The Arranged Suitor Was the Kidnapper

Laria, who escaped the Sorcery Office, headed straight to the information store.

Solike wasn’t present, maybe he stepped out for a while.

Laria, who glanced around the empty interior, slumped down on the comfortable chair in front of the fireplace. She felt utterly drained, not wanting to move a muscle.

“Hoo…”

A sigh burst out naturally.

Meeting Sienna wasn’t coincidental. Having heard about the task beforehand, Solike intentionally designated her.

Fortunately, Sienna didn’t recognize Laria at all.

Having drunk a voice-changing potion beforehand, it must have been hard for Sienna to guess.

-Please find out everything about Laria Rohan.

In the end, Laria accepted Sienna’s task.

The task fee was tempting, and she thought if she declined, Sienna would assign someone else. Not wanting to be monitored, Laria decided to participate in this ridiculous farce.

If Sienna discovered the whole story, she wouldn’t leave her alone, so hiding thoroughly was necessary.

‘Just leak some information and get rid of her.’

Monitoring herself made her give a bitter smile.

But why did Sienna ask to monitor her?

“Are you sulky?”

It seemed that the issue was the fox clan gathering, after all. They didn’t argue, but it seemed that to Sienna it was annoying. 

‘It’s a relief I didn’t ask for the cost of the protective barrier.’

Sienna had confidently assured her that it would never break, so she used a basic attack spell but…

Who would have known it would shatter right away?

Even being the gathering of the best sorcerers, the spell seemed imperfect.

Laria recalled Sienna’s reaction.

As Laria showed mastery of spells, Sienna changed her attitude immediately. So did the reactions of people who came rushing at the sound.

‘They were surprised to see the barrier shattered.’

Either the skills of the spell chamber’s affiliated sorcerers were worse than thought.

‘Or am I exceptional?’

Having trained through self-study with no one to rely on, Laria couldn’t gauge her own skills. She guessed that she was decently good.

Laria stared down at her palm.

Was it thanks to the fox orb?

It manifested in an abnormal way, after all.

“When did you arrive?”

Hearing the voice from behind, Laria turned her head. Solike was standing at the door with arms crossed.

“Just a while ago.”

Hearing Laria’s reply, Solike stepped forward.

He threw some firewood into the fireplace and asked again.

“How was it?”

“…It would have been nice if you had told me about the request in advance.”

She wouldn’t have been so embarrassing if the contents were informed when the message was sent through the crow.

Solike merely curled his lips at Laria’s complaint.

A strange smile, it was odd.

He would definitely have informed under normal circumstances, it seemed intentional rather than a mistake.

“Are you mad at me for something?”

“What reason do I have to be mad at you?”

Solike added with a still smiling face.

“It’s just that I suffered quite a loss.”

A loss? Did he gamble?

Confused Laria recalled the last day she met Solike. It was when they dealt with Zenox. At that time, Laria sold information related to Zenox to Solike.

-Zenox? It went bust.

-The probability of us succeeding? A mouse catching a lion would be more likely.

Back then, Laria thought there would be no involvement with Zenox. The deal went bust, and they vowed never to meet again.

But not long after, the Emperor personally sprinkled a letter of marriage congratulations all over…

Realizing the mistake, Laria quietly closed her mouth.

Honestly, Laria felt wronged too.

Who would have known that the Emperor would announce the marriage so arbitrarily without asking the parties involved?

She wanted to explain, but to do so, she had to reveal detailed insides, so she couldn’t speak. It was a secret she hadn’t even told her family.

“You strongly denied any interest in Grand Duke Krassium, and now suddenly return with marriage news. Who would have guessed, right?”

The disgruntled green eyes were turned away.

It was very foolish to taunt Solike who had suffered a loss, so Laria quickly apologized.

“That’s… There’s nothing I can say even if I had a hundred mouths. I’m sorry.”

Solike, who had been silent for a moment, stared down at Laria.

