“Hello?”

Felix greeted with a sly smile. Yet, Evelia couldn’t close her mouth and repeatedly pointed with her index finger at the hamster and Felix. She looked utterly astonished.

“Wh, who…….”

She couldn’t even form a short sentence properly. The sight was so unexpected that Felix couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Yes. The hamster, just a moment ago, was me.”

Felix teased mischievously. Knowing that he shouldn’t do it, especially since she was already surprised, he couldn’t resist.

Her reaction was quite amusing. Quite different from the always stiff Caliph.

How to put it, lively perhaps?

From what he had observed so far, he thought she would be much more boring than Caliph, but he was completely wrong.

“I thought you were always groaning inside, struggling with expressing your emotions, but that’s not the case, is it?”

The thought he had inside slipped out of his mouth. Perhaps that seemed suspicious, as Evelia, who had been staring blankly, furrowed her brow.

“……How did you suddenly become a human?”

“Well. To be precise, I didn’t become a human from a hamster, but rather just borrowed a hamster’s body.”

Felix shrugged and explained the facts. Still, instead of resolving her doubts, it only caused deeper suspicion to surface on Evelia’s face.

“I don’t understand what you’re saying. Are you saying you cast a spell?”

Evelia asked curtly. She had heard stories of humans using magic in the distant past, but as far as she knew, they should have remained a part of history.

“Hmm. It’s a bit different from magic, but if calling it magic helps you understand, you can think of it that way.”

He responded in an unconcerned tone. If it was really magic, it would have been a tremendous thing. It was not something to be discussed in an everyday tone, as if explaining the menu he had eaten that morning. Yet he seemed too nonchalant.

“I’m Felix. I didn’t mean to scare you anyway, so I apologize for that part.”

Evelia stared closely at the hand extended in front of her. Since childhood, she had been taught to maintain a polite distance regardless of status or rank, but she didn’t have the courage to take that hand.

As if he had read her mind, Felix pulled back his hand with an awkward look on his face and grumbled as if wronged.

“I had no choice. Liurian really hates me wandering around the palace. He even threatened that he wouldn’t leave me alone if he noticed, so I had to do something.”

“…….”

“There’s nothing as convenient as a small animal like this to move around without attracting attention.”

He laid out an unaskedfor explanation, emphasizing that he meant no harm.

Evelia scanned Felix, maintaining distance, several times. It was a face she didn’t recognize.

A servant from the Crown Prince’s palace?

“Judging by your appearance, you don’t seem to be Liurian’s servant…….”

Not only his appearance but also his attitude of calling his master’s name without hesitation didn’t make sense. Especially calling Liurian’s name so casually in front of her.

While Evelia was puzzled, Felix let out a chuckle as if he found the idea absurd.

“Ha, a servant? You see this noble face and think of a servant?”

“Then please clarify your exact identity.”

Evelia demanded quite sharply. That made Felix look somewhat troubled.

“Um, it’s complicated to explain…….”

“…….”

“Just sum it up as Liurian’s close friend.”

Close friend?

Evelia sighed with a ‘huh’. Changing from a hamster to a human was suspicious enough, and now he claimed to be Liurian’s close friend?

The story made no sense, but even if it were true, it wouldn’t have negated the suspicious points.

Why would the Crown Prince’s close friend turn into a hamster and visit the Crown Princess’s chamber?

“If you don’t believe me, you can ask Liurian. Of course, I sincerely hope you don’t.”
Evelia furrowed her brows, biting her lower lip hard. Confirming with Liurian, as he said, had been the most certain way. But she couldn’t do it.

Even before this suspicious writer appeared, wasn’t she fretting over yesterday’s incident?

She merely recalled a momentarily forgotten thought, and Evelia’s complexion rapidly darkened.

It didn’t take long for an unexpected silence to envelop the two.

“Did I, uh, misspeak?”

Felix asked with a careful attitude, not answering. He was a bit bewildered. Just the name Liurian could cause such a reaction.

He had anticipated that Liurian would not be a light presence to her, but it seemed to have a much greater impact than he thought.

So, he was troubled.

He had much to say to both Evelia and Kalif. It seemed like he could see answers that were invisible to them.

Wasn’t it always that way? A difficult problem for the person involved could be nothing to someone else.

But even thinking that, the reason he couldn’t bring himself to speak was that this was, after all, a problem between the two of them. Especially in an emotionbased problem, there was nothing good about a third party intervening.