Chapter 42

“By the way, why are you tailing them like this?”

“Um… To protect Theo.”

Since there was only one purpose, the answer was set in stone.

Evelyn’s eyes sparkled with life at my dry response.

“Really?”

“U-huh….”

Whenever Evelyn made a look like that, she was conjuring something up in her head a hundred times worse than what it was.

I secretly dreaded Evelyn’s leaps in logic, which always exceeded anyone’s imagination.

That was because her theories were never entirely disconnected from reality.

“You’ve finally decided to protect Theo from Grace!”

“…….”

I had plenty to say, but I kept my mouth shut.

It felt more comfortable to just let her think that way.

“Great! I’ll keep watch and investigate the two of them, too.”

Fire blazed in Evelyn’s eyes, which had been sparkling with determination.

‘I’m going to have to put out that fire someday…’

I sighed with a heavy heart.

“Haaa….”

Evelyn, who had been guarding my side for hours, couldn’t stand the boredom and stretched her body this way and that.

“Ugh, they’ve been doing the exact same thing for a while now! What on earth are they negotiating about so hard!”

It certainly wasn’t an entertaining spectacle.

It wasn’t as though Theo and Grace were doing anything out of the ordinary; the locations just changed here and there while Grace kept badgering Theo about something all by herself.

“Hmm….”

Resting her chin in her hand and tapping her pen against her notebook, Evelyn suddenly locked a serious gaze on the two of them as if she had realized something.

In particular, she stared at Grace, who had turned her body toward Theo.

“Iris.”

“Hmm?”

When I turned to look at Evelyn at her call, she grabbed my hand and said.

“That kid, doesn’t she perhaps like Theo?”

“What are you talking about?”

I could feel Evelyn’s detective radar slowly warming up.

I waited for Evelyn’s words with an uneasy heart.

Even if it was just a theory, Evelyn’s words carried a force that couldn’t be easily ignored.

“Maybe she just wants to have a pet demon.”

“A pet demon?”

As I furrowed my brow, Evelyn waved her hand and continued.

“Not like that. When you and Theo first got close, everyone thought you had tamed a demon, right?”

“You mean Grace views Theo as a demon?”

“Is there anyone who asks the person they like to perform tricks? That kid has been nagging him about something for hours now. She just wants Theo to do what she says.”

“…….”

“Wait, if that’s the case, isn’t that kid a demon worshipper or something?”

Evelyn suddenly blurted out, almost screaming.

She seemed quite proud of herself for uncovering such a shocking fact.

It was hard for me to accept the new perspective Evelyn had brought up.

I knew that all the demon worshippers mentioned in myths had vanished.

“Didn’t all those people disappear?”

“Iris. Why are you acting like this all of a sudden when you’re so smart? Just because they disappeared, do you think they vanished forever?”

Evelyn’s words dealt a fair amount of shock to my chest.

It felt similar to when I heard that Frey might actually be my biological older brother.

“If that’s the case, well, she’ll probably wear herself out and give up on her own. Pestering someone who isn’t even a demon.”

Evelyn crossed her arms and let out a huff through her nose.

It seemed to mean she had solved another case.

“Sorry, Evelyn, I’m going to head off first.”

Leaving Evelyn behind, I scrambled to my feet.

“Iris! Where are you going! What about the tailing?”

“I’ll leave the rest in your capable hands, Evelyn!”

Heading straight for the library, I picked out a history book related to mythology and began scanning the pages rapidly with my eyes.

‘Those who worshipped demons to make them their servants naturally faded from existence once the Goddess appeared and purged all demons.’

It was written just as I remembered. I closed the book, feeling a simultaneous sense of anticlimax and relief.

Even so, knowing how absurd the story sounded, I couldn’t shake off my thoughts about Grace.

‘Could the strange things she says… be related to this story?’

Judging by the chilling things Grace occasionally blurted out, there was a high probability she had grown up in a dark environment from a young age.

If so, that meant there were other adults who had influenced Grace…

‘Surely a group like that doesn’t still exist, right?’

I clutched the book tightly against my chest.

And then I shook my head shortly after.

It was a leap in judgment to assume all of this based solely on one of Grace’s simple actions.

I put the book back where it belonged and slowly headed outside.

‘Right. It’s just imagination. I shouldn’t look at Grace through tinted glasses.’

Just as Frey wasn’t my real brother, I hoped Evelyn’s deduction was wrong this time around as well.

***

For the next several weeks, I kept an unwearying watch on Theo’s surroundings.

