After the situation was somewhat resolved, Melphis left. Ren and I checked the handsome man we had kidnapped this time.

The person we kidnapped this time was a handsome man with blonde hair and purple eyes.

That kind of style that looks gentle and affectionate.

He appeared in a square crowded with people, and I kidnapped him in front of everyone.

Perhaps because there were many witnesses, rumors of the appearance of the handsome kidnapper quickly spread throughout the city.

That’s probably why the tail following Melphis fell off so quickly.

Thanks to the target who appeared at just the right time and place, things went smoothly.

‘Since I’m grateful, I should tell them to provide extra special meals while he’s detained.’

I secretly hoped it might be Callys since it had been a while since I kidnapped a handsome man, but unfortunately that didn’t seem to be the case.

The overly flashy attire didn’t look like someone who had escaped from prison.

Still, we planned to continue surveillance since he was handsome.

Satisfied with summarizing the day’s events, I collapsed onto the bed from exhaustion.

Perhaps due to using my ability, my body seemed excessively fatigued.

“They say muscles get used to it the more you use them… why is my body like this?”

It’s already been over a year since I obtained this power.

It should have started to become familiar by now, but my ability still strangely only brought me fatigue.

It felt like wearing clothes that didn’t quite fit.

However, what was really troubling me the most now wasn’t lack of stamina or anything like that.

‘The original story…’

Now that the urgent situation was dealt with, I could no longer put off thinking about it.

The flow of the original novel had collapsed. And in quite a serious direction at that.

‘Actually, I had noticed things were going off track a little.’

In the original story, Ludovica never attended the banquet, but she recently changed her mind.

‘I thought it was just a small change that could be ignored until now…’

But Siegfried’s fiancée changing was a huge alteration that simply couldn’t be disregarded.

Especially since the person he got engaged to changed to Leonie.

Of course, many other situations had changed as well.

Ludovica, who should have lived a lonely life without a single friend, now had me, and Veronica, who should be fighting for the throne, was currently obsessed with catching the serial handsome man kidnapper.

‘I guess the plan to find Callys by kidnapping handsome men was nonsensical after all.’

After pondering for a moment, I shook my head.

‘No. My plan was perfect enough. The problem is that the information guild didn’t provide information about Callys in time.’

As a result, things unintentionally blew up like this.

‘Who would have known the Gerald Information Guild would be this incompetent…’

In the original story, the Gerald Information Guild was described as the most capable guild whenever it was mentioned.

They quickly provided whatever information the female and male protagonists wanted.

They even gathered information about demons, to the extent that most imperial citizens weren’t even aware of the existence of demons until the invasion actually began.

Not only that, but even the emperor who should be looking after the empire knew nothing.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Princess Veronica was almost the only person in the imperial family who was wary of the demons’ existence.

So to investigate demons, one had to search through ancient documents.

The Gerald Information Guild would somehow provide the information the two protagonists needed, whether by infiltrating the imperial restricted library or stealing ancient books to follow their orders.

So naturally, I was confident they would find Callys’s whereabouts within a month or two.

‘But in reality… Over a year has passed easily, and they say they haven’t found out anything.’

If I had expected information gathering to take this long, I wouldn’t have even come up with the crazy plan of kidnapping all handsome men.

However, I decided to stop blaming.

Having come this far, I had no intention of letting things flow according to the original story.

‘If left alone, the Belvedere tragedy would occur, and I can’t let that happen.’

In the past, I thought it had nothing to do with me.

But not anymore.

I’ve come to know what kind of people Ludovica and Dietrich are.

I’ve witnessed with my own eyes how they laugh and what expressions they make when they joke around.

I can’t just sit back knowing what kind of future awaits them.

‘The original story had to be disrupted in some form anyway. The important thing now is how to use the existing flow going forward.’

The first thing to do is prevent the Belvedere tragedy.

If I could just prevent that tragic event, there would be many benefits in various ways.

It was good that the human side’s forces would increase since Dietrich was literally worth a hundred men.

The biggest advantage was that Dietrich and Ludovica wouldn’t have to make the same choices after being driven into such a cruel situation.

‘So let’s somehow prevent that tragedy with my own hands.’

Lying on the bed, deep in thought, I turned over and buried my face in the blanket.

There was still more to consider.

‘Should I tell Ren about the demons in advance after all?’

Having decided to overturn the original story, we would have to fight the demons someday.

Demon extermination was an extremely dangerous task. I couldn’t do such a thing together with Ren.

The problem was, considering that guy’s personality, he seemed like he would follow me anywhere I went…

‘That absolutely cannot happen.’

Ren already means more to me than just a subordinate.

I absolutely don’t want him to get hurt by following me around needlessly.

‘Let’s explain about the demons and tell Ren to hide somewhere safe.’

For the imperial citizens, demons are nothing more than imaginary beings.

They don’t even dream that there’s a demon realm besides the human world, let alone that they’re trying to dominate this world.

‘Veronica was the only one who was aware of this situation.’

Therefore, if I suddenly said we need to defeat demons, everyone would surely treat me like a cult member.

‘But Ren will believe me. No matter how absurd it sounds.’

Come to think of it, I promised to go on a picnic with Ren in two weeks.

As thanks for repairing my mother’s keepsake that day.

‘Let’s have fun that day and then tell him everything. About the demons and that I plan to stop kidnapping handsome men because of it.’

Of course, I couldn’t stop searching for the male lead, so I planned to ask Ren for this.

To help find Callys by contacting the information guild instead of me.

I finally made all the plans.

But why do I feel more uncomfortable rather than at ease?

I closed my eyes with mixed feelings.

I hoped this headache-inducing situation would be resolved soon.

While Vivian was resting in her bedroom, Ren had secretly come to the headquarters of the Gerald Information Guild.

“My lord, Miss Vivian has been cleared from the list of suspects.”

Ren nodded slightly at the Master’s report, which was a bit more serious than usual.

“Continue to watch the princess and check if she’s not suspicious of Vivian.”

“Oh my, of course. I’m not a fool either. I’ll report immediately if any problem arises regarding the young lady, whatever it may be.”

The Master had expected him to be a little happier at the good news. But Ren’s reaction was more bland than anticipated.

However, for Ren, the current situation was merely an expected result. It was a setup he had arranged from the beginning.

Ren had the Master find a suitably handsome man and deliberately place him in the square where investigators were gathered.

Unaware of this fact, Vivian kidnapped the handsome man, and as Ren thought, the tail quickly fell off.

The one who played the biggest role in this plan was, of course, Melphis.

Although he didn’t want to admit it, his disguise was almost perfect.

At least in appearance, he was a spitting image of Vivian, so it was natural for the tail to be fooled.

Of course, if it had been him, he wouldn’t have been fooled by such a disguise.

At least in Ren’s eyes, it was clumsy beyond compare.

Ren understood Vivian more thoroughly than she thought.

Her small habits when lying. The pitch of her voice when she laughs. Even her body scent.

He didn’t intentionally try to figure it out, but all his senses beyond sight always pursued only her.

However, he had no intention of revealing this fact to Vivian.

Not only that, Ren had no intention of revealing anything to Vivian.

That the clumsy Vivian hadn’t been caught yet was all due to Ren’s behind-the-scenes work.

That he was the actual owner of the Gerald Information Guild that Vivian was using.

Even the fact that he was actually Callys von Agrian, whom she was desperately searching for.

Ren, no, Callys had no intention of telling Vivian anything.

It was to stay by her side forever.