T Y D O T S F

126

No matter how much I thought about it, it didn't seem like Hestia would have asked for help first.

Just looking at Hestia today, I could tell that this was definitely not the situation she wanted.

In the end, it was only Sage who knocked on the door himself because he knew something.

"I knew because of the necklace."

"You knew just from that one thing?"

"Irene, you always wear it. Every time I see you, the amount you feel from the necklace is slightly different. When you collapse, only the empty pheromone stone remains. If you think about it a little, you'll know where it went."

"okay......?"

It was a very small detail that I would not have noticed if I hadn't looked closely.

So did you notice that my pheromone was working because you saw the energy left on the necklace?

There were still some parts that didn't make sense, but I decided not to ask.

"Is that your answer?"

"huh."

Yeah, since there's not much time left until I have to go back south anyway.

I arrived at the front of the room and turned to Sage to say hello.

"Thank you so much for your work today. I'll go in."

"necklace."

"huh?"

The moment I was about to go inside, Sage stared at the necklace hanging around my neck.

Since everything had already been discovered, there was nothing to hide.

As I looked at him and asked why, he took out a necklace with a different shape from his inner pocket.

"I don't think I can be satisfied with that anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"gift."

A gift? I looked at the thing in his hand. It felt refreshingly cool even though it hadn't even touched my skin yet.

Could it possibly contain my pheromones?

When I opened my eyes wide and looked, Sage smiled faintly.

"I thought it might be necessary."

"......Thank you for your concern, Sage."

"I'll walk you."

"huh."

As I nodded, he carefully changed the necklace for me.

A different level of coolness spread through every part of Sage's neck that he touched.

My body trembled. At the same time, the hand that seemed to have paused for a moment quickly pulled the chain back and moved away.

I glanced up at Sage with regret. Sage flinched, smiled, and took a step back.

... ... What is this now? That was an incredibly unnatural behavior.

"I'll refill it when it runs out, so just let me know if you need it. If you don't know where it is, just wait in my office."

"huh."

"Come in. I have something to do, so I'll be going now."

He walked away without a second thought. I stood in front of the room for a while, muttering suspiciously.