Michael expected to be summoned like this someday. Ever since the day he put a tracking spell on Ravenne’s bracelet.

On the day he was called to the casino, Ilion had boldly made a request to him.

‘Can you put a location tracking spell on this artifact?’

‘What? Duke, that would be an invasion of privacy…’

‘I asked if you could do it.’

Those red eyes looked down at him resolutely, seemingly not allowing any objections. These high nobles, really.

Michael clicked his tongue inwardly but smiled outwardly.

There was no point in upsetting the Duke of Celestine, who was said to be able to make even birds fall from the sky. Besides, wasn’t he the biggest sponsor of the Magic Academy?

‘…W-well, I can do it.’

If he upset the Duke, he might be marked by everyone from the Academy Principal to the Head of the Magic Department. He couldn’t risk losing all sorts of funding and getting expelled just for being disliked. If they say do it, he had to do it.

Michael took the bracelet and lightly cast a tracking spell.

‘Um, I did it since you asked, but only the caster can know the location, you know?’

‘Then I’ll call you when I need you.’

‘……’

Yes, he expected this from that moment. That someday, a day like this would come.

But reality often had a knack for surpassing imagination.

Michael looked around the dusty room.

Duke Celestine’s fiancée and Count Grenoble’s daughter were tied up in a corner of the dilapidated room, and while he was coughing, Ilion had already thrown one man across the room.

He understood why Ravenne was here, but why was Julia here? Michael tilted his head at the unusual combination but gave up trying to figure it out.

Whatever this chaos was, what did it have to do with him? His work hours were long over.

He just wanted to finish the job quickly and get away from Ilion.

‘I teleported here as you wanted, but what should I do now?’

Hoping for some sort of order, he looked at Ilion, who strode over to the man who had crashed into the wall with his long legs.

Then, with his large boot, he mercilessly stomped on the man’s hand as if to crush it.

“Argh! You bastard, let go…!”

The man tried to remove Ilion’s foot with his other hand that wasn’t being stepped on, but Ilion’s sword was faster. The arm cut off by the sword sprayed blood around and rolled on the floor a few times before stopping.

The man writhed in pain and screamed, and hearing his terrible screams, Michael unknowingly squeezed his eyes shut.

‘Tomorrow is Saturday. Tomorrow is Saturday.’

Muttering the best thought he could come up with, Michael denied this dreamlike reality. But reality seemed to have no intention of leaving him alone.

Because the man’s screams were too loud, the gang members enjoying their feast outside rushed into the room.

“Who are these bastards?”

Men reeking of alcohol and wielding weapons surrounded them. Michael turned to Ilion with a worried expression and said,

“Um, Duke? Instead of just beating up one guy, could you maybe look at the rest too? Their friends have arrived.”

However, whether he didn’t hear him or didn’t care about the rest, Ilion’s gaze was still fixed on that man.

Michael turned away with blurry eyes from the one-sided violence of Ilion stabbing the man as if to kill him.

“…Alright, I understand. I’ll take care of the rest.”

He sighed resignedly and spread his hands to begin chanting.

Frightened by the sudden appearance of a mage, the men quickly abandoned their initial bravado and scrambled towards the door in confusion.

“A m-mage! Run away!”

“Lightning!”

But they couldn’t escape Michael’s magic. The men trying to escape the room got tangled up in front of the door and collapsed after being struck directly by lightning.

As expected, using magic on people left a bad aftertaste.

Michael, who’s unexpectedly a pacifist, turned his gaze away as if he had done something he shouldn’t have.

Then he approached Ravenne, who was lying on the floor, and untied the ropes binding her.

Ravenne, barely managing to compose herself, flinched nervously.

Unable to watch any longer, Michael said a word to Ilion.

“Duke, the lady seems quite shocked, so maybe you should stop now. He might die at this rate.”

At those words, Ilion abruptly stopped moving.

Finally, his words got through! He was almost overwhelmed with emotion.

Please, if you’re going to kill someone, do it when I’m not around. I don’t want to help clean up a corpse.

Ilion shook his blood-stained sword once and looked at Michael. Even after such a one-sided beating, he still seemed unsatisfied, as if he could kill someone at any moment.

“Can you heal as well?”

“…You think magic is omnipotent. For healing, you need to go to a temple. I can’t do that.”

“Then cauterize this man’s wounds with fire. We can’t let him die from excessive bleeding.”

Seeing Ilion speak without blinking an eye, Michael shook his head, disgusted. He clearly asked on purpose despite knowing the answer.

Ilion left those words and carried Ravenne out of the room, stepping on the unconscious men as he went, and Michael approached the man sprawled like minced meat with a long sigh.

