“Why are you acting like that all of a sudden?”
“...What do you an?”
“Haah, fine. But can we at least put this down and talk first?”
Whitney’s sudden shift into aggressive skinship was, to put it bluntly, the height of awkwardness.
“I don’t quite understand what you’re saying.”
“...You, ugh.”
“Did I do sothing wrong?”
Honestly, it was only natural. Neither had any real romantic experience—Whitney, in both his past and present lives, had been completely clueless, and redia, the villainess, had barely interacted properly with people at all.
The fact that any skinship between them was happening at all was practically a miracle.
“Whitney, stop it.”
“...No.”
“You bastard....”
Thus, the sudden scuffle between them turned into a bizarre scene where Whitney desperately tried to hug redia, and redia desperately tried to push him away.
“.......”
Of course, if gossip journalists or thrill-seekers had seen it, they would’ve paid millions to watch.
But for the servants of the mansion, it was pure torture—especially for those who had heard rumors that anyone who witnessed the sensitive or shaful happenings in the mansion would mysteriously disappear the next day.
“From now on, you didn’t see anything and you didn’t hear anything, alright?”
“Hik.”
“...Understood?”
And right at that mont, Sasha, who had been blankly staring toward the garden, began whispering, and the faces of the new servants turned even paler.
“Oh my, look at that....”
“Master is surprisingly bold....”
“...Are you crazy? Lower your eyes, now.”
So of the younger maids, faces flushed, secretly sneaked glances and were promptly scolded.
Either way, the servants of the Ringaarden mansion buried another horror story deep in their hearts and fulfilled their duties today as well.
“Um, Young Lady.”
“...What.”
“You realize this is your fault, right?”
anwhile, redia, who was glaring at Whitney half-filled with killing intent, turned her ear slightly toward the brazen voice of Parsha.
“What are you talking about....”
“...You exposed your pheromones fully to see if Master would fall for them, didn’t you?”
At those words, which struck right at her blind spot, redia quickly dropped the killing aura from her eyes and turned her gaze away.
“Thanks to that, Master’s completely pickled in pheromones now. In other words, he’s lost his mind.”
“...That’s... definitely my fault.”
Just as Parsha said, it was redia herself who caused Whitney’s sudden foolish behavior, and no excuse would change that.
“But that woman wagged her tail right in front of .”
“......Haha.”
“I was planning to use it as an excuse to kill her if he fell for it. Guess she’s lucky.”
Still, since the greatest provocation had co from Ferris, who dared to wag her tail at redia’s fiancé, it would’ve been normal, given redia’s personality, for blood to have already been spilled.
“...No, maybe I should just quietly kill her anyway.”
It was only because redia didn’t want to sabotage the founding of the Ringaarden County’s knight order that peace was barely maintained.
“Wow, but it seems Master really does like you, Young Lady.”
“......?”
Sensing redia’s still-uncomfortable mood, Parsha suddenly spoke brightly, trying to engage her.
“The original owner of the pheromones aside, there are won all over the place here. Yet Master’s only got eyes for one.”
“......,”
“This is practically a miracle. Don’t you think?”
redia glanced around briefly, then cleared her throat before answering.
“If the heir of a re Count’s family is lucky enough to win the only ducal heiress in the Empire, then naturally, he should only have eyes for .”
Though her words were stiff, redia’s voice had softened considerably.
“...Now that you say it, that does make sense!”
Parsha tilted her head slightly at how familiar this pattern felt, but quickly decided it was better to just roll with it.
“.......”
Then ca a short silence.
“...Hug .”
Breaking that silence, Whitney spread his arms wide and spoke with a bright, innocent smile.
redia bit her lower lip, struggling internally for a mont, before finally giving up and leaning quietly into him.
“Young Lady, you sll like perfu.”
“...Shut up.”
“Haha....”
If anyone still claiming their relationship was a purely strategic contract marriage saw this, it would have been quite a sight.
“Wait a second. You—watch your hands. How far do you think you’re going?”
“...Is it not allowed?”
“Are you seriously trying to die? Don’t you see all the people around?”
At first, it might’ve been amusing, but as the intensity increased, the atmosphere probably beca increasingly awkward.
“Co on now... Ouch, ouch, ouch—”
“...Die.”
Naturally, it was redia, who had to endure all the increasing skinship from a completely pheromone-dazed Whitney, who bore the heavier burden.
“I think... we’ll need to pause the interviews!”
As the scuffle continued endlessly, Parsha, who had been peeking in nervously, finally declared a temporary halt to the knight order interviews.
“...I’m not really used to things like this.”
anwhile, Lunelle, apparently not very resistant to this kind of scene, covered her eyes with both hands while peeking through her fingers.
“Lunelle, it’s a good chance! Why not catch your breath?”
“......!”
“Your younger siblings are up next!”
Snapping out of it at Parsha’s voice, Lunelle quietly shook her head.
“That’s... a tie ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) from the past.”
