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EP.85 A Man Being Tempted (6)

“Especially when you sent a letter to the family, tell me how you wrote it.”

There must have been something to cause such an absurd misunderstanding, so they must have done something like that, right?

“There wasn’t much to it, you know?”

Just that I know someone who has something interesting and wondering if they knew about it.

There’s this thing called a bead, and they want to entrust her family with researching it.

If something good gets developed, we could do business together.

If you’re interested, contact the boss.

“Is that really all?”

“Yep. There wasn’t anything else to write.”

Looking at Ariane’s blank face, it seemed she didn’t understand the situation at all.

Even I find it unpleasant to be associated with someone like her.

It’s not that Ariane is bad, but isn’t she too young?

‘Of course, Ariane is the same age as Fran. But she’s a loli, isn’t she? It’s unpleasant to be misunderstood in that way.’

Especially, my conscience is really bothering me.

So I tried to think it wasn’t her, that there must be another culprit.

But.

‘No matter how I look at it, all the evidence in this case kept pointing to Ariane.’

That’s why, no matter how much I wanted to defend her, I couldn’t.

“Is your family not saying anything else to you?”

“I’m still getting scolded a lot for skipping school without permission.”

So apart from that, the family hasn’t been meddling with her?

Then there’s no more information I can get from Ariane.

‘So they were planning to take me down without touching her.’

The problem is, whether I’m kissing another woman or doing something even worse, seeing that wouldn’t make Ariane lose her feelings for me, nor would it make her burst out in anger.

If Ariane’s family is trying to set me up, I need to clear up this ridiculous misunderstanding as soon as possible.

“…Did my family do something to you, boss?”

“I only have suspicions for now. But for those suspicions to be true, you and I would have to be involved, you know? But we’re not, so I’m still unsure.”

“Involved, you say?”

“Yeah. As in, a serious relationship between a man and a woman.”

“Eeeeh?!?!”

Hearing my words, Ariane’s eyes widened as if I was saying something nonsensical.

Of course, it’s understandable.

Even I thought I was an idiot when I first suspected this.

“Smoke keeps coming from a chimney that hasn’t been lit. Don’t you think we need to check where that smoke is coming from?”

“You think that smoke is coming from me? What did I do?”

“Nothing. What have we done?”

The only thing that’s suspicious is when we went to the front lines together to help with her scenario.

“If we haven’t done anything, why do you think it’s me? It must be someone else. And what exactly happened to you?”

“…It’s too obscene to say out loud.”

How could I tell a kid that her family hired a prostitute to seduce me?

“You said it’s because of me. Then I should know the situation!”

That’s right.

Ariane’s words were correct, so I had no choice but to tell her.

“Your family seems to have seen us as that kind of relationship, and they’re trying to separate us by making moves on me. They set me up with a woman. Somehow, I found out that the woman was hired to approach me.”

“I still don’t believe what you’re saying, boss. I can’t imagine my family misunderstanding my relationship with you and doing such an obscene thing.”

“Yeah, I couldn’t imagine it either. But all the evidence that’s come out points to you being the culprit.”

“Ugh… Evidence? You even have that?”

Ariane comes from no less than a duke’s family.

A prestigious family respected by everyone.

It was hard to believe they would do such an obscene thing.

Although it was embarrassing to say, I swallowed my pride and finished explaining the situation.

After hearing everything, Ariane burst out laughing.

“Come on~ It’s not me!! My family wouldn’t do such a weird thing. It’s totally childish and not fun at all.”

The method of attaching a woman to separate a man.

It’s a childish trick to the point of being ridiculous, but according to the woman, the success rate is quite high.

It’s natural for feelings to cool off when you see the man you love fooling around with another woman.

“I’d like to say it’s probably not you, but don’t you remember the excuse you made when you skipped school without permission?”

“!!!!”

As luck would have it, the excuse she made then was strangely intertwined with the current situation.

“What if they took your excuse more seriously than expected? I know your family is prestigious and has a long history, but how many fathers would sit idly by while their daughter hangs out with a strange guy? If it were me, I might have done something childish too.”

“……”

My words seemed to be quite convincing, as Ariane’s face hardened.

“Nothing’s certain yet. I’m just asking you to look into it because we don’t know for sure.”

Honestly, the chances of it not being true are higher.

Isn’t this information obtained by guessing based on what the woman brought?

The reliability is very low.

Nevertheless, I thought it was worth checking out.

“Can you do it?”

“It doesn’t feel good to be suspected like this, but since it’s a request from you, boss, I’ll give it a try.”

“Thank you.”

I never imagined that SSR characters could put me in such a difficult position.

I felt that I needed to be on high alert.

After all, the people I’ll be dealing with from now on are nobles, aren’t they?

Even if I knew that Ariane’s parents had tried to harm me, it wasn’t something I could retaliate against for what I’d suffered.

