Lenis, exhausted from training late into the night in the fields, returned to her lodging drenched in sweat and panting heavily.
The fact that the people of Aldebaran praised her solely for her skills and achievements, rather than because of her background, was by far the most satisfying experience of her life.
But she still hadn’t reached 100%.
Because of her circumstances, she couldn’t even use her own name, Lenis Valentine, in this place.
She was merely referred to as Alvis’s servant.
Even when she successfully completed a commission after a hard-fought battle, the reaction was always, “I thought she was just a servant, but she’s amazing,” rather than, “As expected of Lenis Valentine. I knew she could do it.”
That fact still left Lenis feeling unsatisfied.
“Damn it… Why do I have to be that damn Alvis’s servant of all things?! I’m supposed to be glorifying the name of the Valentine family, and yet here I am, reduced to being the servant of that perverted vagrant…!”
It was already frustrating that she couldn’t even be called by her real name.
But being known as Alvis’s servant made it all the worse.
To make matters worse, in Aldebaran, female servants were expected to submit their bodies to their masters at any time.
This meant that, in the eyes of the people, she was already perceived as a woman who had been intimately involved with Alvis.
Even though she always kept her hood pulled low, preventing the citizens of Aldebaran from seeing her face, just the mere thought of being viewed in such a way was unbearably humiliating.
Of course, she had to admit that Alvis had somewhat become a decent person compared to his days at the academy.
But since his reputation had started from rock bottom, he was still someone she preferred to avoid dealing with.
Dragging her exhausted body back to her room, Lenis finally remembered that another person had joined them.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Ravi. She was here during dinner…”
They had two rooms—one for Alvis and one for herself.
Ravi had returned today, but as of dinner, there had been no mention of renting an additional room for her.
Naturally, Lenis had assumed Ravi would be sharing her room.
She had expected to find Ravi sleeping when she returned from training, yet the room was empty.
“Should I ask Alvis? Ugh, I really don’t want to talk to that guy, but…”
She could have just assumed that Ravi was fine and left it at that.
But after their battle with Vector, Alvis had warned that they had likely drawn the attention of the Underground Worms, which made Lenis uneasy.
She decided to confirm Ravi’s whereabouts before going to sleep.
Approaching Alvis’s door, she knocked lightly, but there was no response.
“Is he not here?”
She pressed her ear against the door but couldn’t hear anything inside.
“A soundproofing spell?”
After confirming that a soundproofing spell had been cast near the door and walls, Lenis returned to her room and picked up her Winged Staff.
She had always neglected basic magic training.
However, when it came to amplifying magic—especially those related to enhancing hearing for gathering secret information—she was quite skilled.
Casting a hearing-enhancement spell on herself, Lenis pressed her ear against the wall, listening carefully to Alvis’s room.
If Alvis was inside, she would knock harder.
If he wasn’t, she would simply ask the innkeeper where he had gone.
But what she heard was something she had never expected.
Slap! Slap!
The sound of flesh hitting flesh.
A woman’s heated moans and a man’s rough, heavy breathing.
Even though she couldn’t see it with her own eyes, anyone with half a brain would know exactly what those sounds meant.
“T-That crazy bastard couldn’t even hold himself back for a second before dragging a woman in…!”
Fuming, Lenis was about to storm over to Alvis’s room, convinced that he hadn’t changed at all.
But then, a woman’s voice stopped her in her tracks.
— “Aah! Aah…♡ Alvis♡ It’s so deep… Aah♡ It feels so good…♡ Haaang!”
“…Huh?”
The affectionate voice was far too familiar to Lenis.
And the next voice confirmed the unthinkable.
— “Haa… Haa… Me too, Ravi! You’re so tight!”
— “Ahn…♡ Deeper, go deeper…♡ Ahh, Alvis…♡ I want to feel you more! More…♡”
— “Haa… I love you, Ravi!”
— “Haaang♡ I love you too, Alvis♡”
At that moment, Lenis instantly canceled the amplification spell she had cast on herself.
Her mind refused to process what she had just heard.
Her face burned so hot it felt like it might explode.
She had just listened to the raw, explicit lovemaking of the two people in the next room.
“R-Ravi…? Why…? Why would Ravi… with that bastard…? T-This has to be forced! It has to be!”
Ravi, being intimate with Alvis?
Lenis couldn’t imagine any scenario where that could happen—unless Alvis had forced himself on her.
But as soon as the thought crossed her mind, she realized how absurd it was.
For one, Ravi was overwhelmingly stronger than Alvis.
There was no way he could have overpowered her.
And second, there wasn’t the slightest hint of resistance in Ravi’s voice.
If anything, she had been the one begging for more, whispering words of love as she urged Alvis to take her more passionately.
Ravi… loved Alvis?
No matter how she tried to wrap her head around it, it didn’t make sense.
Wasn’t Ravi one of the women—alongside herself, Elfin, and Celine—who had once competed for Bryden’s affection?
And now, just a few months after graduating from the academy, she had already given both her body and heart to Alvis?
