A级夜生活

—

I laughed boisterously for a long time, all the while feeling Cassion’s eyes on me.

At his glare, I tried to stop laughing.

But my efforts didn’t bear fruit at all.

It looked as though he was taking it in stride, but he shook his head and spoke.

“Anyway, I’ll take care of it to the best of my abilities. But if you think it’s not going to work, then I’ll leave it to you.”

Hm? This is unexpected.

Honestly, I thought he’d be a stickler for the rules.

I knew he’d accept it even though he were to be saddled with the second best, but he’s even saying ‘I’ll leave it to you’ now. I didn’t expect that.

“You’re not telling me that you’re not going to do it? To be honest, I thought you’d be reluctant to cheat.”

Hearing me say this, Cassion glanced at me.

And casually replied back.

“Whatever it takes, I need to stay beside you.”

With a passionate determination.

“Really. Whatever it takes.”

The type of determination that was as heated as the midsummer sun.

‘When you said you need to stay beside me, I know what you mean. But there’s something behind this that’s making me feel strange.

I blinked for a moment, then nodded.

“Right. Stay by my side. Don’t you ever die.”

As I laughed and whispered this to him, Cassion was the first to avert his gaze.

Shwaaa—

Once again, the breeze blew in from an unknown place.

The wind fluttered the leaves and blew past my hair. As I held it back with one hand, I looked up at the sky.

That clear, blue sky.

Still, it wouldn’t be like that for long. The monsoon season was expected to begin next month.

‘Three weeks from now is Cassion’s match, and… the week after that…’

Was Cassion’s funeral.

Yes, right as the rain would pour down from the heavens.

They had already sent out obituaries to the other households, but I hadn’t told Cassion about it yet.

I’m worried that his mental fortitude would be shaken once he found out.

He had an important match ahead, and it would be a problem if he’s distracted by something else.

Still, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hide it forever.

‘It’s none other than his own funeral after all.’

I’ll tell him after the match.

Yeah. After he wins.

‘So, before that…’

“You know there’s only about three weeks left until the match, right?”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

“Then let’s go on an outing next week.”

“Outing?”

His tone was perplexed.

“How is that related to the match?”

He asked the right question once again, and at this, I smiled and nodded.

“Mm. Let’s get you some hands-on practice.”

“Hands-on practice…?”

“By nature, people learn more through real experience. I’ll prepare it well, so don’t worry.”

Well, it’s not actually me. Blanca’s the one preparing it.

“……”

Cassion stayed silent.

All he did was look at me with worry in his eyes.

What the hell are you up to…

With the kind of expression that seemed to say this.

I laughed off his concerns.

“Didn’t I say not to worry? I’ll let you practice safe and sound.”

But the mistrust and apprehension in his eyes still wouldn’t go away.

I reached into my pocket and handed him a note.

Baffled, Cassion took it from me.

“What’s this?”

“Open it.”

He glanced at me first, but soon opened the note.

“Black Lion Guild?”

What Cassion muttered to himself was the name of the guild, which was written at the top of the note.

It’s nothing but a shady guild, but what a grandiose name it had…

As he skimmed the contents of the note, he soon asked.

“By chance, this… Is it…?”

“Mm-hmm. That’s the guild that Diana belonged to before.”

“……”

His brows furrowed as he stood in silence.

When I brought Diana back, of course Cassion also was with us back then.

So, while I told Diana about the secret behind the guild, Cassion was also listening to everything.

That the guild, all this time, had been selling fake medicine to Diana while exploiting her through labor.

I reached out one finger towards the middle of Cassion’s furrowed brows.

Tap.

As my fingertip touched the middle of the wrinkled brows, they flinched as though they were mimosas.

And he looked at me with such a startled gaze.

Retracting my hand, I grinned as I looked into his eyes.

“Your forehead— it’ll have wrinkles.”

“Hah…”

With a helpless smile, Cassion shook his head.

“Didn’t I promise Diana back then? That she’ll have her chance at revenge.”

Now with a smooth brow, he answered.

“Then the hands-on practice…”

“Yup. We’ll turn that place upside down.”

With you there as well, of course.

As I craned my neck and whispered near his ears, Cassion shivered slightly and flinched away.

I laughed.

Ah, I’m so looking forward to next week.

* * *

At the Black Lion Guild—

“You useless punks!”

It was in the back alleys of the city that a loud shout broke out from the sunless wooden building.

The person who yelled like that was Owen, the leader of the Black Lion Guild.

