“(Exclusive) Demian Vandermir Rings Victory Bell Repeatedly at the Border!”

Arasila’s lips curved into a smile as she confirmed the article prominently featured in the morning newspaper.

Demian, who had been anxious with no news at first, steadily sent word of his victories in battle as time passed.

Seeing Arasila’s face beaming the brightest this week, Audrey also smiled gently.

“As expected of the master. There’s a reason he’s the youngest Sword Master in the empire and captain of the Red Hawk Knights. I hope he returns safely like this.”

“He will. He promised me.”

“Of course, of course! But not allowing letters seems a bit too much. It would be so nice to let him, as a reward for fighting so hard, really.”

Audrey grumbled, dragging out her words. The imperial side strictly prohibited Demian from contacting the outside. The reason was that he had gone not on a normal order but because he had committed a crime.

So Arasila too had been poring over newspapers daily for months. She could have contacted him secretly, but she didn’t want to cause Demian any trouble unnecessarily.

To prove his innocence when he returned in perfect condition, he needed to avoid any more faults.

“I’m fine. I believe in Demian, so this much waiting is nothing.”

Arasila said, neatly folding the paper with Demian’s article after separating it.

However, though she said so, she couldn’t help missing him, and lately collecting articles about Demian had become her hobby.

“I should work hard at my place doing my job just like Demian. If I do that, someday Demian will be back.”

“My lady’s words are right. I too will do my best to assist you until the master returns.”

“Yes. Thank you, Audrey.”

Arasila patted the maid’s shoulder lightly as she stood up. It was about time to leave for the magic tower.

Dressed neatly in her magic tower uniform, she boarded the carriage. Lately, Arasila’s routine was simple. Go to work at the magic tower, and after returning, investigate the Duke Lester’s family.

The problem was that digging into Duke Lester’s family was not as easy as expected. They were truly formidable opponents befitting one of the three ducal families.

The Duke of Lester’s picky personality also played a part. Due to his sensitive and autocratic nature, it was difficult to approach and obtain information.

‘It’s fortunate that I at least found out the Duke’s aide has been making suspicious outings recently.’

It was a good decision to turn her attention to those around him when it became difficult to investigate the Duke directly.

She learned that the aide, the Duke of Lester’s closest confidant, had been going to the outskirts of the capital every midnight lately.

She didn’t know exactly where he was headed yet. Or if it was related to the Duke. To find this out, tonight, Arasila decided to tail the aide herself.

‘I’ve made thorough preparations, so there’s no need to worry.’

She thought confidently. For today, she had received intensive tailing lessons from Riley and prepared various related supplies.

Hair dye that temporarily changes hair color, a mask to hide the face, a pitch-black robe that blends into the darkness, magical shoes that make no footsteps, and recovery potions in case of unexpected injuries.

There was truly nothing missing, so she leisurely prepared after returning from work.

She sprayed the dye to make her hair black, put on a black mask covering her entire face, wore a pitch-dark robe and shoes, and packed several bottles of recovery potions securely.

And before midnight, she left her residence and hid in an alley of the street where the Duke’s aide resided.

‘I’ll find a weakness somehow and bring them down.’

Arasila steeled her resolve as she quietly watched the aide’s house from the shadows.

It didn’t matter whether the weakness was the Duke of Lester’s or the aide’s. She was confident she could utilize either well.

A little past midnight, the Duke of Lester’s aide finally appeared, wrapped in a robe.

After carefully looking around once, he confirmed no one was there and moved. As if not wanting to be seen by others, he was walking on two legs instead of riding a carriage.

Arasila stealthily followed behind the aide. Today too, he headed towards the outskirts of the capital. The streets of the outskirts, where many people worked at night, were bustling.

The aide instantly disappeared into the crowd. Arasila didn’t panic and caught him again with a tracking spell.

He slipped into a deserted vacant lot. Arasila hurriedly followed while maintaining a certain distance. This was because the aide occasionally stopped to look around.

The aide went deep inside the vacant lot. Passing through a secret path hidden by bushes, an abandoned wooden house-like structure appeared.

Two suspiciously burly men were guarding the front of that house. Arasila narrowed her eyes as she watched the aide approach them.

‘What business could the Duke of Lester’s aide have in a place like this?’

Hiding her body behind a tree, she pricked up her ears and watched the three people. The men bowed their heads to the aide.

“You’ve come.”

“Did he still not open his mouth today?”

“Yes, he’s very stubborn.”

The aide let out an irritated sigh. Roughly ruffling his hair, he said,

“Orders came down to just dispose of him if he doesn’t talk by tomorrow. Since he cut ties with his family and ran away from home anyway, there won’t be any consequences if we just cleanly dispose of the body.”

“Understood.”

