Chapter 38: No traitor found yet, but one will appear soon.

Since Roselia was so concerned about his safety, Morris decided to listen to her advice.

Mainly, he had never intended to approach Clement on his own initiative; it was always Clement who came looking for him first.

In other words, Roselia’s worries had been unnecessary from the very beginning.

Morris wasn’t a masochist; he would never purposely anger Elvira.

For the time being, Morris continued as usual, observing the situation at his own pace.

The next day was much the same.

In the blink of an eye, it was already the afternoon of the third day, and Morris had gradually grown accustomed to life as a captive.

If being a captive could be considered a job, then all he needed to do was ‘please’ the Queen every night, and during the rest of the day, as long as he stayed within the palace and didn’t disturb anyone, he was free to spend his time however he liked.

The food and clothing provided to him were also of noble quality. If Morris weren’t so averse to luxury, he could easily have dressed like a young nobleman from Clement’s family.

If he really resigned himself and provided Elvira with more emotional value, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to wear the royal ceremonial attire either.

Even if many people couldn’t accept Morris, it didn’t matter—Elvira would simply silence them with her authority.

One could say that Morris’s life as a captive was exactly the kind of pampered existence many people dreamed of.

Morris wasn’t some lofty saint, and he admitted that this kind of life wasn’t bad at all.

If the one keeping him weren’t Elvira but rather the Queen of Fastal, and he was occasionally allowed to leave the palace for other places, it would be even better.

Elvira’s personality was simply too terrible. Just look at last night’s ‘battle’—Morris had already gone along with her, not resisting at all.

But because she felt there was no thrill if Morris didn’t resist, Elvira demanded that he take the initiative, or she’d cut off all the soldiers’ allowances.

This wasn’t exactly emotional blackmail; rather, the soldiers who had their stipends cut wouldn’t dare oppose Queen Elvira, so in the end, they would only resent Morris.

She believed that a clever man like Morris would make the wise choice between taking the initiative to embrace her or being hated by the soldiers.

Forced to choose the former, Morris had no choice but to follow her demands, but then she pressed further and insisted that he praise her while doing so.

For Morris, praising Elvira was a hundred times harder than taking the initiative to embrace her.

Morris really did frown, struggling to find a way to praise her without betraying his own feelings.

Like, for example, praising her noble status or something similar.

Luckily, Elvira hadn’t demanded that he enumerate her virtues; otherwise, if Morris really couldn’t think of any, he might’ve dropped the act entirely, gone all out, and left her so mind-blown she wouldn’t be able to think about anything else.

Even when not in battle, Elvira would often, intentionally or not, bring up the Queen of Fastal, belittling her in front of Morris to enjoy his reaction.

All in all, it was rather awful.

For someone like Morris, who preferred women with gentle and understanding personalities, this captive life, even if not quite torture, was certainly no pleasure.

It was nothing more than an expedient measure to avoid internal strife among the high-ranking officials of Fastal.

Once the people of Fastal more or less forgot about him, Morris would surely end this kind of life.

Conversely, before he was forgotten back in Fastal, Morris would have no choice but to keep up this lifestyle.

After that, Elvira didn’t bring up the topic of traitors with Morris again.

But thanks to some secret intel sent by Dorenia, the spy lady, Morris gained a deeper understanding of the matter.

Strangely, even someone as powerful as Dorenia, the captain of the royal guards, couldn’t find any traitors around Elvira besides Elvira herself.

After two days of investigation, with not a single clue found, it was no wonder Dorenia had started to worry.

“Could it be that woman’s already discovered my identity, and is just pretending not to know, making me lead the investigation as a way to wait for me to slip up? If that’s the case, I should keep my distance from you. Otherwise, you might end up stuck in that room every single day again.”

At half past two on the third afternoon, in the captain’s office reserved for the commander of the Queen’s Special Forces, Dorenia—seated in her office chair—looked over at Morris, who was sipping tea in the room. Her cold voice was even more stern than usual.

“No, with Elvira’s personality, if she really found out you were a spy, she’d absolutely fly into a rage. Having one of her confidantes turn out to be a traitor would be a huge slap in the face for her. Besides, you haven’t done anything suspicious lately; you’re still just lying low, aren’t you? So I think that possibility is unlikely.”

Unlike Dorenia, whose expression was tense as she suspected exposure.

Morris remained calm as ever. He calmly analyzed the situation while sitting on the reception sofa in the center of the room, drinking his tea.

As for why Morris was able to appear here so openly—

That was, of course, because this place wasn’t exactly a secret area, and as one of the Queen’s confidantes, Dorenia herself had invited him to ‘visit.’

Given that, the two maids assigned to serve and monitor Morris had no choice but to obediently wait outside the locked door.

After all, it would never occur to them that Dorenia, this seemingly strict, reliable, and dashing woman, was actually a spy for a third nation.

“You’re right, I really haven’t done anything special lately, just keeping a low profile as always. I haven’t done anything that would make that woman feel the need to test me, ah…”

Honestly, Dorenia didn’t really believe she’d been exposed, but since she hadn’t found the traitor, it was hard not to let her imagination run wild.

Now that Morris said she hadn’t been exposed either, Dorenia’s expression eased a bit.

But just as she finished her sentence, Dorenia suddenly looked as if she’d remembered something quite bad; her usually handsome and stern face took on an unexpectedly dazed and cute expression.

Which was quite true.

As she went over her recent actions, thinking if she’d done anything that could have revealed her ‘traitor’ identity, Dorenia suddenly recalled the day she had secretly snuck food from Morris behind Elvira’s back.

That was, without a doubt, the greatest betrayal of all.

Thinking of what had happened that day, a faint blush spread across Dorenia’s face.

Because Morris acted as if nothing had ever happened, she had almost forgotten that she really had done such things with Morris.

She could ignore it if she didn’t think about it, but now that it came to mind, Dorenia suddenly felt restless.

Come to think of it, right now, she and Morris were alone together.

Oh no—why did she suddenly feel her whole body growing hot?