Chapter 23: Marriage Blues (3)

Adrian did not seem particularly damaged by Sena’s condemning words.

His face, wearing a faint smile, looked as if it would gently accept whatever she said.

Striving not to forget that he was the very person who had created this situation, Sena broached the subject indirectly.

“Then when can I return to my daily life?”

Unexpectedly, Adrian answered clearly.

“It is still dangerous.”

“Still? You do intend to let me go, don’t you?”

“Of course. But our rumor must have just spread outside the Federation, and villains will be targeting you.”

Realizing her oversight, Sena searched her memory.

As the banner of victory held high by the Federation, a war hero, and an exceptional investigator, Adrian Blake had villains who burned with rivalry against him.

It wasn’t just a few; there were many.

Most were small fry that didn’t even get caught in the Special Bureau’s monitoring, but among them were Euclid-class or Keter-class villains capable of moving the world.

Adrian spoke in a light tone as if chasing away a pesky mosquito.

“In particular, there are a few villains obsessed with me.”

Sena knew that all too well, too.

Because for her reporting, she had stayed up all night drawing relationship charts to dig into Adrian Blake’s grudges.

“Do you mean Villain Rubin? Janus? Or perhaps Penice?”

“Them too.”

Adrian laughed as if Sena counting on her fingers was cute, and tousled her hair.

Of course, Sena grimaced fiercely and avoided it, and Adrian withdrew his hand as if nothing had happened, adding:

“However, if you want, I can call people over. I can call a personal shopper, or I could call your co-workers or family.”

“Ha, you’re joking, right?”

Swearing on her honor, her social relations at work were not bad.

When the time came, she had team dinners with colleagues, took good care of major life events, and met them outside of work.

Yet in the end, her fellow reporters were blinded by performance metrics the moment the scandal with Adrian Blake broke out, pulling out extra editions.

Furthermore, as for family, her only relative was a politician who wasn’t even her biological father, Cyrus Hale.

Sena snorted in disbelief, only to realize that Adrian was serious.

His gray eyes were carefully observing Sena’s reaction.

“…Well, if that’s the case, it can’t be helped.”

Sena took a low stance for now.

Of course, she had no intention of quietly staying in the mansion as he wished.

However, acting stubborn from the start and raising the jailer’s vigilance was something only amateurs did.

After much thought, Sena picked suitable people.

There was only one relationship where they could spread her situation to those around her, while Adrian wouldn’t find their visit strange.

“Then please call my friends.”

“Whom are you talking about?”

“Mil and Lahan. My college classmates.”

“Ah, those two.”

Adrian pretended to know upon Sena’s words.

“The young lady of the Aristide family and the graduate student at Tracé Magic University.”

At those words, Sena grimaced all over her face.

“You don’t even plan to hide that you did a background check on me?”

“You wouldn’t be any easier, though.”

“In my defense, isn’t that information falsely disseminated by the Special Bureau?”

“Even so, buying my photos from paparazzi isn’t justified, is it?”

She gave a bushel and got a peck in return.

Sena bit her lip and took a step back.

Honestly, it bothered her conscience.

Though she investigated the war hero’s private life entirely for the public interest, it was illegal after all.

If the Special Bureau raided Sena’s boarding house, thousands of photos of Adrian Blake would come out.

“So, any impressions?”

Sena snapped back to reality at Adrian’s words.

Adrian had lowered his upper body before she knew it, matching eye levels with Sena.

Out of spite, Sena tried hard not to pull her body back.

“What do you mean, impressions?”

“I intentionally posed at a handsome angle, knowing you would look at them.”

Only now did she realize why Adrian Blake, who wasn’t even a celebrity, insisted on finding the camera lens and locking eyes with it.

Until just a moment ago, Sena had thought it was a warning not to take photos.

“…Thank you ever so much.”

When Sena barely squeezed out an answer, Adrian smiled brightly.

“Don’t mention it.”

As he said, Adrian allowed her to meet her friends.

She didn’t know what method he had used, but less than an hour had passed since Sena asked.

“My goodness, Han-Se-na!”

Mildred Aristide, a woman called Mil by her friends, hugged Sena tightly as soon as she saw her.

“What on earth happened! Your face has shrunk to half its size!”

Sena felt like her cheek was stinging for some reason, so she turned her head toward where she felt the gaze.

Far away, at the first-floor landing, Adrian Blake was looking this way.

His brow was slightly furrowed, making him look displeased with this situation, but Sena intentionally ignored him.

Of course, her friend did the same.

“What really happened to you? Did you really accept Sir Adrian? You? This isn’t some Special Bureau operation, is it? Huh?”

Mil poured out her questions like rapid-fire.

