“Argh!”

The thief fell to the ground again. A man had appeared out of nowhere, twisting the thief’s arm behind his back while kicking him in the shin.

The thief let out an ear-splitting scream, and the man mercilessly pressed his knee into the thief’s back. The thief’s shoulder, twisted unnaturally, contorted into a grotesque angle.

“My arm! Argh, my arm!”

“Don’t move,” the man warned in a cold voice.

His skill in subduing the thief was precise and efficient, without any unnecessary movement.

Hailey stared wide-eyed at the man in front of her. Despite wearing a business suit that was now crumpled, he didn’t hesitate to restrain the struggling thief.

“Argh!”

The thief’s cries of pain echoed as the plump officer finally arrived, gasping for breath. The other two officers soon followed.

The man, expressionless, handed the subdued thief over to them. The officers secured the thief and confiscated the stolen bag from his hands.

The man in the business suit cast a frosty glance at the plump officer.

“If you’re too fat to catch a criminal, perhaps it’s time to quit being an officer, Constable Bentley.”

“I-I apologize, Inspector Blair,” the plump officer stammered, bowing his head while wiping the sweat from his brow. His face, reddened with shame, betrayed no inclination to argue with Blair’s remark.

Inspector?

Hailey glanced at the man before her again. He had pure blonde hair, with not a hint of any other color, and sapphire-like blue eyes. His handsome features were striking, and he seemed surprisingly young to be an inspector.

Not that it mattered.

He had nothing to do with her. Though she had accidentally intervened, she had no intention of getting further involved with them.

To live as though invisible, quiet and unassuming—that was still her life’s goal.

Hailey turned on her heel without a word and resumed walking toward the mansion. Just as she did, a stern voice rang out behind her.

“It wasn’t something a proper, dignified lady should have meddled in. If that man had acted rudely toward you, things could have turned far worse.”

She stopped in her tracks. Slowly, she turned back around.

“…….”

The blonde man was staring at her with narrowed eyes. Hailey met his gaze calmly with her light green eyes.

She wasn’t an officer. In other words, even if he was an inspector, he wasn’t her superior.

Moreover, he wasn’t Hailey’s employer like the Duke, who paid her salary. No matter how much she thought about it, there was no reason for her to endure it.

She was a slave to capitalism, not to everyone.

“Is it so hard for such a gentleman to say a simple thank you?”

Hailey’s voice was colder than ever. It seemed to be an unexpected retaliation, as Inspector Blair’s eyes slightly twisted.

“A thank you?”

Half muttering to himself, he replied in a stern tone.

“You seem to be mistaken. Even without the lady’s interference, we would have caught the thief. The officers of Aslan are not that incompetent.”

“Oh, sure, sure. That’s why you’re running around clueless about the murderer on Engler Street, wasting your efforts.”

“!”

It seemed that struck a nerve. Blair’s expression instantly turned icy.

He stared at Hailey with cold, lifeless eyes. She, as if no longer wanting to engage, turned sharply on her heels.

Perhaps there was some law in Aislin that said first impressions must always go poorly. Every new person she met seemed determined to annoy her.

“I should check the law books tonight,” Hailey muttered resolutely, leaving the scene in a manner far from ladylike. The sky had already begun to glow red, signaling that time had slipped away due to the unexpected incident.

Her heart grew anxious. The Duke’s estate was three blocks away, up a hill lined with rows of cypress trees.

“I told them I’d arrive before sunset. What if Madam Mastis thinks I’ve run away and starts packing my things?”

Standing at a fork in the road, Hailey glanced back and forth with a troubled expression. The path on the right was the main road leading to the estate, where carriages passed occasionally and people bustled about.

The left path, on the other hand, was a shortcut. If she could make it through the winding narrow alley, she would quickly reach the uphill road leading to the estate.

The problem? The area was a nightlife district, filled with pubs.

“What should I do?”

Her deliberation didn’t last long. Without hesitation, Hailey turned left. The sun hadn’t set yet, and the pubs were still closed. The streets were quiet, and there seemed to be no danger.

Great.

As she briskly stepped into the narrow alley between two pubs—

“Ah!”

She collided with a man coming out of the alley. It was as if she had hit a stone wall. Hailey, who had bumped her face into the man’s chest, stumbled backward several steps.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect anyone to be—”

As she rubbed her aching nose, she stopped mid-sentence. An inexplicable pressure made her breath catch in her throat.

