As Eugene approached the closed door to open it, he felt muted footsteps move away on the other side. Eugene stood and waited in front of the door for a few moments. Then, seeing how the door remained closed, the sounds of someone slowly sneaking drew closer once more.

Eugene immediately pulled the door open.

“Kyaaah!”

“Eeeek!”

Two foolish-sounding screams rang out.

Eugene stared through the open doorway with a sullen face. On the other side of the door, he saw Dezra, who had jumped back a few steps and was now caught in a guilty posture, and Ciel, who was keeping up an impudent expression as if she refused to admit to having just made such an embarrassing sound.

The ‘kyaaah’ had come from Ciel, while the ‘eeek’ had come from Dezra.

“What are you doing here?” Eugene demanded.

“What do you think I was doing? I was just passing through this hallway,” Ciel blatantly lied as she quickly calmed her rapidly beating heart from the ensuing shock. Ciel glanced sideways at Dezra, who was still shrinking backward, and scolded her, “Stupid Dezra, why did you make such an unsightly noise?”

“H-huh?” Dezra stammered.

“You started making noises like an idiot just now,” Ciel accused. “I’m talking about those ridiculous screams — ‘kyaaah’ and ‘eeek.’ No matter how surprised you were, isn’t it going too far to scream twice in a row?”

“Wh-what do you mean by that?” Dezra protested. “I didn’t scream twice. Also, strictly speaking, the sound I made just now was more of a gasp rather than a screa—”

“No, you definitely screamed twice. Thanks to that, I also froze out of surprise!” Ciel insisted, having no intention of admitting that she had let out any scream. At the same time, a question was brewing in the corner of her heart, ‘I was definitely paying attention to any signs of his presence, so how?’

Eugene had also noticed that Ciel was reading the traces of his presence. So, to tease Ciel, he had hidden all signs of his presence and waited at the door. No matter how keen Ciel’s senses were, it was impossible for Ciel to detect him if Eugene was determined to hide his presence.

“I only screamed once!” Dezra argued.

“Dezra! Do you, a squire, really dare to refute me, your senior officer?” Ciel demanded as she glared at Dezra with a stern expression.

It was just as Ciel had said.

As part of the massive recruitment drive enacted by the Knights of the Black Lion, Dezra followed her dreams and joined the Third Division of the Black Lion Knights, led by Carmen Lionheart, whom Dezra so admired.

Thanks to that, Dezra had fortunately been able to don the uniform of the Black Lion Knights, but unfortunately, Dezra’s skills were actually quite...