The Writer, The Reader, and A Very Simple Battle Plan

Morrigan POV:

[The butler leans in close to his mistress' ear and whispers,

"Milady, allow me to help you relax a little. You must have accumulated a lot of stress dealing with Prince Iyana Buta."

"Not just your mental state, but your body as well. Allow me to give you a "massage."

Lady Kireina felt his hands run up her back, coming to a rest at where her dress' laces are.

His slender gloved fingers slowly tugged at the laces, and Lady Kireina could feel them loosening.

"We shouldn't be doing this-"

"Why not?"

Lady Kireina let out a small yelp when he brought his face close to hers and whispered into her ear.

Her mind raced about, searching for several excuses like the servants might overhear or that it is improper for a master and servant to have such a close relationship. Despite coming up with many reasons, Lady Kireina can't help but stare at his well-sculpted face, shiny, smooth jet-black hair, eyes as dark and mysterious as the void, and beautiful lips curved in a slight smile; just for her.

(Why do his lips look like they are coming closer?)

His lips slowly inched closer to hers.

At this point, she tossed all reason out the window and-]

"Yo! Morrigan, did you manage to find the location of those cultists?"

(God damn it! He had to appear when things were getting good!)

Morrigan stored her novel inside a black portal she briefly opened for a few seconds, then her attention to Enjento and Scathach, who entered the underground lair through Enjento's office.

"Yes, I managed to find the location of those cultists by simply ripping out the souls of those people you left me and examining their memories."

[Author's note: Yes, there will be plenty of savage scenes in the novel.]

"Excellent! Where are they?"

"From the cultist's memories. One of them was Barny's Barrow, which you know already, but it's just a temporary meeting space inside the capital; if you want to catch those cultists, you better do it in a week."

"Judging by how you say "one of them," I'm assuming there are other places."

"Indeed, from what I can get from those memories, there are several other locations. However, those were older memories, and it seems like they were sealed away by a being capable of manipulating souls like myself. I only caught a brief glimpse of a church before that blasted mark activated, and the soul self-destructed."

Enjento made a bitter face after hearing the news.

"I'm assuming the servant you interrogated didn't have anything useful."

"Oh, you would be surprised because he wasn't an official member because he didn't have that cursed snake mark on him. I could clearly see into the servant's memories and found some interesting names."

"Oh? Do tell."

(Like hell, I will give you such valuable information for free! You'll have to compensate me for disrupting my reading time.)

"Hmm, I don't know if I should. After all, it wasn't part of the agreement."

Enjento's face became dark with displeasure.

"What do you mean not part of the agreement? All you said was that I should inform you if I found anything. I never said I was actually going to share the formation with you."

Morrigan watched Enjento grit his teeth in anger and could literally see steam coming out of his head.

(Hehehe, that will teach you to disturb me when I'm reading.)

"The next novel."

(?)

"What did you say?"

"I said I will give you the next novel."

Morrigan quickly forgot about toying with Enjento at the mention of the next novel.

"Are you pulling my leg?"

"Why would I? There's like over fifty volumes in the series."

(Fifty volumes!?! That's enough to entertain me for at least two or three centuries!)

"Well, it might take a while since I have to recreate them from memory and scratch."

(Recreate them? Don't tell me.)

(Does he know!?!)

"Hey, do you know the contents of the book?"

Enjento looked confused by her remarks.

"Umm, yeah. I was the one that wrote the series. I didn't get much funding in my early days as a spy, so I took up writing novels as a side job, and they sold quite well."

Morrigan became extremely panicked when Enjento revealed he was the author of her favourite series.

"You alright? I can see you sweating bullets behind your veil."

Indeed, Morrigan was currently going through quite a crisis.

(Sh*t! Did he figure out my secret!?!)

Enjento POV:

He didn't get it.

When he said that he was the writer of her favourite series, Morrigan suddenly panicked.

(What's up with her reaction? Wait, could it be?)

Enjento gave Morrigan a hard stare, causing Morrigan to become more panicked.

(That's it!)

(She must be a diehard fangirl of me!)

(I get it now! The cause of Morrigan's behaviour is because she was embarrassed by her past attitude towards me, who was the author of her favourite series!)

Enjento smiled.

"Don't worry! We all act like fools in front of our idols sometimes!"

"I'll try to recreate the third novel as soon as possible, but it'll take time, so do you mind telling me which people are involved with the cultists? I'll write an I.O.U. statement."

Morrigan POV:

(?)

She couldn't believe it.

Just how big was this man's ego!?!

Anyone could tell what secret she was trying to hide by looking at the title, "Lady Kireina and The Devilish Butler."

But somehow, this narcissistic man thought that she the — is some swoony little fangirl like that damn Princess who constantly hangs around him!?!

The nerve of this man!

On the bright side, her secret remains safe for now.

She'll play along with the man's delusions for the time being.

"Yes, I couldn't believe that a lying, foul-mouthed man such as yourself wrote such beautiful works of literature."

A vein bulged from Enjento's head when Morrigan called him a foul-mouthed liar.

"Looks can be quite deceiving, Morrigan. I admit that I have told my fair share of lies throughout my career as a spy but don't forget that series you so love just so happens to be written by this foul-mouthed man standing before you." He said, giving a cold smile.

Morrigan felt that she should stop arguing or else she'll miss out on the other novels that are a part of the series.

"Alright, I'll leave it at this for now. Now listen carefully. The people involved with the Princess' kidnapping are-"

Enjento Supai POV:

After hearing who was involved in the scheme, Enjento left with Scathach, and an hour of walking in the capital later, they arrived at Barny's Barrow. A tidy, neat-looking building with brick walls, a black-tiled roof, clean glass windows and a well-kept porch. It was hard to believe this was the inn where the other cultists involved in Princess Elisia's kidnapping were supposed to be.

"Based on the memories Morrigan extracted, there should be twenty-one cultists using this place as their temporary hideout."

"Today, the cultists should be having a meeting and there should be no civilians around to get in our way as hostages. I've also sent a drone in to double-check."

The duo walked up the closed wood door entrance. There, Morrigan unslung her spear and got into a battle stance.

"So, what's the plan?"

In response, Enjento pulled out an M16 assault rifle and a frag grenade while giving a feral grin.

"We bust the place wide open of course!"