Before Erna could even say something, Orpé stood and opened the door. It was rude behavior by the book because she had moved before getting permission from Erna. However, this was natural for her, since for the last ten years she had welcomed Vanessa whenever she came.
You can’t act differently now, Erna told herself as she held back a sigh, watching Orpé open the door. She had to behave as normally as possible lest Vanessa figures out what had happened at the ancient site.
Entering the room, Vanessa spoke as kindly as ever. “How are you feeling, Madam Erna?” she asked.
“I’m in one piece, as you can see. What’s going on?”
“Does something have to be going on for me to come? I was passing by and just decided to drop in.”
Words that Erna would have blown off in the past were caught in the back of her mind today. In fact, there was no particular department around here that Vanessa would bother to visit. But Erna had heard that Vanessa often dropped in while passing by.
Up until now, had Vanessa been purposely coming here to check up on Erna?
Erna blurted out as she took the teacup Orpé was handing to her, “Come to think of it, I have something to say. I’m thinking about using the room on the first floor of the Grand Castle’s main building. Don’t be shocked, but I think I should get rid of the furniture inside.”
“Huh? Why all of a sudden?” inquired Vanessa.
“Because of the ancient ruin in Ilgees Forest,” replied Erna.
At first, she had tussled with the idea of bringing up the ancient ruin. After the conversation with Kalion, however, she’d concluded that it would seem better to speak out about it. Of course, she’d decided to omit the part about how she’d seen Richard Hessenguard inside.
“Demons keep appearing in Ilgees Forest these days, and everything that went on with the site… I think it has something to do with those things,” added Erna.
“…didn’t you go inside the ruin, madam?”
“Nope. I didn’t go past the entrance because I thought I’d get into some trouble if something dangerous came out of that situation.”
Erna, pretending to be as calm as she could, brought up a lie that she had agreed with Kalion to say. It seemed that he had already told Vanessa that they hadn’t gone past the entrance of the ancient ruin. And that the passage had opened and closed.
So, Erna’s story, too, had to match Kalion’s.
“Still, I’m curious about what’s inside. On top of that, it was interesting to see the passage open multiple times in a short period. So, I’m thinking about gathering materials from Ilgees Forest or the ancient ruin. But my office is way too stuffed, so I thought that it’d be good to have one more room to tidy up.”
This was not a lie.
“For the time being, I think I’m going to take some trees and rocks from Ilgees Forest and look at the traces of magic. So, I’m going to empty out the room nearest to the front door and use it similar to a research lab.”
“I see. Understood. I shall alert the people of the main building ahead of time.” Vanessa nodded with no noticeable change in her face.
Erna studied her while pretending to drink her tea. It seemed like she was deep in thought about something, but soon her face returned to its usual expression as if nothing had happened.
Vanessa, too, would start to move.
Since Erna declared that she was going to do research from now on, if there was anything Vanessa wanted to hide, she would act immediately.
Erna and Kalion decided to pursue that.
***
Erna sighed as she exited the Wizard Group’s building. She had worked uncontrollably from morning to evening; now it was drifting into dinner time.
Thanks to Abel, who instructed the class immediately from today, she did not have time to take classes.
She was still busy, though.
After taking care of everything at once that’d been pushed back, her eyes twirled round and round. Despite this, her work still wasn’t done. She wanted to come out after doing a little bit more, but Orpé, who had gone out and come back, suddenly barged in and shoved her back, telling her to rest.
It was the moment Erna was about to take a step into the main building, putting on her cloak of the conquest of the grand duchess.
“Erna.”
She looked to her side, shocked at the calling of her name.
“Kalion?”
He was seated on the railing at the entrance of the building. He raised his body and approached her.
“What is this? Why are you here? Do you have something going on at the Wizard Group?”
“Yep,” nodded Kalion.
“What is it?” Erna’s face turned serious.
Since the establishment of the Wizard Group, Kalion had never visited this place in person. Cedric, his deputy, came to ask for cooperation even when he needed the wizards’ help to fight demons, and Kalion had never asked him to come. But now he’d come directly?
Erna waited for his response, nervous that it was something serious that had to do with demons.
Then Kalion raised his hand and rubbed her wrinkled forehead with his finger.
“I came to get you.”
“…what?”
“You know it’s time to finish. Let’s go.”
Erna’s lips quivered at his words.
“Don’t tell me… you’re waiting for me.”
“Yep.”
Erna could say no more to his attitude, which seemed to question why she’d asked something so obvious. Kalion grabbed her hand and pulled.
