Cold Man And Miss Stone
21. Hypocrisy [REVISED]

In the morning, Emilia was awakened by the sunlight breaking through her bedroom window. He got up, intending to take a bath when he found a paper tucked under the door, with blue ink.

...Stay in the room today. Me and Nina were gathered near the inn so there was no work today. But come down for a minute and eat. Consider it a reply to the food I ate at your house. ...

Emilia tore the paper apart and threw it in the trash.

He went out to take a bath, went down to get food, as Samuel said, and went up and spent all his time resting.

That void gave Emilia space even if it was just a little. When he silently stared at his rough fingers, suddenly heard the sound of the door being knocked, followed by the appearance of Darto who wore a beach suit.

"Miss."

He seems to be camouflaging well.

"Did Senior leave a message for me?"

"She just said Miss did well."

Though Emilia knew she was a little conspicuous, but it seemed that Mahesa did not tell her to be too restrained or patient.

Emilia's mood is getting better now.

"Tell Senior that I will give Oto to her as soon as possible. And," Emilia propped up her chin and smiled faintly, "killing two influential people, under the three most powerful men over Ahkam. I don't care who. Make a faint trace that it's Oto's doing."

"Good, Miss."

"Some stay quiet until I give you a new signal."

"Good, Miss." Darto stared at him for a moment. "Take care of Miss."

"I always do it."

After Darto left, Emilia lay sideways.

In fact, he could not find a gap to enter the world of Samuel. There was not enough information yet for Emilia to come to negotiate or at least it was important for Mahesa to be able to exchange it for Oto.

Samuel's mom?

No. gabe. If Mahesh wants to take Oto and his Samuel, then he must not touch Samuel's mother.

Threats are destructive in relationships. If Mahesh had taken Samuel's mother as a hostage, instead of getting Samuel, he might have raised an enemy against him in the future.

Must be subtle persuasion.

Bizarrely. Though Mahesa herself knew Emilia at least knew how to act subtly. Sooner or later the guise of the village women will surely stale provoke Samuel's sympathy. After all, the man was filled with pretense.

Emilia got out of bed as night fell. His intention was to sit at the window enjoying the cold sea breeze, but instead accidentally found Samuel in front of the inn, laughing with a number of people.

The other person who saw must have thought he was happy there. While through her glasses, Emilia could only think how indifferent Samuel was to all the laughter.

Somewhere, it feels like they are both similar.

To protect her, she must live in a place she doesn't like.

Like Emilia who must always lie to the world so that no one suspects who she is.

Unknowingly Emilia actually saw him for too long. I don't know since when Samuel had looked up, looking at him from a distance with a smile on his lips.

Unwilling to know the meaning of that smile, Emilia returned to bed alone.

Tomorrow might be exhausting.

*

"I know that."

Samuel turned to Nina's sudden murmur.

"I know he caught your attention. Bullshit helps a dead friend and his demon. Pretending to be nice or whatever you do, it's disgusting."

Samuel's focus is more on 'drawing your attention'.

What does she mean, Ema?

"I can't believe it. You did such a disgusting thing with your mind, Sam?"

"Stop making weird assumptions, Nina. Me and Ema—"

"I've been with you for a long time as a friend, have you ever brought me food?"

"We're talking about the old language again?"

Nina likes Samuel. It was an old story whose language had stopped at one conclusion, could not because Samuel did not like him.

It seems he himself also said that everything does not have to be determined by the relationship, and it does not really matter to them what origin Samuel still accompany him.

Isn't there no problem anymore?

At least for Samuel, there was no problem.

He left Nina rather than trouble so it got longer, going into the inn to return to his room only.

But as he passed through Ema's room, Samuel stopped. For a moment standing at the door, wondering if he was now asleep.

"I know he's got your attention."

Interesting, huh?

Come to think of it, it is quite true. He was different from the people Samuel had met. His eyes were firmly staring, not caring about anything Samuel had.

"You hate me?"

"Yes." Yeah."

Samuel closed his mouth and smiled faintly.

Funny too.

*