HTPTMOTMM Chapter 28

Stella's Devilish Angel

"It's a flower seed that rarely grows only in the depths of the Devil's Garden, and a really pretty flower blooms from it. So... I wanted to give it to Lynn as a welcome gift. To say thank you... for becoming my caregiver."

Dian whispered quietly in a voice lacking confidence, looking down and rubbing his toes on the ground.

I was flustered by the unexpected words, forgetting about scolding Dian.

What? He entered the garden because of me?

Then I was shocked by a belated realization and covered my mouth with both hands.

Go-goodness, our sweetheart gave me a gift...?!

Because there had never been such a thing in my entire Dian fan life, my heart foolishly went wild with all sorts of commotion.

Co-could this be the reverse fan service I'd only heard rumors about? Am I becoming a successful fan now...!

"I really wanted to give you some kind of gift, but I don't have anything, and there was nothing I could give Lynn... So would you accept at least this?"

Maybe because I'd shown signs of seriously scolding him for the first time earlier, Dian had a very intimidated face.

But how could I scold a child who was trembling while extending his hand and watching my mood, despite all that?

"Thank you so much, Young Master Dian. I'm so happy that you'd give me such a gift."

I wrapped Dian's extended hands with both of mine and lowered myself to meet his eyes. But I still couldn't just let it pass without saying anything.

"But if something had happened to you because of this today, I would have been so, so sad. The most important thing to me is that Young Master Dian is always healthy and happy."

So I earnestly asked Dian.

"So please never do such dangerous things again. For me, having Young Master Dian as my caregiver is the greatest gift and happiness. Do you understand?"

Dian silently looked into my eyes for a moment. Then soon, he whispered softly with his head down.

"Yeah... I also think Lynn becoming my caregiver is the greatest fortune in the world."

A soft, fluffy atmosphere gently swirled between Dian and me.

As for me, I was having all sorts of internal celebrations.

'Ahhhhh, so cute! Our kid is too cute...! People of the world, look at this! My bias gave me reverse fan service! And he says my existence is the greatest fortune in the world!'

I almost had tears flowing if I let my guard down even a little, so I unconsciously put strength in my eyes.

"Wow... what a truly touching scene."

Clap clap clap!

Then Cheswick, who had been standing beside us until then, looked at us and recited in a soulless voice while clapping, breaking the mood. Of course, his reaction didn't ruin my joyful mood.

"Then shall we plant this in a pot and grow it together? I'm curious how pretty the flower will be."

I smiled brightly while taking the seed from Dian's hand.

"Ah, wait a minute, Miss Lynn. A huge bug just flew toward you."

"What? Where?"

"I'll chase it away."

Just then, Cheswick hit my hand as if by coincidence. It was such swift movement that I couldn't associate it with his usual leisurely gestures or slow speech. So before I could prepare, I ended up dropping Dian's gift that I'd just received.

"Ah!"

Dian tried to catch the seed flying from my hand. That's when I felt something strange.

I immediately hugged Dian and retreated backward as quickly as possible.

Swoosh! Stab...!

Almost simultaneously, sharp stems that had broken through the golden shell spread out in all directions.

Needle-like sharp and long thorns mercilessly drove down toward where we had been. The plant's proliferation speed was incredibly fast, and its spread radius was wide too.

Dian gasped in surprise.

"Ho-how did this..."

Dian couldn't properly continue his words, shocked by the unexpected situation.

"Mr. Cheswick! Are you okay?"

I also asked in surprise, checking on Cheswick's safety since he hadn't been able to escape with us just before.

Fortunately, I could hear small coughing sounds from within the pale dust cloud.

"Wow, that was close... That could have been really bad."

Cheswick also seemed to have successfully avoided that suspicious plant's attack, appearing unharmed without a scratch from within the dust cloud.

"What was that just now? Did the seed Miss Lynn was holding explode?"

"It didn't explode... I think roots suddenly grew."

"This suddenly?"

Cheswick was still coughing lightly while opening his eyes wide as if truly surprised.

His reaction seemed natural enough, but... something felt off to me, and I found myself eyeing Cheswick with suspicion.

'Didn't he hit my hand at a very timely moment just now?'

If Cheswick hadn't timely knocked the seed far away, both Dian and I could have been in danger.

"Are Dian and Miss Lynn okay?"

"We don't seem to be hurt either."

"That's a relief."

But I couldn't spot anything else suspicious about Cheswick as he sighed in relief and patted his chest. I followed his gaze down to the floor.

The plant that had suddenly grown from the seed Dian brought from the Devil's Garden couldn't be called pretty even as empty words. Black and red, sharp thorns grew jaggedly, extending their territory to over 3 meters in radius. The stems embedded in the ground created dust clouds that made the surroundings hazy.

If we'd been a little slower to avoid it, we would definitely have been pierced and injured.

"But Dian. You said you heard about this from someone else before entering the garden?"

Cheswick asked Dian casually while dusting off his clothes in the dusty wind.

"Who exactly told you such things existed in the Devil's Garden?"

Hearing that, I fixed Diana with a serious stare.

"That's..."

Dian only moved his mouth without being able to answer easily.

"Ahahaha!"

Then suddenly, cheerful laughter came from behind.

A pink-haired boy who popped out from behind a tree ran toward the building, laughing as if he'd seen something interesting.

"Vivi?"

Hearing me unconsciously mutter, Dian's body trembled. That moment I got the feeling.

"Did Vivi tell you?"

I asked Dian with an incredulous heart. Dian also looked back and forth between where the pink-haired boy had disappeared, the ground devastated by the strange thorny plant, and my face with eyes shaking like autumn leaves caught in a storm.

