An Uninvited Guest

Three days later, Kyle and Sylvia visited the detached residence side by side.

I didn’t want to bother them since they would be having fun together, so I came a little later, but it seems that even that judgment was an miscalculation.

“…They’re just dripping with honey.”

“K, Kyle!? When did you get here?”

“Ah…!”

I went to see them because they were having tea time on the terrace, but they weren’t sitting across from each other, but side by side, holding hands tightly and leaning on each other’s shoulders.

When Kyle saw this and muttered with cold eyes, Vermillian and Anise hurriedly distanced themselves, finally realizing that they had arrived.

In fact, Sylvia said, ‘It looks good, what’s wrong with it?’ and urged them to show her more sweet scenes.

In fact, Kyle didn’t really think it was that cringeworthy.

It’s just that Vermillian is still disguised as ‘Rian’ because he’s been hiding, so from a distance, it feels a bit like forbidden love, so I just wanted to mess with them.

“Well, I’m glad you seem to be doing well. There was a rumor among the servants that strange noises were heard at night, so I thought you were doing well.”

Of course, there was no such rumor, but Kyle spoke as if to probe.

Then Vermillian was startled as if he had been burned and jumped up from his seat, vehemently refuting.

“W, what are you talking about! We haven’t gone that far yet…!”

“…Not yet?”

“Ahem, ahem…!”

The problem is that the choice of words could cause some misunderstanding depending on how you listen to it, so the atmosphere became strange.

I don’t know if ‘not that far yet’ means he’s thinking about it, or if he’s already taken the previous steps, but either way, it was information I didn’t really want to hear.

“Anise, how’s life? Have you adjusted a little?”

Leaving the guys to play together, Sylvia immediately approached Anise, her first same-sex friend, and started talking to her.

She lost her mother when she was young and had been living a rough life alone deep in the forest, so she was worried that she might have a hard time in many ways because her home had suddenly changed.

“Yeah, a little. But there are still many times when I feel awkward. In particular, I still can’t get used to the servants calling me ‘Gongnyeo-nim, Gongnyeo-nim’.”

Anise gave a bitter smile and conveyed her honest feelings.

Although she was living separately in the detached residence, thanks to Dver’s special attention, life here was so comfortable that it felt a bit excessive.

When she woke up in the morning, a warm and plentiful meal was always ready, and she didn’t have to fold the blankets. If she went for a walk, the servant would fold the blankets in the meantime and take away the laundry.

And they would come and ask if there was anything missing whenever they had a chance, which was both grateful and burdensome for Anise.

In particular, as someone who had lived a poor life even among commoners, she couldn’t get used to the title of Gongnyeo-nim.

She asked them to call her by her name comfortably, but even that was coldly rejected.

Of course, from the servants’ point of view, they couldn’t commit such an ignorant act to a guest that the young master had personally brought, so it was only natural in a way.

“You’ll get used to it eventually. Or should I call Anise, Blanc Gongnyeo-nim too? Then you might get used to it faster.”

“Ugh, please spare me that. If even Sylvia does that, I might not last 10 minutes and run away.”

“Hehe, I was just kidding.”

Still, although there were some inconveniences, it was closer to a happy worry, so Sylvia smiled happily.

She hoped that Anise would have a comfortable time here, even for a little while, since she had had many difficulties.

Perhaps because she was her first same-sex friend, she was particularly interested and affectionate.

“What about you, Sylvia? Are you getting along well with Kyle?”

This was also the case for Anise.

As someone who only had her mother as her only friend, she was very interested in the daily life of her first friend.

Especially after realizing that Sylvia had Kyle in her heart, she became more interested in Sylvia’s love life than her own.

In a way, it was natural, because she was already a winner who had gotten what she wanted.

Now that she had achieved her goal, it was natural to look elsewhere.

“Well. What do you think?”

“Aish, don’t do that and tell me a story. Is this how friends treat each other?”

“……?”

Kyle tilted his head as he watched the two of them get up from their seats and lean against the terrace railing, whispering.

They seemed to be having a very fun and secret conversation, and he was curious about what it was about.

If he expanded his senses and listened carefully, he wouldn’t be able to hear it, but he wasn’t so ignorant as to eavesdrop on women’s secret stories without noticing, so he decided to focus on his conversation with Vermillian.

“By the way, Kyle, what brings you here? Is something wrong…?”

Vermillian knew that Kyle wasn’t the type to visit without a reason, so he cautiously asked if something special had happened, worriedly.

