While Others Became Female Leads In Romantic Fantasy Novels, I Became A Closet Monster
Chapter 4
As he curled his hands into fists, I gave an awkward laugh and took a step back.
“Sorry….”
He couldn’t even lift his head, keeping it buried deep. Soon, with hands turned beet red, he gripped his fork and began twirling the pasta noodles.
The noodles looked bouncy; at least on the outside, it seemed fine.
It looked delicious.
I could feel Dedrick glancing at me sideways.
“Is it a bit much? Should I go back in the wardrobe?”
Instead of answering, he hesitated with the bundle of noodles he’d twirled.
It seemed he was anxious, likely worried that it had been poisoned.
“Are you feeling bad because you’re worried about using me as a taster to check for poison? Don’t feel bad. I recover quickly once I’m inside the wardrobe.”
As he watched me chatter away, his eyes blinked slowly, and he gradually held the fork out toward me.
“For me to eat?”
He gave a small nod.
I snatched it into my mouth before he could pull it away.
After chewing vigorously to check the results…
“No poison. You can eat now.”
Despite my words, Dedrick held the fork, looking lost.
“Why? There’s really no poison.”
He stared back and forth between the fork and me, then after a moment’s hesitation, he twirled some noodles and put them in his mouth.
His cheeks, moving as he chewed, were incredibly cute.
If I poked them, he’d probably glare at me.
I sat quietly across from him.
Just then, a tomato was suddenly thrust toward me.
“Ah, you want me to check if this has poison too?”
Easy enough.
Chomp!
I accepted and ate the tomato. My face contorted at the texture as it turned to mush in my mouth.
Unable to hold it back, I spat the tomato out.
“Don’t eat this. It’s rotten.”
I knew it. I thought it was strange that they’d given him decent-looking pasta today.
“If you’re hungry, tell me. I’ll go borrow some from the kitchen.”
If I said I’d steal it, the righteous Dedrick would say no.
“Got it?”
It seemed it would be quite difficult to get the male lead’s firmly shut mouth to open.
Even after I appeared, Dedrick’s life didn’t change much.
He woke up early to study, and quite often, Somerset and Axel would hurl verbal abuse at him.
As if that weren’t enough, they would raise their hands against Dedrick. Every time they did, I would slam the wardrobe door or throw objects to scare them, pretending to be a ghost.
But still….
‘Pretending to be a ghost can only stop them so many times.’
My heart ached whenever dark blue bruises bloomed on Dedrick’s pale skin.
‘Still, I suppose one silver lining is that because I’ve been blocking those two brothers, he doesn’t guard himself against me as much as before.’
Instead, just like when we first met, he wouldn’t give me a single answer no matter how hard I tried to talk to him.
He acted as if he were entirely alone.
Occasionally our eyes would meet, but he’d always look away instantly.
‘But I won’t give up.’
Now that more than half a month has passed since I revealed myself and we started living together, he’s gotten used to my presence. It’s time to break the ice!
‘How should I approach him this time?’
How did the heroines in romance fantasies usually get close in situations like this?
The catalyst for flinging open a male lead’s tightly closed heart was usually saving him from danger, or hanging around his side….
‘I’m doing all of that right now.’
No. Maybe it’s because no major threat has struck yet that he’s only opened his heart halfway.
‘Is there anything else?’
As I was lost in deep thought, one thing flashed through my mind.
‘A memento!’
Usually, male leads grow up receiving their mother’s love, and when she passes away early, they cherish her mementos.
It was the same for Dedrick.
There was a necklace left behind by his mother, who had met a lonely end locked away in the Spire.
The Grand Duchess had snatched it away before Dedrick could get it, and she had tormented him quite a bit using that necklace.
If I brought that to him, even a small amount of favor would surely bloom.
‘Let’s go get it!’
Wanting to put the plan into action immediately, I moved to the wardrobe in the room of Delaney, the Grand Duchess.
