Even if people marry for love, it’s difficult to bridge the gap between knights and mages, let alone for the two people who got married for their own goals.

With a weak sense of solidarity as a couple, their identities always came out first at decisive moments.

Until now, their relationship was fine because there were no big issues to clash over, but when a conflict between groups broke out like this time, their prejudices and distrust of each other stood out.

Arasila, a mage, couldn’t trust Demian, a knight, and vice versa.

In a way, even though they had never shown each other any shortcomings as mages and knights, the deep-rooted competitive spirit that had been passed down for generations occupied their minds.

“It’s despicable. Throwing someone else under the bus to cover for your subordinate.”

Arasila said, clenching her fists tightly as if she couldn’t stand it.

“Is this the chivalry you always talk about? How very honorable.”

“Why are you blaming your incompetence on me? You’re the fool for believing that woman’s words and conducting an investigation in the first place.”

Demian clicked his tongue briefly. Arasila, who had heard similar things from the Magic Tower, retorted angrily.

“How clean are you guys? What does Sisle’s job have to do with the content of her accusation? If you’re going to be like that, is Sir Pattinson, who played around with Sisle, righteous?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. Joni said he doesn’t even know that woman.”

“Ridiculous. He even gave Sisle his own pendant as a gift.”

Arasila scoffed and refuted. The furrows in Demian’s brow deepened.

“Now you’re even making things up? You never intended to investigate properly from the start, did you? You just wanted to make the knight guilty no matter what, right?”

Demian sharply retorted and added.

“That’s why you keep siding with the accuser.”

Of course, Arasila didn’t just sit and listen to this. A counter-argument immediately came out of her.

“Ah, you’re going to dismiss anything unfavorable to your subordinate as false? Not surprising at all. It’s a characteristic of knights to pretend to be the only noble ones.”

“Mages tend to think only their own thoughts are right. Being so narrow-minded is what causes incidents.”

A silence heavier than stone flowed between the two who exchanged sharp words.

Judging that there would be no gain from further conversation, Arasila tried to pass Demian and leave the office.

Then Demian slightly blocked her way and said.

“Don’t be emotional, lady. Just because you don’t like Joni for being a knight doesn’t mean you can side with a street woman and catch an innocent person.”

Arasila, who had hoped he would say something else when he held her back for a moment, was disappointed.

In an instant, she was annoyed and retorted sharply.

“The same goes for you. Don’t just blindly defend him because he’s a knight of the Red Hawk Order, look at the situation objectively.”

Arasila tapped his shoulder and left. Demian didn’t hold her back any longer.

Even though it was summer, the night air somehow felt chilly.

She couldn’t end the case without the doubts being completely resolved.

Arasila went to see Philip to unofficially resume the investigation.

“It’s too unfair to judge credibility and end the investigation based on the accuser’s identity. Her words may be false, but they may also be true.”

“Arasila, I understand how you feel. But the public opinion is too bad right now, so there’s nothing I can do either.”

Philip sighed lightly and patted Arasila’s shoulder.

All the newspapers in the Setron Empire were currently churning out sensational articles about Sisle day and night, riding the issue.

When they finally had a common target to pick on, people excitedly jumped on it.

Although Sisle had never once demanded money from Joni Pattinson, she became a scary woman obsessed with money who would do anything.

Unfounded rumors, like how she had been ripping off gullible men and finally got her comeuppance this time or how she had committed similar crimes before, spread as if they were the truth.

This was exactly why they tried so hard to keep Sisle’s identity a secret.

If the case ended like this because of Sisle’s identity or occupation, her remaining life would take a turn for the worst.

Feeling a sense of responsibility to ensure that no one gets wronged during the investigation, Arasila couldn’t just sit back and watch.

“We can do it secretly. If we do it unofficially without letting the outside know…”

“Sadly, your enemy is inside too.”

“…”

“If you’re not careful, you might get entangled with that woman. Some people are already spreading conspiracy theories that the Magic Tower deliberately orchestrated this to strike at the Knights.”

It would be fatal to Arasila’s reputation if she kept obsessing over this case.

Of course, Philip knew she was the type to not care about such things, but that’s precisely why he couldn’t side with Arasila this time.

“Arasila, as a mentor, I support you greatly, but at the same time, as the Magic Tower Lord, I also have to manage the mages belonging to the Magic Tower.”

“…”

“I believe you understand what I mean.”

In the end, Arasila had no choice but to leave her mentor’s room empty-handed.

She understood well what Philip’s words implied. However, it was difficult to just stop when he said to because there were still parts that didn’t sit right with her.

Her steps slowed as she trudged down to the lab. She didn’t want to go back to the lab like this.

‘…I have to check that one last thing.’

Arasila made a firm resolution and left the Magic Tower alone.

With a vow to really give up after checking just that.

0

The 4th Street in the morning was quiet as always.

Entering the somewhat familiar wooden building on her second visit, she headed to the leftmost room on the 2nd floor.

Knock knock.

When she politely knocked on the door, there was no response from inside. Soon, Arasila’s knocking intensified like the first day she came here.

Thump thump.

After knocking almost hard enough to break the door, Sisle finally responded.

Hearing the sound of the lock being undone and the door opening, Arasila thought she should bring up her business as soon as she saw her.

But—.

“Why are you here?”

Arasila was at a loss for words because Sisle’s face was a mess when she appeared after opening the door.

“Sisle, you… What happened to your face?”

Sisle had dark bruises around her eyes and cheeks, and a split lip. The freshness of the blood on the injuries suggested they were recent.

“None of your business. Why did you come looking for me? I thought the Magic Tower’s investigation was over.”

“Who hit you? Did you report it?”

Sisle stared at Arasila with bloodshot eyes and tilted her head. Arasila frowned at the indirect answer that she hadn’t reported it.

