Miles was kicked out.
It went without saying that after Aisha's near self-destructive declaration, there was no way Alice would let him stay in the house.
Of course, no matter how angry she was, Alice wouldn't lash out at Miles in front of Aisha and expose her other, unknown side.
So being merely kicked out by Alice was already the best and most appropriate outcome.
That was fine anyway. Miles' original plan had been to find a random inn in town to stay the night.
Now it was simply a matter of going to the inn a little earlier rather than later.
As for Aisha, she was dragged into a room alone by Alice for some targeted 'education.'
Calling it education, of course, really meant nothing more than the usual things elders liked to say.
"You're still young. You're not at the age for dating yet."
"Look at your sister—she's older than you and still hasn't found anyone."
"If you get a boyfriend, will you still love your sister?"
"Your sister is only doing this for your own good. Can a man whose heart is only full of playing cards really be relied on?"
However, what Alice hadn't expected was that the little sister who had always listened to her so obediently would show unexpected stubbornness this time.
"Sis, you don't understand at all. Mr. Miles is a really wonderful person!"
"I don't care. I like him anyway!"
"I won't marry anyone but him!"
This made Alice start to wonder whether her once-obedient sister had been swapped out at some point.
Was this a delayed rebellious phase, or had that guy called Miles secretly hypnotized her sister?
If she weren't worried that telling her sister a man had been living inside her body for half a year would make her pass out on the spot, Aisha might have already confessed everything to Alice right then and there.
Meanwhile—
"What a disaster. Who would've thought that when a great beauty like Sister Alice gets angry, she's this terrifying?"
Hovering beside Miles on her broom, Irena, who had just endured that storm of madness, also felt lingering fear.
"So you weren't even kicked out. Why did you come out with me?"
"In that atmosphere, once you left and Aisha got dragged away, if I stayed in the manor alone, it'd be even more awkward."
"So are you staying out tonight too, Irena?"
"Then how about we book a couple's suite? It'd be cheaper that way."
"Don't make things even more chaotic."
In a rural town the size of Lukao, everyone ran into each other constantly and knew one another well.
The townspeople had already developed some strange misunderstanding about him and Aisha during the day.
If he went to book a couple's suite with Irena that very night, the gossip would probably explode throughout the entire town by the next day, then reach Alice's ears… and his reputation would surely turn into that of a beast in human clothing.
"Tch, guess it can't be helped." Irena understood the situation and gave up at the right time. "Then I'll just go sleep in Aisha's room tonight. At least that way I won't be sleeping alone."
"Your way of thinking is dangerous, Senpai."
After finding an inn in town that was reasonably clean and tidy, Miles checked in.
The plump, honest-looking proprietress at the front desk clearly recognized him at first glance as the one who had returned with Aisha and insisted on giving him a discount.
And to avoid unnecessary rumors, Irena didn't go through the front desk. Instead, under the cover of night, she rode her broom and flew straight in through a second-floor window.
"Why are you still coming in?"
Looking at Irena jumping in through the window, Miles' eyes were filled with helplessness.
"I'm just laying low for a bit. If I go back now, Sister Alice is probably still angry and lecturing Aisha."
Putting her broom away into her magic space, Irena sprawled lazily across the inn's soft bed in a starfish pose.
After lying there quietly for a while, Irena—eyes half-closed—suddenly spoke.
"So, what do you really think, Miles?"
"What do you mean, what do I think?"
"Aisha said you're her boyfriend. So what's your stance? Accept? Reject? Or just don't really care?"
"…"
"Miles, you're great in every other way, but when it comes to moments like this, your habit of staying silent is really frustrating."
It wasn't that Miles was deliberately choosing silence. It was just that, being asked to answer this question immediately, he didn't yet have a clear answer in his heart.
At the very least, Miles knew that giving a careless, irresponsible answer would be disrespectful to the other person.
Irena reopened her eyes on the bed, turned her head, and smiled at Miles.
"I like both of you. If it's Aisha, I don't have any objections."
"You're not my mom. Why should your opinion matter?"
"Well, I am your senpai, at least."
"You're sticking your nose in too far, Senpai."
"Tch, how utterly unromantic."
Jumping up from the bed, Irena pulled her broom back out of her magic space.
