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At the end of the day, Elliot still had no way of contacting me. That meant I wouldn’t have to worry about him barging in on me uninvited, meaning I didn’t need to worry about my disguise getting found out.

“If I think about it that way, it’s actually not bad, huh?”
“That is only if you look at the result. Well, it is not so bad to seize the initiative yourself.”

Maxwell took a sip from the teacup placed on his work desk. The fragrance drifting from it was rich and appetizing.

“Pour some for me too.”
“Why are you acting so difficult today?”
“Well, I’ve just realized something…”

After releasing how delicate I’ve been lately, I decided to renew my determination yesterday. But not even a day passed and I got stuck with seducing a guy. I mean, I was the one who decided on it, but still.

So to wash my previous conduct away, I decided to conduct myself more like a guy from today.

“To tell you the truth, it appears that I have started to forget my original intention, so I decided to be more manly for the time being.”
“But your initial contact with him went well, right? Would it not be wiser to use this chance and corner him more?”
“Well, yeah, I get that… But I don’t feel motivated to do it.”

Maxwell poured the water from the pitcher into the heat-resistant pot and boiled it with magic. He then took out tea leaves from the drawer, put them in the cup and poured water on it. Rather, brew it properly, you savage old man.

While he was at it, I sniffed out a small plate used for teacakes and unloaded his prized cookies on it. They seemed to be rare cookies with black tea leaves mixed into the dough.

“Oh well. I’ll just get it over with then.”
“No, wait. It might be better to keep him in suspense for a bit.”
“Decide on what you want me to do already!?”
“This is just a strategy. Feelings strengthen through time, right?”
“Do they really?”
“Cortina is the same. After 20 years have passed, she is completely head over heels for you.”
“Hope that’s true… No, is that actually alright?”

Indeed, Cortina behaved differently from how she was in my past life. Heck, I was even astonished, wondering if she’s been always so single-minded on me. If that was due to how long has passed, then I could certainly agree with Maxwell about its effectiveness.

“But I can’t just postpone it for so long, you know? I mean, I’m still growing, right?”
“I would not say you are growing tha-… No, excuse me. You are right. It would be bad if you wait a few years and your actual appearance becomes closer to that illusion.”

I was currently ten. My illusion looked somewhere between mid to late teens. It looks different from me because the age gap was so big. Putting it the other way, in about five years, I would look similar to it. If that happens, all this planning would go to waste.

“It should not need years. If he already holds affection, a few days would be enough. Or maybe we should extend it to next week?”
“Oh?”

One week should be quite sufficient for a blank period. If I went the next day, he might think I was being clingy.

“I see. I suppose I’ll visit him next week then.”
“In that case, do you want me to act as the messenger? It would not be so bad to make an appointment somewhere in the city.”
“I’ll leave those details to you then.”

I sighed in exasperation at Maxwell who kept coming up with new plans, then sipped my tea and munched on a cookie. The tea seemed to have been of quite a high quality, as just the aroma of it was healing my fatigue.

The leaves that were mixed into the cookie further added to the fragrance and boosted my appetite.

“…So good.”

I had a small mouth so I could only take a small bite out of it. Seeing me nibbling at the cookie had Maxwell collapse on the table while holding in his laughter.

“What was that for?”
“You were going on about ‘acting manly’ earlier… But you look like a small animal now.”
“Oh shut it.”

After washing the cookies down with the tea, I promptly left the chairman’s office as my business was already done. There was no knowing what else he’d say if I continued staying with him.

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Seeing Reid slam the door shut behind him, Maxwell heaved a deep sigh. It seemed that he had still not noticed Maxwell’s real intention.

“It is good that he hasn’t noticed it… But I wish that blockhead finally learned it by now.”

With the current plan, that is, to have Reid seduce a man, Maxwell planned to have Reid see things from a woman’s point of view. In short, he was giving him a crash course so he would come to recognize the affection of Cortina and Finia from their casual gestures.

If you got to the bottom of it, even his death in his previous life stemmed from his unsociable nature. His actions that failed to understand a woman’s heart caused both him and Cortina to misunderstand and think the other has rejected them, and that later brought about Gadius’ needless meddling. And that meddling led to him discovering the Devil summoning and lost his life there.

What would have happened if Gadius had never meddled in it?

If Cortina had been more tolerant of Reid’s brutishness?

If Reid had been more considerate towards Cortina, and made an ideal proposal?

Perhaps it would have lead to a future without that tragedy. However, the man called Reid always had this strange fate that led him to be present where he was needed the most.

Even back then, had he not been present, that village would probably have been destroyed in exchange. But compared to some unfamiliar villagers, Reid’s life was far more important for Maxwell.

It was already in the past, but history could repeat itself. Even after reincarnating, Reid’s good, or better to call it bad, fate, had already proven itself many times. Maxwell wanted to get him back together with Cortina before new trouble could show itself.

Not to mention, even he wanted to see Cortina, who was like a quarrelling buddy to him, finally attain happiness. And for that reason, he devised the current plan to reform Reid’s blockheaded nature.

“I was thinking it would be nice if he could understand women at least half as much as Elliot does… But it appears that Elliot is not so different from him.”

He thought Elliot would be more proactive in his approaches, but he turned out to be quite a late bloomer. It seemed that due to being constantly sheltered in the royal palace, he wasn’t skilled at dealing with women.

He was acting showy, but that seemed like the conduct of an amateur who did not know how to talk to women.

Besides…

“That lass Priscilla longs for him so much, yet he doesn’t realize it at all… Isn’t he just like Reid?”

She was devoting herself to his protection even at the cost of cutting into her private time, and showed unusual hostility towards any girl that approached him. Maxwell realized that there was more to it than mere work.

“I am using a blockhead… To educate a blockhead, huh? That could be amusing in its own way. I really can’t get bored with these people around.”

His comrades had regained their energy ever since Reid had reincarnated. They were naturally not aware that Nicole was Reid, but it was nothing like the stagnated relationship that they kept up for a decade.

Watching over his comrades with a smile – being in that position pleased Maxwell to no end.

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