“Erika!”

Just then, Gladys suddenly returned.

When she saw a group of people gathered by the door and a human soldier accusing Erika, her expression changed at once.

Gladys quickened her pace and swept Erika into her arms right in front of the soldier. Her azure eyes held a hint of hostility.

“What are you doing?”

Faced with Gladys’s question, the lead soldier didn’t answer right away. He simply gave her a brief once-over.

“Are you this child’s mother?”

“What about it?”

“Well, you see…”

The lead soldier didn’t bother with a lengthy explanation. He briefly told Gladys what had just happened.

After listening, Gladys lowered her gaze to Erika, gently stroked the top of her head, and asked with concern, “Are you all right?”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m okay…” Erika bit her lip, looking aggrieved. “Gladys, I really wasn’t lying. There really was someone in there just now. You have to believe me.”

“I believe you.”

Hearing Gladys’s answer, the soldier bristled. “Hey, miss, wasn’t what I just told you clear enough?”

“She wouldn’t lie.”

Gladys narrowed her eyes and said quietly, “I know better than you whether she’s lying.”

“Miss, I know grown-ups dote on their children, but indulging her like this isn’t right.”

Faced with Gladys’s attitude, the lead soldier could only sigh. “If this little girl wasn’t lying, then tell me: how did the person in the room get out?”

“There are plenty of ways.”

Gladys replied, “Magic, for example. Someone could leave without making a sound.”

“So you’re saying they used some kind of invisibility magic to fool us?”

“Not just invisibility. I said there are plenty of ways.”

With a cold look in her eyes, Gladys replied icily, then carried Erika into the room herself.

Her azure eyes swept across the room.

Held in Gladys’s arms, Erika noticed...

...that Gladys’s sharp gaze missed not a single corner of the room.

“Gladys?”

Erika called softly, sounding a little anxious. She wanted Gladys to make it clear that she hadn’t been lying.

Hearing her call, Gladys gently stroked Erika’s hair and gave her a small smile without saying a word.

In an instant, Gladys extended her pale arm. Magic gathered at her fingertips.

“Tap.”

She lightly touched the air with one finger. A clear sound, like a drop falling into water, rang out, and an invisible wave of energy rippled through the room.

In the blink of an eye, a chill spread through the entire room.

The weather had been sweltering, but under Gladys’s magic, the whole room turned cool, as if someone had switched on the air conditioning.

“A-a mage who can cast without chanting!?”

Everyone froze at the sight, including the soldier who’d just been arguing with Gladys.

The room fell silent.

The coolness steadily intensified, growing colder and colder.

Then, as if from nowhere, several frosted footprints appeared across the room.

They first appeared by the windowsill.

Then they gradually emerged toward the bed. They stopped abruptly halfway to the door.

…

Everyone stared at the changes before them, dumbfounded.

No one had expected the young woman standing before them to be a mage—and one who could cast without chanting, at that!

Mages weren’t exactly rare in this world, but ordinary mages usually had to chant to give themselves buffs, such as invisibility.

But this woman clearly hadn’t chanted, and the magic she’d used wasn’t some kind of buff at all. It was destructive magic powerful enough to change the environment!

Just who was she!?

Everyone was astonished, and at the same time, they couldn’t help wondering who the woman before them was.

A mage who could cast without chanting was already a major figure, generally speaking. And the magic this woman had used wasn’t ordinary magic, either.

Glancing at their shocked faces, Gladys said calmly, “See these footprints? The person was probably still hiding in the room at first, then escaped while you were opening the door, and you didn’t notice.

“It’s obvious these are a man’s footprints. Erika wasn’t lying. This was your own incompetence, yet you’re blaming someone else.”

The lead soldier looked somewhat embarrassed at that.

“It’s also possible… those footprints were already there.”

“The landlady said we’re the only ones staying in this room.”

“Whether or not someone was in the room before, the magic you just used doesn’t prove that this child definitely wasn’t lying.”

“Heh. If I’m not mistaken, you’re one of the warriors guarding this town, right?”

Gladys’s voice turned ice-cold. She fixed the man with a sharp stare. “If all the warriors in this town are like you, then your lord ought to take a good, hard look at himself.”

“You—!”

Angered by the insult, the lead soldier’s face darkened. He wanted to argue back, but at the last moment, he thought better of it and shut his mouth.

Argue with a great mage?

The lead soldier felt like an idiot. She could use magic, so whatever she said must be right.

The atmosphere grew rather awkward.

