After that, Likens assumed Rodi would give up.
He was entirely mistaken.
‘Again today…?’
He picked up on a familiar presence lingering behind him.
Glancing back, he caught a glimpse of purple hair poking out, belonging to a woman clearly unversed in the art of tailing someone.
‘This is already the second day.’
There was a limit to how long he could ignore her.
Swallowing a sigh, Likens marched toward her hiding spot.
“Rodi.”
At the sound of her name, the woman stepped out with a brazen look on her face.
“Oh my, Lord Magzeta.”
She gave a slightly awkward smile.
“W-What a coincidence.”
Likens crossed his arms.
“Why are you following me?”
“Well, that’s obvious…”
Planting her hands on her hips, Rodi declared her goal without a shred of shame.
“To sell you that house!”
“This,”
Likens said flatly,
“amounts to coercion.”
The unexpected choice of word took Rodi aback.
“Under imperial law, coercive selling is punishable by a fine.”
He added in a tone so dry it seemed not a single drop of blood would spill if pricked,
“If you persist in these coercive sales tactics, you will find yourself paying a fine of ten gold coins.”
“…”
The strength drained right out of Rodi’s proud shoulders.
‘That should stop her from following me.’
Turning his back on her, Likens resumed his patrol.
After about ten minutes of walking, he sensed a presence dogging his steps again.
In plain view this time.
He turned back around.
“Coercive selling carries a fine of—”
“I haven’t said a single word yet, have I?”
As though her dejection had never happened, Rodi remained utterly shameless.
“I’m simply walking along the street I wanted to walk down, and by a puuure stroke of luck, my path just so happens to overlap with yours.”
Rodi jutted her chin out and challenged,
“Well? Does this break the law, too?”
This time, it was Likens who was left at a loss for words.
“…Following someone for three days or more after an explicit warning constitutes stalking.”
Rodi interpreted his words entirely as she pleased.
‘Which means I can trail after him with total peace of mind for the next two days.’
Resigning himself to being unable to shake her off, Likens headed in silence toward his next destination: the market street.
By that point, Rodi had boldly fallen into step right beside him.
Likens shot a glance at the woman walking at his side.
‘If I put my foot down and drive her away, she’ll back off, but…’
He simply lacked the resolve to go that far right now.
It wasn't as if she were doing any real harm.
‘Am I being too soft on her?’
Perhaps he was reacting this way because he felt indebted to her from their childhood.
Likens studied Rodi with an utterly bewildered gaze.
‘She must be extraordinarily desperate to sell me that mansion.’
To be frank, he could not comprehend it.
For an estate of that caliber, looking for another buyer would surely be far more efficient.
‘Does she have some ulterior motive?’
He weighed every possible reason Rodi might have to approach him.
‘Under normal circumstances… it would be to win my attention.’
It was not unwarranted vanity on his part.
Likens was unbetrothed, held high rank, and possessed immense wealth.
Whenever he attended a ball, young ladies would routinely pretend to faint right before his eyes just to catch his notice.
Frankly, from his perspective, that sort of person was thoroughly tiresome.
‘Could Rodi be thinking along the same lines?’
Having reached that thought, Likens opened his mouth.
“Why are you so insistent on selling that house to me?”
“Oh, Lord Magzeta. Look at that over there.”
…Regrettably, she was not listening to him in the slightest.
‘A baseless assumption, then.’
Rodi did not show the faintest sign of trying to flatter or please him.
Likens swallowed what felt like his hundredth sigh and looked where she was pointing.
It was an ordinary market stall selling an assortment of accessories.
“Do you fancy things like that?”
Rodi gave a brief laugh.
“No, I meant look at the craftsmanship.”
At those words, Likens inspected one of the trinkets closely and spoke without thinking.
“The material is plain silver, but the detailing is remarkably delicate. You can feel the maker’s effort and passion in it.”
Unlike his usual reticent self, the words tumbled out of him.
