It pained her to lie to Maria and Kedrick, but it was necessary for the greater good.

“That can’t be right.”

Kedrick voiced his disagreement.

“He would meet you anytime if you asked.”

Maria agreed with Kedrick. They couldn’t understand why Lydia thought that way.

“Why do you think so?”

“Sir Arsen has already fallen for you.”

Frustrated, Maria advised bluntly. However, Lydia waved it off, saying that was nonsense.

“Maria, Sir Arsen doesn’t see me as a woman.”

This was Lydia’s honest feeling, and hearing it suddenly made Kedrick’s chest feel tight.

To think there were not one but two socially awkward people in this small borderland.

* * *

Lydia had warned him to brace himself as her seduction would intensify. Arsen didn’t take the warning as a warning.

He only found it cute. Lydia’s movements would be within his palm anyway, wouldn’t they?

This wasn’t the capital or the Marquis’s mansion, but the borderlands — his territory.

However, Lydia showed Arsen, who had ignored her warning, that she meant business by exceeding his expectations.

When was it, a few mornings ago.

Arsen had started training early as usual. His body felt particularly light that day, so he threw off his top and swung his sword, then crossed blades with Kedrick after a long time.

At the height of their intensity, Kedrick inhaled sharply — hiik — and stumbled.

“Getting distracted during sparring. Am I too boring to face now?”

“That’s not it, look behind you, Commander.”

Kedrick glanced toward the mansion behind Arsen with an expression that said he didn’t know what expression to make.

What was he looking at?

When Arsen casually turned to where Kedrick was looking, he almost dropped his sword.

At the window facing the training ground in the mansion’s corridor, a white face in a white dress was staring intently at Arsen.

Since dawn hadn’t fully broken, the mansion’s interior was relatively dark, and Lydia happened to be wearing white priestess robes, making her perfect to mistake for a ghost.

“I thought it was a ghost.”

“……I suppose it could look that way.”

Noticing Arsen looking at her, Lydia waved her hand gently.

Arsen and Kedrick waved back as if enchanted.

“She’s not leaving.”

“She’s not leaving.”

Even after receiving their greeting, Lydia remained unmoved.

She seemed to plan on watching, which made the half-n*ked Arsen increasingly embarrassed.

Kedrick must have felt the same, as they both started gathering and putting on their clothes without any discussion.

“Oh, they’re leaving?”

Lydia briefly furrowed her brows in displeasure before leaving without hesitation.

“Seems she finds clothed sparring uninteresting.”

While silently buttoning his shirt, Arsen briefly wondered, is this seduction?

Wasn’t this closer to voyeurism?

Maybe she just happened to see them while passing by?

That morning felt somewhat unsettling, but he let it pass. However, that was just the beginning.

“Sir Arsen. Oh? You’re here too, Sir Kedrick?”

“Oh my! Priestess! I thought my heart would stop.”

“I meant to surprise Sir Arsen, but it seems Sir Kedrick gets more startled?”

Lydia, who suddenly appeared and hugged Arsen’s arm, giggled.

“The commander seems startled too. His face is pale right now.”

“Oh? Sir Arsen, were you very surprised?”

Lydia turned serious when she saw Arsen’s truly pale face.

“How can a knight be so faint-hearted?”

“It’s not about being faint-hearted……”

Arsen lost his words momentarily. Where had she been hiding?

The mansion’s corridor didn’t have many objects to hide behind.

Yet Lydia had concealed her presence so well that neither Arsen nor Kedrick noticed, then appeared all at once.

If he hadn’t heard Lydia’s voice calling his name first, Arsen would have tried to subdue her, thinking an assassin had appeared.

If that had happened, Lydia’s delicate wrist would have been broken already.

Just thinking about it made the back of his neck cold.

“Let’s have tea together.”

Whether Arsen wanted to clutch his heart or not, Lydia firmly stated her purpose for grabbing him.

Though he knew he should refuse, Arsen couldn’t because he needed tea to calm his startled heart.

Instead, Kedrick was there too, and he also repeatedly drank chamomile tea with a pale face.

Unfortunately, their surprises didn’t end there.

“Sir Arsen!”

“……How on earth?”

When he went to inspect the new grain storage construction, she would appear from behind timber piles.

“Sir Arsen, fancy meeting you here again.”