“Come with me.”

“…Where to?”

“The guards. We need to report this.”

When Arasila reached out her hand, Sisle stubbornly shook her head and stepped back.

“The beating I got was because of the knight. There’s no point in reporting it.”

“What do you mean by that? Did the Red Hawk Knights retaliate against you?”

“No. It has nothing to do with them, but instead, the customers who wanted to terrorize me did it.”

Sisle said cynically. Most of the customers who visited the store didn’t see her as a fellow human being. They treated her like a doll or livestock that they could do as they pleased with.

Still, if they acted violently for no reason, they would be kicked out of the store, so they held back. But when bad articles about her came out, they took the opportunity to beat her.

Using excuses like telling her to come to her senses and live right.

Covering her swollen lips with her hand, she coldly said.

“If you have no business, I’ll go in and rest.”

As she looked like she would really close the door and go in, Arasila spoke without a long explanation.

“I know you lied to me.”

“…”

“You have to be honest for me to help you.”

Sisle blinked slowly. Then she snickered as if she heard something funny.

“You don’t have to do that. Nobles won’t understand even if I tell you anyway.”

“I sent the accusation because I thought you were trustworthy. I’m different from the knights. I trust you to some extent. So you can be honest with me.”

The knights called Sisle a liar without even listening to her, but Arasila was different.

Unlike the rude knights, she…

“The real reason I chose you, Lady Arasila, is not that. It’s because mages are the enemy of knights. So I thought you could unconditionally make Sir Pattinson guilty.”

“…”

“Actually, to me, mages and knights are all the same, high and mighty. There’s not much difference.”

Arasila’s mouth opened slightly. She, who rarely gets shocked by anything, was currently shocked.

As a mage with great pride, Arasila always lived with the confidence that she was superior to knights.

Especially in this case, unlike the knights who were only concerned with covering for their own, she thought of herself as a fair and trustworthy mage.

However, Sisle’s words just now shattered her thoughts.

Did she really persistently act because she wanted to know the truth of the case?

Perhaps she was just driven by the self-intoxication of being a mage whom someone trusted and followed, and a personal sense of responsibility towards Sisle, that someone.

It was no different from taking the side of Sisle, who followed her as a mage, just like the knights she criticized for only covering their own.

The fear that she might not be very different from the knights suddenly engulfed Arasila.

Closing the door, leaving the rarely tongue-tied Arasila, Sisle apologized softly.

“…I’m sorry.”

Arasila, who stood there dazed for a while, staggered out of the building. Various thoughts were intricately tangled, making her head feel like it would explode.

It was only after leaving 4th Street that she realized she hadn’t even brought up her real business.

“…Ah, I didn’t check.”

A low murmur scattered desolately.

When emotions settle, the mind also tends to calm down.

When Arasila and Demian had just had a verbal fight, emotions preceded reason, but after a few days passed, reason rose to the top again.

Reviewing Arasila’s words carefully, Demian came up with a question.

‘Joni clearly said he doesn’t know the accuser, so how could someone connected to him have tipped them off?’

There was no one among those related to him who would know the identity of the accuser except himself.

But Demian really wasn’t the anonymous tipster.

Rather, he thought someone on the other side had made a slip of the tongue or intentionally leaked information when he saw the article.

‘Ridiculous. He even gave Sisle his own pendant as a gift.’

Suddenly remembering Arasila’s words, Demian frowned.

At that time, he unconditionally dismissed her words as false, but thinking about it again, he thought they might be true.

‘It’s not the lady, but Joni who lied to me…’

Thinking that his subordinate, whom he had known longer than Arasila, had done that hurt, but he didn’t want to stop there.

Looking back, there were quite strange aspects about Joni.

Despite supposedly being falsely accused, he didn’t actually seem as resentful as expected when he was released, yet he had a clear hostility toward the accuser. He even asked Demian warily if Arasila would stop the investigation.

He had turned a blind eye to some extent because Joni was his subordinate, but there were parts that didn’t add up.

To confirm the truth, Demian had Colin find out the identity of the person who tipped off the newspaper about Sisle.

The result he brought back was shocking.

The anonymous tipster was Joni Pattinson’s older brother.

In other words, Joni’s side had deliberately leaked information to forcibly end the investigation.

‘Didn’t Joni clearly say he doesn’t know the accuser?’

Then how did Joni’s sibling expose the accuser’s identity? Arasila’s words were gaining more credibility than his subordinate’s.

Furthermore, Demian couldn’t understand why Joni hastily acted to the point of revealing the accuser’s identity.

Until the accuser’s identity was exposed, the case was not biased toward either side.

If Joni was not clearly guilty, he could have just waited and been released as innocent soon.

But the fact that he didn’t meant,

‘There was something to hide.’

That’s why he leaked the accuser’s identity to end the investigation, and even after that, he anxiously checked with Demian as if testing the waters.

For the first time feeling that his subordinate was suspicious, Demian was lost in thought.

Should he let it go for Joni’s dignity and the knights’ honor, or…

Demian unconsciously turned his head and paused when he saw a flower blooming on a tree branch outside the window.

He remembered the unwilting flower crown Arasila, who won the hunting festival, had given him.

Currently, that flower crown was hanging on the wall of his home office. She had proudly told him to display it and personally placed it at an angle clearly visible from the desk.

Thinking of the flower crown naturally brought back the accusations Arasila made in the office.

‘It’s despicable. Throwing someone else under the bus to cover for your subordinate.’

Moreover, her extremely resentful face lingered, making Demian sigh.

‘Yes, it would be right to correct what’s wrong.’

And it was also right to repay help received.

In the hunting festival they participated in as a knight and mage, Arasila had already helped him once.