## Chapter 385 – Unintentional Intent (5)
In a way, it was the first failed human relationship she’d ever experienced.
As a result, Hye-ryung couldn’t help but become even more cautious in her attitude.
“Lady. Are you not going out today?”
“You didn’t like it when I went out.”
“That doesn’t mean you should lock yourself away for days.
Did things not go well with the La Latina matter?
According to our informants, there shouldn’t have been any problems…”
“It’s not that.
Just leave me alone.”
Having always been the one to face those who approached her, she had, for the first time, reached out to others, only to have them turn their backs on her.
Like a child who innocently touched a flame that seemed warm and cozy, only to be burned and startled.
Hye-ryung curled up under the covers, clutching the hairpin she had received as a gift.
But being a realist, she soon pushed the blanket aside and slowly sat up.
“Gyeon Sa-woo. Prepare for me to go out.”
“A wise decision, Lady.
Shall I prepare the outfit we chose last time…”
“No. Get me my stealth attire.”
Perhaps it was because, despite serving her for so long, he sometimes couldn’t fathom her thoughts.
Her heart, once like a cold, frozen steel plate, seemed to be thawing with the arrival of spring one day.
Then, she suddenly went out, only to return and become listless, as if bedridden for days. What was she thinking this time?
Gyeon Sa-woo paused for a moment at Hye-ryung’s sudden request for stealth attire, then bowed his head and left the room.
Leaving his worries behind, Hye-ryung quickly changed clothes and ventured out into the streets, quietly making her way through the dark alleys.
‘I need to confirm it.’
Climbing walls, running like the wind, leaping across rooftops.
Moving like a shadow, she arrived at a building that, until now, Hye-ryung had only known the location of, never daring to visit.
Having reached her destination, she stood by the door, staring blankly at the handle.
Startled by the sound of footsteps inside, Hye-ryung scurried back into the adjacent alley with hasty steps.
“Young Master. Are you going out?”
“I’m planning to take a walk and come back.
You don’t need to clean the room today.”
Unlike Carla, he rented a small private house, which also served as his workshop.
As if he were going out, he spoke to the caretaker, an old woman who managed the building, before leaving. Hye-ryung peeked out, watching him.
“Then I’ll do that.
Have a good time?”
Antonio left the house with a slightly bitter smile.
Hearing his familiar voice, Hye-ryung hid herself and quietly began to follow him from the alley.
“Young Master Antonio? Where are you going?”
“I’m not going anywhere in particular.
Did you sell a lot today?”
“Seeing you at the end of the day, Young Master, makes me think tomorrow will be lucky?
You showing your face from time to time makes me feel fortunate. Haha!!”
“Oh, come on. When you put it like that, I can’t help but buy one.
This one looks especially plump today? How much for one?”
“I can’t give it to you for free, Young Master, but I can give you a discount.
Just give me five copper coins.”
“How will you ever make money doing business like that?
Don’t refuse and take it.”
“Hello, Antonio, big brother!!”
“Such polite future alchemists.
Did you study hard today?”
“I studied with the book you gave us!!
I learned about something called metal oxidation!!”
“That’s quite an interesting part too.
It’s about different substances meeting, stabilizing each other, and harmonizing.
Shall we prepare a couple of oxidation catalysts as teaching materials next time?”
“Wow!!”
Seeing him greet the surrounding merchants and residents with a bright smile, Hye-ryung, who was watching from hiding, couldn’t help but feel her shoulders slump.
What would he think of her, who couldn’t even control the few she could call friends, when he could maintain such excellent relationships with people who weren’t even particularly related to him?
And by now, Carla’s words would have reached Antonio’s ears in many ways.
Carla would probably be saying bad things about her, and Antonio, too, seemed to view her recent nerve agent massacre incident with shock.
Having incurred the displeasure of Carla, his beloved younger sister, and having openly expressed their differences, would Antonio still look at her the same way as before?
Like when they shared a meal at a nice restaurant in a good atmosphere.
Like when they chose accessories for each other, tried them on, and inexplicably burst into laughter.
