OHNIR – Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Reconciliation
“…It’s you, Miss Breviou.”
Gloria blinked, suppressing her dark magic as the color of her eyes shifted from inky black back to deep blue. Gazing at Kelusta, she said curtly, “As I recall, there isn’t supposed to be an administrator on duty today.”
Of course, Kelusta wasn’t foolish enough to ask something obviously provocative like, “Then what are you doing here?” She put on a surprised smile, as if completely oblivious to the standoffish aura emanating from the duke’s daughter, and said with perfect ease, “Ah! Senior—it’s so good to see you!”
Gloria was taken aback for a moment, frowning slightly.
Was this girl so thick-skinned that she didn’t mind her cold shoulder these last two times? …Whatever. I’ll just get her to leave first.
Kelusta didn’t give her a chance to think. Taking advantage of the pause, she took two steps forward, closing the distance to a point that wasn’t exactly intimate, but certainly not distant. She exclaimed, “You have no idea what a terrible thing just happened to me!”
Gloria lowered her eyes. Remembering she had things to do, she just wanted to send her away quickly, so she played along and asked, “What is it?”
Well, well. When you like me, you fix my collar. When you don’t, you won’t even spare an adjective, Kelusta thought viciously, but her face betrayed nothing. She put on a flustered and conflicted expression and said in a small voice, “I ran into a strange upperclassman… that is… His Highness, Prince Satrick.”
Gloria said nothing, her gaze growing even colder.
But the brown-haired girl before her seemed completely oblivious. Even though Gloria was ignoring her, she continued to complain in good spirits, “I thought the prince everyone praises would be a good person, but the moment he saw me, he started rambling on and on, never getting to the point. It made all the girls around us look at me funny—like they wanted to eat me alive. I got scared and left right away… But you’ll never guess, Senior, he was relentless and kept following me. I had no choice. I saw the library was empty and ducked in here on impulse.”
After badmouthing Satrick, she let out a realistic sigh, raised her face to look at Gloria with a pitiful expression, and mumbled, “Senior… I only broke the rules because I truly had no other choice. Will you forgive me, please?”
Gloria’s expression softened at Kelusta’s undisguised tone of disgust for Satrick. The last trace of ice in her eyes melted away completely at Kelusta’s final plea. She gave a helpless smile, stepped forward, and reached out to stroke the younger girl’s hair. In a voice as soft as a cloud, she said quietly, “If you broke the rules, then didn’t I as well? Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The words had a double meaning.
Gloria thought indifferently, Since she has no desire to interact with Satrick, then she still belongs only to me, just like back then… So what if he’s a prince? If he dares to touch something someone else has already claimed, he should be prepared to have his hands chopped off.
“Ding, Gloria’s affection +1.”
Kelusta had no idea what bloody thoughts were running through the great villain’s mind. After hearing that promise, her golden eyes lit up instantly. The tears that had been welling in her eyes finally fell with a “pat” onto her collar. At the same time, the brown-haired girl suddenly threw her arms out, taking advantage of Gloria’s proximity to wrap them around her shoulders and throw herself into the silver-haired noble’s embrace!
Gloria froze, reflexively placing her hands on the girl’s shoulders to push her away. But the next second, before she could act, a burst of crying rooted her to the spot.
“Sob… Senior, Senior… You were ignoring me before. I thought you were angry with me…”
The girl in her arms accused her in a heartbroken voice, her baseless crying making Gloria’s heart ache. “I was so scared. You’re the only one in this school who’s willing to protect me, Senior. I like you so much… But you hate me and won’t talk to me… Sob, did I do something wrong to make you unhappy? But I don’t know what… Senior, please tell me, and I’ll change it right away, okay? Please don’t be angry with me…”
“Ding, Gloria’s affection +1.”
“…”
The silver-haired woman sighed deeply. She moved her hands from Kelusta’s shoulders back to the top of her head. Amidst the girl’s tearful, cautious questions, she slowly smoothed the brown hair between her fingers and said in a low voice, “No, you didn’t do anything wrong… It was my fault, Kelusta. I shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you.”
Buried in the other’s embrace, Kelusta’s feigned emotions turned into genuine, deep-seated grievance upon hearing those words.
—It was clearly someone else’s fault, so why did you reject me!
She pressed her lips together, unable to hold back any longer, and truly began to sob.
