The reception room attached to Prince Siegfried’s palace.

There, a man and a woman were sitting face to face side by side.

“I didn’t expect Your Highness to summon me again like this after just a few days.”

Leonie turned her head slightly and gave a shy smile.

“You’re my fiancée. Seeing you over and over is not enough. Rather, I’ve only felt regret for not being able to meet you during those few days.”

A sweet and affectionate voice.

On the surface, Siegfried and Leonie looked like a couple deeply in love with each other.

Despite the fact that this was actually their first time meeting alone.

Though acting like people in love, Leonie had noticed that Siegfried didn’t really have any romantic feelings for her.

She felt the same way, so she had no particular complaints.

After all, he was just a man she had chosen to bring down the annoying Vivian.

‘Still… I do like that attitude itself.’

Indeed, he was completely different from someone like Dietrich Belvedere.

Was it due to the strict education of the imperial family? She liked the prince’s personality of treating her like a lover despite their strategic engagement.

If their married life continued like this, it seemed it would be fine.

As she inwardly evaluated Siegfried, Leonie was secretly satisfied with her fiancé’s various qualities.

However, apart from liking him, she still had questions. About why he had called her out today.

He said it was because he missed her, but they weren’t actually lovers. He must have had some other business with her.

Leonie considered throwing out bait first, but soon decided against it.

From ancient times, it was said that wells are dug by those who are thirsty.

“How have you been these past few days? I’d like to hear about my lovely fiancée.”

“I’ve been a bit busier than usual. After all, as Your Highness’s fiancée, there’s much to prepare. I’ve also been diligently reading, hoping to become a wise empress.”

“I must be a lucky man to have such a diligent woman as my empress.”

After that, the two continued to exchange trivial conversation.

‘Did he really call me here without any special reason?’

Just as Leonie was beginning to wonder this, Siegfried finally started to bring up a meaningful topic.

“I’ve been hiding it because I didn’t want to show you my weak side, but I’ve actually been troubled recently.”

“Weak side? That’s nonsense. If it’s something that’s troubling Your Highness, it must be a difficult matter indeed. If there’s anything I can do to help, I’ll do it gladly.”

Siegfried still hesitated, as if unsure whether it was alright to reveal this to her.

On the surface, he looked like a man seriously agonizing…

‘He’s acting. He called me out to say this in the first place.’

Leonie immediately grasped that his behavior was coming from pretense.

But she didn’t dislike such acting. His true intentions didn’t matter.

As long as he maintained this attitude towards her, Leonie could be satisfied.

She too put on a worried expression and played along with him.

After exchanging such pleasantries back and forth a few times:

“You may all leave now.”

The servants standing guard inside bowed their heads and slowly withdrew.

At last, the atmosphere in the reception room settled into quietness.

Leonie waited for Siegfried to get to the point.

“Miss Leonie… what would you do if a family member committed a crime?”

A probing question. The moment she heard those words, various possibilities flitted through Leonie’s mind.

‘For him to ask such a question means someone in our family has been caught committing a crime.’

Who could it be? Surely not Father? If it was Father, he was certainly capable of such things if there was a political reason.

Mother was similar to Father, so it wouldn’t be strange for her either.

For a moment, her vision blurred.

She inwardly prayed that whoever it was in her family, they hadn’t been caught for a major crime.

Leonie composed herself and, instead of revealing such anxiety, acted innocent as if she knew nothing. This sort of thing was Leonie’s specialty.

“What on earth is going on?”

She covered her slightly parted lips with her hand. Her eyes were wide open.

But Siegfried unexpectedly mentioned a different name.

“Your elder sister, that is, Miss Vivian Schmidt…”

He hesitated as if it was difficult to say.

Normally, she would have waited for him, but having heard Vivian’s name of all people, Leonie couldn’t hold back.

She unconsciously moved closer to Siegfried, took his hand, and urged him on.

“What about my elder sister? Did something happen to her?”

“…We’ve obtained substantial evidence that she’s the serial kidnapper of handsome men. There are witnesses too…”

“…!”

An unimaginable situation.

