It wasn’t a merciless threat like before. His voice was still cold and hard but somehow, it felt like it was filled with longing and pleas. Same could be said of his eyes looking down at her.

“If you’re angry with me about something, don’t keep it inside. Tell me everything.”

Lakis soon placed his head on Yuri’s shoulder and whispered to her.

“Just don’t ignore me like today.”

The sight of a big man burying his face in her shoulders as if clinging to her sparked a strange emotion in her. Seeing Lakis like this could make anyone’s heart go soft. And it seemed Yuri was no exception.

“Mr. Lakis…”

She leaned her cheek on Lakis’ head and spoke impulsively.

“Later…when you leave, tell me before you go.”

And the words that unconsciously spilled from her lips were surprising even to herself. To that, Lakis opened his mouth.

“Alright. I’ll definitely tell you before I go out.”

Yuri wasn’t just talking about him simply going out but Lakis seemed to have taken it that way as he raised his head and replied without hesitation. But Yuri pressed his head down so that he couldn’t look up and see her face. Because for some reason, she felt like her expression right now was very strange, mirroring her emotions.

However, the place where she pushed his face to was her chest of all places so Lakis couldn’t even breathe properly and stiffened into stone. Her sweet scent made his mind dizzy.

Lakis barely managed to hold onto his reasoning and his lips parted slightly.

“…Ms. Yuri.”

“Stay still. Don’t move.”

“Wait, this position is a bit…”

“Don’t talk either.”

However, Yuri completely ignored Lakis’ words. So in the end, Lakis had no choice but to stay in that position until Yuri regained her composure and let him go. Honestly, Lakis could easily get away from her hold if he tried, so his ‘had no choice’ thing was just an excuse.

Of course, that was a secret known only to Lakis himself and the parasitic microorganism in him.

~

“Ms. Yuri, are you okay? Are you really not hurt anywhere?”

About an hour later, Anne-Marie came to Yuri’s house to check on her condition. Earlier, she was unable to chase after Yuri because she was with the old man she was in charge of caring for. So as soon as Kalian returned and she parted ways with them, she quickly went to Yuri’s house.

“Yes, I’m fine. What about you, Ms. Anne-Marie?”

Anne-Marie was finally relieved when she saw that Yuri truly wasn’t hurt anywhere. Yuri also asked about Anne-Marie’s health.

“I’m fine too.”

She explained that she wasn’t hurt at all thanks to the protective shield.

“But I don’t know what’s going on, all of a sudden. I guess we can’t go to the shopping district for a good while.”

Then as Anne-Marie spoke while patting down her chest, Yuri abruptly realized that she didn’t achieve her purpose for going to the shopping district today and came back empty-handed.

She wanted to buy a present to congratulate Anne-Marie on her new job…but she’ll probably have to go to the next neighborhood now.

“I know what you mean. To think there would be such a huge explosion.”

Now that she thought about it, she remembered Damon saying that the Salvatore family owned that building. But now, it had all broken down. Yuri suddenly felt Damon was a little pitiful and inwardly clicked her tongue.

“It was all really scary. I couldn’t really see everything because I also left in a hurry, but it looked like there were a lot of people injured.”

Anne-Marie’s face fell as she said so. She seemed saddened by the thought of the wounded people.Yuri also furrowed her brows.

The explosions today were practically a case of terrorism. There was no such storyline in the novel, so she had no idea why such a huge incident occurred out of nowhere.

Right then, Anne-Marie went ‘Ah!’ as if she had suddenly remembered something she forgot.

“By the way, the blonde man you were with earlier, is it someone you know?”

“Ah, yes. We ran into each other in the store and came out together.”

“Oh, I see. Somehow, I felt like I’d seen him somewhere before, so I just asked.”

Anne-Marie tilted her head as she spoke. Yuri also tilted her head.

For Anne-Marie to say she felt like she’d seen Lakis before, it made Yuri wonder if Anne-Marie had stumbled across Lakis when he was wandering around outside.

‘Ah. Don’t tell me she remembers briefly seeing him at festival?’

