Prince Harry was standing behind.

“Ah, greetings, Your Highness.”

“Greetings are unnecessary.”

Harry took out a book and handed it to Alicia.

“A book related to magic, is there something that concerns you?”

“What? No. I’m neither a mystic nor a priestess. I’m just curious because monsters have appeared recently.”

“Is that all?”

“Of course, not everyone would be interested in magic just because monsters appeared, but since my fiancé is a knight, I thought it might be good to know a little.”

“I see.”

Harry closed his mouth for a moment.

The library was already quiet, but with both of them silent and motionless, it became eerily still.

Feeling somewhat uncomfortable, Alicia spoke first.

“Thank you for getting the book for me. I’ll take my leave now.”

As Alicia walked past Harry and took a few steps, Harry spoke.

“Will Earl Russell be able to protect you?”

“Pardon?”

“I sincerely hope so.”

Muttering as if to himself, Harry walked past Alicia, who had turned to look, and left the library first.

There was no hostility in Harry’s eyes as they briefly met while passing, but neither was there any kindness.

His gaze was so unsteady that Alicia couldn’t discern the exact emotion, and she unconsciously took a step back.

*

In the carriage returning to the Russell estate, Alicia rested her arm on the windowsill, propped her chin, and gazed outside.

Though it was a trivial conversation, something bothered her.

As if she had forgotten something important.

This was the second time meeting Harry, and both then and now, he was an uncomfortable person to deal with.

“Hm? There’s suddenly a lot of people in uniforms.”

Alicia, looking out of the carriage, opened the window to the driver’s seat and asked.

“Where are we?”

“Near the Knights’ Headquarters, young lady.”

“Knights?”

“Yes. Where the Earl works.”

Alicia turned her head back to the window.

She had never been here before, so out of curiosity, she kept looking outside and spotted a familiar figure.

“Huh?”

Eric was walking and talking with some woman.

*

Eventually, Alicia followed Eric and the mysterious woman and was now hiding behind a pillar in the lobby of the Knights’ Headquarters, watching the two.

She thought that tailing someone was absolutely unlike her, but curiosity killed the cat, and she couldn’t just return without satisfying her curiosity.

‘No, it’s okay to be curious. He hardly talks to his sisters, so of course I’d be curious seeing him like this.’

While forcibly rationalizing her actions, Alicia kept her eyes fixed on the two.

Occasionally, passing knights would look at her with puzzled expressions, but she had no time to worry about that.

At that moment, the two stopped walking, and the woman faced Eric, smiling and saying something.

Then she hesitated and looked towards the pillar where Alicia was hiding.

“!”

Thinking their eyes had met, Alicia hid behind the pillar and sat down.

Her heart was pounding from the surprise.

“Did she see me? Did she? She shouldn’t have.”

Alicia sat there, not knowing what to do, and squeezed her eyes shut.

But she realized only after sitting down that her voluminous dress skirt wasn’t hidden by the pillar.

‘How foolish. I have no reason to hide.’

Alicia pressed her forehead against the cold pillar, regretting, when she noticed the corridor right in front of her and quickly crawled there.

The woman talking to Eric briefly closed her mouth, seeing Alicia’s back.

“What’s wrong?”

“Ah, over there.”

“?”

As Eric turned his head in the direction the woman was pointing, he saw a mass of voluminous fabric entering the corridor.

*

‘Did they see me? They couldn’t have, right? I had my back turned.’

Trying to convince herself, Alicia continued crawling down the corridor.

She could have stood up and walked once she entered the corridor, out of their sight, but in her hurry, she didn’t think of that either.

“What are you doing?”

Startled by a familiar voice, one she absolutely didn’t want to hear in this situation, Alicia sat up straight.

Then, trying to act as nonchalant as possible, she turned her head haughtily towards Eric.

“I dropped something, so I was looking for it.”

“What did you drop?”

“It’s fine. It’s not something I need.”

“You were crawling on the floor looking for something you don’t need? You?”

Alicia felt so embarrassed by Eric’s dumbfounded expression that she wanted to run away, but she tried to act normal as she retorted.

“Why? Am I not allowed to look for things like this? It can happen when you’re in a hurry.”

“Sure. It can happen. But I think it’s better if you stand up now.”

As Eric extended his hand, Alicia took it and stood up gracefully.

Then, too embarrassed to look at Eric, she brushed off the dust from her dress.

“What did you drop? I’ll have someone look for it later.”

“It’s fine, I don’t need it. But what are you doing here?”

“I work here.”

“Ah. No wonder there are so many people in uniforms.”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Seeing Eric trying to hold back his laughter, Alicia turned her head away, feeling embarrassed.

“Then I’ll be going.”

“Alicia.”

“?”

“Since you’ve come all this way, why don’t you take a look around? Aren’t you curious about where I work?”

“I don’t want to be an inconsiderate fiancée who barges into her busy fiancé’s workplace and disturbs him.”

“First, I don’t know what you mean by ‘bestowing kindness,’ and second, your fiancé happens to not be very busy, and third, you didn’t barge in—I want to show off my fiancée who everyone is curious about. How about that?”

“…If that’s the case, then alright.”

“Thank you.”

Eric smiled and offered his arm.

