“I’m not a monster.”
Although she was sticking close behind Ekision, her eyebrows immediately turned unruly upon hearing the unpleasant term.
“Our rookie is talented, that’s what it means.”
Only after Ekision added this explanation did a comfortable expression return to Rodi’s face.
“Oh my, that expression is totally fierce! Isn’t this monster rookie actually a booger rookie? She’s too small. Is she for distraction purposes?”
Peggy snickered and snorted after seeing Rodi’s face.
“Something like that.”
Ekision said without further explanation while looking down at Rodi.
Peggy kept his eyes fixed on Rodi.
Although Rodi found Peggy’s appearance frightening, she didn’t back down at all and met his gaze.
Peggy snorted again in response.
While attention was focused on Rodi, the boy who had been held by the neck struggled to escape.
“Tsk, stay still. By the way, how come you came in person? Aren’t you always busy, sir?”
“I am busy. So shall we sit down?”
It was a request to open the office door.
A little later.
The atmosphere around Ekision, who had entered, leaving Rodi outside, became notably colder.
“These days I need two bodies to keep up with everything, haha!”
Ekision leisurely sat on the sofa and commanded Peggy.
“Bring me the ledgers so I can check them.”
“The ledgers? You want to see them yourself? Come on, why go that far? You must be busy enough already. I’ll organize them earlier than usual today and submit them to you.”
Peggy headed toward the door, saying he would bring some good tea instead.
“No, open it.”
Hesitating, Peggy smiled good-naturedly again.
“I haven’t organized them yet today, so they’re a bit messy.”
“Yes, I understand, so take them out.”
Though still smiling, Peggy realized that wasn’t a genuine smile and finally turned around to open the ledger safe.
With audible thuds, thick documents were neatly stacked on the desk.
After taking out all the ledgers from the safe, Peggy picked them up in one go and placed them on the sofa table.
“Here they are, sir. Except for what I haven’t organized today. I’ll submit those quickly, too.”
Then, as if nothing had happened, he stood at attention before Ekision.
Ekision took the ledger from the top.
Indeed, it was no different from what was usually submitted for approval.
Ekision felt the corner of his lips turn bitter.
Peggy was someone he had known since before joining Cheiles.
Despite being younger, he was someone who had given Ekision straight talk when he was going through a rebellious phase and had been a source of support.
That’s why he had deliberately brought him here.
Although it was a story from a few years ago, he thought Peggy would remain diligent until the end.
“Not this one, give me the real ledger.”
“The real ledger…? Isn’t that the ledger?”
Peggy was startled and looked as if he didn’t understand what Ekision meant.
“You know what I’m talking about. I’m referring to what you’ve been skimming off.”
When Ekision spoke while massaging his neck, Peggy made an indignant face.
“What? What are you saying? What am I skimming? The ledgers? Hahaha! What a joke. You scared me for a moment. I thought you were serious.”
As Peggy laughed while clutching his stomach, Ekision smiled broadly.
Flinch.
Peggy knew that expression well.
That was the expression right before someone lost their temper.
Peggy immediately stopped laughing and opened his mouth.
His gaze briefly turned toward the firmly closed door.
By now, what he had ordered should have been taken out.
“You’re… joking, right? Right? This really is everything! What do you mean, what have I skimmed off?”
“Should I find it myself?”
“Come on, sir. From the first time I met you until now, I’ve never once disappointed you. What are you saying? I don’t understand why you’re doing this, but I’m truly hurt!”
Despite Peggy’s expression of extreme injustice, Ekision remained unmoved.
“Should I look for it, or will you bring it?”
It was a final chance.
Peggy knelt down with a thud.
His only thought was to hand over just one small item and get past this.
*** 
An intense gaze was directed at her from the side.
Earlier, he had told her not to look, but now the boy was staring at Rodi intently.
Whoosh!
But whenever Rodi returned his gaze, he would pretend he hadn’t been looking and turn his head away.
With his ears turning bright red.
‘Why is he acting like that?’
What a strange kid.
After this odd behavior repeated about three times…
“Is this your first time?”
Finally unable to bear it, Rodi turned her head.
The constant staring was getting on her nerves.
Rodi asked casually while swinging her legs, displaying complete knowledge of the situation.
The boy who had been secretly—obviously—stealing glances at Rodi was startled and almost tumbled off the sofa.
“W-what!”
With a flushed face, the boy sat back on the sofa and glared at Rodi sullenly.
“Or is this not your first time getting caught?”
Flinch.
The boy rubbed his nose with the back of his hand and grumbled.
“No, it’s not. W-what are you talking about?”
Rodi’s eyes narrowed, conveying she knew the whole story.
“If they flip you upside down and shake you, that thing will fall right out. If it were me, I wouldn’t hide it there but would have thrown it somewhere else before getting caught. Actually, I wouldn’t have been caught at all. You don’t get hit if you don’t get caught.”
Nom nom nom.
Rodi rustled around and took something out from inside her clothes.
Then she casually put the leftover jelly from the carriage into her mouth and chewed while speaking nonchalantly.
The boy stared intently at the jelly going into Rodi’s mouth and audibly gulped, loud enough for Rodi to hear.
“W-what do you know?”
“Rookie, wait here for a moment. I’ll be right out. Or would you prefer to wait in another room?”
“No, I’ll stay here. I like it here.”
If Ekision had been there, the boy might have spoken more carefully to Rodi, but now there were only the two of them.
For some reason, Ekision told Rodi to wait instead of taking her along.
Saying that seeing bad things would burn her eyes.
So instead of going to another inner room, Rodi decided to wait in the lounge with the boy who had been caught by Peggy.