Just in case, Yuri changed the topic.

“You must have been very surprised today, you should go in and get some rest.”

“You too, Ms. Yuri. And just to be safe, if you feel any pain later on, make sure you go to the clinic! Or call me please, I’m good with anytime.”

“Thank you, Ms. Annemarie.”

With that, they said their goodbyes and separated in front of the house.

* * *

Meanwhile, Odin and Siren were still caught in a spiderweb and stuck to the ceiling.

“You stupid bird! Why do you keep interrupting me!”

Siren screamed at Odin.

“This will be simple if I bring Arachne here, how long will we keep dangling like this!”

The most certain and fastest way to get out of Arachne’s trap was to ask Arachne to remove it. So Siren couldn’t stand this suffocating situation and tried to send a bird to Arachne to let her know.

However, Odin continue to disrupt her and make her temper erupt. The shameless bird even went on to yell at Siren.

“You want me to let Arachne see me looking this shameful?!”

Ah!

At that moment, Siren paused.

It was disgraceful to be agreeing with Odin, but she couldn’t help but be persuaded by it.

Indeed, she couldn’t show Arachne this pathetic sight! How could she say she ended up in Arachne’s trap after getting into a childish fight with that obnoxious, bird-brained Odin!

“Aish, this is all because of you!”

Siren expressed her annoyance with Odin and ground her teeth. They restrained themselves and began to try escaping the spiderweb again. After some time, Odin was the first to succeed in breaking the spiderweb and getting out.

“Hey, you’re so petty! How can you just leave alone!”

Not caring whether Siren was infuriated or not, Odin flew down and went for the ruin fragment that had tumbled down the floor.

The moment Odin touched it, a trap was triggered once again. However, Odin wasn’t the type to the caught by the same trick twice.

A flock of crows struck the ruin’s fragment. They smashed the glass box and shred the Arachne’s threads wound around it. From the start, this was a trap Yuri made just in case and she was naturally not on guard for Odin, so he was able to break the trap relatively easily.

He paid special attention to controlling the force of the destruction so that the ruin’s fragment in the glass box would not be broken or crushed into powder. After that, black feathers surrounded the ruin’s fragment like a protective barrier.

Odin turned into a crow and flew into the sky. And the flock of crows behind him began to carry the ruin’s fragment wrapped in feathers.

“What the-! Isn’t that Arachne’s? Hey, you thieving bastard!”

Siren was shocked by Odin’s shameless behavior.

“Krreung?”

Right then, Leo whom the two of them had forgotten about, entered the monastery. He looked puzzled by the inside of the monastery which now looked like it was in complete ruins.

“Good timing, watchdog!”

Siren quickly shouted at him.

“Get that crow bastard…!”

“Kwang!”

“크왕!”

Of course, there was no reason for Leo to follow Siren’s orders. But he usually had a lot of grudges with Odin, so he immediately dove at the crow cutting over his head.

“Don’t get in my way! Piss off!”

Odin swung his wing at Leo who was rushing towards him. Feathers shot towards Leo like a sharp dagger.

“Kng!”

Leo blocked them with a smack of his tail. However, he couldn’t avoid all of them so a few feathers scratched his face and body. Leo yelped and fell to the floor.

“Thi, Thi This bird bastard! Hey, Odin! You stop right there…!”

Only

Siren’s scream echoed from behind but of course, her voice didn’t stop Odin from flapping his wings.

Like that, the swarm of crows flew out of the monastery and into the sky that had gotten dark at some point.

* * *

“Odin took the ruin’s fragment?”

Yuri frowned when he heard what Siren just said.

“Yes! He’s really a terrible bastard…! I was trying to stop that crow jerk from touching the fragment, so I was caught in the trap too!”

Siren yelled, completely fired up after she got out of the trap with Yuri’s help.

A little while ago, a bird Siren sent knocked on Yuri’s window. Yuri tried to ignore it at first because she was with Lakis. However, the bird hitting the window with its beak grew more and more violent so she couldn’t help but open the window.