Leaving words to try threatening more strongly a few more times, the aide left. Arasila didn’t follow him and remained.

Judging from the conversation she overheard, it seemed someone was imprisoned inside the wooden house. Since the aide also received orders, it must be the Duke of Lester’s doing.

‘It seems they want to threaten and find out something… What could it be? Who could be inside for them to say there won’t be consequences since they cut ties with family?’

Whatever it was, whoever it was, it seemed better for her to rescue them rather than let them disappear at the hands of the Duke of Lester’s family.

Arasila threw a magic tool at the men who had relaxed their posture after the aide disappeared. Strong enough to make them faint at once.

“Ugh!”

“Argh!”

The men collapsed with short screams. Arasila leisurely passed by them and stood in front of the wooden house door.

The doorknob was locked but easily unlocked with magic. Arasila pushed open the smoothly opened door with her toes and entered.

Would it be a former subordinate who worked under him before, someone the Duke of Lester would imprison and threaten? Or an assassin commissioned by the dark guild?

The person who appeared before Arasila making various guesses… was someone she truly never expected.

Arasila called out in a bewildered voice as she made eye contact with the woman whose hands and feet were tied with rope and whose mouth was gagged.

“Lady White…?”

“Mmph! Mmph!”

“No, why are you here?”

Nora, with disheveled hair and a somewhat scruffy appearance, wriggled her body. She looked up pitifully at Arasila with large eyes brimming with tears.

Arasila became confused as to why they had kidnapped the noble lady known to be in seclusion at the Duke of Lester’s house.

But since she seemed to need help anyway, Arasila untied the ropes binding Nora’s hands and feet and removed the gag.

Finally able to move freely, Nora hugged Arasila tightly and began crying loudly.

“Huuung, I, I was so scared. Hic, I thought I was going to die like this, sniff, I was so scared…”

“Calm down, Lady White.”

“Thank you, hic, for saving me, waaah.”

“I understand, so stop… No, just cry. Tell me when you’re done crying.”

Feeling Nora’s body shaking violently, Arasila patted her back.

After crying for a long time, Nora’s eyes became very swollen before she stopped crying. Wiping away her tears and snot hurriedly with the handkerchief Arasila handed her, Nora made an embarrassed expression. She felt awkward now that she had come to her senses.

“Lady White, why were you imprisoned here?”

“Well, there are circumstances… How did Lady Vandermir come here?”

“I was following the Duke of Lester’s aide.”

Nora’s eyes widened. Of course, they weren’t the same size as usual due to the swelling.

“Wh-why the Duke of Lester’s family…”

“I answered honestly, so Lady White should explain properly too. How did you end up kidnapped?”

“Well, actually…”

Nora, shrinking her shoulders slightly, began to stammer out her circumstances.

After the fake scandal with Frederick and Arasila, Nora, who had left for the territory as if chased out with her family, had been in severe conflict with her parents since then.

Rebelling and talking back to the Viscount couple who blamed her and tried to control her as they pleased, their relationship quickly fell apart.

‘I never wanted to do it in the first place! Mom and Dad forced me, so why are they blaming only me? How long do I have to live as your doll?’

Nora no longer wanted to live as Nora White. Even if she lost everything, she just wanted to live freely as herself.

But she felt somewhat wronged about just letting everything go and leaving abruptly. Would her disappearance alone have any impact on her parents’ lives?

‘Anyway, to them, I was just a tool, not a child… I can’t just leave either.’

On the night she decided to run away, she secretly entered her parents’ room. Having had everything taken away when they came down to the territory, she intended to take things from her parents to use as funds for independence.

First, she picked out expensive jewelry from her mother’s jewelry box, then entered her father’s study. She planned to take out just a few gold coins from the safe in the study.

Nora, who had once peeked over her father’s shoulder as he opened the safe, opened it after three or four attempts.

‘What, there’s less than I thought. Oh well. I’ll just take this and… Huh? What’s this?’

Disappointed by the barren interior contrary to her expectation of it being full of gold, she found documents lying at the bottom of the safe while rummaging.

Nora took out the documents and read them out of curiosity. Then she paused upon discovering an ominous word.

She had touched something she shouldn’t have.

Quickly judging, she tried to put the documents back in the safe. Just then, footsteps suddenly sounded from the corridor, and startled, she hid and then fled in a hurry.

She ended up taking the documents with her in the confusion.

Thus, Nora cut ties with her family and came to the capital alone. She was full of dreams preparing for a new life, but.

She was suddenly attacked and brought here.

“They probably kidnapped me because of those documents. They kept telling me to hand them over.”

“What kind of documents are they?”

After hesitating for a moment, Nora carefully answered.

“They’re… contract documents between the Duke of Lester’s family and a certain dark mage.”

