Late at night, well past midnight.

The place Veronica headed with a tired face was not her bedroom, but her office.

There was still work left to be done.

Until interrogating Vivian earlier in the day, she hadn’t expected today to drag on this long.

Due to the sudden appearance of a monster, she had to deploy troops to deal with it.

The biggest task before her was none other than managing the situation.

People injured by debris from buildings destroyed by the monster needed to be rescued.

Overseeing and directing everything was quite tiring work.

The one fortunate thing was that there were no casualties, but nevertheless, the oncoming fatigue was unavoidable.

As she pressed her temples to soothe her headache, the guard beside her spoke with a worried voice.

“Your Highness, it’s late. I think it would be best if you retired for the night.”

Instead of answering, Veronica shook her head.

Due to the monster’s sudden intrusion, she hadn’t finished the tasks that needed to be done today.

Among them, what particularly concerned her was… regarding Vivian Schmidt.

Veronica’s desk was filled with documents related to Vivian and notes she had written earlier in the day.

Spreading out the papers so she could see everything at a glance, she spoke gravely to the guard.

“Trian, don’t you also think Vivian Schmidt was suspicious?”

The guard immediately answered as if there was no need to even think about it.

“Yes, Your Highness. She was trembling so much I would have believed it if she was called a serial handsome man kidnapper.”

The Imperial Princess also agreed with his opinion.

She seemed to be hiding a power strong enough to massacre mages, and showed a strange reaction when asked if she was a serial handsome man kidnapper.

Being close friends with Dietrich as well, Vivian Schmidt seemed to be deeply involved with the handsome man kidnappings in many ways.

She wanted to arrest her right away, but the problem was…

There was not a single piece of evidence that she was the culprit.

Even though she had ordered her subordinates to search Vivian’s residence while meeting with her, they couldn’t find any clues.

It seemed she was thoroughly destroying evidence on a regular basis.

“If only we could have at least tailed her…”

But she couldn’t assign another tail.

She had already lost three subordinates.

Of course, catching the serial handsome man kidnapper was extremely important, but she couldn’t tell her subordinates to tail the culprit prepared to die in order to catch them.

As Veronica’s expression grew more serious while examining the documents, Trian suddenly spoke up.

“Imperial Princess, I will tail her.”

“Not allowed. You are my guard, there is no need for you to carry out other tasks.”

Veronica immediately refused, rendering the words he had spoken with firm resolve meaningless. Undeterred, Trian resolutely expressed his intentions once again.

“Your Highness. Though I may not be as strong as the young Marquis Belvedere, I am one of the strongest swordsmen. I pride myself as the strongest among Your Highness’s arms and legs. I already know you are refusing out of concern for losing me.”

“……”

The Imperial Princess could only make a complex expression, unable to easily answer. Her true feelings had been completely read.

After observing her expression for a moment, Trian continued speaking in a confident voice with emphasis.

“I will show you that I can do it. So please entrust this task to me.”

Veronica let out a deep sigh while resting her forehead on her hand. She pondered for a moment with her head lowered.

“…Do you really have confidence?”

“Yes, Your Highness. I will thoroughly uncover Vivian Schmidt’s every move and report it to you.”

Veronica, uncharacteristically rubbing her face, gave permission to do as he wished.

Trian Schneider knelt on one knee with joy.

Then he took Veronica’s hand wearing a blue glove and lightly kissed it.

“Everything will be according to Your Highness’s will.”

His eyes fixed on his lord were burning with loyalty.

In the end, last night I tossed and turned, lost in thoughts of the past.

I barely managed to shake off the trauma and fall asleep after seeing the morning star.

I wanted to sleep more since I was still tired, but Ren’s voice coming from the communication device wouldn’t let me.

− Lady Vivian, Lady Vivian. Are you still sleeping?

I rustled and pulled back the blanket I was covered with. Just as I was about to answer Ren, he urgently said:

− Do not answer at all.

Calling out as soon as I woke up and then telling me not to answer.

Wondering what on earth was going on, I remained silent for a moment, and he slowly continued:

“If you understood, please cough once, and if you don’t understand, cough twice. And absolutely do not show any signs that you are in conversation with someone.”

Ahem.

When I sent a positive signal with one cough, he began to explain.

− There’s a tail on you now. They’re checking your movements through the window. First, please close the window. So they can’t see you talking to yourself.