It was a clean lounge with plush leather sofas, although it was open with a corridor crossing through where people passed by.
Like a cornered mouse, the boy couldn’t escape and remained with Rodi, fidgeting nervously.
This was because Peggy had warned him that if he tried to escape and got caught, he should really be prepared for the consequences.
“And if you keep stealing like that, you’ll really be in big trouble later. You could just beg for bread to eat.”
“A-am I a beggar? To beg?”
Rodi slowly looked the boy up and down.
“Yes. You look like a beggar.”
Clothes so old and dirty that it was impossible to tell when they were last washed or what color they originally were.
Not much different from what Rodi had been wearing until recently.
His hair looked as if someone had pulled it out, leaving it poorly styled, and his shoes were nowhere to be seen.
And above all, his thin body and face, which showed no signs of regular meals, completely overlapped with Rodi’s past.
The orphanage where Rodi had stayed was one of the worst-managed in the capital.
Especially unlike the children who were washed and dressed in nice clothes whenever nobles came to encourage adoption, Rodi was kept out of sight by the director, making her situation even worse.
“Want one?”
Rodi made a big decision and offered a red jelly.
Slap! The boy harshly knocked away Rodi’s hand.
“I don’t want it.”
“Okay.”
If you don’t want it, fine.
Although her hand hurt from the collision, Rodi responded nonchalantly and popped the jelly into her mouth.
Grrrrrumble.
A loud thunder rumbled from the boy’s stomach.
Rodi made a show of eating more, chomping noisily.
The boy quietly moved closer to Rodi again.
“Are you… one of them?”
At those words, Rodi rolled her large eyes.
Every time her increasingly plump cheeks moved as she chewed, the boy’s gaze kept turning in that direction.
And after looking at her surprisingly long eyelashes and dense, large pupils, their eyes met, and he was startled and quickly turned his head away.
“Ekision is not ‘them.'”
Such negative words were only used for bad people.
“Who is that? Well, they’re scary people anyway. Everyone here is from the Cheiles Guild.”
“I know. If you don’t do bad things, there’s nothing to fear. Like this.”
Rodi pointed to where the boy had hidden the ring while giving him a blank stare.
The boy jumped as if his vital spot had been hit and covered the place Rodi had pointed to with both hands.
“…I was going to return it.”
“But didn’t you say earlier you didn’t steal it?”
“That’s…!”
The boy scratched his head in frustration. Then he took out the ring and showed it to Rodi.
Having been watching all along, she wasn’t surprised or curious at all.
“I really didn’t steal it originally! That man dropped it, and I picked it up to return it to him.”
“And then?”
“Since he would obviously be suspicious, I was trying to secretly put it back in his pocket when I got caught.”
The boy complained with an expression of great injustice.
When Rodi just blinked her large eyes silently, the boy’s demeanor became somewhat dejected.
His shoulders, which had been tensed up until now, lost their strength and slumped.
“…It doesn’t matter if you don’t believe me. But it’s true. I’ve stolen before, but not things like this. I’ve only stolen food.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You won’t believe me anyway, right? Everyone’s like that. That’s why I thought it would be better to run away, so I tried to escape.”
“……”
“But I didn’t know he was connected to Cheiles. I thought I’d just get beaten up, but I ended up here.”
“Is being connected to Cheiles different?”
The boy raised his eyes.
“Of course! Don’t you know anything? Cheiles is full of scary people.”
I thought so too at first.
Rodi thought to herself while nodding continuously.
She had thought that the people who owned Cheiles Road, with its many expensive and fine shops, must be incredibly impressive and frightening.
But now?
“Alright, rookie. Let’s have a sausage-eating contest!”
“I’ll eat more than you!”
“The game ends when you eat the last sausage and there’s nothing left in your mouth. One, two, three!”
On a day when Horas was going home later than usual, they had a sausage-eating contest at dinner time.
Jin was the judge.
“Rodi is the winner.”
“What? I finished first!”
“Horas, I saw you swallow the last sausage without chewing. That’s cheating.”
“Too bad- Alright. How about a salad-eating contest next?”
“Okay…! Ah, no.”
“Why? It’s delicious. You should eat a balanced diet, right?”
“No. That doesn’t seem right.”
And so another game began.
Rodi refused until the end, but…
“In Cheiles, everyone has to eat well. Didn’t you say you wanted to become an executive? Vegetable-avoiding guild members fail at the exam stage. I was trying to help, but if the rookie refuses to eat, there’s nothing I can do.”
“…Really?”
“Right, Jin?”
“…Ahem!”
“See, it’s true.”
With Horas saying all that, there was no way she could quit the game.
Only after eating a plateful of salad could she claim complete victory in the games.
Later, when she boasted to Padrid, she discovered the truth.
“What? There’s no such condition. You’ve been tricked again.”
She was frustrated.
But still… people like that couldn’t be bad.
While Rodi was thinking, the boy rattled on about bad rumors regarding Cheiles.
“It won’t end with just a beating; they’ll sell you to slave traders or get rid of you! The head of this place is a devil, they say. Someone who sold their heart to the devil. They say he only cares about money and doesn’t treat people as people.”
“Who says?”
“Everyone says so! The guild is supposed to be enormous. They say he has enough money to spend lavishly for a lifetime, but just keeps piling it up. He brings in only scary people to guard it, a complete villain…”
Rodi suddenly stood up, clenched her fist, and smacked the boy on the head.
The boy was startled by the neat, firm blow that made a clear sound and let out a yelp.
“Hey, why did you hit me!”
“Don’t badmouth our boss.”