“Mmm.”

Lucian’s eyes widened, and then he began to chew.

What, he’s actually eating it…?

As I blinked blankly, Lucian smiled at me as if praising me and said.

“How kind.”

…Ugh. I made a disgusted face and rubbed my arm where goosebumps had formed.

But how can he just eat that? Is it not really poisoned?

“D-don’t be fooled, human. That man has immunity to poison.”

However, Taro’s following words made me realize my thoughts were wrong.

Lucian spoke in a voice that seemed disappointed by Taro’s betrayal.

“Taro.”

“W-why are you pretending? Didn’t you say it yourself? That since childhood, your hobby was eating all kinds of poisons.”

Eating poison as a hobby…?

He really is crazy.

“Y-you said that now you find it boring because no poison affects you anymore, d-didn’t you?”

As Taro puffed out his bird chest and spoke proudly, Lucian burst into a helpless laugh.

After staring at Taro with visible concern, Lucian looked back at me.

“You’re quite skilled. When did you get so close with Taro?”

Not even denying it now?

So it’s true that there was poison in that peach.

As the realization hit me, an alarm went off in my head.

Lucian Berto. The character who seemed most out of his mind in the novel was now after my life.

“Master, I really need to kill that guy!”

I looked at Wit, who was jumping up and down in rage.

Normally I would have stopped Wit, but…

“I allow it.”

Go, Wit.

“Kekeke. Master said I can kill him. Master allowed it.”

Strong energy emanated from Wit’s small body as he smiled wickedly.

Yet Lucian maintained his composure, still smiling as if nothing was wrong.

Well, let’s see how long you can keep smiling like that.

I glared intensely at Lucian from behind Wit.

But then, suddenly, Taro blocked Wit’s path.

“N-no, you can’t!”

“Move aside, stupid Taro!”

“I-I dislike this guy just as much!”

“Even for me, that hurts, Taro.”

Lucian put on a shocked expression at Taro’s words, as if he had no idea.

Well, that’s obviously fake too.

“B-but he’s my contractor! I can’t just let him be killed!”

At the same time, Taro raised his wings, and immediately after, a loud “poof” sound echoed.

“Cough, cough!”

I burst into a fit of coughing as smoke filled the house.

“Master! Master, where are you? Can you see Wit?!”

“Cough! Wit, open the windows!”

When the hazy smoke suddenly clouded my vision, I worried it might be poison gas, but fortunately, I only had a slight cough with no other physical symptoms.

After a few minutes, when the smoke had completely cleared, Lucian and Taro were already gone.

***

After Lucian and Taro disappeared like that, I immediately tried to leave this city with Wit.

When we reached the neighboring village beyond the forest, I rejoiced, thinking I was finally saying goodbye to the novel forever.

However, a week later, I found myself returning to the cottage in the forest.

Because…

“How can I be subjected to assassination attempts every single day!”

That’s right. Since leaving this cottage, I hadn’t been able to sleep with both legs stretched out even once.

No matter which inn I stayed at, poisoned meals would be served, and at night, venomous snakes would crawl onto my bed.

From the moment I left home, I had suffered from vicious assassination attempts without missing a single day.

If Wit hadn’t detected the poison with his animal instincts, I would have already departed for the afterlife.

I can’t live like this!

As I roared in extreme stress, Wit shouted.

“Master, Wit knows who the culprit is! The culprit is Lucian Berto!”

“What?”

You just figured that out now?

I looked at Wit in disbelief and shook my head.

Anyway, Wit was right.

The only person who would do this to me was Lucian, who had tried to assassinate me with the peach tart.

The fact that all attempts used poison methods made it even more likely.

“But how does he know where I am every time?”

Lucian had set traps in every place I stayed, as if he had attached a tracking device to me.

Just to be safe, I even discarded the robe I had been wearing and bought a new one, but the assassination attempts didn’t stop.

Why? Why is he doing this to me?

…No, I don’t care about the reason anymore.

I’m not going to just sit back and take it any longer.

How dare he mess with me?

“I won’t let this slide.”

“Master, are you going to kill that human? You’re going to kill Lucian, right? Wit will help! Kekeke!”

How can I bring Lucian down?

Since I needed to hide my identity, I couldn’t report Lucian to the authorities.

In truth, even if I did report him, they probably couldn’t do anything to Lucian, a high-ranking noble.

Even if I sent Wit to deal with Lucian, it wouldn’t be easy since Taro was protecting him.

Is there another way? Help from someone else…

That’s when it hit me.

‘The Saint’s item has disappeared.’

Suddenly, my conversation with Adriel came to mind.

‘It happened right after Marquis Berto met with the Saint and left. The Marquis is pretending he didn’t do it, but who would believe him?’

Yes, that’s right. Why had I forgotten this?

If what Adriel said is true, the Saintess must be desperate to catch Lucian.

The Saintess’s item that Lucian stole…

After being lost in thought for a while, I called Wit.

“Wit, could you bring Taro here?”

If I wanted to cooperate with the Saintess, I first needed to find out what that item was.

***

A few hours later, Wit brought Taro.

Taro, in his bird form, stood straight with a dignified posture, holding his head high.

“Ahem! H-human. I heard from Wit. You want to make a contract with me?”

So this method worked after all.

For some reason, Taro seemed quite sincere about making a contract with me.

That’s why he came looking for me right away when Wit said I wanted to contract with him.

“D-dual contracts are generally discouraged, but not impossible. So if you w-want, I’ll make a special exception—”

“Stupid, stupid Taro. Kekeke.”

“Tsk. W-Wit, you young thing. Are you still denying that your Master wants me?”

“Master won’t make a contract with you, stupid Taro!”

“W-what? What are you saying? That’s different from what you said earlier!”

“Of course, it was a lie! Master is my woman, why would she make a contract with Taro? Kekeke!”

Taro quickly turned his head to look at me as if to confirm if this was true.

And seeing me nodding silently, he was shocked.

“D-dare you make a fool of me? Playing with a fairy’s innocent heart, h-how wicked…!”

“I like you, Taro.”

More precisely, I liked him until I found out that the condition for contracting with Taro was life itself.

At my words, Taro cleared his throat, embarrassment evident, and Wit flew quickly in front of me.

“Master, but you like Wit more, right? You like Wit more than Taro, right?”

I pushed away Wit, who was frantically flying in front of my face and continued speaking.

I needed to coax Taro into telling me what Lucian had stolen from the Saintess.

“B-but why do you refuse to make a contract with me!”

“Taro, you’ve already made a contract with Marquis Berto.”

“W-what does that matter? As I just said, dual contracts themselves aren’t a problem—”

“Even though Marquis Berto is trying to kill me?”

In other words, how could I trust and make a contract with you when your contractor is trying to kill me? That was the meaning.

I approached Taro, who seemed to finally understand as he touched his forehead with his wing, and subtly brought up the topic.

“Why does Marquis Berto want to kill me so badly? He must really dislike me, right?”

“T-that guy isn’t doing it because he dislikes you. He’s doing it because he wants to make a contract with that young Wit.”

He wants to contract with Wit?

I was surprised by the unexpected story that came out of Taro’s beak.

Come to think of it, Lucian, that man, wasn’t surprised at all when he saw Wit.

As if he already knew about Wit’s existence.

Could it be…