The Winster Ducal Residence’s rear garden, renowned for its beauty even among the countless mansions within the capital.

The handsome man sitting at the tea table in the garden and raising his teacup was Klaus, the pride and firstborn son of Duke Winster.

Klaus sat upright with his attire impeccably buttoned up to his neck, elegantly savoring his tea even within the residence.

However, despite his outward appearance as the perfect noble young master, his mind was deeply troubled.

Klaus was thinking about Luibel.

Luibel, who looked as if she had stepped out of a famous painting when he first met her at the Emperor’s birthday celebration.

And on the day they met again, the sight of Luibel’s back as she walked away, arm in arm with that unpleasant prince from a foreign land.

‘It’s alright, Sir Klaus! You can trust Prince Anselot!’

‘He even escorted me at the last ball. So don’t worry and you can go now.’

Luibel had said that while holding Prince Anselot’s hand in a friendly manner.

Recently, rumors had begun spreading rampantly, starting from the Imperial Palace and throughout the capital, that the relationship between the two was unusual.

He knew that rumors were usually not to be believed, but for some reason, he felt displeased.

In truth, Klaus Winster himself knew that he had no special relationship with Princess Luibel, but…

‘This is the natural displeasure I feel as a subject of the Azester Empire.’

Klaus slowly clenched his jaw as he set down his teacup.

I am a subject of Azester.

It is only natural for me to be displeased at the prospect of Azester’s princess getting involved with some ill-natured prince from another nation.

Not long ago, an incident occurred that turned the empire upside down.

Apparently, Prince Orent and Duke Hamilton had used a beast-controlling horn to endanger the imperial citizens, then posed as heroes.

The Emperor had apprehended them and was investigating the situation to get to the bottom of it.

This happened during an already tumultuous time due to the prophecy received by the Saint of the Taal Kingdom.

But upon hearing this news, Klaus’s first thought was ‘Is Princess Luibel alright?’.

The Azester bloodline pointed to by the prophecy were the Emperor’s direct children.

The most likely candidates among them were Prince Orent and Princess Luibel, who had recently awakened as a Sword Master.

However, Prince Orent had committed a crime and been stripped of his title, so the protagonist of the prophecy was undoubtedly her…

“What? What are you doing here, big brother?”

At that moment, a voice broke through the silence of the rear garden.

Klaus pulled himself out of his contemplation and slowly raised his head with a slight frown.

“Didn’t you hear me say I would be using the garden this afternoon?”

Sylvia stared at Klaus with sharp eyes and a displeased expression.

The maids of the ducal residence stood awkwardly behind her.

They needed to prepare to receive the young lady’s guest, but Klaus had brazenly occupied the outdoor table and wouldn’t budge no matter how much they called him, lost in thought.

“I invited Her Highness the Princess. She will be arriving shortly. So get lost.”

Unlike how she acted like an elegant young duchess in front of others, Sylvia’s language turned quite foul when she was with family.

Klaus flinched.

It wasn’t because of her harsh words telling him to get lost, but because of what she said before that.

“Her Highness the Princess, who?”

“Who else could it be? Princess Luibel, of course. I introduced you to her last time too.”

“…”

The moment Luibel’s name left Sylvia’s mouth, Klaus felt his throat go completely dry.

In fact, on the day he first ran into Luibel, with his keen hearing, he had overheard the entire conversation between Luibel and Sylvia.

‘Sylvia… Could it be that your brother’s name is Klaus Winster?’

‘The Klaus Winster who apparently took up the sword at age six and beat a bear to death…?’

‘The very same Klaus Winster who went to study in the Holy Kingdom, caught the Pope’s eye and was offered the position of Holy Knights Commander, but flatly refused and returned to his home country…?’

That last part was something he hadn’t even told his family about, so he was taken aback that Luibel knew.

Could it be that Princess Luibel had investigated his background?

We are strangers to each other, so why?

Could it be that Her Highness is interested in me…?

Concealing his confused feelings, Klaus approached her.

And the moment their eyes met.

Thump!

He was so startled his heart nearly leapt out of his chest.

Up close, Luibel was pretty. Extremely pretty.

He had heard rumors that Her Highness Princess Luibel the 3rd was beautiful enough to make you look twice after seeing her once, but…

‘Hello, Sir Klaus. It’s a pleasure to meet you.’

Thump! Once again, his heart lurched and he added to his impression of Luibel.

Her voice was pretty too, like her face, when heard up close.

‘The pleasure is all mine to make your acquaintance.’

And when he greeted her, she received his greeting with a gentle smile. Thumpity-thump! He was surprised by that eye smile in succession.

His heart was fluttering and pounding, warning him.

Warning that Luibel Azester was dangerous.

Klaus Winster, whom everyone called the perfect model of a knight, had a phobia – of women.

He fundamentally kept his guard up and maintained distance with all women, but he knew it would be ungentlemanly to express this outwardly.

So he usually hid his displeasure and feigned indifference whenever he encountered women, but Luibel was a little different from other women.

She kept making his heart lurch and pound!

Each time, his instincts screamed that she was dangerous, that he needed to avoid her.

“Why are you making such a stupid face? Stop bothering me here and hurry up and get lost!”

Sylvia chased Klaus out of the garden.

And the place was then set up for her tea party with Luibel.

Klaus suddenly felt restless.

In his room on the second floor, he alternated between reading a book and looking out the window to check if Luibel’s carriage had arrived.

‘I can’t do anything like this.’

Sighing deeply, he finally got up and headed to the training grounds.

