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THE Ministry of Ceremonies building was bustling with visitors, as could only be expected considering that the day of the Ordination Ceremony was swiftly approaching. It seemed likely there was more than one person sucking up to their boss in the offices they passed, because from the moment they’d stepped into the building, Ophelia’s legs hadn’t stopped shaking. But she couldn’t afford to lose it in a place like this. They needed to prove Bruno’s innocence. With one hand trailing along the wall to help maintain her balance, Ophelia focused entirely on keeping up with Samael.
“Excuse me, could you please tell me where the Ceremony Coordination Division is?” Samael called out to a member of the cleaning staff, a teenage boy who was mopping the hallway floor. The serious-faced boy seemed shocked at being addressed personally, but he obediently led the way.
The Ministry of Ceremonies oversaw a wide array of tasks, so each division had its own uniform. The Architectural Institute, where Ophelia had worked, had a green uniform, but the Ceremony Coordination Division’s uniform was light purple.
After Samael explained the situation, the official they were speaking with looked over the schedule Samael was holding.
“Hm, you’re right… This is an old version. The date is correct, but the times are all wrong. I wonder why they handed over the previous version. I will go get the person your coworker spoke with at the time. Please wait just a moment.”
Other guests were already using the reception room, so the two of them were left standing awkwardly just outside the door. Samael grumbled to himself that if Claudio were here, they would probably be receiving very different treatment. Seeing that there weren’t many people inside the office, probably due to many of the employees being out on various errands, eased Ophelia’s shaking a bit, and she took the opportunity to lean against the wall, trying to get her breathing under control.
The official who hurried over to speak with them was a young man in his early twenties, by Ophelia’s estimate. He tugged on the sleeve of his light-purple uniform and bowed his head apologetically.
Huh? This person…
Something immediately struck Ophelia as off about his behavior. It was only faintly, but the shaking of her hands that had just begun to abate seemed to worsen again.
“I was the one who gave your coworker the schedule. I’m terribly sorry for my mistake; here is the most recent version.”
Samael, who accepted the document from the young man with an incredulous expression, hadn’t noticed Ophelia’s shaking. If she didn’t do anything, Samael was likely to dismiss the incident as a careless but genuine mistake and leave without questioning the young man any further.
“U-Um…!”
The two men turned in unison to look at Ophelia after her impulsive outburst. She’d succeeded in getting their attention, but now she couldn’t find the right words to continue and ended up flapping her hands around uselessly in front of her chest in her panic. Seeing this strange behavior, the young man smiled gently.
“I didn’t realize there was such a lovely lady working in the Director’s Office. I’ve been to the Ministry of Justice many times, but never spotted you. May I ask your name, miss?”
“What?”
In stark contrast to his previously cowed demeanor, the young man now straightened his posture and assumed a dignified expression. Furthermore, his eyes seemed to almost sparkle in a way that Ophelia found alarming. When she reflexively recoiled, scuttling back a few steps, Samael moved at the same time to cut in front of her protectively.
“More importantly, I want to know why you gave our coworker the old version.”
“Of course, it was an oversight on my part.”
Even as he said this, the young man peered around Samael’s looming frame with an almost eerily wide smile, trying to catch another glimpse of Ophelia.
Samael agilely moved to block his view, but the young man was not so easily dissuaded. He moved again, trying to position himself so he could peek around Samael at Ophelia, but was again foiled by Samael side-stepping as well. This continued on for a while, with the three of them shuffling awkwardly around in a circle like some kind of odd dance, until Samael finally got fed up and grabbed the young man’s head with one hand, holding him in place.
“You are disgustingly persistent, aren’t you?”
“I can’t let this chance pass me by. My instincts are insisting on that.”
“You’re not to look at my girl with those lecherous eyes, you hear me?!”
Ophelia’s ears twitched at the words “my girl,” but before she could think any more of it, Samael pressed the schedule into her hands and gave her a little push on her back.
“I want you to head back to the Director’s Office, okay? Wait there until Angelo returns! Don’t step one foot outside the room, got it?”
“Y-Yes!” Ophelia replied automatically, then turned and ran off.
She exited through the Ministry of Ceremonies’ front door, but the carriage she and Samael had ridden over in was already gone, and she had no idea how to call for another. From here, the Architectural Institute was closer… Ophelia decided to go there and have Bernard get her a carriage.
Her course determined, Ophelia set off running once more, breathing hard. She hadn’t made it far when she felt a sudden jerk on the sleeve of her jacket that sent her tumbling to her knees.
