After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

The "steak" on the plate suddenly struggled violently, even shaking off the fork that Aize left on it, and jumped directly into Aize's mouth, trying to drill in with its entire body.

"Wuwuwu——cough cough cough——cough cough——"

It was really not fun to squeeze such a big, hot and hard thing in like this. The scorching temperature and the feeling of suffocation made Aize roll his eyes.

After struggling in an indecent posture for a while, Aize finally pulled the thing out and threw it on the ground, then picked up a chair without hesitation and smashed it hard on it.

After a series of murderous screams, the unidentified object finally stopped moving.

Villian shook her head.

"What a waste! If you eat it normally, it's just like a normal steak. It only feeds you when you don't actively eat it."

Aize hadn't recovered yet and was holding his throat as he felt nauseous.

"Ahem, ahem—Pah, pah—this is called feeding? This is clearly called oral..."

"mouth?"

"nothing!"

By the way, according to Villian, all the maid-type puppets in this mansion are connected to her consciousness at all times.

So what exactly did she want to do by giving the maid puppet "that aspect" of her function?

...It seems a bit dangerous to delve into this issue further, so Aize decided not to think too much about it.

He covered his still burning throat, stood up and sighed.

"Where is the kitchen in the house? Let me borrow it. I'll do it myself."

Led by a maid, Aize walked into the kitchen, tied an apron skillfully, and began to stir various ingredients, thinking of just cooking a dish.

Villian also put down her lunch and followed with curiosity, watching from the side:

“Can you cook?”

"Yes, when the team was first established, we didn't have the Knights to cooperate with us, so we had to do everything ourselves. At that time, I did all the odd jobs."

But it is just a level of skill, far from that of a professional chef.

Later, the team grew and the tasks gradually increased. No matter how hard-working Aize was, it was impossible for him to work 30 hours a day, so he handed over the chores to others.

Villian nodded slightly, then asked cautiously:

"Aize, what do you think of the previous team?"

Aize stopped stir-frying the ingredients. He stopped amid the sizzling sound of hot oil and the rising steam.

"This is not something that can be explained in one sentence."

As Aize spoke, the cut ingredients began to roll in the pot again.

"In my original world, there is no magic, no demons, and fighting does not rely on swords. Of all the heroes, I may be the least adapted to this world."

"Not to mention that my Hero's Divine Protection was still blank. At that time, I really didn't know what to do. I even thought about dying."

Villian nodded.

"and then?"

"Then……"

Aze showed a slightly bitter smile on his face.

"If you don't have the power granted by the Divine Protection, then you should learn swordsmanship from scratch. If your fighting ability doesn't reach the level of a hero, then you should strive for it elsewhere. That's what Leah told me at the time."

Two years ago, the atmosphere in the team, including Leah, was very different from what it is now.

When and why did the change occur?

I don't understand.

"As for Heidi... uh, the one you saw in the cafe earlier, she is indeed my fiancée. This is confirmed by written documents."

"Um……"

Villian nodded gloomily without saying anything, but lowered her gaze slightly.

Aize didn't notice and just continued casually:

"That's what I said, but in reality, neither she nor I took this engagement seriously."

"well?"

"Uh... it's not quite accurate to say I don't take it seriously. It's quite useful for scaring the nobles, but I don't take the engagement itself seriously."

Violet's eyes widened in surprise.

"So... you don't like her?"

“I don’t like you in the sense of love.”

Aize shrugged and added:

"It's the same with Heidi. It's not a matter of likes or dislikes. I just think this engagement is good for her, so I gritted my teeth and maintained it."

This touches upon Villian's blind spot in knowledge.

I thought that Aize didn't see through Heidi's true face and was fooled by her sweet words and PUA, so he had to stay in the team and suffer.

But he actually knew it?

"What? You didn't think I didn't notice?"

Sensing Villian's thoughts, Aize turned around and asked helplessly:

"Think about it, I can handle the nobles that Heidi can't handle, so how can I not see through her little calculations and little thoughts?"

Chapter 24 Who is the Clown?

The royal family of the Kingdom of Arte suffered heavy losses in the previous war. Heidi's father, two brothers and two sisters were all killed by the demons. Only one tenth of the royal territory remained, and the power was unprecedentedly weakened.

Under such circumstances, the nobles were naturally eager to take over this position that was within their grasp.

Therefore, to deal with these nobles, although it sounds simple, is actually quite complicated and requires very careful use of the conflicts between various factions to achieve a delicate balance.

