## Chapter 250 – Malice (13)
I couldn’t face this situation head-on.
Veronica quickly left the scene and headed to her room.
Jealousy? It wasn’t that kind of emotion. This indescribable feeling, which seemed to shake her very foundation, was something she was experiencing for the first time in her life.
Pulling the blanket over her head, she sank into thought.
She herself couldn’t understand why she was being controlled by a single emotion and acting like this. Where did she start feeling this way?
From the moment Row left her?
When he looked at someone else with affectionate eyes?
No, that wasn’t it. Her loyalty to Row couldn’t have been corrupted by something so trivial. She knew that what she felt then was a slight jealousy, just a little bit.
A minor emotion, one that wouldn’t cause much trouble even if she kept it by her side.
If not that, then?
Seeing a completely different side of Row as he made love to a man? The fact that the man was someone she had shared a bed with until just yesterday?
I don’t know.
No matter how much she thought, instead of an answer, only a headache that felt like an awl piercing her head tormented her. Moreover, constantly recalling the intense emotion that burned her heart to ashes was more painful than she had imagined.
Instead of coming to an immediate conclusion, Veronica chose to escape reality by sleeping.
●
“It’s even worse than yesterday.”
Now it was embarrassing to even call it jewelry. It looked as if a seven-year-old child had molded it out of clay, and Veronica herself seemed shocked, as she had never imagined she would produce such a result.
Row, who knew Veronica’s skills better than anyone, looked worried, wondering if something was wrong with the increasingly miserable results.
She approached Veronica and asked cautiously.
“Did something happen?”
Veronica didn’t even look at Row’s face, but rested her chin on her hand on the workbench and shook her head.
“Ah, no. I’m just a little tired.”
Row, realizing that Veronica herself was the most troubled, didn’t bother to pry further. In this situation, ambiguous comfort would be more harmful than helpful.
However, there was one person who couldn’t dismiss the situation as simple fatigue. From the moment Veronica said she was tired, Reina turned her head sharply and stared at her face.
Tired? That Veronica? She was the most physically fit person she knew. Once, she had spent more than a week standing in front of the fire, working without sleep.
And the image of her drinking without a care after that was still vivid in her memory.
If even Veronica was saying she was tired, this was not something to laugh off.
It meant that she had either contracted a serious illness or experienced a shocking event that had changed her mind to the point where she couldn’t work.
But recently, Veronica hadn’t shown any signs of that. On the contrary, when Row was around, she even seemed to be in a better mood than usual.
Reina glanced at Ryu, who was next to Row.
The existence of that boy wasn’t a big problem either. After all, Veronica followed Row’s wishes, so if he brought someone, she might feel a little jealous, but she wouldn’t harbor great hostility. That was what Reina had thought so far.
But now her judgment was being twisted. One thing was certain: Veronica’s condition had become strange since she and Ryu had spent the night out. Convinced that he held the answer to Veronica’s change, Reina immediately took action that evening.
●
She continued to watch Veronica’s work at the smithy, but it ended without any significant progress. Even Veronica seemed quite shocked by her own skills, and said that she would spend some time alone at the villa instead of the mansion.
This was good for Reina. Row and Ryu were staying at Veronica’s mansion, so she could have a quiet conversation.
Tonight, Row had left Ryu alone again. It was ironic that he was often away, considering why he had come to District 4, but it was fortunate for Reina, who needed to talk to Ryu alone.
When she knocked on the door of Ryu’s room, she soon heard a melodious voice from inside.
“Who is it?”
Reina had never visited a man in the middle of the night before, so she cleared her throat once, feeling unnecessarily nervous, and then opened her mouth.
“May I come in for a moment?”
Recognizing her voice, Ryu finally felt relieved and replied in a more relaxed tone.
“Just a moment.”
Soon the door opened, and Ryu appeared, wearing neat sky-blue pajamas as if he had been about to go to bed. He let Reina into the room and then cautiously opened his mouth.
“Row-nim isn’t here right now… I heard he won’t be back until tomorrow evening. Is that okay?”
“It’s okay. I came to see Ryu-nim today, so it’s fine.”
“Yes?”
Ryu’s voice was slightly bewildered, as he couldn’t understand why Reina was visiting him at this hour. Ryu looked around and then looked at a small table and said to Reina.
“P, please sit down.”
Being alone with him made her even more nervous. Reina didn’t show it, but this was the first time she had talked to a man this close. Moreover, he was a pretty boy who was completely her type, and she couldn’t help but look at him, even though she knew she shouldn’t feel this way.