The man, at least two heads taller than Hailey, was looking down at her with languid eyes. His body appeared completely relaxed, yet the air around him felt heavy, as if it were closing in. It was as though someone had sucked all the air out of the area, leaving her lungs unable to expand.

With dark green hair and a lazy gaze, he stared indifferently at Hailey. She, too, couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. His ashen gray pupils, which almost looked black, gleamed sharply.

“You should watch where you’re going. Unless, of course, those things under your eyebrows are just for decoration.”

His voice was as languid as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep.

The man was dressed in simple black trousers and a white shirt, with two buttons undone, exposing his chest. It wasn’t exactly a tidy appearance.

Given that this was an alley between pubs, it wasn’t all that surprising.

Hailey’s gaze drifted upward, tracing his solid chest, thick neck, and sharp jawline until it reached his languorous eyes.

She caught a faint scent of tobacco from him—neither too strong nor too sweet, just a slightly bitter aroma.

“So, as I was saying, I’m sorry—”

She paused momentarily, furrowing her brow. First, it had been the inspector scratching at her nerves, and now, a back-alley thug was picking a fight with her.

Did she look like an easy target?

Suddenly, the image of herself reflected in a mirror flashed through her mind: reddish-golden hair that almost looked orange, faint green eyes with little presence, a pale face, a small frame, and a frail body that seemed as though it could collapse at any moment.

…I do look like an easy target.

Hailey was adept at self-awareness and accepting reality as it was. That didn’t mean she planned to let herself be underestimated.

It wasn’t like they’d meet again. In other words, the man had no significance in her life. Just like Inspector Blair earlier.

Quickly concluding her internal calculations, Hailey’s tone turned sharp.

“So, am I the only one with eyes? Don’t you have any eyes to see where you’re going? Oh, wait, maybe it’s not your eyes that are the problem—maybe it’s your lack of manners?”

For a moment, the man’s eyes widened. The change was subtle, so she couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like it. He stared at Hailey’s face, as though hearing something completely unexpected.

His gaze, moving slowly down and up, seemed to size her up—or perhaps etch her face into memory.

Hailey didn’t back down and glared right back. Her hand instinctively tightened around the handle of her parasol.

So what? Are you going to hit me in broad daylight?

At that moment, the man smirked, curling one corner of his mouth into a decadent smile that made her heart skip a beat. Leaning casually against the wall with his arms crossed, he said,

“Ah, you were just too small to notice, little lady. Now that I see you properly, it’s good to know your pale green eyes are actually in place.”

“Ha ha ha.”

Hailey let out a bitter chuckle as she glanced up at the sky.

“This one or that one…”

She muttered a quiet complaint, her lips barely moving. The man’s eyes creased slightly, his smile deepening. Hailey, lowering her gaze slowly, shot back with a frosty remark.

“Shorty? Well, being a shorty is far better than being someone as rude as if they left their manners back in their mother’s womb. Don’t you think so?”

The man casually shrugged, as if amused by her sharp tone.

Hailey straightened her back and took a step forward, her gaze fixed straight ahead, heading toward the alley as though the man didn’t exist.

Yet, the closer she got to the alley entrance where the man stood, the more her entire body tensed. Every cell in her body felt tightly wound.

She knew this feeling all too well. When was it? A distant memory, as if from a past life. Back when she was a child, on her way to school, she had to pass by a house with a ferocious dog.

The dog, whose breed was indiscernible, was tied to the yard without a fence with a chain. It crouched low, glaring sharply at anyone passing by as though it found that amusing.

Even though she knew it was chained, her nerves were always on edge whenever she walked by. She would keep her gaze fixed straight ahead, pretending not to notice its gleaming, piercing eyes, forcing her stiff legs to keep moving.

When she heard rumors that even the dog’s owner said it was a mad dog that bit people, she became even warier.

As much as she wanted to scream and run past, she knew dogs could distinguish between scared and calm individuals.

If she showed fear, the snarling beast might just snap its chain and chase her down.

So every time she passed by that house, she averted her eyes, doing her best to walk nonchalantly, careful not to provoke the dog. She held her head high, trying not to reveal her fear.

And now was no different. Hailey walked past the man without sparing him a glance. Chin raised, shoulders squared.