The Male Lead's Sickly Aide Is My Type - Chapter 21
Translator and Editor: Nana and Nabi
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Chapter 21
The day before becoming a nosy person and sitting on the street, Carinne went to the downtown area to buy some desserts. Although she could’ve ordered them to be delivered, the fun of going to the store and personally choosing desserts was irresistible to her, so she often went out to the city to buy desserts.
Carinne hummed a tune as she headed towards the dessert shop.
What kind of dessert had the owner made today? Strawberry tart? Hedgehog-shaped macarons? Or perhaps lemon pie?
Honestly, it didn’t really matter. The combination of refreshing tea and sweet desserts was always fantastic. On a lazy afternoon, sipping tea and taking a bite of a sweet pastry while lounging in a chair felt like heaven.
As she swayed the basket she brought back and forth as she walked with a lively step, in the distance, she saw a familiar face.
The man was hurrying along, holding a small paper bag.
What a coincidence!
Carinne stopped in her tracks and shouted loudly towards the familiar face.
“Archen!”
He was standing in the middle of the downtown area. With many people around and a considerable distance between Carinne and him, he couldn’t quickly figure out who called him and kept looking around.
In that case, it was only logical to reveal herself!
At the through, she ran towards Archen as if she was flying. Her feet felt so light as if she was running on an airport escalator.
“What a coincidence!”
“….”
At the same time, she saw a certain emotion on his face. It was a fleeting moment, passing by so quickly that she doubted if she had seen it correctly.
However, it was undoubtedly… that rascal! He found her annoying. Carinne pursed her lips for a moment, but since things had turned out this way, she decided to playfully annoy him as much as possible.
“I came out to buy desserts, what about you? What are you doing here?”
“I came out to buy something.”
He replied in a dry tone.
No, that was not what she meant. He should tell her what he came out to buy! At that, she poked at the paper bag he was holding.
“What’s this?”
“….”
However, he tightly sealed his lips and just looked down at her.
He seemed to have no intention of speaking.
Carinne, determined to find out what was inside, tried to reach her hand into the opening of the bag, but he suddenly pulled the bag back, leaving her grabbing at thin air.
“Hey, it’s not like I’m going to break it if you show it to me.”
“You will break it.”
“Ugh.”
She laughed mischievously and playfully covered her face with the paper bag. It smelled sour as if there were something inside.
“Come on, just show it to me.”
“It’s my privacy.”
He responded curtly.
Since he mentioned privacy, she felt like she shouldn’t ask any further, so she leaned back.
Today, it seemed like it wasn’t the right time for an interesting conversation with Archen being so cold. Just as she thought she should just go back to buying the desserts, at that moment, something happened…
Without warning, a boy bumped into their shoulders.
It happened so quickly that there was no time to protest. Carinne could only watch the back of the retreating boy and rub her stinging shoulder. The pain didn’t subside, despite rubbing her shoulder with force.
Filled with anger, she shouted loudly.
“Watch where you’re going!”
The boy turned back briefly at her shout and smirked.
How dare he smirk? She snorted in annoyance. He was a cheeky brat who wouldn’t learn his lesson, someone annoying like Duke Lucas. Although she felt tempted to give the brat a good scolding right away, she had things to do.
“Calm down, calm down.”
Carinne told herself, envisioning a pile of delightful desserts waiting for her. Going to buy desserts was much more important than chasing after an ill-mannered, uneducated brat.
…However, something felt off. It was as if something was missing.
“Huh?”
When she glanced down, her mouth dropped.
It was because both of her hands were empty. The basket where she had put the money to buy desserts was gone without a trace.
“Basket! Did you see my basket?!”
Archen tilted his head as if he didn’t know anything. His hands, like hers, were also empty.
“And where is the paper bag?”
“….”
Finally, he looked down at his empty hands, and his expression changed. What was going on? The basket and the paper bag had vanished in an instant. Where did they drop it?
However, she was sure she had been holding onto them tightly. Carinne searched around for the basket, recalling the last time she saw it. Just moments before bumping into the brat, the basket had been securely in her hands.
“Ah, that little brat!”
It was the brat without manners, lacking in education, and with bad habits!
It was clear that the brat had swiftly snatched the basket and bag while bumping into her shoulder. Still, Archen continued to look at his empty hands with a face of utter cluelessness. Carinne grabbed him and shook him forcefully.
“Don’t you realize? We’ve been pickpocketed, pickpocketed!”
They had fallen victim to the classic method of quickly snatching items from unsuspecting victims during a collision. If that was the case, they had no choice but to use a classic method themselves—grab him and hand him over to the guards without mercy.
“Let’s go catch him!”
