Chapter 88
No one really knew how long he had been there, but it seemed that someone in the middle had slipped, causing the situation.
Nina, staring in shock, watched as Cheshire chuckled and straightened himself up.
“Alright, I’d better hurry. At this rate, I might get murdered.”
“Then…”
“I’ll see you again when Ravi returns.”
“Yeah, next time, Dendo should come too! Take care, sir! Be careful!”
Nina waved energetically, seeing Cheshire off.
Cheshire waved back one last time before leaving the hotel.
After Cheshire had completely disappeared from view, Nina let out a deep breath and said loudly,
“Where are you?”
“…Here.”
As expected, someone quietly appeared from behind the fountain.
It was Messy, disguised as a newspaper delivery boy.
“So you couldn’t wait even for a moment…”
“No, but that sneaky Kudzu-root Demon King dared to go after our baby!”
Nina was momentarily stunned as two more people followed Messy in sequence.
“Katia… is that you?”
“How do I look? Like a lady of high society?”
Katia, with a roll-bun wig of unknown origin, a flashy scarf, and even sunglasses, sniffled while fanning herself.
With thick lipstick on her lips, she didn’t exactly look like a noblewoman—more like a woman with a uniquely bold fashion sense.
As if that wasn’t enough, Kiss added to the spectacle.
Even putting aside the mismatched blonde wig and see-through shirt, no one could understand why he had a rose in his mouth.
Messy, seeing Nina staring blankly at Kiss, cleared his throat and explained:
“It’s the concept of a female-only club worker from the casino.”
“…You mean the one who dances on tables and the ladies throw gold coins at her?”
“Yeah… Though honestly, the ladies should be the ones receiving money…”
Kiss immediately bristled at Messy’s remark.
“You cheeky brat! If you’re jealous, just say it! If the baby knew how many times I got hit on earlier, he’d be shocked…”
“It wasn’t being hit on—it was a security check.”
Nina leaned forward slightly and then couldn’t hold it in any longer, bursting into laughter.
“Hahaha…!”
Messy’s eyes went wide.
Kiss, who had a headlock on Messy, and Katia, who was giving a side-eye comment, were equally stunned.
“Hahaha, what the heck is this…! It’s obviously not stalking!”
Oblivious to the shocked looks of the others, Nina laughed until tears nearly formed.
“This kind of thing shouldn’t be done just among us. Everyone does whatever they want, and it ends in complete chaos.”
Messy removed his delivery boy hat, muttering, yet a faint smile lingered in his eyes.
“I thought it looked pretty convincing…”
“Katia, could you stop sniffing? It’s creepy.”
“Hey! You said it looked convincing earlier!”
“That was earlier, this is now. Anyway, Nina, I have good news.”
Nina rubbed her eyes and tilted her head in curiosity.
“Good news?”
“Yeah… well…”
“Hey, stop! I’ll say it myself, you cheeky brat!”
“Alright.”
“And is it really good news? Sounds more like bad news to me.”
Messy surprisingly stepped back, leaving Kiss slightly embarrassed and grumbling.
Nina looked between the two in confusion.
“What’s the news?”
“Well, actually…”
“Ravian will arrive tomorrow evening.”
Katia cut in casually.
Kiss was furious.
“Hey! I said I’d tell it!”
“Ah, who cares who says it?! Why are you such a petty adult?!”
Feeling someone grab her hand, Nina turned her mouth agape toward Messy.
His golden eyes sparkled.
“Shall we go meet him at the station?”
“Really? Is that okay?”
“Yeah. He’ll probably be very surprised.”
“…By the way, don’t you think I’ve grown taller?”
Nina asked abruptly, turning around, and both Messy and Katia tilted their heads seriously.
“Now that you mention it, maybe a little…”
“Let’s go in quickly, take off our shoes, and measure!”
“Ah, the baby’s grown taller already…?”
“What did you go through as a baby, sir?”
As they noisily returned to the hotel, Nina quietly counted on her fingers.
The festival still had two days left.
Ravian had kept his promise.
And on top of that, they could go meet him at the station…!
‘I’m really happy…’
Her heart started racing with excitement.
For a moment, she even forgot about the dream distortions, Hameln, and all her other worries.
The day before leaving Vina, Ravian visited a newly opened jewelry workshop for the last time.
The place, recently gaining fame in the Zodiac social scene, had been introduced to him by his youngest brother, Jeffrey, the royal secretary of Normand. Jeffrey had also come to the workshop to pick up a custom piece his wife had ordered.
Naturally, Jeffrey, assuming Ravian had come to buy a gift for a lover, was soon bewildered by the conversation between Ravian and the artisan.
“I recommend necklaces or bracelets rather than rings. Kids grow so quickly.”
“I worry they might break it while playing.”
“Ha ha, they are at an age where they run around a lot. From my experience, rings or bracelets are much more likely to be lost while playing.”
“Is that so? I don’t have much time. How long will it take to finish if I order today?”
“May I see the lost tooth you brought? You can choose the chain from the basic models and pick a gemstone to attach to the tooth.”
As Ravian handed over the case with the lost tooth to the artisan, Jeffrey fell into complete confusion.
‘What’s going on? Is this a request from someone he knows? Or a gift for a friend’s daughter?’
Yet, no reasonably sane person would entrust their daughter’s lost tooth to Ravian.
Moreover, the idea that Ravian was carrying around a child’s lost tooth was utterly bizarre.
If it were a tooth from an enemy kept as a trophy, that would make sense—but a child’s tooth? Preposterous.
As they left the workshop, Jeffrey tentatively spoke to Ravian.
“Um, brother…”
“What is it?”
“…Never mind.”
“What? Coward.”
Ravian muttered a low reprimand and strode ahead.
Jeffrey trailed behind, swallowing a groan of anxiety.
‘Something’s definitely going on.’
Like many youngest siblings in noble families, Jeffrey had long suffered from “youngest child syndrome”—an acute awareness of elder siblings’ moods.
Thus, he intuitively sensed that his notoriously difficult second brother was currently in a delicate state.
Moreover, Jeffrey knew what might happen when Ravian was in such a state—he had witnessed it once before.
It was when Ravian had beaten Leopart and been chased away by the crown prince.
At that time, the palace atmosphere was utterly shattered, scattered like debris.
And Jeffrey hated cleaning up that debris alone.
Perhaps that was why he fled to Normand.
“Out of cigarettes. Do you need anything?”
Ravian turned into a nearby shop and asked.
Jeffrey nodded.
“Ah, I’ll take cigarettes too.”
The shop, tucked inside a quiet alley, was small and lightly populated. It sold cigarettes and other goods to nearby residents, though fewer customers were around due to the festival.
For Jeffrey, who rarely visited such places, it was a novel experience.
While Ravian chose his cigarettes, Jeffrey glanced around in curiosity.
“What’s this? They just give you money if you buy a ticket here?”
“You think they’d just give it away? It’s a lottery, idiot.”
Ravian replied without even looking at him.
“Ah… so there are lotteries like this. Should I try one?”
