The waiter seemed to have remembered something.

Somehow, I felt like I had found the right answer. If there was friction between Askan and Reiana, it would have been noisy around them.

“Where is that?”

“Well, that is……”

The waiter hesitated to respond, perhaps fearing that he might get into trouble.

I spoke firmly to the hesitant waiter once more.

“There’s no time. Answer quickly.”

Perhaps he felt my assertive aura. The waiter timidly opened his mouth, pointing in one direction.

“The fact that I told you is a secret, Miss.”

“Understood. I’ll keep the promise.”

I walked in the direction the waiter had indicated. And not long after, I was able to see Askan, whom I had been searching for so long.

Askan was leaning against the door with his arms folded. His figure felt more elegant than any noble, and I couldn’t help but smirk.

“What are you doing here?”

“Have you arrived?”

It didn’t seem like anything particularly unusual had happened to Askan, contrary to my worries.

I was about to ask him what was going on when a hysterical woman’s voice came from inside the room.

“You! Are you not opening this?! If I get out of here, you’ll really pay for this!”

I stared at Askan in surprise at a thought that suddenly occurred to me while listening to the woman’s screaming voice.

“Don’t tell me, is Lady Krisha inside there?”

“Yes.”

Askan’s answer was too succinct for such a serious situation.

“You locked Lady Krisha in this room?”

“Yes. You said to hold her down by any means.”

A smile burst out of me as I stared at Askan’s impassive face.

“……Ha, ha.”

I was reminded once again that Askan is the final villain in the novel . Not only was he known for his monstrous abilities, but also for his exceptional intelligence.

Come to think of it, this was the most suitable method to restrain Reiana.

“What did you tell Lady Krisha to lure her in?”

“I told her that Miss Tanashia was waiting for her inside.”

“Clever. And then you kept watch at the door like this?”

“Yes.”

“All this time?”

“You said to hold her down as long as possible, but I didn’t know when that would be.”

In the middle of my conversation with Askan, Reiana’s scream was heard again.

“Open this door!”

Then he gestured towards the inside of the room with a slight flick of his eyes and spoke in a low voice.

“As you can see, I don’t think I can handle the aftermath, so I was waiting until you arrived.”

It was astonishing that he had included in his calculations that I would come looking for him like this. He had a knack for surprising people.

When I stared at Askan, he asked with a puzzled look.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, you did well. I’m just surprised that you executed the task I asked for so perfectly.”

Despite my compliment, Askan’s expression did not change. However, having spent a lot of time with him recently, I got the feeling that he too felt satisfied.

“……It’s the first time I’ve received a request.”

I wanted to reply to his quiet words, but then.

Thump, thump, thump!

There began to be loud noises from the room. It seemed that Reiana was throwing objects towards the door.

I couldn’t just ignore Reiana and continue talking to Askan like this.

I raised my voice on purpose before opening the door.

“Reiana, it’s me.”

This was to prevent Reiana from throwing anything when I opened the door.

As expected, Reiana seemed to recognize my voice and stopped causing a fuss.

“Tanashia?”

“Yes. I’m about to open the door, so wait.”

Only after confirming that Reiana had calmed down did I open the door.

The sight inside the room was hilarious. There was not a single piece of furniture left intact the sofa, table, even the carpet laid on the floor.

Reiana glared at Askan, who stood behind me, with blazing eyes.

“How dare you lock me in here?!”

I stepped in front of Reiana, who seemed ready to charge at Askan at any moment, and spoke in a calm voice.

“I have nothing to say to my servant. After all, it’s what I ordered.”

“What? Why would you do this…”

“I just wanted to surprise you, but I ended up arriving a little late. Sorry.”

“That’s ridiculous!”

She brushed it off as a prank that friends would play, as she had no prepared excuses, but it seemed that Leyana didn’t believe her at all.

“You knew what I had prepared for today. Are you expecting me to believe that?”

Looking at Leyana’s reaction, it seemed that Tanashia from the novel knew that Leyana was going to set off fireworks today as well.

It was a misjudgment.

In the novel , Tanashia’s childhood passed quickly, so she didn’t expect Tanashia to know in advance.

Of course, even if she knew, it would have been difficult to find a proper excuse given how the situation unfolded.

She wanted to sneak past like a snake over a wall, but it didn’t seem like it was going to be that easy.

She laughed louder to make up for her mistake and caused a fuss.

“Sorry, sorry. I forgot. But the fireworks went off properly, so don’t worry.”