After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

"Please come! I have some things to take care of, so please excuse me! No need to see you off—"

After shaking Aize's arm for nearly ten seconds as if to dislocate it, Sheen hurriedly left the mansion.

Looking at the other person's back, Aize stretched his neck which was a little stiff from sleeping, rubbed his face which was twitching because of his performative smile, and sighed with a little fatigue.

“It’s so easy to handle.”

Chapter 22: The Guild Treats Everyone Equally

After seeing Xien off, Villian came over with a smile.

"What are you planning?"

"Um?"

"To expose the guild's lies, we must catch them red-handed. Your deliberate mention of equipment and antidotes is a hint to that noble young master to catch them red-handed, isn't it?"

Mistaking the scum for a disaster-level monster like the Crystal Centipede is definitely not a mistake the Adventurer's Guild would make.

So, from the very beginning, they were aiming to extort money.

Reporting low-level monsters as high-level monsters is a common practice among guilds everywhere. It is not only effective but also difficult to hold accountable.

On the one hand, the subjugation of monsters is monopolized by guilds, and most people, even nobles, lack the ability to distinguish specific monster subspecies and can only be deceived.

Even if they were exposed, it would be useless. The Adventurer's Guild would have ten thousand ways to excuse themselves.

Like, it was an accidental mistake, the monster's body was destroyed so there's no evidence, or "We're reviewing it, please wait" and it drags on for a few years.

The best outcome is to apologize and pay compensation, and then do it again next time.

Accountability? Non-existent.

But this time it was different.

He claimed that he was fighting the Crystal Centipede, but the equipment and antidotes he brought were for other monsters. Once he was caught in the act, it would be a direct blow and he would have no way to defend himself.

"Are you trying to stir up conflict between the guild and the lord?"

Aize smiled contemptuously and shrugged.

"What you said was really harsh. I didn't start the conflict. Their conflict has been going on for a long time. I just gave them a reason to break it up."

"How to say?"

"Sean Edgar, 19 years old, the eldest son of the family, inherited the position of head of the family after his father passed away from illness half a year ago. He is young but quite shrewd, and has successfully kept the forces of other nobles out of Tafia."

"I have two younger brothers, a younger sister, and a childhood sweetheart, with whom I have a good relationship. My hobbies are equestrianism and chess. I have some knowledge of aristocratic swordsmanship, but lack actual combat experience. My favorite drink is Saint-Felix wine from the southern part of the empire. In the factional struggles within the kingdom, I tend to side with... Hmm? What's wrong?"

Seeing the black lines on Villian's face, Aize stopped talking.

"Aize, do you like men?"

"ha?"

"You like this type of beautiful boy? You even stalked him and stripped him of his underwear? Sorry, I should be your butler rather than a maid..."

"What's all this nonsense? What's going on in your head?"

Aize waved his hand in disgust.

"This is part of the backup plan. If we can't defeat you in the Anlin Plains, we'll have to retreat to Tafia and regroup. To better facilitate 'negotiations' at that time, we must gather intelligence in advance to understand both ourselves and the enemy."

I didn't expect that the preparations I made at that time would come in handy in this situation.

"Anyway, one piece of intelligence I received indicated that Sean Edgar had a very bad relationship with the local Adventurer's Guild."

"why?"

Aize shrugged.

"Tafia is the front line against the demons. There are also many powerful monsters from the demon territory. It is one of the important revenue sources for the Adventurer's Guild."

"They're taking advantage of the new lord's precarious position to exorbitantly raise the fees for monster subjugation. There's no shortage of cases like this where they falsely report low-level monsters as high-level and then profit lavishly."

In this world with distinct aristocratic classes, only the Adventurer's Guild truly ensures equality for all.

No matter whether you are a poor commoner or a wealthy noble, you will not lose a single cent of the money you deserve.

In a sense, it's quite admirable.

"This Lord Edgar has long wanted to clean up the guild. He will never let go of even the smallest opportunity, so I don't need to say much; a hint will suffice."

In this way, it can seem that the whole thing has nothing to do with you and it will reduce a lot of danger.

"What's the purpose?"

Aize scratched his hair casually:

"Needless to say, my purpose? The guild members gave me trouble yesterday, so I have to retaliate. And I can also curry favor with the local boss at the same time. What's wrong with that?"

That's not entirely true.

In reality, Aize wanted to find out what the local Adventurer's Guild was planning.

The strongest group of adventurers in a town actually purposefully harassed and destroyed an ordinary restaurant. This kind of behavior, which invested a huge amount of money but did not get a penny in return, must have some extraordinary calculations behind it.

Therefore, use the lord to create some trouble for them, to scare them and see if there will be any reaction.

