“You've just admitted it yourself.”

Seeing the red-haired girl smile at him with a mysterious expression, Thalas gritted his teeth as he couldn't truly read her anymore like he was able to when they first met four years ago.

'It seems she has not only grown physically, but mentally as well. I should've taken the reports about her being weird more seriously,' he thought.

However, because the reveal of his additional mole planted into the Dragonherz household was his own slip-up, he decided not to dwell further on this matter. After all, the pair in front of him had guessed the existence of his spy by themselves, so he was bound to be found out eventually anyway. Besides, neither Rina nor Clara looked like they cared too much about this. They might be more secretive, and he might therefore get less information about them, but it was a loss he was willing to take for Rina's cooperation in the future.

Luckily, Rina didn't show any signs of betraying their deal, as she appeared to believe in his plans herself. So, he just let out an annoyed sigh and said, “Alright, I do have someone keeping an eye on you. But you are not allowed to tell anybody else, or I'll kick the entire Dragonherz viscountcy out of my protection. Do you understand?”

Having said that, he paused for a second. But a moment later, he continued without waiting for a response as his words were an order, not a question needing confirmation, “That's all. You're dismissed.”

At his prompt, Rina immediately went to the door, opened it, and waited for her mistress to leave the office first.

Clara also didn't want to be there any longer and decided to follow his order and go through the exit. But as she was about to step out, she stopped and turned her head halfway towards the Duke. Glancing, no glaring, at him while still having her back turned towards him, she muttered in a cold and threatening voice, unlike the usually graceful one, “Duke Lumiére, personally, I understand what you're doing, and that your actions stem from your belief in yourself. But mark my words. Someday, you and your entire rotten family will have to repay everything for what you've done. And I won't help you. I will watch from the sidelines with amusement at the fact that you're pressuring my maid.”

Without waiting for an answer from the Duke or seeing his reaction, Clara then left his office, followed by Rina. In the hallway, they walked for a few minutes in silence, as Clara needed that time to calm her heated emotions down, before she then spoke up to, at this point, her most dearest person, “Rina?”

Following half a step, diagonally behind her, Rina replied formally as they were still in an public area, “Yes, Lady Clara?”

After walking for another half a minute without saying anything, Clara continued, “How about you stop obeying the Duke's orders? Even if he found the Demon Lord, don't go with the Duke's men to subjugate him. Even if the Lumiére duchy won't shelter us during the demon invasion, we will still be able to withstand the attack and fight along with all the others who aren't under the Duke's umbrella.”

“...”

Hearing no response from Rina, Clara went on, well aware of the possibility that the so-called spy was eavesdropping on her suggestion, “We aren't so weak that we need protection. You know that my [Fire Breath] is quite powerful, right? My father and his knights are no pushovers, either. So, just stay with me when the time comes. You don't need to throw yourself into danger.”

“I can't do that,” Rina answered, shaking her head, even though Clara couldn't see her. “It's thanks to you, your family, Fran, Marianne, and everyone else like your staff, that I'm still here today. Who knows what would've happened to me if you hadn't interfered when we first met? They might have killed me. So this time, it's my turn to repay you.”

Having said this, Rina knew that her blonde mistress would respond that there was no need for repayment, so she quickly added, “Plus, even if I didn't owe you something, it still wouldn't change my mind. I, too, want to protect the people dear to me and their loved ones with the power I've got.”

Clara was torn by this. On the one hand, she really wanted to give her maid, who so readily endangered herself, a very long sermon and stop Rina from following the Duke's plan. After all, she was still sure that the plan to kill the Demon Lord was destined to fail and, therefore, a suicide mission.

On the other hand, Clara was also more than just thrilled, thinking, 'Rina said that she wanted to protect her loved ones. This, of course, includes me, doesn't it? Hehehehe.'

What Clara didn't know was that she was subjected to a phenomenon called 'imaginative hearing', which caused her to hear words from her beloved maid that Rina hadn't said. Was it because she was slowly getting frustrated that their relationship didn't develop further? That, even though they had shared their first kiss years ago?

