Looking at the tragic scene before him, Eze frowned.
He gently crouched down and placed Anna to the side, then stepped forward and knelt to examine her briefly.
Then, his blood pressure skyrocketed.
The exasperated former hero swung a furious kick, sending the body on the ground—along with a lot of the surrounding red liquid—flying into the wall.
“Virilian! How many times have I told you! Don’t make jokes like this that aren’t funny!!!”
With a sharp snap, the lights flickered on, illuminating the entire hall and building.
Virilian emerged from a nearby room, completely unharmed, wearing a face full of sorrow as she covered her mouth and sobbed intermittently:
“Waaah, Eze, you’re so mean~ Seeing me like this, instead of caring, you just kicked me—”
“Mean!? And what about you pulling this prank with that cursed puppet!? Isn’t that mean!?”
The body that Eze kicked against the wall instantly disintegrated and faded, losing its original form and turning into a pile of dirt that fell to the corner.
As for the red liquid— it was ketchup.
“If I hadn’t smelled ketchup the moment I came in, I would have been seriously terrified! What if I had a stroke or my heart stopped from the shock!?”
Seeing Virilian’s crying face wasn’t helping his rising anger, Eze’s irritation only grew.
Virilian immediately pouted, clearly displeased, muttering:
“Who told you to be gone so long and leave me home alone? If I don’t scare you a bit, how am I supposed to let off steam~”
“You—”
Just as Eze was about to lose it, Virilian beat him to it, stepping closer with a mischievous grin and poking his face:
“Oh right, what did you say just now? You’d be scared to death if you didn’t smell ketchup? Oh my, the ever-calm Your Excellency Hero Eze actually got scared?”
Strange.
No matter how you looked at it, she was clearly in the wrong, but why was there this annoying frustration that he couldn’t vent?
Eze didn’t understand and had nothing to say, so he just covered his now reddening face.
Virilian obviously wasn’t done teasing him.
“Before, when I pretended to try to kill you, Your Excellency Hero didn’t panic at all, so why are you scared this time? Hmm? Could it be that in Your Excellency Hero’s heart, my life is more important than yours? Oh no, what am I going to do with you?”
“…Tch.”
“Shy? So you really are shy, huh…”
“Ugh—”
Virilian patted Eze’s shoulder, and his expression suddenly twisted, even letting out a painful groan.
Her smile instantly froze as she stared blankly at the red liquid seeping through Eze’s clothes.
“You’re injured!?”
“Yeah.”
Miss Witch’s smile vanished instantly, replaced by a chilling anger:
“What happened!? Who did this!?”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but the surge of magic from her agitation caused the whole building to tremble slightly.
Eze hurriedly shook his head.
“Don’t get worked up. I did it to myself.”
“Yourself? That…”
Still puzzled, Virilian glanced over at Anna, lying nearby with her eyes tightly shut, and realized the situation was more complicated than she had thought.
“What exactly happened?”
Eze recounted everything that had happened.
During the fight, although he was hit by a blow dart, it was only a superficial injury and easily healed quickly thanks to the hero’s Self-Healing ability—it was nothing serious.
The real problem was how to deal with Lord Sion and the guards.
Currently, Eze’s persona was that of a scholar; even with some background in martial arts from childhood, it was too far-fetched for him to single-handedly and unscathed take down several assassins.
There was no choice.
Eze grit his teeth, took his Military Saber, and hacked himself a few times, making it look like he had barely won a bloody battle.
Virilian was dumbfounded after hearing this:
“That’s it? Just for that? You stabbed yourself? Multiple times!?”
Dumbfounded was the only way to describe it.
Eze waved his hand dismissively:
“It’s no big deal. With the hero’s physique, I’ll recover in two days at most. The real problem is…”
He glanced around the room.
Even without considering the ketchup smeared everywhere, the place was a mess—the windows were smashed, and footprints were scattered all over the floor, stairs, and carpet.
During the short time he was gone, things clearly hadn’t been peaceful here either.
“Something happened here too?”
Virilian nodded.
“Yes. We were attacked by two groups simultaneously.”
“…Two groups?”
“One was a ragtag bunch from the Adventurers Guild, the other was the Knights, and it seems they were the Holy War Knights.”
Heidi’s current residence was a luxurious hotel on Tafia Commercial Street.
The price here was exorbitant, and rooms were limited, usually only open to distinguished guests with reputations; even the wealthy could not secure a room otherwise.
This room for Her Highness the Princess was rented out of pocket by Rodrick to curry favor.
Having finished bathing, Heidi had changed into her pajamas and was lying on the soft, lavish bed.
Her mood was quite pleased.
Today, not only had she perfectly countered Eze’s fake engagement withdrawal scheme, but she had also turned the tables on him.
Especially that final dash — a stroke of genius.
She had effectively made the broken engagement a fait accompli.
Now, if the regretful Eze wanted to salvage himself, he would have to come personally to apologize and confess—both absolutely necessary.
This way, not only would Eze return to her side, but after this lesson, he wouldn’t dare to act rashly again.
Tsk tsk tsk, Heidi, oh Heidi, how can you be so brilliant?
Increasingly self-satisfied, the princess sat up from the bed and moved to the window.
She opened the bottle of high-grade red wine that Rodrick had sent and poured herself a glass.
Heidi wasn’t much of a drinker, but today was special—it was necessary to celebrate a little.
Raising the glass to the moon outside, she toasted:
“To the princess, to genius, cheers~”
Knock knock knock—knock knock knock—
Just as her lips were about to touch the glass, a sudden urgent knocking came at the door, startling Heidi so much she nearly spilled her wine.
Her good mood was instantly dampened.
Heidi curled her lips in annoyance, reluctantly set down the wine glass, and went to open the door.
Outside stood Rodrick, drenched in sweat and pale-faced.
“Prin… Princess Highness, something… something’s wrong!”
The princess frowned in disgust and stepped back half a pace.
She didn’t want her freshly bathed delicate skin to be tainted by the smell of his sweat.
“What’s the panic about? What happened!?”
“I… the adventurer squad I sent to deal with that woman lost contact after entering the mansion. No replies so far… They… they must have failed and been captured!”
He wiped the sweat from his forehead:
“If… if they’re handed over to Lord, I’m finished. What… what should we do!?”