"What happened?"

Reid asked urgently as soon as I got home.

He thought I went out to see Ian's injury with my own eyes.

"It failed."

I replied bluntly without making eye contact with him.

"At that rate of collapse, it was easy for him to avoid it. You should have used a more expensive bomb."

Meanwhile, using cheap bombs to save money was clearly a visible terror.

Reid sighed and touched his forehead.

"Oh my."

Then he added with a huff.

"That's all right, there's plenty more opportunities to come."

Yes, there were still plenty of opportunities. More chances for us to go to jail.

Especially this time, it was really dangerous.

That was because Ian, who later had doubts, investigated and added the 'target was the prince' to the Hibiscus case.

Reid knew Ian regularly booked Hibiscus' out-of-the-way spots. (t/n: or hidden spots)

That was why when it was set up, I couldn't have imagined that the person he was supposed to meet was Robert.

'Actually, it must have been too much with Reid's intelligence.'

I left him and went up to my room and laid on the bed, thinking.

'Ian is close enough with Robert to meet regularly.'

Even the prince seemed to want to be friendly with Ian.

He was the strongest swordsman in the world, had a good personality, a great family, and no interest in politics.

'I'm envious, this male lead buff... Hah.'

I could see him as a man who had everything except for a genuinely friendly personality.

After all, it would lead him to a perfect female lead just like him.

Anyways, the genre of this novel is rofan, so this was romance.

Of course, the response in the comments said it was just plain in the novel.

Because Ian was so perfect and handled everything with common sense, the majority opinion said that it was rather 'unattractive'.

'Well, there are no downsides to living in it, so it's best to be normal.'

The crazy male lead would be someone else's lover, but never as mine.

And Ian would never get entangled with me.

'Let's pick a guy who's easy and handsome, similar to Ian.'

Anyways, I thought Ian would never let it slide this time. I was sure he'd grab and push me to ask what happened.

After I made up an excuse to give a rough answer if he did ever ask, I went to bed comfortably.

If he tried to pry, I would just roughly curse at him and run away.

It was fortunate to some extent that I, in the beginning, said a lot of nonsensical words and acted without thinking twice.

I didn't have any restrictions or hesitation on what I did.

But the next day, I encountered an unexpected situation.

"Hello."

The pink-haired young man who was always next to Ian came to my house himself.

"My name is Aaron Rainfield."

With a cute impression, he grinned at me.

The way he spoke was full of mischief.

Of course, I was a little embarrassed when I thought Ian would come in.

"I'm Ian's lieutenant, but Leslie... would like to chat."

Aaron always looked at me with interesting eyes, but he never spoke to me.

No, actually, I was never involved with the Wade Knights except Ian.

"I'm here to pick you up because Leslie wants to see you."

If it was Leslie, did he mean Duchess Wade?

Ian's mother?

What was going on?

~*~

I had imagined countless times that the end result of me being accused by Ian and imprisoned, but I never thought I would be called by Ian's mother.

Leslie Wade was also a swordsman.

She was a genius swordsman among the commoners, and she was also second in her later years.

It was Duke Wade who had always defeated her.

It was said that during her youth, she too had a huge rivalry with the Duke of Wade.

Duke Wade proposed to her when she was troubled from her injury and has been unable to hold the sword again since.

I know that story because it was one of the gossips my mother Caitlyn always talked about.

For her, the fact that a poor commoner had caught the attention of a duke made her envious to the point of dying from a stomach ache.

Caitlyn had always said that she (Leslie) must have pretended to be sick on purpose, had no dignity because she came from a commoner family, and she must have seduced him with a sword all this time. Caitlyn made up all sorts of sayings like those.

Nevertheless, Leslie had no interest in Caitlyn. No, she was originally a person who didn't take anything seriously to begin with.

Even if her son, Ian, rose to the position of the strongest swordsman, she wouldn't pay much attention to it.

She thought it was natural for her son to be number one because she was married to the number one and she herself was in second place.

I had no other information about her.

After all, half of what Caitlyn said had just been nonsense.

It was just that Leslie was an easy-going person who didn't bother to hide her commoner background.

For the first time, I rode the carriage and entered the main gate without crossing the wall of Duke Wade's residence.

Of course, it was also the first time I rode a luxury carriage like this.

