Merry Christmas to all my readers! To celebrate, I’m treating you to extra chapter updates. Please enjoy this special release of four bonus chapters! °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

(Lurelia’s Christmas Bonus – Update 1/4 🎉)

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Benjamin wouldn’t have cared if Yerena died.

If that girl who resembled Diana’s ugly doll were to die, he thought he might feel more at ease.

After all, it would mean the disappearance of a mediocre medium that reminded him of Diana.

There were even times when he wished for her death.

Benjamin originally didn’t feel much about people dying.

People were born to die, and he had no interest in the lives of others except Diana.

But the moment he saw Yerena and Lambert kissing, his heart felt strangely tight.

It was like the feeling when seeing something unpleasant.

So he separated the two who were kissing. Then he said something uncharacteristic of him.

“Is this how you guide every time?”

He had never received guidance, so he thought it was usually resolved by holding hands, and he assumed Yerena did the same.

Benjamin felt a strange sense of possessiveness towards Yerena for the first time then.

If she were to die in vain, he thought he might feel a little, just a little, disappointed.

For a while after that, the scene of Lambert and Yerena kissing wouldn’t leave his mind.

As if he too wished to kiss Yerena.

He couldn’t resist his curiosity. Benjamin finally used guidance as an excuse to kiss Yerena.

He pressed his lips against her small, tulip-like lips.

The moment their lips touched, sparks flew. A tingling sensation at his fingertips and toes.

His hands cupping Yerena’s cheeks might have trembled slightly.

Benjamin knew the nature of this feeling.

It was similar to the excitement he had felt for Diana long ago.

Excitement…?

Flustered by the unfamiliar feeling, he hastily left the place.

Why did he feel excited about Yerena, whom he had thought of as just an ugly doll?

Even if it was a momentary excitement, he couldn’t understand it.

Because he couldn’t understand, curious about the circumstances that led to this excitement, he deployed to Pandora Forest.

Even though he never deployed for A-grade monster appearances.

Of course, it was Lambert, who loved combat, who caught Bet.

Benjamin stayed in a corner, waiting for Yerena to appear.

The reason he deployed was to meet Yerena, after all.

But the fact he faced was shocking.

‘Missing, they say.’

They say Yerena is in a state of disappearance. It was unbelievable.

Benjamin’s brow furrowed as he lounged on the amber-colored sofa in the Allen Knights’ hall.

“Benjamin. This is largely your fault. According to the center staff, Yerena hasn’t been seen since Lady Rosie took her away.”

Baron, who had been constantly angry, kept talking incessantly.

Benjamin frowned even more. He detested noise.

“You know too, right? Lady Rosie is your stalker. She must have kidnapped Yerena!”

“Watch your words. Don’t forget that you’re the heir to a marquis family.”

“Did I say anything wrong?”

“……”

Benjamin answered with silence.

There was nothing wrong with Baron’s words.

Rosie used to stalk him severely.

That’s why he made his whereabouts even more vague. He hated clingy women.

He never dreamed that a woman would go this far.

If he had known this would happen, he should have spoken to her sternly.

Benjamin’s furrowed brow showed no signs of relaxing.

At that moment, a loud noise rang out.

Bang!

Almost simultaneously, one wall of the knights’ hall caved in, and the debris crumbled down.

It was the result of Lambert’s punch.

“It’s because of you.”

Lambert raised his bloodshot eyes, looking as if he was about to pounce on Benjamin. His breathing was rough.

Of course, Benjamin wasn’t shaken by Lambert’s anger.

He was confident he wouldn’t lose in a fight against Lambert, being the strongest in the empire.

There was no reason at all for him to cower before Lambert.

Benjamin just couldn’t understand their reactions.

Because just as he had ignored Yerena all this time, they had ignored her too.

Did they only realize her importance after she disappeared… Was that it?

“Fine. Let’s say Rosie kidnapped Yerena, as you say.”

“……”

“At most, Rosie would have bullied her. Would she have killed Yerena?”

