Merry Christmas to all my readers! To celebrate, I’m treating you to extra chapter updates. Please enjoy this special release of four bonus chapters! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

(Lurelia’s Christmas Bonus – Update 3/4 🎉)

♡ To all readers who purchased these chapters before Christmas: I can’t express this enough – Thank you for your support. (*ˊᗜˋ*)/ᵗᑋᵃᐢᵏ ᵞᵒᵘ*

At that moment, the sound of carriage wheels broke the strange silence.

Only then did I look behind.

The carriage, presumed to be Baron’s, was quickly speeding down the main street.

That rapid movement seemed to mean exactly ‘I saw something I shouldn’t have seen’.

“Did that bastard leave?”

The Guildmaster replied softly to my question and asked for confirmation.

“Yes, he’s gone. He hurriedly turned back when we were about to kiss.”

“Phew. That’s a relief. We almost got caught.”

It was fortunate that Baron was a person without love for humanity. How incredibly lucky that he was someone who detested couples about to kiss.

It seems I should quickly set up a branch in the provinces once the transportation business gets even a little established.

No matter how much I changed my appearance and avoided them, it felt like I would catch the eyes of those three men if I stayed in the capital.

At unexpected moments, unluckily like just now!

“We should start our business quickly.”

“Please wait just 3 more days. After that, we should be able to start.”

The Guildmaster said he needed time to finalize the contract with Ptero and prepare other general matters.

Three days is a wait I can manage.

“Alright.”

“In the meantime, please decide on a business name for the transportation company and your alias.”

“I will!”

“By the way…”

“Yes?”

“When are you going to let go of my waist?”

“…Gasp!”

“Well… I wouldn’t mind if you hugged me tighter.”

“W-What are you saying!”

Only then did I realize that I had been tightly hugging the Guildmaster’s waist.

I must have been too immersed in pretending to be lovers.

I pushed hard against the Guildmaster’s chest.

Even as he stepped back, he didn’t wipe the smile off his face.

“Honey seems to be a bit lewd.”

“Hmm… Huh? What did you say?”

The Guildmaster stuttered as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Lewd. Lascivious. Vulgar. Pervert.”

“The quality of those words isn’t good.”

“I have no intention of taking it back.”

The Guildmaster, with his smile gone, let out a deep sigh full of worry.

“Hmm…”

Was I too harsh?

I was the one who hugged his waist first.

After a long sigh, the Guildmaster voiced his conclusion.

“Then let’s go with ‘obscene’.”

His voice was quite serious.

“That word seems a bit more wholesome. Hahaha.”

…Are you admitting that you’re obscene?

I couldn’t argue back.

Because I didn’t have the confidence to win against the Guildmaster in words.

***

By the time I returned to the log cabin after discussing the transportation business in the Guildmaster’s study, it was after sunset.

I lay my tired body on the bed.

While I was excited about starting a new job, my body and mind were tired regardless.

At that moment, Bless, the joy of my life, settled on my belly.

It fluttered its small, cute wings and walked daintily on my belly as if showing off.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the amusing scene before me.

“Are you trying to lift my spirits with that gesture?”

Bless gave a slight nod of its tiny head.

“Thank you.”

“Bless. What should we name our transportation business?”

Beauty in Misfortune? Big Hit Transportation?

It feels like it’s lacking about 2 percent…

―Kyukyukyu…

‘Too difficult…’

Even Bless says it’s too difficult.

At that moment, a phrase suddenly came to mind.

It was something I often said to my female friend who wouldn’t break up with her boyfriend even when he cheated before I was possessing Yerena.

“You’re ruining your own life.”

Why did I think of this phrase?

In the original story, Lambert couldn’t win the female lead’s love due to his forceful demeanor, and Baron couldn’t win it due to his prickly way of speaking.

Although Benjamin did end up with the female lead, their relationship wasn’t smooth due to his ill-mannered personality.

In other words, the male leads in this novel failed to be happy ultimately because of ‘themselves’.

If I had been like the real Yerena, only blaming the harsh environment and not thinking about leaving the Center, I might have ruined my life too.

“Ruining your own life… Jinjijo Transportation?”

