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When I finished investigating Cain’s room, I returned to the doctor’s office where Letina awaited me. There, I was greeted by the sight of her enjoying a nap and snoring loudly on the bed while disguised as me.

“This happy-go-lucky girl…”

I wanted to scold her to finally realize that she was in a position where her life could be targeted anytime. She really should already. But there was no time for that now.

I gently put my index finger on her cheek to wake her up… and thrust it with great force.

“Ouchhh!”
“Awake now?”
“I am!!”

The pain of the thrust that almost gouged out her cheeks made her jump up like a spring. It appeared that she was awake enough to bite back at my words.

“I’m done with my investigation so we’re returning to the classroom.”
“More importantly, the way you just woke me up… oh, forget it. You won’t tell me here?”
“There’s no knowing if we are being listened to, so no.”

The schools made fully with stone could echo the sounds loudly.

Moreover, that was just for the interior of school buildings, whereas we were currently in the doctor’s office that faced the backyard. There was also a curtain that blocked the sight.

With the earth and grass outside the window, it would be hard to sense people’s approach by relying on the sound of footsteps. This wasn’t suitable for having a long and risky conversation.

“Anyone could be listening to us, plus it’s a lunch break, right? Kids from our class might come to check on us.”
“Oh, it’s already so late? I really slept so long.”
“You really have some thick nerves to be sleeping without a care in this situation with no one to guard you.”
“Well, it’s because I had a little talk with Finia last night.”
“With Finia?”

Letina and Finia were naturally acquainted. However, since Finia joined our party in place of her, they haven’t really talked all that much. I couldn’t imagine the two of them having an overnight talk to the point they would suffer from lack of sleep.

“I asked her about your activity during these past three years.”
“I feel like you heard something disturbing, so just forget it, okay?”

You could say Finia knew everything there was to know about me. I didn’t think she would leak my secrets to others, so I trusted her in that aspect. But sadly for me, my life was filled with comedic episodes that people would laugh at. Finia was aware of those too of course.

It wouldn’t have been strange if she told Letina such anecdotes from the past three years. I warned her with a weary expression, to which she responded with a giggle that she hid with her hand.

“What’s with that meaningful face?”
“Oh, nothing.”
“In the first place—”

I was about to argue further, but a knock on the door interrupted me. The door opened slightly without waiting for a reply, and a few female classmates peeked their faces in.

“Miss Nicole, are you alright?”
“Oh, Miss Serika. She is fine. Nicole has always been skilled in fainting.”
“I have not.”

I silenced Letina who was spreading unwanted rumors about me and bowed towards them with my gaze.

A baron’s daughter was first to enter. I didn’t remember her name, but Letina, who had transferred before me, seemed to know her.

I warded off the worried classmates that visited me and finished the afternoon lessons without problems that day.

Then it was time to return to the dorms and have a bath and dinner. Some students had clubs at this hour, so it spanned for quite long.

We decided to take a bath a little early, with Finia also joining us in the public bath. Den couldn’t join us as expected, but here I could sense anyone’s approach, and the flowing water would erase our voices too.

And there were almost no people around at this hour too. In fact, there was no one inside the public bath other than us.

Meanwhile, I explained my daytime investigation results to Finia and Letina.

“So, Cain returned to his room and I got interrupted, but there’s most likely nothing in his room.”
“Maybe that is not exactly the case? There would be no need to return there at noon if there really was nothing there.”
“I also share Lady Letina’s opinion. There must be something he returned for.”

Letina found faults with my reasoning and Finia also agreed with it. But I was speaking from conviction.

“Of course, the possibility is not zero. But the noble’s rooms see surprisingly many people. Even you, Letina, rarely clean your own room, right?”
“Now that you mentioned it, my servants handle that. I handle the desk and documents myself, of course.”
“Yes. So Cain is not an exception and is attentive to the hygiene inside. In other words, his servants enter and exit that room. Do you think he would leave dangerous evidence in a room like that?”
“Mghh… Certainly not.”
“It’s most likely somewhere else. Somewhere where other people wouldn’t access it.”
“But there wasn’t a place like this in this dorm, right?”
“It’s not like I investigated every nook and corner, so I could have missed it. Rather, that’s most likely the case.”

I only just walked through the corridors and in the vicinity. There was a good possibility that I overlooked a hidden passage or a room.

And it wasn’t certain that he was doing the fishy business inside the dorms.

“It could be outside the dorm… I can’t neglect the possibility of it being done inside the city.”
“If that’s the case, coming here will turn out to have been a poor move, won’t it?”
“Either way, you needed protecting, Letina, so it wasn’t in vain. But well, we should probably investigate the city too.”
“Then it’s Michelle and Cloud’s turn who are on stand-by there.”
“That’s… right, but I wonder if the two will handle this?”

For better or worse, those two were pure, simple, and naive. If possible, I’d rather not leave the investigation of a villain to them.

“Wouldn’t Michelle get deceived and drugged, and end up in a wild situation?”
“S-She has Cloud with her, so it should be fine… it should… or maybe we should stop?”
“Finia, don’t lose your drive so fast.”
“I mean, it’s Michelle we’re talking about! She gets easily baited by sweets!”

Finia’s words hit hard, especially since she was in charge of our party’s meals. It really seemed like it was better to not have Michelle investigate.

“At any rate, we should still get in touch with the two of them.”
“We still have time, so should we head out under the pretext of shopping?”
“Don’t we need to notify them to leave?”
“This dorm is full of nobles going in and out, you know? Do you really think those selfish nobles ask permission?”
“Okay, yeah, I don’t.”

Like that, we decided to imitate their bad habits.

Fortunately, we’ve only just moved here. They wouldn’t reject us if we say we lack necessary items.

“By the way, Lady Nicole, I see you’re still wearing the potpourri.”
“Well, it matches yours, Finia. It’s hard to throw it away.”

The potpourri smell expired after a month. Even so, I just kept adding flowers when I found the opportunity. That wasn’t just in the womanly sense.

I still had the Elixir fragment that we used as a countermeasure for Kufar still on me. It had a pretty strong smell of greenery. I had it in a talisman so its smell wasn’t leaking, but I used perfume to cover it just in case it got leaked, but it backfired on me this time.

This was a secret to Letina so I spoke to Finia in a low voice, which made her clearly blush.

Speaking of which, she was the one that knitted the cases for the Elixir for the rest of the Six Heroes. I also used one of those whenever I took on Reid’s form.

Praising the thing she wore too was probably what made her blush.

“I’ve been saved by this.”
“Y-Yes. I’m glad that it’s proving useful.”

She narrowed her shoulders and fidgeted. Even if we were with girls, doing that while naked was really crafty. I held down my urges to lewd her and moved my gaze away.