After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

"...What do you want me to say? I can't pretend we're a couple in front of everyone in the Empire, right?"

Unexpectedly, after saying this, Miss Witch raised her chest with confidence and asked back:

"Why not? Is there any other way now?"

"you--"

From a God's perspective, Villian's reaction looked like she was digging into her own corner.

But looking back, it seems like she has always been like this.

Before, in the mountain village of the mixed-bloods, Villian once said to Alicia: As long as you like Aize, we will be half-sisters.

This sentence is not just talk, Miss Witch has been implementing it through practical actions.

So it's not surprising that she has this attitude towards Chris.

After figuring this out, Aize shook his head helplessly:

"...Pretending to be someone else is only a temporary solution, so I'm thinking of other solutions, aren't I?"

Once you tell a lie, you have to make up more lies to cover it up, especially when you are pretending to be a couple.

If you really do this, who knows how many problems will arise in the future.

And Aize himself doesn't like this tone.

Villian narrowed her eyes and looked him up and down.

"Then you'd better think about it quickly, otherwise, I'm afraid Miss Chris won't be able to handle it first."

After saying that, he pointed to Chris behind him.

While the two were whispering, the blue-haired girl had already shrunk into the corner of the room, with a gloomy expression and dull eyes, as if she was completely broken.

Even muttering:

"Or, if I go back this time, I can just kill that old man and put an end to it all. Or I can just commit some other crime and get exiled again. That doesn't seem impossible..."

Not at all like a joke.

I feel like if this continues, it's only a matter of time before he turns evil or even yandere.

This made Aize even more conflicted.

First of all, at least for now, Chris must not be allowed to go back.

Putting aside all the utilitarian considerations like adjutants and the Knights Templar, given her current mental state, if she were really kidnapped by her family, she would definitely get into big trouble.

So how do we keep her?

You can use your influence to suppress the other family, or use this expedition as an opportunity to propose exchange conditions - these common methods are of course possible.

But without exception, there is one core question that cannot be avoided - why Christina's father must let her go back.

There was no engagement, nor was it for the purpose of inheriting the family property.

If you were just worried about being implicated by Aize, then he has now become the official regent of the kingdom and has not openly broken up with the church, so this worry can be dispelled.

If this matter is not clarified, even if Aize wants to put forward conditions or put pressure on others, he will not be able to do so.

Therefore, we must take advantage of this opportunity to go to the other party's territory and test it out.

And before finding out the result...it seems like it's okay to pretend to be a couple for a while?

After all, Vivian has said this.

But if this is the case, there will be another problem:

"...There are three of us, right? One man and two women. Calling ourselves a couple in this situation is a bit weird, isn't it? If she had told me earlier, I could have taken a few more people with me, and it wouldn't have been so awkward."

To put it bluntly, he and Chris pretending to be a couple would make Vivian very embarrassed.

Aize was also reminding him of this.

Unexpectedly, Miss Witch actually shook her head with a smile on her face:

"It's okay, it's okay. You don't have to worry about this little thing. I have my own way."

As he spoke, he took a few steps back, opened his storage space, took out a maid outfit, and gestured in front of himself a few times.

"As long as I pretend to be a maid, there will be no problem at all. If there are not enough people, I can even create a few more puppet maids. In this way, I can even become the head maid, hehe——"

The chest and waist sizes seem to be perfectly proportioned.

It was obviously carefully prepared, not a half-baked product made on a whim.

From a practical point of view, dressing up as a servant is indeed reasonable, and this is also the solution that Aize came up with himself.

The issue is--

"...Why do you carry this thing with you?"

Before, when dealing with Alicia, this guy also took out a maid outfit.

Before that, it was also she who took the initiative to create the puppet maid, which was essentially a movable figure.

Now that I think about it, does this guy have any special interest in maids?

"Because I like it."

Answer immediately, without any hesitation or concealment.

"A qualified maid must act according to her master's orders; her own thoughts are completely unimportant. Aize, don't you think this is very similar to a puppet? Considering that ordinary maids actually have their own will, isn't this better than an ordinary puppet?"

"..."

I don't quite understand.

But Aize understood that this guy's interests were not entirely normal.

It’s better not to ask too much.

But now that things have come to this, the next arrangements have been finalized.

He scratched his hair and came to Chris, who was almost curled up and sank into the ground.

"Well, to fundamentally solve the problem, you still have to find out why your father insisted you go back. You really don't know? Don't lie."

The girl raised her head, thought for a moment, and shook her head firmly:

"Master, I really don't know! When he first asked me to go back, I wrote to him and asked why, but he never said..."

"Okay, when I get there, I'll ask. After I find out, I'll find a way to solve it. But before that..."

