“If even an owner who works you like a dog is still called an owner, then I guess so?”

The Shih Tzu mixed breed, as if grateful that I understood its feelings, stuck out its red tongue and started licking my hand.

“Has Honey been working you hard? There, there.”

―Woof woof woof woof.

‘That’s right. I’m really struggling.’

……is what it says.

I wondered if the Guild Master might be abusing this cute dog.

But considering the dog’s growth state and the glossiness of its fur, it didn’t seem like that was the case.

“……Hmm. I see.”

The Guild Master’s voice somehow sounded lower when he said that.

“Minky, good job. You can go back in now.”

Minky glanced at the Guild Master’s face, as if checking his reaction, and went back through the open door.

……Somehow, I got the feeling that the dog understood our conversation too.

But of course, that would be impossible.

“I’ll inform you of the test results by mail tomorrow. If you pass the test, I’ll tell you how to make money with your Tamer ability. Of course, there will be no penalty fee.”

“Yes, yes.”

“But if you don’t pass……”

At that moment, an intimidating aura flowed from behind the Guild Master.

Even though he hadn’t activated any attack ability, I felt my whole body shrinking somehow.

“You’ll have to pay the price for lying, Guide Yerena.”

“……I really…… Huh! But how did you know my name?”

I was currently covering my face with a hood, and of course, I hadn’t told him my name.

The Guild Master spoke with a voice tinged with a smile.

“Customer, the exit door has opened.”

He pointed with his fingertip behind me, towards the elevator-like door I had come in through earlier.

It seems I’m being kicked out without mercy.

But wait a minute.

How is the Guild Master going to know whether I passed that test or not?

I had such doubts, but by then I was already boarding the elevator-like room.

***

In the study where Yerena had disappeared, the Guild Master sat there for a while, lost in thought.

‘That bird called Bless that Yerena brought….’

She seemed to think it was an ordinary bird, but as far as he knew, that bird was…….

‘It looked like a strange bird that came through the Gate.’

It wasn’t just violent monsters that came through the Gate.

For example, small creatures like that bird would sometimes come along too.

Our customer doesn’t seem to know that fact.

Regardless of Yerena’s ability, he was interested in her for having made a strange bird follow her. She was the most intriguing customer he’d had in recent times.

“Minky.”

At the Guild Master’s call, instead of a dog, a tall man walked out briskly from the door behind him.

He had light gray hair that was close to white, its color resembling Minky’s fur.

“……Even an owner who works you like a dog is still an owner if they’re an owner?”

“Haha. Didn’t You just work me like a dog a moment ago?”

“So, Minky. Was Guide Yerena’s interpretation accurate?”

“Yes, Master.”

The man who had been the Shih Tzu mixed breed Minky until just now was an Esper whose main ability was [Transformation].

The man’s real name was Evans. He was the Guild Master’s right-hand man and assistant.

“Then does that mean the Tamer ability is real……”

“It seems to be real, doesn’t it?”

“But, Evans. Didn’t you lick the customer’s hand too much? How dirty, tsk.”

Evans answered sheepishly.

“But the customer’s hand smelled nice.”

“Keep that up and you might really turn into a Shih Tzu mixed breed?”

“Then you’d have to raise me, Master.”

“You always have to have the last word.”

Evans spoke as if he wouldn’t back down.

“You liked Guide Yerena too, Master. I know you only tell people you like to call you Honey, you know?”

The Guild Master didn’t answer.

Instead, he stood up from where he had been sitting for a long time and removed his hood. This revealed his beautiful golden hair.

“Enough, let’s go back to Chelsea Center.”

A thin smile formed on the Guild Master’s lips.

‘It seems like interesting things are about to happen.’

***

On my way back to Chelsea Center, I happened to spot Lambert.

Despite his burly physique, he was choosing flowers at a flower shop.

Of course, I didn’t want to acknowledge him. I watched him briefly from a distance.

