I cried for a truly long period of time in front of Minhee. It wasn’t until my head completely felt as if it were in a vacuum did Minhee speak.

You have a good vocal range, boy.

Minhee had a rough but smart side to her. She most likely realized that my cries weren’t directed towards her the instant she heard them. However, she didn’t point that out. She simply received my cries calmly.

And she then spoke.

So are ya satisfied?

She then spoke.

I won’t say anythin’ if you’re satisfied. But that isn’t the case, is it? Aren’t you hurtin’? The fact that you’re chantin’ ‘I want to die, I want to die’ is written all over your face, so how do you expect me to leave ya alone? Right? You said that I didn’t show you consideration? You’re right. That’s possible. But it couldn’t be helped because you looked like you were in so much pain. I’m not capable of doin’ nothin’. It’s in my nature, so I’d be thankful if you understood.

She then spoke.

I’m sorry.

I’m always like this cause my head is bad. I’d be grateful if you understood. But my desire to help you is sincere. Now that I think about it, you look like you’re smart. Let’s do this.

Teach me how to help you.

I looked up at Minhee blankly. With slightly red cheeks, Minhee was averting her gaze while rubbing her ear. She then let out a sigh, took off my gla.s.ses, and wiped the corners of my eyes with her necktie.

Let’s go. I’ll buy ya somethin’ tasty.

My vision which was clear for a moment became cloudy once more. Minhee waited for me while allowing her necktie to get drenched as I cried again.

Sii gnashed her teeth while staring at the direction of the iron door.

“That person······.”

“Later.”

I placed my hand on Sii’s shoulder and comforted her.

“Next time for sure······ So for now. Do you understand?”

“Yup~~······ That’s going to be included in your promises towards me now.”

“Of course.”

I gave her a kiss on the forehead as I said that.

I turned back to face Sophna.

“Sophna.”

Sophna raised her head. Her light green eyes were filled with pain.

“You······ I cannot trust you completely.”

“I know.”

I responded.

“Trust isn’t something that piles up in a single moment and it shouldn’t.”

“Is that what you think? Of course that is. That should be obvious since you had stated that you couldn’t trust Roroa······.”

“Mm······ that’s a bit different. I believe that not allowing someone to have even a single opportunity to betray you is another way to trust them. That means I wouldn’t have to take any risks.”

Sophna smiled bitterly.

“That is quite, unfortunately, a regrettable way to trust someone. Does that even work?”

“There are more times where it doesn’t work. Like how you had shut yourself in your room.”

Sophna’s eyes jolted like the liquid within a witch’s pot.

“You think that you were unable to do anything when the Mage Tower did that, right? That’s probably why you felt responsible, felt guilty for the Earl’s change, blamed yourself, and finally shut yourself in your room.”

“Am I not allowed to······?”

The exclusive mage of the Earl’s household spoke with a sorrowful voice.

“I have lived for quite a long period of time. During that time, that was the first time I had failed as horribly as that. That was most likely why it was unbearably painful. The fact that I am afraid that I may fail again, Yujin. Do you think that it is bad that I look forward to a tomorrow that will not be bad more than a tomorrow that might be better?”

“I believe that, as a human, that is something that may happen, and that it’s a natural occurrence.”

I stated and then continued.

“Nevertheless, is this current situation the tomorrow which you had hoped for in the past?”

And do you not know the number of otherworlders which the Earl had played around with and killed? I did not ask this. I did not tell her that there was a death during this very month as well. I didn’t ask her whether she truly believed that this was a tomorrow that wasn’t bad, that this was a part of her maintaining the norm. One day, we’ll have to quibble about the responsibility for this to this person, to Zia, and more than anyone else, to the Earl.

Not yet.

“You know it yourself as well, don’t you? That it’s ineffective. That nothing will get solved like this. It’s because you knew that you were so anxious while shutting yourself in, isn’t it? That’s why you fell for the thought induction of a person like Yudia and poured all of your anxiety onto me. Can you deny this?”

Sophna was unable to do so.

I finished up my speech.

“You always complained about the Earl’s learning ability, right? I’m going to believe that you’ll verify your own learning ability.”

Sophna tilted her head like a zelkova tree branch with too many leaves on it.

I waited. Like waiting for dead leaves to fall and branches to come up once more. This was most likely possible. Although Sophna had definitely lived for a long period of time and was very opinionated, on the other hand, she was a person who was capable of learning English in order to simply read a book that was written in English. There was always a possibility for people who were capable of learning something.

The stillness continued to flow. I adjusted my gla.s.ses with my head raised.

It was at that moment.

“Mm······ Yujin.”

“Yes, Miss Sii?”

Once I turned around, I saw that Sii was looking at me while fiddling with her fingers.

“Ah, mm······ Y-Yujin, I’m sorry.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You know, earlier, that······ I’ll kill you if you betray me······ mm~~ Y-You’re not mad, right?”

Sii’s lips wriggled about as she kept throwing glances at me.

Mm.

“Eh······ Yujin?”

I only released her from the hug until after I had patted her back for a long time.

“There was some dust on your hair.”

“Yujin, occasionally gives some really lame excuses······.”

“It wasn’t an excuse. And it’s fine. If anything, I’m glad that you had told me that.”

“I-Is that so?”

“Yes, Miss Sii. In regard to why I told you that I’m glad, I’ll leave that as homework for you.”

“Mm~~ I already know the reason. It’s because Yujin is a m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.t.”

She was wrong.

“Let’s bring this night to a close.”

I placed my hand on Sii’s shoulder and walked towards the prison cell with her.

“Eh, Yujin?”

Sii, who wound up standing in front of the prison cell after being dragged here by me, had a panicked expression on her face.

I adjusted my gla.s.ses.

“Sophna Radgrinkle.”

Sophna raised her head.

“I want to rehabilitate the Silver Lion Earl. There are many reasons as to why I wish to do this, but saying it like this would most likely be easier for you to understand. I want to help Sii, the Earl’s half-sister, by improving the unfair treatment which she has been receiving.”

I grabbed Sii’s shoulder and put some strength into my hand.

“By standing right next to me, and not below, work together with me so that we can do our utmost in order to help Sii.”

Sophna stretched her arm out from her cell.

Sii flinched and panicked the next moment, but she didn’t back away. Even while her cheeks were dyed red and her body trembled, she didn’t move from her spot.

Thus, Sophna was able to take off Sii’s shoe with ease.

With the cell bars between them, the Head Va.s.sal of the Earl’s household pressed her lips against the foot of an illegitimate child.

The long day finally came to an end.

Approximately 2 months after my first time being summoned here⎯⎯⎯I was successfully able to place the entire Silver Lion Earl castle under my influence.

TL note: Thanks for reading the chapter. This and the next chapter are pretty short, so expect the last chapter to be released soon as well. The short story, on the other hand, is fairly long, so that’ll take a bit. I’ve been reluctant to translate the short story since it has a section in it that I don’t want to translate that much, but I guess I’ll do it anyway.

The chapter was slightly delayed cause my editors have been really busy with their own lives recently, and I don’t want to pressure them much right now.

I’ve also decided to start streaming for some reason, so feel free to drop by whenever I do to watch me do things. I’m simply doing this to sort of try out new things and lighten my mood, so yeah. Follow me  if you want to be notified whenever I go live. I’m not neglecting my translations. I still do it every day, but I’m simply burned out with YaMA, which is why I’ve been taking my time. I enjoy the series but translating it is much more of a ha.s.sle compared to my other translation works and it’s not as exciting as them.

In any case, I’ll see you guys either in my stream or the next chapter.