Either way, because if this, Clara decided to not give Rina a sermon for now and instead turned around and hug-tackled her, brimming with happiness at the Rina's sweet words. Rubbing her cheeks against her maid's soft and smooth ones, she cried out delightedly, “Ahh, Rina you're so good to me.”

However, because of their height difference, and because of Rina's light weight, Clara had unknowingly picked her up, so that her feet were dangling in the air. Because of this, Rina wasn't able to muster enough strength to free herself from Clara and therefore just decided to wait it out. After all, she already knew that her mistress liked skin-ship and indulging her from time to time also was a duty of a personal attendant. Additionally, Rina found the position she was in quite comfortable herself, so there was no need to end their skin-ship session early.

Sadly, it was at this moment that two students came around the corner. When Rina spotted them, she poked at her mistress to be let down, who unfortunately didn't react in time, which caused a voice to echo throughout the hallway, “Ahhh! What are you doing in the public!”

Hearing this and realising that her happy time was about to come to an end, Clara sighed in annoyance. Letting her maid down again, both turned towards the voice and saw a familiar brown-haired young man and his personal butler approaching.

Clara naturally knew that they had waited here to ambush them. It was unlikely that this arrogant and upstart noble would give up this easily. So, with all of her good mood just seconds ago gone, she furrowed her eyebrows and glared at him, which caused the seemingly spineless noble to flinch and immediately hide behind his attendant.

Waiting for them to be at talking distance, Clara asked in a cold, unwelcoming voice, “Do you need anything, Lord Brefton?”

Instead of answering the question, the young heir of the Brefton family just shrieked, unbecoming for someone in his position, and shoved his servant in front of him to shield himself from the angry looking Clara. It was clear that wanted this situation to be solved by his attendant.

Sighing like Clara and showing on his face that he really wanted to be somewhere else right now, the attendant bowed, “Excuse me for my Master's rudeness, Lady Dragonherz. My name is Alex Sindlorn, and I serve my Master Denisw...”

“I know. You already introduced yourself earlier in class. Don't waste my time and come straight to the point,” Clara interrupted him with the same demeanour as against Deniswal earlier, with a cold and annoyed voice.

This stunned Alex momentarily. While he did presume that the blonde Lady wasn't amused by seeing them, he hadn't expected her to be this antagonistic in front of the rising Brefton family's heir. At least, not until he had voiced his young Master's wish.

Because of that and because he was not used to handling conversations like this, as it was expected from every other person around his age, he needed a while to recover from his stupor. His hesitation seemingly annoyed the half a head smaller Clara even more.

“If you have nothing to say, I will get going now, as I still have much to do. I wish you gentlemen a pleasant day.”

With this Clara quickly grabbed Rina's hand and pulled her away once again like in the lecture hall before, and hurriedly walked way. Glancing back, and seeing that Brefton's heir and his attendant didn't show signs of following them, as they were still stunned, Clara breathed out in relief, even though she knew that she had to face the trouble eventually.

To make matters worse, the reason for all this, her maid walking behind her, didn't seem to have any clue what was going on. Rina only had her head tilted in confusion at this development. While Clara found that gesture cute, she was also slightly annoyed by this, so she puffed out her cheeks in discontentment.

Seeing this, Rina finally asked, after making sure that no other students or instructors were around, “Was it okay to handle them like that? I mean, I don't know much about the power ranking of nobles, but isn't his family fast rising?”

Deflating her cheeks, Clara answered, “It's fine. It's not like we have to make friends with everyone. Besides, as an upstart, it seems that the Brefton family is quite inexperienced, so befriending them might not be ideal. You know that saying, right? An incompetent ally is worse than a competent enemy. I have the feeling they will self-destruct in the future.”

While Clara was explaining this with a much softer voice in contrast to earlier, Rina, always observing her, immediately noticed that there a small tinge of grumpiness in Clara's tone. Curious about this, and not able to come to a conclusion herself, Rina decided to just ask directly, “Is there still something bothering you?”

This question seemed to trigger Clara so much that she turned around, grabbed Rina by her shoulders, and shook her. Then, after quite a while, she asked with a sulky look on her face,

“How did you seduce someone so quickly on your first day?”