If you are not careful, the situation will get out of control immediately.

But no matter what, intense intrigue with various old foxes is inevitable. If Aize couldn't see through Heidi's little tricks, he would have been killed long ago.

But this made Violet feel a little helpless.

"If that's the case, why don't you expose her? Why are you helping her deal with all these troubles?"

Aize shook his head.

"I'm not helping her... or more than just helping her."

"What's the meaning?"

"The Kingdom of Arte is on the front lines against the demons. If we allow this group of nobles to usurp the throne and seize power, we will inevitably be crushed and bloodied, leaving us unable to cope with the demon invasion."

As he said that, Aize smiled.

"So, no matter what Heidi's attitude is, the balance of power in the Kingdom of Arte must be maintained. With her status as a princess helping me, I've saved myself a lot of effort."

Violet was stunned for a moment:

"So, it's all that woman's wishful thinking?"

"……You can say that."

"She thinks she's using you, but are you actually using each other?"

“…It’s called a win-win situation.”

Villian, who understood everything, thought about it for a moment and couldn't help laughing out loud:

"So, for two whole years, that woman was unknowingly acting out a play that had already been exposed? For a purpose that could have been achieved even without acting?"

"……Yes."

Think about how Heidi had to pretend to care about others in the cafe even though she was extremely reluctant and felt sick.

Think about it again, every time she performed like this in the past two years, Aize looked serious on the outside but was sweating profusely from embarrassment on the inside.

Violet couldn't hold it in anymore.

"Hehehe - hahahahaha - too tragic, this is too tragic, I'm starting to sympathize with her, hahahahaha -"

I have to admit that Heidi is quite smart.

But he always tries to be clever, and ends up either shooting himself in the foot or complicating simple problems, and always being used as a tool by others.

And the layout is not very good.

If she had set her sights higher and not just focused on her pitiful status as a princess, she would have understood that this was a win-win situation.

As long as you make your words clear, there is no need for any messy performances, and Aize will help you.

Taking a step back, even if there are no common interests, Heidi is still Aize's teammate. Is there anything that cannot be said between teammates?

In other words, if she asked Aize for help honestly, Aize would definitely not sit idly by.

There are simpler ways, both emotionally and logically, but Heidi chose the worst way out of her own accord.

Villian laughed so hard that she almost let herself go, and kept patting Aize's back.

"Hahahahahaha——but you're really going too far. Wouldn't it be better to just say this earlier?"

"Don't move, I'm cooking here—"

Aize turned away and responded unhappily:

"Do you think I don't want to make things clear? It's because Heidi's situation is rather special."

"How to say?"

"You know, she's the only one from this world among the twenty heroes, but few people know that she died once before becoming a hero."

"Oh?"

"He was assassinated by a Grand Duke who wanted to usurp the throne. Although he was reincarnated as a hero almost immediately and the Duke was executed, the incident still left a considerable psychological scar."

As he said that, Aize sighed.

"I didn't trust anyone and was extremely nervous and close to collapse. So when she tried to take advantage of me, I didn't expose her, thinking that I could at least calm her down first."

Including the marriage contract, it was also made at that time.

Talking about his choice at that time, Aize felt a little helpless.

"Who could have thought she'd suddenly start doing something? By the time I realized something was wrong, she'd already staged a whole drama in front of me. If I expose her now, wouldn't that just cause trouble for the team?"

Besides, as long as Heidi is still acting, at least her attitude towards Aize won’t be too bad.

If the truth is really exposed and a second Leah is accidentally created, wouldn't that be creating another ancestor for myself?

Villian didn't say anything, and Aize just sighed softly:

"It's all in the past anyway, so it's a good opportunity for her to re-evaluate herself."

The witch nodded, and then seemed to suddenly remember something and asked:

"Leah Alfred, Heidi Yalter, aren't there only two of them? Wasn't there another member in your previous team? I remember her name was... called..."

The name of the fourth member was included in the information that Villian had asked the succubus to collect for her, but it had been so long that she had no recollection of it.

After all, the only person she cared about was Aize.

When asked this question, Aize stopped what he was doing again.

The difference was that his facial muscles were twitching a little, and his expression looked very subtle.

"Rosaline Meredith, the fourth member of the Goddess Blade, she... I'm a little confused."

------

Sean Edgar hurried back to his house in a good mood.

It was not uncommon for nobles to leave their homes and flee to other nobles' territories when something happened, and Vivian was one of them.

He actually didn't care why the other party came here. Today he was just paying a courtesy visit.