In his bewilderment, just as he tried to regain composure—

「…Huff huff, I can’t hold back anymore. Now….」

“Shall we do it… together?”

Allen’s body jerked violently.

“Wh-what did you say?”

“……? Is there a problem?”

Lea stared at him blankly. Allen broke into a sweat but pretended nothing had happened.

“Ah, no. That… what did you want to do together?”

“I meant investigating the closed colosseum. Tom recently saw the former duke’s son there. Since he was one of the King’s closest confidants, it seems suspicious.”

“Right, I understand.”

Allen ended up blushing deeply with embarrassment. He had overreacted and shown his surprise. A knight commander should never reveal emotions through facial expressions, no matter how serious the situation. Before this woman, he felt his carefully built pride crumbling.

“Then I’ll arrange for us to go together tomorrow.”

“Yes… tomorrow… tomorrow? You and me?”

“Yes.”

Allen felt his body go cold. Distracted by other things, he had made a mistake.

Going to the closed colosseum with Lea? That was like voluntarily walking into hell.

“Is tomorrow difficult for you?”

He wanted to say yes immediately, but canceling because he couldn’t handle this one thing wasn’t his style. His schedule for tomorrow was actually empty. So Allen swallowed a sigh and shook his head.

“No, it’s fine. Let’s go together tomorrow.”

“Yes, then how about we infiltrate tomorrow night?”

“Night? At night? Isn’t night a bit…”

It was hard enough to endure during broad daylight—would he be able to maintain his sanity seeing Lea’s thoughts at night?

He had once seen someone who accidentally drank an aphrodisiac and suffered terribly. With heightened s*xual desire, that person had grabbed their g*nitals and writhed for a long time—a sight that was both pitiful and honestly disgusting to watch. Though Lea’s imagination wasn’t exactly an aphrodisiac, he had the unsettling feeling that he might become like that person, which made him very uncomfortable and anxious.

“Wouldn’t rebels typically move secretly at night rather than during the day?”

“……Vice Commander, you need to think… no, broaden your thinking. Rebels don’t only operate at night. Since it’s a closed location, they’re likely to move during the day too. So let’s go during the day.”

“You’re certainly right. Then we can visit during the day and check again at night.”

“Wait, you want to go to the colosseum twice?”

“Yes, just to be sure.”

Perhaps he was the one with limited thinking after all. Allen mentally slapped his forehead.

“Then let’s send other knights at night.”

“Yes, understood.”

If he had known it would come to this, he could have sent subordinate knights to the colosseum from the beginning. He truly felt like a fool.

“Do you have anything else to report?”

“No, nothing else.”

“Really? Then you may go now.”

Allen waved his hand toward the door. He meant for her to get out quickly. Lea nodded and rose from her seat, then opened her mouth as if something had just occurred to her.

“Yes, Commander, you must have been struggling to hold it in too. Please hurry to the bathroom.”

What did she say? Allen’s body jerked at her words.

“Wh-wh-what am I holding in!”

“Holding it in causes health problems. Haven’t you been twisting your body throughout our entire conversation? How much have you been enduring for your face to repeatedly turn red and then pale?”

Maybe Lea actually knew he could read her thoughts. Allen gripped the desk so tightly it might break and glared at her.

“No, I’m fine.”

“You look like you want to release right now.”

Release? What kind of expression was that? His eyes spun.

“How… can you say such, such vulgar things…!”

“How is wanting to release vulgar? Commander, you’re strange. Everyone wants to pee and poop sometimes.”

Lea raised one eyebrow. Allen pressed his lips tightly together.

He felt like he was going crazy with embarrassment, wanting to crawl into a mouse hole. Not only was his lower half hot, but his face burned too.

He barely managed to part his lips and growled,

“Never mention releasing in front of me again.”

With those final words, silence fell between them. Lea blinked while staring at Allen. Her mind was filled with question marks.

Allen shuddered from the belated wave of embarrassment. He couldn’t believe he had said such nonsense after misinterpreting Lea’s words and feeling unnecessarily guilty.

“……? What’s wrong with releasing? Does that mean I can’t say ‘packing up’ either?”

“……I misspoke for a moment.”

“You should hurry to the bathroom and take care of your business. You seem quite desperate.”