Even if Bryden hadn’t chosen her in the end, how could Alvis of all people be her alternative?
Lenis felt like her entire reality had been flipped upside down.
Lying in bed, she tried to force herself to sleep, but the sounds of their passionate lovemaking refused to leave her mind.
Images of what might be happening next door flooded her imagination, no matter how hard she tried to suppress them.
In the end, she spent the entire night wide awake.
And Ravi never returned to their room—not even by morning.
Ravi and I finally collapsed into sleep around dawn.
By the time we woke up, it was already the afternoon.
Lying beside me, completely bare under the sheets, Ravi looked more beautiful than anyone else in the world.
When I pressed a light kiss to her lips, she slowly opened her eyes—only to suddenly pull the covers up, as if the embarrassment had only just hit her.
“Good morning… or rather, good afternoon, Ravi.”
“G-Good afternoon, Alvis. But, um… c-could you not stare so much…?”
“After everything we did last night, you’re embarrassed now?”
“Y-Yes! I need to wash up and get dressed, so stop looking this way!”
She might have been flustered, but her eyes were clearly smiling.
After taking turns washing up and getting dressed, Ravi and I went downstairs to have our meal.
Having exerted ourselves too much the previous night, we were starving and devoured the bread and meat in front of us.
Once we were somewhat full, Ravi looked around before turning to me.
“Alvis, I don’t see Lenis anywhere.”
“At this hour, she’s probably out in the field training alone. She’s been doing that every day for the past ten days.”
“Lenis is really dedicated. Alvis, should we go join her after we finish eating?”
“Sounds good. Elfin won’t be back for another three days, so we can’t just spend all our time playing around. It’d be better to spar or do some individual training.”
After agreeing, Ravi and I finished our meal and headed to the field where Lenis always trained alone.
Just as she had done for the past ten days, Lenis was tirelessly practicing magic against a tree.
But something seemed off today.
I had seen her training multiple times before, but today, her magic looked weak and unfocused, as if she wasn’t concentrating properly.
Ravi and I walked up to Lenis, and I called out to her.
“Hey, Lenis. You’re looking pretty rough today. Did you catch a cold or something?”
“Ahhh?!”
Startled, Lenis spun around, her face slightly flushed, and her pupils trembled as she glanced back and forth between us.
“Wh-why are you two here?”
“Why else? We heard you were training really hard, so we came to train with you. Elfin won’t be back for three more days, after all.”
“I… see? I suppose my noblesse oblige had the desired effect. Well, that’s good to know. B-but could you maybe go train somewhere else? I just wanted to be alone right now—”
“Since Ravi is here, it’d be better to take turns sparring instead of training alone. Besides, even someone like me, who doesn’t know much about magic, can tell that you’re completely unfocused and your spells are sloppy. What’s the point of training like that by yourself?”
“W-what?! And whose fault do you think that is—”
“So, are you saying it’s my fault?”
“Ugh…”
Lenis clenched her fists and trembled in frustration, as if she wanted to say something but held back.
Now that I looked closer, she had dark circles under her eyes, and her gaze looked somewhat lifeless.
“Hey, you really don’t look too good. Maybe you should rest? You’re sleep-deprived, aren’t you?”
“That’s right! I am sleep-deprived! Because of you, Alvis!”
“?”
“Ugh, damn it… Fine! I’ll take a nap under that tree for exactly one hour! In the meantime, do whatever training you want!”
After snapping at me, Lenis stomped over to a tree, leaned against it, and sat down.
“…What’s up with her?”
“I have no idea.”
Thinking that it might just be that time of the month, I turned to Ravi and started sparring with her.
For the next three days, we trained during the day, and at night, Ravi and I passionately spent time together.
Then, exactly two weeks after Ravi and Elfin had left, it was the day of Elfin’s scheduled return.
Worried that our group might be separated upon her return, we decided not to train and instead stayed in our rooms to rest.
But even by late afternoon, Elfin still hadn’t returned, and both Ravi and Lenis began to show concern.
“Elfin is late…”
“That’s strange. She’s not the type to break a promise.”
Just then, the innkeeper knocked on our door and called out to us.
“Sir Alvis, are you inside?”
When I opened the door, the innkeeper stood there holding an envelope.
“What is it?”
“This letter arrived for the guest staying in room 202, Sir Alvis. Here, I’m delivering it to you.”
The innkeeper handed me the sealed letter and left.
I returned to the room, and in front of the two of them, I touched the seal of the letter.
The moment I did, the seal vanished on its own, allowing me to open it.
“What kind of letter is this?”
“It looks like it came from Arvones. I heard that elves sometimes seal letters in a way that only the intended recipient can open them.”
Apparently, Lenis had learned this from her merchant father.
Since it came from Arvones, it had to be a letter from Elfin…
When I pulled out the contents, there was only a single short note written in Elfin’s handwriting.
HTMLTagsinsideStringsToConfuseParsersTo everyone. This is Elfin. Due to some circumstances, I won’t be able to return. From now on, continue without me.