“Writer.”

“Yeah?”

Dietrich grabbed my chin as if he couldn’t stand it, but Seth was faster.

It’s not that Seth has better physical conditions than Dietrich; it’s probably because Seth anticipated what action Dietrich would take and avoided it.

“That brat!”

Dietrich lunged with his teeth bared, but he couldn’t reach him because Yuno quickly intervened.

“Me too! Me too!”

The cute tower lord shouted enthusiastically, but compared to Seth and Dietrich, he was so small that he couldn’t reach me.

Seth didn’t easily let me go.

Relieved, I buried my nose in his neck. The tension eased at the warm scent I had smelled before.

A soft touch stroked my back.

“Let’s go out. Let’s go…”

“You’ve been out for three days straight. Are you going out again?”

“Yeah, we’ve toured all the nearby islands. Where else do you want to go? How about spending time in the bedroom today?”

The bedroom.

Just hearing it feels like it’ll haunt me with trauma.

“What do you want to do, Master?”

Seth, who currently holds the initiative by holding me in his arms, asked gently. I hugged him tightly as if he were a lifeline.

“I want to go out. I want to feel the breeze.”

“Liri.”

“If you’re not going out, then I’ll just spend today with Seth.”

I don’t want to be with those lower-body monsters.

You crazy guys, don’t you remember how many times we had to change the bed sheets all night because of you?

“Let’s go.”

“Let’s go.”

Dietrich and Yuno both responded simultaneously, while Seth chuckled quietly. He hugged me as if I were a rag doll.

Ugh, I feel like all my stuffing has been pulled out, even though I’m not even a doll…

After a moment, Seth let me go.

“Seth, where are you going?”

“I have to contact the butler for a moment.”

“You can do that over there. Wood, show him the way.”

I tried to follow Seth, who left for a moment, but I was stopped.

My lifeline!

“What’s so good about that damn guy anyway?”

Dietrich, who held me tightly, grumbled.

“Why do you like me! You just get excited when you see me!”

“What can I do? I get excited just by looking at you.”

Dietrich gave a scripted response as if reading from a predetermined manual. I recalled the dialogue from the book I read just before coming to this world.

When the heroine asked Dietrich to let her go and stop, he responded like that.

“Liri, I’m just quietly here. So please admire me.”

At first, it was amazing to realize that the characters I thought were just words on a page actually existed, but now, being with these two felt like watching a well-crafted play, giving me a strange feeling.

It felt like looking at a vending machine that gives the appropriate response when I input the right line.

“Master, I’m back…”

Seth returned, frowning.

“Hmph.”

As I looked up, I saw Dietrich with a victorious smile, while Seth’s face hardened menacingly. Yuno just innocently held my hand and grinned.

“So, where are we going?”

***

“Wow, that fish is alive! Its eyes are spinning!”

“That’s a chippy, a fish that can rotate its eyeballs 360 degrees. Master, is this your first time seeing one?”

“Yeah! Look at all those legs… One, two, three… It has eighteen legs! What is that?”

“That’s a squaginger. Dried ones are popular as snacks. Curious?”

“Yeah, I want to try it.”

It must taste like squid!

We headed to the fish market near the harbor.

Since I had been cooped up for so long, I insisted on going somewhere crowded with things to see.

There weren’t many people on the island near the tower, so this place was chosen.

I held Seth’s hand in one hand and Yuno’s hand in the other as we walked.

Dietrich was in charge of security. Of course, even if he would hold my hand, he could respond immediately if anyone approached us.

But Seth and Yuno, who wanted to stay close to me, pushed him away with the excuse that I needed to be well escorted.

“The hood is about to come off.”

Seth reached over and pulled back my hood.

Not that it was coming off; it didn’t move as if it were glued in place.

“Liri’s pretty face shouldn’t be exposed, so we need to be careful.”

“That’s right. We mustn’t reveal the author’s identity.”

“Stupid knight commander, lower your voice.”

Seizing the opportunity, Seth interjected.

“No one should notice that Liri is a special existence.”

Yuno nodded beside him, leaving Dietrich unable to refute.

Guys, just the fact that I’m with you all already makes me stand out enough, doesn’t it?

The Chancellor, the knight commander, and the tower master. Okay, let’s say the people stuck in the tower can’t be recognized by others.

But would the person flanked by a chancellor and a knight commander look like an ordinary person?

“What else do you want to eat?”

“Do you want to eat something else?”

Seth didn’t come alone; he brought escorts with him, and they followed behind us.

I don’t know why Dietrich and Yuno were brought along, but they played their roles as workers very well.

“I want to go there too!”

Afraid they might ask to go into the tower, I pointed towards a stall near the fish market and dashed towards it.

No, I tried to.

“Be careful, Master.”

“Liri, where are you trying to go alone?”

With both men firmly holding onto my hand, my bold attempt failed spectacularly.

“Comm-, ahk.”

Amidst this, someone approached us, prompting Dietrich to draw his sword.

Lightning-fast.

I was gaping in amazement, but the man faced with Dietrich’s blade didn’t seem too pleased.

“Commander! Your Grace!”

Quickly raising both hands in surrender, the man wore a simple uniform.

“Talirro. What’s going on?”

Confirming his identity, Dietrich sheathed his sword, and the palace knight saluted.

“Your Grace is also present.”

The knight saluted Seth as well, and the black-haired man returned the greeting with a gentle smile.

“And the person beside you…”

The knight’s gaze fell upon Yuno, and his eyes widened as if he recognized him.

However, knights were always serious individuals, quickly masking their expressions.

Then, he glanced at the figure holding hands with the chancellor and the tower master, concealed under a tightly drawn hood.

I was wearing a dress Dietrich had brought me that reached down to my knees, paired with boots. The cloak hung just below my knees.

It was easy to tell I was a woman, and the knight soon made a plausible guess.

“You must be the Empress.”

It was a formal tone. The knight seemed about to greet me, but Yuno frowned quickly.

“How dare you compare Liri to that kind of-“

“Yuno.”

I shook the tower master’s hand in case he decided to pick a fight with the knight.

“But he mistook the lovely Liri for someone else!”

But Yuno didn’t listen to me.

Before the situation escalated, I forcefully pushed away Yuno’s hand and grabbed his chin firmly.

“I told you to shut up.”

“…Yes.”

Yuno’s cheeks flushed, and Seth watched with an intrigued gaze.

Meanwhile, Dietrich clarified that I wasn’t the empress, and the knight apologized and left.

Embarrassing, absolutely embarrassing!

Who came up with this ridiculous setting?

Oh right, it was me.