Gazing intently at the girl before him, Ronald spoke seriously:
"Let make it clear, this operation is very dangerous."
"I can’t guarantee we’ll co out unscathed."
Heilois smiled casually:
"Basically, everything I do is not safe."
"If it’s just to this extent, consider it a way to kill ti."
Seeing Heilois express her stance so clearly, Ronald naturally had nothing more to say. After they finished dinner, they returned together to the apartnt Ronald was staying in.
On the way, he pondered the details of tonight’s operation.
Ronald casually said to the girl beside him:
"Thor, I’ll give you sothing when we go upstairs, and then you hide around here. Later, so investigators will co over, and after I deal with those guys, we’ll head out together, okay?"
Heilois nodded with an unchanged smile:
"Of course, no problem."
"You’re the leader for this operation, I’ll follow your lead."
"..."
The place where they ate wasn’t far from the apartnt.
So just a short walk later, Heilois pointed to a landscape tree by the road.
"Ronald, I’ll wait for you under this tree later."
"Just co find here."
Following the direction Heilois was pointing, Ronald nodded to show he understood.
Then they returned to the apartnt.
Before they went upstairs, the old man responsible for the security in the yard greeted Ronald on his way out:
"Mr. Ronald, you’re back?"
"When you went out earlier, a lady with platinum blonde hair ca looking for you. But seeing as you were not at ho, and I didn’t know when you’d be back, I told her that you weren’t in."
"..."
Patricia...?
The description of platinum blonde hair imdiately made Ronald realize who had been looking for him.
His thoughts shifted, and he imdiately understood Patricia’s reason for her visit.
The events of yesterday involved Patricia’s brother, so whether as a friend or out of the nobility’s social obligations of her family’s status,
it made sense, both emotionally and rationally, for Patricia to visit today as a necessary noble social call.
But it just so happened to be while he was out for dinner...
So ’coincidentally’ missing Patricia, a subtle idea imdiately popped into Ronald’s mind.
Narrowing his eyes, he watched the old man and asked again:
"Could you please tell around what ti the young lady ca?"
Without a second thought, the old man replied to Ronald:
"I rember it clearly."
"It was no more than two minutes after you two went downstairs."
"Missing each other like that, you can only say it’s too much of a coincidence."
"..."
Two minutes...
Such a short span of ti, such a perfect opportunity.
Hearing this, Ronald’s scrutinizing gaze imdiately shifted to Heilois beside him.
—Almost at the sa ti.
Heilois, masquerading as Thor, imdiately turned her head away, unable to et his gaze, and started humming sothing to distract herself.
"..."
Her actions and reactions were too obviously fake and completely undisguised.
At that mont, Ronald didn’t know what to say.
So it turned out Heilois had this little sche in mind when she asked him to take her out to dinner tonight...
While climbing the spiral staircase, Ronald spoke in a hushed tone to Patricia,
"It must have been tough for you."
"To think you calculated the timing so well."
Patricia straightened her chest with righteous pride:
"Heh heh—"
"What are you talking about? I can’t understand a thing!"
"..."
"Suit yourself..."
In the end, it wasn’t a big deal, so Ronald didn’t pursue the matter further.
He returned to his cabin with Patricia.
He went straight to the wardrobe and started rummaging through a pile of clothes.
Finally, Ronald pulled out a small paper box wrapped in a blue handkerchief and ca back with a serious deanor.
Watching Ronald’s actions, Patricia imdiately asked,
"Ronald, what are you looking for?"
While unwrapping the handkerchief, Ronald explained plainly,
"An item, it might co in handy tonight."
"I called you over mostly to share so with you."
As he spoke, Ronald opened the paper box and carefully poured out its contents.
—It was a gray powdery substance.
—There were no signs of Magic Fluctuation, nor any visibly special qualities.
—At first glance, one might think it was just ordinary powder.
Of course, Patricia understood.
Ronald wouldn’t bother with sothing aningless at this ti.
So she observed carefully for a few seconds.
The mont she couldn’t discern what the material was, a lightbulb went off in her head.
She recalled sothing.
It was a story from half a year before, when she first t Ronald.
In the basent of the Black Mountain estate, the circle surrounding the Caster’s body seed to be composed of this gray substance!
Therefore, the girl’s gaze beca serious,
"Ronald, is this the sa thing from back on Black Mountain?"
"Correct," Ronald nodded as a matter of course, "This is the sa stuff that protected the Caster’s body up on Black Mountain."
"While you were dealing with Lumiere’s parents, the little boy I encountered underground turned to ash instantly upon touching it. Just to be safe, I pocketed so at the ti, thinking it could be useful soday."
While speaking, Ronald poured one third of the powder back into the paper box, divided the remaining two thirds into two equal parts, put one in his pocket, and handed the other to Patricia:
"Here, take it."
"It might be useful tonight."
"..."
Patricia’s expression was sowhat dazed as she took the powder from Ronald’s hand, but she smoothly stuffed the gray powder into her pocket.
After a period of silence, the girl expressed her mixed feelings with complexity,
"Ronald, you really are sothing."
"Don’t tell you’ve been preparing for this all along?"
Ronald shrugged, a smile on his face,
"No way around it, I was new to this stuff at the ti, so I was extra cautious. If you were to talk about the current , I might carelessly forget it all."
The look on Patricia’s face was entirely one of disbelief:
"Stay humble then."
"Anyway, I’ll accept this. See you later."
Ronald waved goodbye,
"Then see you later."
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