“Let’s go.”

Confirming her appearance, Ashites smiled brightly, grabbed her hand, and walked briskly down the corridor.

About five minutes after they left the mansion, the butler’s office door opened.

Penchev, who had been about to finish his remaining tasks, noticed the commotion in the corridor and headed there. He saw a few servants chattering excitedly. Pausing, he overheard words like ‘Master of the Magic Tower’ and ‘handsome.’

So, to summarize, the Master of the Magic Tower had barged into the mansion and taken his lady away.

He could block visitors initially, but he couldn’t send them away on his own. Moreover, the men involved with his lady were typically the Master of the Magic Tower or the Grand Duke.

He couldn’t deal with either of them unless they were servants.

Today, Serena must have greeted the guest in his place as he was sorting documents.

If he had gone out…

Turning back, Penchev thought he wished the Master of the Magic Tower was someone easily frightened by his eyes.

* * *

Meanwhile, Lysith, being led by the hand, thought to herself.

‘Ah… I forgot for a moment. He’s always been this assertive.’

Unaware of Lysith’s returning sour expression, Ashites felt somewhat elated. During the time he hadn’t seen her, he had been ruminating like a character from a romantic novel.

But in the end, the conclusion was always the same.

He wanted to see her.

He wanted her to smile brightly at him, not reluctantly.

Whether this feeling was love or not was still unclear.

After leaving the mansion, they headed towards an area not frequented by nobles. Entering a deserted alley, Ashites took out a black earring from his pocket and handed it to Lysith.

“What’s this?”

“A magical artifact that changes hair color.”

“A thing like that exists?”

Even in Lysith’s memories from her time at the Duke’s residence, there was no such magical artifact. If changing hair or eye color were that convenient, disguises would be easy in this world.

As she looked at the earring in her palm with curiosity, Ashites answered her question in a casual tone as if he had just found it somewhere.

“Yeah. There are only ten of them in the Magic Tower.”

“……?”

“Hurry up and put it on. You don’t need pierced ears to wear it.”

“No, I can’t wear something that rare. How much is it?”

“I haven’t thought about the price. It’s not for sale anyway.”

For a moment, the black gemstone earring in her palm seemed to gleam with a golden light. It felt like the earring might be more expensive than her own worth.

As Lysith hesitated to wear the earring, Ashites eventually picked up the pair of accessories from her palm.

Holding her face with one hand, he carefully placed the earring on her ear with the other.

As soon as she wore the earring, her white hair slowly turned a dark blue from the roots. Confirming that the magical artifact worked, Ashites lowered his gaze to find Lysith’s face resting calmly in his palm.

As he moved his hand, he felt the soft skin against his palm. Raising his gaze slightly, he met her blue eyes up close.

They could hear each other’s breaths, and a gulping sound, unsure if it was from Lysith or Ashites, was audible.

Just as Ashites was about to move his hand from her ear to the back of her neck,

“Oh my, you two are close.”

“Eek!”

“Well, aren’t you two cozy?”

“……”

A passing lady’s comment shattered the atmosphere like breaking glass.

Startled, Lysith burrowed into Ashites’ arms, and Ashites quickly hugged her tightly. The passerby who had briefly looked at them clicked their tongue and walked past, muttering about young people these days displaying affection in public places.

“……”

“……”

Even after the passerby left, the two remained frozen like statues before suddenly springing apart. Or at least, they tried to…

“…Excuse me.”

“Huh? Yes?”

“Why aren’t you letting go…?”

They intended to separate, but for some reason, his arms and hands remained wrapped around her waist. Lysith, awkwardly sticking her belly out to keep some distance, looked at him with a face that said, ‘What are you doing?’ Only then did Ashites slowly, at a snail’s pace, release his arms.

At this point, Lysith was certain again.

This man must be a character with a ‘body contact’ keyword.

“Ahem, ahem.”

He seemed embarrassed too, as he awkwardly cleared his throat while scratching his neck. Lysith, deciding to let it slide, pointed at his hair.