Seeing that, I was convinced my guess was correct.

Of course, Vivi might have unknowingly told Dian about the flowers in the Devil's Garden, but seeing him watching us with laughter just now, it seemed like it was definitely intentional.

Soon a hollow laugh escaped my lips.

No way, did this damn game turn a sweet boy like a baby rabbit into a dark, demon-like character?

Our poor baby cat was so shocked that he fell ill.

"Young master, are you alright? I'll quickly get some fever reducer."

"I'm, I'm fine... I just overexerted myself a bit."

Like Minuel from before, Dian lay in bed trying to smile calmly while speaking to me.

But his eyes were teary, whether from fever or heartache, and his voice was pitifully trembling.

Seeing him like that made me want to wail in sorrow.

I left Dian in the room and had no choice but to go find the quack doctor. The medicine I'd bought in the village today was effective for external injuries. I regretted not buying other medicine, but it was too late now. I had no choice but to get medicine from the quack doctor, inadequate as it was.

I ran almost at a flying pace to reach Conrad's laboratory in the Redford Mansion infirmary.

Knock knock!

"Dr. Conrad. I'm here for medicine, may I come in for a moment!"

I opened the door wide without waiting for an answer after knocking.

Having dealt with this quack countless times, I knew well that his specialty was pretending not to be in when he was in his room.

"What is it? Why are you coming in without permission?"

Sure enough, a brown-haired man who had been earnestly reading a newspaper under a blanket in the corner of the research room glared at me with a dissatisfied face.

"I was in a hurry, so I apologize for the rudeness. I'd like to get some fever reducer!"

"Ha, really these mansion people don't leave me alone for even a day. I chose the wrong job..."

Conrad grumbled. With movements full of annoyance, he put down the paper and pen he was holding and staggered up from his seat.

While Conrad went to find medicine, I quickly scanned the paper scraps and newspaper on his desk.

Sure enough, what Conrad had been looking at was a lottery ticket. Judging by the pen marks, out of 7 numbers, only 1 had a circle drawn around it, while the rest were crossed out.

'To think this is supposed to be a main romance target's room...'

As I mentioned before, completing hidden quests to transform the quack doctor into a proper physician would unlock Conrad's romance route. But it required such an enormous amount of work that most players considered Conrad's route basically a lost cause.

Occasionally, fans with special tastes would lament that the masses didn't know the true taste of Conrad's route, but I never felt motivated to find out.

"Here's cold medicine. When you leave, turn the sign by the door."

"Not this one, give me the yellow one."

"That's all out."

"Then what's that on the shelf over there?"

This guy's lying when it's right there in plain sight!

Conrad, who turned his head where I gestured, made a disgusted face as if he was so annoyed he might go crazy.

He might wonder how I distinguish medicines, but Conrad, being a master of laziness, didn't ask anything and just sighed while bringing a medicine bottle from the shelf to hand to me.

"Is this enough now? If you're done with business, please leave quickly."

You don't have to rush me, I was going to leave anyway.

"Make sure to turn the sign!"

I was planning to forget that anyway.

I came out closing the door and ran wildly again toward Dian's room.

The sign Conrad told me to flip over to "Treatment Ended" - I deliberately left it showing "Treatment Available.

"Young master! I brought medicine!"

I quickly gave Dian the fever reducer, which was like life water to him.

After taking the medicine I gave him, Dian lay back down in bed and groaned.

Our young master is delicate, so he'll probably be sick like this for several more days. Usually when Dian was sick like this, I'd just skip the scene. But now the skip function was broken, so I had to watch this child suffer for days.

"Lynn should go to your room too so you don't catch the fever..."

"I'm fine. Besides, it's lonely to be alone when you're sick."

"No... I was always alone anyway. So even now, I'm really okay being alone."

I looked down at my lovely boy and stroked his head.

"I see. You're really brave and good, our Young Master Dian. But I get a little lonely when I'm alone. So couldn't you stay with me today for my sake?"

Kind Dian didn't refuse my words. He looked at me with eyes full of stars, then nodded slightly.

I stayed by Dian's side until he fell asleep.

Perhaps because today had been very hard and exhausting, Dian soon began breathing heavily.

I wiped the cold sweat from his forehead while looking down at the deeply sleeping boy's innocent face.

Then I thought about the tragedy that had struck another boy who once lived in this mansion, a boy like Dian lying before me now.

The female ghost still wandering the annex, and the child she had failed to protect.

It was just speculation that they might be the previous Room 1 caregiver and boy, but regardless, those two people had died.

And perhaps at least one of them might have been murdered.

If that were true, would the culprit still be in the mansion?

Maybe it was because of what happened with Diana getting into trouble because of someone else this time, but all sorts of uneasy thoughts kept circling in my mind.

Anyway, thanks to that, even I snapped to attention after having gotten somewhat complacent. I had thought nothing too dangerous would happen in the early stages of the game, but I was wrong.

How could such an unexpected variable suddenly pop up and threaten Dian like this? What if he had gotten seriously hurt or even died?

I'd seen Dian die countless times before, but no matter how many times I experienced it, I never got used to it.

"Dian. Don't get sick, stay healthy."

I whispered while stroking Dian's face.

Deeply sleeping Dian gave no answer. A faint face from memory briefly overlaid the sleeping boy's face with closed eyes.

Was it because I'd encountered that nagging memory I'd forgotten in the Devil's Garden? I kept seeing someone else overlapping with Dian.

The night deepened, but somehow sleep wouldn't come easily that day.