After swinging his sword to his heart’s content and working up a sweat, he felt calmer.

He was moving to go wash up, feeling much more refreshed.

Right then, he ran straight into Luibel walking from the opposite direction.

“Hello, Sir Klaus. We meet again.”

Luibel greeted him with a bright smile.

A particularly friendly, warm and kind greeting.

Thumpity-thump-thump-thump!

His heart shook loudly as if an earthquake had struck.

[This is the timeline separator]

Late in the afternoon, I was able to visit the Winster Ducal Residence after being invited to Sylvia’s tea time.

When I sent a letter to Sylvia saying I wanted to see the residence’s rear garden, she readily sent back an accepting reply.

As soon as I stepped out of the carriage, a lively sound effect rang out.

[SYSTEM] You have arrived at a new location!

[SYSTEM] The minimap for has been unlocked!

I was reminded once again that I had become a player.

The places Hezen had visited before all had their minimaps activated, so it seemed Hezen had never been to the Winster Ducal Residence either.

‘Minimap.’

The player could use the system features without necessarily vocalizing it.

As I recited inwardly, the map of the newly unlocked appeared before my eyes.

The first thing I checked was Klaus’s location.

“Huh? I can’t see him?”

But Klaus’s location wasn’t visible on the minimap.

That jerk Hezen had made full use of the minimap while capturing women’s hearts, but not only could I not see Klaus’s location, parts of my minimap were covered in gray.

[It was just unlocked after all. You need to explore the residence and find the guide’s lantern to activate the minimap. ⋆♡̩͙⋆( ᵔ ᗢ ᵔ )]

“Lantern?”

I tilted my head as I listened to Pia’s explanation.

In the center of the minimap that was covered in gray in places, there was a single lantern icon.

[Yep, that’s the one! is a small-scale map so you only need to find one lantern ♡ ٩(´▽`)۶ ♡]

Pia kindly explained with emoticons.

Pia, who had been flying around my room in the form of a baby bird for a while, turned back into a system window as soon as I left the room.

When I asked why, she whined that people kept trying to touch her when she was in bird form.

Especially if she caught the eye of young children, things got very bothersome for her.

‘Well, I can see why.’

I nodded, recalling Pia’s true form.

Pia in the form of a baby bird looked like something children would definitely want to touch if they saw her.

“Your Highness Princess Luibel!”

At that moment, Sylvia came running up to me, bringing a bunch of servants from the residence with her.

“I meant to come out and greet you earlier. I’m sorry for making you wait.”

In truth, I had arrived 30 minutes early, hoping for a chance to run into Klaus.

I had planned to look for Klaus while waiting for Sylvia, who likely hadn’t finished preparing, but thanks to Sylvia rushing out as soon as she heard the news of my arrival, my plan failed.

“No, it’s fine. I’m the one who came early. I didn’t wait at all.”

“Still…”

Sylvia, who seemed about to say something more, paused and stared blankly at my face.

“Your skin looks even better than usual today, Your Highness. You seem to have grown strangely more beautiful…”

“Oh my, you flatter me.”

I deliberately turned my gaze away as if embarrassed.

Of course I had gotten more beautiful.

I had used up all the various items Hezen had stockpiled for this very day.

It wasn’t that my appearance itself had changed.

In the first place, appearance was something that gave people subjective impressions.

‘Besides, the only appearance-changing potion I have turns people bald.’

The Hezen had left in the inventory significantly raised my charm stat.

There was no change to my appearance, but after using the item, the attitudes of the servants toward me became a bit more friendly.

For some, their favorability shot up drastically.

The charm stat seemed to be a numerical value that made people perceive you as more attractive even with the same appearance.

‘Thank you, you charm-centric son of a bi*ch.’

I inwardly expressed my gratitude to the late Hezen for leaving behind such a precious item.

“Ah! I think I know why you’ve gotten more beautiful, Your Highness!”

“Uh, huh?”

“As expected, the power of love is magnificent!”

Sylvia clasped her hands together as if in prayer.

“Rumor has it that you’ve fallen head over heels for Prince Anselot, Your Highness.”

“Ah, well, um…”

I nodded along vaguely, playing into it.

Recently, all sorts of rumors had spread rampantly about me and Anselot’s relationship.

It was frustrating to be linked with that douchebag, but it might actually be for the best.

‘I’ll have to leave with Anselot to slay the Dragon of Light anyway…’

With that thought, I was responding half-heartedly to Sylvia’s words.

Right then, I sensed a presence from the opposite direction.

I raised my head without thinking and inwardly cheered when I recognized who it was.

‘It’s Klaus!’

Klaus was right in front of me without me having to go through the trouble of finding him.

His hair was tied back in a single ponytail. His knight uniform was neat but had a slightly disheveled feel to it.

He seemed to have just come from training at the training grounds.

, heir to the Winster Ducal Family
Favorability: -180

Klaus’s favorability remained unchanged from when I last saw him.

‘Alright, now’s my chance.’

Having made thorough preparations while waiting for this very moment, I smiled brightly at him and greeted him.

“Hello, Sir Klaus. We meet again.”

It was a decisive strike, in my opinion.

However…

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -190)

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -200)

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -210)

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -220)

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -230)

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -240)

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -250)

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -260)

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -270)

[SYSTEM] ‘s favorability has decreased by -10. (Favorability: -280)

‘Fu*k! What the hell is that!’

I was so startled my eyes nearly popped out of my head.

[Eeek, be careful Lulu! If favorability drops too low, they start harboring murderous intent! (⊙⊙;)/]

Pia’s message echoed like a scream.