At the same time, blue eyes widened. Even the Duchess’s natal family, the Marquis of Grant, had been shattered for purchasing dark magic bombs.

No matter how much of a three-generation ducal family they were, if involved with dark magic, it was clear at least half the family would be gone. In other words, she had truly fished out a fatal weakness of the Duke of Lester’s family.

“I heard later that when my mother and the Duchess of Lester were close, the ducal family was once investigated for tax evasion. It seems they entrusted important documents to my mother then.”

The Viscountess discovered the contract among those documents and secretly took it out. She put fake documents in instead, but the Duke of Lester’s family was too busy to notice and let it slide.

“Then when our family was in crisis, she must have used it to blackmail the Duke of Lester’s family. But I ran away with it.”

The White Viscount family, resenting such a Nora, informed the Duke of Lester’s family. Even knowing they wouldn’t leave their daughter alone.

Kidnapped Nora did not open her mouth despite all sorts of persuasion and threats to hand over the contract. It was because she knew she would be killed as soon as she spoke.

And that was truly a wise judgment. As soon as they recovered the contract, Nora was destined to die immediately.

She endured and endured to live until now, and thanks to that, she was able to meet Arasila.

“Thank you again for saving me. If it weren’t for you, I would have died helplessly. I don’t know how to repay this kindness…”

Having owed her life to someone she once unilaterally hated and tormented, Nora didn’t know what to do. Arasila grasped her shoulders and looked into her eyes.

“Lady White, then will you hand over that contract to me?”

“To you…? Of course I can give it to you, but what if you end up fighting the Duke of Lester’s family?”

“It’s alright, I’ll win.”

Arasila smiled brightly as she stood up and held out her hand.

“Let’s go now.”

Nora hesitantly took her hand and stood up. Following Arasila out of the wooden house, Nora’s eyes glistened with tears of emotion at the outside air she was smelling after a long time.

Arasila used magic to put the collapsed men into the wooden house, locked the door, and then asked,

“By the way, where did you hide the contract?”

“I left it at a temple for a hefty fee. I didn’t think I should just keep it with me.”

“You did well. Then let’s get the contract after we wake up tomorrow, and for now, let’s go to my house.”

Nora nodded slightly. It was fortunate since she had nowhere else to go anyway.

Arasila gave her robe to her. Unlike herself, who had changed her hair color and wore a mask, Nora stood out with her unchanged appearance.

Thus, the two leisurely left the outskirts of the capital.

As promised, Nora handed over the contract to Arasila. Arasila gave her a ticket to depart for the Kingdom of Kale.

“If you go there, they will introduce you to a job and provide accommodation.”

Although a major incident occurred during the New Year’s Festival, it was a favor asked of Prince Noah, who was still friendly to Arasila as a fellow mage.

He gladly accepted on the condition that Arasila come to the kingdom to give magic lectures. Arasila naturally agreed.

“But I didn’t say you’re a noble, so they might treat you like a maid. If that’s alright with you, go. You’ll have a higher chance of survival than staying in the empire.”

It couldn’t be helped. If her noble status was revealed, the Duke of Lester’s family might catch wind of it and pursue Nora.

However, Nora, no longer intending to make spoiled complaints like before, held the ticket and said resolutely.

“I’ll go.”

“You’ve thought well. Stay away from the empire for a while. Come back when the crown prince changes.”

“…Haha, you’re joking, right?”

Nora looked at Arasila with a small laugh, but seeing her utterly serious face, she dropped the corners of her mouth.

“Ah, you’re serious…”

Muttering as if to herself, she soon straightened her posture and bowed her head politely.

“Thank you for helping me, my lady.”

“It’s nothing, I received something good too.”

Arasila smiled brightly. It was sincere because the unexpected information obtained from Nora was a great harvest.

“Take care, Lady White.”

“…Yes, farewell.”

Nora, holding her luggage bag, slowly walked away. Then suddenly she stopped in her tracks and ran back to Arasila.

Arasila looked at her with a puzzled face. Nora, catching her breath while panting, hesitated before timidly saying.

“Um, if it’s alright… next time we meet, could you call me Nora? I’ve left the White Viscount family now, so I’m no longer Lady White.”

“Sure.”

Arasila answered readily. Only then did a bright smile appear on Nora’s face.

“Well, I’m really going now! See you next time!”

Unlike before, Nora bid farewell cheerfully and left with light steps.

Thus, she crossed over to the Kingdom of Kale. Arasila later heard through the prince that Nora had entered the royal palace as a low-ranking maid.

It was a good thing. Working in the royal palace would make it harder for the White Viscount family or the Duke of Lester’s family to find her.

And with the contract Nora gave her, Arasila discovered an astonishing fact.