Sneaking into the kitchen? Not a bad idea at all.

Sullivan pondered for a moment and made up his mind.

"Well, I feel... tired."

Junon raised her arms and stretched, decisively getting up and dragging her feet to the wardrobe next to the door, opening the cabinet.

Huh?

In consideration of conserving magical power, and also because Junon was just a regular maid, Sullivan didn't create a complete immersive illusion like the first time with Ellie, but rather added a layer of filter-like effect. So Junon's actions were still manifested in the real world.

What is she going to do? Wait, tired? Does she want to rest? But why get up... could it be?

"Heave-ho."

Because in her eyes Sullivan was Ellie, the unguarded Miss Junon naturally kicked off her shoes, untied the ribbons and buttons on her maid outfit, and without any defenses, exposed the girl's body in front of Sullivan.

"What are you doing?!" Sullivan, unprepared, almost couldn't hold back breaking the illusion.

"Huh? What am I doing? Of course, changing clothes to sleep, um, by the way, please wake me up earlier to take a bath tomorrow... too tired."

After taking off her hairband, Junon gathered her long hair with both hands. Her sleek beautiful back was alluring, but the fact that she wore girly pink underwear was a bit unexpected.

"No, no, why are you changing clothes in front of me—"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Sullivan realized his mistake. He had enchanted Junon to think he was Ellie, so the result wasn't surprising at all. After all, during his time in the knights, comrades didn't get embarrassed about nudity.

It was his lack of experience. Unexpectedly, an accident happened in this aspect.

Calm down, can't raise suspicion.

Taking a deep breath to compose himself, Sullivan raised his head again, with a view of dazzling whiteness in front of him.

So big and white! Still not good enough!

"Hmph... even after seeing it so many times before, why do I still react so much?"

Miss Junon had come in front of him by now, boosting her imposing presence by leaning forward with hands on her hips so close that her breath could be felt. The impact had now gone up a notch!

Still wearing only intimate underwear, the twin peaks behind her, affected by gravity, displayed a beautiful droplet shape. The beauty of the curves was breathtaking, and her slightly dazed eyes due to tiredness made her even more alluring.

Moreover, she was completely under his control in the illusion, so it wouldn't hurt to do a little something, right?

At that moment, Sullivan suddenly remembered what his teacher had told him when he was learning magic.

"Boy, though I think as a holy knight you shouldn't need me to remind you of this, but if you dare to misuse magic, I'll beat the crap out of you."

... What was he thinking?

"Hehe, relax, little Ellie, you'll grow up eventually."

Thanks to Junon's busy day, coupled with her extreme fatigue, she didn't think too much, yawned, and then plopped back onto the bed, pulling the covers over herself and falling asleep.

"Do girls sleep so carefreely in their rooms?"

Sullivan sighed, covering his face, his eyes inadvertently catching a glimpse of the spring light through the sheets.

"What?! Girl? What have you done, you beast!"

Johannes, who had just reconnected the communication, turned black in the face and roared on the spot.

"You heard wrong, nothing happened." Sullivan decisively cut off the communication.

...

Still at the Gilliast city wall, Shuma was waiting for Vivienne and Tiran's response.

"Is this disregarding my opinion directly?"

"Of course, Lady Aya can also present her thoughts."

"Uh, I just casually mentioned it..." Aya quickly shook her head, better not to meddle with thinking, it might cause trouble if she didn't understand.

But Vivienne seemed to have made up her mind.

"Send the message back, but don't make it public. If it's Shi, they probably won't use this as a negotiation capital."

Vivienne's idea was straightforward as everything so far was just speculation, with only footprints as evidence. Besides, the standard shoe soles issued by the holy knights weren't definitive proof—claiming they could be counterfeited couldn't be refuted.

"But what about your safety, Your Highness?"

Shuma was still concerned. "The clergy came for Heinrich's trial, and if they... "

"It won't happen."

"But what if—"

"Don't worry, that won't happen. I trust Shi completely in this matter. Even if something happens to me, he won't think of compromising with the clergy. Just tell him so he has peace of mind."

With a slight upward curve at the corner of her mouth, the Queen suddenly opened her arms, including Aya and Tiran. "Besides, I still have my lovely daughter and son-in-law. Ideally, Gilliast Castle is the safest place in the kingdom."

The princess, suddenly embraced, felt a bit shy despite being the mother. Though she was not a child anymore, being pulled into her mother's arms like this was still uncomfortable. As for Aya, she was even more flustered, especially when her mother-in-law's softness pressed against her arms.

But to be called a son-in-law directly, with such a flaunting tone, hm, it made her somewhat happy.

"Let's go, let's go, back to sleep!"

...

"Yawn..."

Somewhere in the distant West Continent, thousands of meters high in the sky, a dark airship moved through the clouds like a massive whale in the sea.

At the top of a capsule used as a laboratory, a small room, the metal door was pushed open from the inside.

Yuan yawned as he walked out, holding an empty cup in his hand.

CLimbing down the ladder to the second floor, Yuan was preparing to go to the pantry located at the back of the airship to get some coffee and cookies for a late-night snack. Delving into ancient texts was too taxing, especially since he hadn't slept for over ten days. Without topping up with sugar and caffeine, he wouldn't be able to withstand it.

... Of course, his body could regenerate, and he could consider pushing himself to the point of sudden death and then reviving to refresh his state.

But such a method was too brutal, akin to the capitalists exploiting the workers at the bottom. Right now, he wasn't in a state of anxiety to push himself to that level.

"Yo, Angelo."

"Mr. Yuan."

Passing by a small training room, Yuan was surprised to find someone inside.

"You're still practicing..." Seeing Angelo's well-defined upper body muscles and glistening sweat, Yuan couldn't help but click his tongue.

"Because of insufficient strength, I want to make good use of the time to improve."

"I wish Vera would work as hard as you. Speaking of which, where is Vera? I haven't seen her in these past few days while out foraging."

"As for Vera, I heard she went to Gilliast to have some fun, that's what I heard."

"... She went out to have fun for real?"

"Yes, and she even took quite a few things from Mr. Yuan's treasury."

Smack.

Yuan covered his face. Whose character did she learn from?