”Benevirau is gone, but what about the other servants and Reo?”

Zoemi glanced at the girl and motioned at the silent mansion with his chin.

”Are you telling me that everyone else is asleep already?”

He added, raising his brows.

”No, no. It’s not like that – sir Benevirau is the only person actually living here, there is no staff aside from him at all.”

The girl twitched and blushed, straightening her back as if she only just now realized how familiar she acted around the black-haired boy, before answering.

”What about you then…?”

Zoemi’s brow raised even higher as he pointed out the flaw in her explanation.

”I…! I am only a maid in training… I do not count as an actual staff yet!”

The magicless girl hurriedly explained, looking away to dodge making eye contact with the boy, and finally, let go of his arm.

”Let’s… let’s go inside already… You should go take a look at the sculptures I was talking about, they are in the dining room. I will go bring lord Reo!”

She declared hurriedly with a flushed face and ran inside the mansion, busting through the unlocked front door.

”…an ambush…? Who is she supposed to be – she’s not a mage herself… could it be that she is someone hired by Aerea and Vianee to mess with Reo or something…?”

Zoemi furrowed his brows, thinking to himself out loud, not really bothered whether the girl could hear him or not.

Maybe, still, I doubt there is any actual harm they could do to you as you are now, and you got the cute girl to be all over you – I was very happy when my wife was like that – and you didn’t seem to mind that either. Now, let’s see the ice sculptures!

”…”

Without any warning a voice of Ludier’s Galamroze shadow spoke inside Zoemi’s head, sounding as if he was smirking at him, making the black-haired boy flinch in surprise.

He still managed to keep his mouth shut, but the shock was real – he never expected Ludier’s shadow to be straight up able to talk to him like that.

|Did you miss the part in which I literally met her less than fifteen minutes ago or something? If that would have been Miriette then you would have a point. And true, let’s check whether there are any ice sculptures or not.|

Zoemi shook his head and responded in his mind while following in Ririe’s step and talking to the mansion keeping his guard up.

Ah, pardon me, I wasn’t aware that you already have a wife, kid, good job. Are you expecting the ice sculptures to be a trap?

|…|

Ludier’s shadow communicated back with a rather bold assumption that Zoemi didn’t find necessary to correct or comment on – unlike the latter part.

|How are you not seeing it as suspicious? I bet those are just some random vaguely shaped ice pillars that would explode when I get close because Reo’s siblings want to knock me out and mess up the room in hopes of getting Benevirau furious at me when he comes back and me at the scene. Aerea is a water magician and can easily just make some ice and set it to explode.|

The black-haired boy rolled his eyes and explained while walking towards the dining room despite the possible danger he just pointed out himself.

…you are overthinking that by far, kid – first of all, those siblings you talk about would have to be absolutely certain that you would return here in the first place, or else they would be putting an offensive spell right in the house of an extremely dangerous individual… Just let’s have a look and then figure things out.

|Sure, but I bet this will be a trap.|

Ludier’s shadow sighed and pointed out, making Zoemi shrug without changing his mind.

—-

”…!”

The black-haired boy entered the dining room and immediately realized that his suspicion about the ice sculptures being fake or a trap set up by Reo’s siblings got immediately pushed out of his mind.

The three ice sculptures had their own shadows and were so full of mana that they could never be created by Aerea even though she had slightly more mana than the average water magician.

”…”

Zoemi slowly approached the sculptures holding his breath.

The middle one was undoubtedly made in his image and although everything aside from the face wasn’t detailed all that much, by looking at it Zoemi couldn’t help but feel as if he was looking at his own image through some fancy camera filter.

Still, he didn’t just stop in place to admire his own visage made out of ice – there were two other sculptures that demanded his attention after all.

There was the sculpture of a man – that just had to be Neramis – slightly taller than Zoemi was now, bearing an overbearing similarity to the black-haired boy – especially that the sculpture had captured him with a devilish smirk that had become Zoemi’s natural expression after his face got healed.

You are bearing a striking resemblance to him.

|…a skilled sculptor wouldn’t have all that much trouble creating something like that after checking my face…|

Ludier’s shadow went as far as to peek out from Zoemi’s shadow and point out, but the black-haired boy shook his head in denial, although even he didn’t sound all that convinced anymore.

What about the last one…?

Ludier’s shadow asked, leaning out even more to have a closer look at the third sculpture.

”…”

That one was the one that Zoemi couldn’t just ignore with a dismissive comment or excuse.

He could recognize it, although the face of the woman was slightly different than the one in his refreshed memories.

”…Z-Zoemi…?”

”!!!!”

The black-haired boy reached his hand towards the third sculpture and then literally jumped in shock when someone called out to him.

”Wha…?! Ah…! R-Reo…! Good to see you are fine.”

Zoemi gasped and breathed out in relief seeing the green-haired capture target entering the room with the familiar box-shaped unique shadow still clipping through him.

”I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to surprise you…”

Reo – who got startled by Zoemi’s sudden jolt – bowed his head apologetically and didn’t actually walk inside holding onto the door handle with a worried expression.

”It’s alright, my mind was in another place, that’s all. As I said, it’s good to see you are unharmed. How did Benevirau treat you after I left? Also, is Ririe there with you?”

Zoemi waved his hand dismissively and smiled reassuringly while trying to peek over Reo’s shoulder to see whether the magicless girl was sneaking around there.

The black-haired boy was especially worried about Reo as he most likely wasn’t aware of how suspicious the maid-in-training was.

”Ririe? Um.. she… she told me to come here and then hurried back to her house – there were some chores that she completely forgot about and had to leave without saying goodbye! But, she asked me to thank you again for saving her from that drunkard!”

Reo’s eyes widened as he blanked for a second before he began hurriedly explaining while blushing.

|Look at how red he is when I mentioned that girl… do you think that he might have fallen for her or something…?|

Zoemi squinted his eyes and thought with concern, waiting for Ludier’s shadow response.

You seem awfully sure that is the case – was that girl that appealing in your opinion?

|Sh-shut up, that wasn’t what I was talking about! Reo is just a bit naive and I’m worried about him!|

The shadow asked in confusion, making the black-haired boy flustered.