The first thing Ayra saw when she opened the door was Gretel pacing nervously with an utterly haggard expression. The mont their eyes t, all the color drained from Gretel’s face. He looked exactly like Graffni did whenever he caused a major disaster.
“M-My Lady...”
Like a puppy caught misbehaving, Gretel sniffled as he passed Janus, who shuffled lazily over to the sofa and collapsed. Whether it was from the two straight days of running like a horse or lingering aftereffects from the bonding process he’d ntioned, he let out a soft groan and then went completely still, as if dead. Glancing briefly at Janus, Ayra turned her attention to the nearly-crying Gretel. She soothed him gently, not yet knowing what he had done.
“Sir Gretel, I don’t know what happened, but anyone can make a mistake. You’ve only been an administrator for less than a year, after all.”
“Snf... M-My Lady...”
“Alright, so what exactly happened?”
Swallowing his sobs, Gretel carefully held out the docunt in his hand. He had gripped it so tightly that the parchnt was wrinkled all over. In a voice full of sorrow, he reported:
“E-Embezzlent...”
“What? Embezzlent?!”
Again?! Ayra hurriedly unfolded the parchnt, caught off guard by the completely unexpected answer. Upon reading it through, she saw that the docunt falsely adjusting the price of Skit silk had her administrator’s seal stamped right on it.
According to Gretel’s explanation, he had found this docunt just yesterday. Eager to fulfill Ayra’s order to manage the opinions of the retainers and landowners, he had been working enthusiastically. That left him with so extra ti, so he went back to re-check the completed docunts—and that’s when he found one with a seal he did not rember using.
“My Lady, I swear I’m innocent. I’ve kept the seal secure, and the safe and all the doors were thoroughly checked. I really didn’t do this. Please believe .”
Perhaps ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ because his own father had once been dismissed over an embezzlent charge, Gretel was trembling with fear, pleading with desperation. He wasn’t just fighting for himself—his father’s honor was on the line as well.
“I believe you.”
“Y-You do?”
Ayra didn’t need Pebble’s confirmation to know Gretel wasn’t behind it. If he were the culprit, he wouldn’t be trembling like this while obediently handing over the evidence.
In fact, in this case, it was precisely because Gretel was so competent that the incident was caught before it could explode. If he hadn’t re-checked the docunts, and this ca up later as an embezzlent charge, it would’ve been difficult for Ayra to defend him.
“I know very well that you're not the type of person to do sothing like this.”
“My Lady...!”
To Ayra, Gretel was a highly promising talent. The fact that he had reached an Intelligence stat of 300 at such a young age in such a small territory said it all. Even if he had made a mistake this ti, Ayra would have forgiven him.
“Thanks to you, we were able to prevent an incident before it happened. Good work, Sir Gretel.”
Gretel’s eyes widened. He had been bracing for a scolding, but was instead t with praise. His timid heart felt like it was being hit with a tidal wave.
“It seems soone with skill has infiltrated the manor. I’ll look into this matter myself. For now, just focus on your duties. With work like this, I have nothing to worry about going forward.”
“Y-Yes! My Lady! Thank you! I’ll keep doing my best!”
Gretel’s face turned bright red. His eyes sparkled like a loyal puppy, so earnestly that Ayra felt a little embarrassed herself. A mont later, a system window appeared.
[Favorability with Ran Gretel has increased by 4.]
Current Favorability: 82
[Ran Gretel has gained the buff ‘Praise from the Lord’ – administrative task speed increased by 37%. (Duration: 23 days, 9 hours)]
Having gained a boost in favorability, Gretel left the room with light steps and a glowing face. Ayra stared silently at the falsified embezzlent docunt, then opened her map. According to the data, there were currently about fifteen spies in Solar. Eleven were registered as residents living in the territory, and four had infiltrated the manor itself as stable boys or servants.
‘Pebble, which one of these spies forged Gretel’s docunt?’
After showing a couple of Neural Network Connection Error pop-ups, Pebble finally responded.
[Among the 15 infiltrators currently in Solar, none are responsible for forging Ran Gretel’s docunt.]
‘Is the answer wrong because of that neural network issue again?’
Ayra glared at Pebble, skeptical. Sothing about the situation was deeply suspicious. She felt a clear sense of malicious intent—as if soone was trying to get rid of Gretel through embezzlent, just like they had with Graffni. Ayra instinctively sensed that the person behind Graffni’s case was the sa one who’d forged Gretel’s docunts.
Pebble, sweating nervously, ran another map scan. But the result was the sa. Ayra frowned.
‘If it’s not a bug, then maybe the culprit already left Solar? Or... could it be that Pebble’s ability doesn’t work on them? No, that can’t be. Pebble can read dragon emotions and even animals. That’s ridiculous.’
Reading her thoughts, Pebble puffed out its nonexistent chest with pride. Amused, Ayra patted the smug little spirit, then pushed thoughts of the unknown infiltrator to the back of her mind and turned to Janus. He hadn’t moved at all for a while now.