Aize closed his eyes and prepared himself mentally:

"Until then, let's... uh, just maintain our fake husband-and-wife relationship."

"……well?"

The girl's eyes widened, and her expression froze at this moment.

"Really?"

"Really, but only until the situation is clear. I'll plan the specific performance and what to say later. Please don't add any more scenes without my permission, otherwise—"

"What should I do? What should I do? Husband and wife? Me and Master? Hehehehe~ Why do I feel like I'm dreaming? No, no, no, Master is doing this for my own good, so I can't be like this. I need to stay calm, stay cool... Speaking of which, shouldn't I change the way I address you? What should I call you? Should I call you dear or master? Actually, I—"

Sometimes he is in a low mood, and sometimes he grins like a fool and acts crazy.

Highlight an emotional diversity.

As for what Aize instructed, there was no need to think about it, he absolutely didn't hear a single word of it.

Aize didn't tolerate it either, so he grabbed him and gave him another beating on the head with an electric drill.

"Give me! Listen! Speak!"

“It hurts, it hurts—Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—Hehehe—Ah, no, I’m wrong, ahhhhhhhhhh—”

The girl's screams echoed in the store again.

But this time, even the screams were mixed with some uncontrollable giggles.

It sounds even more horrifying.

Chapter 27 The Night Before

Although he was unhappy about many things, now that the matter was done, Aize had nothing to complain about.

If I have to blame someone, I should blame myself for underestimating my apprentice's talent in making things messy.

All in all, the plan to pretend to be a couple was decided.

During the next week or so on the road, Aize carefully inquired about the contents of those letters that Chris wrote to her family to brag about herself.

They carefully classified, organized, and improved them into a systematic set of statements. During this time, they conducted strict coordination and rehearsals to ensure that no one would discover any flaws in any situation.

At least for now, things seem to be going quite smoothly.

Both Chris and Villian, who pretended to be the "head maid", showed ten or even nine times more enthusiasm than Aize in this process.

Villian, who was not a direct party involved, even created seven or eight puppet maids with completely different appearances in just two days, and set personality traits, idioms, and even dialect accents for each.

This made Aize seriously think that this guy must be good at role-playing.

Anyway, the disguise plan is going smoothly.

On the other hand, Aize has not given up on collecting relevant intelligence.

One night more than ten days after setting off, in a hotel not far from the territory of the Karlsade family, Aize, after washing up, left the room, walked down the stairs and sat in the corner of the restaurant.

By this time, it was already very late and the dinner time had passed.

The people living here are basically adventurers and merchants. Most of them have returned to their rooms and rested early in preparation for the next day's journey.

Only a few people were still here drinking, playing finger-guessing games, talking, laughing, and making a lot of noise.

So even though there are few people, it’s not quiet.

In such a dim environment, a man suddenly stood up, staggered to Aize with a wine glass in his hand, and sat down opposite him.

He was wearing a respectable robe and a hat and looked like a businessman.

But his face was red and he reeked of alcohol, looking like he had drunk too much.

"How's business lately?"

Aize glanced around and replied:

“…Not bad, huh?”

"Not bad? Hahaha, not bad... I... burp~ Because a bunch of damn bandits blocked the way, the goods arrived several months later than scheduled, and the price dropped to zero. I lost so much money that I wanted to jump into the river, burp~"

"That's how business is. There are gains and losses, and that's normal. There's nothing strange about that."

Aize fiddled with the wine glass filled with boiled water in front of him, pretending to be drunk and staggering, and said this nonchalantly.

Upon hearing this, the other party slammed his wine glass on the table, looking very unhappy.

But his voice suddenly dropped several degrees, and he asked in a low voice:

"What do you mean? What's going on here?"

"No, didn't I just say it's all 'normal'?"

Aize picked up the water glass and took a small sip.

"What about you? Have you made any progress on the investigation I asked you to do earlier?"

Needless to say, the drunk man in front of him was another alias used by Aize's intelligence chief, and the previous few conversations were also preset code words.

Before setting off, Aize informed the other party of his route through secret channels.

Every time they passed through a village, town or city, they would leave a secret code for contact. This not only marked their whereabouts and ensured that the other party could find them, but also allowed them to pass on some messages to the other party.

Before, in that village restaurant, after being shocked by his apprentice's fake marriage, Aize immediately sent out a message, asking for information related to Chris's family to see if he could find some clues.

Hence the extra connection.

After hearing Aize's question, the other party picked up the wine glass and took a sip in a serious manner.

Then he replied:

"We did gather quite a bit of intelligence, including unusual flows of funds and supplies, as well as extraneous interactions with several other noble families, the Electors, and the Royal Family. However, I can't see any connection to Miss Chris."