Can You Please Close The Door?

As the sun was really starting to set, Effi had actually returned to the town square. But since it was strange for her to return empty-handed, she hastily stopped by a herb store that was about to close and bought at least a few bags of leaves and flowers, and more flowers. She couldn't find the Alas Flower, but she could definitely make up a lot of excuses for it.

Effi's heart was beating fast because of the rush. But she had no idea that Kilo actually didn't even have time to think about her, let alone look for her. Because he himself was busy with other things.

The problem is that thanks to the piles of fireworks that exploded abysmally, now there are dozens of people who have suffered minor burns because of it. And Kilo, who was clearly wearing a priest's robe, of course, was immediately rushed by everyone to heal them.

"But he's almost done. Why hasn't Miss Arina returned yet??" Sei grumbled, who was starting to get restless too because she already waited for too long.

Arina didn't actually tell Sei anything and just asked her to wait on the carriage while she went to follow Effi. But because earlier it was seen that Kilo was going to walk in the same direction as them, Sei finally decided to intervene and make sure Kilo kept busy in town.

But instead of Arina, Sei found Effi returning first. That little priestess was clearly confused by the situation there. But after realizing that there were many injured people here and there, she immediately rushed over to Kilo and started helping too.

It wasn't long after, finally a person in a black robe began to slowly appear from the dark alley. But without even seeing the face, Sei already knew right away that it was definitely her master. "Miss Arina!" She said as silently as possible.

Though it was unusual of her, as soon as Arina lowered the hood of her robe, a curved smile appeared on her face. "What happened? Don't tell me you did this?" She asked with a proud tone.

"I-It was because that priest was about to walk in the same direction as you, so I thought… Did I do the right thing?"

"Good work." Arina replied sincerely. "Then let's go home now." She continued as she walked towards the carriage.

Sei followed her inside and the carriage started moving. But unlike her expectations, Arina didn't say anything else throughout their way home.

This strange master of hers didn't always tell her everything. But at times like these, Sei was sure that Arina would at least start complaining about one or two things. That's why seeing her become silent like that, Sei felt a bit worried. She wanted to ask, but afraid of offending her first, she just decided to keep quiet.

"Haha…." But instead of just being silent, now Arina even started laughing to herself.

"Mi-Miss Arina, are you okay?" Sei finally asked.

Arina smiled faintly, but her gaze towards the window looked empty again. "Well, me, of course." She replied lightly. But after remaining silent for a bit longer, she finally turned to look at Sei. "By the way, Sei, have you ever had a boyfriend?"

"Eh? M-Me??" Replied Sei who was getting confused. "Of course not." She continued timidly.

"Is that so? Hm, what a shame then." Arina chirped sadly. "Since I've never had one either, I was hoping you might know what it feels like."

"...What are you talking about?"

But instead of answering it, Aria asked again. "What about liking someone? At least once?" She said again. Completely ignoring Sei's increasingly confused face, Arina just continued on. "When you like someone, can you roughly guess how many things you can do for them? Like, how far?"

"…That, um, miss Arina, I'm sorry. But I really don't know how to answer that."

"Sure you don't." Arina chuckled again. But after staring at Sei for a while, she started to lean back casually. "Well, I'm not completely clueless either, you know." She muttered softly.

After all, the concept of 'sacrifice for the one you love' was something she heard quite often from her mother and father when she was a little.

For example, about the story when her father had to fight his grandfather when he planned to marry her mother. Or when her mother was almost willing to die to cure her friend who had an infectious deadly disease.

Or, well, even though it's not quite the same, Arina is also one of those people who is willing to sacrifice a lot of time and money to get all of her favorite antique collections. Sometimes she has to deal with dangerous people too, you know.

"When you like someone, whether you realize it or not, you'll start doing weird things for them." That's what her mother said.

'All right, sure. Maybe giving her own blood isn't such a strange thing to do.' Arina thought again. However, the important thing is not the 'why' question, but the 'what' question.

Felix did say that he would become immortal if he could eat her heart, so it wouldn't be strange if her blood also had a similar effect? But the problem lies on what effect it has. And how strong too maybe.

Couldn't stop thinking that, once back home, the first thing Arina did was go to the library to find another book about the high priest or ajin that she hasn't read. Sei persuaded her to take a rest for the night, but Arina's already spinning her brain so she couldn't just stop and ended up kicking her out.

THUD! So when she still couldn't find anything useful, she spontaneously threw the book she was holding on to the floor. "Damn it. Not knowing something really sucks." She grumbled angrily.

Arina sat down again for a while. But whenever she needs information, there is always only one other solution other than looking it up in the books. Which is asking other people.

Whether ordering Sei or having to do it herself, visiting people who have an explanation usually brings some answers. But apart from being inconvenient, the topic she wanted to know right now was also a sensitive matter, so she obviously couldn't just pick anyone to ask. So in the end, Arina only had two choices left.

Her father or mother.

Compared to Mr. Almira, who is smarter about matters of the kingdom and its frills, her mother, Mrs. Anastasia, who used to travel around the world, seems more likely to know what Arina needs. Who knows? Maybe her mother had also met an ajin or other cursed creature before she became a noble.

"Well, after all dad is going out of town anyway, so…" Arina muttered again.

If there are still problems left, well, at least Arina just has to prepare her liar's face first if she wants to talk to her mother who is good at seeing other people's thoughts.

Because we're talking about the woman who conquered Almira's family and forced Arina's old-fashioned grandparents to acknowledge her as their daughter-in-law. To be honest Mrs. Anastasia is rather a genius.

Instead of Alex, actually Arina always thought that her mother would be the first one to find out about her identity. Well, she almost did many times.

But because that didn't happen either, Arina started to suspect that her mother might actually knew, but just didn't want to talk about it?… Or even, didn't want to admit it?

Maybe that's why the distance between them grows further.

But emergency remains a priority. So Arina started knocking on her mother's room--Or that's what she was planning to do. But it turns out that the door was already slightly opened.

"Hh…" Thinking that her mother might have already wandered off somewhere, Arina was about to turn back again.

But very faintly, she then caught a strange sound coming from her mother's room, so she pushed the door back inside. "Mom…?"

Arina wasn't sure because the room was very dark, but it felt like she was actually seeing the figure of her mother holding a knife while covered in blood.

There is a dead body under her feet.

"Oh… Rina…?" Said her mother who sounded half drunk. "That, I'm kinda busy, so how about you close the door again?"

"...Who is that?"

"I-I don't know either. He suddenly appeared, so I spontaneously…" Anastasia explained as best as she could. "Um, Rina, you really won't close the door?"

Arina froze in her place for a moment, but she finally stepped inside and closed the door. She immediately checked the corpse, and without a doubt, the man who was still holding a long sword did look like an assassin.

But what caught her attention the most was the fact that the sword has a sun mark on it. Which means that he is a member of Turix, one of the most expensive assassin organization in the kingdom.

'But mom managed to kill him just by spontaneous reaction…' Arina thought to herself, surprised and amazed.

Arina herself had actually heard that her mother was good at fighting and using a sword. But since she had never seen it in person, Arina had almost forgotten about it.

"Well, are you okay?" Arina finally asked

Still with her face splattered with blood and a knife in her hand, her mother's agitated behavior started to look strange. "S-Sure…" She replied with a confused tone. "Y-You're not surprised?"

"I am, but..." Paused for a moment, Arina seemed to be looking for the right words. "I'm strangely pleased." She suddenly started grinning.

"...Rina, you should know that doesn't make me happy at all."