To think that stupid illegitimate child was the culprit behind such an absurd crime.

Leonie quickly covered the laughter that burst out involuntarily with her hand. She couldn’t quite hide the delight filling her eyes.

‘I wondered what she was up to outside, and she was doing such ridiculous things.’

She kept getting excited at the good news.

Though she wondered how someone like Vivian could commit such a brazen crime, she didn’t really care.

Whatever methods she used, whether she was actually the culprit or not. Such things were trivial matters.

The important fact was that she was now under suspicion by the prince, and there was a high possibility she would end up in prison.

Imagining Vivian being treated as a criminal and meeting a miserable end filled her with indescribable joy.

The lingering resentment from the incident at Princess Veronica’s birthday banquet seemed to be gradually resolving.

However, these feelings had to be kept hidden.

For now, she had to pretend to be shocked by her elder sister’s crime.

“Oh my…! I never dreamed such a thing could happen. No, why would she do such a thing…”

“I too was shocked, but how much more so for you. The problem is there’s no way to capture her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Isn’t she the one who even Princess Veronica couldn’t catch, despite mobilizing knights and magicians, and trying all sorts of methods afterwards? If we suddenly barge into her home, she’ll obviously escape easily.”

“That’s…”

This was troublesome. A criminal should rightfully receive proper punishment.

Especially if it was Vivian.

“If someone close to the culprit could catch her off guard and bring her in, that would be a different story…”

Ah, so this was the real purpose.

Leonie nodded slightly as she heard Siegfried’s following words.

Siegfried stood up and brought over a box. Then he handed its contents to his fiancée.

“What is this?”

“They’re restraints I personally prepared to catch the kidnapper. If we could just put them on her wrists, the culprit wouldn’t be able to struggle, but the problem is I have no way to do it myself.”

Though he was beating around the bush, the gist was simple.

Siegfried wanted Leonie to reassure Vivian and then capture her with those restraints.

Fortunately, this was a welcome proposal for Leonie as well.

She bowed her head deeply, pretending to be upset.

“…Though it truly pains my heart. I’ll take on that role.”

Siegfried exclaimed with a surprised expression.

“Are you serious? I’m truly sorry. Even if she’s a criminal, she’s still your family…”

When he had called her here to make her do this in the first place. What despicable acting.

However, Leonie was equally skilled at acting.

“…No matter if it’s family, I cannot forgive one who has committed a crime.”

Contrary to her bitter voice, her hands gripping the restraints tightly were filled with anticipation for what was to come.

I feel particularly good today.

Is it because I slept in later than usual?

I stretched and got up from bed, heading towards the window.

The warm sunlight seeping through the gap felt so nice that I flung the window open. I wanted to properly feel that sunlight.

‘Ah, it’s warm…’

In truth, I felt good because many things were going smoothly.

A few days ago, according to a letter from the Belvedere family, the Duke and his wife were recovering well after that incident.

And yesterday evening, Ruby also came to visit. She said she wanted to express her gratitude.

Hearing her circumstances, I learned that she had only returned to the mansion after the situation had completely calmed down, and had heard the full story from Dietrich.

She thanked me over and over for saving her parents.

‘Oh Ruby. I received a lot of help too.’

Except for Ren, she was practically my first friend. A truly precious person.

Thinking that I had protected her smile made joy well up from deep in my chest.

Though there’s still a long way to go, I felt like I could do well.

I was also very pleased that I could stop kidnapping handsome men.

It felt incredibly liberating to finally end something that had consumed so much of my time.

Lastly, I successfully completed making defensive artifacts to counter demons.

I distributed these one by one to all my precious people.

‘Things are going smoothly… really.’

I hoped things would continue to go this smoothly.

Just as I thought that.

Outside the window, I saw a familiar carriage with an inscription heading towards our house.

‘Oh please. Not this.’

I prayed it wasn’t what I was thinking, but once again, God was not on my side.

A few minutes later, the face of the person getting out of the carriage was all too familiar to me.

Leonie. My one and only half-sister had somehow come all the way here to see me in person.