“Aaack!”

In an instant, water sprayed from all directions and bound Colin tightly to the chair.

As Colin stared wide-eyed at the sudden restraint, Leticia asked ominously.

“How do you know that…? Since when…?”

“N-no. I actually don’t know anything!”

Colin denied it belatedly, but it was useless.

When Leticia flicked her hand, the pressure of the water streams binding Colin intensified.

“It would be better to just answer honestly, Colin. Since when did you know?”

“I-I really don’t know. I was just guessing!”

It was something he had blurted out after merely thinking she might be a woman.

If anything, Leticia’s current reaction was turning Colin’s speculation into certainty.

“But why! Why would you even think such a thing!”

At Leticia’s interrogation, Colin shouted back, feeling rather wronged.

“You never once bathed at my house!”

Even though it wasn’t a shared bathroom and he had provided a separate guest bathroom, not only did she never use it, but she also never changed clothes at home.

“Let’s set aside the fact that you never wore any of the clothes I bought you! But why do your clothes change when you go out and come back?”

How could someone who wasn’t particularly fastidious never undress at home without it being suspicious!

“If you had just worn clothes and bathed at my house like normal, I wouldn’t have been suspicious! But why wouldn’t you undress at my house!”

“….”

Leticia finally understood the full context of Colin’s words and fell silent.

Colin didn’t know the specifics of the magic Leticia used. They weren’t that close, after all.

He didn’t know that she could clean herself with magic without using the bathroom, so he must have thought she went out every day to bathe and change clothes.

…It really must have looked suspicious.

Leticia understood Colin’s expression, full of indignation.

“At firs,t I just thought you were hiding some kind of wound. But if that were the case, no matter how well you hid it, Lord Chamuka would have noticed…”

Colin’s words were filled with certainty that if there had been even the tiniest wound, Chamuka wouldn’t have missed it.

“It’s strange to refuse to undress when you don’t even have any injuries.”

Colin, unaware of the approaching danger, simply lamented.

“I’m not Lord Chamuka, so why would our relationship—”

“—Our relationship?”

“Yes, our relation…ship…”

He unconsciously looked at Leticia sitting across from him. But her lips were tightly closed.

Colin shuddered at the chilling sensation that ran down his spine.

If it wasn’t Leticia who spoke, then the man questioning from behind Colin was probably…

“What ‘relationship’ were you just talking about?”

Oh d*mn. It was indeed Chamuka.

The sound of approaching footsteps grew louder and louder.

Colin inwardly cursed and immediately tried to stand up to give up his seat, only to realize he was tied up, and quickly turned to look at Leticia.

Just as he was about to send her a desperate look saying, ‘Untie me!’

“Why are you two staring at each other like that?”

Colin’s eyes quickly darted to the floor.

Fortunately, Leticia sensed the situation and released the water streams binding Colin.

Colin jumped to his feet—

“Sit.”

“Yes.”

He promptly sat back down at Chamuka’s command.

Chamuka pulled out a chair between Leticia and Colin and sat down.

A faint smell of water emanated from Chamuka as he came closer.

Leticia grabbed Chamuka’s sleeve and asked.

“Did you just come here while still wet?”

Only after speaking did she realize this wasn’t an appropriate question for the person who had doused him with water.

Perhaps because she was in the middle of a shocking conversation with Colin— no, wait.

‘Did I come here because of Lord Chamuka…?’

Leticia tried to quietly release the sleeve she was holding.

However, Chamuka was quicker and grabbed her hand.

“You can dry me, can’t you?”

“…I already dried you completely.”

Of course, she had removed all the moisture when she grabbed his sleeve.

Leticia tugged her hand free, frowning at Chamuka’s words that felt oddly like romantic overtures.

Haha, romantic overtures? Lord Chamuka wouldn’t make such gestures. Surely not..

“I think there’s still some moisture left.”

“No. Not at all.”

Leticia’s hand was seized by Chamuka’s, which was feeling her fingers, no.

‘Using the word “feeling” makes it sound strange. Chamuka is just kneading my fingers, no. This isn’t right!’

She desperately tried to deny reality as she turned her head away.

Colin was holding his breath with an expression that suggested he wanted to jump out the window immediately.

When their eyes met, Colin shook his head vigorously as if telling her to look away right now.

Leticia found this ridiculous.

So in this situation, was she supposed to make eye contact with Chamuka instead?

Chamuka, who had been quietly observing their exchange of glances, asked. Of course, to Leticia.

“What were you talking about?”

“…How much did you hear?”

“From the part about how strange it is that you don’t undress. Up to ‘our relationship.'”

Colin shrank back, turning not just pale but blue. Why did he have to hear from that part of all things?

“Why did that thing say such things?”

“It’s nothing. Colin bought me some clothes, but I was too lazy to change, so he was just telling me to try them on. So, well, he was saying something like there’s no need to look good for our relationship, just wear whatever he gives me, um, something like that.”

As Leticia rambled on with her excuse, she deeply engraved in her heart the saying that ‘long explanations mean you have something to hide.’

“Lord Chamuka, why did you come all the way here…”

Of course, it was because she had doused Chamuka with water and then fled here.

Leticia quickly changed the end of her sentence.

“You must be tired from coming all this way. You should go back and rest.”

She stood up and strode toward the exit.

Although her concerns hadn’t been resolved at all, if she stayed any longer, Colin looked like he might really jump out the window.

As Leticia moved, Chamuka naturally followed.

Although she had expected Chamuka to follow her, seeing him actually following made her feel a strange new awareness.

Chamuka had always followed behind her and was always by her side when needed.

She had come to take it for granted at some point, but…

Nothing in the world is truly a given.

Before, she had believed Chamuka’s endless kindness was based on family affection, but now…

Now she wasn’t sure.

Leticia thought this as she looked at the streets that had grown dark.

Chamuka, who had been following a step behind her, stopped beside her.

Leticia looked up at Chamuka, who had pulled his cloak low to hide his identity in the capital.

Even under the darkened sky, his golden eyes emitted a faint light. Just like a predator active at night.

“I have some more things to do, so I’m going to stop by that street over there. The inn is in the opposite direction, so shall we part ways here?”

“…Can’t I come with you?”

“No. I want to go alone.”

“I want to go with you.”

He still had no expression, but now Leticia could read the anxiety and unease beyond that expressionlessness.

When emotions felt this tangible, Leticia truly felt that the Basilinte curse had been lifted.

“I…”

“…”

“I was wrong earlier.”

Chamuka confessed his state.

“I wasn’t in my right mind. I don’t really understand it either. After being unconscious for ten days and waking up, something, very, something seems wrong with my head… I keep having strange thoughts and acting impulsively. I can’t control it.”

And.

“I’m afraid you’ll hate me for it.”