To my surprise, Stephanie went to the villa, dragging a suitcase. At this moment, she's still in my embrace, not even bothering by the fact that she's undeniably showing her affection to me which she doesn't often show.
Weird...
"Ms. Irene said I can stay here a few weeks since my classes are suspended because of the lockdown."
"Really? Okay... What about your mom? Is she alone in the house?"
"Yes." Stephanie lowered her gaze.
"Are you for real? Why did you leave her alone."
I lower my head because of the difference between our height; afterward, I flick her forehead to which she exclaims.
"Ouch! W-What was that for?! A—"
"Thanks for worrying." I smiled at her.
"W-What the heck happened to you?! Did you hit your head or something?" Stephanie's hand grabs my face and inspected every corner of my face as if something there's wrong with thanking her.
"What a rude, gal. Can't you just accept it? No need to overreact, geez."
"It's only been a few months that I haven't seen you a close-up, but the aura around completely changed into a more—... Gentle? I can't say for sure, but you definitely changed. Or was it because of princess Lily?" Stephanie squints her eyes at me.
"How cute~ Do I smell jealousy~?" I chuckled.
Stephanie cast her gaze down, avoiding my eyes. I chortle, observing her, so I pat her head and said. "Well, that's entirely true. You could say, she's the reason why I became like this. Many stuff in my life happened in a just short amount of time."
"How is she?"
"Lily? Pretty bad... I believe I'm the root—Well, let's just talk about you. What happened to you? Your mother told me that you've been busy with school-related stuff?"
"Haah... If you don't want to tell me then I'll wait... It's true about what mother told you; frankly, I went on a trip with my class for about three months."
"A trip to where? First time hearing it."
A trip? A field trip? But, it took months?
"It's for our immersion for my year. Tch—!" Stephanie said in displease.
"Whoa, looks like you enjoyed your trip, huh? What kind of trip is it, anyway?"
"Basically, we joined on a guild to have our immersion and went into a mission that always takes like few months to finish—I hate it. I have to do this for two years!"
I could easily discern the frustration in her tone. Stephanie really hated it, huh?
"Sometimes, I forget that you're older than me by a year. Why are you so upset about it, anyway? Was it because I'm not there for you?" I grinned.
"Dream on!" Stephanie averted her eyes.
"Hahaha, so what is it? Isn't it dangerous to let you guys be on a mission?"
"We have two instructors that are seniors in the guild. They're the ones responsible for guiding and taking care of us. Honestly, I don't have any problems with our instructors because they're extremely kind despite their scary appearances."
"What's the problem then?"
"Remember, the guy you threatened last time? He's been pissing me off just because he got to join us, despite he's a year below me. What's more, he's been trying to get into my pants! He's so fucking disgusting..." Stephanie then continued with her rants.
I should've probably decapitated that red-hair dude.
From Stephanie's own words, he's been bothering her for 4 years now. He was an underclassman that she helped before; however, Stephanie can't even remember what kind of help she did for him to become so infatuated nor she even remembers him.
R.I.P to the lad.
For 4 straight years, he's been confessing his love to Stephanie and he would get rejected every single time. Actually, I kind of feeling bad for the guy. I do admire his determination. But Stephanie found it troublesome, partially because of his ignorant and entitled personality; he's an aristocrat.
Why do all of them act that way?
Now, I know why he's been hostile to me since the beginning. Apparently, Stephanie told him that I'm her boyfriend, the disciple of the Sword Blade Saint. Undeterred by that fact, he continued chasing Stephanie. Props to him. I respect that part of him.
"Ohh... That's why he's been hostile to me. It's your own fault. I see."
Because of what I said, Stephanie stares at me scornfully.
I pull her cheeks playfully and jokingly said. "I'm just kidding. Is that why you looked so happy when I threatened him, last time? I've had a hunch last time because he got enraged when we started talking. It's freaking hilarious. He's about to pop from anger. Hahahaha..."
"Shtop pinshing my chweeks."
"Ah, sorry."
After letting go of her cheeks, Stephanie rubs her cheeks irritably while darting daggers at me. While that's happening, the magic stone in my pocket vibrated indicating that Clara was calling me.
"You're going to stay here, right? I'll go ahead, someone's calling me. Pick any room you want. There's a lot of them here."
