***

Colin opened the door to his branch lodging, discovered a golden-haired beauty agonizing inside, and closed the door again.

“I must be seeing things.”

Haha. Why would Basilinte’s attachment doll, who should be tightly held captive by the Basilintes, be in his lodging?

Colin rubbed his eyes and opened the door once more.

“….”

But when the golden-haired beauty didn’t disappear, he closed the door again and turned away.

“Hahaha. My eyesight must be getting bad. Should I go see a doctor?”

Just as he was about to flee while muttering these artificial soliloquies, the door opened silently, and his shoulder was firmly grabbed.

“Where are you going?”

Even being grabbed by a ghost wouldn’t be more frightening than this.

Colin quickly tried to remove Leticia’s hand with just his fingertips.

However, Leticia was very uncooperative with Colin’s desperate attempt to minimize contact.

“No. Don’t. Let me go…!”

It meant that Leticia had grabbed Colin’s arm and pulled him into the room.

Eventually, Colin had to enter the room and face her.

He pointed to the window where the sunset was visible and asked in a mournful tone.

“Why did you come looking for me at this hour, why…!”

He trembled with fear that at any moment, one of the Basilintes would smash through the window and jump in, smashing him along with it.

And there was a very high probability that one of those Basilintes would be Chamuka.

Leticia responded gloomily.

“Where else could I go in the capital besides your place and the inn where my maid is staying?”

“Then go to that maid!”

“I went, but she wasn’t there.”

In fact, Aina had heard from the innkeeper that “someone is waiting in the room” and, being quick-witted, had slipped away as if she had never existed at the inn.

She had even asked the innkeeper to relay the message “The person you’re looking for will be at the Lefri Merchant Guild branch lodging” if a tall, scary, handsome man with crazed eyes came looking, thus perfectly handling the aftermath before vanishing gracefully.

Aina’s sensitivity and avoidance skills, which had allowed her to survive while serving closely as Leticia’s personal maid every day, were truly at a superhuman level.

And Colin, who didn’t possess Aina’s level of ability, suffered through the dangerous task of having a private conversation alone with Leticia in the same space.

He would have suffered even more if he had known about the “tall, scary, handsome man with crazed eyes” rapidly approaching the branch lodging, but fortunately or unfortunately, Colin didn’t know that yet.

“What about the other Basilintes? They let you come alone? Why?!”

“They’re all collapsed from exhaustion. Lady Kalia and Lord Tan, too, and His Grace woke up briefly to put Master to sleep, but seems to have gone back to sleep. Master’s master? I saw that person collapsed too—”

The long, rambling story wasn’t particularly important or coherent.

As if she was circling around, finding it difficult to get to her real purpose.

Colin mentioned someone who hadn’t appeared in Leticia’s words at all.

“What about Lord Chamuka?”

“….”

Leticia’s ongoing speech abruptly stopped.

Colin found Leticia, who had rapidly become depressed again, extremely ominous.

He carefully suggested to her.

“How about finding someone else to talk to, even now?”

“Who?”

“Anyone but me, for starters.”

“Who else knows both me and Lord Chamuka right now besides you?”

So it’s definitely about Lord Chamuka.

Colin was saddened by the truth he realized from that single question.

Finally, he muttered in resignation.

“This sacrifice better be repaid with investment funds later…”

“…? Where would I get money? Stop saying strange things and sit down.”

As soon as he sat down in the chair opposite Leticia with the feeling of sitting on the execution block, her question flew at him fiercely before he could mentally prepare.

“In what way do you think Lord Chamuka likes me?”

“….”

How could the very first question be so direct!

Colin grabbed his fluttering heart and looked at Leticia.

Her unrealistically handsome appearance still sparkled excessively despite her somewhat depressed expression.

“What do you mean by ‘in what way’? Why would you… No, first of all, the way he likes you isn’t really important.”

Because.

“He only likes you anyway, so what’s the point of analyzing the meaning behind it…”

When there’s only one person classified as “liked” in Chamuka’s mind, does the meaning of that “like” really matter?

It didn’t seem like there would ever be anyone else classified under that “like” category for the rest of his life, either.

“Why am I the only one he likes? There’s also Master and His Grace?”

“…?”

“He fights with Lord Tan often, but they get along well, and although he’s careful approaching Lady Kalia because she’s young, he tries to take good care of her.”

“…?”

Who is he talking about?

Colin doubted whether the person Leticia was referring to was actually Chamuka.

Chamuka found his siblings annoying.

Of course, those siblings also found Chamuka irritating.

“He doesn’t seem to get along well with Lord Gaien, but he’s good with Lady Isana. He often makes time to go see her.”

That’s because you go, so he followed you…

Shouldn’t she have felt something was strange when the person who claimed to be visiting Lady Isana was actually just following her around?

“If you’re saying he doesn’t like anyone except family… Actually, I, I mean…”

Leticia touched her slightly reddened ear tips and mumbled softly, stumbling over her words.

“I… thought I was… family.”

The face of the beauty confessing her true feelings while being embarrassed displayed a destructively charming level that could enchant anyone in the world.

Even Colin, who had been on high alert, stared blankly in appreciation for a moment before pinching his thigh.

“I’m Master’s disciple, so she said that’s as good as family… And Lord Chamuka kept saying he wished I was his brother… His Grace also said I was the most fun to raise…”

Ferik, who had said those words, had his head cracked open by Astrid that night with the rebuke “Do you think our baby is a plant?”, but in any case, Leticia didn’t know about that.

Colin, blankly appreciating Leticia’s beauty, blurted out words he hadn’t managed to filter.

“What about your real family?”

Leticia’s expression, which had been shy while substituting the Basilintes as family, hardened in an instant.

At that sudden change, Colin belatedly came to his senses and stammered an excuse.

“No, since you’re a ‘prince,’ your family…”

“I don’t have one.”

Leticia firmly denied it and then said.

“You already guessed that I’m not really a prince, right? You must have known after coming to the capital. That there’s a perfectly healthy ‘Prince Sion’ existing in the capital.”

“….”

“I’m not Prince Sion. And actually, I’m not even royalty. I’m—”

“Wait.”

Colin hastily interrupted Leticia’s words.

“Is it okay to tell me? No, I mean, you’ve already told the others, the Basilintes, and now you’re coming to tell me, right?”

“….”

From Leticia’s silence, Colin realized with horror that he was about to be the first recipient of her identity confession.

Of course, she probably tried to make such a confession to him precisely because they weren’t particularly close, so it wouldn’t be a big burden, but there was no way the Basilintes would understand such circumstances.

“Why are you doing this to me?! Y-you should talk to Lord Chamuka— no, Lady Astrid! Yes, your master! Why suddenly make such a heavy confession to me…!”

His tongue got tied in the suddenly approaching crisis.

Then, remembering that she had come here because of Chamuka, he blurted out.

“Don’t tell me Lord Chamuka noticed first, or you’re in the mindset of ‘might as well reveal everything since it’s come to this’? If so, please put me at the very end of the list. You can even keep your identity hidden from me forever.”

“No, Lord Chamuka just tried to k…”

Unable to say “tried to kiss me,” Leticia firmly closed her mouth.

At that reaction, Colin turned pale and jumped to his feet.

“Don’t tell me he found out you’re a woman and—”

“What?!”