“…Please don’t die from shock. I want to go home today.”

Praying that the man would survive, he cast magic around the wound. The man’s terrible screams once again echoed through the room.

***

“All the wounds have been treated. Since I used holy water, there will be almost no scars left.”

“When do you think she’ll wake up?”

“She’s just sleeping because she’s tired. She’ll wake up soon once she recovers her strength.”

“…Is that so? To my eyes, it looks like she’s pretending to sleep.”

…Did he notice?

My heart sank at Ilion’s casually uttered words, but I tried hard to maintain the pretense of sleeping.

Of course, if I open my eyes now, I might be killed by Ilion, so why would I be crazy enough to wake up!

Yesterday’s events were finally settled close to midnight.

Sebastian arrived at the abandoned house with soldiers, and they captured all the gang members who had kidnapped me, including Julia.

Julia struggled, claiming she was innocent, but it didn’t work on Ilion.

And I was teleported to the mansion in Ilion’s arms.

Ilion didn’t say a word until we arrived at my room, and I couldn’t spout my usual nonsense due to the pressure he was exuding.

I just stayed quietly in his arms like a prisoner waiting for the judge’s sentence.

Ilion, who put me down on the bed, finally looked at me with a small sigh. However, a suffocating silence fell between us again, and I just clutched the innocent blanket.

For a long time, I just kept my head down, unable to properly look at his face, listening only to the ticking of the clock.

Ilion was the one who broke the silence first.

‘I have a lot to say to you, but you look tired, so I’ll postpone it until tomorrow.’

That was like a death sentence to me. Just the execution of the sentence was extended by one day.

I just nodded without being able to properly meet Ilion’s eyes.

So today, I kept my eyes tightly shut to avoid letting Ilion, who came to see me early in the morning with a priest and a doctor, know that I was awake.

Even with my eyes closed, I could almost see Ilion’s sharp gaze in front of me. Somehow, my face even felt hot.

“Let’s wait until the lady wakes up.”

“……”

Sebastian is really the only one I can count on.

Fortunately, with Sebastian’s timely help, the stubborn Ilion gave up first and left.

Hearing the footsteps fade away, I opened my eyes and looked at the ceiling.

I struggled so hard to leave this place, but here I am, back again after all that. Never had this familiar ceiling looked so cruel as it did today.

At this point, it seemed I should worry about my own miserable fate rather than Ilion’s destiny.

Is there some kind of force compelling the story to continue because the world I entered is a novel? Is that why I keep coming back here?

I don’t even know why I entered this novel in the first place, so thinking about it wouldn’t yield any clear answers.

I wonder what happened to Sergio. I need to return the sunflower painting…

Despite lying in bed for over half a day, I couldn’t sleep properly because of the thoughts chasing each other in my head.

What should I do? I really couldn’t face Ilion.

***

After pretending to be dead asleep in bed all day, I got up from my bed when I heard Lily returning to her room.

There was only one conclusion.

‘Let’s run away.’

Rather than being dragged to prison by Ilion’s hands if I stay here, I should at least try to escape.

I threw off the blanket, tore the sheet in half to make a rope, tied one end of the rope to the corner of the bed, and threw the other end out the window.

It was dark outside, and fortunately, there were no guards patrolling the mansion. It’s late at night, so all the maids should be asleep too.

Strengthening my resolve that it’s now or never, I grabbed the rope and slowly descended.

“I don’t want to go this far either, but to survive, I have no choice…”

“Where are you going in the middle of the night?”

“…Ahhh!”

As I was muttering to myself while struggling to descend the wall, a voice suddenly spoke without any warning, startling me and causing me to let go of the rope.

Contrary to my expectation of falling straight to the ground, a pair of strong arms caught me.

“…Where were you going?”

I thought no one was around? How long have you been there?

“I-I-I was going for a w-walk…”

“In your nightgown and barefoot?”

“W-walking barefoot on the soil is s-supposed to be good for your health… they say…”

“……”

Ilion was silently looking at me. My miserable fate…

I should have just fallen to the ground and fainted, why did I end up in Ilion’s arms?

Of all the possible outcomes, why did it have to be Ilion!

“Is there a reason you specifically came out through the window?”

“……”

“I see, a walk, how convenient. I had something to say to you anyway.”

While I couldn’t find an answer and just rolled my eyes for a while, Ilion continued speaking while carrying me and slowly walking towards the mansion.

“I heard everything about what you planned with Sergio. What’s the reason?”

Here it comes.

“T-that is…”

“Were you planning to elope with him?”

“…What?”