“Then does Your Grace… still need me?”

This was what I couldn’t bring myself to say to Jessie, what I desperately wanted to ask Abel.

I felt like I might stupidly just cry without being able to do anything, gripped by anxiety that I could be driven out of House Esper like this.

“……”

Unlike before, Abel didn’t answer right away and just silently stared at her.

“Please tell me. Do you still……”

“Stop.”

When Irene, feeling anxious, tried to press for an answer, Abel cut her off firmly.

Then, resting his elbow on the sofa backrest and propping his chin, he asked.

“Come to think of it, that’s also part of what you want to hear, and if you asked this, you could have clearly known why I brought you here, so why are you asking me instead of Kalos? Did you perhaps ask that guy, but he didn’t answer?”

Momentarily flustered by the barrage of questions that felt like an interrogation, Irene couldn’t say anything.

“Ah, that’s……”

“It seems you didn’t ask him anything at all.”

She tried to speak up belatedly, but this time her words were blocked as it hit the mark.

As Irene remained silent like a mute who had eaten honey, Abel smiled, raising the corner of his lips crookedly.

“I’m curious why you asked me but couldn’t ask Kalos anything. Surely it’s not because I’m more comfortable than Kalos.”

Of course not.

Though if only considering personalities, Abel was easier to deal with than Kalos.

Separately from that, Irene found Abel uncomfortable and unsettling.

But why did she ask Abel such things instead of Kalos?

‘I don’t know either.’

It was just that she felt frustrated not knowing Kalos’s thoughts, and as she pondered how to resolve this frustration, she recalled what Abel had said.

That he would tell her the reason anytime if she wanted to know.

She simply thought that was why she sought out Abel.

“Are you perhaps afraid of being abandoned by Kalos?”

Irene’s eyes shook greatly at the words that sharply pierced through.

Abel didn’t stop there and delivered the finishing blow.

“You’re afraid that he might say he no longer needs you, and so might abandon you, so you asked me first, right?”

……Yes, that was the reason.

Whether because of it or thanks to it, Irene, realizing a fact that had been deeply hidden and unnoticed until now, squeezed her eyes shut.

“Are you afraid of being abandoned by Kalos?”

Opening her eyes again at the question that came flying once more, Irene blankly stared at Abel, then gazed into space, then looked down at the intricate pattern on the tablecloth before nodding her head.

“I’m… afraid.”

At the unadorned honest answer, Abel smiled and asked back.

“Why are you afraid?”

“……”

That’s right. Why am I afraid of being abandoned by that man?

I should be glad if he abandons me, considering I once plotted to escape from Kalos’s side, but why……

“……Because I’ll have nowhere to go?”

It was a question she was asking herself at the same time as answering Abel’s question.

Irene thought about the question for a moment, then slowly answered.

“If Your Grace abandons me…… because I’ll have nowhere to go, because I’ll be alone again…… I think that’s why I’m afraid.”

Yes. That’s right. This is why I’m afraid.

“Hmm.”

While Irene was satisfied with the conclusion she had reached herself, Abel didn’t seem to be, as he made a strange nasal sound and tilted his head crookedly.

“Is that the only reason?”

Irene looked at Abel, blinking her eyes slowly.

“Should there be… other reasons?”

“I don’t know either. It’s your heart after all.”

That may be so, but that question just now seemed like he knew other reasons……

As Irene kept staring silently, Abel shrugged his shoulders.

“If that’s the only reason, you don’t need to worry. Kalos will never abandon you.”

Never?

“How can you be so sure?”

Abel leaned his upper body towards Irene and asked back in a subtle voice.

“To tell you that, I’d have to tell you the reason why that guy brought you here. Would that be okay?”

“……”

Irene flinched in surprise and lowered her gaze, then shook her head.

“No. It’s fine. What you’ve told me so far is enough. Thank you.”

Finding it funny how Irene not only declined but drew a clear line, Abel laughed so hard his shoulders shook.

*

Thanks to receiving blessings, the investigation team from the temple side was relatively intact, but not the imperial investigation team.

Not only were they paralyzed by the poison that Dewey had secretly fed them to hinder the temple investigation team, but they suffered various side effects that left their bodies in tatters.

If there was one thing better than the temple investigation team, it was that not a single person had died or gone missing.

The imperial investigation team, who had barely arrived at the Esper territory with their battered bodies, first sought out doctors rather than Kalos.

Kalos immediately sent doctors, and while they were receiving treatment, he had a friendly chat with the temple investigation team.

The conversation ended well, but the imperial investigation team was still undergoing treatment.

‘It’s taking quite a long time.’

As they were people who had suffered due to their own greed, Kalos waited without complaint until their treatment was finished.

While leisurely checking documents he hadn’t seen yet as he waited, Dewey entered the room where he was, with a strange expression.

“What’s the matter?”

