Another Life, Another Me

50. Not a Game

I ran back to the Moonlit Feast with Ace trailing me without taking a break to rest.

There was no time.

When we made it back, I scanned our table carefully.

Florence...Ash...Grey...Deux...and the twins.

Everyone was there except for Lilly.

Good.

We made it back before Lilly did...

I collapsed on the ground as all the air trapped in my lungs left me.

"Cordelia...?!" Ace yelled slightly as he wrapped his hands around my shoulder, attempting to support me from the ground.

"...I'm...fine..." I muttered.

But no matter how hard I tried, my legs weren't working the way I wanted them to.

I could hear the screeching of chairs being pushed as everyone from our dinner table stood up sharply as they saw me collapsed on the ground near them.

"Brat...?! Hey...Brat! What's wrong with you?!" my brother, Ash, yelled as he ran over to me at lightning speed to help Ace support me.

Deux moved over to me with a small frown on his face.

From the corner of my eye, I could see the twins along with their teddy bear stare at me closely.

...Were they trying to read my mind or something...?

They had scary looks on their faces.

Huh.

I always thought that the twins were carefree.

I must've been wrong.

"Milady...Would you care to explain how you ended up like this...?" my servant, Grey, asked from afar as he stared at me with some...pretty dark looking eyes.

I could see Florence standing by Grey.

He was strangely quiet.

Normally, he would normally bother me about this...but right now he was eyeing the steak knives on the table with a scary look on his face.

I wonder why.

"Guys. I'm alright. All of you are overreacting way too much. I'm not even injured! I'm just tired from...uh...playing a game of tag with Ace! Yeah...definitely...yep..." I said as I rolled my eyes at all of them.

"You're an awful liar, Lia. It makes it seem like you don't trust us enough," Florence said at an attempt to guilt-trip me into telling the truth.

But I wasn't going to fall for it.

"I'm d-definitely telling the truth! I was t-totally playing a game of tag with Ace earlier! Ace is way too fast for me...so our game...uh...turned into a workout session...uh...halfway through..." I stuttered as I tried to fortify my lie.

"Brat. All of us here would need a combined brain cell count of ten in order for us to fall for your awful lying skills...Just tell us the truth already," Ash groaned as he watched me.

"E-Excuse me?! I'll have you know that I am an excellent liar!!!" I yelled in defense.

"...So you admit that you're lying, Lia?" Florence questioned with a grim look on his face.

"What?! N-No! Of course n-not! I didn't mean it that way! I meant that I am telling the truth right now, but I can be a good liar when I need to be!" I replied loudly.

"Milady...What must I do to drag the truth out of you...? What do you want me to do...?" Grey asked in a scary voice.

I gave a small gulp under the pressure.