“Commander, what happened to the dress and wig?”

“I burned them.”

“What? What a waste.”

“You find many things wasteful.”

Lea sighed while looking at Allen’s swaying short hair.

“Long hair suited you well. You could try growing it out sometime……”

“I hate that.”

“You’re so resolute.”

“Why do you keep following me?”

Finally, Allen stopped walking and turned around. He couldn’t understand why she would follow him around outside instead of quietly indulging in her embarrassing fantasies at home. Had there ever been someone so difficult to read? At least when he was in the capital, there hadn’t been. Everyone there revealed their feelings to him through both expressions and thoughts.

Allen narrowed his brows as he looked at Lea. She stretched out her hand and pointed to the food alley in the square.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

“I’m not hun—”

Growl.

A resounding noise came from the stomach of this robust man. Come to think of it, all he had eaten today was the eel dish served for breakfast. One might wonder why eel for breakfast, but his mansion had so many eels they were practically jumping out of the house.

Allen thought his body was unnecessarily honest. When aroused, he got erections regardless of timing, and when hungry, his stomach made noises.

Lea spoke in a dry tone tinged with amusement.

“I’ll treat you.”

* * *

“Oh my, oh my, it’s him!”

“That’s the Grand Duke from the capital, right?”

“He’s such a handsome man!”

“Our knight is having a romance, can you believe it?”

The food alley was bustling. The place that would have been gloomy and depressed in the past was now full of vitality. This change had gradually occurred since the country fell and the Empire began governing the North.

“Michelle only told me about it, but it’s really true.”

The owner of a famous skewer shop nodded and spoke.

The herb merchant and Michelle had gone to the Colosseum to watch a day match, and when they returned without incident, they brought him surprising news.

The story was that Lea, who had worked hard to change many things when the North was in chaos like a lawless zone, was having a romance with a noble from the capital.

“Look, look, the knight’s face is blooming, blooming!”

In reality, Lea’s face remained expressionless as always, but the skewer shop owner clapped his hands saying how wonderful it was.

“I heard the Grand Duke is completely wrapped around the knight’s finger.”

“Oh my, really?”

“Just look at him now. The Grand Duke is so happy he doesn’t know what to do with himself.”

Allen was merely embarrassed by Lea’s fantasies. It was strange, even bizarre, to see Lea imagining lewd things about food like a fish in water now that they were at the market. He wondered if there was ever a time when she didn’t think about such obscene things.

Allen bit his lower lip at the sounds coming from all around the alley. The skewer seller’s words were somewhat accurate. He could be considered mentally captivated by Lea. Though his pride made him reluctant to admit it.

“Commander, that over there is delicious.”

“Wait, let go of my hand before you speak.”

When Lea pulled at his sleeve, Allen said with a reddening face. It was difficult to handle the sensation of her fantasies transferring to him when they touched. But the merchants couldn’t know this. To them, it just looked like a Grand Duke embarrassed by Lea’s touch. Sighs escaped their lips, and Allen turned his head away from the attention focused on him.

“I’m sorry. But we need to eat before they sell out.”

Allen knew she was talking about the skewers sold on the street. However, the skewer in Lea’s mind meant something else. Watching imaginary people sharing that skewer, he worried whether he could properly taste the actual meat skewer without choking. Allen sighed as he arrived at the skewer shop following Lea.

“Please enjoy.”

Lea took a bite of a juicy skewer and held out another one to Allen. He looked at Lea’s glistening lips and kicked an innocent stone. A small cloud of dust rose.

“Ugh, what are you doing?”

“Trying not to have inappropriate thoughts.”

“What?”

“Eat a lot.”

Allen said a word to Lea, who was chewing with three skewers in her mouth at once, and looked around.

When he was in the capital, he rarely visited such streets where commoners mainly lived. The butler would take care of everything he needed, and with the mansion’s kitchen overflowing with food, there was no reason to go out.

For Allen, such streets could be considered refreshing, but…

Because of Lea, he had no time to leisurely look around. He needed something else to focus on right now. And something caught Allen’s eye.

Between shops. Through that narrow gap, he could see several people entering while looking around suspiciously. And they were wearing very suspicious masks.

Allen stared at that dark place and called Lea.

