There Is No Lie In This World-Chapter 27: Elune’s Room

Elune was in tears.

While she didn’t fully break down and wail, she had been shedding tears for an hour since she started to pack ’my’ things.

But none of them were actually mine. Luc had given the instruction that I could - and should - take anything I need. I insisted that I would leave just with the old suit and shoes that I wore to come here, taking nothing with me, but Elune was irresistibly insistent that I take away with me the ’best of the best’ from my wardrobe.

She pleaded with me to stay. Just for another month. Just for a fortnight. Just for a week. Just for another day.

I firmly refused every time, but seeing her so sad like that made it harder each time.

I couldn’t quite understand. It was easy to see that she was a very gentle person and soft in the heart. And she was extremely nice to me earlier in the day before I had to go to the Zhen Tea Room. But it was incomprehensible that she could be so genuinely heartbroken over me leaving - someone she hardly knew.

On one hand this made me feel extremely guilty, bringing such distress to an angelic girl. On the other hand, it started to strengthen my resolve, ironically. It was a clear sign that I was needed - and wanted - as Lin Roen the CEO of the Roen Group. It did not matter who I was or what people knew about me. My position made me someone to be adored so unconditionally. It wasn’t about me at all. It had nothing to do with me.

"Miss Roen, could you please reconsider...?"

She asked me again for the umpteenth time. It was hard for me to say yet another ’no.’

I just shook my head to reject once again.

Then she finally broke down. Her hands trembling, eyes closed yet tears pouring down uncontrollably. I wasn’t good with such things, but I couldn’t just stand and watch her suffer like that.

I put my arm around her shoulder and tried to console her.

"Elune... thank you for everything. But I’m sure the next one that comes in will do much better than I could ever dream of. And I’m sure they will be more deserving of your work too."

That didn’t seem to comfort her.

"But then the Mistress will..." she muttered in between her sobs.

"...Luc?"

Then Elune gasped, covering her mouth with her palm as if she said something she shouldn’t have.

Something was really off.

"Tell me. What about Luc?"

She hesitated as if she was making a life changing decision. Her eyes darted around everywhere except meeting mine. Her hands fidgety.

"It’s OK. I won’t tell anyone. Tell me what’s wrong with Luc."

She uncovered her mouth, brought her hands together in front of her chest in a prayer position. Her eyes were now full of determination.

"The Mistress needs your help."

My mind went blank for a second.

"Need my... help? What could I possibly do for her? Is she unwell? Is there any problem?"

"You not being around will be a problem. Yes, a BIG problem."

"I don’t understand."

"The Mistress will become very ill if you went away - she may not even recover."

"That doesn’t make any sense at all..."

Elune then looked around the room as if she was checking if there were any ears listening in.

"Your presence is what holds her together," she whispered into my ear.

The girl then brought her face very close to mine, staring right into my eyes, eyes full of expectation and excitement - that somehow she felt she convinced me to change my mind and stay.

Surely, Elune was seriously misunderstanding something here.

"Elune, Luc doesn’t need me in any shape or form. I am just nobody..."

"You are not! And you are absolutely needed here!"

"Please explain..."

Now completely sure of herself, having crossed some invisible line of her inhibitions I couldn’t understand, Elune grabbed my hand and spoke.

"Can I invite you to my room?"

"...eh?"

"Please, come!"

With that, she literally dragged me across the room to exit the office.

She was walking fast and her grip was impossibly strong. It felt like she could pick me up, carry me and run if she wanted.

How could this girl slender girl be so strong?

Just another abnormality that made no sense in this place...

She led me through a corridor on my floor that I hadn’t seen before. It was a complete dead end and only a plain gray wall stood before us.

"Where are we going?"

She just placed her palm on the wall, whispered something, and walked straight through it - dragging me along as if the wall were just a projection of an image.

For a split second, my skin tingled all over. It was like walking through cold mist. The world bent. I felt my heartbeat stutter.

And then—

We were on the other side.

The new corridor that stretched in front of me seemed endless. It was lined with countless number of doors on each side. The place was very dark. Candles on the wall burnt in gray flame. I’d never seen anything like that before.

"Please close your eyes," Elune asked and I followed.

We walked for what felt like a quite long time and then stopped. I heard a door creak open and it seemed Elune led me into the room now.

"You can open your eyes now, Miss Roen."

When I opened my eyes, I was surprised by how big the room actually was. It seemed impossibly big considering how close the doors were to each other in the hallway.

I looked around and what caught my eye - or rather, what was impossible to miss was that all walls were covered with paintings and photographs of various sizes, much like the hallway that Luc showed me which had all the previous head of the Roen family on display.

I walked closer to the nearest picture - an oil painting. It seemed very old, like centuries old. There were two people in the painting that I could recognize instantly. One of them was the First Roen - the Founder.

And the other one was Luc.