Hearing the familiar whining in a high tone made her feel a sense of reality only then.

Although turning her gaze still showed her friends and Adrian Blake together, making it feel as if the ordinary and extraordinary coexisted.

Only after listening through all her questions could Sena finally be freed.

“It’s not like that.”

Having denied it for now, she had nothing to say.

During her short yet impactful reporter career, she used to prepare her mind, thinking she might one day be reported by the Special Bureau or the Federal Government.

However, reality was different.

To avoid a prison sentence, she fell for Adrian Blake’s proposal and signed a marriage contract, ended up having a physical relationship because of it, and came to stay at his mansion for the time being for safety.

Whether it would truly be ‘for the time being’ or not, she didn’t know…

Restoring her mind that had flown off to the Andromeda Galaxy and looking back, the whole process had proceeded smoothly.

As she picked and chose words to tell her friend from that, in the end, only predictable words remained.

“It just happened that way.”

And that was a phrase new lovers frequently used to make excuses about how they started dating.

Mildred opened her purple eyes wide.

“No way! You really disliked Sir Adrian!”

Her sharp voice echoed inside the spacious mansion.

The man who had been standing a step back beside her placed his hand on Mil’s shoulder.

“Calm down, Mil.”

“Lahan.”

It was another friend Sena relied on, Lahan Karlsted.

When Mildred took a deep breath and calmed her emotions, Lahan proposed a new hypothesis.

“I don’t know the reason, but of course it’s staged. Sena, with your temper, there’s no way you’d be caught quietly. Did you catch some weakness of Sir Adrian?”

“Is that it?”

The two looked at each other and then looked toward Sena.

Strictly speaking, it was staged.

Because they had signed a marriage contract.

However, even so, this marriage didn’t feel completely fake either.

That was entirely because of Adrian Blake, who acted as if he were a real husband.

Sena pressed her throbbing temples and whispered low.

“It’s not like that, so both of you shut your mouths.”

This time, it was Lahan’s turn for his eyes to widen.

“Then, that, the scandal is real? You’re lying, right?”

“Of course not.”

“Not? Uh, but if Sir Adrian didn’t have his weakness caught, why would he do such a thing?”

Lahan stammered, unlike a doctoral student at Tracé Magic University who was called the best brain in the Federation.

Sena held her head, which was starting to throb again.

“The one who got her weakness caught was me! Not Adrian Blake!”

With that shout as the end, a long silence wrapped around the three of them.

What broke the silence, which felt as if someone might die, was the familiar sound of footsteps.

Noticing the gazes of her two friends shifting behind her back and shaking mercilessly, Sena realized who it was.

“Sena.”

A touch that had grown familiar in just a few days wrapped around her waist.

Adrian, with a dignified attitude fitting a homeowner, laid out absurd words.

“I am sorry for not being able to serve tea, but I think you must leave now.”

The two guests had not even exchanged their shoes for indoor slippers yet.

Mildred asked back with a flustered face.

“But it hasn’t even been ten minutes since we arrived?”

“I believe you have checked her face sufficiently.”

To think this was what he meant by letting her meet people she knew.

Sena glared at Adrian, but he merely returned a smile with a neat face.

“Because this is a situation where I must protect Sena. I would appreciate your cooperation.”

“Such a…”

Mildred looked at Sena with a hopeless face.

Lahan regained his senses before Mildred and calmly patted her shoulder.

“Right, let’s go for today and see each other next time. Because there seems to be, um, some circumstances.”

He was taking the next time for granted.

He did not forget to abbreviate the improper statement that her weakness was caught by Adrian Blake into ‘circumstances.’

From the standpoint of Sena, who had intended to ask them for help, it was maddening.

“Are you believing Adrian Blake’s words over mine right now?”

“Sir Adrian is more trustworthy than you, though.”

“Even if I say Adrian Blake threatened me?”

“Threatened?”

Lahan looked at her reaction and added cautiously:

“That… wouldn’t there be no reason for Sir Adrian to do that?”

His eyes were filled with trust regarding the mascot of the Special Bureau.

Both Mildred and Lahan showed no sign of thinking Adrian would commit immoral acts.

Sena did not show her disappointment and sent them off with a smile.

However, her expression turned cold as soon as the two stepped out the doorway.

She immediately slapped away Adrian’s arm resting on her shoulder and sneered.

“Oh, I didn’t know you would control even the time I meet people.”

“Sena.”

“Are you my father? No, even Cyrus Hale didn’t care about things like this.”

Adrian silently stroked the arm Sena had slapped away and straightened his posture.

Then, with a smile no different from when dealing with guests, but even gentler, he spoke.

“I’m sorry, but it was a bit of a dangerous situation just now.”

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