.
“When you cry, it makes me angry.”
She didn’t want to upset him.
So why wouldn’t the tears stop now?
And why did Gerard look angry?
Eloise looked up at him.
Her vision was blurry with tears, and she couldn’t see his expression clearly.
She blinked hard to see him better.
More tears fell, and her vision cleared.
Their eyes met.
His deep golden eyes, filled with unique magic, were swirling.
Not with anger—
With pain.
Gerard closed his eyes briefly, as if swallowing something, then opened them again.
“Stop crying. Who bullied you? Tell me, Eloise.”
Eloise’s eyes widened.
Had she ever told him her name?
***
“Eloise, have you calmed down?”
Startled, Eloise jolted while holding a steaming teacup.
Ripples formed in the tea as well.
She looked up at the man in front of her again.
Gerard Norvark.
Eloise was sitting across from him in a consultation room at the Demonic Energy Management Bureau.
Just the two of them.
She was extremely flustered.
“This never happened in my previous life!”
In her past life, they wouldn’t meet until a year later, when Gerard nearly rampaged.
Until then, Gerard wouldn’t even know Eloise existed.
“It’s strange for the Tower Master to know a low-level civil servant.”
Yet here they were, alone in a consultation room—and he had called her by name.
“Do you… know me?”
Gerard shook his head as he lifted his teacup.
“No.”
“Then… have we met before?”
Eloise wanted to bite her tongue.
What kind of creepy pickup-line question was that?
“It’s our first meeting.”
Thankfully, Gerard didn’t misunderstand her. He answered firmly.
“Then let me ask instead. Have we ever met?”
“Of course not! This is our first meeting. Completely. Absolutely. I’ve never seen you before in my life.”
“Ah…”
Only after Gerard gave an awkward smile did Eloise realize she had overreacted.
Still, there was one thing she had to ask.
“Then… how do you know my name?”
