“Ailie, how’s the situation on the east side?”

As the sun set and dusk settled over the area, Ricciardo Alvaro was passing a southern tavern in Erdei with three mages. He took out the communication magic device and whispered into it. At once, a faint light flared, and Ailie’s face appeared.

Her pale rose-colored eyes moved quickly.

—”We’re on standby near the hideout. No issues so far.”

On the eastern side, the advance team was already in motion, led by Liton.

The plan was simple: lure the thieves back to their hideout, then have the hidden advance team strike first. After that, the rear teams would join in to cut off all escape routes.

Among the rear teams, the southern group was scheduled to arrive first to support the advance force.

Ricciardo nodded, his expression unusually serious.

“We’re moving according to plan on this end as well.”

—”All right. I’ll contact you again if there’s anything to relay.”

“Wait, Ailie.”

He grabbed the magic orb just as its light began to fade and hurriedly spoke. Ailie widened her eyes slightly, waiting for him to continue.

The mages’ attention began to drift toward him. Ricciardo pressed the back of his hand against his warming cheeks.

“It’s nothing important.”

—”It’s not?”

“Just… tell me to do my best. Just once.”

—”……”

“Just once.”

—”……”

“Yeah? I’ll do well. With this plan.”

—”……All right. Do your best.”

Ailie waved her hand as if she had no choice and muttered the words.

Ricciardo covered his rising smile with his palm. It was a deeply satisfying answer, even if he’d had to whine and pester like a child to get it.

“Yeah. I’ll do my best.”

With that small, earnest voice, the light of the communication orb faded.

Once the connection with Ailie ended, Ricciardo quickened his pace as if nothing had happened. The three mages accompanying him exchanged baffled looks.

“Let’s move. We need to arrive on time as well.”

Ricciardo’s group passed the tavern and slipped through a narrow alley before crossing a small square lined with stalls and heading for the southern entrance of the shopping district. It was so late that there was not a single passer-by.

By now, the ruby brooch must have been finished.

Ricciardo pulled out the communication magic device tucked inside his coat and glanced at it. Only his own face was reflected back.

‘If only it could communicate over longer distances.’

The thought crossed his mind weightlessly.

Beyond the territory and even further — all the way to the imperial capital! How wonderful that would be!

At the very least, he could ease Ailie’s loneliness. He could reassure her that he would always believe her, whatever happened.

The conversation from that day in the glass greenhouse refused to leave his thoughts: The emperor’s infidelity. Ailie’s desperate voice pleading with him to trust her.

She had looked so exhausted for so long that he had suspected something was wrong, but what he had heard was beyond anything he could have imagined. He had never imagined that she had been through something like that.

After all, it wasn’t unheard of for an emperor to secretly keep a mistress.

But he never thought Benate would be capable of it.

‘Can a person really change that much?’

The imperial family and House Alvaro had shared a deep bond of trust for generations. Because of this, Ricciardo naturally spent a lot of time at the palace from a young age, alongside his elder brother. Over time, he became acquainted with the crown prince, Benate.

The Benate that Ricciardo knew would never be foolish enough to abandon his wife for a passing temptation.

Of course, they had only known each other as children. After Ricciardo left to study abroad, they never met again. Benate’s life must have changed greatly in the years since then, and a change in temperament would have been inevitable.

Nevertheless, Ricciardo believed that a person’s core nature did not change.

When he left for his studies at the age of fifteen, he did so without a trace of regret because he truly believed that Benate would make Ailie happy.

‘You promised yourself not to be greedy.’

So he chose not to be greedy.

Rather than inserting himself into Ailie’s happiness and ruining two lives, he believed it was better to forget cleanly, alone, to bury the straight, honest feelings he had quietly carried.

—”Ric, can you hear me?”

At that moment, light bloomed within the communication magic device along with Ailie’s voice.

Ricciardo shook his head sharply, casting away stray thoughts, and pulled his lips into a bright smile.

“I hear you.”

—”Thank goodness. Damon just contacted me. He said the finished brooch was stolen.”

“Just now?”

—”A short while ago. I contacted Sir Liton first.”

Ricciardo turned to the mages and nodded.

The operation was unfolding exactly as planned. If the thieves all returned to their hideout now, they were already halfway to success.

“Understood. We’ll move as well.”

His thoughts were tangled, but the operation came first.

After all he already knew the answer to this dilemma.

***

He had expected violent resistance from the thieves, or perhaps even a blood-soaked clash or desperate struggle.

However, by the time the southern unit led by Ricciardo arrived at the hideout, the situation had already been resolved.

“You’ve arrived, Young Master Alvaro.”

“It’s already… finished?”

“Finished? Not quite.”

Thanks to Liton’s magical device, the hideout had become even more compact than when they first discovered it.

With the addition of the southern unit, a total of seventeen people were now crammed inside: nine thieves and four advance team members. There was barely any room to stand. To make matters worse, much of the space was occupied by a large quantity of stolen goods. One careless step and someone might unknowingly tread on an enchanted item and trigger a spell.

Ricciardo let out a hollow laugh as he surveyed the scene.

“All of this… with just four of you?”

The nine thieves were tightly bound with ropes and gathered in one corner. Judging by their condition, they must have been subdued fairly easily — aside from the occasional swollen eye or nosebleed, none of them appeared to be seriously injured.