Benjamin shrugged his shoulders.

“And you guys. You know what kind of woman Yerena is.”

“……”

“She’s the type who holds her head high no matter how harshly she’s treated.”

“……”

“She was the one who would crawl to the deployment site even if we didn’t transport her.”

It wouldn’t be an action stemming from a sense of duty, nor would it be out of fear of him, Baron, and Lambert.

It’s probably because she owes a lot of money to the center.

Benjamin knew about Yerena’s circumstances of being indebted to the center.

“I think she’ll return soon.”

He concluded his speculation.

“As you know, she has a lot of debt to the center, so she can never leave the center.”

For some unknown reason, the two angry men remained silent.

It was a tacit agreement, somewhat concurring with those words.

Benjamin’s lips parted again.

“By the way. Baron, Lambert. There’s something I want to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“You two… Didn’t you dislike Yerena?”

Benjamin’s eyes froze coldly as he looked at the two men.

“I’d like to know why you’re so worked up about her disappearance.”

***

Baron, who had boarded the carriage, was in a state of intense anger.

Because Yerena was missing? Because the unsatisfactory center director was absent?

It was none of those.

The biggest reason that angered him was Benjamin.

‘Benjamin… How dare he treat me like his underling.’

Thinking back, it felt like he had been completely treated as Benjamin’s subordinate today.

Baron greatly disliked this point.

Well… Since Benjamin is the knight commander, strictly speaking, he is a subordinate, but still.

“Ordering me around like that. And who is he to ask about my thoughts?”

Baron recalled the question Benjamin had asked before leaving the center.

“You two… Didn’t you dislike Yerena?”

“I’d like to know why you’re so worked up about her disappearance.”

Of course, he had disliked Yerena.

Yet the reason he was so worked up about her disappearance was because he couldn’t let go of Yerena, whom Benjamin had subtly shown interest in.

When there’s a good opportunity to snatch what Benjamin wants right in front of him, how could he let it go?

Baron, without revealing his true intentions, had shouted at Benjamin to shut up and then stormed out of the center.

Lambert also followed quietly behind him without answering.

Although Benjamin’s advice was terrible, they couldn’t argue because there was nothing wrong with his words.

Yerena, had steadfastly fulfilled her role no matter how badly they treated her. There was no way she would easily fall victim to someone like Rosie, a noble lady who acted recklessly relying on her family name.

He was certain that she would be hiding somewhere, like a weed that doesn’t fall even in harsh winds.

‘Why did she have to kiss Benjamin though? Tsk.’

He had warned her so many times not to get close to Benjamin.

If she had followed his words well, this wouldn’t have happened.

Baron thought that when Yerena returned, he should warn her sternly.

To never stick close to Benjamin again. And to follow only his words.

No, after being severely dealt with by Rosie, wouldn’t Yerena be more cautious on her own?

Perhaps without him saying anything, Yerena might ignore Benjamin on her own.

A faint smile appeared on Baron’s lips as he reached that conclusion.

“People really… only realize their mistakes after learning the hard way.”

Still, just in case, he should order Johnson to search for Yerena’s whereabouts when he arrives at the Marquis residence.

It wouldn’t be bad if he could rescue Yerena if she’s in danger.

“Then Yerena might listen to me even more.”

He was so excited to see how much it would upset Benjamin if Yerena only looked at him.

Baron stretched after organizing his thoughts.

Although he had healed his body with his self-healing ability, his body felt stiff, perhaps because he hadn’t received guidance.

If he could hold Yerena’s hand once at times like this, all this fatigue and lethargy would be shaken off.

Baron reached out his hand into the air and spread his palm.

“…Miss…”

Huh?

He was taken aback by the sincere words he had uttered without realizing it.

Why did he miss that ugly woman?

‘No, objectively speaking, she wasn’t ugly. But I want to think she was ugly.’

“What am I thinking……”

Baron’s gaze, letting out a deep sigh of worry, fell on the carriage window.

As he stared blankly out the window, he discovered ‘something’.