Liyami slowly savored her cup of black tea, but her eyes kept glancing over at Colin.
Although a lot had just happened, Liyami still wanted to know how Colin viewed her in this state.
After all, when she turned away earlier, she had noticed the expression on Colin’s face—an absent, almost stunned look, as if he had seen something unbelievable.
But an expression alone wasn’t enough proof.
Liyami wanted to hear Colin’s answer in his own words.
Thinking about what Lavinea had pretended to say as Colin earlier, Liyami felt a flush creep up her cheeks.
She forced herself to stay calm and asked Colin with a hint of anticipation in her voice, “By the way, what do you think of me in this maid outfit?”
Upon hearing her words, Colin fell silent.
After a long pause, he said in an extremely serious tone, “You look like you’re not even human.”
“You’re joking, right?”
Liyami laughed in exasperation.
She couldn’t believe she had actually expected some compliment to come from Colin’s ironclad mouth—what was she thinking?
Colin immediately realized his wording was problematic and quickly corrected himself: “I didn’t mean it that way. I meant…beautiful. Beautiful in an unreal way.”
At those words, Liyami almost fainted from anger.
Elinor, who couldn’t stand it any longer, interrupted: “Are you sure that sentence is supposed to be a compliment?”
Hearing Elinor’s interruption, Colin began to seriously reconsider whether his words were suitable as praise.
Seeing Colin’s reaction, Elinor thought he was hopeless. Meanwhile, Liyami noticed something subtle.
Elinor was sitting very close to Colin—not just close, but practically pressed up against his side.
They were so close it looked like a couple deeply in love.
This immediately put Liyami on alert.
She began recalling the past words and actions between Elinor and Colin.
Though Colin was like an impenetrable steel fortress, the girls in the squad always seemed to orbit around him.
Among them, Elinor was the closest.
Unlike Lavinea, whose carefully planned dates were always dismissed as mere shopping trips by Colin, and unlike Sifni, who was treated like a child and whose advances were brushed off with a smile, Elinor was different.
She never launched bold or direct dates like the others, yet she maintained a close relationship with Colin.
Liyami knew they both came from the Sanctuary—
Elinor as the current Saintess, Colin as the Sanctuary’s strongest Saint Knight, and they even shared the same Master.
Could it be…that she and Colin were actually a couple?
Was that why Colin kept rejecting the others’ invitations?
The thought made Liyami suddenly realize something was off.
Why was she even caring about this?
Even if Colin and Elinor were a couple, what did it matter?
The only ones hurt would be Lavinea and Sifni—not her.
She and Colin were purely good brothers.
Why should she care who Colin’s other half was?
Even if Colin married a stray dog from the roadside, it wouldn’t concern her.
That was how Liyami thought at first, but she quickly persuaded herself otherwise.
Yes, precisely because Colin and she were good brothers, she should know who his other half was, so she could help him strategize.
Otherwise, with Colin’s steel-like brain, it wouldn’t be long before they broke up.
With that realization, Liyami stopped focusing on the brooding Colin and instead turned to Elinor.
“By the way, Elinor, I heard you and Colin share the same Master, so you must be pretty close. Could it be that you two are actually a couple?”
Elinor blushed slightly and hastily denied, “No, that’s not true. We’re not a couple. Colin and I are childhood friends. We’ve grown up together since we were little.”
At that moment, Colin, snapping out of his thoughts, chimed in, “Elinor, my…brother, and I have all played together since we were kids.”
Liyami noticed Colin hesitated when mentioning his brother, and Elinor’s expression also changed slightly.
They seemed reluctant to recall him.
But if that was the case, why did Colin bring it up?
Before Liyami could ponder further, Colin continued.
“Until that day, when the Demon Race destroyed our village, only Elinor and I survived. Eventually, our Master found us and took us to the Sanctuary, where we grew up under his training and care.”
“Childhood friends, huh…”
Liyami murmured with a slight smile and asked again, “Since you’re childhood friends, you must have spent a lot of time together, which explains the closeness. Could it be that you even promised to marry each other when you grew up?”
“M-marriage? No, nothing like that…”
Elinor was clearly flustered by Liyami’s question.
She stammered out meaningless words but didn’t deny it outright. Liyami caught on to this subtlety.
Colin, however, flatly denied with no expression: “Marriage? We never made such promises when we were kids. Besides, Elinor is the Saintess now. She can’t get married until the next Saintess is chosen by the Holy Light.”
He paused, glanced at Liyami, then added, “Besides, we’re just childhood friends, not lovers. Marriage has nothing to do with it.”
“I see, I misunderstood. Sorry about that.”
Liyami apologized.
Though she noticed something odd in Colin’s words, she had achieved her goal—knowing that Colin and Elinor were just childhood friends, and although Elinor had other feelings for Colin, he only saw her as a childhood friend.
That was enough.
As for Colin’s unease, if he didn’t want to talk about it, she wouldn’t press.
Everyone has secrets they prefer to keep.
No need to pursue it further.
Seeing Liyami lost in thought and Elinor’s face slightly reddened, Colin asked, “Why are you asking this?”
Liyami calmly replied, “Isn’t looking out for your lifelong happiness what good brothers do? You can’t be sneaking around and getting into relationships behind my back.”
At this, Colin helplessly shrugged.
Then, as if remembering something, he said to both of them, “By the way, thanks to our Special Incident Response Squad’s efforts, the frequency of high-risk incidents in the Kingdom has decreased significantly. So the Kingdom has given us a long vacation.”
Upon hearing this, Liyami raised an eyebrow.
“Oh? The Kingdom finally gave us a break. How long?”
“That depends. If no special incidents occur, we should have about a month off.”
“And what if a special incident does happen?”
“Then the vacation is canceled immediately, and we assemble at once to deal with the situation.”