Everyone was exhausted, so we needed to rest.
And since I was technically the host, it was my job to assign rooms for the guests who had come to my house.
For starters, Ethan and I decided to keep using the two rooms facing each other on the first floor, next to the banquet hall.
The three rooms on the opposite side of the lobby, near the salon, were given to Nox, Harrison, and Vanilla.
We had to clear out a few storage rooms on the second floor, but since there were nine rooms in total, we were able to assign separate rooms for Amy, Jose, Emma, and Victor.
“Nobles usually use the upper floors, don’t they? Though I guess in this situation, the first floor might be better,” Jose muttered, looking intrigued.
It wasn’t like I divided the floors based on nobility. If that were the case, Harrison and I would’ve gone upstairs, and Jose would’ve come down.
Anyway, that wasn’t the issue right now.
Harrison looked like he was about to start bombarding me with questions at any second.
Honestly, I had a lot I wanted to ask him, too—how he managed to get here, how he met Jose and Vanilla, and so on.
But I was too damn tired to hold a conversation.
In the end, Harrison didn’t ask anything and just went to his room. He’d probably bring it up tomorrow.
And so, the night dragged on.
It had been an incredibly exhausting day. I felt like I’d fall asleep the moment my head hit the pillow, but strangely, sleep wouldn’t come.
I ended up wandering out into the garden and sitting on a bench. It was the same bench where Ethan, Nox, and I had our morning milk while looking out at the garden.
The moonlight cast an eerie glow over the yard. The vegetables I’d planted in the garden didn’t show any signs of sprouting yet.
‘Well, it hasn’t been that long since I planted them...’
I was staring blankly at the garden when it happened.
A small figure came tumbling down from the sky in a perfect arc.
It was Amy.
Wait. Amy fell from the sky?
“Hey! Get back here right now!”
An angry voice shouted from the second floor. I turned to see Jose leaning out of a window, yelling at Amy.
Lights flickered on in the surrounding rooms as the commotion woke everyone up.
I stared at Amy, who had landed on the ground and was rolling across the lawn.
“Amy! Are you okay?!”
I rushed over immediately. Jumping from the second floor wouldn’t kill her, but without the right landing technique, she could’ve easily broken something.
Amy, however, looked completely fine. She brushed the dirt off her clothes and stood up, grinning as if nothing had happened.
“Unni!”
I quickly looked her over to make sure she wasn’t hurt. Thankfully, there weren’t any injuries.
I already knew Amy was agile and flexible like a gymnast, but this was even more impressive than I’d expected.
“Amy, what the hell were you doing at this hour?”
I asked, and she pointed to Jose, who was still hanging halfway out of the second-floor window.
“That idiot kept looking down on me, so I decided to show him what I’m capable of.”
“When did I ever look down on you?!”
Jose shouted from upstairs.
“You said it was amazing that someone my age survived on their own! That’s looking down on me!”
Amy’s face turned red as she snapped at him.
‘That sounded more like admiration than mockery, though...’
Still, Amy seemed to have a complex about it, and her tone toward Jose was downright hostile.
Jose looked flustered and glanced at me for help. If he’d had ears and a tail, they’d definitely be drooping right now. He quickly retreated back inside.
Amy, still huffing, turned back to me.
“So, what were the two of you doing out here in the middle of the night?”
“Unni, before lights out, I overheard Hunter Unni and Pretty Boy whispering to each other. And guess what? That pretty boy is an illegal arms smuggler.”
“...Wait, what?”
“But I’m sure there’s more to it—he’s definitely hiding something, and he won’t talk about it. Suspicious, isn’t it? How does it make sense for someone like that to be wandering around Happy House, with all its defenses, and us not knowing what he’s up to? That’s why I, Amy Wharton, decided to step up. You know I’m good at pickpocketing, right? I snuck into his room to look for evidence but got caught. So, yeah.”
...Seriously?
I had no idea where to even start pointing out the problems here. The entire story was a mess from start to finish.
And besides, I knew Jose Cambren wasn’t someone who’d harm Happy House. After all, he was a character from Love in a Ruined World.
Jose was a weapons expert—someone who could modify and customize weapons however he wanted. He was resourceful, practical, and definitely more of an asset than a liability.
But what secret was he hiding? Aside from the illegal arms smuggling rumors, what else could Jose possibly be keeping from us?
‘Wait... did Harrison hire him?’