With a mage standing right in front of them, they couldn’t exactly argue the point.

Just then, another soldier patted the lead soldier on the shoulder.

“Forget it, Captain. It’s no big deal.”

“Tch.”

The lead soldier spat on the floor, clearly displeased, then turned to the landlady.

“Landlady, don’t call us over again unless something serious happens.

“Since you’ve got a great mage here, there’s no need to bother us.”

“Yes, yes. I’m very sorry, sir.”

The landlady put on a smile and began apologizing. “I’m sorry to have troubled you all tonight. If you don’t mind, why not go downstairs for a drink? It’s all on the house.”

“No need. We still have patrol duty.”

The lead soldier waved a hand, then led the others away. Before leaving, he didn’t even glance at Gladys or Erika.

Seeing how things had turned out, the landlady could only sigh.

“Sigh.”

She shook her head at Gladys. “Miss, don’t take this the wrong way, but whether or not the child was lying, you shouldn’t have treated those soldiers like that.

“Maybe you were right, but they were doing their job responsibly. You should’ve thanked them.”

“But I wasn’t wrong, and they accused Erika of lying,” Gladys replied bluntly.

“Forget it.”

The landlady waved a hand. “I’m not going to argue with you. Anyway, you can stay in this room if you want. There aren’t any other rooms available right now. That’s that.”

With that, the landlady left too.

Now only Gladys and Erika remained in the second-floor hallway.

Gladys carried Erika back into the room.

The soldiers had rummaged through it, leaving it rather messy. But the two of them didn’t have many belongings with them, so they didn’t pay it much mind.

Gladys gently set Erika on the bed. The coldness that had been on her face was gone, replaced by tenderness.

Her azure eyes took in Erika, then she gently pinched her cheek.

“That’s a lovely outfit.”

“Gladys…”

Erika said her name softly and blinked. “Weren’t you a little cold just now? You shouldn’t have treated them like that. They came to help me, too.”

“But you weren’t lying, were you?”

Gladys didn’t think much of it. “They were the ones in the wrong, yet they scolded you. That wasn’t right.”

“But…”

“All right, let’s not talk about that anymore.

“Erika, you should know that if anyone dares bully you in front of me, I won’t go easy on them—even if they’re the emperor of this country.”

Gladys gently rubbed the top of Erika’s head. “Are you hungry? I bought you something to eat.”

As she spoke, Gladys took a big pile of dried meat from her clothes.

Erika couldn’t resist good meat, of course. She immediately grabbed a piece and popped it into her mouth.

“B-but… that person really left…?” Erika asked, still eating, but clearly concerned.

“It’s okay. There’s no one else in this room. I checked with magic just now. An ordinary person wouldn’t be able to evade it.” Gladys smiled.

With Gladys by her side, Erika really wasn’t as worried anymore. She felt that even if that shadow appeared again, Gladys would be able to handle it.

But when Erika remembered how scared she’d been earlier, while Gladys wasn’t there, she couldn’t help asking:

“Where did you go today?”

“To make money.”

As she spoke, Gladys pulled out a large bag of gold coins. A faint glow came from inside it, making Erika’s heart jolt.

Where had she gotten so many gold coins?

Had she stolen them?

Erika had questions, but she didn’t ask. She just kept eating the dried meat.

After quickly chewing through a few bites, Erika suddenly remembered something. She pointed to the fruit on the table. “Gladys, those are for you.”

“You bought them?”

“Yeah. I’ve never seen you eat anything, so I bought some. I didn’t know if you’d like them…”

“Thank you.”

Gladys smiled again. Lowering her head, she brought her vermilion lips close to Erika’s ear and, catching her off guard, gently took the earlobe between them once more.

“Hiss~!”

At the sudden stimulation, Erika’s little tail instantly popped out, standing straight as an antenna.

Her body went limp, and a deep blush flooded her cheeks.

“This isn’t... how you greet someone!”

“It is.”

Gently lifting Erika into her arms, Gladys let her pale, jade-like palms rest against the other girl’s soft, pink skin. Her touch was feather-light as she began to undress her.

“Now that you’ve eaten, go wash up and get some rest.”

Erika did want a bath—she’d worked up quite a sweat outside that afternoon, after all.

But having someone else undress her was still far too embarrassing to bear.

Once Gladys finished undressing Erika, she began to remove her own clothes as well, revealing flawless, jade-smooth skin and a perfectly curved figure without reservation.

“Are we... bathing together?”

“What else? There’s only one bathroom here.”

That’s not even a real excuse...