“I’ll handle it myself. Would you please leave now, vice commander?”

“Yes, understood.”

Lea left without further argument, surprisingly. Allen confirmed she had gone far away before leaning back in his chair and slumping his body. The stimulating scene that had been affecting him disappeared with Lea. However, it lingered like an afterimage, seemingly still wandering in the middle of the office.

“What am I going to do tomorrow.”

Though it wasn’t even afternoon yet, he already worried. A closed colosseum? The lights would certainly be off, making it dark even during the day.

“What am I really going to do.”

Sighs continuously escaped Allen’s lips.

Looking at his groin, the middle part remained firmly swollen like a pitched tent.

Honestly, it looked unsightly. But he didn’t want to go to the bathroom. He didn’t want to deal with it alone and then tremble with shame upon returning to reality. So he recalled the Emperor’s face, which he disliked. Thinking about his superficially handsome brother fortunately cooled his mind, and gradually the front of his pants began to subside. Allen rose from his seat with relief, thinking he couldn’t recall the Emperor every time and needed to find another method.

Just as he was putting on his outer garment draped over the chair, hoping his lower half would slowly subside, the closed door suddenly burst open.

“I’m sorry. I left something behind… What are you doing?”

This wasn’t what his reflexes should be used for. Too shocked, Allen ended up lying flat on the floor.

‘Ha… f*ck, at this point, is she doing this on purpose?’

Without even looking up, he knew who had opened the door. Aside from the voice, he recognized her immediately from the lewd fantasy that floated into his mind like a vision.

“Why are you lying on the floor?”

Lea stood blankly, watching him.

“Just trying to exercise, ah no. Something fell here.”

Allen extended his arms pretending to do push-ups, then quickly lowered them again.

He saw something dangling between his arms. Lying prone made it appear even more exposed, and for a moment he thought his heart would drop.

What a disgraceful sight.

“Ah, I see.”

Lea nodded without suspicion and approached the desk. Allen tightly closed his eyes and turned his head away as she came closer. He heard rustling sounds, presumably the documents she had left behind. Allen bit his lip and repeated the same words like a mantra.

‘Leave quickly, leave quickly.’

His heart felt ready to burst. Though it wounded his pride to lie on the floor in front of his vice commander, he endured, thinking it better than standing up and exposing what was between his legs.

“Commander, are you dead? Why aren’t you moving at all?”

“……Can’t you please think before you speak?”

Proper thoughts, not obscene ones.

“I did think before speaking.”

“I know that’s not true.”

“How would you know that, Commander? You’re not a mage.”

“I just know everything.”

He heard a chuckle from above.

‘Did the vice commander just laugh at what I said?’

The thought that she, who had been expressionless all along, had laughed made him feel strange.

“Did you just snicker?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“I clearly heard it.”

“No, I didn’t.”

At her firm voice, Allen turned his head but froze. Lea had crouched down, lowered her head, and was looking at him. Allen inhaled sharply. Her face was right in front of him. They suddenly made eye contact.

“……Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I was checking if you were alive.”

“I’m perfectly fine, so please stand up.”

“How could I dare stand while you’re lying down, Commander?”

Every time Lea opened her mouth, her warm breath touched his cheek. Allen fidgeted with his hands and grabbed his pants. He seemed to smell a sweet fragrance from somewhere.

‘This is because of the vice commander’s damn imagination, definitely not because I’m reacting to the vice commander herself.’

Allen thought it must surely be an illusion that he could see her face more clearly than her thoughts. After all, he was absolutely not the kind of man who would harbor lustful feelings for a woman he had just met yesterday.

“Ah, could it be.”

Lea placed one hand on her chin and narrowed her eyes. She had one clear idea about Allen’s strange state.

“Did you wet yours—”

“No. Not what you’re thinking.”

“Then why are you clenching your b*ttocks and trying so hard to hide the floor?”

“How shameless of you to look at someone else’s b*ttocks!”

“How could I not see what’s right in front of me?”

Allen was dumbfounded by Lea’s brazen attitude, not even blinking. She was probably the only person who would directly ask her superior if he had wet himself.

“Don’t you know how to pretend not to see even when you do? Would you like it if I talked about looking at your b*ttocks?”