“Tail. Rail.”

Two dark shadows stretched long behind Edmond.

“You called, master.”

“You called, master.”

Tail and Rail.

They were twins, refugees from a village mercilessly wiped out from history by beasts from the Jeder Forest. They were also direct subordinates who swore loyalty when he saved them from nearly becoming food for the beasts while living in a nearby cave.

Tail was assigned to the subjugation unit, while Rail was tasked with protecting Lilien. This was their first proper meeting in about 9 years.

Edmond, who had been looking out the large window that brightly illuminated the dark office, leaned against the window and turned to face the twins. He casually gestured to them with his chin.

Tail pointed at Rail standing next to him, as if he had been waiting, and sneered.

“As you know, this fool nearly died from vaporized poison scattered by an assassin guild member while he was spacing out. How embarrassing. If we had arrived late, he would have died turned to stone.”

Rail glared at Tail with fierce eyes.

“You bastard, can’t you speak more elegantly? Who died? I just fell asleep for a bit!”

“That’s just as foolish, falling asleep while guarding Lady Lilien. Is that why you were entrusted with Lady Lilien’s protection? And I’m speaking respectfully to our master, you know?”

“Speak respectfully to me, your older brother, you bastard! I’m 1 minute older!”

“What, you punk? I told you the medical records were wrong, I’m the older one!”

“It’s me!”

This is real! The twin brothers, Tail and Rail, who were grabbing each other simultaneously, froze.

A chilling killing intent crept up their spines.

The two slowly turned around.

Golden eyes darkened by the shadows were gleaming sharply like those of a predatory bird.

Tail and Rail, their faces pale, hurriedly embraced each other.

“I love you, brother!”

“I love you more, brother!”

Let’s be together forever. Smooch smooch. Tail and Rail even gave each other hot kisses on the cheek and glanced at Edmond.

Years ago, Edmond had warned the brothers who fought almost every day that he would throw them into the jaws of beasts if they quarreled one more time.

The young boys had laughed it off as a joke, and as a result, they almost went to the afterlife together.

The terror of being dangled by the scruff of their necks over the wide-open jaws of a beast like a crocodile.

They could never forget it.

Ha, Edmond sighed and brushed his silver hair that touched his shoulders with an annoyed look. He closed his eyes, furrowed his brow, and said:

“Give me your report.”

Yes sir! Tail and Rail answered tensely. Rail spoke first.

“According to the guild master’s statement, the client who ordered the assassination of Lady Lilien was indeed Countess Vuel. Apparently, she came drunk the night before. It’s surprising how she found such an underground guild, which must have been difficult to locate.”

“And then.”

“But yesterday, she came back saying she wanted to cancel after sobering up. They had already sent the assassin, and that woman hurriedly saved Lady Lilien.”

Rail shuddered at the chilling thought of what would have happened if she hadn’t saved her, and continued.

“According to the guild master’s additional report, it seems that woman used a forgetting potion. He said he found out because he regularly takes antidotes himself, and collapsed due to the side effects of ingesting the poison.”

Edmond twitched his eyebrow and opened his mouth.

“The reason for ordering the assassination?”

“It seems to be an impulsive crime due to alcohol. They say it happens sometimes. Humans who, in a drunken state, act recklessly to kill someone they hold a grudge against.”

Grudge? Edmond narrowed his eyes. It was a word that didn’t fit his sister at all.

“Have you identified the motive?”

“Well……”

Rail scratched his head with a troubled face and smiled.

“It’s unlikely that Lady Lilien, who is kind even to pigeons in the square, would incur anyone’s grudge, and a financial relationship with Countess Vuel, known as a nouveau riche, doesn’t make sense either. There’s no vested interest tied to the lady’s death. The only thing left is a love affair……”

“A love affair?”

Rail, who had been pondering, hurriedly tried to recover from Edmond’s cold gaze that descended on his head.

“No, of course not! Although Lady Lilien often feels lonely, there’s no way she would meet a man. She’s someone who craves friends more. But I am concerned about the period when I was away from Lady Lilien’s side. When I occasionally came to see you, master, and during the lady’s sudden trip to the frontier.”

Rail glanced around nervously and smiled faintly.

“Should we investigate the lady’s activities during that time?”

Tsk tsk, Tail clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“In the end, you don’t know why Countess Vuel tried to kill Lady Lilien, right? How pathetic.”

Ugh, Rail was frustrated but could only glare at Tail. He wasn’t wrong.

Living without combat experience for 9 years. It was understandable that his guard had loosened in Lilien’s peaceful surroundings.