A tail, huh. I wasn’t surprised.

Considering the suspicious behavior I showed yesterday, it was only natural for the Imperial Princess to keep an eye on me unless she was a fool.

I got up from the bed and headed towards the window as naturally as possible.

“Oh my, dust. I should close the window for now.”

Just as I finished my performance, trying to be as natural as possible while closing the window, Ren’s firm voice came through the communication device.

− I’m very sorry to say this, but please stop the artificial acting.

“Mm-hmm.”

I shrank back at his strict tone and timidly responded.

‘Right, I’ve already messed up badly with acting once, no need to mess up again…’

It was the greatest performance of my life in my opinion, but the fact that it was just bad acting in others’ eyes made me a little sad.

Still, since I had closed the window, I could speak freely. I immediately asked Ren what exactly was going on.

− While I was looking around the streets for any new handsome men, I discovered someone monitoring Lady Vivian.

Well, it wasn’t unexpected, but they moved quickly to put someone on me.

− It would be better to be careful with your actions for the time being. Even if a handsome man appears, we’ll have to postpone the kidnapping. I’ll get their profile in advance through the information guild.

I had been nodding along as I listened, but I paused for a moment.

Everything Ren said was right, but I couldn’t stop kidnapping handsome men.

With the original story already in such a mess, if I couldn’t find Callys too, it would be completely over.

Honestly, even if I continued kidnapping handsome men, I wasn’t sure if I could find him, but for now, it was the best option.

Kidnapping handsome men was practically the only means for me to find Callys.

I held my head and groaned for a while. But then a brilliant idea flashed through my mind.

“About the tail. They’re doing it because they think I’m the handsome man kidnapper, right?”

− Yes, that’s how it is for now.

“Then what if I could perfectly prove that I’m not the handsome man kidnapper?”

− What do you…

“I’m the one who caused this trouble, so I’ll try to clean it up well. Ren, just wait at the hideout for now!”

I abruptly cut off the communication.

Then I took out the leaf I had been keeping safely in the drawer.

It was a uniquely shaped leaf with a mix of black and green.

It was an item I received from Melphis on the day I went to buy a dress before the banquet and met him.

‘He said if I tear this in half, he would appear, right?’

It was something he gave me saying to call him if I ever wanted to go on a date, but I decided to use it a bit more productively.

After carefully checking and closing all the windows inside the house, I tore the leaf.

Rip. Smoke came from the torn leaf, and suddenly Melphis appeared.

“Oh? Vivian?”

He was shirtless, as if he had been summoned in the middle of changing clothes.

Surprised by this, I almost let out a shriek, but Melphis quickly covered my mouth.

“Shh. Someone’s watching. If you scream, they’ll find it suspicious. Can you be quiet?”

His vertically slit pupils like a snake’s looked down at me. I slowly nodded, and he removed his hand.

“Oh Vivian. I did give it to you to call me, but to call at a time like this. Pervert!”

No, it’s not like I knew.

I wanted to protest out of indignation, but wanting to resolve this situation where I had nowhere to look, I calmed down first.

“Um, okay, just put on some clothes first.”

“Are you serious? I know. Actually, Vivian can’t take her eyes off my unexpectedly impressive torso right now. Won’t you be disappointed if I put clothes on?”

An intense wave of fatigue washed over me even though I had just gotten out of bed.

Unconsciously rubbing between my eyebrows from exhaustion, Melphis gave a playful smile.

“I’m joking, joking. Ta-da! I’m dressed, right? I put on my favorite outfit for our date.”

As Melphis snapped his fingers, clothes suddenly appeared on his body.

“But I didn’t expect you to call me out. To think Vivian finally decided to go on a date with me. This must mean Vivian sees me as a romantic interest…”

I urgently cut off his words as he was busy drinking his imaginary celebratory soup.

“Um, sorry. I didn’t call you for a date, I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it? Do you want me to get rid of that guy tailing you? I guess it wouldn’t be easy to date with someone following you around.”

I shook my head hurriedly from side to side.

It was true I called him because of the tail, but I didn’t mean for him to get rid of them. That would only make me look more suspicious.

“Actually, I’m being suspected as the serial handsome man kidnapper right now. So I was thinking of using this situation.”

“Using it?”

“Yeah, but I think I’ll need your help for that?”

As I explained the plan, he smiled strangely as if finding it interesting.