Chapter 684: The Detective's Letter

"Loren is mine. I am the one true wife."

Cecelia licked her lips and declared it.

Loren hadn't expected Cecelia to suddenly pull something like this either. He was caught completely off guard, and Laila, not to be outdone, came over and planted a kiss on Loren's lips.

"Hey, you two..."

Before Loren could even get out a retort, Reflection Naclis, who had been hiding in Loren's shadow, made her move as well.

She put Loren in an awkward bind, leaving him only able to watch as Cecelia and Laila glared daggers at each other.

This was something Loren hadn't anticipated. He never thought he'd actually experience something like this.

"Ahem, let's pause for a moment... let's eat first. We can talk about this after the meal..."

Loren could only divert the topic and shelve the matter for now:

"In a bit, I'll go see Ofemia and dig up some recent intelligence, then continue making puppets...

"I could even build a puppet to help Paqina. I wonder how far her research has gotten..."

"I think Master Mentor has a point."

By now Reflection Naclis had finished as well, quietly returning to her seat.

Only then did Cecelia and Laila stop their jealous rivalry. Really, it was only those two who had friction, since each believed herself to be the one true wife.

The other witches were far more indifferent about it. As long as they could stay by Loren's side, that was enough.

Anna especially, many of those present had received guidance from Anna. One could even say that without Anna, none of them would be where they were today.

Only Veronica and Panike, the two newest witches, didn't quite understand what the others were even fighting over.

Loren hastily grabbed a few bites and quickly fled this den of trouble. But even though he was leaving, he still left Gwen and Orianna behind to continue producing puppets.

Even if this was a rare moment of leisure, Loren wasn't willing to waste a single second.

When Loren was about to go find Ofemia, Anna insisted on coming along. She'd heard before that Ofemia's place was even better equipped than an arcade, and she'd been dying to come play.

And she didn't consider it a visit to someone else's home at all. In Anna's eyes, Ofemia was Loren's maid, so Ofemia's house was as good as her own.

Reflection Naclis followed Loren as well. Panike wanted to come too, so in the end Loren tucked Panike and Anna under his arms and flew them both toward Ofemia's home.

Since Loren's last visit, Ofemia hadn't stepped outside once.

To put it nicely, she was directing operations from within. To put it bluntly, she was a shut-in girl.

Ofemia's home was staffed entirely by vampires under her control, but even so, Loren didn't try to appear before them. Instead, he used The Hermit card to slip quietly into Ofemia's house and began searching for her whereabouts.

Given Ofemia's personality, she was most likely to be in the bedroom, the arcade, the study, or the bathroom. Most of the time she lay in bed playing handheld games and reading manga; sitting in front of a game console, she found tiring.

Sure enough, the moment Loren pushed open the bedroom door, he saw Ofemia lying on the bed reading manga.

"M-Master Mentor... long time no see..."

The instant she saw Loren, Ofemia immediately stuffed the manga under her pillow. Even when Loren had come to find her before, this had never happened.

But Loren couldn't be bothered to care what manga Ofemia was reading. He was here to ask about serious matters:

"Has there been any new development in the war situation recently?"

Loren had only been gone a week or two, and most of that time he'd spent at sea. It was unlikely anything major had happened in that span. Loren was just asking in passing, since he'd brought Anna here to play games.

"During the time you were away, the war escalated. Not long ago, people from the Church came to force me to send troops to join the war. I casually dispatched a few low-tier vampires...

"Those vampires never sent any intelligence back. I suspect they're already dead."

Ofemia was indeed cautious. On the surface, it looked like she'd sent people just to brush off the Church, but the ones she sent were all spies. Unfortunately, they hadn't obtained any useful information.

"So this happened during the time after I left?"

"Yes."

"Oh, then it's probably because my beating up the God of Light and Fire twice got exposed. The strongest Orthodox God suffered a setback, and even the God of Night and Thunder from the Western Continent wants a piece of the action..."

"Y-You beat up the God of Light and Fire?"

This news was explosive for Ofemia, so much so that it left her numb. And Anna, seizing this moment, stole the manga hidden under the pillow:

"The Domineering Mentor Falls in Love with Me? What kind of manga is this?"

Hearing Anna read the title aloud, embarrassment instantly eclipsed Ofemia's shock. She instinctively lunged to snatch the book back, but she was no match for Anna as she was now. She couldn't even retrieve the book.

"Let me see the content... 'I was a maid in a minor noble's house, suffering every humiliation, until at a certain banquet I met Master Mentor. I thought someone as lowly as me could never cross paths with him in this lifetime, but fate truly is a wondrous thing...'

"Just reading the synopsis is making me cringe. How did you even get through it?"

Anna closed the manga and put on a look of disgust.

"Ahem... this was published before Master Mentor was wanted. It was very popular back then, every manga shop sold it...

"When I buy manga, I usually just have someone buy out the entire shop's stock... so of course it included this one.

"This manga has since been banned. Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look..."

Ofemia's confidence shrank with every word. Having someone discover her reading this kind of manga was embarrassing enough, and now she'd been caught by the male lead of the manga himself...

"..."

Loren wasn't surprised the book existed. After all, he had genuinely been the nation's male idol back then. To name just one example, Gedlan Kingdom had no shortage of fan fiction about him. Loren was long used to it and had never bothered to intervene.

"Really? Even though you protected it well, I can tell this book's been flipped through several times..."

Anna pressed the finishing blow, making Ofemia even more embarrassed. She hurriedly buried her face in her knees:

"Don't say any more..."

"..."

Loren was somewhat speechless. Anna opened the manga and looked at it a couple more times, then awkwardly closed it.

"Oh right! I have something of yours here. A while back, someone dressed like a detective told me to give it to you."

Mentioning the Orthodox Gods instantly made Ofemia turn serious. She handed Loren a letter. She hadn't opened it, naturally, since it was for Loren.

"The person who came to deliver the letter was no simple figure. He even knew I could give the letter to you... which means he must know something..."

Even without opening the letter, Ofemia had deduced a great deal of information.