If Tail, who had returned the night before, hadn’t given him the antidote when he collapsed on the roof, he might have already been dead.

Moreover, by the time Rail opened his eyes, Lilien had already returned to the mansion. With Etricia, no less.

Damn it. Rail felt that his sense of inferiority to Tail would last for a while.

“What about the Vuel Count?”

“Ah, that guy, he reeks of suspicion?”

This time, Tail wrinkled his nose and made a gesture of waving away a smell.

“Currently Count Vuel, before marriage Devon Diel Young. Apparently, there was widespread suspicion in society when he inherited the property.”

“Suspicion?”

“There was a lot of talk that unless the previous Count Vuel was insane, he wouldn’t have left everything to his prospective son-in-law instead of his daughter just before he died. Well, since the parties involved denied it, everyone hushed it up.”

Tail narrowed his eyes slightly and glanced at Edmond.

“So what should we do? Should we kill both the guild master and that woman?”

Thwack−. Rail seized the opportunity and kicked Tail’s thigh for asking such a stupid question. Oof, thanks to that, Tail collapsed to the side.

“You ignorant bastard. What do you think is the reason master kept the guild master alive and let that woman stay at the mansion? It’s to reassure them and keep them under surveillance.”

“If it weren’t for me, you’d be dead…!”

Tail jumped up and grabbed Rail’s collar, starting the twins’ battle round 2.

Edmond looked down at them indifferently and fell into contemplation, recalling a recent memory.

As he was preparing to return from the forest, his concern had been growing like snow about Lilien’s communication being cut off for several days.

He had been reassured by the head maid’s report when a strange report came in.

‘Lady Lilien has brought a guest. She says it’s a benefactor who saved her from almost being hit by a horse in an alley…’

What? A mansion burns down in the center of the noble district? She witnesses it and invites them to the residence? As he listened to the lengthy report, it seemed as if everything had been orchestrated to the point of being admirable.

‘Rail, what was this guy doing not reporting during all this?’

He tried to contact Rail through the communication device, but the magic signal was weak and kept cutting off.

Anxious, he returned with Tail and was able to save Rail.

Who would have thought he had collapsed and was sleeping on someone else’s roof?

‘Cough! I saw it clearly. The outfit worn by the one who attacked me, it’s the uniform of the underground assassination guild.’

Edmond, who immediately headed to the assassination guild, was able to grasp all the circumstances as smoothly as flowing water.

‘Co-Countess Vuel ordered it! I only did what I was told!’

The one who tried to kill his sister was Etricia Vuel.

The mistress of the Lebron mining family chosen by God, which even the imperial family, the temple, and the magic tower couldn’t interfere with.

Edmond was very curious as to why that woman had come to the mansion pretending to be his sister’s benefactor.

To the point his teeth ground together.

Was she trying to gain favor, put them at ease, and then kill her directly? If so, the burning of the Vuel mansion must have been part of her plan as well.

Or was it just a drunken whim assassination order as the guild master had stated? That was also a nauseating matter. How shameless to try to kill someone and then act like this.

When Edmond arrived with a fierce killing intent, he found the woman lying with her eyes closed as if dead in his bedroom.

Ha, he couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of her sleeping so defenseless in enemy territory.

Without conflict or hesitation, he intended to kill Etricia. Even if his sister was alive, the fact that she had ordered an assassination remained unchanged. She must have held ill feelings towards his sister, and because of her, they had nearly been separated for life.

The aftermath wouldn’t be difficult to handle. There was already clear testimony and circumstantial evidence of her ordering the murder.

‘I should have killed her then.’

But his attempt to probe the other party’s intentions made him miss the opportunity and waste time.

‘It would be good if you stayed at the mansion longer… I don’t have the right to detain you…’

Thanks to that, he realized that his naive sister had given her heart to that woman.

Edmond, who had been listening to his sister’s praises of Etricia for a long time, was even pushed to change his clothes without any lingering sentiment of reunion.

‘Edmond, you should be gentlemanly towards her? She’s a sensitive person with many wounds, so you shouldn’t threaten her like a wild bear coming down from hunting.’

Even mentioning etiquette that she never did when she was young.

It was baffling how that woman had managed to wrap his sister around her finger in just one night.

“Haah.”

Edmond sighed deeply and brushed aside his messy hair that was blocking his view.

Then he could see the backyard below through the clear large window.

Lilien was explaining the plants she managed to Etricia with an excited face. It was one of her hobbies along with confectionery. Etricia was listening to Lilien’s story with a rather affectionate and gentle attitude.

Tsk, Edmond clicked his tongue and furrowed his straight brow.

‘I can’t kill her right away, it seems.’