Isn’t Being A Wicked Woman Much Better?

My rough, sunburnt bare feet sunk under the white sand.

I knew intuitively that this was a silly dream.

Because my body was moving regardless of my will.

“You have to fix that hot temper first!”

I was out of breath, but as soon as I saw the red-haired man sitting down in the desolate desert, my mouth moved on its own.

The man jumped up and got angry. However, the surroundings were echoing, and I couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying.

‘What is he saying?’

“… What is it?! …rah!”

The moment I could barely catch a word, a strong sandstorm blew, making everything blurry, and the stifling heat quickly overran me.

‘It’s distressing.’

It seemed like someone was squeezing my chest even though it was a dream.

When a suffocating fear struck me due to grains of sand going inside my mouth, a cool sensation slowly wrapped around my forehead.

As the friendly touch reached me, my heartbeat, which had been pounding violently due to the nightmare, gradually calmed down.

‘It feels good.’

As if reading my thoughts, someone patted and swept my forehead lightly.

Having quickly regained stability, I slipped back down into my deep, dark subconscious.

“!”

Some time after, I felt the sensation of my body rising above the surface and opened my eyelids.

“Are you alright?”

A familiar low-pitched voice.

Blinking in a dazed mood, I made eye contact with Isidor, who was looking down at me.

“What, what’s this?!”

My optic nerves complained of a greater shock than when directly facing the flash of a camera.

“… Is this that surprising?”

Isidor muttered in embarrassment.

‘But what is this pose?’

Inferring from the perspective through which I was looking at him, I quickly realized that the place I was currently laying down on was Isidor’s thigh, and I snapped up.

“You’ll get dizzy if you get up so suddenly.”

Isidor said worriedly.

“… Ugh.”

Just like he said, my head was spinning as if I had been working overnight for three days.

At the same time, as soon as I caught sight of the blue water surrounding us, I felt a grim panic and a headache.

‘What is this? Am I still dreaming?’

Isidor pulled me carefully as I was staggering.

“Lie down for now. But there is nothing here to lay your head on, so…”

He hesitated a little and tapped on his thighs.

Isidor’s long coat was already being used as a blanket to cover me.

Eventually, I used his thighs like a pillow again.

Apart from fearing this situation, I was somewhat embarrassed, so I closed my eyes tightly. He put a damp handkerchief over my forehead.

“Get up when you’re a little more stable. You’re still in pain due to being swept away by the mana wave.”

“… Mana wave?”

“My guess is that the Montez family’s heirloom was destroyed and exploded, and we were sucked into the subspace connected to the heirloom.”

Philap, that son of a b*tch!

Saying he was showing me the true power of the Montez; he was just going to drag me into this strange space.

“Philap, that trash…”

I was welling up with anger amid my lack of energy.

“Even if he is the successor of the Montez family, I won’t let this slide.”

Isidor said in a sharp voice.

“I won’t let it slide.”

He has too many charges for attacking my escort and for getting involved with Seymour and Visconti’s direct line of descent.

The question was how to get out of this strange space surrounded by water on all sides.

“… Is there a way out?”

“I’ll make one if there isn’t.”

“…”

“Don’t worry and get better first.”

His voice was so sweet that the tip of my nose tingled.

He was once again nosy. And his nosiness always had good timing.

“I owe you again. … Thank you.”

“… I don’t know. If I had come earlier, there would have been no reason for us to be stuck in this nauseating space. I didn’t expect Philap to do anything like this…”

Hearing his voice that seemed to be suppressing something, I opened my eyes without realizing it.

As our gazes met, Isidor, who had a cold look on his face that seemed to freeze whoever looked at him, covered my eyes with his hands.

“I told you to rest.”

As I got a sense of his clear emotions, as if he had been caught, my heart palpitated. When I saw him sympathize with me, the area around my eyes that he was touching became hot.

“… Don’t be angry. Your nosiness will rip apart.”

I was awkward because the atmosphere kept getting heavier, so I unconsciously made a play on words. I was joking because I actually meant his clothes, but it was very corny.

(T/N: The play on words Deborah used was for 오지랖, which can mean both nosy/nosiness or the front part/opening of a garment.)

‘I shouldn’t have said it.’

“I’m not being nosy. I wouldn’t have felt this way just for that reason.”

My mood became even more strange because he didn’t reciprocate my joke.

