We Meet Once More -- Sucrose x Albedo

Chapter 29

"What in the..?"
Xingqiu mumbled to himself with visible disgust in his tone as he was halfway into reading one of the journal entries.

"Horrible, right?"
Albedo sighed as he crossed his arms.

"It's another level of horrible!"
He exclaimed with a shake of his head, thrusting the journal further from him before he set the journal right to his nose.

"Klee was making a big fuss about it earli—"

"It is a big fuss!"
Klee stomped, practically shouting.

"You didn't let me finish."
Albedo looked down at Klee until he turned his attention to Xingqiu.
"Klee was making a big fuss about it because it might affect Sucrose and I's relationship once more."

"'Might'?! It's already happening! It's just that the progress is so slow."
Xingqiu replied as he closed the journal, giving it back to Albedo.
"Does Sucrose know about this?"

Both Klee and Xingqiu's attention was on Albedo, and yet he looked at the ground — not daring to gaze back at them.

"Ah. I see."
Xingqiu finally said, understanding Albedo's telepathic message.

"Y-yeah. A-and besides, Sucrose has a lot on her plate right now."

"Plate?"
Klee repeated.

"It's an idiomatic expression to say that she has a lot of problems right now and she can't deal with this one."

"So then, what do we do? If we can't find any clues on who wrote this, how can we move on from here?"
She asked.

Xingqiu wrapped his arms loosely around his stomach while his eyes stayed hooded, watching the little dance that the grass made in front of him as he looked down. That was when his head, eyebrows, and eyelids perked up the moment he came up with an idea. Or rather, question — then being followed by the idea he had.

"Klee,"
Xingqiu called as he turned to the small little red girl.
"Where did you find the journal?"
He asked, bending down as he planted his palms on his knees to support himself.

"Klee found it in one of the maid's rooms."

"Okay, that's one question answered. But there are a lot of rooms for the servants. Where exactly did you go and what did the pathway to the rooms look like?"
Albedo looked at Xingqiu, finally getting where he was going.

"Are you meaning to tell me you might know who the culprit is?"
Albedo asked with surprise in his tone.

"I think so. I just need the location and then maybe, just maybe, I might be able to determine who's the one trying to ruin both your and Sucrose's relationship."
Xingqiu replied as he stood up straight.

The word "relationship" sent butterflies in both Albedo's heart and stomach. He knew it would be awkward for Xingqiu to say "friendship" since he knew that their friendship was beginning to be more than that. However, still, they weren't in a relationship. Yet. But it also got Albedo worried about the certain word that gave him butterflies.

Maybe I should've stayed away from Sucrose so she wouldn't suffer from this... am I that harmful to her? She's involved in all of this because of me...

"I think I went left... yeah, I did."
Klee hummed in thought,
"And then Klee saw spiral stairs that lead to a room she didn't know existed."
Then shrugged the next.

"Spiral stairs? It didn't lead to the observatory?"

"Nope."
Albedo and Klee said in unison, shaking their heads at the same time too.