Inside the arena of the Hero Department.
Quite some time had passed since all classes had ended, yet Theo and Siena hadn't left the arena.
They were still closely huddled together in a secluded area within the arena.
Siena whispered.
"Oh. Swish-swish found the location of the guardian knight. She's between the bushes near the main entrance of the arena, isn't he?"
"Hmm, is it possible to pinpoint her exact location?"
"Hehe, that's a piece of cake for our Swish-swish. Just a moment······"
······Meanwhile, as Theo and Siena were conspiring for 'Operation Capture Claire'.
Seria, Irene, Alice, and Alphs were also hatching a plan in a secluded spot.
Seria touched her ear and closed her eyes as she spoke.
"They've been sticking together and whispering to each other since a while ago?"
Irene immediately responded.
"Can you hear what they're saying?"
"No. Both of them are highly perceptive, so I had to use magic from a considerable distance."
"I see······ Please keep it up, Seria."
"Of course."
Seria nodded her head.
Irene looked at her with affectionately.
'She truly is a mage.'
There's a saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Just yesterday, Seria seemed like a thorn in their side at the cafe meeting, but now she appeared so lovely.
If she hadn't been skilled in surveillance magic, it would have been extremely inconvenient.
In the midst of this, no one else spoke.
"······."
They just watched Seria, who was concentrating with her eyes closed.
The reason these four had gathered was due to Irene's 'hunch'.
It started with Theo's words after all the classes were over.
─Go ahead. I have something to do.
Considering Theo's actions she had observed so far, she could boil it down to two possibilities.
'Training or······ a woman.'
But it wouldn't make sense for him to send them away if he was going to train.
'If it was training, he would have asked to join him······ that training devil.'
He would have at least asked for their willingness.
Anyway, her intuition was right.
That's right. That bastard Theo went to meet a woman.
Even though his fiancee was right there, nearby······
Squeeze──
Before she knew it, Irene's fist was tightly clenched.
After about five minutes.
"Uh······ they seem to be heading out. They're moving towards the side door."
Seria suddenly opened her eyes wide and spoke.
Irene hurriedly said.
"Let's follow them right away! Hurry up!"
"Wait a moment."
Alice stopped Irene, who was about to rush out.
Irene frowned at Alice.
"Why? We're running out of time."
"In situations like this, it's better to listen to reason rather than emotions. It's over if we're discovered, so we should first check the route to follow them. Both Theo and Siena have sharp senses, right?"
It was a convincing argument.
Irene, momentarily stunned, nodded her head.
Following her, Seria also nodded in agreement, and Alphs, after hesitating, followed suit.
Irene looked at Alice more gently.
"So, what should we do?"
"First thing we need to check... Did they go out through the side door, Seria?"
Seria immediately replied.
"Yes. They just left through the side door."
"Then our priority should be to move to the side door as well. After that, we'll follow their trail based on clues like their footprints. Luckily, I've already scouted the routes around this arena before."
"Exploration Department really is different, huh, hehe."
"Before entering any place, it's basic to assess the surroundings first. Now, everyone follow me!"
"Wait a moment."
Seria swiftly cast the [Haste] spell on her teammates.
Feeling lighter, Alice immediately ran towards the side door.
Irene, Seria, and Alphs followed her.
At the side door of the Hero Department's arena.
Theo and Siena rushed straight to the bushes near the main entrance of the arena where Claire was located.
With the help of [Haste] and wind spirits, their running speed was incredibly fast.
Theo glanced at Siena, who was running beside him.
'Can I trust this?'
The location of their target, Claire, had been identified, and they had 'somewhat' secured a high-level wind spirit for subduing her.
However, the 'somewhat' part was the problem.
Spirits are capricious, and so is Siena.
Upon reaching Claire, their means of subduing her could vanish for some reason.
'······Should I have borrowed [Moonflower] from Jang Woohee?'
He had that thought, but soon shook it off.
Stabbing someone in the back with a dagger seemed a bit excessive, even if it was to apprehend a stalker.
His reason for capturing Claire was to create a pretext to have a private meeting with Saintess Isabella.
If he went too far with Claire, it could give Isabella a reason to avoid a private meeting with him.
After running at top speed for quite a while, they reached near the location of their target.
Now was the crucial part.
Theo hid behind a large tree ahead of them for cover.
He then signaled to Siena with his eyes.
Siena nodded, then communicated with the spirit in a low murmur.
“?”
Siena tilted her head in confusion.
She shrugged her shoulders and spoke to Theo.
"Claire? Anyway, she's still in the same location······."
"······You mean?"
"She's playing with a cat── Ahh, Swish-swish! Where are you going!"
Siena suddenly shrieked.
Theo quickly covered her mouth with his palm.
Physical contact without cleaning first.
A tingling pain from [Twisted Noble's Dignity] surged, but Theo endured it firmly.
Theo glared at Siena with his eyes.
“Mmph, mmmph, mph!”
Regardless, Siena, with her eyes wide open, continued to flail her long arms and legs.
30 seconds passed, but her fierce resistance showed no signs of subsiding.
······An unexpected variable had arisen.
It seemed that the spirit, for some reason, had slipped from Siena's control.
Theo, still covering Siena’s mouth, quickly thought through the situation.
“······.”
He reached a swift decision.
Without the aid of the spirit, they would catch Claire off guard while she was distracted with the cat.
In the game, Claire couldn't resist cute things like puppies and kittens.
Theo whispered softly into Siena's ear.
“Whatever the reason, stay quiet for now. Tap my palm three times if you agree.”
Tap, tap, tap.
Siena tapped Theo's hand.
Theo removed his hand from Siena's mouth.
“Puhah!”
Siena gasped for air.
After patting her shoulder, Theo explained the revised plan in a soft voice.
When Theo and Siena entered striking range.
“······Wow, wowww······.”
Claire was distracted by a cute creature that had suddenly appeared.
Although she had been diligently fulfilling Isabella's orders until now, she had never been caught by Theo, so her body was relaxed.
Especially since today's task was just to watch from a distance, a relatively simple one.
“······Come here.”
Claire extended her hand to a fluffy, large cat.
······But even as she reached out, she somewhat expected the cat not to come.
For some reason, Claire was never popular with dogs or cats.
Even animals that cuddled with others wouldn't easily do the same with her.
However.
─Meow?
The cat approached her.
Her, no less.
─Meow~
It even rubbed its body against her hand.
Rejected by hundreds.
No, thousands of animals... this one chose her.
“Ah, ah, ahhh······”
What should she call this feeling?
Joy? Ecstasy?
Anyway, her current mood could be described by any word denoting a positive emotion.
Had anything this delightful happened to her recently?
Claire stroked the cat with a loving touch, dripping with affection.
“Ah, so pretty.”
─Meow, meow~
“You understand, don't you?”
─Meow meow, meow.
“How can you be so smart?”
─Meow, meow meow meow.
As Claire was enjoying her happy time with the cat.
Uninvited guests arrived.
“Ah, Pipi! Where did you go!”
“Bi, a knight from the Order of Light······?”
“······Long time no see, knight.”
“Swish-swish, what are you doing here! Why are you sticking to that little one!”
It was Luna, Sonya, Theo, and Siena.