Their groans filled the cramped hideout; it was hard to tell whether they were exaggerating their pain or genuinely in agony from the beating.

“To be honest, the knight handled most of it himself.”

“That isn’t true.”

A mage from the advance team spoke up. Liton immediately shook his head, but judging by his reaction, it didn’t seem like an outright lie. Ricciardo let out an awed sound.

“To think he’s so young, and of common birth, yet already the deputy commander of the Imperial Knights… I suppose skill like that would explain it.”

“We suspected as much, given that the Erdei young masters struggled. But the thieves weren’t particularly formidable.”

“Well, my brothers were caught off guard. They weren’t prepared, and they had no defenses in place against magic attacks.”

“That would explain it.”

Still, for things to end this easily—it was almost anticlimactic. Of course, underestimating the enemy and ruining the operation would have been disastrous. The fact that it ended so cleanly was largely thanks to Ailie’s careful planning.

“Ailie, should we tell the rear unit to return to the estate?”

Ricciardo asked into his communication device.

Ailie’s image flickered into view. She seemed more relaxed than she had been during the preparations, and her expression was noticeably brighter.

—”No. There’s still something we need to do, isn’t there?”

“What is it?”

—”We need to lift the spells on the stolen items. They have to be returned to their owners.”

“Ah…”

Of course. They couldn’t just leave the stolen goods lying around. Among them were two gifts his brothers had prepared for Ailie.

As Liton drew his sword, the red gem embedded in the hilt—another magic device—flashed brightly.

“The thieves are insisting they don’t know how to remove the spells.”

“That’s laughable. Such an obvious lie.”

They had placed enchantments on every single item, yet claimed they didn’t know how to undo them?

—”Still, it worked out well. We gathered mages specifically for this operation.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. With this many items, we wouldn’t finish before dawn without the rear unit.”

Ailie spoke with unmistakable pride, and Liton echoed her words. Ricciardo laughed and glanced at the mages standing behind him. Judging by their expressions, they were already wondering when they would be able to return to the estate.

Still, once everything was over, Count Erdei would surely reward them handsomely. With that thought in mind, Ricciardo gave their sagging shoulders a few encouraging pats.

Not long after, the brothers and the remaining mages arrived at the hideout. The mages began dispelling the enchantments one by one in a methodical manner. With so many of them working together, the process was faster than expected.

Meanwhile, Ricciardo, Liton, Emond, Paolo and Claren stood guard over the captured thieves while searching the area around the hideout for any accomplices they might have overlooked.

However, even as the mages neared completion, no suspicious figures appeared nearby. They would need to continue patrolling the area for some time, but it seemed that these nine individuals constituted the entirety of the thieves’ operation.

“By the way, the bag Claren mentioned seeing—was it in the hideout?”

At the question, Liton nodded and pointed to a corner of the room. A worn leather bag lay there. Claren covered part of his face and peered through his fingers at it, then nodded vigorously—it was the same one he had seen before.

At a glance, it looked like an ordinary bag.

“We’ll collect it and send it to the imperial capital for investigation. It appears to be an old relic.”

“A relic…? Why would a band of petty thieves be carrying something like that?”

“That’s the puzzling part. Unfortunately, it’s not something I can resolve myself. I’ll have to report it to Her Majesty.”

Ricciardo nodded, his expression unsettled.

And just as they were about to return to their work—

“F-found it!”

Claren shrieked, his voice sounding as if he’d just seen a ghost.

From the look of it, he had discovered something among the pile of stolen goods whose enchantments had already been lifted. It was probably the gift they’d prepared for Ailie.

It was easy enough to guess, but Ricciardo feigned ignorance and asked calmly.

“Brother, what did you find?”

“I found the gift for Ari! Look!”

Grinning brightly, Claren held out a small box. When he opened it, the ruby brooch—the very bait used for this operation—was revealed.

A ruby brooch adorned with a dazzlingly white ribbon. Even at a glance, it was clear that the ruby was of the highest quality. With very few inclusions, its red hue shone all the more vividly.

“Come to think of it, didn’t you argue over the ribbon color?” Ricciardo remarked.

“We made a small wager.”

As if he’d been listening all along, the eldest brother, Emond, cut in.

“Whoever Ari came to first and asked to keep it a secret—that person’s choice would be the final one.”

…A very Erdei sort of wager, befitting brothers who doted excessively on their younger sister.

As if she had been watching the scene unfold, Ailie turned on the communication device, her eyes widening.

—”Then does that mean you went with the color Emond chose?”

“Who knows?”

Emond replied lightly.

Then—swiftly—Paolo, the second brother, popped into view and mischievously snapped the open box shut. It seemed he intended to keep it a secret until they handed it to Ailie in person.

Paolo followed up with a bright, beaming smile.

“And sorry, Ari, but could you turn off the communication device for a moment?”

—”Why?”

“We finally found the gift we originally prepared for you.”

As he spoke, Paolo lifted another box. It was noticeably larger than the one that had held the ruby brooch.

Just as Ailie was about to protest, curiosity plainly written all over her face, Breni leaned in and quietly switched off the communication device. Judging by the timing, the brothers must have asked her to do so beforehand.

“Now then, before we give it to Ari, we should check whether the gift we lost is still safe and sound. Right?”

The young masters of House Erdei nodded solemnly in agreement.

Click.

The soft sound of a box being opened echoed through the hideout.