You've Got The Wrong House, Villain

“Hi, Yuri unni.”

The other person next to Anne-Marie followed along and greeted me too. Today, Hestia came together with her.

“Hello, Ms. Anne-Marie. Hestia as well, how are you?”

I greeted both of them in return.

Anne-Marie and Hestia were sisters who obviously looked very alike. On top of that, Anne-Marie was famous on Ferret when she worked in the clinic opposite the coffeehouse not too long ago. And so, there were many customers in the store who were stealing glances at the pair of sisters.

Right now, the both of them were standing side by side, wearing the hats I gave them as a gift. It was a cream-colored hat with a wide brim suitable for going outside and there was a light purple ribbon with white polka dots around it, giving it a cute and refreshing feeling.

“The hat looks great on you.”

When I complimented it, Anne-Marie gave a happy smile.

“Hestia and I went to the outskirts of town to get some air today.

“Is that so? That must have been nice, Hestia.”

“Yes, it was fun. Yuri unni, you should come with us next time.”

The three of us made some small talk.

Of course, it wasn’t difficult to see each other because we lived next door but still, meeting outside like this made it feel different.

Then Anne-Marie suddenly looked around the store and spoke like she was surprised.

“I know there are usually a lot of customers at this time, but it looks like more crowded today?”

“It’s been like that lately. Would you like to come inside?”

However, Hestia shook her head while pulling at Anne-Marie’s arm.

“I want to sit outside.”

“Oh? Then we’ll go with what Hestia wants.”

Anne-Marie and Hestia went to sit at a table outside. They both ordered lemonades. I brought a cheesecake too as a service on the house.

“Grandpa Bastia was here a little earlier.”

Ah, the title of ‘Grandpa’ still felt awkward to say. But there wasn’t any other title I could use that made me go ‘this is it!’.

“He did? Aww, if I came a little earlier, I might have seen him.”

“When I saw him today, he definitely looked much healthier than before. It must be because Ms. Anne-Marie is his caretaker.”

“Oh gosh, no. The people before me were all amazing, I’m just benefitting from it because I came after.”

Anne-Marie blushed and waved her hand. Sure enough, she was the humble female lead.

“By the way, did grandpa say anything else?”

And at the next question that flowed from her mouth, I couldn’t help but tilt my head, feeling skeptical.

“What do you mean? He did tell me to be careful because things are quite dangerous outside.”

Hearing that, Anne-Marie slowly nodded her head as though saying he was right. But it didn’t look like that was what she had in mind.

“Then I guess he wants to tell Ms. Yuri when you visit the mansion this week. Mm, then I won’t say anything either.”

As she said that, Anne-Marie smiled and her expression was akin to a kid secretly playing pranks on an adult. From the looks of it, Anne-Marie already knew what Bastian planned on saying to me. Somehow, I was starting to have an idea about what Bastian wanted to tell me.

“Hello, Ms. Yuri!”

That very moment, a clear voice rang out from behind me.

As I turned my head, I was greeted with the sight of a sloppy man smiling at me with untidy bangs covering his eyes. Today again, he was dressed as Snow instead of Genos.

“Ah, the clinic’s silver angel is here too!”

He discovered Anne-Marie in front of me and greeted her boisterously. Then he saw Hestia sitting next to Anne-Marie and looked stunned like he was seeing her for the first time then he added:

“And the one beside you…don’t tell me, the clinic’s silver angel’s sister?!”

I felt my body growing a little cold.

The title was stupidly long…and cringy.

“Hello. It’s been a while. I see you’re still a regular at the coffeehouse.”

The two had met once before so Anne-Marie responded to Genos’ greeting.

“But that title isn’t suitable for me. Besides, I don’t even work at the clinic anymore…”

But perhaps due to the title he said, the smile on her lips looked a little embarrassed.

Hestia was starting at him with a little wariness in her eyes, perhaps because she was seeing Snow for the first time. She had met Genos once at the festival before Hestia did not know that.

“What do you mean, there isn’t anyone who suits that title better than Ms. Anne-Marie. An angel never stops being an angel! Isn’t that right, Ms. Yuri?”

“The title does suit Ms. Anne-Marie.”

Well, although it was a little cringy, like Genos said, Anne-Marie was truly like an angel so I calmly nodded in agreement.

At that, Anne-Marie’s cheeks flushed red.

“To, to me, Ms. Yuri is the one who looks like an angel!”

Her voice went up uncharacteristically as she exclaimed.

“Really? Thank you.”

