Extra Pages: The Author's Odyssey
Chapter 301: Betrayal [2]

"...By the way."

At that moment, Adrian, who was staring at me fixedly, carefully spoke up. He seemed to be hesitating. Considering how needlessly nervous he was, this must be what he wanted to ask me.

"Go on, tell me."

"It's nothing, well there is one thing I wanted to know. Why is your relationship with Evelyn...How should I put this? Irregular, I guess?"

'Ah! How should I answer to this?'

"Well, you can say that."

I thought for a moment before answering Adrian.

Ever Since I met Evelyn our relationship has been a bit complicated because of our past.

"But why are you asking me this?" I question back to Adrian, as far as I know, Adrian isn't someone who meddles in someone else affair

"Well, I thought, I should ask about this since I have been seeing the awkwardness around you two start of the academy year and I'm sure others must have noticed too."

I see, now that Adrian said I have noticed quite a few stairs coming from Sunny and Isabella whenever our team has to do tasks.

"Also I heard about your past with Evelyn and I don't think you did right to Evelyn."

After a moment Adrian continued, his voice was harsh and gentle at the same time.

As soon as I heard Adrian's words, Something inside me snapped.

'What does he know? He didn't know anything about us and yet...'

I became very angry.

I don't have very much memory of Lucas and Evelyn together however that doesn't mean that I don't have any memory of them being together.

There are few but they are happy memories for Lucas.

He looks happy when he is with Evelyn but soon everything goes wrong.

'All because of that man who locked or erased Lucas's memory...'

I feel replace him no matter what and once I do I'm going to kill him for sure.

However, before that there is Adrian.

From Adrian's perspective whatever I had done to Evelyn in past was wrong and I agree with him.

However, he doesn't know the full truth so he should not be meddling in our problems.

"You don't know anything, Adrian...I've been thinking about her for far longer than you... And I've been watching over her all this time. So I think you should not worry about us, we will solve our problem. So don't say anything if you don't know the full truth."

Even if Adrian was this world's main character, there was no one else in this entire world who knew Evelyn better than me.

"So I know far more about her than you."

"...What?"

A strange light flickered in Adrian's eyes.

When we were staring at each other in silence...

—Thud

Both Adrian and I heard a faint sound coming from the other side of the door.

I immediately activated [Mana Eyes] and looked through the wall.

The person running away with a flushed face... was Evelyn.

I didn't know from when, but she must have been eavesdropping on our conversation.

As Evelyn's flushed face registered in my [Mana Eyes], a mix of frustration and concern surged within me. It wasn't like her to eavesdrop, and I couldn't help but wonder what had driven her to do so.

"Who was that?" Adrian said as he glanced at the door.

"Don't know." I lied through my teeth, and since I didn't want to complicate this situation even more I lied to Adrian.

Anyway in a few minutes someone is going to die here or should I say someone going fake his own death?

***

Evelyn slammed the door to her room close, then jumped on her bed.

At first, she was going to simply ask the guys out for a nighttime snack. But when she was about to knock on their door, she heard them having an interesting conversation and ended up eavesdropping instead.

—I've been thinking about her for far longer than you and I've been watching over her all this time. So I know far more about her than you.

She didn't know Lucas had the guts to say that kind of thing as far as she knew Lucas of the past was a shy one and won't say something like that.

...But she did hear him saying those words.

"Is he really crazy?"

What Lucas said still lingered in her ears.

"What's going on...?"

And Evlyns's seemingly drunk act woke up Emma who was sleeping peacefully.

"Emma... What are you doing?"

"H-Huh?"

Evelyn flinched.

Emma glared at Evelyn with narrowed eyes. Why was this woman beating up a poor bedsheet?

"Are you sick or something?"

"I-It's nothing."

Evelyn couldn't tell her what she had just heard. She couldn't even imagine telling someone about such personal matters.

"...Then sleep. I'm tired."

Muttering so, Emma plopped back down on her back.

"Uh, yeah, good night. I'm going to sleep too."

Evelyn also buried herself under her blanket.

A minute passed, two minutes passed away then another... And just like that ten minutes passed away.

But Evelyn couldn't sleep.

Her thoughts were going back in time to when she heard those words.

Lucas's words echoed in her mind, each one causing a tumult of emotions to swirl within her.

'I've been thinking about her for far longer than you and I've been watching over her all this time. So I know far more about her than you.'

She had never expected him to say something like that, especially considering their complicated history. And yet, there was a part of her that couldn't help but feel a flicker of hope at his words.

'But can I really trust him?'

Despite her lingering doubts, Evelyn couldn't deny the depth of her feelings for Lucas. He had been a constant presence in her life, even when she had tried to push him away. And now, hearing him admit that he had been watching over her all this time stirred something deep within her heart.

Kyaaaak—!!

Suddenly, a high-pitched voice rang out in the mansion. Evelyn opened her eyes abruptly and shot up.

"W-What!? Ah, aaak!"

Emma also got up in shock, tripping on her bedsheet and falling down. With her hands on the floor, she glared at Evelyn resentfully.

"Evelyn! Y-You!"

"No! It wasn't me this time!"

"Then who was it!?"

"...Outside."

Evelyn turned the lights on. Just at that moment, lights shone through from under the room, signalling that the lights in the hallway turned on. At the same time, they could hear loud footsteps running around. Emma finally understood the gravity of the situation.

"Was that a real scream?"

"Yeah. Hurry up, we should go."

Emma put on a jacket.

Evelyn nodded, her heart pounding with a mixture of fear and adrenaline. She quickly threw on a jacket as well, her mind racing with thoughts of what could be happening outside.

As they made their way to the door, Evelyn's senses were on high alert, every creak of the floorboards and rustle of the curtains setting her on edge. She couldn't shake the feeling that something was seriously wrong.

Stepping into the hallway, they were greeted by chaos. People were running in all directions, their panicked voices echoing off the walls. Evelyn and Emma exchanged a worried glance before joining the throng of people, determined to replace out what had caused the commotion.

As they pushed through the crowd, Evelyn's mind raced with possibilities. Had someone been attacked? Was there an intruder in the mansion? The questions swirled around her head, each one more terrifying than the last.