Seeing that the girl in her arms wasn’t comforted and was instead crying even harder, Gloria was truly at a loss. Her experience was limited to coaxing a sometimes-unhappy Wend—and that boy was so easygoing, a few words of comfort were all it took for him to bounce back. How could such meager skills possibly handle the delicate Kelusta?
“Please forgive me, won’t you?” She held Kelusta, unable to think of anything else to say for a long moment. She could only repeat gently, “It’s all my fault… Don’t cry, my Little Shell—I promise you, nothing like this will ever happen again.”
…“My Little Shell.”
Her name meant “shell.”
Kelusta paused. It was as if something in her mind had been awakened, like a connected thread had finally been tugged. She felt an irrepressible, faint sense of familiarity with the nickname.
Shell… fairytale… beach… light?
She opened her mouth, a name on the tip of her tongue—
But in the end, she couldn’t say anything.
While Kelusta’s thoughts were in turmoil, Gloria sensed that she had stopped crying. She reached out and gently pulled her back a little from her embrace. Gazing at the other girl’s tear-laden eyelashes, she shook her head softly, took out her own handkerchief, and gently dabbed at Kelusta’s eyes.
“There, there. Crying like a little child,” Gloria said. “Wipe them yourself.”
Inhaling the faint, unidentifiable floral scent on the handkerchief, Kelusta seemed determined to be willful to the very end today. She stubbornly tilted her chin and said, “You wipe them, Senior.”
The System quietly sucked in a cold breath. It was terrified the BOSS would twist off the head of this temporary host who was pushing her luck.
But the great villain seemed to have decided to be a kind senior today. She actually did as Kelusta asked and began to wipe her face. Her touch was so light, as if she were handling a fragile, priceless treasure, that it made the one who had made the request feel embarrassed.
By the time she finally stopped and casually put away the tear-soaked handkerchief, Kelusta’s face was hot enough to boil soup. Gloria smiled faintly, reached out and gave her head an intimate little flick, teasing, “Not sad anymore?”
Kelusta covered her forehead and was silent for a long moment before murmuring like a buzzing mosquito, “…Yeah.”
System: “Sigh, temporary host, you’re shy again.”
Kelusta: “So annoying! What do you mean, ‘again’!?”
She had a vague feeling that Gloria was… too good to her. Surprisingly good. Whether it was their first meeting or this reconciliation, she hadn’t expected things to go so smoothly.
And there was a reason for this attitude, but she didn’t know what it was.
Just like in the “Magic Origin” Bad Ending route, after Gloria destroyed Seaside Town, she spared Kelusta alone.
Any self-respecting villain knows the principle of cutting the weeds and digging up the roots, but she hadn’t. Kelusta still remembered in her dream, amidst the ruins of broken walls, how those deep blue eyes had scanned the area before pausing noticeably on her. Then, as if she had just glanced at a blade of grass, she had calmly looked away and left.
This… was too strange.
She thought back to her reaction to the name “Little Shell” and couldn’t help but feel another headache coming on.
Whatever, I’ll think about it later. Her affection level is already at 9 points. Might as well strike while the iron is hot and show my hand.
Kelusta’s face was red, her eyes darting about as if she were desperately embarrassed and trying to change the subject. When her gaze met Gloria’s, who was watching her with a smile, she uncomfortably tugged at the hem of her clothes, cleared her throat, and asked, “Senior… what were you doing in here earlier?”
Gloria paused, frowning slightly. Kelusta, as if startled, quickly added, “I-if it’s inconvenient to tell me, then you don’t have to say anything, Senior!”
She lowered her head, looking pitiful and dejected, and said cautiously, “I don’t want to make you angry again…”
Gloria couldn’t help but give another helpless smile. She reached out a finger and gently tapped the tip of Kelusta’s nose, sighing, “It’s no secret… I’m looking for a demonic artifact, a mirror of some sort. It’s very important to me. Do you have any clues for me?”
She had only asked casually, not expecting Kelusta to have anything to say. But to her surprise, the moment she finished speaking, the kitten-like girl suddenly looked up, her golden eyes blinking, filled with Gloria’s own reflection.
The duke’s daughter was slightly taken aback. The next second, she saw the golden-eyed girl point a fair-skinned finger behind her, her cheerful voice ringing out as she said—
“I saw a mirror last time I was punished with cleaning duty, Senior,” she said proudly. “Look, it’s right over there! Senior, let me take you to it!”
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