“So you’re not doing anything?”

“…”

“I feel you’re quite busy when I’m gone though.”

“…”

But you say there’s really nothing?

Yuri’s piercing gaze seemed to be asking.

Lakis was conflicted.

‘…Where did it leak from?’

He didn’t know how much Yuri knew but he couldn’t lie to her. But that said, he felt awkward telling her everything he was planning. As far as Lakis knew, such events had a better effect when it was planned without the knowledge of the other party.

He heard there was a high chance of failure if you were mistakenly caught before the execution of the event.

‘Is it over then?’

Lakis was somewhat disappointed.

He knew Yuri preferred a normal dating experience, so he wanted to match her preference as much as possible. So this time, he wanted to surprise Yuri after making proper preparations. Of course, just like his men said, he didn’t think their relationship would change even without that.

However, this sort of thing could be a small issue for Yuri and Lakis also wanted to be able to bind Yuri to himself in a much firmer manner than before.

But he was caught by Yuri before he even started so he couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Yuri looked at Lakis’ face and clicked her tongue.

“Don’t look so down. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But I wanted to surprise you later…”

Lakis inwardly ground his teeth.

He was thinking of calling up his men tomorrow to find out exactly where the leak was coming from. But consequently, Lakis realized that he didn’t have to.

“Thank you for thinking about me. But I’ll have to think a little more about having a store. I haven’t decided on what I want to do yet.”

Lakis paused when he heard Yuri add that in a very soft voice like she was comforting him.

‘…Store?’

“I know you went looking into things while I was away, right? I thought about it when you mentioned it to me, but I think it will be too much for me to run a coffeehouse by myself.”

Lakis’ eyes flashed with realization.

‘Oh, what. She was talking about this?’

As it turns out, Yuri hadn’t found out that he was preparing a proposal for her. It seems she only noticed the thing about the coffeehouse which they talked about last time.

“Sure, Ms. Yuri. You can take your time and think about it.”

Lakis quickly regained his composure and brightness returned to his face. He gave a relaxed smile and brought the cup of coffee to his lips again.

“The coffee tastes nice today.”

“True. Must be because the coffee beans from the castle are pretty good.”

“I think it’s because you’re good at making it.”

While continuing the peaceful conversation, Lakis decided that he had to hurry things up a little before Yuri noticed his other plans.

* * *

The following evening, Yuri went out again.

But as soon as she entered the town, she felt someone following her from the entrance.

Yuri walked a short distance and came to stop. Then she looked back expressionlessly and opened her mouth to speak.

“I don’t have any money to give you today.”

The boy who tried to steal money from Yuri yesterday was following her quietly about ten steps away and when her gaze fell on him, he flinched heavily.

Even if he ran away right now, Yuri didn’t plan on catching him. But who knew what the boy was thinking because he clenched his small fist, bit his lips hard, and ran over to Yuri.

“Um, yesterday!”

And what followed was an awkward salutation.

“Tha, Thank you…Miss.”

Yuri looked down at the boy who was gazing at his feet, unable to meet her eyes.

“I was able to…buy medicine for my brother thanks to the money you gave me, Noona.”[1]

Yesterday, he was looking at Yuri with quite the venomosity in his eyes but today, the expression on his face was more like his age.

Yuri quietly stared at him for a moment.

Growl!

Right then, a noisy stomach clock rang out like yesterday. The source of the noise today was no different from yesterday.

Yuri looked at the child’s bright-red face then she held out the thing in her hand.

“Here.”

The child tried not to drool at the sweet and savory smell coming from the paper bag. Inside it was the bread and sweets I bought just a moment ago.

Eventually, the child couldn’t withstand the temptation and stretched his hand to the paper bag while drooling. Then he picked up a piece of bread and quickly ate it on the spot.

As he did so, Yuri carefully studied the boy’s appearance. For a child from a well-off family like Odin said yesterday, his attire was sloppy and dirty.

