Translator: Nox

25 - Another Grueling Day for the Aristocratic Kindergarten Teacher

"Oh?"

A surprised gasp escaped Ephna's lips. She didn't expect this to open.

Her round eyes quickly scanned the interior. No signs of life. The only thing there was a staircase leading down...

'Maybe I'll just go down once.'

She had only thought about it, but her feet were already descending the stairs.

Dim vision. The faintly flickering candles were barely wavering, and the only thing to rely on was the wall her fingertips touched.

A musty smell mixed with what seemed to be the scent of blood. As she covered her nose and felt along the wall, her hand suddenly grasped something.

"Hm?"

Paper?

A single sheet of paper was wedged between the bricks. As if tempting her to look at it.

She had no choice but to pull out the paper. She really had no choice. The paper tempted her first.

There was some kind of pattern drawn in red on the paper.

"This is..."

Her smooth brow instantly furrowed.

"The symbol representing the temple."

No, it was the temple symbol, but this seemed a bit different. Like something strange was drawn over it...

Yes. A complex magic circle was superimposed over the temple symbol.

'Why is the temple symbol in a slave trading place? And the magic circle looks really creepy too.'

Either way, one thought strongly entered her mind. That she needed to keep the paper.

She roughly stuffed the paper into her sleeve and continued walking.

And when she reached the innermost part, Ephna's face froze in shock.

"What is this...!"

Creak. Creak. Iron bars that seemed forcibly torn made eerie noises as they dangled. The smell of blood mixed with dust painfully stung her nostrils.

Unfinished collars were strewn about the rough floor, and various torture devices lined every path. Just like a red carpet.

"Ugh!"

It was horrific. To the point of nausea. She covered her mouth and bent over.

Suddenly, from the deepest part ahead, the sound of neat footsteps was heard.

'Oh no!'

They were approaching without giving her time to flee. Step by step. Very steadily. Unhesitatingly, as if accustomed to these terrible things.

Ephna's head snapped up. She turned on her toes to hide her body immediately, but that was all she could do.

A faint silhouette emerged from the darkness, riding the light.

A jet-black suit as if mixed with all kinds of darkness, and a cravat equally devoid of any bright colors.

"...How tiresome."

Long eyelashes blink slowly as if everything is boring. His neat fingers held something that looked like a pipe.

He approached without noticing Ephna's presence and finally raised his head.

"..."

"..."

Their gazes met. In the chilling space.

Ephna's face turned pale like colorless moonlight. A dry voice flowed from her mouth.

"You are..."

Her parched lips trembled.

"Yohan Deisat..."

The blue pupils looking at Ephna slightly enlarged. As if only now noticing her presence.

"Teacher?"

He instinctively hid the cigarette he was holding behind his back. To be precise, it wasn't a cigarette but a nerve stabilizer, but its strong scent and smoke were more harmful than cigarettes.

He quickly composed his bewildered gaze. His usual gentle voice flowed out.

"Hello, teacher. I didn't expect to see you in a place like this."

"Ah, parent."

I was surprised too. Ephna unconsciously took a step back. Like a cat wary of its opponent.

"Hello."

"What brings you here? This place isn't open for business."

The man's gaze was still kind and clean.

"Um, well..."

She lowered her eyelids. Her quivering lips hesitated to speak.

"Slave trading..."

"Pardon? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you well, teacher."

How could she say she came to see if the slave trading place had properly collapsed?

Besides, there was no way she could easily confide in someone she met in a place like this. In the end, she carefully changed the subject.

"How about your brother?"

Fortunately, he smiled obediently at her clumsy question.

"I came out to buy something for Maylin and stopped by for a moment."

"I, I see. Haha."

It would be too suspicious to ask why he stopped by here.

Ephna's hands trembled slightly. She was instinctively feeling fear right now. Towards the person in front of her.

'That appearance, so familiar with this horrific scene...'

Yes. Because he didn't seem like the Yohan Deisat she knew as Maylin's guardian. That's why she was afraid.