"I don't really need a carriage like this."

I said informally.

Therefore, it would seem that I was treating Aaron the same way I treated Ian.

Except, Aaron had an attitude as if it didn't matter at all.

"It's okay. I'm here since I need you."

"..."

"I'm very impressed by Miss Annabelle's swearing these days."

Aaron sat across from me and talked nonsense very seriously.

"To be honest, I didn't really like swearing in the past because it was a bit messy and vulgar, but every word you said from the sandwich curse was like a gem. I didn't miss a single word."

So I let him hear the swearings I said that he missed last night.

Aaron replied with a nod.

"Right. The key point is not the toenails falling out, but just barely hanging there."

Aaron Rainfield had great talent, although he was also a young man who seemed to be missing a screw in his head.

"And it's been bothering me a lot for a few days."

He once participated in a swordsmanship contest when he was twelve, and since then, he hadn't appeared in the rest.

Sadly, his first opponent was the 14-year-old Ian.

Having lost the first round, he just judged others from the stands afterwards.

If someone asked why, he would not be able to continue to aim for first place anyways, but he replied that it was his superior strategy to protect his pride by losing in the first round to the first place.

That was true to some extent, and there was no way to properly evaluate Aaron's ability after that.

"By the way..."

I got out of the carriage and asked cautiously.

"Why is the Duchess calling me?"

"I guess you'll see."

Aaron did not say anything important and continued to say only the unimportant things.

"The important thing is that it's an invitation to lunch. Leslie made a special request, and my father personally prepared a great meal."

"Ah... your father?"

"Yes. My father is Oscar Rainfield."

It was when I looked at Aaron with a blank expression on his face that I realized I was supposed to know the name of the duke's cook.

Aaron looked at me rather suspiciously and blinked.

"Aren't you supposed to be surprised at this point?"

"Why?"

"It's Oscar Rainfield. The same famous chef, Oscar Rainfield."

"...He's famous?"

"You don't know the Rainfield Restaurant?"

Looking back on my previous memories, I couldn't remember it at all.

Aaron sighed and shook his head.

"Annabel Nadit... A fool who only knows Ian Wade..."

No, I wish he didn't have to say such controversial things.

When I didn't respond, he mumbled as he tilted his head to himself.

"It's strange. The Nadits said they always enjoyed the birthday dinners at our restaurant's headquarters."

"My mother and Reid?"

Come to think of it, Caitlyn and Reid always used to go out in the evenings on their birthdays.

Seeing my complicated expression, Aaron said resolutely.

"You should try it first."

Ian's mother had called me, and my focus shifted at the strange luncheon.

It was ridiculous.

In a situation like this, what kind of things did she want to go over by giving me food?

~*~

It didn't usually go well, but today it went insanely well.

'This is crazy. It's not a dish, it's a work of art.'

Each dish was surprisingly delicious.

Of course, Leslie was also eating aggressively.

With black hair and red eyes, she was very easygoing. She started talking after she ate, while I was still really focused on eating.

"The first thing I did after I became Duchess was to offer Oscar Rainfield to be the chef of the dukedom."

Leslie said with determination.

"It took me three years to get him in."

Leslie and I talked about food throughout the time.

Oscar, the chef, even made the main dish himself. Vaguely imagining a rich man, I was more surprised by his sharp appearance than I thought.

He was tall, middle-aged, and had pink hair and blue eyes.

'You look a bit like Aaron.'

I thought that would be what Aaron will look like when he got older.

"I'm..."

I said as I ate my food frantically.

"I have never eaten such delicious food for the first time!"

Leslie asked with a frown.

"So, how do you usually eat?"

"My mother or Reid said that I shouldn't gain weight, so I mainly eat frozen yeper meat without seasoning."

No matter how much I think about it, my meal was not even a plate compared to this place.

It was really tasteless human food.

"Yeper? Are you talking about the lower level monsters that live near the forest?"

"Yes, that is correct."

The one who responded to my words was Oscar, who was silently preparing to cut the meat.

"Yeper? And frozen? That's like garbage. Isn't that the food you only eat in the slums?"

Leslie's pupils also shook. Her voice trembled as she asked.

"No wonder you're so skinny... Did Caitlyn and Reid just train you without even feeding you properly?"