Carinne’s determination blazed fiercely as she firmly grabbed Archen’s hand and pulled him along. However, after a few steps, he stopped and brushed her hand away.
“I don’t want to.”
“Why?”
“We can buy them again. They weren’t expensive…”
He nonchalantly shrugged as if it were of little importance and began rummaging through his pockets in search of his wallet. His casual demeanor was incredibly vexing. It seemed that as long as the wallet was intact, being pickpocketed held no significance to him.
Carinne puffed up her cheeks and vowed to catch the brat by herself if she had to
Huh?
Though even after waiting for a while, the wallet didn’t appear from his pants pocket. He reached into the outer pocket of his coat, then into the inner pocket, yet still could not find it. Returning to his pants pocket, he turned it inside out but the wallet remained elusive.
Oho.
She smiled meaningfully.
“It’s not there, right?”
“Let’s go catch him.”
Finally, his determination blazed fiercely as well.
“Did you have a lot of money in your wallet?”
“It contained my monthly salary.”
Carinne saw another emotion on his face.
“Let’s go after him!”
Even though he ran with all her might, chasing after the brat, she couldn’t match the running skills of someone experienced in theft. After a few minutes, Carinne bent over, hands on her knees, gasping for breath.
It felt like completing a marathon.
Archen seemed to be a bit further, but when the brat knocked over a cart full of fruit, causing a delay, he ended up falling behind. Eventually, he couldn’t keep up and came to a stop. The brat smirked at the exhausted duo before disappearing into the winding alleyways.
Just like the basket and the bag, he left no trace behind.
Carinne limped after him and peered into the alleyway. The path branched in multiple directions. Another turn after turn, and another one after that… it was like a maze rather than an alleyway. It seemed that catching the brat was out of the question.
Frustrated, she kicked the ground.
“D*mn it, if only it weren’t for that fruit cart!”
She couldn’t speak properly, out of breath. If it weren’t for that cursed fruit cart, they might have handed the brat over to the guards by now.
…But then, the person next to her was oddly quiet.
When she turned her head, she could see Archen looking down at her with an apologetic expression.
“It’s my fault.”
“….”
She bit her lower lip.
It was frustrating, but since it was Archen who said it, what could she do? She had no choice but to forgive him. Nonetheless, she couldn’t help feeling angry. Carinne clenched her fists and shook them angrily, drawing attention from passersby.
“Buy magic candies! They will explode in your mouth!”
Suddenly, a street vendor suddenly approached her and offered her candy. Although she didn’t know who he was, he seemed oblivious to the situation.
“Forget it!”
She retorted sharply, took a deep breath, and then something crossed her mind.
…Magic candies?
‘Yes, that’s it!’
“Archen, use magic!”
He was a mage, a genius mage who graduated at the top of the Kingdom’s prestigious academy. If he was that skilled, catching a pickpocket should be a piece of cake, right? Carinne looked at him with anticipation, thinking that it was only a matter of time before they caught the brat.
However, Archen looked troubled.
“That’s a bit…”
Why was Archen making that expression? Carinne recalled the incident from before and asked.
“Why? Is your mana depleted again?”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Then, why…”
Archen hesitated for a moment, then started to explain.
“To use tracking magic, you need a part of the person’s body, like a nail or a strand of hair…”
‘Ah, I see.’
Carinne nodded her head, then realized something.
“I plucked a strand of hair earlier!”
Her hand remained tightly clenched since before. Since her failed attempt to grab the brat’s collar, her fist hadn’t opened once. Was the hair still there?
Please…
As she anxiously unclenched her fist, there was indeed a thin brown strand of hair.
“It’s here! The hair!”
“Ah…”
Archen looked even more troubled.
“Now, can you use magic?”
“….”
“Why aren’t you answering?”
“….”
“We have to catch the thief!”
“….”
He avoided her gaze, looking extremely uneasy, as she asked. Why was he acting like this? Could it be that he didn’t want to waste his mana on something so trivial? The thought made her feel deeply disappointed.
“If you don’t want to, just say so. Let’s go back home then. We can get money, and…”
Suddenly, as Carinne looked up, she noticed that the blue sky had turned into a sunset. The owner of the dessert shop promptly closed the store as the sun went down.
“…Looks like the dessert shop is closing.”
Carinne muttered.
Ugh! She forcefully kicked a stone on the ground.
The stone rolled for a while but eventually came to a stop, just like her defeated self.
She let out a heavy sigh. The evening tea time was gone. Tomorrow would be the weekend, and the shop wouldn’t open its doors. It meant that her sweet dessert time would have to wait for another three days.
As Carinne wore a dejected expression and absentmindedly kicked the pathetic stone again, Archen watched her silently before eventually parted his lips.
“I can still use magic.”
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