Chapter 105

 

TN: I have a gut feeling I used Grade 3 monsters in the early chapter, but I feel Rank 3 has a ring to it. Also thank James Baily for the chapter.

I sighed deeply, breathing in and out.

It felt like a warm embrace enveloping my entire body.

While I wanted to stay like this forever, addicted to the feeling, a sense of self-loathing washed over me, realizing what I was doing.

My mind understood I was doing something crazy, but I simply couldn’t stop.

“It’s warm…”

Recently, Siwoo had been secretly doing something without my knowledge.

I was aware of this fact but didn’t confront him about it.

No, I didn’t even have the intention to do it.

Because I also had something I was doing behind Siwoo’s back.

An act I didn’t want anyone to discover.

“Haa… It’s nice.”

Taking advantage of Siwoo’s absence, I took out the hidden item once more and hugged it tightly.

The lingering anxiety completely vanished as I embraced the item again.

Instead of anxiety, I felt stability and comfort.

No matter how much I thought about it, I had to stop. But I couldn’t stop.

I looked at the hidden clothes. Siwoo didn’t seem to have noticed.

…Did he really not notice?

I had been observing Siwoo’s behavior for a while, but he showed no signs of noticing.

Fortunately, even with his intuition, he couldn’t seem to detect something like this.

If Siwoo had found this, I would have had the courage to hang myself with a rope.

It was truly fortunate.

These days, Siwoo spends a long time at his desk, working on some small object.

I didn’t know what it was, but he never showed it to me, so I couldn’t confirm what it was supposed to be

“…Alright. That’s it for today.”

At first, Siwoo’s abnormalities made me incredibly anxious.

So much so that I ordered a background check on him.

But now, I hoped Siwoo would have his own time.

If we were always together, I would end up showing this side of myself.

Even if someone else looked at me strangely, Siwoo wouldn’t be any different.

Especially since he was the owner of this item.

“…It seems to have weakened.”

Secretly from Siwoo, I put the shirt into a drawer I had made in a corner he rarely checked.

It seemed like the performance was deteriorating as time passed.

I thought it would be nice to feel the warmth just by having this, even without Siwoo, but I encountered an unexpected problem.

At first, the warm feeling was sufficient even for a brief moment, but now I had to hug it for longer to feel the warmth.

No matter how much I thought about it, there was only one reason.

And there was only one way to solve this problem.

“…Gulp.”

I looked around. Siwoo was still not there.

Now was my chance.

Now, while Siwoo hadn’t noticed.

Now, while he hadn’t grasped what was happening.

If I swapped this item now…

I knew that if I did this, I could no longer make excuses.

I could make an excuse that the first time was because I was surprised…

But from the second action onwards, such excuses wouldn’t work.

My heart pounded at the thought of being caught, cold sweat running down my cheeks.

And my eyes, having lost their place due to anxiety, couldn’t stay still and moved around restlessly.

If I got caught.

If Siwoo noticed something strange.

Such thoughts swirled in my mind.

Even though my mind told me not to, I moved.

With one hand gripping Siwoo’s shirt haphazardly.

My eyes fixed on the room where he was, ears perked up.

Taking a light breath…

Quickly, after picking up a shirt carelessly placed in Siwoo’s laundry basket, I put down the shirt I was holding.

And then I ran.

I quickly left the living room and hid in the laundry room.

“…Did I get caught?”

I stole again. This time, completely of my own will.

Now, I couldn’t even make excuses.

Stealing the clothes of the person I was indebted to, in their own house.

I felt sorry for him, but as soon as I hugged the shirt in my hand, the warmth made me feel good.

If someone else saw me, would they think I was a pervert hugging someone else’s clothes?

But I couldn’t help but make excuses.

It wasn’t that I was a pervert, but…

For some reason, Siwoo’s clothes were warm.

And, well.

He must be having a hard time too.

If we were always together, there would be times when he would get annoyed.

So, I kept this as a precaution during those times.

I absolutely had no other intentions.

After confirming no one was there, I glanced at the living room and hugged it again.

The still-warm shirt gave me a sense of satisfaction.

