Chapter 142

At Enria’s words, Eva’s face stiffened into a mask.

While her feelings weren’t what the others suspected, she couldn’t strongly deny the claim because she had, in fact, been quite displeased.

Watching Eva wear a troubled expression and remain silent, Enria turned away with a wistful smile. Blizzan called out to Enria and followed after her, but Eva remained standing where she was, letting out a long sigh, unable to do anything.

‘All of this over one slip of the tongue.’

Brushing back her fine blue hair, Eva followed behind the distant figures of Enria and Blizzan.

***

“Eva, did you like Caldeon?”

“Is it true?”

“My goodness, a spirit and a human… really?”

Eva, who had sought out Enria to clear up the misunderstanding at any cost, felt her face harden the moment she entered the drawing room and was met with a barrage of questions from the gathered crowd. She couldn’t understand how a single comment about being unhappy with Caldeon’s marriage could have been so distorted—especially coming from the mouths of spirits, who weren’t even humans prone to exaggeration.

Eva furrowed her brow in irritation as she scanned the room. Her eyes met those of Caldeon, who was sitting next to Enria near the window, watching her with a look of displeasure while Enria fed cake to the Hayden in her arms.

“Did you like me?” Caldeon asked, pointedly pulling Enria closer by the shoulder.

‘No, why is even that jerk acting like this…?’

They had spent so much time together; he should know better than anyone that such a thing was impossible. Eva was flabbergasted that he could say such a thing so casually. But what was even more staggering was his next remark.

“It’s creeping me out, so quit it right now.”

Caldeon went as far as to utter the absurdity that he would terminate the contract if she continued to harbor such feelings. At that, Silri—the culprit behind this whole mess—interjected.

“Exactly. No matter how you look at it, harboring feelings for a human is a bit much.”

Eva, who had managed to respond somewhat rationally until now, finally snapped and shouted at Silri.

“I told you to stop talking nonsense! Are you really confident that you’d feel absolutely nothing if your contractor found a partner?!”

When Silri shouted back that of course she’d be fine, Undy, who was standing beside her, furrowed his brow and muttered as if to himself.

“Uh, actually… that’s a bit…”

At Undy’s murmur, everyone’s eyes shifted to him simultaneously. Undy shrugged at Silri, who was asking “What?” in disbelief.

“I think I’d actually dislike it a bit.”

“My God, do you like Rahar too?!”

As Silri asked Undy with a look of pure shock, Belona instinctively grabbed Rahar’s sleeve and pulled him toward her. At her action, Rahar’s face instantly turned bright red. He glanced at Belona sideways and shouted at Undy with exaggerated intensity.

“I don’t like men! No—I mean! Regardless of whether it’s a man or a woman, I already have someone I like!”

“No, I wasn’t saying I like you.”

“Yeah, get a grip. I can understand Eva a little, but liking your own contractor is just…”

“What?! What’s wrong with me?! Are you saying right to my face that I’m inferior to Caldeon?!”

The atmosphere in the drawing room grew even more chaotic as Rahar began ranting, fueled by Blizzan’s comment. The commotion even woke Panz, who had been sleeping peacefully atop Hayden’s head. Panz frowned briefly at the sight of Rahar and the other spirits arguing heatedly, then let out a massive yawn.

[It’s a madhouse.]

Eva, who had been watching the disaster unfold in silence, nodded in agreement with the “madhouse” sentiment and spoke to Silri.

“I’m the type of person who inherently dislikes sudden changes. Naturally, it was bound to be bothersome when Caldeon, who was always alone, suddenly gained a partner.”

At that, Enria, who had been feeding Hayden cake, looked up at Eva. Meeting her eyes, Eva continued with a serious expression.

“It’s due to my personality—not liking the transition into a new situation that differs from the past. It doesn’t mean I have feelings for Caldeon.”

“…….”