Kyle thought he was quick-witted in strange ways and took out the imperial edict from his inner pocket and placed it on the table.

Originally, it was against the rules to show an imperial edict received directly from the Emperor to anyone other than family, but he was not the type to follow such trivial customs.

“Well, actually, an imperial edict arrived from His Majesty a few days ago.”

“An imperial edict, is it?”

“Yeah. I brought it just in case, but the content is simple. His Majesty has issued a special summons order to the whole country.”

“A summons order… I see, that’s right.”

He wasn’t a promising talent in the magic family for nothing. With just that short message, Vermillian could guess what was going on.

“Then who is the imperial edict for?”

“I don’t know. But according to my father, it seems that it was sent to almost all the prestigious families.”

“…Maybe it came to our family too.”

“That’s right.”

If that’s true, it’s a truly ironic phenomenon.

It’s like asking the Drake family, which is being used as a hideout for the Eyes of Dawn, to lend their strength to defeat the bastards.

“Come to think of it, haven’t you ever set foot in the Eyes of Dawn’s headquarters?”

“I have. But it won’t help to find their location with that.”

“Why?”

“They’re very thorough. Even if they’re compatriots, except for a few chosen ones, they don’t even know the location of the headquarters. Before entering, they blindfold you and cover your ears, and then move you there through transfer magic.”

Kyle frowned at the more thorough security than he had imagined.

The more they have to hide, the more thorough they are with security, but is that really the Eyes of Dawn? The level was quite excessive compared to other secret organizations.

“In the end, unless we can find out where they are right now, this summons order is likely to be a search party.”

“That’s what it will be. And it will be very difficult to find them.”

“I know. If it wasn’t, they would have been caught a long time ago.”

But even if it’s difficult, we can’t give up.

That’s not just Kyle’s thought, but the current Emperor’s as well.

In the end, unless we eradicate the roots of the bastards, true peace will not come to this empire.

To do that, we have to get one step closer to them.

The question Kyle is about to ask also has that purpose.

“That’s right. There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“Yes, I’ll answer if I know.”

“…What is the god that the Eyes of Dawn believe in? I’ve been curious about that for a while.”

Starting with the Archbishop he defeated just a while ago, it’s certain that the bastards are related to religion.

However, Kyle had no idea what the god who is the basis of their faith was.

At first, there were rumors that the Order of the Moon was related to them, but even that had many questionable parts in Kyle’s eyes.

“…Actually, I was curious about that too.”

“Curious? Wasn’t your family allied with the Eyes of Dawn?”

“That’s right. But I don’t remember ever hearing properly about the god they believe in. I’ve only heard them say, ‘He’s always watching over us,’ and perform miracles in the name of God.”

Kyle made a puzzled expression at the unexpected answer.

The miracle that Vermillian mentioned was probably a kind of process and a bad trick to make them their compatriots, like when they approached Sylvia’s father under the pretext of healing her mother in the past.

Okay, I can understand that far.

But it’s a bit incomprehensible that even the strong backing of the Drake family doesn’t even know who the god they believe in is.

‘Is there a need to hide it that much?’

Originally, evangelism, a religious group, is established in the name of God.

If the Eyes of Dawn is also one of the distorted religious groups, it would be normal to promote the name of God.

But the fact that they didn’t means that there was a need to hide the name of the god they believed in.

‘Are they really related to the Order of the Moon?’

If they are really closely related to the Order of the Moon as rumored, and the god they believe in is Lethe, the Goddess of Dawn, then the reason for hiding it wouldn’t be incomprehensible.

Kyle narrowed his eyes, feeling uneasy as if there was a truth hidden behind that he hadn’t reached yet.

“I should go back to Ruben again soon.”

“Ruben is the headquarters of the Order of the Moon, right?”

“Yeah. I’ve been there before, but I feel uneasy, so I should stop by one more time.”

I was about to organize my complicated thoughts, thinking that I should search the surroundings like catching lice since there was no place to get answers.

“Excuse me. Doryeon-nim, a guest has come to see you.”

“…A guest?”

Kyle tilted his head as Alf, the servant who came with him to the detached residence, approached and spoke softly.

It was a scene that reminded him of when Vermillian came in disguise a while ago.

It was the same then, but Kyle’s question was natural because there were hardly any guests who would come to see him in the first place.

Alf, who realized his master’s thoughts, hesitated for a moment before announcing the identity of the guest.

“Yes, the head of the Drake family has come.”

“……!”

At that, Kyle and Vermillian’s eyes widened, and they looked at each other as if they had promised, expressing their embarrassment.