That night, Avril heard a knock on the door of the guest room she was staying in. When she looked up, she saw Dylan standing there. He was casually dressed in a shirt and slacks. In his hands was a tray carrying a bottle of brandy and hot milk.

“Lord Dylan! Let me carry that tray for you—”

“Avril, you still haven’t rid yourself of your old habits? This isn’t your parent’s house. I brought this on my own, so there’s no need for you to do that.”

“!”

I did it again…

Avril felt embarrassed at realizing she hadn’t been acting like a proper fiancée.

“Actually, I was just about to go visit Lord Dylan myself.”

“Visit me? What a coincidence.”

Dylan seemed to be in a good mood. He placed the tray on the side table by the window before then sitting on the chaise lounge.

After hesitating about where to sit, Avril sat on the bed across from him. She could just sit beside to him on the chaise lounge, but it felt too close.

Dylan no longer maintained a formal tone of speech, he spoke to her casually. After wrapping up his work for the day, he went for quality time.

The soft orange light accentuated his tired face. As it’d been a long time since he last worked in the duchy, his schedule was jampacked.

If possible, I want him to take a day off… I’m grateful he took the trouble to make time for me.

As Avril was contemplating the situation, Dylan laughed as if having recalled something.

“I was truly taken aback this morning. I never expected you’d cause the former duke to fall.”

“…I also didn’t expect for Lord Dylan to aid in my villainess act.”

“Actually, that may have been the first time I ever threw a cup in front of that person, or seen him fall onto his butt.”

Dylan was looking back on the ‘villainess play” they had pulled on his father that morning. Honestly, it was a pretty good collaboration. While Avril was enjoying herself, Dylan went on.

“I wanted nothing to do with that man, so I avoided such confrontations as much as possible. However, when I saw you debating about whether or not to throw the cup, my mind blanked.”

His mind… blanked?

Was that supposed to be a good thing?

Confused, Avril glanced at Dylan’s expression. Rather than blaming her, he seemed to be enjoying himself.

…I see, he’s complimenting me. Then, there’s no problem.

“I see, Lord Dylan really likes villainess!”

“…T-that’s… Well, maybe…”

Relieved that Dylan seemed to have broached new ground after that ‘villainess play,” Avril began today’s report.

“Lord Dylan. Today, I had the opportunity to meet Teresa Pannella when I disguised myself as a maid.”

“—! The woman from the suspect list?”

“That’s right.”

“I was considering seeing her once everything settled down. How did it go?”

“Well… Something was a bit off about her. She showed me the inside of her closet, which was filled with the gifts from the former duke. However, I also discovered what seemed to be a hidden door in that closet.”

“…I see. If she indeed has something to do with the drug dealing, she may have hidden something there. Good job discovering that.”

“There was a similar mechanism in a villainess mystery novel I read recently!”

When she answered ecstatically, Dylan put down his glass, smiling wryly.

“You always seem to be enjoying yourself. Just like when you learned how to dance in preparation for the masquerade ball.”

“As Lord Dylan is busy, I just do everything I can.”

“…In addition to the unusually vast array of things you can do, your definition of ‘doing everything you can’ seems to be a bit different from others.”

“Hmm, I wonder about that?”

She knew she had a good memory and all the necessary skills to be a servant, but she never thought that her concept of ‘working hard’ would be different from other people. As she tilted her head, Dylan’s expression became serious.

“Even if I have succeeded the family, the separate building still belongs to the former duke. I was trying to come up with an excuse to investigate the building, but it seems that there’ll be no need to anymore.”

“The moment the name of the kingdom was announced, Lady Teresa could’ve either hidden the evidence or tried to somehow involve the Duke of Lancester.”

“There’s that, but for now, she probably hasn’t suspected anything yet, mostly thanks to the fact that Avril was infiltrating as a maid. Well done.”

Avril, who’d been praised so much, smiled. In truth, she felt somewhat nervous.

…Actually, I never intended to disguise myself as a maid. It was purely an accident, but I probably shouldn’t mention this.

It was all thanks to that cream-colored dress, her unladylike and coarse hands, Jesenia’s utter disregard to her explanations, and the baking soda.

When Avril placed down her empty cup of hot milk, Dylan had also downed the contents of his glass. Upon realizing that they’d been engrossed in the conversation for a while, Avril stood up.

“…I haven’t seen Grace in all this time. Normally, she’d have come long ago to help me prepare for bed.”

“I guess she’s being considerate.”

“…Is that so?”

Did Grace sense that Avril was about to summarize her progress on the important mission? What a perceptive maid she was! While Avril was impressed, Dylan noticed something.

---

***T/N: This no longer read just like your usual fluffy romance but more of a villainess Spy x Family and I’m up for it!?

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