It was now getting close to the academy's curfew.
Stephen was feeling a headache from sleepiness, to the point that he hadn't even been able to take a short nap today. He was extremely tired.
But today, he had to go to that nightclub.
He still had to track down the Hollow Crown gang. He hadn't gone there yesterday, and he had to maintain his identity as a regular visitor who came to this place every other night.
Although Stephen couldn't even put a sip of alcohol into his mouth, which would cause problems for his act.
And alcohol wasn't the only problem Stephen had there. There was an even worse problem: he didn't like anyone touching him.
So Stephen wasn't expecting not to be discovered, but that wasn't a problem for Stephen as long as he could investigate and obtain what he wanted.
...
Inside the Venezia nightclub, where the atmosphere was noisy and the commotion was loud.
A group of young people wearing strange and revealing clothes were dancing in the hall, while some of them were drinking alcohol and laughing at the tables.
Stephen, with his yellow hair and yellow eyes, was sitting and drinking juice. He was the only one who seemed out of place in this place.
He looked like a white spot on a pitch-black sheet of paper, which made everyone's eyes turn toward him.
Some of them even began secretly taking pictures of him, but Stephen felt strange.
Something was wrong. Although Stephen was the center of attention, strangely, no one approached him for some reason, unlike the first time he had come to this place, when he had been surrounded from every direction.
Stephen frowned. He had a bad feeling, but he remained sitting silently, drinking his lemon juice.
'...This is strange.'
Then suddenly, Stephen felt someone sit down in front of him at the table where he had placed his juice.
Stephen felt strange and looked at the beautiful girl who had boldly sat at his table.
The girl was extremely beautiful, with lovely purple hair and purple eyes that held a hint of seduction. She was wearing ornate clothes that looked as though they belonged to the Steampunk era, making her stand out from all the modern clothing and giving her an even more beautiful touch.
She sat at the table with one leg crossed over the other, rested her head on her hand, and looked at Stephen with a hint of seduction.
"You're new here. I've never seen you before."
Stephen looked at her for a moment without interest, then looked at the table and spoke.
"The table is for placing food and drinks on. It isn't a place to sit."
The moment he said this, the entire hall fell silent, and everyone looked at Stephen strangely.
Stephen frowned and looked at the people in confusion.
'What's wrong with them? Why are they looking at me like that?'
Just as Stephen thought this, he heard one of the men speaking quietly to his friend.
"Is he crazy? Doesn't he know who he's talking to?"
Stephen looked at the woman in confusion.
'Who am I talking to? Is she someone important here?'
The woman smiled and looked at Stephen, then lightly laughed and made a small jump, getting down from the table. She then brought over a chair and sat beside Stephen.
"My name is Venistia. What's your name, handsome?"
Stephen looked at her for a moment, feeling that she seemed familiar. Then he calmly looked away from her, raised his glass of juice, and began drinking it. He was still feeling sleepy, but he was fighting his drowsiness by drinking the juice.
'...Maybe I should have slept a little before coming here, but now I need to find out who this woman is...'
Stephen turned his gaze toward her and answered.
"Layan."
This was the name Stephen had chosen when he asked the old man Carlos to prepare a fake identity for him.
Venistia smiled and murmured with her beautiful lips,
"Hmm... The name Layan doesn't seem to suit you."
Stephen frowned but asked her,
"...Why do you think that?"
Venistia raised her chin slightly to look into Stephen's eyes, which he had changed to yellow, and slightly raised her eyebrows, making her look extremely alluring.
Every movement Venistia made could make even a stone fall for her charm, but this had no effect on Stephen. Nothing about her affected him.
The only thing on Stephen's mind was that he wanted to gather information from the woman in front of him.
Venistia spoke while looking Stephen up and down.
"Because you don't look gentle and kind like the meaning of the name suggests."
Stephen was annoyed by the strange way she was looking at his body, as though she were looking directly at him.
'This is annoying... I should ask her quickly and then get away from her.'
Stephen shook his glass of juice, raised his gaze slightly toward her, and asked,
"Are you someone well-known?"
Stephen slowly raised his eyes and directed them toward the people who occasionally stole glances at Stephen and Venistia.
"It seems they know you?"
Venistia also looked at the people around them, then smiled and looked at Stephen, making an expression as though she were thinking.
"Hmm... Maybe because I'm the manager here?"
Stephen looked at her in astonishment, as though he hadn't processed what she had said.
'Manager?!'
Stephen felt strange. Why had the manager suddenly appeared in front of him?
Then suddenly, a severe headache took hold of his head. Stephen frowned, raised his hand, and held his head.
'Why has the headache gotten worse?... This is strange. Something is wrong.'
