My Former Disciple Wants Me as His Bride

“I might not have been robbed at all, you know. Thanks to you distracting me with all that nonsense, Lord Ciel, I reacted too late. So you bear some responsibility for this too.”

“……”

“Even if you don’t want to run, you’re running. If you don’t want to get lost, make sure you keep up.”

With that, Eris grabbed Ciel by the collar and broke into a run.

Ciel stumbled along behind her for the first few steps, his gaze settling on the clear wine-red hair streaming behind her. Soon, his lips curved into a broad smile.

Just as I thought. This is going to be fun.

With a slight twist of his wrist, Ciel caught Eris’s hand firmly in his own. Startled, she looked back at him with a frown.

“What are you doing…?”

“It’s awkward running like this. Are you certain the thief went this way?”

“Yes, I saw him clearly.”

“Then let’s run a little faster. At this rate, anyone watching us would think we were on a date.”

Ciel laughed brightly and picked up his pace. Apparently, he had trained quite diligently over the years; his breathing remained steady, and he was remarkably fast on his feet. Of course, those long legs of his probably helped.

Before Eris knew it, she was the one being dragged along.

“Haah… Where did he go?”

Only after reaching a deserted back alley behind the square did Eris and Ciel finally stop running. Eris glanced around before bending over to catch her breath. It had been a while since she had run like that, and her heart was pounding hard enough to burst from her chest.

After breathing heavily for a moment, she lifted only her eyes to glance at Ciel.

His usually pale cheeks had blushed red as well, but he didn’t look nearly as winded as she did.

“Tired?”

“…A little.”

“This is why you should’ve reported it to the guards in the square. That’s what guards are there for.”

Which one of them is actually from this kingdom…? Listening to Ciel lecture her, Eris slowly straightened. At least after catching her breath for a moment, she felt considerably better.

“Aren’t you tired, Lord Ciel?”

“Well… this much is nothing.”

The way he shrugged and smiled looked suspiciously like he was showing off. Perhaps that was why Eris suddenly felt the urge to knock him down.

“That’s unexpected.”

Ciel raised an eyebrow at her remark.

“Did I look like I had poor stamina?”

“Sometimes the outside looks perfectly impressive, but there’s not much substance underneath.”

“Come now. You’ve already seen for yourself that I’m quite solid underneath too.”

Ciel strode closer and bent toward her.

“What have I—”

Eris instinctively began to protest, only to snap her mouth shut when a certain memory flashed through her mind.

“If you’ve already forgotten, should I show you again?”

“Th-that’s not what I meant! I was only saying your stamina might not be as good as you look.”

“My stamina, huh…. I could prove that too, if you wanted.”

Ciel lifted the tip of Eris’s chin lightly with his index finger and smiled.

“Interested?”

It wasn’t even midsummer yet, but the air suddenly felt unbearably warm. As though she could feel the sun blazing directly overhead, Eris frowned and smacked his hand away.

“Enough with the jokes. L-let’s check over there, shall we? He couldn’t have gotten very far.”

Before Ciel could say anything else ridiculous, Eris hurried away toward a narrow alley squeezed between two shabby buildings. Ciel seemed to remain where he was for a moment, but soon she heard his footsteps following behind her.

“At this rate, no one would guess Miss Eris is supposed to be my escort….”

“Ah, I got too far ahead, didn’t I? Sorry.”

“I’m worse with directions than you might think. So I’d appreciate it if you stayed close to me, Miss Eris.”

“…I’ll keep that in mind.”

Reminded of her actual duty, Eris drew a long breath to settle her impatience and adjusted her pace to match Ciel’s.

“So even this kingdom has places like this.”

Now that they were actually walking through the narrow alleyways, Eris gradually began to come to her senses. There hadn’t even been that much money in her pocket, yet she had dragged the person she was supposed to protect into a dangerous district over it.

She felt a sense of shame.

This was Elves.

It was a place where the boundary between legal and illegal had long since collapsed, leaving money and power as the only laws that truly mattered.

Old, misshapen buildings, expanded haphazardly until they seemed ready to blot out the sky, crowded the narrow alleys. Here and there, suspicious figures concealed by the darkness slipped through the shadows like smoke.

Every so often, a deathly scream or the sharp sound of something cutting through the air echoed from deeper within the maze of alleys. Yet the few people walking these already deserted streets paid no attention, merely quickening their pace.

This was the darkest and most dangerous shadow of the Kingdom of Celis—the hidden underside of the glittering nation that tourists were never meant to see.

Eris had wandered this way partly because she had been desperate to escape the awkward situation with Ciel, but that was only an excuse.

Bringing him all the way here because she had failed to keep a clear head had undeniably been her mistake.