I knew Anne-Marie liked me but if she really thought that then I could only say her rose-colored glasses were amazing.

“Are you guys dating?”[1]

Hestia spat out after glancing at me and Anne-Marie while biting on the straw in her lemonade.

Eventually, Genos took a seat inside the store.

“I’d like a glass of lemonade too.”

“We’ve changed our coffee beans starting today, would you still like to go with a lemonade?”

When he ordered a lemonade like usual, I casually informed him that our coffee beans had changed. After all, I could still remember that Genos started ordering lemonade after we changed the original coffee beans.

When he heard me, Genos paused for a moment.

His eyes, hidden under the shaggy brown hair, stared at me for a while. And a moment later, a voice quite lower than before rang in my ears.

“I see…I’ll have coffee instead then.”

“Sure, please wait a moment.”

Even as I walked to the kitchen, I could feel his gaze sticking to my back.

“Excuse me but can I hold for hand for a second?”

When I finally brought the coffee, Genos spoke.

“No.”

I refused without batting an eye, like I usually did when he played his tricks. And at that moment, I could feel a sense of embarrassment coming from Genos.

“Ah, it’s not because of that today…it’s because of what I said last time, I feel like I’ll be able to know more about it if I hold your hand.”

He explained, looking a little flustered.

No wonder I felt his voice was serious just now. I guess he wasn’t joking around like other times but was saying that for a different reason.

I arranged the tray then I spoke like I was talking casually.

“You mean the palm reading you talked about when you came before?”

“That…I did say that but…this is different from that…”

I was just making a little joke, but Genos seemed more embarrassed. Apparently, it was only now he was getting embarrassed by all the nonsense he had been throwing my way.

That said, from what I remember when reading the novel, Genos’ foresight ability was stronger when he was in contact with the body involved. It was very similar to psychometry, but the difference was that Genos saw the future, not the past.

“I don’t know if it’s going to work but still, just in case.”

I let my gaze fall on Genos.

Seeing him in front of me like this made me remember what I heard in the conversation between Genos and Kalian a few nights ago.

~

‘This incident seems to be related to your family and the Salvatores somehow.’

~

I wanted to know more about what that meant but I couldn’t question the person in front of me directly. Of course, I could have infiltrated the Salvatore’s or the Crawford’s to investigate personally but I felt like this wasn’t the time to act rashly. So for now, I was thinking about it a little more and deciding the best time and method.

“It won’t take long, it’s really just a second.”

“Alright then.”

“Eh, huh?”

Drag. [2]

I pulled out the chair and sat down opposite Genos. Even though he was the one who brought it up, when I finally accepted, Genos looked very surprised.

He looked at me, stuttering like he was at loss for words.

“You said it will take a second.”

I held out my hand over the table.

Starting from people sitting around us, the sound of people murmuring spread throughout the store. They seemed shocked by the fact that I saw down on a specific customer’s table because I had always defended with an iron wall no matter who made a pass at me.

When Genos, who was hesitating for some reason, carefully held my hand which was stretch over the table, the disturbance grew louder. I heard things like ‘No way’ and I even heard some forks and teacups falling to the ground.

I couldn’t help but frown slightly at all the various noises digging into my ears.

‘Agh, I’ll have to clean up all of that.’

Whether I was sitting down with someone or holding hands with someone, it was none of their business so I couldn’t care less about them acting like that.

Either ways, regardless of other people thought, on the surface, Genos and I continued what we were doing without paying attention to the reactions around us.

Genos held my hand tight and focused on something as if his previous hesitation was just an illusion. I simply waited quietly without doing anything.

‘Come to think of it, I’m holding hands with my favorite character right now.’

Of course, the circumstances weren’t fun at all. For some reason, it was almost certain I had a death flag or something similar soon and right now, Genos was trying to see if he could look into my future.

To be honest, he and I didn’t have any particular relationship. At best, we were coffeehouse employee and customer to each other. Even then, we only talked when he was ordering and paying at the store, so maybe we saw each other for 5 minutes in a day at the most?

Despite that, he wasn’t ignoring my plight instead he was seriously trying to help me. I was truly grateful for that.

As I stayed still with nothing to do, several thoughts began to float in my head. Only

‘Genos’ hand is pretty too. Of course, Lakis’ hand is the best.’

Then I suddenly thought of that as I looked down at the hand holding mine.

Translator’s Corner:

[1] This is a sarcastic statement, but I don’t know if that is obvious.

[2] I think this is supposed to the sfx for pulling out the chair???