And, like when they felt a strange sense of regret at the moment of parting, glancing back at each other, making eye contact, and then being startled and turning away again.
If she thought he would never look at her with that kind of gaze again…
“Lady, aren’t you coming in?
Why are you standing there so blankly…”
When she came to her senses, she was already back at the mansion, having fled the scene as if running away.
“Gyeon Sa-woo, what are you staring at?
The Lady has returned, so prepare a warm bath.”
“Oh… O-okay…”
Jik Yeo-hwa, who had given Gyeon Sa-woo, who was staring blankly at Hye-ryung, a sharp word, led Hye-ryung into the mansion as if dragging her along.
Led by Jik Yeo-hwa, she took off her night clothes and soaked herself up to her head in the warm bath, and only then could Hye-ryung feel it.
Her face, which should have been hot because of the bathwater, and her slightly reddened eyes, were finally cooling down in the bathwater.
After the silent bath, thanks to Jik Yeo-hwa, who didn’t ask anything and pushed her into her room, Hye-ryung collapsed onto the bed in her nightgown.
Just like she had done this morning, yesterday, and the day before.
She curled up in a comfortable position and seemed to be lost in thought for a long time, then grabbed a pillow and hugged it tightly.
‘I am… Dang Hye-ryung…’
Even though she felt like the pillowcase was getting a little damp, she couldn’t take her face away from it. She slowly let go of the pillow, returned it to its original position, and lay straight on the bed.
“If I do it, I do it… If I want to achieve it, I will…”
As if she felt a little relieved after pouring out her emotions, she closed her eyes slowly with a slightly more relaxed face. Her murmur scattered softly in the quiet room.
“It doesn’t matter what blocks me.
If it’s broken, I’ll just rebuild it in my own way.
That’s the virtue of the Dang family.”
– – – – – – –
And so, from the next day, her bizarre behavior began.
The young lady, who had suddenly returned crying, went out every day in her night clothes and returned late at night.
“No, Jik Yeo-hwa, junior sister…!!
Then say something to her…
Ugh!! Ah… I understand, stop with the ribs…!!”
Of course, Gyeon Sa-woo was loading up with “A grown woman shouldn’t be sneaking around at night,” but.
Thanks to Jik Yeo-hwa, who poked him in the ribs every time and gave him a look, Hye-ryung’s escapades were quietly overlooked.
Once she took one shot, then two, now she just needed to take three and four.
Even if she took a hundred shots, Hye-ryung, who had no intention of ever giving up, no longer cared about Carla or anything else, and was only running towards her goal.
‘All I need to do is win his heart.
It doesn’t matter how much they flutter around me.’
Failure was certainly bitter, but it only revealed one method that didn’t work.
Hye-ryung continued to follow Antonio, continuing her investigation of him.
If someone asked if she was just lacking the courage to step forward, let them ask.
Until the dungeon incident occurred, she learned about Antonio through countless stalking and background checks.
As if there was no one else who had such confidence in what she was trying to do, Hye-ryung analyzed the information that piled up every day, but sometimes she learned things she didn’t want to know.
“A young master fan club… What kind of bitches are there so many of…?
They recognize that he’s precious… No, that’s not it…
Oppa, I… I love you…? These… These bitches!?
Who are you setting your sights on, you impudent things?”
It was ironic that she herself was the number one stalker, knowing everything from Antonio’s favorite foods to his habits, hobbies, and way of thinking.
Still, perhaps knowing that she wasn’t doing so well either, Hye-ryung showed mercy to the impudent bitches in the fan club, feeding them laxatives instead of poison.
She watched Antonio become alone as the girls left, and smiled contentedly like a mother.
“Ah… Aah…!! That’s… a man’s muscle…♡
Hmm… He’s wrapping a towel around his lower body…”
Sometimes, she directly observed Antonio coming out of the bath from outside the window, and regretted that he was covering his lower body with a towel, trying to cool her flushed face.
In any case, Hye-ryung, who also considered that love, learned more and more about Antonio every day, and fell deeper and deeper in love with him as time passed.
But there was something she could never know.