“Judging purely by skill, this could easily be supplied to a boutique catering to the nobility rather than an open market. To come across an item of this quality here is truly astound—”
Carried away by his own momentum, Likens suddenly caught himself.
He glanced to his side and saw Rodi grinning broadly.
“Truly astounding, and what comes next?”
A sharp realization that he had made a grave mistake hit him.
“…It’s nothing.”
Likens straightened his bent posture and hurriedly walked away.
“…My lord, Lord Magzeta!”
Rodi scurried after him from behind.
“Why walk away in the middle of talking?”
Likens ignored her.
“Are you angry?”
“I am not angry.”
“You’re angry.”
“I said I am not angry.”
“Then are you running away?”
Likens halted in his tracks, his expression hardening fiercely.
“…Cease insulting me any further.”
His tone was chilling enough to cow anyone, yet Rodi only stared back at him intently.
“Why is that an insult?”
“To accuse a knight of running away is an insult. I did not flee.”
“Liar.”
Her lime-green eyes sparkled with crystalline clarity, as though discerning the raw truth.
“You’re afraid.”
Afraid.
That single word made Likens’s neck go rigid.
“I fear nothing.”
He stared down at Rodi.
“What on earth do you want from me?”
“I want you to be honest with yourself.”
“I am already honest with myself.”
Rodi smiled.
“That’s a lie, too.”
Likens felt a surge of irritation at her attitude, as if she could see straight through him.
“How much do you think you know about me to act like this?”
“At the very least, I know what you’re running from.”
“A mere…”
That lucid gaze grated on his nerves.
Clenching his fists tight, Likens sneered,
“A mere outcast cast out from your own family dares lecture me?”
He bit his lip, before words tore out of him like vomit,
“You do not understand a single thing about what I carry on my shoulders.”
“…”
Rodi’s eyes rounded at his razor-sharp tone.
Leaving her standing there, Likens turned his back with cold indifference.
“Coward.”
A clear voice rang out behind him.
“You’re a coward, Lord Magzeta.”
“…”
“Do you plan to spend your entire life conforming to the mold other people set for you? There’s no meaning in that.”
At the accusation that struck right at the bullseye, Likens walked away without a word.
This time, Rodi did not pursue him.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I ruined it.”
Back home, Rodi lay sprawled face-down on her bed, letting out a heavy sigh.
“I went and made Likens furious…”
She hadn't followed him with the intention of making him angry.
‘I was just waiting for an opening to persuade him.’
Seeing Likens’s eyes light up when he looked at the trinkets on that stall had felt like her chance.
‘And in the end, it just devolved into an argument.’
Rodi let out a deep breath.
‘When pursuing Likens’s route in the game, Simone was always gentle and soft-spoken.’
Should she have approached him like that, too?
‘Watching him deny what he loves made my chest feel so suffocated that…’
She had lost her temper before she realized it.
Clutching her pillow tight, Rodi muttered,
“If you keep repressing what you love, you end up forgetting what you even like in the first place…”
Just like her.
“…Well, what’s done is done.”
Rodi pushed herself up from the bed. Regretting the past wouldn't change anything.
“Might as well eat dinner.”
Heading to the kitchen, she threw together whatever ingredients she could find, stirred them in a pan, and dished the result onto a plate.
An unidentifiable dish, unrecognizable at a glance, sat on the table.
‘As long as it doesn't make me sick, it doesn't matter.’
Rodi stabbed a piece of broccoli with her fork and chewed.
The broccoli was crushed to mush in her mouth.
‘Just as expected.’
…Beyond the texture of chewing something spongy, she tasted nothing at all.
“Even in a different body, this doesn't change.”
Chewing through the food on her plate like a machine, she murmured with bitter resignation,
“I wonder when I’ll ever be able to feel what it’s like to enjoy something…”
Rodi—no, Yunseo—could not taste a thing.