"I'm going back to sleep with Aisha. Miles, you can spend this lonely night, all by yourself, falling asleep alone in that inn bed—ptui!"
Smashing through the window as she left, Irena only left behind a long sound of disdain.
"'Lonely night,' huh. That's what she said, wasn't it, Aisha?"
Of course, Miles wasn't alone. Even though the Millennium Puzzle wasn't by his side, Dark Aisha and Stardust-chan within his Soul Room were still there to talk to.
It felt as if he had gone from being a guardian spirit himself to someone who now had guardian spirits.
Dark Aisha: "Sis really is terrifying after all."
Already deeply afraid of Alice's dark side, after witnessing Alice's furious outburst just now, Dark Aisha's fear only seemed to deepen.
"I wonder if the other me will be okay."
"Sister Alice is angry because she cares about Aisha. At worst, she'll just lecture her for a few hours."
"Lectured for a few hours? What kind of hell is that! The other me is so pitiful."
Stardust: "That's one of the hardships you have to go through when pursuing love. I can really sympathize."
You're a dragon girl, talking about pursuing love like this… Miles couldn't help but wonder what Stardust had experienced in the past.
With two guardian spirits keeping him company, even staying alone at the inn, Miles wouldn't feel bored.
After all, that half-year before had basically been spent interacting like this inside the Soul Room.
Chatting about all sorts of random things, Miles lay on the bed and gradually drifted into sleep as drowsiness washed over him.
In a simple rural town, there wasn't any wild nightlife. Most people went to bed early after finishing a day's farm work.
Under moonlight and a gentle breeze, the countryside town lay in utter stillness.
However, tonight's Lukao carried with it a faint trace of something unusual… the smell of blood.
"Miles, Miles!"
After sleeping for about three or four hours, Miles was suddenly awakened by a voice echoing in his mind.
"Stardust? What's going on in the middle of the night?"
"I sensed a dark aura. Something unclean has slipped in."
"A dark aura?"
The grogginess instantly vanished. Miles knew that as the Dragon of Hope, Stardust's perception in matters like this was uncannily accurate.
If it was a dark aura that made Stardust wary, then it was surely a malicious, nauseating evil presence.
But why would something so unclean infiltrate a rural town like Lukao in the middle of the night?
Stardust added, "Judging from its direction of movement, it seems to be heading toward the Carlos manor."
Alright… Miles could more or less guess why.
A midnight attack on the Carlos manor was nothing more than those ugly, filthy political maneuvers he hated most.
It would be one thing if he weren't here, but since he was currently in Lukao and had detected danger approaching, there was no way he could just sit back and do nothing.
"A simple favor. Let's deal with the danger, Stardust, Aisha."
Leaping down from the second-floor window of the inn, Miles sprinted toward the target Stardust had sensed, at a speed far beyond that of an ordinary person.
Miles moves out!
---
Meanwhile—
Inside the Carlos manor, Alice lay restless in her room, unable to sleep because of her sister's rebellious phase.
"Elra, tell me… can childhood friends really not beat a sudden arrival?"
"What kind of question is that? I can't answer you."
"It's just a metaphor. Aisha and I have over ten years of sisterly bonds, after all…"
"Set that aside for now, Alice." Elra's voice from within the Millennium Ring suddenly turned serious. "A bug has flown in."
"Oh?"
Her gaze sharpened. This wasn't the first time such a situation had occurred, and Alice knew exactly what Elra meant by a 'bug.'
You could say the timing was perfect. Alice was full of pent-up frustration, with nowhere to vent it—and now takeout had been delivered straight to her door.
"Since I can't sleep anyway, I'll treat it as some bedtime exercise, Elra."
"What a terrifying kind of bedtime exercise~"
Alice moves out!
---
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Lukao town—
"Hmph. So Alice Carlos lives in such a remote, poor backwater. This is even easier than I imagined."
The Shadow Duelist, bounty hunter Bryce.
He had assumed that now the Carlos family had risen to the rank of Count and annexed no small amount of territory, Alice would at least be living in a luxurious castle guarded by patrolling soldiers.
Yet in the end, it turned out to be an undefended rural town.
In the dead of night, there wasn't even a single patrol in sight.
