性瘾者

"THE LAST time I talked to Author Sola\'s publisher a year ago, he told me that Author Sola was working on a new book titled \'I Won\'t Let The Ghoul Duke Go Hungry!,\'" Juri said, then she sipped her tea before she continued. "But all of a sudden, I can\'t get in touch with the publisher anymore. Their office suddenly closed one day. After that, I haven\'t heard anything about Author Sola."

Neoma raised a brow. "Juri, why do you know so much about Author Sola? You even know her last WIP."

"What\'s \'WIP?\'"

"Work in progress."

"Oh," the teenage girl said while nodding. "Well, information can be bought and I have money."

Ah, as expected, Juri was a noble.

[And she\'s really beautiful.]

When they got to the tea salon named \'Sophia\'s,\' Juri finally took off the hood of her cloak and let her long and curly golden hair fall freely.

Despite wearing a simple dress under her cloak, Juri\'s beauty still stood out. Plus, even though she says vulgar words casually, she still moved as gracefully as any other nobles that were taught manners since the age of three.

[I really want her to be my daughter.]

Anyway, Lewis was seated beside her quietly while reading a black, small notebook that he refused to share with her.

[He has been diligently reading that book for a year now.]

Juri was seated on the sofa across from them looking like a pretty doll.

[It\'s time to give Lewis a sister, indeed.]

"It doesn\'t matter where I got my information about Author Sola," Juri said eagerly, then she elegantly stirred her tea. "We have to rescue her. If she was arrested by the royal knights, then we have no choice but to appeal to His Majesty himself."

She almost choked on her tea. "Dear, I\'m just a commoner," she said. "I don\'t have the power to meet the emperor."

"You\'re lying," the teenage girl said. "You\'re not a commoner."

"Why do you sound so confident? Do you know me?"

"I don\'t," Juri said bluntly. "But you have the same finesse as much as the next noble. I\'m not saying that commoners or middle-class people can\'t be as elegant as the nobles. But we\'re different. We move as if we were born graceful. To people like us, being elegant is as natural as breathing."

Well, she couldn\'t deny that.

Like she thought to herself a while ago, noble and royal children were taught manners as early as three years old.

"I came from a fallen noble family," she said, and that wasn\'t entirely a lie since House Roseheart was a fallen noble family anyway. "But I\'m a commoner now."

"I see," the young lady said sympathetically. Then, her face turned determined. "Don\'t worry, Rara. I will ask for an audience with His Majesty and ask him about Author Sola."

Juri didn\'t sound arrogant. She also didn\'t sound like she was bragging. She was speaking like she was stating a fact.

[That means she can really do it.]

Her future daughter must be a higher noble if she had the power to ask her Papa Boss for an audience.

"Then, I\'ll leave it to you," she told Juri cheerfully. "Please rescue our dear author."

Of course, as soon as she went back to the Royal Palace, she would scold her Papa Boss and demand him to free Author Sola.

Juri smiled sweetly at her, then she suddenly turned to the window with a serious look on her face. "Rara, are you being stalked?"

Her eyes widened in shock when she heard that.

Lewis, who was reading quietly beside her, 0closed the book and straightened up in his seat.

"I\'m not sure but lately, I feel like I\'m being followed," she lied. It wasn\'t like she could tell Juri that it was her Paladins who realized that she was being stalked. "How did you know that, Juri Unnie?"

Until Juri let her "adopt" her as her first "daughter," she would call her \'unnie\' for the meantime. It meant \'big sister\' in Hangul.

Thankfully, her future daughter didn\'t ask what \'unnie\' meant.

[Juri is probably thinking that I\'m just using made-up words since I\'m a child and kids my age are imaginative.]

"My eyes are special," Juri said, then she turned to her with a smile on her face. "Rara, shall we catch your stalker together?"

Neoma couldn\'t help but smile and nod. "Okay, unnie."

***

"SIR GLENN, I\'m only twelve years old," Ruto reminded him. "How can I fall in love with someone at this age?"

Glenn laughed, the tension that he felt a while ago disappeared. "You\'re right," he said while nodding his head. "But I was taken aback because it felt like you were speaking from experience."

"I was."

"Huh?"

"My mother isn\'t from the empire, Sir Glenn," the young chef reminded him. "My parents had a long-distance relationship even after I was born. It didn\'t work because my father chose his career over my mother, and my mother is the type of person who can\'t be honest with her own feelings."

Ah, that was right.

Ruto\'s family matters were quite complicated.

"My father regrets leaving my mother until now, but he knows that it\'s already too late to mend their broken marriage," the young man said. "Sir Glenn, do you want to end up like my father? In case you\'re wondering, the answer is \'no.\' My father is happy and honored to be His Majesty\'s personal chef. But at the end of the day, he still feels empty."

He wasn\'t that surprised to hear that.

After all, he was completely aware that if he lost Princess Bridgette, his life wouldn\'t be the same anymore.

[I can\'t stay passive now.]

Going to the Hazelden Kingdom didn\'t mean abandoning His Majesty.

To be honest, the emperor was right when he said that he was just using his position as His Majesty\'s knight to avoid confrontation with Princess Bridgette. Deep in his heart, he knew that he was just afraid to get rejected personally.

But not anymore.

"Thank you for the pep talk, Ruto," Glenn said, his chest light now. Then, he stood up and smiled at the young chef. "In the near future, when you fall in love for the first time, don\'t hesitate to come to me for advice, okay?"

Ruto just remained silent with a strange sadness on his face.

***

BEFORE they left the tea salon, Neoma was instructed by Juri to act naturally.

On the other hand, her future daughter asked Lewis to pretend to leave. According to the young lady, the stalker would more likely lower their defense if their male companion left.