Though her face, for a mont, showed a rare girl-like expression, it soon returned to her usual stiffness.
***
During the middle of the interviews, after the unexpected mishap where my head suddenly spun and everything nearly fell apart was sohow resolved.
“Yes, then.... Uh, um.”
“...Here.”
“Ah, yes.”
Barely regaining my senses and returning as the one responsible for conducting the interviews, I hastily grabbed hold of my focus as I took the docunts handed to by the Young Lady, stamring with a dazed expression.
‘...My whole body slls like the Young Lady’s perfu.’
But no matter how much I tried to gather my wits, the lingering scent, soaked into from the rather rude skinship I had committed while half out of my mind earlier, kept disrupting my concentration.
‘...Did Lady redia usually wear such a strong perfu?’
Thinking about it for a mont, wasn’t Lady redia soone who absolutely despised obvious perfus or flashy decorations more than anything in the world?
Could it be that she wore perfu today just because of ? No, even if that were the case, that would be way too self-indulgent of a thought.
“...What are you staring at.”
“Nothing at all.”
I had a strong urge to ask, but the chilling glare that hit the mont I shifted my gaze made forcibly suppress my curiosity and focus back on the docunts.
“Then, the next ones.... Ah.”
And only then did I realize why the atmosphere among the interviewers, aside from myself, felt slightly heavy.
“...Richard Misthylene and Evangeline Misthylene. Please co in.”
Normally, a family reunion should be accompanied by tears and emotional embraces, but not everything in this world operates by the textbook.
There are plenty of people in this world for whom the word "family," typically synonymous with warmth and unity, evokes quite the opposite emotion.
“.......”
The mont I finished calling their nas, a chilling, cold tension filled the air between the two siblings and Lunelle—a textbook example of that unfortunate reality.
‘Is it really okay to have them in the sa place?’
Even though I was the one responsible for the interview, I couldn’t help but feel wary of the atmosphere surrounding Lunelle and the two siblings.
“...This is a ss.”
“Hah, what the hell is this supposed to be.”
Scratching my head awkwardly, trying to find a way to open the conversation, I suddenly heard the cold voices of both Parsha and Lady redia at the sa ti.
“What’s wrong?”
“Those two have no intention of sincerely participating in the interview.”
“It’s not the attitude of soone bracing for failure—they ca already intending to fail.”
Hearing their shared analysis, I tilted my head in disbelief.
“...They ca intending to fail? I don’t really understand?”
“Right? I don’t get it either.”
“Sa here. But it seems like they do have another goal. Let’s just wait and see.”
Parsha and redia answered my question, while Lunelle silently lowered her head and remained silent.
“Hey....”
“...Let’s just leave it for now.”
Lady redia seed about to intervene, but I decided it was better to observe quietly rather than press Lunelle.
‘Still, it’s a sha if they have no intention of joining the knight order....’
How much ti had passed?
Finally, the two siblings slowly began to speak.
“...Richard, eldest son of the Misthylene family, renowned for swordsmanship.”
“...Evangeline, second daughter.”
The look in their eyes as they introduced themselves was filled with clear hostility.
“.......”
And the problem was, that hostility was unmistakably directed at Lunelle.
‘At this point, I’m seriously curious what happened between them.’
While it's an unspoken rule that a boss should not pry into subordinates’ private matters, this situation seed serious enough that it might be necessary to know for Lunelle’s sake.
“Thank you for participating in the interview....”
As I thought that and tried to proceed with the formalities, it happened.
– Goooooo....
A crushing aura suddenly filled the entire garden.
“......!”
The two siblings, who had been glaring at Lunelle with murderous eyes, flinched and imdiately fell into combat stances.
“...Young Lady?”
“I can’t stand seeing brats act all high and mighty.”
It seed Lady redia, resting her chin on her hand with a bored expression, had unleashed the pressure of her jewel eye upon them.
“...Well, at least they’re not completely useless.”
“Ooh.”
Remarkably, both siblings managed to withstand it without collapsing or losing their composure.
For reference, I, having once faced a similar amount of killing intent from Lady redia, fainted right there at her feet.
Even now, after realizing the power of domination within , I’m certain that if I were to face her killing intent again, I would imdiately pass out.
Thus, at the very least, these two could be said to have reached a level where they could sowhat maintain sanity even in front of redia.
“The test ends here.”
“...Haah, haah.”
“Huff.”
Still, when redia withdrew her aura, both siblings wiped cold sweat and sighed heavily.
“Well then. Ti to get serious....”
Of course, what redia had just done was her own personal experint.
My test—the trial of my domination power—was still waiting to be administered.
I was quietly gathering my energy when it happened.
“...Master, forgive , but I have a suggestion.”
Lunelle, who had remained silent despite the appearance of her siblings, finally opened her mouth.
“For the second test, may we proceed in the form of a duel?”
“...Huh?”
Admittedly, that was not quite the suggestion I had been expecting.
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