He dragged a wooden chair and sat across from Laria.

“What happened?”

Solike slyly asked how she ended up with Zenox.

“Tell me, I won’t sell the information to others.”

“I fell for his looks.”

Now, the answer came out easily as everyone she met asked why she was with Zenox.

“For his looks?”

It was a reaction asking if it makes sense to get engaged to Zenox just for that reason.

“Yep, I like handsome men.”

“Are you in your right mind?”

“And he’s rich.”

Solike, who was about to pour out criticism, paused.

“That’s… certainly a considerable matter.”

Solike nodded and murmured to himself.

It was a face questioning whether this was right.

“For now, congratulations on the engagement…?”

“We haven’t even got engaged yet. And you only know once you step into the wedding hall.”

Of course, she will never enter the wedding hall in her lifetime.

The plan was to break off the engagement immediately after it happened with Zenox.

“So, the two of you are not on bad terms, right?”

“Why are you so interested? Planning to sell the info?”

“I said I won’t sell it. Don’t you trust me?”

Laria looked at Solike with suspicious eyes.

He was crazy about money but he was a man who kept his word.

Trying hard to shake off the uneasy feeling, Laria replied unhappily.

“We’re getting engaged because we’re on good terms, what else?”

“That’s a relief.”

Something about Solike’s faint smile made me wonder.

‘Really, what’s up with that?’

No matter how she examined his face, she couldn’t figure out what he was thinking. Laria was about to ask what he was up to, but Solike made the first move.

“So, you decided to accept Sienna Hashir’s request?”

“Yeah.”

The conversation shifted momentarily, so she couldn’t ask what she intended. So Laria, nodding, replied:

“I thought she’d assign it to someone else if I didn’t accept.”

“How much did you agree on?”

“…Ten times the original amount.”

Solike chuckled.

It was a genuinely happy laugh, Laria thought.

‘Sienna will pay the price now.’

Solike, smelling money, would surely milk Sienna dry.

Well, that’s Sienna’s problem, not Laria’s.

Solike, counting the commission that would fall into her lap, suddenly seemed to remember something and nodded.

“Oh, there’s another request coming your way.”

“What kind of request?”

“Not a hard one. Just escorting.”

Laria usually didn’t accept multiple requests at once.

But there wasn’t much to do with Sienna’s request, and owing a debt to Solike, Laria nodded.

“I’ll do it.”

Escort duty wasn’t hard.

Knowing Laria’s situation, Solike had always declined requests with tough schedules, so this one shouldn’t be difficult either.

Laria, getting up from the recliner, apologized once more before heading home.

“Sorry for the loss.”

“It’s fine. I’ll cover the loss.”

It was unusual for him to be so lenient.

For quite a while, Laria had thought he’d demand various things…

It was curious, but Laria thought it was a good thing and nodded.

But she should have realized then.

How he intended to cover the loss.

* * *

A few days later, on the day she took the second request, Laria, wearing her robe hood, headed to the location to meet the client.

The strangely familiar street made her glance around until she recognized the sign of a tea house and her eyes widened.

‘I’ve seen this place before, haven’t I?’

No wonder the name sounded familiar.

Shaking off the odd feeling, Laria opened the door and entered the tea house. With no customers around, the atmosphere was calm. The tea house was dimly lit, with only the noon sunlight brightening the interior.

Laria spotted the person seated in a corner and walked over.

Coincidentally, the client was sitting right where she had met Zenox before.

‘They should hang some more lights.’

The sunlight didn’t reach the inner part, so only a faint silhouette of the seated figure was visible.

As she got close enough to recognize, Laria spoke with as bright a voice as she could muster.

“Did you have to wait long?”

After a moment, the man slowly lifted his head.

Upon seeing his face, Laria’s eyes nearly popped out.

Facing Laria, he smiled.

“Not too long…”

The smoothly rising corner of his lips somehow seemed cunning.

“About ten days?”

The client turned out to be Zenox Krassium.