Upon reaching her firm decision after a long period of deliberating, Elise jumped up and sat down.

Elise took out the small jewelry box that she had kept under her bed before calling Benji. It was a separate box of jewels filled with  jewelry her father gave her as a child. It was Elise’s only property, kept in case of an emergency.

And she was willing to give it all to Benji today. Elise prayed that she could compensate the innocent Benji, who became a victim of her lies.

“Benji.”

As she called Benji, he approached her with a puzzled expression. It’s like the day she had lied to Benji.

“Yes, Master.”

Looking at Elise who said nothing and remained frozen, Benji knelt down with her with a bewildered look and smoothed his hair. His reddish eyes, showing signs of anxiety, turned towards her.

“Please touch me.”

Elise used to touch Benji’s hair when she wasn’t feeling well. She felt better when she buried her fingers in his soft brown hair and stroked here and there. So, asking her to touch his head was clearly Benji trying to comfort her.

‘What have I done to such a nice person? What on earth—?’

As Elise’s guilt, which she had been ignoring for so long, flooded in, she was able to muster up the courage and aloofness to server their bounds.

‘Right. This is really the end.’

When she made up her mind and stood up, Benji raised his face to look at her. Although his body was as big as a bear his anxious face resembled a harmless herbivore.

“What’s wrong, Master?”

‘Why are you so sweet and kind? That’s why I took advantage of you.’

“Leave.”

Elise stared into Benji’s pure eyes and spoke shortly. She had planned what to say dozens of times in her head intending to explain it in a way that even the most obtuse Benji could understand but the only thing she said out loud was the conclusion. It was because her throat began to hurt and she couldn’t bring herself to talk much when she tried to explain the situation.

Benji’s face twitched strangely. Elise reversed everything she planned to say.

“It’ll be enough to make a living.”

Elise handed over the jewelry box as if she were tossing it over to him and turned her head away. She no longer had the confidence to look at Benji’s face.

“What do you mean, Master?”

“Leave, meet your loved ones, build a family, and live happily.”

The more Benji’s voice shook, the colder Elise responded. Otherwise, her resolve to up hold her difficult pledge threatened to be ruined at any moment.

“Did I do something wrong?”

Benji followed her gaze, kneeling down in front of her and looked up at her. His innocent shaking eyes were trembling wildly. Elise let out a shallow breath she didn’t know she was holding. There was no way she could avoid an explanation.

“You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But why….”

“There’s no poison. I lied. So please leave.”