As soon as her senses fully returned, Lisette rushed straight to the shop. There was only one person who could have orchestrated this.

Though she arrived fuming, Celia greeted her with a completely calm face. Seeing how unbothered she looked, despite having done something so outrageous, made Lisette’s anger rise to her scalp.

“From your face, I can tell what happened without you saying a word. How was it?”

Just as Lisette was about to explode with anger, Celia asked first.

How was it? Her question was so outrageous that Lisette couldn’t even find words to respond.

“What’s wrong? Was it not good? He looks like he’d perform quite well as a man.”

Lisette bit her lower lip. Realizing this had been done deliberately made her anger surge even more.

“How could you do something I never asked for! What you gave me was an aphrodisiac, wasn’t it?”

“My goodness, an aphrodisiac? Do you think I would use such drugs? Of course I used magic that couldn’t be refused. Besides, it’s not like you disliked it.”

“It was clearly an aphrodisiac. If I thought you’d seduce him with aphrodisiacs, I wouldn’t have asked for your help in the first place.”

“Don’t compare it to common aphrodisiacs sold on the market. Would such things work on someone like the Captain of the Imperial Guard? It takes a mage of my caliber to make him lose his senses.”

Celia’s attitude, shoulders squared and chest proudly thumped twice, looked utterly confident. Her demeanor, suggesting she had done nothing wrong, drained Lisette’s energy.

“Still, that’s disrespectful to the other person. He’s supposed to marry another woman! I told you I wanted him to meet a woman better than the Imperial Princess. So why me? That wasn’t my wish!”

“You wished for him to marry another woman. And Lie, you never asked to exclude yourself. So what’s the problem?”

Unlike the agitated Lisette, Celia appeared remarkably composed.

Seeing her like this, Lisette completely understood the feelings of the man who had complained earlier, a hundred, no, a thousand times over.

“You said you didn’t have to grant that part. And even if you were going to pair him with another woman, I told you to match him with a good woman, not me!”

“You are a good person. So what I did wasn’t unreasonable, was it?”

“I am not a good person.”

“You’re better than the Imperial Princess, aren’t you? Think about it carefully. Did I properly grant your wish or not?”

No matter how much she objected, it was useless. Celia spoke with a shrug of her shoulders, insisting she was right.

‘I hope he ends up with a woman better than the Imperial Princess.’

At that moment, Lisette recalled her own words. Better than the Imperial Princess… Those words kept jumbling her thoughts.

“…”

At first glance, Celia’s argument seemed correct, but upon closer examination, it was completely wrong. Yet despite the absurdity, Lisette couldn’t refute her words. She had indeed thought herself better than the Imperial Princess.

Feeling the conversation going nowhere, Lisette recalled her own words and blamed herself.

She should never have mentioned wanting Lord Usta to meet a good woman. If she hadn’t, perhaps this situation would never have happened.

With her anger now depleted, Lisette’s voice dropped.

“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt because of me. Why did you lie about it being a stamina recovery potion and make him take that strange position?”

Though his personality might not be the best, he was known for his clean record with women, and she worried that his reputation might be tarnished because of her. He had actually tried his best to resist.

“Your wish to break off their marriage was already hurting Lord Usta, so why say such things now?”

“…”

Since Celia’s words weren’t entirely wrong, Lisette couldn’t respond.

After all, wanting to separate them was partly out of revenge, but also from her personal desire to prevent Claude from marrying Natalie.

“I had to make him do something strange for it to be more believable. And you know what? He didn’t want to marry the Imperial Princess either. So I granted both your wishes simultaneously. Is there a problem with that?”

When Lisette failed to counter, Celia exclaimed with an even more triumphant expression. It was her usual smile, but to Lisette’s eyes, it looked particularly irritating.

“I can’t work for a while.”

Unless she erased her memory, there was no way to return to the situation before they had s*x. Seeing Celia’s face, showing no signs of remorse for her wrongdoing, Lisette felt the conversation was pointless and left the shop.