Of course, Lewis didn\'t budge at Juri\'s instruction.

If she didn\'t threaten her son that she wouldn\'t talk to him again if he didn\'t leave them, then Lewis wouldn\'t have left her side.

[I\'m sorry, Lewis. But this time, I want to trust Juri and see why she\'s confident.]

And most of all, she wanted to see if her future daughter was indeed qualified to be a part of her dream team.

[Yep, I want to recruit Juri to join my team.]

Over the past year, her Papa Boss and the other Paladins had sent her a list of candidates that qualified for the positions that she wanted to be filled in her team. But so far, none of them caught her attention.

"I think this place is good enough," Juri said cheerfully while looking around. "No one else is here."

"Of course, no one else is here," Neoma said with a soft laugh. "You paid the hotel owner to let us use the rooftop."

Yeah, the Royal Capital had a fancy hotel that was known for having ten floors.

"Well, your stalker seems to be fond of high places," her future daughter said while rummaging the pouch tied to her waist under the cloak. Then, she pulled out a green bean from it. "And he\'s good at hiding."

[As expected, the stalker is a male.]

"You\'re good, Juri Unnie," she said, amused. "But how did you know…"

She trailed off when all of a sudden, the young lady threw the bean at something.

Or someone.

It didn\'t matter, to be honest.

She was shocked at how Juri threw the bean. The young lady looked like a pro-baseball pitcher when she threw the bean accurately.

\'Accurately\' because the bean really hit something.

[Daebak!]

She was shocked when a huge "cylinder glass" floating in the air right in front of them broke into tiny pieces after the bean hit it. When the shards of glasses turned into dots of silver light and disappeared, the stalker was finally exposed.

Light gray hair, pale blue eyes, porcelain skin.

The boy that seemed to be around Juri\'s age was currently falling from the sky like an angel.

[Wait, I take that back.]

She noticed that under the boy\'s black cloak, he was actually holding a wooden rifle…

… and he was aiming it at Juri.

"Juri Unnie!" she yelled worriedly. "He has a gun!"

Well, that was quite stupid for her to say because Juri had eyes, too. She obviously saw the rifle that the "stalker" had. After all, it was a long-ass gun.

But the fact that her future daughter wasn\'t moving made her worry.

"Don\'t worry, Rara," Juri said, then she opened her right hand. "Come, Slayer."

[\'Slayer?\']

She was surprised when the silver ring around Juri\'s pinky finger suddenly released a blinding light.

She automatically closed her eyes for a few seconds.

When she opened her eyes again, she was shocked when she saw the big-ass weapon in Juri\'s hand.

It was a big iron sledgehammer that her future daughter was swinging effortlessly.

[The sledgehammer looks heavy but she\'s swinging it as if it\'s nothing!]

"Rara, I suggest you close your eyes because things are about to get ugly and bloody," Juri said cheerfully, then she turned to her. "Don\'t worry, I won\'t kill him. I\'m good at fixing up the bodies that I mess."

She swallowed hard when she heard that.

But she wasn\'t scared or disgusted by Juri\'s words. In fact, she felt thrilled. This girl was exactly what she was looking for.

Her excitement was cut short when she realized that the stalker had disappeared again.

"Oh no," she said worriedly. "Juri Unnie, he got away."

"He didn\'t," her future daughter said. "I can still see him, Rara."

She blinked in surprise. "Really?"

"I am color blind, Rara," Juri said, her orange eyes glowing brightly. Then, she started to walk away from her while swinging the sledgehammer in her hand as if it was a mere baton. "Instead of colors, I see auras and sometimes, bloodlust," she continued. Then, shockingly, the young lady threw the sledgehammer the way she threw the bean a while ago: fast, powerful, and accurate. "My eyes are special."

[And really cool!]

Neoma gasped when she saw the sledgehammer hit something, then the boy that she saw a while ago appeared again.

The stalker used his rifle as a shield to protect his body from the sledgehammer. She could see that the rifle was covered with the boy\'s Mana. But despite that, the sledgehammer still managed to break the rifle and hit the poor boy in the stomach.

She saw the stalker cough blood as soon as the sledgehammer hit him.

After that, the boy fell to the ground while clutching his stomach.

Juri appeared in front of the fallen stalker, then she grabbed her sledgehammer and raised it as if she was about to strike the poor boy.

[Damn, please don\'t hit his pretty face, Juri Unnie.]

Despite the terrible scene playing before her, Neoma couldn\'t help but smile. "Juri Unnie is crazy."

And she loved the crazy.

***

"`GOT YOU, Lewis," Geoffrey said, then he wrapped an arm around Lewis to stop him from joining the fight. "Relax. Princess Neoma is safe with that young lady."

He was in the Royal Capital while gathering information when he saw Princess Neoma with another lady. At first, he was alarmed when he didn\'t see Lewis. But when he looked around, he saw the fox boy tailing the two ladies discreetly.

And so, he followed Lewis until he reached the rooftop of the building next to the hotel rooftop where an interesting event was taking place.

[It seems like Princess Neoma and the young lady can handle it without our help.]

"Who?" Lewis asked indifferently, then he stepped away from him. "Who is that lady?"

"Ah, you didn\'t know?" Geoffrey asked, then he turned to the young lady who missed hitting the boy with her sledgehammer. The young man luckily avoided being pounded to the ground by rolling around. Had he not moved in time, his skull would have been cracked and not the floor. "That young lady is Juri Wisteria– Madam Hammock\'s crazy granddaughter."

***

NOTE: I\'m using the \'[]\' bracket again to indicate the characters\' thoughts, inner monologues, flashbacks, etc.

I just realized that italics don\'t really work on the app. T_T

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