Quite the scheemer

"Hello? Young Lady? It's your plan. Are you telling me that this is how far you thought it through?"

"..."

Victor groaned and asked in disbelief, but Melinda simply looked back at him with a pleasant smile and continued staying quiet.

"I realize that your status and power make you detached from this earthly… domain…"

The man took a deep breath, clenching his fist while looking into the unbothered golden eyes, when suddenly the words got stuck in his throat as if he had been hit by a sudden flash of enlightenment.

"...please forgive me for this unbecoming behavior… It seems that the pressure of the situation got the better of me and made me blind to the most obvious answer."

"...~"

Victor stood up and bowed his head in an apology that earned him a benevolent smile from the gold-haired girl finishing her tea.

"Molly, if you would be so kind, draft a contract detailing a loan for our girls. All the expenses involving their training and protection will put them into a legal debt that they will have to pay immediately if they would want to cut ties with us. Make it enticing enough so they would want to sign it without any additional persuasion. We don't want to scare them off."

"Understood!"

The man turned to his secretary and announced, making her straighten her back and rush over to her desk, taking out the writing supplies.

"Just make sure to be thorough with the protection. If someone abducts them, or if a client ends up killing them, the trust will be lost. And I mean both on your girls' side and the law-abiding customers."

"We will definitely have to look into that."

Melinda pointed out while putting down the cup, making Victor agree with a serious expression.

"If you encounter a problem with a particularly difficult individual who would disregard the rules anyway, inform me immediately."

"I hope we won't get to that point, but I do appreciate the offer, Young Lady."

The girl stood up from her seat and walked to the door, escorted by the servile crime lord.

"Don't serve that tea to me ever again."

"!!!"

Melinda didn't look back, but she did leave the pair with a complaint that made the brown-haired secretary flinch and tremble.

"...fucking hell…"

After waiting an appropriate amount of time for the gold-haired girl to leave the building, Victor barely returned to his desk with his legs trembling like those of a newborn fawn.

"I…! I made sure to get the strongest sleep potion without the smell or taste! I swear I tested it beforehand! A cup like the one she had did put an armored boar to sleep within seconds!"

Molly continued to shiver like a leaf in the wind and yelped out, unable to properly hold the quill.

"It's my fault for even suggesting that we should attempt to get rid of her. She wasn't supposed to have an amulet against the status effects, and she definitely didn't take an antidote, meaning that she simply has that much resistance…! And not only did she notice what we did, but she also finished the whole cup just to make a statement… We are so fucked…!"

Victor fell into his seat and covered his head with both hands before spatting through his gritted teeth.

"Did you send the letter to the church?"

"N-no… The last piece of evidence came in just before she showed up so…"

Victor asked, to which Molly shook her head with a terribly guilty expression.

"Oh, thank Perseverance! Get rid of it. Burn it all. We are nowhere near important for the church actually to protect us from her! Her warning was loud and clear. We can't do shit to her!!"

"O-okay!"

Victor breathed out in relief only to slam his fist against the desk, making Molly flinch and gaps, struggling to take out all the documents she gathered on Melinda Fenrioette.

"I don't understand… What is Diamondium Kingdom's plan here? Or maybe… maybe she is acting on her own…?"

Vicor let out a bitter groan, hiding his face in his hands before letting out a fearful sigh...

—---

"An actual tea party. Would you look at that!"

Melinda fell back onto her bed, stretching out both of her hands, holding a pretty handwritten invitation.

"We don't have anything planned for the weekend, do we?"

She asked out loud although she was alone in her dormitory room, hence she didn't get an answer.

"Yeah, Zane will be away on a mission. By we, I meant me and you, Adi."

Even so, she still acted as if she received one and furrowed her brows before rolling to the side and pouting at the empty space next to her bed.

"Eh…?! No, Adi! Of course, it's okay to have your own plans! No, I'm the one who's sorry! Of course, you can go! It will be within the city walls, right?"

Suddenly, she flinched and propped herself up on her elbows before ensuring that her expression softened.

"Then there's no problem at all! Bjorki organizes the tea party within the Academy, so I will have no reason to leave~!"

Melinda sat up and declared confidently.

"Adiiii~ You are the best, and you deserve the best. That includes taking time off. Hmhmhm~!"

The gold-haired girl added, before perking up and spreading open her arms that soon she closed performing a rather convincing pantomime of hugging someone invisible.

"Yes. Yes. We'll both have message scrolls on us just in case~ Besides, what can even happen on my side? The worst thing that could happen is that they had even worse tea than the one Victor and Molly had served me. Ugh. I swear, it was awful. They were either scammed or had no idea how to prepare the particular kind, and I'll take you with me the next time so you can show them how it's done. After all, if things work out well, the escort business should expand to aristocrats~!"

She nodded while going through the motion of tapping someone's back as she reassured, before moving away and adding with a rather sinister expression.

"Hmm? Oh, that depends on them. If the plan ends up a success but they turn greedy, the public opinion about their clients will take a huge hit. In the best case scenario, they will completely cut off the shady part of their business and still be profitable, but… let's just say I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for that outcome."

Melinda tilted her head and then chuckled while shrugging her shoulders and lying back down.