“How did you really know I would be here?”

When he went to the stables to inspect the borderlands, she would emerge from between hay bales, and she even popped up inside his locked office.

One day, while just walking down the road, the moment he thought it was about time for Lydia to appear, she did.

“Commander, about Priestess Lydia. Did she perhaps receive assassination training?”

After several days of feeling played by Lydia, Kedrick asked seriously.

At any other time, Arsen would have told him to write one more report instead of wasting time with nonsense, but this time, he couldn’t dismiss it as nonsense.

Lydia appeared everywhere he looked, went everywhere he went, but ironically, he couldn’t predict her actions at all.

Whether she received assassination training or not, she definitely had talent in that area.

“Next is the bedroom.”

Office, library, training ground, stables, and so on. Lydia had appeared in every place along Arsen’s route.

Except for one place — the bedroom.

“I can’t easily allow the bedroom.”

He didn’t mean to prevent Lydia from sneaking in. He was determined to figure out when and how she would enter.

Though she had caught him off guard every time so far, this time he wouldn’t let it slide easily.

Wasn’t that the operation to begin with?

The actions of pushing her away when she asked for tea and saying he hated it when she asked for hugs.

But until now, he couldn’t help it when Lydia came and hugged him.

When she suddenly appeared and poked his side asking for tea, Arsen would nod in a daze.

Wasn’t this coercion and intimidation rather than seduction?

Anyway, this time he wouldn’t allow Lydia to sneak in, Arsen vowed.

So Arsen remained highly alert whenever he entered his bedroom, but…

Knock, knock knock—

“Lydia?”

This time, Lydia changed her strategy to boldly knocking and entering.

Arsen approached the window and opened it.

Outside the window, Lydia stood holding a wine bottle, looking up at him and said,

“Want to drink together? But you have to provide the glasses.”

“It would be my honor.”

Arsen extended his hand toward Lydia.

Lydia pouted and slapped his palm.

“You should tell me to go away.”

“I didn’t know I should refuse since you didn’t give the signal.”

“Ah.”

Lydia’s eyes widened as she realized she forgot to wink.

Arsen wasn’t foolish enough not to know that Lydia’s visit tonight was part of the operation.

He was just using her forgotten signal as an excuse to draw Lydia into his bedroom.

At this point, who was seducing whom? Lydia? Or Arsen himself?

“Please come in for now. Nights on the border are dangerous.”

Arsen took the wine bottle from Lydia, set it on the floor, and stretched both arms toward her.

Lydia grabbed Arsen’s arms and climbed the windowsill with effort.

She probably couldn’t have made it up without Arsen pulling her from the front.

Though the Edis mansion’s windowsills were rather high, was it really this difficult?

She used to climb heights like this as if flying before.

Lydia silently clicked her tongue at her drastically decreased stamina while catching her breath.

“Sir Arsen, did you just finish bathing?”

“Surprisingly, yes.”

If this was really seduction, her timing was impeccable.

Arsen had just finished bathing, his hair still damp, and he wore easily removable sleepwear.

If Lydia had intended to do something to Arsen, she had chosen the perfect timing.

Even if she had come to assassinate him, it would have been the best timing.

“I really seem to have a talent for this.”

Arsen swallowed his words about how she seemed to have talent for assassination rather than ‘this.’

“How do I always manage to come right after you’ve bathed?”

Lydia suffered from self-loathing. She had become too good at following Arsen around, just like she did with Richard.

When she planned to meet Arsen somewhere around this time, she executed it without the slightest error.

While life never went as desired, why was following men around so easy?

Is this my calling? What a terrible calling to have. Lydia’s eyes drooped despite succeeding in her operation.

“Did you come here alone?”

“Yes.”

Arsen furrowed his brow at her matter-of-fact answer.

“This isn’t like the capital, it’s dangerous here. What if a demonic beast suddenly appeared?”

Though they had finished one sweep and set up new fences, they still couldn’t feel at ease — that was life in the borderlands.

“I’ll escort you back.”

“Okay.”

It was a halfhearted answer. Arsen studied Lydia’s expression while placing water glasses instead of wine glasses on the table.

She looks gloomy. After coming all this way so bravely.

“Did something happen on your way here?”

“What do you mean something happened? Do you think I just go around causing trouble?”