No matter what angle she used, he didn’t look like a child under the care of an adult.

“Ca, Can I eat one more? …Miss?

“Eat as much as you want. You can take the rest to your brother.”

The kid’s face brightened at Yuri’s words.

Honestly, she had already investigated the boy’s situation yesterday, so she had an idea of what was going on. Interestingly enough, the boy’s parents were currently heavily immersed in a pseudo-religion. It was called the Horollala religion.

The name alone was strange and ridiculous but the believers, the child’s parents included, believed that the leader was the incarnation of an ancient god. So they gave everything they had in their home to the leader and that was still going on.

The child’s younger brother fell sick, but they couldn’t buy medicine because of this particular situation in the family. If anything, his parents worked harder for their leader, saying that the ancient god would heal their child.

It seems the children could not even eat properly now.

But who would have thought that the boy would use the money Yuri gave him yesterday to buy medicine for his brother. Of course, the fact that he pickpocketed wasn’t a good thing, but he had an admirable heart to take care of his brother.

‘Hm. This reminds me of the past. There was a cult in Carnot just a few years ago too.’

Yuri vaguely recalled the past.

A few years ago, before Yuri settled down in the East, there was a foundation-less cult that was popular in Carnot for a while. This was not long after Lakis became the king of Carnot.

It was common knowledge that the lives of the people in the West, including those living in the slums, became better after Lakis rose to the Western throne.

Villainy and welfare were a set of words that didn’t go together at all but Lakis ruled over the West with extreme attention to detail. However, it was still difficult for him to reach the people outside the borders since they were not subject to his control.

The pseudo-religion came from that very blind spot. Of course, it wasn’t long before they were caught by Lakis. Now, speaking of what happened to their leader back then, he was completely crushed by Lakis.

‘He really trampled them to the ground.’

It didn’t seem like Lakis had heard about this Horollala religion yet but once he did, their leader would obviously be destroyed. But thanks to this incident, they had become like dust in Yuri’s eyes.

“Might as well do something.”

She was already quite idle nowadays, so this sounded like a good exercise after a long time. Yuri watched the boy’s receding back as he ran off with the bag of bread then she turned around.

And she started walking in the opposite direction.

* * *

“What did you just say?”

A dreary chill oozed from Lakis.

“Say that again.”

The man in front of Lakis trembled like a rat before a cat.

“That, that…”

This was the same man who planned on presenting an ancient relic ring to Lakis yesterday. But today, he came to see Lakis empty-handed. The story went like this:

As soon as he received Lakis’ order yesterday, he headed to the casino where the item had arrived. But when he got to the safe, the treasure that should be there was nowhere to be found.

The man was greatly taken aback and grilled his men about it. As a result, he was able to find out the ridiculous turn of events.

Apparently, one of his own men in the casino has dedicated that treasure to the leader of a pseudo-religion. The cult leader was said to be the incarnation of an ancient god and since the treasure that came to the casino was an ancient relic, his subordinate, who happened to be a believer, took it and dedicated it to Horolalala or whatever it was called.

This didn’t mean that he stole the item. Rather, he appropriately exchanged it for an expensive necklace he had at home so if this was any other time, there would be no issue.

But since Lakis happened to be interested in that item, this was a disaster.

“These bloody lunatics…”

A ferocious energy slowly spread out from Lakis.

Normally, there were many troubled people in Carnot and each person had various things they were engaged in. Lakis usually didn’t care if a bunch of unimportant people fried themselves so they were left to their own devices.

But things like pseudo-religions bothered him so he couldn’t just let it be. After all, they dared to deify themselves so who knows whether they wanted to climb up and sit on the head of Lakis the king?

Furthermore, they didn’t know their place and had the nerve to covet something he was going to give to Yuri?

Lakis rose from his seat with eyes so piercing that anyone who looked at him trembled at the chill.

Those f*cking cockroaches.
You’re all dead today.