A Handsome Kinky Gangster Reporter

“What brings you here?”

She muttered with barely heard voice, as if she was powerless due to the lack of food in her stomach. When the door finally opened, it revealed servants who pushed each other as they came in.

Thinking it was probably the time, they set out the food they had brought on the table. Then, they left Gloria and her in the room alone.

How could she endure the delicious smell of the food? I swallowed dryly again. However, unlike me, Gloria didn’t even glance at the food. Gloria, who hadn’t eaten properly for several days, seemed to not have suffered at all from the smell of the delicious food laid on the table.

I heaved out a sigh.

“Why aren’t you eating at all? If you don’t eat, the servants might get scolded by the butler or the baron. Aren’t you hungry too?”

She replied without energy.

“I’m fine. I’m used to the feeling of empty stomach by now.”

Her eyes were glued to the floor and her face looked pale. From my point of view, it wouldn’t be strange if Gloria collapsed at that time. I didn’t want to see her like this and became mad for no reason.

“What are you going to do? If you really don’t want to get married, tell me right away! I’ll help you escape to a foreign country.”

Regardless if the God, who was watching Gloria from the sky, became enraged, it was either sinkholes or earthquakes that would occur again in the land of the empire. It didn’t matter. My only friend was more precious to me now.

Gloria looked at me.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Because I’m worried about you, Gloria! We are friends.”

Back when we were young, Gloria used to be very happy when I said that she was my first friend.

After I was born again into this world, Gloria was my first friend of the same age. The village where I lived back then was a village populated mostly by men. Women with a slight age difference made me and my mother reluctant to interact with others. I felt lonely, but I endured it by thinking that it was a destiny given to such a beautiful woman like me.

My first friend, Gloria, was also very precious to me. Beside the fact that she was the main character in my unfinished novel. The depth of her value was beyond words.

“Do you think of me as a friend?”

Gloria’s words made me feel a bit intimidated, and sorrowful.

I shouted at her out of rage.

“Of course we are friends! Not just that, but you’re the only one I’ve ever had. You’re the first female friend I’ve made. How can you say that? Is it because of Claude?”

“Yes. You! You know that Claude likes you and not me, don’t you? You knew it, but you’re deliberately encouraging me on!”

“How could I know it?! I’m not a God. Are you envious of me?”

“What? Did you just say I’m envious of you?”

“Yes! You do!”

At the age of twenty years old, we must have looked unproper to yell like this at each other. Over the past seven years, we must’ve unknowingly accumulated the resentment towards each other. I took this opportunity to bring up those trivial memories and argued, reasoned, and apologized. The end of our argument was hugging and crying together like kids. 

I giggled and asked Gloria.

“Gloria. Do you think love is more valuable than friendship? I mean, our friendship is more valuable, right?”

“…… No. I love you even more, Haley.”

The answer came belatedly. I could’ve doubted her sincerity in befriending me, but I just brushed it off. This situation, and our childishness, seemed just the same, ridiculously.

“This situation didn’t happen the way I hoped for, so I want to apologize. I’m sincerely sorry, Gloria.”

The truth was, I still didn’t know. Was it just because I was drunk that day that my heart beat so fast and not because of Claude or I unconsciously started to think he was cool and harbored some sort of feelings towards him.

Although I just hated him now.

Gloria told me everything that made her upset. She even swore about Claude in front of me when I tell her not to bring his personality to heart. I also actively helped her by talking to him behind her.

It was fortunate that there we were the only ones in the room. After spending a lot of time embarrassing ourselves, we wiped the tears from our faces in embarrassment.

Gloria wiped her face with a handkerchief, then smiled dumbfoundedly and admitted her dissatisfaction.

“The Baron made me wear an old-fashioned wedding dress that his first love had worn when she got married. He is the worst man to ever exist.”

I naturally became furious upon hearing that.

“Did he really say that? That man must have gone senile. He has the most beautiful woman in the kingdom as his bride. As if acting nice isn’t good enough, he must definitely a bad person! That Stephen, did you make sure he eat three times a day?”

I uttered the profanities I had learned from one of the readers with great reverence. Gloria then smiled and mimicked me.

“Yes, he eat three times a day.”

“Ugh. It’s fine to curse the person who will be your husband soon.”

“Or was it you who intend to marry him?”

Seeing her blinking eyes movement as if she knew something, she probably heard from the butler or other servants that I had proposed to Baron Stephen a while ago. That was my dark history, d*mn.

“Hey, you already know I got rejected, right?”

“Yes.”

“Haah. That was a bit cruel.”

Gloria approached her food, perhaps she felt a bit better now. She lifted the spoon and scooped up the soup. I stared at her for awhile, feeling sorry for her. After she finished her meal, I said softly.

“Your marriage won’t last long. Therefore, please just hold on until the wedding day comes. I heard he already registered your marriage.”

Gloria, who must have thought my words were just to comfort her, gave a slight nod. I hugged my friend and whispered in her ear.

