"Mr. Kangchuan, Mr. Kangchuan, wait!"
Hearing the call from behind him, Kangchuan Ryu turned around and looked at the approaching Ura Shiran with a subtle expression. He raised an eyebrow, but made no move to greet her.
"What? If you want to ask about that ring, sorry, but Mr. Inui Shoichi has already been in contact with me. He's keeping it for the moment. Whether you want to own it or inspect its condition up close, there's no point coming to me."
At the moment, he did not particularly want to get close to Ura Shiran.
It was not because of any "intuition," nor did he have any particular issue with her. It was simply that after breaking free from that state of chasing treasures and taking it for granted that everyone else was doing the same, Ura Shiran now struck him as strangely unsettling.
If he said she did not care about the Egg of Memories, the longing and disappointment she had shown did not seem fake. Yet if he said she cared deeply about it, neither her identity nor the persona she presented seemed like that of a profit-driven gambler. She should not have displayed such intense desire.
Once he realized that, he almost instinctively wanted to draw a line between himself and this woman. It was enough for them to remain in the relationship of subject and camera. Getting too close gave him a subtle sense of unease.
A vein throbbed on the forehead of Ura Shiran, who was panting from running in high heels.
She had chosen this relatively harmless, delicate female image partly to lower other people's guard, but she had also intended to make use of her appearance.
If the same trouble befell them, most people would instinctively sympathize with and want to help