Chapter 17: The Rosy Girl’s Night Dream

“Weird. Am I really being suspected of being a Western spy?”

It was nighttime.

Hall walked along the brightly lit streets of Saint Louis.

Earlier that afternoon, he’d gone to report to the Black Knights but was turned away.

Someone had come out and told him that his file was under investigation and that he should wait a few more days before participating in their operations.

The man had been polite, likely due to Hall’s special status.

But at the end of the day, it was still suspicion.

If things stayed like this, there was no way he’d be able to slip out of Saint Louis without clearing his name.

“Where did I screw up?”

Hall tried to recall the game’s storyline.

So far, he’d met Leticia, Christine, and Himan.

Among these three heroines, Christine’s route was the earliest in the overall plot timeline.

Which meant, from his past player perspective, Leticia’s behavior today had been especially confusing.

Himan’s distaste? That had been constant from the start.

Could it really be that he was being suspected just for looking like someone from the East?

If that were the case, how had he even survived the opening act of the Xia Kingdom route?

After all, the Princess of Xia arc was one of the later routes—it only triggered after the princess had been engaged to a young noble from the West, then decided to run away from the engagement on her own.

So far, there had been no news of any young master actually involved with the Xia princess—an event that would shake the entire political arena.

And in Hall’s route, he would’ve been executed right after meeting the princess if something had gone wrong.

“I still have a chance to fix this, right?”

He pushed the thoughts aside.

His forced-death flags mostly came from the actions of the heroines.

And besides, within three years, this world would be plunged into world war.

Wouldn’t it make more sense to return now and grind swordsmanship than worry about abstract things like affection points?

“Welcome home, Young Master! How was your meeting with Lady Christine this afternoon?”

“Not great.”

Hall had just returned to the estate when he ran into Lov, who was still wearing her side-slit maid uniform from earlier that day.

He thought to himself that the little maid was always pleasing to the eye—guilt-free eye candy.

“Aww, don’t worry, Young Master. It’s just that Lady Christine lacks taste. Someone as charming as you—how could anyone not fall for you?”

Lov was actually secretly pleased when she heard it hadn’t gone well.

From her perspective, that meant no woman had truly captured the Young Master’s heart—except maybe her.

But what would those other women even know?

The Young Master was never the type to go around casually flirting with girls.

He hadn’t had the time to.

Back in middle school, Hall would always go straight home after class—sometimes to practice swordsmanship alone, sometimes to read in the gazebo, flipping through books that Love couldn’t really understand.

Even if she didn’t get the content, she could tell from the obscure language that it looked like texts from the Seminary.

The Seminary was a top-tier institution, no matter which country it was in.

The crème de la crème of academia. Even the top-performing students had to fight tooth and nail to get in.

Graduating with decent grades from the Seminary meant you’d start out as a priest. Your mentor might even be a cardinal, and your future in the Church would be solid.

The Church held supreme power in the Papal States and ranked second only to royal families in other countries in terms of perks and pay.

Royal household jobs were limited; the Church, on the other hand, offered more positions than aristocrats could fill.

That said, things had gotten even more competitive in recent years, making Seminary admissions more intense than ever. The cutoff score towered over other schools.

Technically, Lov could’ve gotten into a seminary too. Maybe not the Holy Light Seminary, but with the Faxius family name, she could’ve easily landed a spot at another Saint Louis academy.

But when Hall suggested it, Lov had declined. She just wanted to stay by his side.

Each day, she honed her caregiving skills, cooking, flower arranging, tea ceremonies… even flipping through Saint Louis fashion magazines to stay on top of noble style trends.

She was happy just wearing them for Hall.

Of course, aside from that, the little maid had also read some black-market grimoires and picked up… certain other strange bits of knowledge.

“Don’t tease me. My name’s already spread through all of Saint Louis like wildfire.”

Hall relaxed a bit in Lov’s presence.

She wasn’t one of the plot heroines—if something did happen, it’d probably be fine.

Still, better to stay cautious until he managed to slip out of Saint Louis. He’d enjoy thighs and cleavage later.

“Hmph, what would they know?”

The maid held a silver tray under her chest, deliberately pushing it up a bit. Her already generous curves were further emphasized, drawing obvious attention.

“Lov, I haven’t… done anything to you, have I?”

That had been bugging Hall. According to the character’s background, Lov shouldn’t have been exempt from his predatory habits.

But digging through his memory, he couldn’t find anything substantial that had happened between them.

“Of course not. Young Master’s not into my body type.”

Even though she had some curves, Lov in casual clothes wouldn’t be considered the busty long-legged type.

She was two years younger than Hall, and her poor childhood had left her underdeveloped due to malnutrition.

She even sounded a little aggrieved.

“Then what did I usually do after coming home?”

“Huh?”

Lov blinked, a little confused by his sudden question.

Still, she trusted him unconditionally, so she answered truthfully:

“Other than practicing swordsmanship or reading books, you always said you were preparing for something… a secret project or whatever.”

Hall had always been so cryptic, so eventually Lov had stopped asking.

Until the year his reputation crumbled…

After that, Hall became less diligent in both swordsmanship and studying.

But Lov had always found that understandable. A noble youth secretly working hard without ever showing off? That had always felt a little too abnormal.

“……”

Hall was speechless.

This didn’t feel like the character he was supposed to be playing at all.

This kind of foresight, this sense of preparation…

He wouldn’t brag, but it felt kind of like… himself.

Back when he played strategy-heavy games with strict win conditions, he never rushed—but he never procrastinated to the last second either.

“Young Master, you’ve been acting strange these past two days. Is it because of that investigator accusing you of being a Xia Kingdom spy?”

“That’s part of it, yeah.”

“You don’t have to worry. Once the Master returns to Saint Louis, those little clowns wouldn’t dare cause trouble.”

That’s right—he had a father who was a general.

That night, in the Childe family’s estate…

Pale moonlight filtered through the gauzy curtains into the room.

On a giant princess bed, Leticia lay curled up in her rose-colored sheer nightgown, hugging a body-sized pillow.

Her long, porcelain-white legs clung tightly to the pillow in her sleep.

There seemed to be faint traces of moisture between the folds.

She murmured in her dreams, occasionally letting out soft, sultry moans—somewhere between discomfort and pleasure.

Only one word in her whispering could be clearly made out:

“Hall…”