T/n: When I translated the first chapter, I thought the name sounded too harsh and asked other translators how it could be translated differently, so the name One’s own life is one’s own responsibility came to be. Now, thanks to Yerena, I know that this is exactly how I should have translated it back then. Changes to the name in the first chapter are made immediately.

I clapped like a seal.

Jinjijo. It rolled off the tongue so perfectly.

And it was also a phrase that served as a wake-up call for me.

I resolved to live a pioneering life, so as not to ruin my own life.

Along with Bless, who always supports me.

“Bless! What do you think of Jinjijo Transportation? I came up with a good name, right?”

Bless flew busily over my face where I was lying.

Although it didn’t say anything specific, it was clear that it liked the name too.

If not, it might have pecked my head like it did to the Guildmaster.

“I have a feeling it will do well. Now if only Duncan properly announces that I’m dead, it would be perfect.”

Just as I said that Bless flew off as if it had discovered something.

Soon, it flew back near my face with a note on its feet.

It seems a note had been placed on the bedside table.

I took the note and read its contents.

⌜I plan to announce the fact of your death tomorrow.

A suitable fake corpse has been prepared.

Coincidentally, Baron, Lambert, and Benjamin have requested a meeting with me.

I will inform them of your death as well.

Please remain hidden in your hideout tomorrow. I will come to you personally once everything is settled.

P.S. Please burn this note immediately after reading it.」

Although there was no sender written, I could tell it was a note from Duncan.

“Oh. Completely different style from Honey. Now this is how a person should be, right? So proper and polite.”

I liked Duncan’s neat handwriting and polite tone.

As Duncan instructed, I put the note I had read into the fireplace and burned it.

I smiled with satisfaction as I watched the note burn away.

“Those Alan Knights bastards. They must be relieved that I’m dead.”

How happy they must be that the person they always looked down on has died.

Even if they felt a bit of sadness, as small as a flea’s liver, it would only be momentary.

By the next day, they might forget that a guide like ‘me’ ever existed.

But I wasn’t upset about that.

I rather hoped they would forget me. I wished they would forget me completely so that even if they happened to run into me by chance, they wouldn’t recognize me.

I yawned widely.

Since I was going to meet the Guildmaster in 3 days anyway, it seemed fine to just sleep all day tomorrow.

***

The next day, Duncan waited for the three Espers with quite a solemn face.

He had even dressed more formally than usual.

Just as a warrior prepares his armor well before going to the battlefield, he had dressed befitting a Center Director.

No matter how strong an Esper might be, they were still Espers belonging to the Center after all.

Even they wouldn’t be able to completely ignore the words of an imposing Center Director.

‘I must show them the dignity of a Center Director.’

But still, he couldn’t help feeling nervous.

Was it because he was meeting three Espers at once?

3 against 1 is too much, isn’t it?

Duncan let out a long sigh.

At that moment, Evans, who was outside the study, announced that they had arrived.

“Mr. Duncan. The Alan Knights have arrived.”

“Show them in.”

Duncan closed his eyes and opened them again.

His widely opened eyes were shining like stars in the night sky.

This was enough preparation to face the 3-to-1 situation.

Soon after, the three men of the Alan Knights and Evans entered the study.

The atmosphere in the study seemed to change ominously just with the appearance of the three men.

A strange pressure weighed on Duncan’s shoulders, but he tried to maintain his composure.

“Please, sit down.”

There were no greetings exchanged. The three men simply sat down opposite Duncan.

And a suffocating silence fell.

Duncan made eye contact with Benjamin, Baron, and Lambert in turn, forewarning them that he would not easily yield.

It was Benjamin who broke the silence.

“We heard that Yerena has gone missing. We want to ask if the Center is also aware of this matter.”

Duncan recalled the report he had heard from Evans yesterday.

“You wouldn’t believe how much the knights of the Alan Knights berated me! For only finding out that Guide Yerena had disappeared two days after the fact!”

“If no monsters had appeared for a while, you probably wouldn’t have known about Guide Yerena’s disappearance at all, right? My goodness. Such heartless people.”

There was nothing wrong with what Evans had said.

If no monsters had appeared for a week, the knights of the Alan Knights wouldn’t have known about Yerena’s disappearance for a whole week.

They would have thought Yerena was doing well at the Center.

Duncan’s golden eyes sank coldly.