Back in his room after returning from town,

Chishiya lay down on his bed, feeling a little tired.

His stomach was burning...

Probably an aftereffect of eating the cuisine that Shion had made.

Bang bang bang!

A knock echoed at the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's me."

Darkness' voice came from outside.

Chishiya sat up, not bothering to open the door.

"You're visiting me in the middle of the night. Are you sure about this?"

"It's fine. I don't mind."

Darkness' voice was calm from the other side.

Chishiya: "???"

"What do you mean you don't mind? I mind, okay?"

"I don't want public opinion turning on me just because of you!"

He waved a hand dismissively.

"Miss... I don't know where you got your confidence from."

"But let me make this clear. I like the cool and distant type. You're not my thing."

"Of course, if you're absolutely dead set on this, I won't mind helping you through it."

Outside the door—

Darkness' face turned bright red. Her eyelids twitched as she forced a smile.

"Ha...haha... Chishiya, just open the door already. I have something important to talk about."

"What could possibly be so urgent that it can't wait until tomorrow?"

"Open the door, now!!!"

CRASH!

Darkness finally snapped and kicked the door open!

Chishiya opened the door helplessly.

Darkness stormed in and immediately reached for his neck, but Chishiya calmly pushed her face away with one hand.

"You bastard!"

"I'm still a girl, and that kind of talk is way too rude!"

"What do you mean 'my reputation causing harm'?!"

"Do I have a bad reputation?!"

"That's what you're mad about?"

Chishiya tilted his head.

Shouldn't the focus be on the second half of what I said? Something about sending yourself straight into my room at night to smooth things over…

His eyes moved to Darkness' outfit.

Seriously...

You came here in pajamas?

You really don't see me as a threat at all?

Do you think I'm some upright gentleman?

Let me be very clear. When it's mealtime, I don't show mercy.

A moment passed.

Darkness finally processed that last line, and her face flushed.

She hadn't thought anything was wrong with her outfit before…

But now, in hindsight, she was absolutely losing it. Why did she even come here in pajamas?!

"Ahem…"

"Well... let's talk about serious business first…"

She cleared her throat, forcing herself to calm down and looked at Chishiya with a serious face.

"Chishiya, I hope you won't go to Princess Iris' birthday party this time."

"Why not?"

She had told him about this as early as last month.

At first, he didn't care much.

But when he heard that a bunch of wealthy nobles were going to be there, Chishiya's eyes lit up.

He'd been looking forward to it ever since. No way he was skipping now.

"You're asking why?"

Darkness' chest heaved in frustration.

"Why didn't you ask why back when I first told you not to go?!"

"You made Her Highness Iris cry! Do you think the king's gonna let you off easy?!"

Chishiya just shrugged. "Worst case scenario, I cry back."

"???"

Darkness was speechless.

She was going to explode from rage at this rate.

In truth, Chishiya understood perfectly well.

This was like a king on a disguised inspection getting smacked around by a civilian.

Once he got back to the capital, the first thing he'd do is settle the score.

The risks were real. He could be punished—or even executed.

Still, Chishiya wanted to go.

Make money?

It's never easy.

"Fine. I won't stop you anymore."

Darkness turned around, clearly done trying to talk him out of it.

"Oh right."

She paused, then turned back around.

"I actually came to say goodbye."

"Something happened at home. I have to go back."

"I'll come find you again when Iris' birthday gets closer."

Really now...

I actually worried about such a heartless guy.

Darkness sighed internally, then left without another word.

Chishiya stood still for a while, then slowly closed the door.

Another person left just like that.

With both of those troublesome people gone from the house, it felt... weirdly quiet.

---

Half a month later

News that a monster faction from the Jura Forest had begun trading with the Armed Kingdom had reached the western nations.

This mysterious force, suddenly rising from the center of the continent, had caught everyone's attention.

All the nearby countries sent out investigation teams to the Jura Forest.

...

"ROAR!!!"

Somewhere deep within the forest—

A massive night spider was chasing a group of adventurers.

"Wait for me!!"

"RUN!"

"Wait—! Wait up!"

"Hey! How are we even still alive right now?!"

The leader was a middle-aged man with a scar running down one eye.

Trailing behind him were three others:

A blonde girl holding a staff, a male thief, and a male warrior.

They were the investigation team dispatched by the Kingdom of Blumund.

The man in front was Fuze.

Their mission this time was to look into the monster faction that had suddenly appeared in the forest.

"I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!!!"

"You're the worst captain ever!!!"

"If I die here, I swear I'll come back as a ghost and haunt your pillow every night!!!"

The blonde girl, Elyun, yelled at the male warrior as she ran.

"Hahaha!!!"

"That's impossible! Because I'll die with him!!!"

Kaval shouted.

Just as the team was panicking and fleeing.

"Atmospheric Compression!"

BOOM!

A blast of pressurized air shot through the trees and exploded the giant night spider into pieces.

"?!!!"

Everyone skidded to a stop, frozen in shock.

They stared at the splattered corpse on the forest floor, stunned.

Way too powerful…

"You're safe now."

A gentle voice called out.

The group turned to look—

Standing before them was a Nordic beauty with a translucent body.

"A dryad?!"

Elyun recognized her instantly.

The dryad gave a graceful bow.

"Greetings, everyone. I am Treyni, guardian of the Jura Forest."

Fuze, the man with the scar, looked slightly surprised.

"A dryad…"

According to legend, these mystical creatures were observers of the forest and rarely interacted with humans.

And yet, here she was—saving them?

Wait a minute…

Fuze lowered his gaze to Treyni's outfit.

What the heck was with that maid uniform?

On the other side—

Treyni was wearing a classic black and white maid dress.

She had a white lace headband on her hair.

The frilly skirt just covered her knees.

The overall design screamed medieval European maid.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion…

In their minds, dryads were supposed to be noble and elegant.

But a maid uniform?!

The contrast was insane.

But then—

Treyni's next words left them even more baffled.

"Now that you're all safe…"

"Then please pay your protection fee~."

(To be continued.)

***

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