“Don’t panic.”

After maintaining her composure until Lisette left the shop, Celia immediately began taking shallow breaths, trying to calm herself once Lisette disappeared from view.

* * *

The next day.

“You missed yesterday’s dawn training and morning training, and now you’re skipping afternoon training too?”

The knights were surprised, since Claude never missed a single day of training unless something special came up.

“Could it be that you’ve found a lover?”

Though he tried to ignore it, Claude flinched at the mention of a lover.

Lover? What nonsense.

Yesterday, he had sent someone to investigate the woman, but they only returned with her name. Lie, was it?

The idea of being lovers with a woman he barely knew was ridiculous. Yet the word “lover” kept circling in his mind.

“Shut up. I’ll check how well you’ve trained while I was gone, so be prepared!”

When his mind was troubled, it was better to focus on training. Claude decided to pour all his passion into it.

“Ugh! We trained hard. Please believe us.”

Ignoring his subordinates’ pleas, he drew his sword.

“Come forward one by one. Let’s see how much your skills have improved in a day.”

Claude’s training method was somewhat reckless. When he was in a bad mood, he would spar with each knight individually to check their improvement. Only he could do this, given his overwhelming strength compared to the knights.

The reactions of the knights watching varied.

Some watched Claude tensely, others looked resigned, and some whispered to each other, avoiding his eyes.

“Are you meeting your girlfriend today?”

“Ah, Lie? No, I can’t meet her today… C-Captain?”

Though they spoke in hushed voices, Claude, whose senses were heightened, overheard their conversation.

The problem was that the name they mentioned happened to be Lie, which startled Claude so much that he dropped his sword.

No matter how hard he tried not to care, the word “girlfriend” kept echoing in his ears.

Since he had never dropped his sword before, the surprised gazes of his subordinates turned toward him. They looked shocked to see someone who never made mistakes suddenly slip up.

Claude himself didn’t understand why he was so affected just by hearing the name Lie.

But he needed to confirm something. He knew it was unlikely, but he had to check, just in case.

“Did you just say your girlfriend’s name is Lie?”

He approached the knights who had been whispering and asked.

“I-I’m sorry. I won’t chat during training again.”

The knight’s face turned pale as Claude’s cold gaze bore down on him.

“No, just answer my question. What does this Lie look like? How long have you been dating?”

“M-my girlfriend? I-I don’t have the guts to commit any crime.”

Thinking Claude suspected his girlfriend of being a criminal, the knight stammered with an indignant look.

“Stop talking nonsense and just answer. What color is her hair? How long have you been dating?”

“D-dark brown. W-we’ve been together for over a year.”

Realizing it was just a coincidence of names, Claude felt strangely relieved yet frustrated at the same time.

Where could she be?

He couldn’t just stay put. He needed to find her. He needed to talk to her about something, anything, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to concentrate on training all day.

“I have an urgent matter to attend to.”

“Now? Didn’t you say you’d leave in the afternoon?”

The vice-captain asked with surprised eyes.

“Yes. It’s too urgent to wait. I probably won’t be able to attend training until it’s resolved. Keep the training rigorous while I’m gone. Don’t let them waste time chatting like just now.”

“Understood.”

After leaving the training to the vice-captain, Claude prepared to go out.

His destination was the magic shop. Concerned that the Marquis might have him followed, he rode his horse with a cloak on, vigilantly watching his surroundings.

“Where’s the clerk who works here?”

He had naturally assumed he would meet her at the shop, but she wasn’t there. Instead, he saw another woman with light pink hair.

“Oh, how arrogant. Are you here to buy something? Tell me what you need, and I’ll get it for you.”

The voice that answered was indifferent. She seemed unconcerned about whom he was looking for.

“I’m not here to buy anything. I came to meet the clerk who works here. I’ll ask again, where is she?”

“Are you looking for Lie?”