“Hey! Hey! There are people around.”
Kalion looked at her as if flabbergasted.
“You don’t think the people here know what we’ve been doing for the past two days?”
At that, her face instantly turned crimson. Come to think of it, hadn’t Orpé grinned today? As Kalion had said, there was no way the people of the Grand Castle didn’t know about their relationship. But…
“Still, it’s embarrassing!” She snatched her hand away. Holding each other’s hands in front of others was one thousand times more embarrassing than rolling around in bed naked.
“Hey, you…” Kalion’s face froze when she snatched her hand away. Then, he bent down and whispered in her ear, “I’ll lift you and take you away if you keep doing that.”
What a crazy threat. It was ridiculous, but Erna held her hand out again. Kalion smiled as he grabbed it as if he’d been waiting for it.
Erna still wasn’t used to this side of him. Kalion, too, showed his serious side, unlike when he was alone outside.
‘That’s why no one seems to know.”’
Erna recalled Abel, whom she’d seen this morning. He resembled Kalion when he smiled, and since Kalion didn’t smile outside, people found it difficult to say that they looked alike.
Then am I the only one to know?
Erna remembered the expression of Kalion, who smiled slyly before her. When she thought about how she was the only one who looked at him she sighed and felt a little proud.
“What are you thinking so much about?” Kalion asked.
“About the newly arrived wizard.”
“That guy?”
“When did you see him? Do you feel threatened by Abel?”
“Abel? That’s his name?”
“Yeah. The others are going crazy that a good-looking guy has arrived.”
“That’s why I saw so many women around him the other day.”
“By the way, he looks like you,” said Erna.
“He what?” Kalion stopped dead in his tracks, and he stared at Erna as if he’d been betrayed by her. “Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for him.”
“What nonsense. I’m just saying he looks good.”
“Until now, you’ve never once said that another man looks good,” Kalion pointed out.
“That’s because you look the bes… hey!”
Erna shook her head at Kalion’s smiling face.
The smile of Kalion, who still held her hand tightly, was nothing but curious. Is it this easy to make him fall apart, she thought
* * *
Having both returned together, they decided to even have dinner together in the couple’s room. When Erna told Kalion to meet after showering first, Kalion was about to ask if they could wash up together, when Erna kicked his leg, sending him to his room limping.
As they ate the meal that had been brought out during their shower, they talked about the respective duties they had done today.
Erna felt the frustration from earlier disappear little by little during her chat with Kalion. Had she been alone, she would still be grunting and worrying. She hadn’t expected that the fact that she had someone to debate with would make her so comfortable like this.
After talking for a while, she yawned and went up to bed. Since they wouldn’t have s*x today, she thought she could go to the room and fall asleep, but now the bedroom in the couple’s room was more comfortable.
As soon as she headed to the bed, Kalion, too, quickly jumped into bed next to her. He lifted Erna, who was about to burrow into the blanket and placed her on top of him.
She said to him with an absurd look on her face, “We’ve already done enough…”
For two days, indeed, as Kalion had said, they’d done it sloppily with no breaks. But did he want to do it again?
“I’m still… tingly down there,” Erna mumbled.
“Then I’ll only touch your top parts.”
“Laying there and sleeping is the only option! I just want to sleep in my room.” Erna rolled herself down from the brazenly answering Kalion. His hand, however, soon gripped her ankle, as if asking “Where’re ya going?” Then, Erna’s hand summoned an orb in the air.
Inside the main building of the Grand Castle, her powers were becoming weak. She didn’t know what kind of spell the past grand duke, who’d built this place, put on this place, but thanks to this, it was very difficult to aim for her life with magic.
So, Kalion stared leisurely at her, wondering what kind of magic she was doing.
Pow!
A string of light shooting out from thin air wrapped around his wrist.
Shocked, he tried to free his hand by shaking it, but the string tightened, then dragged his hand to the head of the bed, and fastened it firmly to the bedpost there.
“What is this thing?”
“What is what thing? It ties you up. I analyzed some of the magical effects here in the daytime. I mixed it up with what I used to practice when I was young, and… it’s a success.” Erna proudly looked at the struggling man before laying down next to him. “I’m going to sleep. You sleep, too.”
“Erna!”
Erna turned over as she giggled at his scream. Then, her body shot up as she suddenly thought of something funny.
When she got up again, Kalion’s face reddened, as he thought she would untie it. But soon his face was distorted mercilessly.
From a spot where his arms and feet were out of reach, Erna began to unbutton her clothes one by one.