She walked along the silent corridor to find some water to drink.

In fact, she didn’t despise silence, she even preferred it over noisiness. Her entertaining personality when nobles were noisily forming friendships was only a facade. However, the atmosphere right now was simply too unnatural. This silence cast a chilling sensation, causing her to feel as if she was the only person in the mansion.

“...What happened?”

The guards could not have left this place without saying a single word. If there really was an abnormal situation that happened, shouting would immediately give away her own position, which would be a really bad turn of events. Hypothetically, if she were to return to her room and hide under the covers, what then? Doing that would be too passive.

It was necessary to take action when the situation called for it, otherwise one would be devoured like prey. This was her belief and she had been able to climb all the way from being a high-class prostitute to her current position because she strongly adhered to this way of thinking.

Looking around the corridor she could see that apparently nobody was present, and she quickly ran to get out of this place.

She trusted her own sixth sense, and the place she ran towards was a hidden room which only she knew about. That room contained many magic items, precious gems and escape passages. Although this place was the headquarters within the capital, there were still many other bases distributed all around the city. It looked like it was about time to flee to one of them.

Proceeding forward while trying her best to be silent, she suddenly noticed something was wrong.

“What, what is this?”

She involuntarily gave off a soft groan when she saw a strange phenomenon outside of the window.

The thin glass was covered in ivy, completely blocking the sunlight from outside. No matter how hard she tried, it was impossible to open the window even for a small crack.

She frantically looked at the other windows along the corridor. All of them were covered with thick ivy.

“W-what the? J-just who…”

Before she slept, the scene had definitely been different. In the short span of only an hour, it had become like this. It had to be the result of somebody’s magic.

But, who exactly? What was his objective?

She had absolutely no clue, but knew that the situation was incredibly dangerous right now.

“Dammit!”

Swearing as she trotted along, she did not even care if her bath robe had come undone. No matter what, it was imperative to get inside the small secret room.

Arriving at the stairs, she looked downwards. It was deathly silent.

She gingerly walked down the stairs, making use of the rays of light that seeped in from the tiny gaps amongst the ivy. Thanks to the thick carpets laid on the stair, she was able to descend without a single noise. She was immensely grateful for this.

“——!”

It was only when she arrived at the floor below that she was stunned with surprise.

There was a figure standing in the corridor, staring at her. The figure itself seemed to melt into the darkness, but it wasn’t like the way thieves hid themselves in the shadows. It was because the figure’s skin itself had a dark complexion, being a dark elf with heterochromatic eyes that shone in the darkness.

The dark elf stepped out of the dark. She wore a young girl’s clothing. In her hand she held a dark staff, and her eyes were looking directly at Hilma.

Behind this mysterious young girl was the hidden room.

She recalled the layout of the mansion as she made her decision, and edged closer whilst trembling in fear.

Some nobles must have brought it in as a play-thing, in that case whatever happens to it does not matter.

However she immediately discarded this wishful thought.

It appeared that Cocco Doll had already been captured. In order to avoid any unfavourable consequences from future power struggles, she had long since prepared escape routes to safe houses. As such, the subordinates in this mansion would never bring in irrelevant people without making some form of report.

“Hey, ojou-chan.”

When a sound was uttered, Hilma frowned in surprise.

As a high-class prostitute, she had come across all types of people. Experience told her that the one she saw before her was not a young girl, but a boy.

The clothes were luxurious, the type which most people could not get their hands on. They were high-class goods that even Hilma could not obtain.

The dark elves had always been living in the forests, but now one with an unknown gender had appeared inside the Kingdom, wearing unusually luxurious clothing.

Had the surrounding atmosphere not been so abnormal, she would have assumed she was  looking at a slave of a noble, one meant for their peculiar desires.

“...You, what are you doing here?”

The other person was completely unguarded, and slowly got closer to her.

“O-oba-san, are you the most important person in this mansion?”

Even if she was called an oba-san, she was not unhappy in the slightest. For such a young elf, her age must certainly be at the point to be appropriately called oba-san.

“No―”

She was about to say this, but suddenly, she got an extremely bad feeling.

She had tremendous trust in her own intuition. Compared to her common sense, she trusted her intuition even more and had therefore been able to survive up to this point. Common sense could betray her, but her intuition would never do so.

“Yes. Yes that is so. I am the most important person in this mansion.”

“I-is that so. That’s great.”

The boy smiled. Hilma heart ignited with a fiery desire, as if she had the urge to defile a beautiful object. It was that kind of pure smile.

“U-uhh, that’s not what I heard from the people here.”

As if in response to the boy’s words, the nearby window opened. There stood a young girl in a maid costume, her body wafting with the smell of blood instead of perfume.

Hilma covered her mouth with her hands, holding back a cry of despair.

The maid held a man's arm in her lovely hand. The arm’s shoulder muscles were visible as if it had been ripped from the shoulder.