But the reason she was here was not to satisfy her personal desires. Reina pinched her thigh to regain her composure and asked Ryu directly.
“Did something happen with Veronica-nim?”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she noticed the subtle twitching of his fingertips, the trembling pupils, and the goosebumps on his skin. Such subtle reactions could not be hidden, especially from a strong person like Reina standing right in front of him.
Ryu avoided her gaze and barely managed to answer.
“W, what do you mean?”
“I hope I’m wrong, but the Demon Lord’s condition has been like that since you two went out together. I was wondering if you knew anything about it.”
Should he answer honestly? Ryu paused for a moment. If Reina knew that Veronica had assaulted him while drunk, and that the result had led to the current situation, she might scold him. Ryu squeezed his eyes shut and blurted out a lie.
“I just took a quick look around District 1, that’s all…”
Reina tilted her head.
“I don’t think the Demon Lord would change that much just from that… She usually seems easygoing and indifferent to everything, but in fact, she’s very delicate and sensitive, unlike what you see. Well… If Ryu-nim doesn’t know either, I’ll have to look into it further. Excuse me for today.”
Just as Reina was about to get up, Ryu felt a pang of conscience. This person was genuinely worried about Veronica. He didn’t feel comfortable lying to someone who was so sincere.
“W, wait a minute!”
Ryu stopped Reina and finally told her everything that had happened with Veronica that day. Reina seemed surprised at first when she heard Ryu’s story, but she soon regained her composure.
‘That’s strange.’
It was natural to be confused after having a drunken encounter. But to show such a change to this extent?
Of course, Veronica had told Reina that she wanted to give her first time to someone she loved. But that was just her vague hope, and she already knew that she wasn’t really cherishing her virginity. If something like that happened, she would just get annoyed at the other person a few times and quickly forget about it.
There’s definitely something else.
“Have you talked to her since then?”
“No, I saw her for the first time today since that happened, but it wasn’t an atmosphere to talk to her…”
“That’s true.”
In the end, she couldn’t find out anything from Ryu. But she could roughly sense that this boy was the key to changing Veronica. Reina sighed briefly and got up from her seat.
“I’m sorry for saying strange things. I’ll be going now.”
Ryu asked her with a worried look.
“It’s late, are you sure you’ll be okay on your way?”
Veronica’s mansion and Reina’s mansion weren’t that far apart, but today was a tiring day, so she didn’t feel like walking any further.
Reina checked the time on the wall and casually opened her mouth.
“Hmm… It’s late, and I’ll just sleep here. Whatever.”
Reina, who had plopped back down in her seat, smiled more comfortably than before.
“I have a favor to ask, is that okay?”
“Yes, it’s okay.”
“I can take over the Demon Lord’s work for the time being, so can Ryu-nim spend time with Veronica-nim like before? After all, even if she works all day in that state, there’s no way she’ll produce any results.”
The thought that she didn’t feel like it anymore didn’t immediately come to mind. She couldn’t openly refuse when her adjutant, Reina, was so sincerely worried about Veronica. And Ryu’s feelings for Veronica had now changed quite favorably.
“Okay. Leave it to me.”
Reina smiled and held out her finger.
“This is a secret between us. If the Demon Lord finds out, she’ll go wild on her own again.”
After linking fingers, Reina got up from her seat and opened her mouth.
“Just a moment.”
Reina, who had gone downstairs, soon came back with a bottle of liquor with a luxurious label.
“This is the Demon Lord’s favorite liquor, but let’s just drink it secretly among ourselves. How about it, in celebration of having a secret together?”
“Okay.”
The two, who had become friends much faster than expected, began to empty Veronica’s liquor one by one throughout the night, and that act led to the same result as always.
Reina, who had lost consciousness before she knew it, tried to ignore the headache she felt even with her eyes closed as morning dawned. She couldn’t properly control her body due to the effects of the hangover.
“Ugh… Did I drink too much yesterday?”
As Reina muttered to herself, she felt an ironically chilling coolness on her skin, feeling the warmth that was clearly felt on her skin.
Please let it not be, she prayed as she lifted the blanket, but there was Ryu, who, like her, was not wearing a single piece of underwear.
The Demon Lord and her adjutant had both taken the lover of Row, the biggest sponsor of District 4, in the same way.
Reina had gained one more secret that she would have to take to the grave.
