Free Web NovelChapter 45: Confronting Norelia
In the evening, Eren found himself standing in front of a room within the servant quarters. After debating with himself for hours, he had finally decided to come here. He raised his hand and knocked on the door.
After a moment, the door swung open to reveal the petite girl. Norelia’s large, red eyes widened the exact millisecond she saw who was standing on her doorstep.
"Eren?!" she gasped, entirely abandoning her usual quiet demeanor.
Before he could give a smooth greeting, she lunged forward and threw her small arms around his waist, burying her face into his chest. "When did you wake up?! Why didn’t anyone tell me?"
Eren let out a soft chuckle, his hand naturally resting on her messy head. "Yesterday, actually. But I explicitly ordered them to keep it quiet. I need a rest."
Norelia pulled back slightly, her red eyes shining with a wave of relief. "I’m just... I’m so incredibly glad you’re alright. I thought you were going to stay asleep forever."
"Well, I’m back in action," Eren said, offering her a lazy smirk. "So, do I get to stand out here in the drafty corridor all night, or can I actually come inside?"
Norelia’s cheeks flushed slightly, and she quickly stepped to the side, pulling the door open much wider. "Right! Come in, come in! Though... I should probably warn you, my room is currently a little bit messy, so try not to look too closely."
Eren stepped inside the room, ready to dismiss her warning—only to halt his steps entirely as his brain processed the visual horror of her den.
The room was the ultimate definition of a lazy genius’s natural habitat. Half-read books were scattered across the floor, her clothes were tossed onto chairs and corners without a single care, and a few plates of half-eaten food items were idly resting on the edge of her desk. She was an absolute disaster of a human being outside the research.
’Messy? Little bookworm, this isn’t messy. This is a literal garbage dump,’ Eren barked internally in pure shock.
Realizing the critical state of her presentation, Norelia scrambled forward like a frantic little animal. She gathered a mountain of discarded clothes from the mattress, throwing them into a massive pile in the corner, and instantly patted the sheets clean. "There! All clear! You can sit on the bed!"
Eren sighed, shaking his head at the display as he walked over and sat down on the edge of the mattress. "You really are something else, Miss Norelia."
"Hey, it’s just today I forgot to clean. I’m a very tidy person, you know?" she retorted proudly, puffing out her small chest before turning toward her desk. "Just wait there, I’ll brew us some hot tea to celebrate your recovery."
As she turned her back to work with the tea kettle, Eren idly rested his palm against the mattress. His fingers brushed against something hard hidden beneath her pillow.
The curious cat inside his brain instantly screamed for immediate investigation and pulled the hidden object out.
"... what do we have here?" Eren announced out loud, holding the device up.
Norelia casually turned her head around. "What are you talking —"
She froze mid-sentence. Her eyes locked onto the specific cylinder currently resting in his hand. It was her vibrator he had personally made a blueprint of and gifted to her a couple of weeks ago to help clear her daily stress parameters.
Her entire face instantly flushed all the way to the tips of her ears. "A-Ah! Put that down! Give it back right now, you insufferable idiot!
With a desperate squeak, the petite five-foot girl completely abandoned the tea and lunged straight at him, her small hands clawing through the air to snatch her ultimate treasure back from him.
But he simply extended his long arm straight up toward the ceiling, holding the device far out of her reach. No matter how much she bounced on her tiptoes or furiously stretched her small frame, there was no chance she could bypass his height advantage.
"Why exactly can’t I look at this?" Eren teased mercilessly with a wicked smirk. "I am the one who drew up the blueprints and manufactured this specific piece of hardware for you."
"Shut up! That doesn’t matter! It’s private property now!" Norelia protested, her face burning hotter as she tried to climb up his knee to reach his hand. "You’re a horrible, shameless idiot! Give it back!"
Amused by her adorable struggles, Eren simply twisted his upper body and caught her by her waist with his free hand and pulled her.
With a soft gasp, Norelia fell backward onto his lap, and he locked his free arm around her body, pinning her to him.
"Got you," he whispered right beside her ear, his arm locked on her, keeping her pinned snugly against him. He tossed the contested device aside as his playful mood turned into something serious. "Now, let’s get down to business. Why exactly are you resigning, Miss Norelia? And why on earth did you reject the massive reward and contract my father offered you?"
The petite girl instantly went still, allowing him to hold her close. She refused to give him even a single answer.
Eren leaned his head forward, his cheek brushing against her soft neck as his voice dropped low. "Did I do something wrong? Am I annoying to you? Just give me a real reason why you’re suddenly leaving me behind."
The words weren’t his usual arrogant banter; they were entirely genuine and carried a faint trace of real hurt.
"It’s... it’s not like that at all, Eren," she whispered, her eyes staring blankly at the floor. "Working on that project with you... it completely changed my view. I realized just how much I’ve been wasting my talents, hiding away in a dusty library room doing nothing much."
She let out a soft sigh. "I’m not leaving because I hate you, or because you were annoying. I’m leaving to go somewhere else, to finally chase a long-abandoned dream of mine that you managed to reignite."
Eren let out a long breath, resting his head against her shoulder. "Thank you for working so incredibly hard for me, Miss Norelia," he murmured, his voice muffled against her dress. "But if you just walk out right now, I’m honestly going to miss you entirely."
Norelia quieted down, her tiny fingers nervously tapping against the arm he had wrapped around her. She thought about his words for a long moment, and a sudden, bright flush crept back onto her cheeks.
She turned her head sideways, her lips brushing incredibly close to his ear.
"Eren..." she whispered, her voice trembling with a sudden, daring spark. "Do you happen to remember the promise you made before we completed the project? You said you would give me proper compensation if it succeeded."
Eren didn’t move from her shoulder, his eyes half-closed as he replied lazily, "Yeah. I remember. I’m a man of my word."
"I want it," she whispered, her cheeks burning as her gaze fixed on him with a hungry intensity. "Right now."