After confirming there was no sign of anyone, I cautiously stepped out of the wardrobe.
Usually, accessories are kept in the dressing room, but Delaney kept it tucked away in her own room, fearing Dedrick might steal it.
‘Even though there’s no need for that.’
Dedrick was so cornered and weak-hearted that he couldn’t even claim ownership of what was rightfully his.
‘Setting aside the matter of getting him to talk, it’s just so pitiable….’
A surge of determination to get it back for him no matter what rose within me.
‘It said it was kept in the vanity drawer.’
When I opened the very last drawer, I saw a beautiful necklace set with a small pink diamond.
It was exactly as the necklace belonging to Dedrick’s mother had been described in the novel.
‘This is it. The memento of Dedrick’s mother.’
Found it!
I should take it to him right away.
And just as I reached out my hand and grabbed the necklace…
Zap!
A jolt of lightning, just short of being lethal, coursed through my body.
Sizzle….
As I collapsed with the sound of scorching, I hurriedly closed the drawer.
Even in this state, my effort to erase any trace of an intruder was commendable.
At the same time, before losing consciousness, I cursed the novel.
“It—It never mentioned there was an anti-theft spell….”
And with the final sensation of being forcibly summoned back to the wardrobe, I blacked out.
The girl who used to sit in the wardrobe and chatter away was quiet.
He had tried not to be curious, but after more than four days of continued silence, Dedrick couldn’t suppress his curiosity and cautiously opened the wardrobe door.
Creak.
Along with a faint smell of burning, he saw scorched clothes and hair.
And when he saw the face of the unconscious girl, he was bewildered.
“……Is she hurt?”
“Ugh….”
At the sound of her small groan, he flinched and hurriedly closed the wardrobe door.
He didn’t know what was happening, but it seemed this girl was up to something.
Today marked the tenth day since I’d started trying to get my hands on the necklace.
I gave my stiff body a long stretch.
Getting hit by lightning was something I could never get used to.
At least I could recover quickly in the wardrobe, which was a relief.
Every time I touched the necklace and lost consciousness, I was summoned back to the wardrobe. While holed up there, my scorched clothes and hair would return to normal as if nothing had ever happened.
‘It’s a stroke of luck that I’m a closet monster.’
Over the last ten days, I’d relied on the wardrobe and touched the necklace at every opportunity.
‘Eek!’
‘It’s a ghost!’
Since the necklace was acting up on its own, the people were terrified at first.
Zap!
‘…There she goes again.’
‘Is it broken?’
As it happened more frequently, they became increasingly indifferent.
‘Hehe. Just as planned.’
I intentionally touched the necklace more to make it look like the anti-theft magic was malfunctioning.
If I annoyed them like that, the day would come when they’d eventually deactivate the magic.
My plan was to steal the necklace at that exact moment and give it to Dedrick.
‘Just you wait, Didi!’
I flung the wardrobe door open. Dedrick’s shoulders flinched, perhaps out of surprise.
“Did I scare you?”
Still no response.
I slinked over to his side.
Prowling around him while he studied hard, I gave him a little hint.
“I’m going to give you an amazing present soon.”
“I’m definitely giving it to you because I want something in return.”
“I’d like it if you stopped treating me like I don’t exist….”
After speaking with all my heart, I skillfully climbed back into the wardrobe and closed the door.
In the quiet space, Dedrick hesitated before approaching the wardrobe and opening the door.
The girl was not there.
It had been like this lately.
As if to make his worries about her being hurt seem pointless, she would be perfectly fine by the next day.
As if that weren’t enough, she had even started absenting herself frequently.
Today, she had disappeared again after leaving behind those meaningful words.
‘What is she up to?’
A present. What kind of present….
Rather than joy, suspicion bloomed first as to what scheme she was plotting.
Then, Dedrick closed the wardrobe door weakly.
For someone so young, having to endlessly doubt every person he saw was a cruel thing.