Ephna flashed an awkward smile and continued speaking.

"You're going to give Maylin a gift?"

"Yes, something like that. But teacher, the back area is dangerous, so please come this way..."

Slap!

Ephna unknowingly struck away Yohan's hand as he tried to support her.

The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed sharply in the damp underground space.

"Ah, this..."

She was flustered after hitting him. Her guardian-response smile instantly disappeared and her face hardened.

Did I just blatantly advertise "I'm wary of you" right now?

"Oh my. I've been looking around various clothing stores, so I'm covered in dust. Haha. I was afraid you might get dirty..."

"..."

"I'm sorry, did, did it hurt a lot?"

This is bad.

She repeatedly clenched and unclenched her palm in embarrassment.

Because of that, because her mind was so complicated, she didn't realize. That Yohan was just staring down at his rejected hand.

"..."

Yohan blinked slowly. Without his usual smile.

A voice lower than usual flowed from his mouth.

"Are you afraid of me?"

"Pardon?"

"As far as I can remember, I don't think I've ever threatened you. Did I perhaps show you a fierce side without realizing it?"

His eyes wavered as if enduring something.

"Of course not! You've only been helpful, not threatening at all."

"Then why."

Are you avoiding me. He didn't say the rest. Because they weren't close enough to exchange such words.

Instead, Yohan turned his rejected hand behind him and firmly grasped the nerve stabilizer pipe. Soon after, he smiled with an unbothered face.

"There are many dangerous objects here, teacher. It's a place where slaves were bought and sold. I cleaned up recently, but it's not a good place for you to see."

"Cleaning, you say. That's a very good, um, yes, a very good thing you did."

If this is after cleaning, it must have been really dirty.

She naturally praised Maylin while thinking about how filthy this place must have been.

"No wonder Maylin is so passionate about cleaning the classroom. I wondered who she took after with her neat appearance, but the reason was here."

Yohan flicked the nerve stabilizer with his index finger without Ephna noticing. His murmuring voice was low and quiet.

"What I did was more of a people cleaning though."

But she heard it. Ephna's hearing was unnecessarily good.

"Can people be cleaned too...?"

"It's not too difficult."

Human rehabilitation is extremely difficult, but human cleaning is easy. Ephna was amazed in many ways.

"So when you say you did people cleaning, um, you mean you caught the bad slave traders here?"

"Something like that. I came today for the final cleanup."

"In other words, you turned this place into such a wasteland..."

"..."

He smiles silently. She didn't know well, but Maylin's brother would smile prettily like that when it was difficult to answer.

The way his eyes gently curved was mesmerizingly sacred. It was clearly an affirmative silence.

"There were blood splatters and drag marks all over, did you do that too...?"

He smiles even more prettily.

The man became scary in a different sense.

'I shouldn't speak carelessly.'

Anyway, it seems he punished the people involved with this place.

She had misunderstood someone. She felt sorry. Ephna fiddled with her hands, feeling very intimidated.

"Actually, I passed by this area before and heard something about slaves."

Passed by (and stopped) and heard something about slaves (blatantly), but. Anyway, it wasn't a lie.

"So I think I was a bit sensitive. I'm sorry for being rude."

"No, teacher. You should always be wary of suspicious people. You did well."

When you say it like that, I feel even more sorry. She lightly scratched her head.

"I shouldn't have come in carelessly, it was rather reckless, wasn't it? Haha."

"Yes. A little."

She thought he would deny it out of courtesy, but Yohan was more firm than expected.

Ephna quickly changed the subject out of embarrassment.

"Come to think of it, you said earlier that you bought a gift for Maylin, right?"

"Not a gift, but I bought 'something Maylin would like the most'. I wonder if this could be called a gift too?"

Saying that, he smoothly pulled something out of his pants pocket. It was a unique, small but intricately patterned music box.

It's so familiar. It was an item she saw at the prop store. The most unusual, expensive, and best one at that.