‘I thought he’d say his nosiness was tougher than leather.’

“I’m not nosy.”

He said once again, while taking off his hand and flipping the handkerchief once. Then, he slowly touched my forehead.

‘Then what is it?’

The question rose up to my throat, but at the same time, another question came to my mind. I bit my lips.

‘What kind of answer do I want from Isidor?’

Time went by in a state of confusion.

“Are you feeling better?”

His thigh must have been hurting because of the weight of my head, but Isidor asked kindly without a hint of being in pain.

“I think my headache is a little better.”

“Get up slowly.”

With his help, I slowly raised my torso.

I looked around as my nausea and my condition got better.

‘What a simple space.’

Water, and the slate where I and Isidore were sitting. There were only those two things.

I looked at the blue slate floating like an island in the middle of the ocean and tilted my head.

It had a square shape.

“The cube Philap was holding. At first glance, the colors on each side seemed to be different.”

Isidor listened to me attentively.

“I thought this slate might be connected to the blue side of the cube.”

I continued while looking at the smooth slate.

“And if my assumption is correct, could it be that something happened with the slate on the side Sir Isidor broke with the sword?”

“The ancient artifact may not be a gate, but an object that shrinks the subspace.”

“Yeah. There’s no reason for the slate to have this shape if it’s just a gate.”

He nodded.

“Also, we’re the only ones who’ve been sucked into this strange space. Philap was facing us, and he isn’t here.”

I spoke quickly.

“If each side plays an important role like a dice, there may be a problem with the section in which we were standing.”

“That’s a great hypothesis. I thought it was a simple gate error, but your reasoning is much more convincing.”

“And since it’s a cube, there’s a good chance that each space is interconnected, just like when you unfold it.”

I sighed as I looked at the open sea.

“However, we can’t swim and go anywhere else…”

“Levitation magic. I can cast it.”

“Were you really… a wizard swordsman?”

I think I saw it with my own eyes when he used teleportation magic, but I couldn’t believe it.

Wizard swordsmen were so rare that only one appeared in hundreds of years.

Aura and mana circles. It was almost impossible to handle the two at the same time.

“Why are you hiding such a great thing?”

“It’s annoying.”

Hm. Rude.

‘Why didn’t this fraudulent munchkin appear in the novel at all?’

And the Master didn’t know either that he was a wizard swordsman.

‘What a mysterious existence.’

As I narrowed my eyes and looked at him, Isidor laughed.

“See? How bothersome it would be if everyone thought I was arrogant.”

“For some reason, I think that personality is more of a problem.”

“You know I’m being nice to you. Now, get on my back.”

He knelt down and offered his back, smiling.

After looking at the round and pretty back of his head, I lowered my eyes towards his wide back and wiggled my hands.

I was at a loss because he wanted to carry me on his back.

I had never been carried on anyone’s back in my entire life, except when I was very young.

There’s no way a bully like Kim Han-joon would do that for me. That bastard would rather beg me to carry him when he got drunk…

Ah, let’s not think about it. It’s different from Philap because it makes me angry.

“Is something wrong with my back?”

“No one ever carried me on their back before…”

I muttered awkwardly and he curved his eyes.

“I’ve never carried anyone either, actually. It’s the first time for both of us, so no one will know even if we’re in a weird position.”

“Alright. Then…”

I clumsily hugged his neck, and Isidor paused for a moment.

“Am I heavy?”

“N-No.”

“How about using lightweight magic?”

I made a strange suggestion because I felt a prick of conscience for no reason. Isidor floundered his arms for a moment before pushing me up.

His movements were also awkward, so I relaxed a little.

Soon, Isidor’s body slowly floated in the air.

Our bodies were so close together that his fluttering golden hair almost hit my cheeks.

‘Ugh.’

Soon after, the blue waves under my field of view spread out.

I was so frightened that I hugged him harder around his neck without realizing it, and at that moment, Isidor’s body shook slightly.

“What’s wrong?”

Actually, I was very sleepy, but my voice was cold.

“… It’s nothing.”

His voice sank much deeper than usual, like a swamp.

I belatedly found out that Isidor’s nape had turned red.

His neck was red like a ripe persimmon and seemed like it would burst at any moment, so I hurriedly threw my gaze upwards without realizing it.

For some reason, I felt strange that I had witnessed a sight that shouldn’t have been seen.