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☾ fourteen ☾

"What did you just say?"

Noticing the harsh tone of his voice and his angry red eyes, I frowned.

"I don't know why you're angry, but you're the one who acted improperly first."

Immediately after I had spoken, he let out a harsh remark.

"Speak respectfully to me at once."

Ha. Why was he trying to have a useless war of nerves right now when I'm so tired?

I was becoming more and more drowsy but I reigned in my mind and spoke.

"Excuse me, you're the one who spoke casually to me fir–"

I was trying to berate him but I was so exhausted that a yawn escaped me, cutting off my own words.

I became so embarrassed that the earlier drowsiness I felt momentarily disappeared.

'Ah, I just showed him something disgraceful.'

"What are you doing?"

I heard the firm voice of the man who had finally lowered his sword.

Geez, I know I just showed you something unsightly but you don't have to look at me like that.

I knew that he would throw another fit if I spoke informally to him again, therefore I treated him like a preschool teacher placating a whining child.

"I'm exhausted but I can't even sleep because of you. Don't you think it's time you return to your own home?"

He stared at me for a moment, making me think he was going to start giving me the silent treatment again.

"I don't have such a thing."

I blinked in surprise at his words.

Judging by his face, he could pass off as a prince of some foreign country.

'But then again, it'd be a little too much to say he's a noble.'

Aristocrats were very conscious of their appearance and how they're seen, even having separate clothes to wear for going out.

They would never step out of the house in anything that wasn't specifically designed to be worn outside.

The man in front of me donned a simple white shirt and black pants.

Instead of a claymore, he had a longsword this time, but the unsophisticated weapon made him look more like a wandering swordsman or mercenary rather than a knight or noble.

'He was also wearing a long hooded cloak last time.'

Based on the clothes he was wearing then as well as now, he's...

"Then, have you just been wandering around?"

He looked displeased with my question but nodded his head nonetheless.

'I knew it, he's definitely either a mercenary or wandering swordsman.'

They tended to stay at local inns, but seeing how he was poorly dressed and lacked any other belongings...

He must have been unable to pay and got kicked out.

'He must've come to find my father because he didn't have anywhere else to go. But why did it have to be today...'

Come to think of it, when he came as a guest last time, there was no notification nor greeting.

He came and left silently. It was highly likely that he was not an official guest.