“Bless. Be quiet for a moment. We mustn’t be discovered.”

Bless, tucked inside my clothes, answered in a small voice that he would.

At least, my presence wouldn’t be revealed because of the bird’s chirping.

Eventually, Lambert came out holding an armful of white chrysanthemums.

He started walking somewhere with a dark expression.

I thought I knew where he was heading.

Wasn’t he going to find ‘her’ who no longer exists in this world, to give her the chrysanthemums?

‘That woman whom all three men who torment Yerena hold in their hearts.’

That woman was someone connected to Lambert, Baron, and Benjamin.

You could say she was a woman who shared memories with them during their childhood.

If that woman had lived until now, perhaps she would have become the protagonist of this novel.

But she was born with a terminal fate and ended her life at an early age. Leaving lingering attachments to the three men.

That woman, who was the first love of the three men…… had an appearance very similar to the female lead who would appear later.

The reason why the three men didn’t care about Yerena when she was torn apart and killed by monsters.

It was because when they first met the female lead, she resembled that woman, shocking the three men.

“……”

I quietly followed Lambert as he was about to disappear from my sight.

It wasn’t that I intended to follow him, but our directions were the same.

How long had I walked like that?

I saw Lambert entering a cemetery. I stopped there and watched him.

Lambert stood still in front of a gravestone.

The gravestone read, “Diana. Rests here.”

Diana, who was neither a Guide nor an Esper, but an ordinary person. She was a talented person from a Count’s family.

She was the only companion to the three men who had no friends due to their dog-like personalities.

Lambert had indeed gone to find her, as I had expected.

In the novel, she was often referred to like this:

‘Diana was the saint of the three men.’

Lambert’s face, looking down, was filled with melancholy. It was a completely different atmosphere from when he gave me that violent kiss.

Still…… seeing him like this, he looks a bit pitiful, even if just by a flea’s liver’s worth.

I was about to stop spying on Lambert. If I stayed any longer, he might detect me with his keen senses.

Just as I was about to take a step away.

I felt my wristwatch, which had been quiet, suddenly vibrate. It was a signal indicating that a Gate had opened and monsters had appeared.

“Ack!”

Startled by the sudden vibration, I let out a cry, and when I looked up, my eyes met Lambert’s red pupils.

There was distance between him and me, and I thought he wouldn’t recognize me because my face was covered by the hood, but…….

Lambert strode over and stood in front of me.

Then he said.

“Yerena? How did you……”

Lambert’s voice was harsh.

He seemed to be annoyed by the fact that I had set foot in this space, his ‘sacred ground’.

I unconsciously took a step back.

“Th-This place……”

My words got stuck in my throat.

Finding myself in this suffocating situation, my head started spinning.

Soon my mind went blank, and I couldn’t think of a way to overcome this crisis.

What should I do?

As I was agonizing over this, cold sweat running down my back, fortunately, a brilliant idea came to mind.

Before leaving the Center, I had told Baron some nonsense about going out to find the whereabouts of ‘Yerena’s parents who sold her off’.

Couldn’t I use that excuse again?

I deliberately bit the soft flesh inside my lip to make tears well up in my eyes.

“I came here because I heard a rumor that my parents were buried here, and I happened to discover you, Sir Lambert.”

In fact, I don’t know how Yerena’s parents are living either.

Since it wasn’t mentioned in the novel, there was no way I could know. And I had no intention of investigating.

Maybe they were dead.

Nevertheless, the reason I mentioned Yerena’s parents was to cover up the reality that I had unintentionally ended up following Lambert because we were going in the same direction.

There was no response to my excuse. Lambert simply reached out and removed the hood I had pulled down low.

I fully faced Lambert’s sharp gaze.

Just that gaze alone made me feel like I couldn’t move an inch.

Lambert was looking at me as if he was looking at a monster he had killed.

It was f*cking scary.

Will I… be able to return alive?