Aisha was so stunned that she went through a year's worth of emotional spirals.
In the narrow, rundown inn corridor, the three of them stared at one another, all utterly dumbfounded.
"Aisha, why are you here?" Alice asked first.
No, Alice. The way you asked that question really feels like getting caught in the act and pouring fuel on the fire.
"Sister…"
The silver-white ahoge atop Aisha's head drooped down along with her lowered head.
"Aisha?"
Then, the girl suddenly sprang up, fists clenched tight!
"Sister, you big idiot!"
Aisha used Mokey Mokey Punch on Alice!
POW!
(x_x)
It was super effective. It dealt bonus damage to Alice.
"Wait, Aisha, calm down first," Miles hurried to persuade her. "Even though I feel like you've definitely misunderstood something, at least hear me out first."
"Explain what? Explain why the two of you came out of a hotel room together first thing in the morning? I don't want to hear it at all!"
This outburst from Aisha was something even Alice, who had never been in a relationship, understood perfectly.
A lone man and woman coming out of the same inn room together early in the morning… it was hard not to misunderstand that.
Don't let Alice's usual composure, elegance, and ease in navigating noble social circles fool you.
When it came to matters between men and women, Alice's experience was practically zero.
Yet now she was being misunderstood by her own sister as having something going on with Miles… and she'd even taken a Mokey Mokey Punch.
Alice's fair cheeks instantly flushed bright red.
"That's not it, Aisha. It's not like that!"
This was absolutely an SSR-rarity-level scene. A bashful Alice was something you couldn't see even if you paid for it.
"Just now, Miles and I were only discussing the invitation from the Holy Varian Empire."
To prove her point, Alice even deliberately took out the Imperial invitation and held it up in front of Aisha.
However, after only giving the invitation a casual glance, Aisha's attitude didn't change in the slightest.
"Just yesterday, Sister, you were the one who kicked Miles out. Besides, does something like this really require the two of you to stay alone in the same room all night to talk about it?"
"Stay together all night?" Alice's cheeks burned even redder. "A-Aisha, what are you talking about? I only came to see Miles this morning!"
"Don't think you can fool me with an excuse like that."
With a single sentence hitting the mark, Aisha raised her hand and pointed at the center of Alice's brows.
"Last night, Sister, you weren't in your own room at all!"
"Th-that…"
Alice was instantly left speechless, utterly unable to refute it.
This was also why Aisha was so firm in her conclusion.
When Aisha got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, she noticed Alice's room door was ajar.
Driven by curiosity, Aisha peeked inside, only to find that Alice's room was empty.
"Then maybe I was in the study?"
"No. I checked there too!"
After searching nearly the entire residence, Aisha still hadn't found any trace of Alice.
So where could her sister have gone in the middle of the night?
Only just now had Aisha found the answer.
So her sister had been in Miles' room all along.
"I hate you the most, Sister!"
Leaving behind that cry from the depths of her soul, Aisha decisively turned around and ran off.
"And Mr. Miles, I don't want to like you anymore either!"
Watching Aisha's retreating back, Alice had no way to explain anything further.
Last night, Alice really hadn't been in her room. She had been rushing off to slaughter Shadow Duelists.
And the thing that absolutely could not be exposed had been discovered by Aisha when she got up in the middle of the night.
Staying silent, Miles also understood that the misunderstanding was enormous, the kind of injustice so deep it could make snow fall in June.
What should have been an easy misunderstanding to clear up had instead become impossible to explain, simply because Alice had left the manor last night.
And last night just happened to be the exact time when the Shadow Duelists launched their attack.
"Alice, what Aisha just said, about last night…"
"Last night I only had something urgent to take care of, so I had to leave for a bit."
Alice didn't say what that matter was, and it seemed she had no intention of explaining it in detail.
Of course, that kind of reason might convince Miles.
Because Miles knew perfectly well that between him and Alice, everything was as clean as a blank sheet of paper. Nothing had happened at all.
Regardless, judging from Aisha's earlier attitude, as if she had already bitten down on the truth, Alice saying this would probably still not change the outcome of being misunderstood.
"What should we do now?" Miles asked Alice. "Should we chase after her?"
"No. A misunderstanding will always be just a misunderstanding. When Aisha thinks it through, she'll come back on her own."
The sisters had lived together for more than ten years. It was inevitable there would be arguments and friction.
Alice knew very well that in a situation like this, doing nothing was actually the best solution.
After all, nothing like that could possibly have happened between her and Miles. Once Aisha calmed down a bit, it wouldn't be hard for her to realize that.
---
Running all the way without even knowing where she was going, Aisha simply followed her instincts.
By the time she came back to her senses, familiar scenery had appeared all around her.
It turned out that she had unconsciously run to the "secret base" she had secretly built as a child.
Calling it a secret base, it was really just a semi-enclosed space piled together from square stones.
Kids were like that. When they stayed at home, they wanted to go out. When they were outside, they wanted to build an enclosed space that felt like home.
When she was little, whenever something unpleasant happened, like being scolded by her parents, not finishing her homework on time, or not wanting to attend etiquette classes, Aisha would secretly hide in the secret base and wait in quiet for her bad mood to settle.
However, as Aisha kept growing up, at some point, this secret base was all forgotten. Even when she later encountered sad things, she never returned here again.
"I didn't expect that after so many years, the base would still be here."
That small semi-enclosed space made Aisha feel incomparably at ease.
With Aisha's current 'grown-up' figure, the secret base that had been built to fit a little girl's body back then now felt rather cramped.
Still, if she tried hard enough and fully made use of her 'specialty,' Aisha could manage to squeeze in.
"Ow!"
She hadn't expected that her own secret base would actually be occupied by someone else.
After barely squeezing half her body inside, Aisha crashed straight into the girl who was resting within.
"Who are you? Why are you barging into someone else's home?"
Pushing Aisha away, the mysterious girl slowly stepped out of the cramped enclosed space.
"This is your home?" Aisha challenged.
"Where I live is my home, of course." With her hands on her hips, the girl answered with utter dominance.
At this moment, however, Aisha was quite captivated by what she saw on the mysterious girl's chest.
It wasn't because of how large or shapely the girl's chest was.
The reason Aisha was drawn in was entirely that hanging from the mysterious girl's chest was, without a doubt, the Millennium Puzzle.
The exact same Puzzle that hung from Aisha's own chest.
---
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