Chapter 32: Keep Your Distance
“Mr. Armand, I’ve finished cleaning your room. And here is your washed knight’s uniform.”
“Mm, just leave it there.”
“Alright.”
Evelia carefully placed Armand’s uniform next to his desk. Then, seeing that he was silent and didn’t say anything else, she quietly stood beside him without making a sound.
“……”
“……”
Neither of them looked at each other or moved. Armand kept his head down, working on some unimportant papers that still needed his signature. Evelia, on the other hand, stared straight at him without hiding it at all.
“……”
“……”
More silence passed. Evelia wasn’t someone who liked to start conversations, and Armand had purposely turned his head a bit so that all she could see was the back of his head.
“……”
But her stare felt so strong, as if it could burn a hole in the back of his head, that Armand couldn’t help but scratch his scalp.
It felt like someone was holding a magnifying glass and using sunlight to shine right on his head…
“What is it, Eve? Do you still need something?”
In the end, Armand gave in. He took a deep breath, adjusted his expression and tone, and turned to look at Evelia, who was still staring at him.
“No, Mr. Armand.” Evelia shook her head, her eyes still fixed on him, even though she said she didn’t need anything.
“Eve…” Armand let out a sigh and capped his pen. “What exactly do you want?”
“Nothing, Mr. Armand.” Her eyes even looked innocent.
“Then could you… please stop staring at me like that?”
“Ah—okay.”
So, Evelia obediently looked away.
But she still didn’t move. She stayed right beside Armand without taking a single step back.
“Haa…” Armand looked at the girl who had really stopped staring at him. Now it seemed like it was his turn to stare at her.
Ever since the old butler said those things that day, Armand had buried his feelings deep in his heart. He didn’t even dare to think about them.
To stop anything from developing, Armand decided to keep some distance from Evelia. He also arranged for a few trusted people to secretly watch over her. So even though he hadn’t spoken to her much recently, he still knew exactly what she had been doing.
She hadn’t met with any outsiders or gone to any forbidden places. According to those watchers, Evelia was just a quiet little maid. The place she visited most often was the kitchen in the back of the manor. There, she never tampered with any ingredients, she just stood by her little stove, holding a recipe, as if she were studying new dishes.
In fact, almost every day, Armand would find a small plate of dessert or a side dish made by Evelia herself with his meals. The dish was usually different every time, but it seemed like she was always trying to recommend her favorite: tomato sauce.
So, most of the food she made had a tomato flavor. She even created a dish Armand would never forget, tomato cream puffs. One bite and your whole mouth would be filled with tomato sauce.
That was Evelia’s cooking style. She could mix anything with tomato sauce. Sometimes it looked like a normal dish but tasted strongly of tomato. Other times, it looked like something from a red-colored nightmare, but tasted surprisingly good.
When it came to cooking, she could only seem to get the taste or the appearance right, never both. If Armand didn’t have such a strong stomach, he probably would’ve gotten food poisoning from those strange combinations a long time ago.
As for Evelia, she really was just cooking. After all, she had read in books that knowing how to cook was a big plus. So she kept trying hard to make dishes that Armand might like. But at the same time, this stubborn assassin couldn’t give up her love for tomato sauce. That’s why she ended up creating what Armand privately called a “tomato feast.”
As for Armand, he was stubborn too. If he said he wouldn’t eat something, then he just wouldn’t eat it. But he also didn’t want Evelia to keep coming up to him asking, “Don’t you like my cooking?” So most of the time, he secretly gave those dishes to someone else nearby.
Sometimes it was a poor knight who came to report something. But most of the time, it was his old butler, Lug, who ended up eating the food.
Armand had even started calling his old butler the “tomato sauce disposal bucket.” The poor man’s face would change just at the sight of tomatoes. He even started running away during mealtimes, just to avoid eating those dishes. He left the job of serving Armand to Evelia, thinking to himself, ‘At least my master can’t be poisoned, but if I eat any more of this, I might actually die.’
“Pfft…”
Looking at Evelia, the clueless troublemaker, and then thinking of the butler’s terrified face whenever tomatoes were mentioned, Armand couldn’t help but laugh. The sound caught Evelia’s attention, and her eyes turned to him again.
“Ahem, Eve… I meant don’t look at me anymore.”
“I’m not looking at you,” Evelia said as she turned her head away again.
“I meant… don’t stay here. Do you understand?”
“Oh, I see.”
Armand’s words sounded like he was asking her to leave. Evelia gave a soft reply. Her tone didn’t show much emotion.
“I thought you weren’t mad at me anymore.”
That last part surprised Armand.
“Mad? Why would I be mad?”
“You’ve been avoiding me lately.”
“—Ah.”
Armand paused. With Evelia’s sharp instincts, she had definitely noticed the way he was acting.
This girl… was she only slow when it comes to him?
“I heard you laugh just now… so I thought maybe you weren’t angry anymore.”
“Haa… I’m not mad, Eve.”
“Really? That’s good.”
Her words were calm, with no sadness like someone being blamed, and no happiness like someone being forgiven. Armand couldn’t tell if she just didn’t know how to show emotion, or if she was reading a script word for word.
“……”
Armand rubbed his left temple in frustration. He had thought he was someone who could talk easily with anyone. But now he realized… he didn’t know how to deal with someone like Evelia.
She seemed full of weak spots. But somehow, every time he tried to approach, she would block him in the strangest ways. It didn’t even feel like she was defending herself. It felt more like countering him. In the end, it was always he who was left speechless.
So… maybe it was better to defend, too.
Armand and Evelia were probably both the kind of people who stayed still until the other made a move, and once the other moved, they panicked. Whoever made the first move would lose.
Let’s just leave it like this for now…
Armand rested his chin on his hand and glanced at Evelia, who was now no longer looking at him like he asked.
“Evelia, please leave the room.”
For now, let’s just put some distance between us.
“……”
Evelia listened, looked at Armand quietly, then said nothing. She obediently walked to the door and turned the handle with a small click.
She looked down at the small gap in the door, and softly mumbled.
“…Sorry for making you mad again.”
Then, she stepped outside and gently closed the door.
“……”
Armand stared at the now-closed door in a daze. He lifted his head from his hand. Even though Evelia had used the same calm voice as always, her figure as she walked away… somehow looked lonely.
Did he say something wrong again?
Wasn’t he supposed to be playing defense? How did he get countered before even making a move?