As for Villian, Aize doesn't trust her at the moment, so there is no need to explain this little plan.

Aize looked at Villian and changed the subject:

"Let's put that aside for now. What are you planning?"

Villian blinked innocently.

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Don't play dumb, I'm talking about pretending to be a couple!"

"Well, it's to disguise their identities, of course. For a young man and woman living together, what better disguise could there be than being married?"

"Of course there are! Butler, bodyguard, attendant, there are so many possible roles, why a couple?"

Once you tell a lie, you have to cover it up with more lies.

But there are differences between lies. Some lies can be told calmly by Aize, while others will make him lose his sanity.

From now on until they leave Tafia, they must continue to act as husband and wife, otherwise they may get into all kinds of trouble.

Aize got a headache just thinking about what would happen next.

"No."

The witch lady, who had been smiling all the time, suddenly became serious and flatly denied Aize's statement.

"You're the one who destroyed the spell on me, so you're my benefactor. You want me to treat my benefactor as a servant? You might as well have stabbed me to death right then and there!"

"What's the big deal? It's just acting."

Besides, what's the big deal about being a butler, an attendant, or a bodyguard? Which one isn't better than my previous situation?

Brave man, even a dog wouldn't do that, ugh——

“I can’t even act!!”

Villian actually seemed a little angry and blocked Aize's question in an unquestionable tone.

Aize was speechless for a moment. After thinking for a while, he decided to change the topic.

He sighed and said earnestly:

"Listen, I'm not a savior. The day before yesterday on the Anlin Plain, I struck you with that sword, intending to kill you, not save you. Saving you was just a coincidence."

"so what?"

"So... you don't have to do this..."

For the first time, Miss Witch showed an expression of impatience and interrupted Aize.

"In the end, you did save me, and that's enough!"

Now, Aize was completely speechless. The other party looked very sincere, which made Aize, who did not trust her, feel a little hurt.

During the silent gaze, Villian seemed to suddenly remember something.

"You don't want to pretend to be a couple. Could it be because of that woman? The woman you met before, the one who claimed to be your fiancée."

The "woman" that the witch mentioned was of course Heidi.

Theoretically, she is indeed Aize's fiancée, and their engagement is proven by written documents.

When mentioning her, Villian's face couldn't help but show some contempt:

"Forget about that woman. She just thinks you're easy to use and is trying to PUA you."

"Well, it's a long story."

Aize sighed softly, and his expression became a little subtle.

After a moment's thought, he felt a little discouraged and shook his head, shrugging his shoulders with a wry smile.

"I'm a little hungry, can we have lunch first?"

Chapter 23: Don't Think Too Much

A moment later, in the dining room of the mansion, Aize was staring blankly at the food on the plate in front of him, holding a knife and fork.

"What's this?"

"Steak."

Villian, who was sitting opposite, replied.

It is the size of a palm, brown-black in color, with a rich meaty aroma, mixed with red and garnished with sauce, and it really looks like a steak.

"Ms. Villian, is your definition of steak different from that of humans?"

"How could that be? How could steak be any different?"

"Of course it's different!! First of all, a human steak can't move on its own!!"

Just as Aize said, the object on the plate that looked like a steak was constantly wriggling, and from time to time it made some sticky noises like slime.

It doesn't look edible at all.

Villian didn't seem to care much. She calmly cut off a piece and put it in her mouth.

"Don't worry, it tastes good."

"It's not a matter of taste, is it? And how on earth did you do it!?"

"How should I put it...the maids who take care of the housework in this mansion were created by me using the technology of making puppets. You know that too."

"The puppet itself doesn't possess advanced intelligence. To perform complex tasks, it must connect to its controller and read relevant knowledge from the controller's consciousness."

In other words, the maids behaved in the same way as Villian did.

But this did not answer Aize's biggest question.

He picked up the fork and stuck it into the still wriggling unidentified object to prevent it from escaping from the plate. A pig-killing scream instantly echoed in the restaurant.

Absolutely.

"...So, how did this thing become like this?"

"Well, because my magic power is quite strong, it leaks out uncontrollably."

"Normally it's fine, but once I make something with a specific purpose, the magic energy enters the item, and then... I didn't expect to encounter this kind of problem when cooking with a puppet."

By the way, when witches make puppets, they infuse magic power mixed with thoughts into things like stone and soil, which is exactly the same as the process of the creation of this thing.

If that's the case, then the thing on the plate isn't a steak, it's a steak-shaped puppet!!

"……Um?"

Normal puppets are created for the purpose of fighting, so they fight. But this thing is not—

Aize realized something and was about to throw the thing away, but it was too late.