All I could do was clear up the misunderstanding and ask them to stop their ridiculous shenanigans.

‘People really are the same everywhere. Even here, I have to endure this because of these damn birth differences.’

This is a world where commoners can’t dare to defy nobles.

No matter how unfairly you’re treated by nobles, no one will take your side.

So, for my own survival, I had to use whatever I could.

Fortunately, one of the things I could use was my ‘friendship with Ariane,’ and it was likely to be a weakness for the other party.

===

**

===

When I returned to the academy dormitory after hearing strange things from the mercenary boss to whom I owed a debt of gratitude.

I couldn’t help but laugh at how absurd it all was.

It was ridiculous to link the boss and myself, and it was incomprehensible that someone would hire a woman to make such an obscene request to interfere.

“Whoever it is, I’ll definitely make them apologize later. How stupid must they be to bother the boss like that? They must be a real idiot.”

Could my family be a little suspicious?

‘That’s impossible.’

If my father had even the slightest suspicion about the boss and me.

Instead of resorting to such underhanded tactics, he would have called me in and given me a stern scolding.

How little must he trust his own daughter to do such a thing?

‘My parents aren’t like that!’

I was still confident at that point.

Thinking how pitiful whoever the boss was meeting must be.

Not knowing that I was that pitiful woman.

Not wanting to be misunderstood by the boss for even a day, I returned home as soon as the weekend of the following week arrived.

And I had a one-on-one meeting with my father.

At first, I asked about how the contract with the boss regarding the beads was progressing.

My father casually explained the contract details and how the research on the beads was proceeding.

“But I wonder how you came to know such a person. How did you get to know him?”

Perhaps because I brought up the topic of the boss, my father took the bait without much suspicion.

“Actually, my friend is in that kind of relationship with the boss. You could say they’ve promised each other a future.”

“What?”

“The reason I first met him was because that friend asked me to deliver a letter.”

The friend who desperately asked me to deliver a letter when being dragged off to the battlefield.

I said that I went to the general store to fulfill that friend’s request, and that’s how I was able to build a relationship with the boss.

My father, looking quite flustered, asked again if that was really all there was to it.

“Are you really not involved with that man in any way?”

“……”

When I heard that question from my dad, I think I instinctively felt it.

The fact that the boss’s suspicion wasn’t so far-fetched after all.

“Why would I lie? What reason would I have to do that?”

“Ahem! Hmm! Y-yes, that’s right. There’s no reason for that. Right! My daughter wouldn’t lie.”

“The boss might seem prickly at first glance and could be misunderstood as a bad person, but he’s actually a really good person. I’m just supporting my friend’s relationship.”

“Right! If they’ve promised a future, he must take responsibility!”

Dad’s excessive enthusiasm was suspicious.

There’s no reason to be happy about the boss promising a future with my friend, is there?

But what if, as the boss said, he had suspected something between the boss and me?

Then there would be plenty of reason to be happy hearing that he had promised a future with a friend.

“But you know, there’s this strange woman hanging around the boss lately, right? Apparently, she’s really bothering him. And my friend has to ask him to wait for 10 years because of military service. So, Dad, if a man is asked to wait for 10 years, would he really wait?”

The more I spoke, the more my suspicion was turning into certainty.

Just seeing my father’s thoroughly flustered expression made me think there must be something to this.

“Ten years might be a bit difficult…”

“Ah~ Is that so? And this is just my thought, but that woman seems really suspicious, you know? It’s like she has a reason to seduce the boss, as if someone hired her to do it, don’t you think?”

“!!!”

My father’s eyes wavered for a moment.

But befitting the head of a duke’s family, he quickly regained his composure.

However, now that my suspicion had turned to certainty, I couldn’t just let it go.

“Dad.”

“Y-yes?”

“That strange woman… did you send her, Dad?”

“What nonsense are you talking about!”

“That’s what I’m saying. I couldn’t understand why I was being suspected of such nonsense either.”

“How dare you! You’re my daughter, how could you be involved with a man of no pedigree!!”

“Exactly. Why would you do such a thing, Dad?”

“Ah, Ariane!”

“I’m asking why you misunderstood my relationship with the boss.”

I felt betrayed by someone I trusted.

“I went to the boss and told him there’s no way you’d make such a ridiculous misunderstanding, that my dad isn’t that kind of person. But it turns out you were the real culprit? This is such a mess, what should I do?”

It’s not just an ordinary relationship, he’s the one who saved my life!

“No, Ariane! It’s a misunderstanding!”

The one who first made the absurd misunderstanding was Dad.

I felt dizzy.

The mess Dad had created was beyond what I could handle.

“Damn it, what did you do to the boss!! If you don’t want to cut ties with me, spill everything, and don’t leave anything out!!!!”