Harrison probably brought Jose here to teach me how to use weapons.
‘So that means Jose is here because of me.’
Thinking about it, I’d pretty much destroyed the original storyline by this point. Honestly, I might as well be the main character now. Not that my version of this story would have any romance in it...
Anyway, if I told Ethan that Harrison had hired Jose to smuggle weapons for me, I had no idea how he’d react.
I wondered if Amy had even considered the possibility that the shadiest person here was actually Sinclair.
Sorry, but yeah—my family was a corrupt corporation.
I decided to steer the conversation in another direction.
“Amy, more importantly, Vanilla isn’t a hunter. She’s a noblewoman.”
“But she hunts, right? I heard she can shoot birds out of the sky. Haven’t you seen the game she’s brought back?”
“I have. She once brought back two at the same time.”
“See? She’s a hunter.”
“...Then what does that make me? I’m good at killing monsters with an axe. Am I a mercenary now?”
“Obviously. You’re a special-grade mercenary, Unni.”
“That actually sounds like a pretty lucrative side job in times like these.”
“Want me to come up with a business plan? I know my way around back-alley deals.”
Since when were mercenaries also back-alley merchants?
Still, Amy probably would do well in business. Running a shady operation takes quick thinking and a talent for lying.
Not that there were any back alleys left to do business in anymore.
Regardless, chatting with Amy about nonsense turned out to be more fun than I expected.
That was when Ethan’s voice suddenly rang out behind us.
“What are you two even talking about? That conversation was a mess.”
He gave us a look that said he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Harrison was standing next to him. I scratched the back of my head.
“Oh. We were talking about Jose Cambren.”
“No, you weren’t. You were talking about back-alley businesses.”
Ethan snorted, looking both exasperated and amused.
Right then, the front door burst open, and Jose came storming out.
Panting heavily, he glared at Amy.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Amy ducked behind me, poking her head out to glare right back at him.
“Well, you wouldn’t answer any questions about your past! That’s suspicious as hell!”
While the two of them bickered, Harrison quietly stepped closer to me and asked,
“Miss, are you all right? You’re not too tired, are you?”
His voice was warm as he gently placed his hand on my forehead.
Harrison rarely showed emotions, and his expressions were always stiff, but moments like this reminded me why my younger self had misunderstood him. It was just too easy to get the wrong idea.
As Harrison touched my cheek, Ethan—who had been watching the argument—suddenly turned toward us.
“I’m fine. I just couldn’t sleep, so I came outside for some air.”
Even after hearing that, Harrison didn’t take his eyes off me. He carefully checked my face one last time before pulling his hand away.
I could feel Ethan’s sharp gaze stabbing into the side of my face, but Harrison straightened up calmly and looked at Amy.
“I can vouch for Jose Cambren’s past, so please stop treating him like a criminal.”
Harrison adjusted his glasses as he fixed Amy with a firm stare.
Amy hesitated and clutched at my sleeve.
To be fair, Amy’s past was even more questionable than Jose’s. And everyone here knew that—they just chose not to bring it up. It was their way of showing consideration.
Amy lowered her head, suddenly looking small and dejected. I silently patted her head a couple of times.
“Everyone, get back inside. If you keep making this much noise at night, you’ll all get hauled off somewhere.”
Ethan sounded completely fed up.
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Jose muttered that it was all Amy’s fault, but Amy immediately shot back,
“And where exactly would you take us? The police station doesn’t even exist anymore.”
She looked completely serious, like she actually wanted an answer.
Ethan’s expression slowly went blank. Even I found it intimidating.
Tilting his head slightly, he said in a low, flat voice,
“Are you curious? There’s a place we take people who don’t listen. You really shouldn’t want to find out where it is.”
There was something heavy about the way he said it, making it sound even more threatening.
Ethan was clearly trying to scare Amy on purpose—probably to shut her up before anyone else joined in. It looked like he was trying to smooth things over in his own way.
Amy must’ve realized that, too, because she finally shut her mouth.
I shook my head and led her back inside the house.
Before heading to his room, Ethan glanced at Amy, let out a deep sigh, and patted her head lightly—almost like an afterthought—before walking away.
Amy still looked sulky.
This wasn’t like her at all. She wasn’t the type to let scoldings get to her.
What was going on?
I’d probably have to sit her down for a serious talk soon.
For now, though, everyone needed some rest.
It was an incredibly noisy first night with the new additions to our group.