“I just received a message from Jessie saying that Miss is currently meeting with the Lord of the Blue.”

What nonsense is this again?

Kalos frowned deeply as he looked at Dewey.

“Why is she meeting with Abel?”

“She didn’t say why. She just said that Miss insisted on meeting the Lord of the Blue……”

To ask to meet Abel without giving a reason – it was suspicious.

Kalos immediately tried to look into her situation through the shadow he had attached to Irene.

“……”

But his vision was blurry as if covered in mist, and he couldn’t see anything.

There was a lot of noise in the faintly audible sound as well.

Abel, this bastard pulled some tricks.

Crack, the pen Kalos was holding broke cleanly in two.

Kalos put down the documents he was looking at and the broken pen carelessly on the table, and stood up abruptly.

*

“Oh, come to think of it, aren’t you curious about that?”

What is he talking about?

To Irene’s puzzled words at the statement without subject or object, Abel said while twirling his index finger in the air.

“What was that name again? Ah, Yomi. Aren’t you curious if that guy is safe, what he’s doing now?”

“Ah!”

That’s right, there was Yomi!

Her mind had been so full of Kalos that she had completely forgotten about Yomi.

As Irene exclaimed as if just remembering, Abel clicked his tongue.

“Tsk tsk. No matter how shocking the incident was, to forget about a contracted magic beast. Yomi would be sad if he knew this fact.”

It was a situation where she had nothing to say even with ten mouths.

Irene, shamelessly, asked this and that about Yomi.

“Where is Yomi now? He’s safe, right? If he’s hurt somewhere……”

“He’s safe for now. I don’t know if he’ll be safe in the future though.”

Despite the indifferent voice, such an incredible statement made Irene’s eyes widen.

“What? What do you mean by that?”

“What do I mean? It means exactly what I said.”

Abel still spoke nonchalantly.

“He dared to smash Kalos’s hand as a mere magic beast, so he must pay for his crime.”

“He was being controlled!”

I have to save Yomi somehow!

“There were lots of strange strings attached to Yomi’s body. Like a puppet used in a puppet show. Yomi was clearly being controlled by those strings. Attacking me and Your Grace wasn’t that child’s will!”

“……”

Though she spoke hastily due to her urgent feelings, Abel’s expression stiffened as if he understood.

Seeing that expression sent chills down her spine, and Irene unconsciously took a step back.

She bumped into the sofa and sat down on it again as if collapsing.

“……Ah, sorry.”

Only then did Abel soften his cold expression and smile.

“I didn’t expect you to have seen even that.”

“……”

“No, you read runes and activated magic circles yourself, so of course you saw it?”

Abel scratched his head and muttered to himself, then asked Irene.

“Did you tell anyone else about that story? Like Kalos, for instance.”

Irene shook her head.

“……No. This is the first time I’ve mentioned it.”

“Then don’t tell anyone for a while.”

Don’t tell anyone?

“……”

As Irene looked at him with suspicious eyes at the questionable request that anyone would find suspicious, Abel smiled brightly.

“I have something to look into. If Kalos finds out before that, he’ll surely make a fuss, so keep it a secret until then.”

She didn’t know what he wanted to look into or why Kalos would make a fuss, but that wasn’t what was important to Irene right now.

“Then what about Yomi? If we hide that fact, won’t Yomi take all the blame?”

“It’s okay. We already know that Yomi was being controlled by someone.”

“What? But you said earlier he had to pay the price for smashing Your Grace’s hand……”

Abel winked.

“That was a joke.”

“……”

What nonsense is this?

As Irene made a dumbfounded expression like someone who had been hit on the back of the head, Abel apologized with his hands neatly folded.

“I’m sorry. My playful side activated without me realizing.”

“……”

“Yomi is safe. As you said, there’s still a possibility he’s being controlled, so we’ve just isolated him temporarily until we’re sure that’s not the case.”

Finally coming to her senses, Irene said firmly

“Please don’t joke about lives.”

Abel didn’t answer and just shrugged his shoulders, then asked something else.

“Want to go see Yomi?”

It was an enticing proposal enough to make her forget the rudeness he had just committed.

“Can I go see him?”

“Originally, no.”

“……”

Then why did you ask?

Irene let out an exasperated sigh.

Abel smiled and added an explanation.

“You can’t see him for long or bring him back, but you should be able to see him briefly. He’s your magic beast after all. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

His voice was as sweet as a devil’s whisper.

“I hear Yomi is anxiously waiting for you.”

As if it wasn’t enough that she felt sorry for completely forgetting about Yomi until now, he stimulated that part.

“Don’t you want to see Yomi?”

Of course she wanted to see him.

She wanted to confirm with her own eyes if he was really safe as Abel said, if he wasn’t hurt anywhere.

But……

“I’ll ask Your Grace later and go see him then.”

Assuming Kalos had his reasons for isolating Yomi, Irene chose not to go see him.