## Chapter 249 – Malice (12)
I wanted to deny reality. Veronica might not have experience, but she had heard plenty through the grapevine. The evidence left in this room unequivocally showed that they had made love last night.
Tears threatened to blur her vision.
It wasn’t as if she had a particular person in mind. In the first place, she was always working, so she didn’t have the opportunity to date or the time to meet anyone. Even so, she vaguely entertained the thought. Wouldn’t she eventually find someone she liked? She would carefully preserve everything she had for that fleeting moment.
But everything had gone wrong.
Of course, she couldn’t say she was entirely without fault. After all, it was her choice to drink to the point of blacking out. But if it weren’t for this bastard? Veronica harbored resentment toward the root cause.
The resentment soon turned into action.
*Slap!*
She smacked Ryu, who was sleeping next to her, hard across the cheek.
Ryu, who had been enjoying a sound sleep, was startled and wore a bewildered expression after being slapped for no reason. Soon, he clutched his stinging cheek and rose from the bed.
Ryu caressed the burning pain in his cheek and looked at Veronica, who had hit him. He was momentarily flustered to see tears welling up in her eyes, but he still had to say something about the sudden slap.
“Why, why are you doing this?”
“Why am I doing this?! How can you say such a thing from your mouth right now!?”
Ryu didn’t seem as greatly flustered as Veronica, as if he had already grasped the situation. In the first place, this was a natural occurrence for him. What else would a man and woman do if they slept in the same place other than have sex? Naturally, Ryu accepted having had relations with Veronica last night.
Of course, Ryu was the only one who understood, and Veronica did not.
“You, you did that to me, and you don’t even remember?!”
He took her first time, and he couldn’t even remember it properly? She couldn’t forgive him.
Veronica began throwing everything she could grab at Ryu. From the bottle of alcohol they had drunk yesterday to the blanket and pillow that retained their scent, she even tried to lift the bed to throw it when Ryu raised his voice in order to live.
“B-but Veronica, you were the one who pounced on me first!”
Veronica stopped lifting the bed.
“…What?”
Soon, Veronica’s face turned even redder than when she was drunk yesterday. It was a face mixed with shame and denial of reality. She was the one who pounced on that guy, whom she hated just looking at? She didn’t want to admit it.
Veronica raised her voice until the veins in her neck stood out.
“How dare you utter such blasphemy!”
*Bang!*
Veronica couldn’t control her anger and slammed the bed down on the floor. The wooden bed couldn’t withstand her strength and shattered into pieces, scattering across the floor.
At the same time, Veronica breathed roughly. Soon, she expressed her feelings in a single word.
“Fuck!”
It was ridiculous to continue like this in the nude. Veronica threw on some clothes and sat at the only intact table to sort out the situation.
She didn’t want to admit it, but it was an undeniable fact that she had sex with Ryu. The occasional unpleasant sensation of a bit of semen still flowing inside her made it clear that he had definitely ejaculated inside her last night.
Veronica gritted her teeth and quietly said to Ryu.
“Tell me everything, without leaving anything out.”
Veronica heard the truth of yesterday from Ryu’s mouth.
Veronica, who had become increasingly friendly as she got drunk, touched Ryu’s body without realizing it, and it was none other than herself who took the initiative as the atmosphere heated up.
Having learned all the truth, Veronica maintained an awkward silence.
Aser, what should she say to her? They weren’t exactly close, but she didn’t harbor any ill feelings toward her. Besides, she didn’t want rumors spreading around that she was a crazy bitch who stole another woman’s man.
It wasn’t just Aser.
What about Lou, the person she liked the most? Lou seemed to regard Ryu highly as well, so what kind of expression would he make if he found out that she had slept with his lover?
She was afraid.
What if he didn’t treat her the same as before? What if the time they had built up over the years crumbled like a sandcastle again? Amidst countless worries, Veronica’s eyes fell upon Ryu, who was nonchalantly chewing on bread.
Come to think of it, why was this man, who was practically in a situation of cheating, wearing such a nonchalant expression? She felt like a fool for being the only one constantly racking her brain and panicking.
Was it perhaps normal to have such natural relationships, and was she the strange one for not having any experience? Such questions swirled and confused her mind.
“Let’s go back for now….”
Unable to find an answer, Veronica had no choice but to return to District 4 with a heavy heart, regarding what had happened today as a secret she would take to her grave.
