Aelia never expected this. Luke had just finished dealing with Histair Kong, who was tied to Catherine, and then he immediately ran off to see Lady Carol.
“Ughhh, why is this guy so damn annoying?!”
From a background standpoint, Carol was only a viscount’s wife with little real power. She should’ve been easy to handle.
But in terms of difficulty, Lady Carol was without a doubt the hardest one.
Because the others all had psychological issues. Only Lady Carol’s case also involved a physical one.
More precisely, it was Lady Carol’s husband, Viscount Green, who had both physical and psychological problems—he could only get it up when he saw his wife having an affair with someone else.
Normally, even when he did it himself, he stayed soft.
Viscount Green had sought out many famous doctors and even the Saintess for treatment, but nothing worked.
Because Lady Carol loved her husband deeply, she took the initiative to satisfy his fetish. But once that door to a new world opened, there was no stopping it. The two of them sank into it together.
This time was the same. The moment he heard the Hero had arrived, Viscount Green had already started eagerly fantasizing about his wife getting together with the Hero...
Even though she had been a man in her previous life, Aelia still found someone like Viscount Green utterly disgusting.
So she believed any normal man would find it hard to make a move when faced with a pair like Viscount Green and Lady Carol... but reality had slapped her hard across the face.
Luke had actually found time to solve both of their problems!
“How did he even do that? Elise, what exactly were you doing?”
The magic on Lady Carol had already gone through a second modification. Only Elise could trigger it.
No matter how Aelia thought about it, the magic should only have taken effect at the moment Elise caught them in bed.
But after what had happened before, Aelia had every reason to believe Luke had solved everything without even taking off his coat.
And that was indeed the case. Thinking Aelia was worried, Elise quickly came back to report:
“Your Highness Aelia, there’s no need to worry. Sir Luke didn’t do anything at all. We went together to pay a visit, then directly offered to help treat Viscount Green’s condition. Though Viscount Green was still rather stubborn at first, and even damaged the spiritual medicine Sir Luke brought, thanks to Your Highness Aelia, everything went very smoothly...”
Aelia was speechless.
She admitted she had never believed that bastard Hero was some upright gentleman, so she had overlooked this direct and honorable way of breaking through the problem head-on.
But Elise, did you remember that your mission was to hide in the shadows and observe whether the Hero would be seduced by anyone?
With you glaring from the side like some watchdog, any man would turn into a saint of self-restraint, okay?!
“Elise, you’ve worked hard. Thank you for doing so much for me...”
But Aelia only complained inwardly. On the surface, she still had to force out a helpless, stifled expression and thank Elise.
Still, there wouldn’t be a next time. She had already changed the setup... huh? Wait, something felt off.
Aelia carefully went over the chain of events from before and gradually realized the problem.
After being “forced” to help twice, she could no longer sit by and do nothing the third time.
Otherwise, Elise might start thinking things like, “Huh? Why isn’t Your Highness Aelia stepping in this time? Is she deliberately refusing to help? Could it be... she was trying to harm people before, and only helped because she had no choice? Does that mean Your Highness Aelia’s kindness has been fake all along? My god, I can’t believe she’s that kind of person. I’m completely disappointed in you.”
This wasn’t paranoia on her part. People’s hearts were hard to read.
At first glance, Elise seemed to admire her greatly. But what she really thought, only heaven knew.
Even if Elise truly did admire her, if Aelia’s scheming were exposed, or if she suddenly stopped acting in a way befitting the Saintess, would that admiration remain?
That was an unknown. She didn’t dare gamble on it.
So when it came to Catherine next, she could only continue helping and solve that matter too.
But that also meant the second modification she had painstakingly made earlier had become completely meaningless wasted effort.
And tracing it all back, it was still that bastard Hero’s fault.
If he hadn’t skipped over Catherine and triggered this second round of “help,” Aelia would’ve had plenty of reasons not to interfere.
(Damn it, why does this guy keep ruining my plans?!)
The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. But clever as she was, she quickly came up with a good idea.
She’d help only halfway.
She would help on Catherine’s side as usual, but she wouldn’t help with the cleanup involving the interest groups, nor with arranging a future for the male favorites. She’d just sit back and watch how that bastard Hero offended the entire noble circle and the royal family.
“Elise, for Miss Catherine’s matter next, you must assist Sir Luke properly.”
“Of course!”
For Elise, after everything that had happened this time, the thing she regretted most—or rather, felt most ashamed of—was that when she first heard about the socialite trio, her first thought had actually been to test Luke, or to think about how to help him resist their temptation.
And yet great and noble as Her Highness Aelia was, what she thought of was how to save them. Even Hero Luke, who had only just arrived, immediately understood Her Highness Aelia’s intentions after learning the rough details, and actively cooperated with her...
Everything was for the sake of making this country better. Making the world better.
Her vision had been far too small.
As the Saintess’s personal maid, she had truly failed in her role.
To make up for it, she spent the whole night gathering enough information and delivered it to Luke.
“Thank you for your help, Miss Elise.”
Early the next morning, Luke flipped through the materials Elise had compiled and nodded with a slight smile.
“I’m glad I could help... By the way, what should we do next? Go directly to Miss Catherine like before?”
“No. This matter involves too many factions. We can’t be that reckless.” Luke seemed strangely full of confidence, and spoke in a curious tone, almost like he was repeating someone else’s words. “Besides, we also need to consider how to settle those who are rescued.”
Elise suddenly understood.
This had to be the analysis that the all-capable Her Highness Aelia had given Sir Luke in advance. The moment she imagined the two of them having close contact somewhere she didn’t know about, her romantic soul burst into flames.
Maybe her feelings were too intense, because even Luke noticed. He quickly gave a fake cough, stopped showing that odd smile, and began discussing the cleanup in earnest.
Honestly, with Histair Kong helping after seeing the error of his ways, getting the list of involved nobles and the names of the male favorites was effortless. Histair Kong was also willing to provide a considerable amount of money to help settle the victims, and would even offer them places to work...
At first glance, there seemed to be no problem at all.
But for the Messiah Kingdom, where betrayals had been happening frequently lately, this was already a scandal on the level of a fuse to an explosion. In the worst-case scenario, the royal family might even silence everyone involved to bury the truth.
Therefore—
“So the real issue we need to solve now is... His Majesty the King’s attitude?” Elise finally realized.
