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We’ll be having Letina’s side stories this time. Nicole will have to wait for a bit longer.

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This day, as usual, Letina was planning to head to Stollar. Unfortunately, however, Maxwell had some business that day so she couldn’t get him to use the transfer magic.

As such, her visit to Stollar was called off, and she ended up with too much time on her hands. Letina was attending Raum’s Magic Academy’s senior grade, but her skill was already known to be first-class so the attendance was effectively up to her.

Even from the teachers’ perspective, teaching a student more skilled than themselves rubbed them the wrong way, so they gave tacit consent… or rather, even welcomed her non-attendance.

“There is nothing to do.”

Letina had barged into Maxwell’s mansion as always, and was currently stretched on the living room table, while Mateus, who was in charge of things, was serving her. Mateus looked at her with an unpleasant expression. He felt like the image of a lady in his mind was crumbling down with a loud sound.

“Young lady, aren’t your manners a little improper?”
“No one is looking.”
“Am I not even a person in your eyes?”
“Not counting servants as people is part of the noble’s way of thinking.”
“So even you follow that thinking?”
“When the time and occasion demands it.”

Letina swayed her body left to right above the table. There was a teacup right next to her, so Mateus quickly took it and placed it on the tray.

“There’s no helping it. A duke household is practically gone, so there’s a lot of work to do to fill up that hole.”
“I was the reason for all that trouble. I have to repay it with all my power!”
“I don’t think master would mind that. For better or worse, he is quite whimsical, yea?”
“Nevertheless I can’t allow myself to be pampered on and on. How about hunting and providing him with a nourishing meal?”
“And who would be hunting exactly?”
“I of course!”
“Rejected.”

Mateus replied with a rare blunt tone. Letina was still Maxwell’s fiancee. He had to stop anything that could endanger her from happening. First-class magician or not, there was no knowing what could happen to her inside the forest.

Now that her strong comrades like Nicole and Michelle weren’t around, Mateus couldn’t approve of her leaving the city all alone.

“Then you can just come along, right?”
“Come along, you say? So you going is already a set matter?”
“If I don’t bring it down with my own hands, I would not be the one who had hunted it.”
“I would much rather you stay where you are. And I might not be able to fully protect you on my own, you know?”
“In that case, yes… Let us take Sullivan along too!”
“Huuh?!”

Letina already learned that Sullivan was Marquis Yowi’s spy. His combat abilities were low, but his clever actions and judgment skill to deal with the situations at hand were apparently praised by Finia too.

Letina heard of those rumors and evaluated him grandly and excessively. At the same time, she evaluated Mateus a little insufficiently. That was because he lost to Nicole when she was young.

No matter how abnormal Nicole was, she found it odd that Maxwell employed someone who had lost to a kid.

“You alone would certainly be a little inadequate. Besides, I would grow rusty if I don’t use my magic from time to time.”
“I think getting rusty would be fine, though? A nobleman’s wife should have no need to go hunt, right?”

In the first place, not even noble men went hunting that often. They sometimes did it as a hobby, and poor nobles did sometimes go hunting game on their own, but when it came to marquises, there were few like that.

There were some nobles who thought hunting animals was one of the pleasures, but those weren’t the norm. Letina always accompanies the first-class hunters that were Nicole and Michelle, so her common sense in this aspect was quite slanted.

“Now that we have decided on it, it is best to hurry.”
“We haven’t decided, though?”
“Yes, we have! Right now!”
“Ehh, really now…?”

She couldn’t be stopped given her determination. Mateus judged so and shrugged skillfully while holding a tray. Letina didn’t even glance at Mateus and stormed out of the living room.

“Uhh… Why was I called here?”
“Why are you asking me? Go ask your master, aye?”

Sullivan who was on standby in the mansion was kidnapped…correction, taken away by Letina within thirty minutes of taking action.

His combat power was low, but he still had some combat experience, so he easily saw through Mateus’ skill who stood next to Letina. Mateus didn’t try to hide his skill either. Exposing it like that put the playboys trying to approach her in check.

That intimidating air also affected Sullivan who was dragged out here.

“I feel like I’m really out of place here. I have no real combat skill at all.”
“You should be aware of how this young lady is once she insists on something. Give up, will you?”
“Boo-hoo…”

On one side was Mateus with his favorite pair of swords on his waist, and on the other, Sullivan who looked unarmed at a glance. Letina led the two while holding her favorite magician staff.

She headed for the familiar suburb forest. She believed that nothing serious would happen there, a palace where they once hunted a buffalo. Seeing Letina quickly proceeding onwards, the two followed after her in a fluster, being unable to ignore her or detain her by force.

Letina was still an adult noblewoman. They couldn’t carelessly touch her body. If a servant boy did it in particular, it could invite unwanted rumors to her, so they were avoiding doing so to the utmost.

The gate guards watched that somewhat irregular trio without saying anything. Similarly, these guards couldn’t carelessly meddle in the affairs of an adult noble like Letina.

Mateus followed after her while holding Sullivan by the scuff of the neck. This was because he feared Sullivan would run away if he left him alone.

It looked just like when an owner dragged his unwilling pet to get medical treatment, and those who witnessed it would later comment that it was a sight that would move you to tears.