Stephen quickly stood up from his seat, but his vision became blurred and unclear, causing him to stumble.
The woman smiled slyly, stood up, supported Stephen, and whispered into his ear,
"Are you sleepy? You can sleep now. I'll take care of the rest."
Stephen's physical strength was becoming weaker and weaker, and he couldn't push Venistia away. Stephen could only think,
'It's her... When did she do this?'
A thought suddenly appeared in Stephen's mind as he tried with all his strength not to fall asleep.
'The juice!... Yes, she put something in it. But when?... Maybe the moment she first sat in front of me!'
'...That's why the taste of the juice was slightly different... Damn it.'
Stephen hadn't noticed it, or perhaps he was simply too tired to think much about the slight difference in the taste of the juice, and that was what caused him to fall into the trap.
.....
Flashback
Several months earlier, when Stephen had just left the guild to go on a mission.
Stephen received a notification from his watch, so he stopped to open it, since no one other than Mark ever sent him messages or called him.
A blue mana screen appeared in front of Stephen, and Stephen pressed the notification. As expected, it was Mark who had sent Stephen a message.
[Brother, I feel sick. (Q﹏Q)]
"....."
After reading this message, Stephen quickly disappeared from his place.
After some time, Stephen arrived at his home, and Mark, who was in the poor district, quickly opened the door and entered.
He went directly to Mark's room and opened it, but what Stephen saw made him stop in place. He looked at Mark, who appeared perfectly healthy, with glowing skin that almost reflected the light.
Stephen's expression turned cold.
"What's going on, Mark?"
Mark had been waiting for Stephen to arrive. When he did, Mark quickly approached Stephen, grabbed Stephen's right hand with both of his hands, frowned his lips, raised his gaze toward Stephen, and attacked Stephen with sad and pitiful eyes.
"I'm sorry, Brother, for lying to you."
Stephen almost gave in to Mark's gaze and told him it was fine, but Stephen strongly resisted the urge and maintained his cold expression.
When Mark found that Stephen wasn't affected by this, he made a sad expression and spoke in a protesting tone.
"But, Brother, if I hadn't done this, you wouldn't have come."
"You haven't slept well for a long time. Look at your skin, how pale it has become!"
Stephen listened to Mark's concern and couldn't help but sigh.
"Mark, there are things more important than rest. Don't worry about me."
Mark objected in annoyance.
"No, Brother!!"
"Rest is more important!"
"What if one day you make a mistake that puts your life in danger because you're tired?!"
Stephen frowned and spoke.
"I won't make a mistake."
"Brother, not resting is harmful and it prevents you from being fully focused. You'll make a mistake someday even if you're careful, so please rest now and don't be so hard on yourself."
Suddenly, Stephen spoke loudly, causing Mark to flinch.
"Mark!"
"I know what I'm doing!"
Stephen realized that he had lost his temper and fell silent, but he looked at Mark and saw exactly the expression he had expected.
He looked like a puppy that had been abandoned in the rain, which made Stephen regret raising his voice at Mark.
Mark's shoulders began trembling, and his eyes turned red as he was on the verge of crying.
Stephen felt confused when he saw him like this and didn't know what to do.
Stephen approached Mark, trying to hold him by the shoulders and apologize.
"Mark, I...!"
Mark turned to the side, avoiding Stephen's hand.
Stephen was shocked by Mark avoiding him. He even felt as though his heart were being squeezed.
Finally, Stephen gave in.
"...Then I'll stay today to rest."
The moment Stephen said this, Mark's face lit up, and he smiled happily as though he hadn't had that extremely sad and broken expression just a moment ago.
"Great! Then I'll prepare a hot bath for you to take so you can freshen up and then sleep."
Then he quickly ran out of the room, leaving Stephen standing there in astonishment by himself.
Stephen smiled coldly as a black aura surrounded him.
"This troublemaker... He was pretending to be sad."
...
Back to the present
Stephen's long white eyelashes trembled, and his eyelids slowly began to open until those green pupils, shining like emeralds, appeared.
Stephen woke up from his "refreshing sleep" and found himself thrown onto the floor in a place that looked like an abandoned house or an abandoned room.
Some distance away from him, Venistia was lying comfortably on a sofa, flipping through a magazine she held in her hand. It was perhaps related to men's fashion or something similar, as there was a handsome man on the cover wearing only an open jacket, with most of his abdominal muscles visible.
Well, that didn't matter right now...
Venistia directed her lazy gaze toward Stephen, closed the magazine in her hand, and slowly and lazily turned around.
She lay down with her head resting on her hand and spoke to Stephen with a smile.
"Oh! You're finally awake~"
....