“If you endure this, there will be good days ahead. If you’re having a hard time, lean on me as your friend, got it?”

I felt relieved after we cleared up the misunderstanding.

“You know, Haley. What if no one loves me in my whole life? I want to be happy, too.”

“Hey, why do you think you have to have a man to be happy? If there’s no one to be with you in the future, I’ll live with you. I’ll accept you even after you become old, let’s come back to my house and live there together. On the other hand, if you die first, we will hold a funeral for you.”

“I’m so d*mn*d, huh?”

Gloria giggled and put her head on my shoulder. We spent the rest of the day together by making silly jokes with each other. The butler named Henrick gave me instructions to return home, but I ignored him without saying anything.

*  *  *

A few days after I paid an unannounced visit to Stephen’s residence, I managed to snatch an opportunity to interview with the owner of the P&P boutique. It was difficult to get an appointment with her because of her reputation as the most popular designer in the capital lately. The Madam allowed the interview in the morning, when it was nearly dawn.

On the day of the interview, I dropped by the newspaper office to pick up the camera.

It was still dark outside as it was still dawn. I found an oil lantern, lit it, and approached my desk. As I walked past the sofa placed across my desk, I spotted a familiar young man.

“Oh, you scared me! Who are you?”

When I brought the lantern closer to his face, the blue hair caught my eye first.

“Philip?”

Philip was awakened and rubbed his eyes.

“You’re here? You came to work early, huh?”

“Why are you sleeping here?”

“Oh…. The delivery process took a little longer yesterday. I just slept the night here. What about you?”

“Alright, I have an interview scheduled during dawn. I left the camera with the bag here yesterday. I came to get this.”

“It’s still dark outside. Would you like me to come with you?”

“No, thank you. You must be tired, you should go back to sleep.”

Philip didn’t care about my refusal and got up regardless because he must have been worried about me walking alone in such a dark time of the day. It was dark outside because the sun hasn’t rose yet, the only light illuminating the office was the oil lantern that I set up earlier.

Sniff. Before leaving through the office door, the air smelled strange, similar to an iron.

“What is this smell? Phillip, don’t you smell something?”

Philip tilted his head.

“I don’t smell anything. Perhaps, there’s something rotting in the trash? Or there’s a bit of oil somewhere.”

“Oh, really? Oh no, I’ll ask Mary to empty the bin tomorrow. Perhaps, the food is really rotting in the trash bin.”

We left the bakery and rode our dark-colored horse-drawn carriages through the dark streets. It was still dawn and I could feel the humidity anywhere. The surrounding buildings, which were still dark, and sometimes only one or two lights were seen from the windows. The bright light only came from the bakery building in the distance.

Philip turned around and asked me.

“Where are we heading to today?”

“To P&P boutique. It’s said to be the women’s favorite place lately.”

“Hmm. Understood.”

“Oh, Philip. Let’s go through the alley here. Going that way will be faster.”

“Huh…? Haley. Isn’t it too dark there? Even when we get back later on, I think it would be better to take the wide and safe road.”

“It’s fine, what’s going to happen to us anyway?”

Ignoring Philip who was trying to change my mind, I turned the reins and entered the dark alley. Philip leaned back as if he felt the dark street was terrifying, and I have to calm down the cowardly-looking Philip while moving forward. I drove slowly ahead for a while, and suddenly seeing some people gathered and hummed ahead of us while pointing somewhere.

The reporter’s hunch in me began to occur. There must be something here.

“Excuse me. Did something happened here?”

I stopped the carriage and approached one of them to ask. Then, an uncle who glanced at me opened his mouth with a frown.

“Young Lady. If you’re going to pass this road, don’t look on your left, just look ahead of you.”

“Why?”

“There is something that a woman like you should never see.”

“What is it?”

“….”

The old man got frustrated and walked away, so I turned to the woman beside him. The old lady muttered to herself in a barely whispering voice.

“I just reported it to the National Police Agency, so if I wait for some times, the police will come, won’t they? I don’t know why this keeps happening lately.”

The old ladies were shaking as if they were extremely frightened.

“I have to go far away. Are you going to stay here? It’s dangerous.”

“I’m afraid the price of the house will go down.”

“Oh, where in the capital is cheaper than here? I’m more afraid of spending a lot of money.”

I didn’t know what they were talking about, but I thought this could be turned into a good article. My eyes lit up with excitement. I quickly asked the woman, who seemed pale.

“Something must have happened there. What is it, Madam?”

The woman narrowed her eyes as if I was asking something unnecessary and replied quickly.

“There’s a corpse. Young Lady, don’t come at me just because you’re curious. I’m afraid this incident will show up in my dream later.”

A man has died in this peaceful Morris Empire? I think I need to investigate this. The aunt muttered to herself as if listening to me again.

“Oh, it’s already the third one this week. I think the murdered lives around here.”

“Isn’t this the first time someone has died in this alley?”

“Yes, of course. It’s been so strange lately.”