“Ahem. Well then, that settles it. No, wait.”

This time, Adele whispered into Vincent’s ear.

“Go and ask the librarian whether she is currently seeing someone or has someone she likes.”

She had nearly forgotten something truly important. If Jane had someone, it would be unfortunate, but she could not bring them together.

If the librarian had someone she liked, she would just have to tell Charles to go home.

At Adele’s instruction, Vincent immediately scurried off to the library. Charles, who had no idea what was happening, was left scratching his head, and a short while later Vincent came back out.

Vincent came running back with a bright expression and called out.

“She doesn’t!”

“Good.”

“What is?”

Charles, who still had not grasped the situation, asked in frustration, but Adele only grinned.

“Now then, time to go show off your charm.”

“Do you have a good method?”

“No, why is it that no one is telling me anything?”

Adele shot a sharp look at her teacher, who kept chattering noisily. Charles flinched for a moment and nearly stepped back.

Just what was this little one? It was not an aura that should be coming from such a soft and tender creature.

“It is obvious you will be rejected, but at the very least you need to change the worst impression you have made into something ordinary, do you not?”

“Is that about me?”

“Adele…… you should not say such unkind things.”

Adele turned to look at Vincent with an expression that said ‘look at this one.’ To think the greatest villain of this world was saying something like that.

Inwardly, she felt a quiet sense of pride that she had raised him well in such a short time.

“All right. Operation start.”

“So what exactly is it?”

– – –

Did Adele actually like this sort of thing? Sweat trickled down the back of Vincent’s neck.

Right now, Charles had taken off his shirt and, with an old axe he had obtained from somewhere, was splitting firewood in front of the library.

His exposed upper body was covered in scars even worse than those on his face.

Vincent, who had become frightened of him again, hid behind Adele as before and peeked out.

“My goodness, what is that?”

“Is that not the swordsmanship department professor?”

People passing by nearby were startled and whispered among themselves. Vincent also asked Adele in an uneasy voice.

“Adele, is this really all right?”

“Do not question what the boss does.”

Adele said that and let out a small laugh.

Was not the greatest charm Charles could show off his strength? And look at those perfectly sculpted muscles.

In all her life, Adele had never seen anyone with muscles as perfect as Charles’s.

So if he displayed his strength while simultaneously showing off his finest muscles?

For starters, it would help restore the image that had been ruined during the library cleaning. As in, he was actually more impressive than expected.

Adele smiled with satisfaction and gave Charles a thumbs up.

Charles, encouraged by Adele’s support, smiled back. Then he threw himself back into splitting firewood.

No matter how she thought about it, Adele’s idea was brilliant. After all, showing off one’s strengths to the fullest was the best approach.

A short while later, the target of confession finally came out from inside the library.

Jane put her hands on her hips and glared at the one causing a commotion in front of the library.

Having seen something dreadful, her expression turned severely fierce. Jane squeezed her eyes shut and shouted.

“Can you not clean all of this up right now? Everyone is too frightened to come into the library!”

– – –

The failures continued.

After that, they changed course and tried things like helping tidy the library and decorating the library’s flower bed, but Charles had absolutely no talent for delicate work.

So many days had passed since they began trying to show off his charm that she had lost count.

In the end, the previous night, Jane had threatened that he was never to come to the library again.

Adele was surprised that the composed librarian could shout that loudly.

If things continued like this, Charles might end up remaining as something less than human in Jane’s eyes.

‘It seems like that has already happened.’

Adele patted the back of Charles, who was sitting in a corner of the clearing with drooping shoulders and a blank stare.

“It cannot be helped. At least things have not reached the stage of outright hatred.”

“Adele…… that does not feel like a consolation.”

Charles’s head drooped even lower toward the ground. Adele glanced at Vincent and offered another attempt at comfort.

“Just forget about it. If you act like strangers for a while, you will be able to repair the relationship.”

Now Charles’s face was nearly touching the ground.

It was at that moment that a clicking of the tongue was heard.

“Tsk, tsk. I cannot stand watching this.”

Adele raised her head in the direction the voice was coming from. It was right up in a tree.

“Sorcerer? What are you doing up there?”

“Who are you?”

The sorcerer ignored the flood of questions and came down to the ground, crossing his arms. His eyes held a coolness similar to Jane’s.

“I have been staying quiet until now because I did not want to get involved.”

“Then keep staying quiet.”

“That is right, that is right. Our Adele cannot be wrong.”

The sorcerer naturally ignored the words of both children and glared at the large man.

“Whose idea was it to put on a muscle show for a woman? You would have nothing to say even if you were reported to the authorities.”

At his words, Adele looked away in another direction.

In truth, the sorcerer had been watching continuously from the moment Charles had taken the children away with all that talk about cat’s paws.

He simply did not want to get involved with Charles, but observing Adele was an ongoing task that had to continue.

But gradually, he began to see something strange.

At first, when Charles had taken off his shirt and started splitting firewood, he had snickered at what a ridiculous fellow he was.

But afterward, when Charles continued to walk around shirtless saying he was going to help the librarian, he had been on the verge of reporting him to the royal guard himself.

Did this person have no common sense whatsoever?

How was it that such sensible words were coming out of his own mouth? He had spent his whole life thinking of himself as the person furthest removed from common sense.

The more the sorcerer became entangled with Adele, the stronger the feeling grew that he was no longer himself.

Having gone this far, he continued to nag.

“This young master here and Miss Adele may not know better, but you are an adult. Do you not even know this?”

Charles, who looked as though he genuinely did not know, asked back in a flustered voice.

“Th, then what should I do?”

His outrageous behavior did not stop there. Charles suddenly jumped to his feet and grabbed the sorcerer’s hand.

An overwhelmingly warm body temperature. The startled sorcerer panicked and tried to pull his hand away, but there was no way he could overpower Charles’s strength.

“Listen here, friend. Tell me the method.”

“Ugh! Who said I was your friend?”

By the time he thought he had spoken up for nothing, it was already too late. Charles showed every sign of not letting go of his hand until the sorcerer offered a new solution.

Vincent, watching the exchange between the two, said with a displeased expression.

“Adele, adult friendships are a bit…… sticky, aren’t they?”

A scene that seemed oddly drenched in sweat. It was something Adele had seen often during her days as a knight.

“That is right. That is what adults are like.”

Would he become like that when he grew up too? Vincent’s expression stiffened further. His father had no friends, so this was the first time he had seen what adults did with friends. Imagining his father acting like that made his stomach turn.

The sorcerer, however, was a person very far removed from the profession of knight. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with this kind of sweaty camaraderie.

“Then just give her flowers or something!”

“Flowers?”

“It is the best idea out of everything so far!”

At the mention of flowers, Charles seemed to have a realization and released the sorcerer’s hand.

The sorcerer, exhausted to his very limit by that point, collapsed flat on the ground and barely caught his breath. At last, the troublesome fellow was gone.

From now on, absolutely never, ever getting involved again.