Hearing Eva’s explanation, Enria felt she could understand her heart and instinctively nodded. This was because Enria, too, was a person who tended to dislike change. Rather than feeling curiosity or a sense of challenge toward new things, she was closer to the side that felt dislike and wariness. The feeling that time flowing exactly the same way every day brought a sense of relief rather than boredom.

It seemed Eva shared that sentiment. Enria finally understood the reason for Eva’s disapproval of the marriage and felt a wave of relief.

“So, I’d appreciate it if you’d clear me of the disgraceful false accusation that I like that arrogant, ill-tempered human.”

“Yes, I’m sorry. I misunderstood.”

“Hmph, then you should have said so from the start,” Silri said with her arms crossed and a dissatisfied look.

Eva replied irritably, “You didn’t even give me a chance to speak; you just said whatever you wanted, and now you’re saying that?”

“It’s not that I didn’t give you a chance… ah, whatever, as long as it’s not true. By the way, Graum! What are you doing with a human in the middle of this mess?”

Silri turned her target toward Graum, who had been sitting across from Tearen playing chess in silence for some time. She raised an eyebrow at the two of them, who didn’t even flinch at her words and only moved their chess pieces.

“Baby wants to try too.”

Then, Hayden spoke up, pointing at the chessboard with his tiny, cream-puff-like hand. Graum and Tearen both turned their heads to look at Hayden at the same time.

“Looks fun. I wanna try.”

With a huff and a puff, Hayden climbed out of Enria’s arms and approached Tearen with a stride that had become significantly more natural. When Tearen stood up to yield his seat and asked Graum if he could teach the boy, Graum replied with a stoic face that he would be a better teacher than Tearen, causing a laugh to escape Tearen’s lips.

To be honest, Tearen wasn’t particularly fond of chess. However, he couldn’t refuse when Graum had approached him with a heavy chessboard in his small frame, saying Tearen seemed like the best player among them and asking for a game. In reality, Caldeon was the best at chess, but since meeting Enria, he spent all his leisure time with her and wouldn’t even glance at a chessboard.

“Listen carefully, Hayden. I will explain the rules first.”

“Okay.”

“As you can see, chess consists of a total of sixteen pieces on each side.”

Graum placed the chess pieces in order and slowly explained how to play. While Graum demonstrated by moving the pieces himself, everyone in the drawing room watched them with bated breath, as if by prior agreement.

“Caldeon’s earth spirit seems to be a very good teacher,” Roseanne marveled. Enria nodded in agreement.

“Shouldn’t Hayden’s teacher be Caldeon’s earth spirit instead?” Roseanne laughed sheepishly, and Belona also nodded, saying he would make a fine mentor.

Then, Belona added a follow-up with a calm expression. “That said, I don’t think he could be as good a teacher as you, Miss Roseanne.”

When Roseanne looked at her, Belona shrugged. “We decided to teach Hayden character instead of magic, didn’t we? No matter how well an earth spirit teaches, they are a spirit in the end. Their basic concepts are fundamentally different from humans.”

She noted that while teaching chess rules was fine, helping Hayden grow into a righteous and healthy child was likely beyond Graum’s capacity. Enria nodded, taking Belona’s side.

Caldeon, who had been playfully fiddling with Enria’s hair beside her, twitched an eyebrow at their conversation.

“Now that I think about it, I don’t think my son needs separate character education.”

At Caldeon’s words; Enria, Roseanne, Belona, Rahar, and Tearen all looked at him simultaneously.

“He’s already the healthiest and most righteous child exactly as he is.”

“…….”

“In fact, the problem is that he’s already acting humble despite being good at everything.”

At those words, Rahar let out a flat laugh. “Surely you aren’t planning to raise him with the exact same personality as you—someone who doesn’t possess even a speck of humility?”

Caldeon looked at Rahar with a look of genuine bewilderment.

“Why would there be a need for something like humility? For my son and I, who have possessed everything since the moment of our birth.”