For Bryce, who had used Shadow Games to assassinate countless nobles and royals, this was the easiest infiltration he had ever experienced.
"Can you all see this, brothers?"
Livestreaming meant livestreaming. Bryce had even brought along a lackey, using beaconbugs to film everything from start to finish, recording what would be the biggest—and final—job of his career.
"Next, I'm going to take that woman Alice Carlos's head!"
Through remote magical transmission, the footage was projected in real time to the tavern where Shadow Duelists gathered.
"Lord Bryce is so handsome."
"That's insane! Doing something like this and still daring to livestream it. Bryce, you're truly one of a kind."
"Just killing her is boring. I heard that Alice Carlos is a rare great beauty!"
"Ohoh, we want to see something even more exciting!"
Thoroughly enjoying the feeling of being surrounded and praised, Bryce wore a smug grin, convinced that this would be the greatest curtain call of his life.
"Exciting, you say? Easy. I'll make sure the brothers get more excitement than they can handle!"
However, Bryce would never know that the 'excitement' awaiting him would far exceed the limits of what he could endure.
"Oh? Someone's already coming?"
Decades of living on the edge as a Shadow Duelist had given Bryce perception far beyond that of ordinary people.
He could clearly sense an unknown target rapidly approaching him without any attempt to conceal itself.
"At this speed… are they riding a Duel Monster straight here? Just as I thought—the Carlos family keeps a Duelist as a guard dog."
Although it was common knowledge that Alice Carlos wasn't a Duelist, Bryce had been prepared from the very beginning. There was no way he'd reach the target without fighting at least one duel.
Besides, if he didn't fight even a single duel, this final performance of his career wouldn't be perfect.
"Hmph. Let me see just how capable this Carlos family watchdog really is."
Spirit Eyes activated. His signature Handgun Dragon deck loaded, Bryce stood brimming with confidence, waiting for his prey to approach.
However, the Shadow Duelist Bryce's composure only lasted until this very second.
"Target acquired!"
Leaping and sprinting across the trees of the outskirts forest, Miles locked onto the burly man whose Spirit Eyes were lit the moment he came into view.
"What a revolting stench of blood. A Shadow Duelist, huh. Probably a veteran with plenty of lives on his hands."
Since the opponent was that kind of person, Miles had no reason for hesitation.
He would simply crush him with everything he had.
Yes. Not with the playful mindset of academy duels, but with absolute seriousness, facing a Shadow Game where lives were on the line.
"For dealing with you, this card is the most appropriate."
From the deck box at his waist, Miles drew a card limited to Shadow Games—once played, it meant either your death or mine: a card of an evil god.
And—
"Please, Aisha."
"Mhm!"
Deck loaded. Dark Aisha opened the door within the Soul Room.
In response, the pattern within Miles' Spirit Eyes shifted into a flapping-wing tofu block.
"Spirit Eyes form change—Mokey Mokey Form!"
Mokey Mokey plus an evil god: this was currently Miles's strongest combat mode.
After all, this was a Shadow Duel tied to life and death. There was no room for even the slightest carelessness.
Leaping high from the trees, fully prepared, Miles crashed down heavily in front of Bryce.
"Bakana! Not riding a Duel Monster… but on foot?!"
For an instant, Bryce couldn't maintain his composure. The boy who had approached him at such an absurd speed… was he even human?
"Servant of darkness, you have five seconds to explain your purpose."
Even though he'd been startled by Miles' appearance, Bryce quickly regained his composure, splitting his lips into an arrogant grin.
"Simple. I'm here to take your master's head, you Carlos watchdog!"
A blunt explanation. That made things easier.
Miles didn't have to worry about having misjudged the situation. The man before him was undoubtedly here to die.
Meanwhile, deeper within the forest, Alice—clad in a black robe and arriving late—chose not to reveal herself, instead hiding.
"That's… Miles? What's going on?"
Watching from the shadows, surprise was written all over Alice's refined face.
The Miles she had kicked out was now confronting a Shadow Duelist who had come to attack the Carlos family in the middle of the night.
Setting aside the reason for now, a Shadow Duelist of this level was not someone a first-year Fusion Academy student should be able to handle.
Should she step in and stop this?
But stepping in would mean exposing her own identity.
Alice fell into hesitation.
---
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