And there before him stood a bulky man who had his head down.

One side of his face was read because he had just gotten slapped by Owen.

But even as Owen saw the other man’s red cheek, he huffed and puffed, letting out his anger as though he was yet to be satisfied with just one hit.

It’s been like this for a few years now.

The number of requests to the guild were on the decline, and the guild members kept failing to carry out their duties properly.

Enraged by this, Owen frequently took it out on the guild members.

As this continued to happen, Owen was like a ticking time bomb that’s waiting to explode at any given moment.

“Huu…”

He let out a meandering exhale after he finished drinking his cold water.

He waved his empty hand in the air like a whip.

Seeing the signal to get out, the bulky man bowed to Owen and promptly left through the door.

Owen gulped down his cold water again, but soon threw the glass once it was empty.

Towards the door where the other man had just left.

The glass quickly hit the wall next to the door and broke into pieces.

“Damn it… damn it, damn it!”

Perhaps unable to forget it, Owen cursed out repeatedly.

He couldn’t stand not swearing at a situation like this.

After letting out a long stream of curses, one person’s face stuck out in his mind.

The person who made him end up like this.

That wench.

“Diana…”

His guild began having a much more difficult time at a rapid pace after Diana suddenly disappeared.

She was the best employee he had in the Black Lion Guild, and since the greatest driver to his company had disappeared, there’s no one else who could do the requests properly.

And right on cue, the requests were decreasing…

Since there were no requests coming in, the money that passed through his hands also gradually decreased.

That’s why he somehow tried to look for Diana.

He went to look for her at her house first, but he found not even one personal belonging there, let alone the person herself.

Ever since then, he ordered the guild members to search for any trace of the girl.

However, even a month later, not one single clue turned up.

It’s as if she just vanished into thin air.

His teeth gnashed together with a distinct grinding sound.

His insides were all twisted up out of frustration.

‘That wench… just took my money and left.’

Diana had a debt that she had yet to fully repay.

Of course, if it hadn’t been for the unfair interest rate and the much too small wage he was giving her, she’d have already paid him back in full, but…

That’s none of his concern.

The important thing here was that she’s nowhere to be seen.

Without paying back his money.

Owen huffed out another curse word, then he took a deep breath.

He spent so much time thinking about how to find her that he was about to calm down, but then a sharp knock came from outside the door right then.

“…WHAT?!”

As he was holding onto his temples, Owen shouted back loudly.

“Um, Guildmaster, sir. We have a client.”

“Client…?”

At the first mention of a client, Owen looked up with a sharp glint in his eye.

Normally, small requests were dealt with by guild members right outside the door.

But the fact that news of a client came all the way to his office meant that it was going to be a fairly lucrative deal.

These days, to quench the thirst of his throat that craved for grape wine, here appeared a client that brings with them money.

It was like welcoming a downpour of rain after a difficult drought.

“Tell— Tell the client to come in!”

Excited, Owen answered back and then heard footsteps outside the door. The guild member moved away from the door for a moment, but the distant steps came back in no time.

Soon after, the door slowly opened, and the client appeared before him.

Owen sprang up to his feet and greeted his client.

It was a suspicious looking woman with a veil covering her face.

However, if it’s like this, then it probably meant that he’d get a bigger harvest.

Shady guilds like his were originally responsible for requests that couldn’t be entrusted to anyone else after all, so the more a client would hide their identity, the more important their requests usually were.

Ta-dak, ta-dak.

The woman with the veil did not come into the room, only turned her head to the side.

“Oh my?”

Beyond the veil came a short exclamation that sounded like a snicker.

The spot she was looking at was where the broken glass had landed in shards.

Startled out of his stupor, Owen beckoned to the man behind the client.

Get rid of it.

The guild member, who had ushered the client here to the office, nodded and went to get a broom.

Meanwhile, the woman stepped over the broken glass and headed towards the sofa.

“Goodness, you must have been surprised. One of our staff dropped a glass by mistake earlier.”

“Uh-huh. Really?”

I don’t think so, but sure…

The woman beneath the veil added one more thing as she hummed, but Owen didn’t hear this.

His eyes and ears were already so focused on the ‘VIP request after such a long time’ he was about to receive.

“Now then… The request you have for us, dear client—shall we hear it?”

Owen rubbed his hands together as he asked, and the woman leaned back against the cheap sofa.

Leisurely tapping one finger up and down, she opened her lips and spoke with the same relaxed tone.

“My request is…”