Morris froze on the spot.

Seeing that, Sherlock thought he hadn't heard her clearly. She fought down the shyness in her heart and raised her voice again.

“I'm really sorry, Mr. Morris. I can't offer myself to you, because... because I have a fiancé!!”

For a moment, Morris's brain simply couldn't process all the details in a situation like this.

Like how Sherlock actually sounded very apologetic.

Like how she had been the one to bring up offering herself in the first place.

In other words, if not for this fiancé, then maybe Sherlock would've already proposed to Morris right now...

But Morris couldn't think that far!

Morris only heard one line—

“I have a fiancé!”

“Ah, ah, I see... well, you are a princess, after all...” Morris held his forehead and collapsed back into the chair. “A princess, after all...”

Honestly, that was normal enough. Princesses were often used as bargaining chips in political marriages. To be frank, Morris hated that kind of plot the most. Free love was obviously the true path!

As a seasoned victim of arranged marriage by parental decree, Morris loathed this kind of thing with all his heart. Half a month ago, Alex had nearly bundled him together with Lenna like some buy-one-get-one gift pack and handed them off to the entire Church of Lunhai. If he hadn't run away to escape the marriage, he wouldn't have fled Macedon in such a sorry state.

After putting himself in her shoes and thinking it through with great care, Morris couldn't help but start sympathizing with the girl.

Sherlock wasn't a wizard, nor was she a Saint. She was just an ordinary princess. Well, not that princesses could really be called ordinary...

But she had no chance and no power to resist reality.

Morris at least had it better. The moment he got fed up, he could storm out of the church and flee across the world.

But Sherlock?

Once Sherlock lost her identity as the princess of the Luna Duchy, she would be nothing. She could only be carved up by others as they pleased.

“I'm sorry, really, truly sorry.” Sherlock timidly raised her head and looked at Morris, who was sitting upright in the chair. “Mr. Morris... will you leave me because of this...?”

In her imagination, Morris was different from other men, but he was probably still after her body, at least to some extent.

Once he realized there was no chance between them, even Morris would probably choose to leave. After all, he was such a young and powerful wizard. Who knew how many people would love to marry their daughters to him? There was no reason for him to stay hung up on one impossible girl like her.

The moment she imagined Morris marrying someone else, holding a wedding, while she had to stand there smiling and cheerfully hand over a gift, Sherlock couldn't help pressing her lips together.

“Leave? Leave what?” Morris looked completely baffled. Sure, he felt a little disappointed, but he hadn't approached her for that in the first place. Everything had just happened naturally. Morris himself had never expected any reward. “Why would I leave you?”

“B-because...” The moment Sherlock heard that, she felt her cheeks slowly heating up. He looked like he hadn't realized it at all, but that line sounded practically like a confession. “I... no... it's nothing...”

Sherlock shyly lowered her head and covered her face, feeling like a steaming engine about to overheat.

She lifted her eyes and couldn't help comparing the Morris in front of her with the fiancé she had never met.

That fiancé's background couldn't even be described as merely impressive. If she had to put it into words, he and ordinary people simply didn't exist on the same level.

One thing worth mentioning was that he was also a wizard, and a rare genius among wizards at that. He had been taken in by his teacher as a child, and under that teacher's training, he had grown in less than ten years to a level where he could train in the Demon Realm.

Of course, the most terrifying part was still his background. In the current world, there were probably fewer than a hundred people more intimidating than him.

Because this fiancé of hers...

was the current Pope of the Lunhai Holy Church!

For certain political goals, the royal family was trying to arrange a marriage alliance with the Empire of Erthas while also planning to absorb the entire Lunhai Holy Church into the country. So as a princess, she and the Holy Maiden of the Lunhai Holy Church had temporarily become weights on the scales.

“I really wonder which lucky guy gets to be engaged to Her Highness the Princess,” Morris said with a gentle smile. He truly didn't feel much about this sort of thing. If it wasn't his, then it wasn't his. There was no need to force anything. “I'm seriously jealous.”

“N-not at all, Mr. Morris.” Sherlock lowered her head and muttered, “You're such a smooth talker.”

“Oh, then I hope every instant noodle cup he opens is missing the seasoning packet.” Morris shrugged. “And while we're at it, may he never get any promo codes when he reads novels.”

How vicious!

If she casually cursed a stranger like this, she was definitely going to hell, wasn't she?

“I don't really get that part, but for now, I should be fine,” Sherlock said with a smile. “Because we can't find him right now. He's missing.”

“Missing?” Morris frowned. “Ran off to escape the marriage?”

“Probably.” Sherlock sounded a little helpless when she said that. She had been a little angry at first, but now she didn't have any extra strength left to waste on anger, which made her seem unexpectedly soft and delicate. “So I really hate him. Like, super hate him.”

She sounded a little happy and a little aggrieved at the same time.

“He actually didn't want me.”

Morris nodded to show he completely understood. She was such a beautiful girl, after all. Sherlock had been pampered since childhood, used to being treasured in everyone's hands. Her fiancé running away had given her temporary freedom, sure, but his attitude, which was infinitely close to rejection, had definitely made her feel a kind of frustration she'd never known before.

So of course it was only natural for Sherlock to hate him.

“Come on, if he doesn't want you, someone definitely will. And honestly, if he can't even cherish a girl as wonderful as Miss Sherlock, then he's either gay or doomed to stay single forever,” Morris said with a straight face. “Don't worry. Once I catch him, I'll absolutely beat him up for you. I'll beat him till he's crying for his parents and kneeling on the ground, begging you to marry him! And then you'll snort at him and say, 'Oh, now you remember me? Too late! Get lost!' Then you'll kick him away in one clean shot!”

The more Morris spoke, the more fired up he got. At the end, he couldn't help clapping his hands.

“See? Wouldn't that feel amazing?!”

Morris had lived two lives, but his first one had actually been very short. He had no real romantic experience, and he'd never had this kind of interaction with a girl before. So he had no idea that what he was doing right now was actually the most correct choice.

Once a girl starts complaining to you, you don't need to care about anything else. Logic? Objective analysis? All bullshit!

You just need to show that you're willing to stay by her side.

That was one of the fastest ways to max out a girl's affection for you in an instant.

But Morris didn't understand any of that. He was simply saying what was honestly on his mind.

Sherlock stared blankly at the serious look on Morris's face.

She knew perfectly well that her fiancé was the current Pope, one of the strongest wizards alive. His strength absolutely couldn't be underestimated. Even if Morris had already reached above Lawform Tier at such a young age, if he really wanted to beat the Pope to his knees like he said, that could probably only happen in a dream.

But she was happy.

So happy that hot tears spilled out as she looked at Morris.

After seventeen years of a lonely life, she had finally found salvation after meeting Morris.

All that loneliness from having no one to share her special interests with.

All those feelings and sighs she could only bury deep in her heart.

All the pain of silently resisting an unfair marriage alone.

Today, at last, she had found the one person she could talk to.

Thinking that, Sherlock silently opened her arms toward Morris. Morris froze for a moment, then hesitantly tried walking over. The next instant, she pulled him fiercely into her embrace.

“Thank you, Mr. Morris.” Sherlock buried her face against his shoulder, and her tears soaked into his clothes. “I'm so glad I met you.”

“Ah? Ah, yeah...” Morris could understand her a little too. He gently patted the girl's back and said, “Don't worry. Everything will get better. But there's something I need to tell you first.”

“What is it?” Sherlock asked through her sniffles.

“We might have to sleep together tonight.”

“You really are the same kind of horny bastard as all the others!!!”

“I'm innocent! Seriously, I'm innocent!!!”