—
“I think there’s another possibility.”
After Leah finished speaking, Treya spoke up slowly, rejecting Leah’s conclusion.
She held her nearly empty paper cup of milk—it was already at the bottom. Treya always drank quickly, perhaps because she was the one in the group who burned the most energy.
“Hmm? What? Do you agree more with Eir’s theory?” Leah gestured toward Eir.
“Uh… Eir now feels like she might not have thought it through enough…” Eir muttered, having listened intently to everything Leah had said.
She was starting to think Leah’s reasoning made so sense.
“No. I just think that Will-sensei isn’t the kind of person you’re describing, Leah.”
“You’re still calling him ‘sensei’ even now? Then as his teacher, shouldn’t you call ‘sensei’ too?” Leah quipped.
“You don’t teach swordsmanship or how to navigate royal politics.”
“Oh?”
With Will absent…
The dynamic of the four-person group had shifted to three, and the balance had beco oddly delicate.
It was like trying to form a stable triangle with three sticks that couldn’t add up to two sides being greater than the third. After so testing and overlapping, they couldn’t form a stable structure.
As the tension between Leah and Treya’s glares escalated, Eir stepped in to stop the argunt from going any further—
“Alright, alright, Miss Treya, what do you think?”
“We all know what kind of person he is—cautious and thoughtful. Even in the complex world of royal politics, he handles himself well.”
Treya stared at her empty milk cup.
In her eyes, Will had always been like that.
Soone who could navigate complicated social situations with ease. He always seed to be the first to detect ulterior motives, no matter how hidden.
And yet, he still chose to trust and help her without reservation.
It was as if, even after seeing through everything, he maintained his cautious and sincere nature.
The Will who had found a path for her in the dark world of royalty…
How could he not see through a three-year-long trap set by a pen pal?
“Even if soone set a trap, spending three years and sending a beauty to lure him, how could he not see through it? You’re underestimating his abilities.”
Treya crossed her arms, giving Will an exceptionally high evaluation.
“So, I think he encountered an urgent matter with that woman that required his imdiate attention, which is why he left without saying anything. As the young master of the Hysterm family, it’s not unusual for him to be intercepted along the way. Plenty of people are keeping an eye on his whereabouts.”
But…
Treya left out one fatal flaw in her reasoning, a flaw she was fully aware of.
If Will had truly encountered an “urgent matter,” especially one related to family politics, the person he should have sought help from was…
Her, the ninth princess of the Entark royal family, who was increasingly influential and his publicly acknowledged fiancée.
Yet, at this mont, he had left with a mysterious woman none of them had ever t.
He hadn’t even told her…
She saw Will as her irreplaceable “color.”
But what did he see her as?
Crunch.
Treya realized she had unknowingly crushed the paper cup in her hand into a crumpled ss.
Eir glanced to her left at Leah, who believed “Will wouldn’t abandon the newly ford adventurer team, so he must have been kidnapped.”
Then to her right at Treya, who believed “Will couldn’t have been kidnapped; he must have left due to an urgent political matter.”
Judging by the way these two usually didn’t express their thoughts but were now evaluating Will after his departure…
“You both seem to have an inexplicable confidence in Young Master?”
“Yes, I do have a lot of confidence in him,” Treya nodded, arms still crossed.
“To put it bluntly… this team was ford because of him,” Leah said, twirling a strand of her golden hair.
“So, Miss Eir, do you still stand by your theory?”
Treya threw the question back to Eir.
Eir stared at the table. It was spotless because she had spent the previous night sitting there, wiping it repeatedly with a cloth in her restless state.
Co to think of it, she had been by Will’s side the longest. In terms of understanding him, she shouldn’t be any worse than these two!
But why was she the only one who thought Will had “willingly” taken that woman with him?
Perhaps it was because… when she saw Young Master supporting “that person,” his smile and expression had a genuine happiness to them, as if he had made the choice himself.
Hmm…
Wait a minute, she had seen that look on Young Master before!
Could it be…
“Eir has a new idea. Hmm… could it be that we’ve misunderstood? That unknown woman might actually be… S, the pen pal Young Master has been corresponding with all this ti?”
“And while Young Master is cautious and thoughtful, he often acts impulsively, doing things that make him happy.”