"Eh? Where are you going?"
"It's urgent. We'll talk later."
Then I rush off outside while waving my hand back at Stephanie.
Going outside, I'm searching for Clara, but I can't seem to find any traces of her here. I wander around first before someone pulled me and slammed me in the wall, then lunging on my lips like an animal.
"Mmmmh—!"
I aggressively tap her shoulder because of her vigorous kiss that almost made my heart skip a beat. I thought I'm about to die because of Clara. The deep kiss went until she's satisfied, completely ignoring me.
"Puha—! Holy fuck! I thought I will fucking die!"
I'm clenching my chest. Clara wipes the saliva around her mouth, and instantly vanishes, leaving me here without saying any thankful words. It feels like those one-night stands where they will leave immediately after waking up without saying any word.
"Haah... Why is it so hard to understand Clara? I've been with her for almost two years, but I'm still having a hard time understanding her. Her expressionless face always threw me off. I can't get a read of her."
Thankfully, Clara's uncontrollable lust is being managed by the spell of Master Irene that can make her pass out whenever it passes a certain threshold. Unfortunately, the so-called spell hasn't activated even once.
Is her horniness overwriting the spell?
Is she that horny?
The bothersome part of the kiss would be the aphrodisiac that comes along with it, which's making my life like hell. Because of that, I wander off down the mountain, in the middle of the forest, getting some peaceful time for myself and waiting for the aphrodisiac to disappear.
The rustling sound of the leaves caught my attention. The sound was coming from my right, so I took a quick peek at the noise. From my understanding, there shouldn't be any creatures lurking around in the mountain.
"Solais."
I called out the name of my sword, appearing on my right hand. I clench my sword tightly and preps myself for any incoming attack, creeping toward the direction of the noise. Suddenly, a silhouette pops up from the bush, startling me. Swinging my sword in panic, the silhouette evaded my sword by jumping on the tip of my blade.
"Huh?"
I squint my eyes to take a closer look. It has a humanoid form; long blue-silver hair pony-tailed in the side, wearing a small deerstalker hat in between her two fluffy bunny ears; round aquamarine eyes; most importantly, it's a woman wearing an Inverness cape coat—A demi-human. Furthermore, the two fluffy bunny ears are throwing me off for some reason. I had this urge inside me on wanting to touch it.
"Whoa! You almost killed me! Don't swing your sword carelessly, it can kill!"
"Who are you?"
"Are you seriously asking me that! Look, you almost killed me! Worry about that first, before anything!"
"Killing you or not, you are a trespasser."
"Wait, what?! Hold on, hold on, can we talk about this first? Please? Let's talk about this first."
She's backing off while waving her hands at me panickily. I can't let my guard down because I don't know if Duke Valentin will send anyone to kidnap Lily; I won't let my guard down. I'm walking slowly toward her with a glare.
"If you don't tell me your identity. I will force you."
"Wait, wait! Here! Here's my identification card!"
She panickily put her hands inside her coat and throws a square-shaped item made in glass to me. I caught it and inspects it. It says here, Rinna Monnet, age 16, a detective working for the Maiveil Law Enforcement Department. Maiveil kingdom is the kingdom where we're all staying right now.
"Are you joking with me right now? You're 16. How can you be working as a detective? You can't fool me."
"What—?! I'm telling the truth! I'm here because they asked to investigate the case of the killing of William Valentin, the son of Wilford Valentin, that was killed on the night of Princess Lily Blanch's celebration banquet. I'm sent here because of Krishna Council. Please believe me!"
Rinna kneels on the ground with her hands together, pleading to me.
"How can I know that you're a real detective?"
"Oh! Can you give me a piece of hair?"
"Huh?"
"Please? I'll show you! You'll be impressed by what I will do!"
Withdrawing my [Solais], I walk towards her.
(Diana, put your guard up.)
(Okie~)
I pulled a piece of my hair and gave it to her.
"So, what will you do with this?"
"Give me a second."
Rinna put her finger hand on the side of her head and a small magic circle appears on the tip of her finger. In a blink of an eye, small compress mana shot out of the magic circle, penetrating through her head. She then flops to the ground with her lifeless eyes. A hole could be seen on the side of her head where the blood is gushing out from it.
"What the fuck—?!"