Alicia, lifting her chin even more regally than usual, took Eric’s arm, and they began to walk together.

“Commander, where are you coming from? We need your approval quickly— Oh.”

The subordinate who had been pacing in front of the desk in the office closed his mouth upon seeing Alicia.

“Is it urgent?”

“No, sir. Not urgent at all. I’ll come back later. Then.”

The subordinate saluted Eric, but his eyes were fixed on Alicia.

Feeling somewhat awkward, she just smiled, and the subordinate saluted Alicia as well before hastily leaving the office.

“Am I really not disturbing you?”

“It’s fine. What disturbance? It wasn’t even urgent. Sit down.”

Alicia sat on the sofa as Eric suggested.

Picking up some documents from the desk and skimming through them, Eric asked,

“Tea? Or something else?”

“Water or anything cold.”

“Cold?”

“I need to clear my head a bit.”

Do you really need to say that so regally?

Eric held back his laughter, tossed the documents he was looking at back on the desk, and opened the door to give instructions to his aide.

“Ack!”

“Oof—”

As soon as the door opened, several subordinates tumbled in.

“……”

“Yes, do you need anything, Commander?”

“Two glasses of cold water.”

“Huh? We also have tea or coffee. Very expensive, high-quality stuff, you know.”

The subordinate glanced at Alicia, and when their eyes met, he startled and quickly turned back to Eric with a grin.

“Thanks to you all, I’m so embarrassed that I need something cold to drink.”

“Ah, then we’ll bring it right away.”

“……”

Eric looked incredulously at the subordinates still sprawled on the floor, grinning, and then forcefully pushed the door.

“Ah, wait. Don’t push, you know. Our hands might get caught, you know.”

“Then move quickly.”

“Hey, hey, move back. Ack, I’m stuck, I’m telling you I’m stuck!”

“I’m stuck too! Ouch, Commander. We’re really going to get hurt at this rate.”

But Eric mercilessly pushed and closed the door.

‘Really, how embarrassing.’

The sound of subordinates wailing could be heard from outside, but Eric lightly ignored it and went to sit at the table.

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

“It’s fine. You saw those guys, right? They’re so free they act like that. Even if I try to give them one task, they all come rushing.”

“Ah.”

Alicia felt a bit relieved at those words, but then remembered the curious eyes she had briefly seen through the door crack and felt embarrassed again.

Soon, there was a knock, and one of the subordinates who had been pushed out earlier came in with water, carefully placing it on the table.

“I made it as cold as possible.”

Eric looked at the subordinate, who was speaking proudly as if he had done something great, but the subordinate’s gaze was fixed on Alicia.

“Thank you.”

Alicia smiled and thanked him with a bit of discomfort, and the subordinate’s eyes widened.

“Wow, it’s just like the Commander said. I saw a halo just now, you know.”

“Get out.”

At Eric’s firm dismissal, the subordinate’s face fell, but as he trudged towards the door, his eyes met Alicia’s, and he immediately grinned again before quickly opening the door and leaving.

Left alone, Alicia asked Eric curiously,

“What did he mean? Halo?”

“…Backlight. He meant backlight.”

“Ah.”

Alicia glanced at the window behind her where sunlight was streaming in and nodded.

“But what brings you here?”

“I went to return a book to the Grand Temple and was on my way back. Then I thought I saw someone I knew, so I came to check out of curiosity.”

“Someone you know?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know any knights other than me?”

Ignoring Eric’s question as he grinned, Alicia looked around the office.

It was spacious, as expected of the Commander’s office, and while there were piles of documents here and there, it was neat and contained only the necessities.

“Do you sleep here when you can’t go home?”

“There’s a separate dormitory. If I’m really short on time, I just crash on the sofa.”

“That sounds uncomfortable.”

Eric smiled at Alicia’s worried tone.

“Usually, when I sleep on the sofa, I don’t have time to think about such things. And now that you’re sitting on it, isn’t it quite comfortable?”

“It is, but still, you must have it tough.”

“Thanks for understanding. So, how much time do you have?”

“I don’t have any urgent matters.”

“Then can you wait here for a bit? I’ll handle the urgent stuff and we can leave together.”

“Is that really okay? There’s still some time until the end of the workday.”

“I’m the Commander, you know? I can manage that much.”

Alicia nodded with a smile at Eric’s grin.

As Eric stood up, there was a knock and Allen entered.

“Oh, you really are here. Hello, sister-in-law.”

“Lord Allen. It’s been a while.”

“Yes. Have you been well?”

“Thank you for last time. I had a pleasant stay thanks to your consideration.”

“Ah, that? It was nothing. It’s a villa that’s just sitting empty anyway. Rather, I’m sorry for interrupting. I felt so bad about it.”

“It was for work, what could we do?”

“Exactly. It was such a confidential matter that even I was kicked out, so please be understanding, sister-in-law. In return, I’ll lend you the villa anytime.”

“Thank you, Lord Allen.”

Allen smiled good-naturedly.

Eric, who had been watching in case Allen might say something out of turn, immediately asked as soon as Allen finished speaking.

“By the way, Allen. Where have you been again?”

“The guys downstairs said some crazy woman was crawling around, so I went to check it out.”