“Janus, are you feeling sick? Do you... feel nauseous or have no appetite?”
Had she overworked him these last two days? Or was it so aftereffect from giving her a fragnt of his magic stone? Ayra leaned closer to check on him. Janus, who had seed asleep with his eyes closed, opened his red eyes and t hers.
“Or are you... hungry?”
“Hmm.”
Janus neither confird nor denied it. Then he reached out and took her hand, but his movents were slower than usual. Ayra paused, worried. The way he touched her felt strangely suggestive—and then Janus gently guided her hand sowhere.
“It hurts here.”
The place he brought her hand to... was none other than his crotch. At so point—who knew when—it had gotten completely hard, and the weight in her palm was substantial. Ayra’s eyes flew wide as Janus said,
“Listening to you moaning in the carriage the whole way back? I nearly lost my mind from how sexy it was.”
He grinned, then pulled Ayra onto the sofa and into his lap.
❄
Janus pounced like a beast, though perhaps out of consideration for Ayra’s condition, he stopped short of full penetration. Still, he left plenty of stinging marks as if trying to stake his claim all over her body, and eventually passed out on the sofa, sprawled out asleep. It really did seem like an aftereffect of giving up a magic stone fragnt. Ayra gazed down at him for a long mont, her thoughts inexplicably stirred.
The next morning, before taking any formal action, Ayra gathered the retainers. Thanks to Gretel’s tireless effort over the past two days, the previously hostile retainers had cald down sowhat. As Ayra took her seat, one of them asked cautiously:
“My Lady, what beca of your journey to Sobletz?”
“Mm, I successfully brought back Sir Bloom.”
Even though they knew Ayra was a Labyrinth Mage and had perford many amazing spells, a look of shock spread across their faces. Understandable—it had only been two days, and yet she’d gone into Sobletz and pulled a prisoner out of their dungeon. The only ones not surprised were her closest aides.
“Then... what about Sobletz’s current stance? Is war truly coming?”
Ayra rubbed her chin awkwardly at the next question. The retainers were looking at her with shining eyes, clearly convinced she had rescued Bloom in secret.
“Well, about that... things kinda escalated, and I ended up attacking the lord’s manor.”
“...Pardon?”
The retainers—completely unprepared for what the combination of a Labyrinth Mage and a dragon could bring—looked like they hadn’t heard her correctly.
“You attacked... the Sobletz lord’s manor...?”
“I didn’t destroy the whole thing. Just part of the wall and two or three towers.”
“...Excuse ?”
“Anyway, it was going to lead to war either way, so let’s just call it an early declaration. Based on how things are going, I expect their army to advance on us within a few days. Everyone, prepare accordingly.”
The unexpected announcent drained all the color from their faces. They were clearly thinking: She didn’t even bring siege weapons, so how the hell did she destroy the manor? Ayra reassured them.
“Don’t worry too much. If things go according to plan, the estate shouldn’t suffer any major damage.”
Technically it was a eting, but it was really just to inform them of the impending war. Busy as she was, Ayra wrapped it up quickly and left the room. Hera ca after her, looking thrilled rather than tense about the looming war.
“Seriously though, how’d you bring down the towers? Was it... the person you traveled with?”
“Well... Janus did do most of the smashing.”
“Hah! My Lady’s got a fierce side—I love it.”
Hera laughed heartily and looked genuinely disappointed that she hadn’t gone with them. Ayra spotted Jinas hesitating nearby, clearly with sothing to say. Once Hera stepped away, Jinas lowered his voice.
“Sir Hera, could I trouble you to discreetly investigate anyone around the manor who has shown suspicious behavior, now or recently?”
“Of course. Leave it to .”
Hera, who once planted agents in the manor to secretly observe Ayra, was basically an expert at this sort of thing. After giving a confident nod and walking off briskly, Jinas finally stepped up. His face was grim.
“My Lady, Sir Bloom is refusing all food and treatnt. What should we do?”
It wasn’t a surprising report, but still troubling. Ayra frowned—and right then, Pebble popped up a quest window.
[The Righteous Butcher (1)]
Hear about Bloom’s past (Incomplete)
Convince Bloom to return as Knight Commander (Incomplete)
Warning: If this quest fails, you will permanently lose this retainer.
Ayra’s eyes stopped on the phrase permanently lose this retainer. A frown creased her brow. The wording was so vague. Would she rely lose Bloom as a retainer... or would he die? She had never failed a quest before—but this ti, she couldn’t afford to.
“Alright. I’ve been aning to have a real conversation with Sir Bloom anyway. I’ll take care of it.”
“Yes, My Lady. Thank you.”
Jinas, who had always shared a close bond with Bloom, looked visibly relieved. Ayra felt it again—just how much her people trusted her. And it made her proud.
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