‘Does Gyeon Sa-woo, junior brother, have a preference for women?’
‘Hmm… Since coming to Groden, I’ve found short hair to be so pretty.
If I had to say a preference, it would be a woman with round eyes and a tall stature.
‘Isn’t that the complete opposite of Jik Yeo-hwa, junior sister?’
Perhaps the surrounding disciples were starting to notice Hye-ryung, who was now openly giving love advice.
Gyeon Sa-woo, who brought up the story more naturally than before, chuckled and answered her question with an expression that seemed to be pondering something.
‘Until now, Jik Yeo-hwa, junior sister, was my ideal type.
And this is a preference that has changed since coming to Groden.
Certainly, the beauties of the West are different in many ways.
That… development… in many ways… Ahem!!
Anyway!! When you fall in love with a woman, all preferences become irrelevant.
Preferences are certainly important, but they are only important at the first meeting.
No matter how the process goes, once you fall in love.
What good is an ideal type after that?’
Then, at some point, Gyeon Sa-woo strangely changed the subject and started sweating profusely. It was before she saw Jik Yeo-hwa, who was smiling brightly behind him.
Hye-ryung, who listened and mulled over his words, thinking that was how it was.
‘Yeo-hwa… her eyes are subtle…?’
Anyway, Gyeon Sa-woo, who had been groaning from beyond the room ever since that day, said that was how it was, but in the end, she couldn’t know Antonio’s preference for women, which he said was important.
‘Usually, they prefer people from their hometown…
Then I am…’
Hye-ryung, who suddenly thought of Antonio with his calmly styled brown hair and looked in the mirror, was looking at her reflection in the mirror.
Hair that was darker than anything else, as if she had dropped ink as it was.
Unlike Antonio’s clear brown eyes, deep black eyes that gave the feeling that you didn’t know what she was thinking inside.
And if she thought about the shape of their faces, which were clearly foreign and opposed to each other, she couldn’t help but bite her lip without realizing it.
“The women of Barmhausen have high noses…
Should I make my nose a little higher too…?
Make my eyes a little longer, my double eyelids and eyebrows darker…
And if I bleach and dye my hair a little…”
Even the tradition of Chao Xing, which strictly forbids touching the completed body, was forgotten for a moment by the power of great love.
How could she make him like her?
As a partner to spend his life with, looking at her, how could she make him satisfied without getting tired of her?
But it was fortunate that she was ultimately unable to put those many worries into action.
If she violated tradition and fell out of favor with her family, her value would be greatly diminished.
While she was worrying and worrying, time flowed by and continued to pass.
Of course, the time she had realized love for the first time and continued it could not be said to be long, but she had gone through nothing but excellent experiences when it came to cultured and superficial human relationships.
Now that she had picked up quite a few things, various changes were beginning to occur in her way of thinking.
‘That’s right. It’s not just about looks.
They say that people with warm hearts can be loved…’
If you look at her gazing at her chest and putting her hand between her clothes, you might think she’s wasting her time.
Still, it’s something to be able to grasp even something similar.
“That’s right. I’ve heard that I’m kind a lot?
My father too, that’s right!!
My mother, whom I haven’t seen since I was born, would have thought so too!!
Where else would you find a woman like me?”
The problem was that it wasn’t even similar.
This time, she was trying to delve into the spiritual theory rather than the physical theory.
Her plan to appear before Antonio as a chaste and gentle woman, one of the common ideal types of men, and surprise him.
That was shattered from Antonio’s words, as if he were meeting a friend on an outing one day, right after she had made up her mind.
‘I didn’t say anything that great.
Just confident, dignified, and good to my family.
Women like that are popular wherever they go…’
It would have been good if she had thought about these words a little more deeply.
At least for Hye-ryung, Antonio’s statement only made her feel guilty about her actions of hiding behind and secretly peeking at the other person.
Moreover, seeing Antonio, as a member of the Barmhausen delegation, leading the delegation and going to a brothel as a reception, she was grinding her teeth.
“Wait… Floras… Is this the place?
That’s the place that was said to be a competitor of that La Latina or whatever?”