“Vice Commander.”

“Yes?”

“I’m going over there for a bit.”

Lea stuffed the last remaining skewer into her mouth and turned her body following Allen’s fingertip. Rolling her eyes around, she could find the narrow passage hidden between the shops.

“Do you mean over there?”

“Yes.”

Lea wiped her mouth clean with her hand.

“I’ll follow you.”

“No, vice commander, just keep eating enthusiastically.”

“I finished eating.”

Indeed, the empty skewers at Lea’s spot looked to be at least ten. He wondered if all that energy she never stopped fantasizing with despite how much he drilled her during training came from the food she ate. He had intended to leave her behind, but Lea was already packaging the skewers.

“Aren’t you full?”

“These are for my siblings.”

“You have siblings too?”

“Yes.”

Do those siblings know that Lea’s inner thoughts are filled with flesh-colored imagery? Allen pretended not to see or hear Lea’s ongoing skewer fantasies and walked toward his destination.

“Commander, let’s go together!”

Lea chased after Allen, carrying the bag of skewers.

* * *

Up close, the entrance was narrower than expected. The door was just wide enough for two people to enter side by side if they stuck together, and looking inside, there were stairs going down. Thanks to the wall lamps, the interior wasn’t that dark. Allen hardened his expression.

He recalled the black market in the capital that he had often raided. That place emitted a more gloomy aura, but both here and there were similarly located in damp underground spaces.

“One shilling.”

The moment they set foot at the entrance, a thick forearm shot out and blocked their path. Allen, already on edge, frowned. More than the arm that dared to block his way, he was irritated by the cute animal-shaped mask held in that rough hand.

The mask swayed back and forth as if asking them to look at it, and Lea, with half-lidded eyes, stared at it intently before saying a word.

“That’s expensive.”

“Then just go in without one.”

The man holding the mask spoke gruffly. It seemed they could enter without masks, but looking at the hand waving toward the dark interior, it felt uncomfortable to proceed as is. He was highly suspicious about what kind of place sold and bought things that made people hide their faces instead of showing them openly.

After some consideration, Allen gave the man one shilling and bought a mask.

“Commander, isn’t that a waste of money?”

“You should wear one too.”

Allen bought another mask and placed it over Lea’s face. She blinked. Feeling the mask with her hands, she sensed a long nose.

“It’s a big and beautiful mask.”

“What are you saying now?”

Lea hooked the mask straps over her ears and looked at Allen through the eyeholes. Allen, wearing a gray wolf mask, folded his arms, seemingly uncomfortable.

“It suits you well.”

“Is that an insult?”

“It’s a compliment.”

Though it was a childish mask that looked like it was made by a child, Lea thought the mask suited Allen quite well. Perhaps because Allen’s triangular upper body reminded her of a wolf.

‘Why is she like that again?’

The tips of Allen’s ear turned red.

Lea would occasionally come at him like this. Even in the midst of her fantasies, her sudden thoughts and words were enough to perplex him. And it was troublesome that they were increasing over time.

Allen quickly went down the stairs, passing by Lea.

“Commander, let’s go together!”

“Shh. From now on, call me by my name.”

“Yes!”

With each step down the stairs, the oil lamps on the wall swayed. Following their movement, the length of the two shadows also stretched and contracted.

Allen tried to guess what kind of place this was. People illegally trade not only goods but also humans. Those with bad tastes had no qualms about putting fellow humans on display.

The North was once notorious as a lawless zone. The black market here might show him something worse than what he had seen before. Allen went down, thinking he should maintain his reason no matter what disgusting things he might see.

And the place he arrived at was a door more elaborately decorated than expected.

Allen squinted. The pattern carved on the door was unique. Elephants and bananas, said to be native only to the South, formed alternating patterns. Red lighting illuminated it. It was truly a strange atmosphere.

“Oh… this is radical.”

Allen felt a sense of déjà vu. He seemed to have experienced something similar before. While Lea appeared unconcerned, he hesitated. He had an intuition that he would regret opening this door.

But Lea didn’t wait for him. She pushed the door instead of Allen, drawn by an unknown attraction.

Creeeeak.

Along with the spine-chilling sound, a wide space came into view.