I Was the Heroine, and in the Sequel, Even Though I’m a Mob, All of My Stats Are Maxed Out - CH 23.2

“So, I guess you’re his mistress then? I feel sorry for you.”

“Ah, mistress….”

“Lara, you should stop there. I’m sure she’s been doing her best for Alvin all this time, and it must hurt.”

“No, that…”

Somehow I was beginning to be treated as a poor woman who tried to be myself, Nina, in order to be liked by Alvin-sama, but in the end, couldn’t become his love.

I was glad that my true identity wasn’t revealed, but I couldn’t quite understand it. Eventually, Dirk stared at me.

“I have your shoes.”

“Eh.”

I had no idea that Dirk had the shoes I had dropped that day. No wonder I couldn’t find them no matter how hard I looked.

“I’ll come back soon to deliver it.”

“No, please throw it away as soon as possible.”

“You said that day that they were ‘originally tattered and trashy,’ but they were only covered in potions, so it was as good as new. You don’t have to worry about it so much. It’s clean.”

“T-Thank you very much.…”

The kind Dirk wouldn’t feel comfortable with only one pair of the mysterious woman’s shoes. He decided to have it returned and be done with it.

“Um, what are you two doing here?”

“My cute familiar fled into this forest, and I was searching for him with Dirk, who had some free time on his hands.”

“I don’t have that much free time.”

“It’s been a few years since I’ve been to this forest, so Alvin must have let his guard down. The wards were set up well, but they were meaningless in front of me.”

It seemed that her familiar was a fairly rare one, so much that Lara herself even came to look for him. The search was likely to continue in the future, so I wasn’t at ease.

“Well, I’ll go home for the time being. If you find him, please protect him. Also, you should quickly forget about a black-hearted, evil, and extremely obsessive man like Alvin and be happy.”

“Ah… Yes…”

“I’ll put up the same wards again and erase the memories of the guards, so you should keep quiet about us too. I’ve also stopped the magical equipment for surveillance inside this house. If you don’t do that,  it’ll be troublesome with Alvin.”

“I understand…. Surveillance?”

Although the information overload was making me dizzy, I saw them off, praying that they would soon find the familiar and returned my shoes as soon as possible.

Still, it was nice to see Lara again after so many years, and I patted Cheryl, who was snuggled by my side, glad to see that she was doing well.

◇◇◇

Two hours later, Alvin-sama arrived. The guards were acting the same as usual, and I admired Lara’s ability once again.

“Thank you for your hard work. You’re early today.”

“I wanted to see Nina, so I finished work early.”

Alvin-sama gave me a soft smile and hugged me naturally. But now that I had heard about the marriage, this was definitely not a good idea.

That was why I immediately pushed his chest with both hands, and Alvin-sama made an expression like an abandoned child.

“…. Nina? Are you sick of me?”

“No, it’s not like that─”

“If there’s something wrong, I’ll fix it, so please don’t hate me. I only have Nina.”

“Um, Alvin-sama, please calm down.”

I desperately told Alvin-sama, who grabbed my shoulder as if clinging to me, that I didn’t hate him. After that, he seemed to have managed to get the message, and I let out a relieved breath.

Then, I opened my mouth to talk about the marriage.

“You’re getting married, aren’t you? Congratulations.”

“…. What?”

At that moment, for some reason, the air around him reached a freezing point.