●
Veronica devoted herself to her work more than usual in order to shake off what had happened yesterday.
Or rather, she wanted to devote herself.
The work was even less productive than yesterday, and she couldn’t make any progress at all. She knew that clearing her mind was the basis of work. But….
How could she forget? The virginity she had lost just a few hours ago.
“I had sex….”
She only muttered that far before quickly shaking her head. Distractions, damn distractions! Veronica continued working in a more violent manner than usual.
Reina, who saw Veronica blankly swinging her hammer in the air and then swinging it like a madwoman as if possessed by something, immediately realized that the situation was unusual. Reina paused her work and cautiously approached Veronica to speak to her.
“Master?”
Veronica stopped hammering the steel and looked at Reina.
“Huh?”
“Is something wrong?”
“N-not really?”
This broken response, something was definitely up. She wanted to ask more, but she knew better than anyone that Veronica wouldn’t tell her honestly, having watched her from the side all this time. For now, she decided to first ask a question about the work she was originally supposed to do so as not to arouse suspicion.
“I know you’re busy with the work Lou assigned you, but there are quite a few issues to deal with. These are the people who will receive rewards this time and those who need to be punished for violating the rules.”
Reina took out a stack of documents from her bag and showed them to her. Veronica glanced at them once and nonchalantly replied.
“Uh… take care of it yourself. Give out the rewards and punishments as you see fit.”
It was a frequent occurrence. In the first place, Veronica spent most of her day holed up in the workshop, so Reina handled most of the practical matters.
“Yes, I will handle it as usual.”
“Oh, thanks.”
“Pardon?”
“Huh? Did I say something strange?”
“Ah, no.”
Reina quickly realized that the situation was much more serious and strangely flowing than she had thought. Thank you? That Veronica? She had never said thank you sober even once.
After Reina left, Veronica fell into thought again.
It was just that one time, just a single mistake. Besides, wasn’t she drunk? It was an area where her will was not involved at all. There was no need to have such a heavy feeling.
Even if she repeated it to herself countless times, the shame that washed over her like a wave could not be completely hidden.
But the first time was not something that could be easily forgotten just because she wanted to forget it.
Ryu had already taken a place in one side of her heart. Even if it was a bad feeling, he had become someone she could no longer ignore. She knew best that if she didn’t cut off this memory quickly, it would continue to gnaw at her mind, and as a result, she wouldn’t be able to focus on her work.
It wasn’t as if she could forget the memory of that day by continuing to work in the smithy. Eventually, Veronica sighed deeply and muttered to herself.
“I should take a bath.”
She finished work earlier than usual and returned to the mansion, naturally taking off her clothes and heading to the bathroom.
Her appearance in the huge mirror in front of the bathroom was no different from usual, but the marks left on her neck and chest made her recall yesterday’s memories whether she liked it or not. Of course, she didn’t remember a single thing, but. Veronica used her fingernails to scratch off the marks, deliberately causing wounds, and then entered the bathroom with a short curse.
She soaked her body in the bathtub she had built herself and barely organized her mind, which had been running chaotically all day.
‘Yeah, let’s forget it.’
Wasn’t it just a one-night mistake? It wasn’t like her to keep dwelling on something like this. It was something that could be resolved if she just kept her mouth shut. Although she hadn’t known him for long, she could quickly tell that Ryu wasn’t the type to blab about such things.
Having relieved some of the burden on her mind, Veronica came out of the bathroom and witnessed something while returning to her room. In the first place, the structure was such that she had to pass by the guest room to get to her bedroom. A familiar voice was heard through the slightly open gap.
Lou’s voice, her body moved first at the welcome sound.
She checked the inside through the slightly open gap and couldn’t help but gasp.
“Huh?”
Lou wasn’t alone. He was naked and shaking his hips above Ryu as if feeling good. It felt like he was a completely different person from the Lou she knew, exuding a completely different atmosphere.
And Ryu, who was lying underneath him… he was wearing a pleasant smile for the first time since coming to District 4. The two were said to be lovers, so this was understandable enough. It was her first time witnessing it directly, but it wasn’t that surprising.
However, seeing Ryu having relations with Lou made her feel a small spark rising in her heart.
She couldn’t exactly define what the name of the emotion that was taking root in her heart and gradually growing was.
