“Onee-sama, is that a letter from Arlea-neechan’s residence?”

Seeing that his elder sister was holding an envelope with the emblem of the Schwartzen family pasted on it, Norrad followed her.

“Yeah,” Naia simply answered as she opened the letter.

“We can go and see Arlea-neechan, right? Is she alright now?” Norrad asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

“Let’s see…,” Naia found a sofa to sit on, and Norrad sat beside her as the two began reading the letter together.

 

“…Eh, Arlea-neechan is recuperating in the Schwartzen villa in another area, so we can’t visit?” Norrad said the content of the letter with a voice full of disappointment.

And then, as realization hit on him, he quickly turned to Naia to worriedly ask, “Onee-sama! Is she really that ill?!”

Naia sighed as she patted Norrad’s back and said, “Well, I remember that the daughter of the Claritianta residence was born with a weak body, and she was also recuperating in a secluded area for… like, half of her life, probably?”

 

“Is she going to be alright?!” Norrad was worried.

“Hopefully. She didn’t seem like someone with a weak body, oddly,” Naia supported her cheek with her hand as she tried to recall their interaction with Arlea.

“When is she coming back?” Norrad asked.

“It’s not mentioned here. Let’s reply the letter and ask to be informed later when we can meet with her?” Naia suggested.

“Yeah, let’s do that!” Norrad nodded.

The two then proceeded to write a letter to reply to Allen... to be more exact, Naia was the one writing it, while Norrad would sometimes comments here and there. Naia would patiently reply to Norrad’s comments, it was evident that the two siblings were close.

 

“Onee-sama! I know! Can you ask them to tell us Arlea-neechan’s address? You mentioned that she might be bored recuperating in a more rural area, right? Maybe we can correspondence with her to help her fight her boredom!” Norrad excitedly asked.

“Huh?” Naia was surprised at Norrad’s unexpected suggestion. She stopped writing and turned to look at Norrad.

“Actually… that’s a good idea! I’ll try asking,” Naia then said as she continued to write the reply letter.

 

After they were done, Naia sealed the letter with their family’s stamp.

Then, they entrusted the letter to their trusted butler to send to the Schwartzen residence.

 

When the letter arrived in Allen’s hand, Allen anticipated the siblings only responded with how they understood and wish Ann well. He also expected them to ask to be informed if Ann could meet them later.

But when he read the line about the siblings requesting to know Ann’s supposedly correspondence letter so that they could correspondence and entertain Ann while recuperating, Allen immediately touched his forehead, feeling dizzy.

There wasn’t any new information about Ann’s whereabouts yet. The same went for Faye and Birdie, indicating that the three of them were held captive. Allen was quite sure and glad that they wouldn’t do anything to Ann, but for Faye and Birdie…

But knowing Ann, she would surely not let anything happen to them.

The thought of Ann being alive and safe, despite in captivity, managed to calm Allen’s nerves a bit.

 

But how should he respond to this letter?

This troubled him.

When he couldn’t find a solution even after thinking about it for a while, he decided that the best course of action for now was… to put the letter aside.

At least he could delay until there was new information about their whereabouts, or hopefully they’d be found soon.

 

The search was still ongoing and their search network had expanded by this time. As for Allen, he would still scurry the town to look for Ann.

The reason he still continued to look in the town was in case the kidnappers thought of misleading them to think that they’d surely be far away from the town while in fact they were actually hiding safely in the town.

Allen went on to search even in the secluded alleys and the slums, to no avail.

As he was wandering around downtown in disguise, entering the shops in hopes to find something odd with any of the shops that indicated Ann was being held there… Suddenly, someone tugged on his shoulder.

He barely turned around when the person calling him suddenly asked, “Have you seen Lea?”

The moment the other party finished speaking, Allen had seen them and recognized who they were.

 

The one calling him and suddenly asking about Ann was none other than Silas.

Allen’s face immediately turned ugly upon realizing who it was.

He quickly pushed away Silas’ hand and answered, clearly showing his displeasure, “First, do you think it’s polite to suddenly ask someone without greeting them first?”

Silas clicked his tongue and said, “Good afternoon. You remember me? I’m Silas, Lea’s friend. We’ve met before. You’re her family friend, aren’t you?”

Allen didn’t respond.

Silas could tell that Allen didn’t like him, so he continued, “Since you’re her family friend, can you tell me if you have any idea where she is right now?”

“Why?”

“She hasn’t come to the orphanage for quite some time, that’s unusual of her. She didn’t tell us prior to this.”

“…”

Allen wanted to say that she was just a volunteer and that she shouldn’t be expected to continue coming, but he knew how Ann was like and it was true that Ann wouldn’t just ghost them without even saying anything.

 

“Her family went on a vacation,” Allen quickly responded with the first excuse that came into his mind.

“If that’s the case, why didn’t she inform us about it?”

“She could’ve forgotten.”

“…”

Silas only stared at Allen in disbelief, as if Allen was an idiot…

Like… Who the hell will forget about having a vacation and informing the others about it?!

Knowing that girl, she’d definitely blurt the plan out in excitement.

So, Silas couldn’t accept Allen’s explanation.

 

Allen seemed to realize what Silas was thinking about, so he quickly added, “The decision was kind of made in a hurry.”

“…”

Silas wanted to not believe in this lousy excuse, but he didn’t know how Lea’s family was, as something that sounded unbelievable in one household might be the norm in another.

 

Then, another thing dawned on him.

“Wait, how do you know about it? You really know the inside out of her family, huh?” Silas asked with his eyes expressing his suspiciousness.

“So what?” Allen asked.

“That’s odd,” Silas added.

“…”

Allen was at a loss on how to respond as encountering this person that he disliked here was totally not part of the plan.

 

But a moment later, Allen finally realized one thing.

He had already made a promise to be together with Ann. Even if Ann’s identity was faked when she went to volunteer in the orphanage, wouldn’t it be alright for him to declare his status with Ann?

Finally, Allen’s expression turned better as he answered, “It’s because I am her partner.”

“What?!” Sure enough, Silas was very surprised.

“You heard it right.”

Not wanting to stay and be asked more by Silas, Allen turned around and left the place.

Though he felt liberated after declaring his victory to the one who he had considered a rival at some point, he was also worried because… more people asking for Ann meant Ann had to return very quickly before the messy truth came out somehow.

 

Meanwhile, Silas was still stunned after hearing the information.

“Wait…”

When he realized that Allen was leaving, it was already too late.

“I haven’t even asked his name…,” Silas grumbled.

“Her partner? She didn’t even say anything, that’s shady,” Silas talked to himself.

In his heart, he had already concluded that Allen was so high on his imagination since Ann didn’t even mention it to him.

Or…

If what he says is true, why didn’t Lea say anything about it? Was she betrothed by her family and was actually reluctant?

I need to ask her later once she returns.

 

…But wait!

Why is it that I feel his answers are shady?

Then, Silas’ eyes widened as his mind wandered…

Don’t tell me Lea was married off to him and the reason why she couldn’t come for a long time is because she was confined by him?!

 

Thus, another misunderstanding was born…