“Don’t you need to change? Your hair color and eye color both stand out.”

“I can just wear this.”

He pulled out a black earring identical to the one he had given her. As he put it on, his hair gradually turned black, and his eyes turned golden.

Removing the ornament from his right sideburn, he tied his hair back and extended his hand to her as if to say, ‘Hold it.’

When she hesitantly took his hand, Ashites led her out of the alley, just as he had when they left the mansion.

She wondered if they really needed to hold hands, but the ‘happy’ expression on his face was so amusing that she decided to let it be.

As they walked, with her following his lead, Ashites suddenly spoke.

“So when are you going to stop talking formally?”

“You never said I could stop.”

“Oh, right. Then just speak casually.”

“Okay.”

As soon as he told her to speak casually, she did, and Ashites looked at her with a slightly surprised expression, as if he hadn’t expected her to comply so quickly.

For her, it was a relief to finally speak informally to this ‘rude and self-centered man.’ It was almost like he had given her permission to treat him comfortably.

Well, she didn’t know his age, but since he told her to, she would.

“You’re speaking casually as if you’ve been waiting for this.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Alright then…”

He stretched his words and looked elsewhere for a moment before meeting her eyes again with a soft smile.

“Can I call you ‘Noona’?”

“…What? Noona?”

“Yeah.”

Ashites’ bombshell statement made Lysith stop in her tracks, and he stopped with her, still smiling.

Lysith didn’t know his age. She had assumed he was older, but could it be that he was younger?

“Wait. How old are you?”

“Me? I’m two years younger than you.”

He asked if he could call her ‘Noona’ without even waiting for her permission, which was quite brazen.

Since Lysith was twenty-three, if he was two years younger…

“Twenty-one?”

“Yeah.”

Right, his face had a youthful look typical of someone in their early twenties. She assumed he was older not because he looked older but because of their… intimate encounter. She thought it wasn’t his first time.

Could it have been his first time…?

As she pondered this, she looked up at him, and their eyes met. He was still smiling.

“So, was that… your first time?”

“Oh, you mean when we slept together?”

“Keep your voice down!”

Lysith glanced around nervously and grabbed his collar, shaking him lightly. Despite his size and strength, he let himself be shaken back and forth. When she stopped, frowning, Ashites gently took her hand.

“It was my first time.”

His answer was calm, but Lysith’s thoughts were anything but.

‘I… I slept with someone two years younger…!’

Her grip on his collar loosened, and he ended up holding both of her hands. Staring at their intertwined fingers, he naturally laced his fingers with hers.

“Did you really think it wasn’t my first time?”

Lysith, shocked, tried to pull her hands away, but his gentle yet firm grip wouldn’t let her escape.

“Really?”

“……”

When she didn’t answer and looked down, Ashites bent his head to meet her eyes, trying to get into her line of sight. It was a rather bizarre sight for onlookers.

Finally, she nodded in agreement, and he let out a low chuckle above her.

“Ah, this is funny… No, I’m not blaming you. There’s a reason for it.”

“There’s a reason?”

“Since we’re on the topic, we should go somewhere.”

How could there be a reason for being good at something the first time? And how did this conversation lead to a place they needed to visit? Lysith couldn’t understand.

They walked with their fingers still laced together, and she wondered if he was holding her hand on purpose. Soon, she saw a familiar shop.

Before she could say anything, Ashites swung the door open.

“No customers.”

“Master, why are you here again…?”

The employee, who was about to complain about the Master of the Magic Tower frequently visiting their store instead of going back to the tower, was stunned into silence upon seeing the beautiful woman holding his hand.

Seeing him holding a woman’s hand was shocking enough, but seeing their fingers intertwined felt like an out-of-body experience.

“Did you get a girlfriend…?”

“Yes.”

“No!”

Startled by Ashites’ runaway train of madness, Lysith raised her voice to deny it, but he pulled her closer, wrapping his arm around her.