Can You Please Keep the Original Setting? - Chapter 35.1

“Anything other than that?”

Zeno asked sternly.

“N-nothing in particular.”

I stuttered. If I had known he would have this kind of reaction, I wouldn’t have said anything. As he tried to roughly soothe me by saying that it would get better over time, Zeno suddenly frowned and stepped back.

“Who are you? You.”

In that brief blink of an eye, Mikael appeared. He came at just the right moment. Seeing his towering back, I rejoiced.

“Young Lady. Are you hurt?”

Mikael immediately asked.

“Yeah. I’m fine.”

“I’m really sorry. I will apologize properly later.”

Holding my hand gently, he completely blocked my vision. But I didn’t want to miss this amusing sight, so I stood on my tiptoes and looked over his shoulder perseveringly.

After glancing at me, Zeno kept an eye on Mikael.

“The remarkable disciple is very late. It’s fortunate that I didn’t intend to kill her, otherwise, the lady you serve with all your heart would have already become a corpse. You know that, right?”

There was clear contempt in his hazy eye. ‘Oh,’ I put my lips together in a circle. What he said just now. It’s similar to the dialogue I set up when Ingrit was kidnapped.

“I’m already blaming myself right now, so I’d like you to keep your mouth shut. So, who are you?”

“Will knowing who I am make any difference?”

Feeling the tension between the two men, goosebumps subtly appeared on my skin. Mikael, who had always been warm to Celina, was wearing a thin layer of ice all over his body.

“Yeah. A bit.”

“If you’re curious about who I am, you can ask the lady there.”

“… Does the Young Lady know who you are?”

His tone of voice as he spat out those words was cold. I didn’t do anything wrong, but I started to feel self-conscious for no reason.

“That’s right. The daughter of the Archmage knows who I am. And you’re the Archmage’s disciple.”

Zeno checked the time again. I felt a strange discomfort from the behavior I kept seeing. What was it?  Was there something today? No, no matter how much I think about it, there was nothing at this time except for the coming-of-age ceremony.

“Young Lady.”

When Mikael suddenly called me, I flinched as if I had been burned by a flame.

“Y-yes?”

“Do you know that man?”

“Rather than knowing him, I’ve met him.”

“When? Where? Why? How in the world did you meet?”

He poured out the questions with a very sweet tone of voice. I hesitated for a long time before telling the truth.

“… That. Well. When we went to the imperial palace. In the Catacombs…”

“Ah.”

As soon as Mikael uttered a single word of enlightenment, something like electricity flashed from his left hand.

“Wait!”

I clutched his arm in dismay. If the two had a full-fledged fight, the city would become a sea of fire and disappear. Or it would become completely underwater. I didn’t want to go through war so early on.

“Can’t you not do it now? I don’t want you to get hurt.”

And you’re still much weaker than Zeno!

“You’re kind-hearted.”

He turned around and bent his knees to meet my eye level.

“But he’s the person who kidnapped you. You don’t have to be like that.”

“I know that. But we came here today just the two of us to have fun, Mikael. So…”

At that moment, a fireball passed in front of me. Before I knew it, I was embraced by Mikael without even having time to scream and moved closer to the wall.

The place where Mikael and I were just a few seconds ago was blackened, with smoke rising and a burning smell. My heart pounded.

Whoa, this is crazy. It was really a speed I couldn’t get used to. This place was so different from the game inside the monitor.

It was fortunate that I did not enter the body of the protagonist. I’m sure I would have died due to a lack of control skills even before the story began properly.

At this point, I wondered if Celina also thought about it and intentionally locked me inside her weak body.

“Are you in your right mind?!”

I pointed my finger at Zeno and shouted angrily.

“Blame the man holding you. Who shows their back so openly like that? It’s offensive.”

He raised one corner of his lips and grinned like a typical villain.

“What? You really lack patience.”

Mikael put on the coldest expression in the world and spoke very refreshingly.

“Patience? Disciple of the Archmage. Do you think you have the discretion to discuss that word with me?”

Zeno’s eyes sank low. What he said had a deep meaning.

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