Fortunately, however, the worries I feared did not come to pass, and the bodyguard duties slowly began to fade away in the back of my mind.

Meeting up with Theo from the morning, I headed toward the lounge as usual. Just because Frey was absent didn’t mean I could put my studies on hold.

Midway there, we spotted someone standing right outside the door of the lounge.

Having rarely seen anyone else coming here up until now, I felt a sense of camaraderie and whispered to Theo.

“Looks like there were other people who came here besides us.”

“No, it’s just that some nuisance has latched on again.”

Theo sighed and tossed his head back. Seeing that, I was engulfed in a wave of anxiety.

A nuisance latched on? Surely not…

“Theo!”

As expected.

I smiled as I watched Grace running toward us with a bright, cheerful face.

Of course, it wasn’t a smile filled with joy.

“Theo, do you want to come to the library with me?”

Without even sparing a glance in my direction, Grace marched straight up to Theo.

“No.”

Even before, he used to turn down Grace’s requests, but this time the refusal came out even more immediately.

At that, Grace looked up at Theo and jutted out her lower lip.

“I have to study with Iris.”

When Theo said that, Grace’s gaze shifted to me. She stared at me without saying a single word.

This basically meant, “What are you doing not stepping aside on your own?” right…?

I tightened my lips against Grace and forced an awkward smile.

It was clear that I had chosen the absolute worst possible companion for Theo’s social circle.

I knew she was a bold kid from the start. But she had long since crossed that line, and her audacity was growing day by day.

Grace now took it for granted that she could suddenly show up and spirit Theo away.

What had started as a polite request like “Could you give us a moment?” had gradually morphed into a one-sided notification of “I’m taking Theo,” and had finally evolved into “Why aren’t you going?”

By now, it seemed I was perceived by Grace as nothing more than a dimwitted piece of furniture sitting next to Theo.

Even for me, someone who had endured and endured, it now drove me half crazy with regret that I had ever told Theo to get along with Grace in the first place.

‘Let’s calm down, calm down…’

Still, she was just a child. If I lost my temper here, I lost.

Haven’t I already stepped aside dozens of times? Doing it one more time wouldn’t be difficult.

Besides, there was another reason why I wasn’t repeating the words I’d told Theo.

Was it because it felt unfair to tell him not to hang out with her anymore after I had suggested it? Or because Grace wasn’t actually a bad kid deep down?

Not at all. The more fundamental reason was…

‘Who else in the world is going to approach Theo this proactively?’

Aside from Grace, there was simply no one else who would stubbornly push past his rejections and keep extending a hand toward him.

Sometimes, I found it genuinely impressive how Grace never gave up no matter how many times she was turned down.

She must have traded away all her manners for an unbreakable iron will.

But what if this ended up giving Theo improper early-childhood education?

It would spell disaster if Grace’s formidable personality ever rubbed off on Theo.

‘What on earth am I thinking…’

I scolded myself to snap out of it.

‘What kind of thoughts am I having about a kid.’

In the end, I reached the conclusion that all decisions should simply be left up to Theo.

While Theo and Grace becoming close friends was a situation forced by my meddling, quite a bit of time had passed since then, so it was safe to consider it entirely Theo’s own interpersonal relationship now.

Since Theo probably understood that much as well, it wouldn’t be right for me to step in and bicker about it.

‘Still, what if…’

Evelyn’s story flashed through the back of my mind.

Though I couldn’t be certain yet, if Grace truly believed Theo was a demon, I wouldn’t just sit by and watch either.

…Of course, that was still nothing more than a possibility.

“Theo, there’s something I want to show you.”

Seeing Grace grab onto Theo’s arm and cling to him, I awkwardly backed away.

“Well, then I’ll go somewhere else—”

“Where are you going?”

As I forced a smile and tried to turn around, Theo caught me.

“Huh? I can just study somewhere else.”

Life flashed back into Grace’s eyes.

However, Theo didn’t seem to have any intention of letting me off the hook easily.

“Why are you stepping aside, Iris? We made plans together first this time.”

“What…?”

“Until now, I just went along because she wanted to do something. But this time, I decided to study with you first. So the one who should leave isn’t you, it’s her.”

I narrowed my eyes and listened to Theo. So basically, first-come, first-served?

“What kind of logic is that…”

When I asked back in sheer absurdity, Theo pulled on my arm. I was dragged along powerlessly, and Theo whispered softly into my ear.

“Just go along with it.”