“Ahh!”
She felt the impact as she hit the ground, but it didn’t hurt as much as she would’ve expected. Ophelia nervously peeled open her tightly shut eyes to find that she’d landed against a broad shoulder. A few strands of very familiar strawberry-blond hair fell over the black jacket covering that shoulder.
“Direc—”
Just as Ophelia attempted to speak, someone roughly yanked the schedule she’d been holding out of her hand. It happened so quickly that she didn’t even have the time to raise her voice in protest.
Ophelia frowned when the delayed sensation of pain in her hand caught up to her, and something black cut across the corner of her field of view, moving very quickly.
“You bastard! What did you do to my girl?!”
Right in front of where Ophelia was sitting on the ground, supported by Claudio, Samael was kneeling on the back of the struggling assailant, restraining him. Ophelia looked more closely at the face, with its cheek pressed into the dirt, and realized it belonged to the teenage boy they’d seen mopping the floors earlier.
“Your girl…?” Claudio muttered.
That’s not what you should be focusing on right now! Ophelia wanted to shout, but she’d learned her lesson and kept her mouth shut.
Ophelia was momentarily dissociating from the shock of all that had happened in such a short time when Claudio gently tapped her cheek. She looked up and found Claudio looking down at her with his brows furrowed in what seemed to be concern rather than anger.
“Are you hurt anywhere, Ophelia?”
Ophelia’s heart raced when their eyes met. “No, I’m fine… Thank you, Director.”
“I received a message from Samael that he was heading to the Ministry of Ceremonies, so I hurried right over, but… You were supposed to remain in the Director’s Office…” Right in front of her eyes, Claudio’s expression turned stormy.
“No, wait, Claudio…” Samael hurried to intercede once the guards who’d come running had taken custody of the cleaner. “I determined that Lady Narve’s assistance was necessary to confirm the authenticity of the documents I’d come to collect…”
“She’s the type to run headfirst into danger regardless of being totally defenseless, so I told you to be careful with her! And I was right—she ran straight into this mess, did she not?!”
“Weeell, I mean technically, yes? But there’s no way I could’ve anticipated something like this would happen!” Samael protested.
“And what are you going on about with ‘my girl’?! Ophelia doesn’t belong to you!”
“Wait, wait, Claudio. Calm down. That’s not important right now, is it?”
“Like hell it’s not!”
Samael flashed a charming smile, trying to placate an enraged Claudio.
It’s like a fight between brothers!
Ophelia picked up the schedule that had fallen on the ground in the scuffle. “Um, I think this is the correct one. My hands aren’t shaking.”
The crowd of curious onlookers who’d gathered to watch the two especially tall men’s argument reacted with begrudging admiration to Ophelia’s nerve in interrupting.
“Ultimately, it might’ve been the right move to bring her along,” Claudio conceded. “And as a fortunate bonus, it seems she flushed out a criminal to boot.”
“Right! Exactly, that’s what I was thinking.” When Samael enthusiastically clapped him on the shoulder, Claudio made a disgusted face and let out a long-suffering sigh.
“Also, I suspect that the incorrect schedule that started all this was handed over intentionally. The official we spoke to was lying,” Ophelia added.
“I also noticed that!” Samael exclaimed. “I’ve already made arrangements for him to be brought to the Ministry of Justice for questioning!”
Claudio sighed again for good measure, cutting a scathing glare at Samael, who flashed a thumbs-up sign while making this boastful announcement.
Ophelia looked down at her hands holding the schedule. She’d been vaguely aware of it for some time now, but there was no avoiding it anymore. The trembling in her hands, which persisted when she was with Samael, had stopped once Claudio appeared. While the fact that fewer people were around certainly helped, Ophelia believed that his presence made the most difference in putting her at ease.
“I do not lie. Don’t listen to any other voices but mine.”
Remembering those words made Ophelia’s shaking stop all at once, but they ignited a different kind of restlessness inside her that she couldn’t calm. As she was pondering why this might be, she gasped and jerked her head up.
This isn’t the time to be worrying about such things! We have to save Bruno!
The onlookers who’d gathered around to watch the spectacle from a distance had begun to disperse as well. The three of them climbed into a carriage that Samael had called and headed back to the Ministry of Justice. Stuffed like sardines in the narrow carriage, Claudio complained that it was “Too cramped in here!” Samael laughed good-naturedly, and Ophelia sank back into the corner she’d started to become very familiar with in recent days.