“Did you tell Marquis Berto that I had contracted with Wit?”

“A-are you suspecting me now? That guy and I aren’t in this  kind of relationship to share such trivial stories!”

“Then how did Marquis Berto know?”

“H-how would I know that! He probably saw you together with that young Wit!”

He saw me with Wit…

Damn. I was too careless. I should have been suspicious from the moment Lucian knew the location of the cottage.

I felt belated regret that I should have hidden Wit’s existence more thoroughly.

But why does Lucian want Wit?

I was curious about the reason, but for now, there was something more important.

“Then Taro, perhaps.”

“W-what now!”

“Do you know what item Marquis Berto extorted from the Saintess?”

Taro’s beak, which was about to protest indignantly, closed tightly.

“W-why are you suddenly asking about that?”

Taro’s eyes sharpened.

I cleared my throat and explained calmly.

“Taro, even if we can’t make a contract, I want to see you for a long time.”

I knelt before Taro and put on a pitiful expression.

“But that’s only possible if I’m alive.”

“T-that’s…”

“If Taro would tell me Marquis Berto’s weakness, I could use that to ensure my safety.”

“Ahem…!”

“You don’t want me to die, do you? Right?”

As I gazed at him with desperate, shining eyes, Taro once again touched his forehead with his wing, agonizing over the decision.

After seeming to contemplate for a while, Taro finally muttered in a voice as quiet as an ant crawling.

“I-I really can’t, human.”

“……”

He still won’t tell me?

Then I have no choice.

I took out the fairy’s tear from my skirt pocket.

“Are you saying it’s okay if I die?”

As I gently held Taro’s wing with the hand holding the fairy’s tear, Taro shouted.

“T-that’s not what I meant! What that contractor of mine stole isn’t just an ordinary item. It could potentially cause problems for my safety!”

Problems for Taro?

“……”

“W-why are you looking at me like that?”

After quietly staring at Taro, I opened my mouth.

“Is it because that item is you, Taro?”

“Yes, it is!”

“……”

“…Arghh!”

I gaped blankly at Taro who was screaming.

“N-no, it’s not, it is…! Argh! It’s not true, I said! It is true…! Arghh!”

Really? The sacred relic was actually Taro?

I was so shocked by my own words that I couldn’t speak for a while.

“No, how did you disguise yourself as a sacred relic? Wouldn’t a Saintess normally sense something like demonic energy?”

At my question, Taro burst out in anger.

“I-I am a great fairy! Do you think holy power works on fairies, you cunning potential contractor?!”

Fairy?

I opened my hand that had been holding Taro’s wing.

The fairy’s tear, which I thought might have been damaged, was perfectly intact without any cracks.

Wait, so they’re really saying they’re fairies?

“W-what’s wrong with my mouth!”

As I looked back and forth between Wit and Taro, I smiled innocently at Taro.

“…Who knows.”

And I put the fairy’s tear back into my skirt pocket.

“Vice-Captain…”

Adriel, who was taking a brief rest after finishing grueling training, turned his head toward the subordinates calling him.

As the sun suddenly emerged from behind the clouds and shone intensely, Adriel frowned.

The knights, with reverence in their eyes, momentarily became dazed.

It was because Adriel’s appearance under the sunlight was overwhelmingly powerful and intense to the point of being shocking.

A knight who barely regained his senses asked Adriel.

“Are you really alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“Day by day, your complexion seems to be getting worse, and we’re worried.”

Adriel narrowed his brow at the knights’ concerned looks.

“It seems you have enough free time to observe my complexion.”

Since that statement implied that training would resume, the knights panicked and continued.

“N-no, really! There are even rumors that you haven’t been sleeping properly since you returned, Vice-Captain.”

Adriel, who had been lost in thought for a moment at the knights’ words, slowly opened his mouth.

“I don’t know who told you such things, but I’m fine.”

The three knights shook their heads simultaneously.

“It doesn’t look that way to us. Do you know how dark the circles under your eyes are, Vice-Captain?”

The shadows under his eyes made Adriel look like a man full of decadent charm with many stories to tell, but regardless, it was true that his condition didn’t look good at all.

Adriel’s long eyelashes lowered calmly, indicating deep contemplation.

Is it that noticeable?

As the knights said, Adriel hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep since returning to the knights’ order.

From sunrise to sunset, thoughts of one woman wouldn’t leave his mind.

That woman torments me even when she’s not visible. No. Is it because I can’t see her that I’m in agony?

Adriel let out a small sigh.

He could no longer tell what his true feelings were.

What Adriel felt immediately after leaving Rosemary’s house was regret.

With the sole determination to eliminate a demon, he had endured all sorts of humiliation to stay in that house, only to succumb to momentary emotions and hastily sign away.

He found himself utterly pathetic.

But on the other hand, he thought there was still hope.

Rosemary Ferial was a woman who had unhesitatingly stalked and kidnapped him, saying she liked him.

Even if she said she no longer liked him, people don’t change in an instant.

Where would that evil woman’s true nature go?

Surely she would come looking for him again and repeat the same behavior as before.

If that woman clung to him crying, he would return her words of rejection right back at her and kick away her feelings.

It was after spending about two weeks with such thoughts.

Adriel began to feel inexplicable impatience and anxiety.

Why is there no news?

His expectation that she would come looking for him within a week was utterly shattered.

…Is she busy running the guild?

During his stay at that house, Adriel had discovered that Rosemary was unexpectedly a workaholic. More precisely, she was obsessed with money.

Anyway, if that was the reason, it would make sense that the woman hadn’t come looking for him yet.

As Adriel tried to reassure himself, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

She wouldn’t have left that house, would she?

His spine chilled as he suddenly recalled the possibility that she might have gone far away, saying she wanted to expand her business.

Leaving? That woman, forever, leaving me?

In an instant, a pain like swallowing a sharp stone arose in his chest.

When the thought that the woman had gone to a place he could never reach came to him, all thought stopped.

Leaving me. That woman leaving me?

That was impossible.

Gritting his teeth.

Who does she think she is?

He would never let her go. Even if it meant ending everything, he would…

“Vice-Captain, perhaps…”

Adriel, whose expression had been growing darker, snapped out of his thoughts at the knights’ call.

“Did you get dumped by your lover?”