Eir touched the collar around her neck.
Suddenly, this line of reasoning seed clearer and more accurate to her!
For once, she felt like she was using her deep understanding of Young Master to deduce sothing.
“So, maybe he got a bit drunk and went off with S for so fun? Maybe he’ll co back in a few days with new materials for us?”
…
After saying this, Eir looked at the other two.
Leah and Treya both wore serious expressions, their gazes complicated as they stared at her without speaking.
—Did Eir say sothing wrong?! That theory didn’t sound too far-fetched, did it?
“Absolutely not!”
“Impossible…”
In the next second, both of them vehently rejected her theory, their tones heated yet entirely different.
Without exchanging glances or words, they were in silent agreent.
If Eir’s guess was correct, and S—the one who had provided so much help and possessed such imnse abilities—was a woman…
Leah understood that she would no longer be the only “teacher” in his heart.
Treya realized that there would be soone else in his life, soone far beyond a “fiancée,” who could serve as his support.
So…
This couldn’t happen!
It must not happen!
“Whimper… Fine. It seems Eir was too naive.”
The three of them fell silent again, staring at the table.
The bread was gone, the milk was finished, but the person who usually appeared after breakfast…
The one who stood before them, brimming with energy, to discuss the day’s tasks and reassure everyone—Will—did not co bouncing down the stairs.
The empty seat at the table was the biggest anomaly in their otherwise routine lives.
“So… what do we do now?”
Eir broke the silence, actively steering the conversation forward.
“Eir, have you checked where the train was headed?”
Eir nodded.
She wasn’t stupid. After leaving the station, she had imdiately rushed to check the train schedule and found out the direction the train had taken.
“There are two final destinations in that direction. One heads south, and the other heads north. It should be either Surtes Town or Mosi Town.”
“Alright, I’ll head out. I just need to catch up with the train and find them,” Leah said, raising her hand and quickly tying her twin tails with the elastic band she had been fiddling with.
“You’re planning to chase after them?”
Treya asked, seeing Leah’s eager expression.
“My theory is that he was kidnapped. As his teacher, how can I just sit here and wait? I need to take action and bring him back. If not, I at least need to get so answers.”
“But, Miss Leah, the next train leaving Novice Town is in two days.”
“Then I’ll head straight to the train’s destination.”
Leah twisted her wrist.
“Then I’ll co along.”
Treya stood up.
“Although I don’t fully agree with Miss Leah’s theory, according to mine, he may have encountered a problem even I can’t help with. But I want to offer him so support.”
That left Eir.
Unlike the other two, she didn’t have a firm conclusion. As the only “witness”…
She was hesitant.
Young Master’s expression didn’t seem like he was lying. Maybe, just as she had seen, he had chosen to leave on his own?
“Eir… will stay.”
Clenching her fists, she raised her hand to speak.
“Because if Young Master is fine and returns here, I don’t want him to see an empty house. I don’t want him to feel as lost as we do now. At the very least… soone should be here to make him a cup of tea when he cos back.”
Treya and Leah looked at the maid, whose thoughts were simpler than theirs.
She truly was Will’s maid.
Her concern was different from the proactive actions of the other two, but in so ways, it seed deeper.
It was more like the care of soone who had always looked after him.
“Alright. I’ll pack up and head south to Surtes Town.”
Leah pointed to the map pinned to the wall of the small house.
“I’ll go north, to Mosi Town.”
Treya nodded.
“Alright, Eir will wait here. Find him and co back as soon as you can.”
Eir nodded, rubbing her tired eyes.
On the surface, it seed like three “good teammates” had calmly devised a plan.
But…
Leah’s red eyes glowed with even larger hearts of affection.
Treya’s aura faintly exuded a demonic black mist.
Eir’s fingertips began to gather icy frost.
—If that boy dares to look at soone else…
—If my fiancé finds another to rely on…
—If Young Master gets hurt this ti…
—Then I’ll claim him for myself!!!
In their hearts, all it would take was a spark to ignite the emotions they had long buried.
—
In the caboose of the freight train rumbling along the tracks…
“Snore… snore… Shuna… see? I’ve been training really hard…”
Will, still groggy from his hangover, slept soundly.
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