***

“…Is this right?”

(What, isn’t this what you wanted? They made progress)

“It is, but…”

The girl was taken aback by the sight of the Reader hugging the Protagonist’s clothes with a grin on her face.

It felt quite different from what she had imagined.

The Reader was rubbing her face against the shirt as if she were on drugs.

“Isn’t it a bit… unsavory?”

Strange.

How did it turn out like this?

The pure girl muttered to herself as she looked at the scene.

Although she had pushed her back a little, she never imagined it would worsen to this extent.

A heroine rubbing her face against a man’s shirt…?

“Somehow, it doesn’t seem that bad either?”

(This girl, seriously…)

“No, really. Think about it. Isn’t this fine in its own way?”

The girl thought as she looked at the Reader.

It was slightly different from what she had imagined, but the distance between her and the Protagonist had noticeably decreased.

If she rubbed her face against his shirt, what more was there to say?

“The Reader seems to have a bit of an aversion to romance.”

She should have brought a woman’s soul if she had known this would happen.

She had briefly thought about it, but the Reader probably wouldn’t have been this interesting if she had done that.

In other words, this was an inevitable side effect. That’s what the girl thought.

However, her goal was for the two to become inseparable.

The Protagonist seemed to be interested, but the problem was the opposite.

The Reader didn’t seem to have any.

She only treated him as the Protagonist.

Although it had improved a bit recently…

She didn’t seem to see him as the opposite sex.

“It would have been nice if Amelia had put in a little more effort.”

(That crazy bitch?)

“Don’t call my Amelia a crazy bitch!”

One of the best things she did in this world was setting Amelia as the heroine.

Hmph, they don’t even know.

There were so many moments when Amelia tried to connect Siwoo and Arte, knowingly or unknowingly.

The Reader didn’t seem to be aware of it.

“Hmph. You guys just watch and see.”

If the mood had become like that, the Reader from a few days ago would have refused.

But what about in her current state?

The Reader who stole someone else’s shirt and hugged it, something she wouldn’t have even thought of a few days ago?

“Heh, hehehe… Hehehehehehe…”

(Seriously, she’s putting on airs in the most useless parts…)

“Shut up!”

***

“…Ugh.”

Siwoo glared at the thread he received from Amelia.

Although he was a bit worried about Arte, she said she was getting better recently, so it was okay even if she wasn’t right in front of him.

That’s why he tried to act as quickly as possible.

…Because it was an obvious lie from Arte.

He felt that, if anything, she had gotten worse, but he found no sign of it.

He knew she was lying, but Siwoo decided to let it slide.

Because he also had something he was keeping secret from her.

Since he was genuinely worried, he tried to finish as quickly as possible, but…

An unexpected problem arose.

“What should I do…”

He thought he had enough thread.

Since this was his first time doing this work, he made various mistakes, and plenty of threads became too short to use.

Perhaps it was because craftsmanship was a separate matter from intuition.

Although his skills had improved significantly compared to the first time…

“I can’t ask for more of this.”

Since it was a material from a Rank 2 monster, he couldn’t buy it himself.

There was no guarantee that there would be stock either.

It seemed like it could be completed with just a little more.

When he felt Arte’s gaze watching him.

At that moment, while he was hiding it in a hurry, the thread broke slightly.

Although it was a monster’s thread, perhaps because he was also a superhuman, it broke more easily than he expected.

Why is it so weak?

Siwoo glared at the thread, even though it was his own mistake.

To think that the work that could have been finished today ended up like this.

He let out a small sigh.

“It’s not like I have more thread…”

He thought it would be plain with a single color, so he considered adding a little accent.

So, he was thinking of using dye to change the color of the thread in that part.

Before coloring that part, he was checking the approximate length when it broke.

“Haa…”

What should he do now?

As Siwoo sighed, a thought crossed his mind.

…There was that thread, wasn’t there?

He suddenly raised his head and looked at the black thread still in its place.

An item he had thought of throwing away someday but forgot about.

That item was flaunting its presence.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a monsters thread…?”

A glint appeared in Siwoo’s eyes.

He found an alternative.