When a name she had heard in passing came up, was it because she had a bad feeling?
No, maybe that was just an excuse.
In order to prevent Antonio from doing what he was about to do, she needed a plausible excuse.
With that premonition, Hye-ryung found herself becoming more and more restless as she watched the delegation being guided to their rooms one by one, and Antonio and Ludwig remaining until the end.
‘Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease
If you come to me, I can do something more daring than those bitches.
My body, a masterpiece of the Dang family, is much better than those cheap things…!!’
A sparrow could not pass by a mill.
In the first place, it was a world where the act of a man going to a brothel was not considered strange in general.
Even though he was a gentleman, Hye-ryung didn’t think that he wouldn’t do anything at a brothel.
When a pretty woman who seemed to have a position at the brothel naturally approached him as if inviting him, Hye-ryung watched Antonio grab her wrist and stride inside.
In the end, Hye-ryung, with her eyes turned upside down, broke out of her hiding place and crossed the wall of Floras with quick movements.
‘I should have known that he likes confident women… If I had known,
I should have seduced him with my body before he was taken away…!!’
And as a result of breaking the window without thinking and rolling into the room where the two were, Hye-ryung had come to this situation today.
“A suspicious person who appears to be a Chao Xing operative…
Infiltration of the delegation’s lodging…?
Could this suspicious person be Lady?”
“……”
At Gyeon Sa-woo’s question as he read the newspaper, Hye-ryung silently turned her head and remained silent.
“It is said that there was a senior member of the delegation in the room next door.
It seems that they mistook the room and infiltrated the assistant’s room…
They are investigating what they were trying to do to the senior member of the delegation…
This is an incident that could cause a major diplomatic dispute if handled poorly, Lady.”
Hye-ryung understood those words.
It was as if she had infiltrated a facility used by important foreign guests.
Moreover, using Chao Xing’s unique night clothes and items.
“Sa-woo, senior brother. Just a moment. As Gyeon Sa-woo, senior brother, said, Lady.
It’s just in case, but if it’s not true, please say it’s not.
Just in case the Dang family gets caught in the middle of a diplomatic dispute, Lady, please be sure…”
When she heard the title ‘Lady’, which the calm Jik Yeo-hwa would not use unless she was very flustered, Hye-ryung had no choice but to admit all the facts.
“That’s right, it’s me…”
Thanks to the night clothes, Hye-ryung’s identity might not be directly identified, but it was obvious that a dispute between the three countries could escalate if handled poorly.
If she kept her mouth shut, her shame might not be revealed, but on the other hand, the authority of Chao Xing, which would be blamed without knowing anything, would be tarnished.
Then, of course, the Empire would investigate to find the culprit of such a tarnished authority and hold them responsible, and if they went deep, it would be revealed that the items she used were from the Dang family.
“Lady… Why did you do such a thing…”
And at this point, the image that the Dang family had was that of a family specializing in assassination and espionage.
In other words, it was in a position where the authority of the Dang family would inevitably be tarnished in any direction, buying the suspicion that the Dang family was at least trying to assassinate a foreign dignitary or steal top-secret information.
Having become the one who trampled on the pride of her own family, Hye-ryung could do nothing but let out a small sigh at the increasingly complicated situation.
“If I confess…
Then the blame will only fall on the Dang family…”
“That won’t do. The head of the family and other elders would not want that either.
They will probably use other informants who are currently working in Groden as pawns.
So, Lady, you have nothing to worry about. However…”
Feeling a slight sense of unease at Jik Yeo-hwa’s trailing voice, Hye-ryung slowly raised her head from the bed where she was sitting and began to look at her.
Jik Yeo-hwa, who was looking down at her from the bedside, gently placed her hand on Hye-ryung’s shoulder with a bitter expression.
“You must prepare to leave as soon as possible, Lady.”
“Leave… what do you mean…?”
“In case of additional problems, Lady’s safety must be protected.
So… we have to go back to the Dang family.
This is because I was instructed by the head of the family before we left…”
At the shocking statement that came out of her mouth, Hye-ryung’s pupils were shaking violently.
