The Intruder’s Identity

“I have no intention of living my life as the family dictates.”

A voice imbued with conviction—solid and unshakable—pierced the air. It was a sentiment one would never expect to hear during a meeting requested out of mere duty.

Agniele blinked slowly, as if trying to shake off his bewilderment. Once, twice. Each time his eyes met the fleeting darkness of a blink, the face of the person before him became clearer. After those few blinks, the eyes he fully faced were shining as if they held the starlight itself.

Like a man blinded by a distant, radiant light, he fell for her—utterly and helplessly.

“—And that is the description from the original work. You get the vibe, right?”

“That sounds less like he’s a face-sucker and more like…”

Cyril trailed off, unable to find the right words for the description. As she frowned, pondering a suitable expression, Titania—who had been resting her face against Ensi’s cold hand—opened her mouth.

“It sounds like: ‘You’re the first woman to treat me like this.’”

“Ah, right! That’s exactly the vibe.”

“In what world?” Luke let out a hollow laugh at Titania’s comparison. The analogy didn’t quite land for him, but it was different for Cyril; she burst into laughter and nodded in agreement.

“To put it precisely, it’s the ‘a type of woman I’ve never met before’ vibe. For this to work, there has to be an assumption that Agniele was surrounded only by people who approached him for his family and power.”

“And an assumption that most people in his life were types who decided their futures based on profit and loss,” Titania added as if she had been waiting. The two, sharing an unspoken understanding, shared a cheerful laugh and high-fived.

“That’s true, but as someone who saw the original work… Agniele is definitely an Eol-ppa (a sucker for looks).”

“Why?”

“Because in the original, every time Agniele’s perspective came up, the description of Lily’s appearance was never missing.”

He would mobilize every beautiful thing in existence to describe her looks. It was to the point where comments on the site said, ‘There’s a sense of madness in these calm but obsessive descriptions,’ or ‘He’s a bigger fanboy than I am.’

“If Agniele is a face-sucker like you say… isn’t it a bit funny? There’s a setting in the original—that he’s so uninterested in looks that he can’t even remember the face of a servant who served him for three years,” Luke pointed out. Donovan, who couldn’t quite grasp the sensibilities of romance, nodded along vigorously in agreement.

“Right, there is that setting. But that setting exists because he’s a face-sucker.”

“……Why on earth?”

Luke felt even deeper confusion at Lily’s nonchalant reply. Seeing the raw emotion on his distorted face, Ensi, who had been quiet, finally spoke up.

“If the male lead falls in love too easily just because the other person is pretty or handsome, it makes him look shallow.”

“Whew—” Lily blew a whistle at the spot-on answer. Ensi glared at her for the flippant behavior. She let out an awkward laugh and turned her head away to avoid his gaze.

“So the original author provided a catalyst for him to recognize Lily’s face to justify the setting?” Cyril murmured, tapping her lips. Lily clapped, signaling that she was right.

The ‘first type of person I’ve met’ trope was, as Cyril said, merely a trigger to make the face-sucking Agniele recognize Lily’s beauty.

“Then did Agniele fall for Ensi entirely because of his looks?”

At Donovan’s point, everyone sitting in the circle fixed their gaze on Ensi’s face. Suddenly the target of multiple stares, Ensi twitched an eyebrow.

“Well… he is the type one would fall for.”

“Yeah, Ensi is handsome.”

“It’s a face that transcends personal taste.”

“If Agniele really is a sucker for looks, it’s certainly understandable that he fell for him.”

Donovan looked back and forth at his friends, none of whom disagreed, then noticed sweat beading on Cyril and Titania’s foreheads. Belatedly realizing he hadn’t been mindful of those struggling with the Sun Grass’s heat, Donovan sent the spirits of water and wind playing on his shoulders to their side.

Additionally, he sent the fire spirit—which had been floating in the air using a Sun Grass petal like a parasol—to Ensi’s side.

“Then what about the catalyst? In the original, the moment Agniele recognizes Lily’s beauty is clear.”

Cyril and Titania, feeling the heat recede thanks to Donovan, nodded their thanks. In contrast, Ensi stared silently at the fire spirit that wouldn’t approach him, as if they were in a staring contest.

Perhaps because he was radiating cold, the fire spirit hesitated to go near Ensi, even though it was a request from its beloved Donovan.

“That’s the part I don’t know.”

“Back to square one, then.”

“Still, the possibility that he doesn’t have ulterior motives has opened up. Isn’t that what’s important?”

Ensi, used to this from many previous encounters, plucked a whole Sun Grass and offered it to the spirit. The spirit, now possessing a whole flower rather than just a petal, instantly changed its tune. Expressing clear joy for anyone to see, the spirit fluttered over and perched on Ensi’s shoulder.

In the meantime, Lily answered Donovan’s question, Luke snorted at the answer, and Titania lightened the mood by mentioning the positive aspects.

“Donovan, when I checked last night, the back door of the greenhouse was open. Did you use it?” Ensi asked, stroking the head of the spirit providing him warmth. The spirit, feeling temporary affection for Ensi thanks to the gift, smiled sweetly at the gentle touch.

“The back door? There’s no path there, so I don’t use it… Was there a sign of an intruder?”

“I’m not sure, but it seems so.”

“Shall I check for you?”

Ensi nodded at Donovan’s question, which seemed to read his mind. Donovan lightly tapped the shoulder of the earth spirit that had been wedged between his legs. After all, the earth, which always stays in the same place, remembers everything.

The spirit, reluctant to leave Donovan, lingered for a moment before letting out a faint sigh and fluttering upward at the second tap.

“If it was yesterday…”

Lily’s eyes deepened as if she were contemplating something. “Hey, I’m just saying this just in case.”

The uncertainty made her hesitate. When Lily trailed off—unusual for her—everyone looked at her curiously.

“Could the person who broke into the greenhouse yesterday have been Agniele?”

Luke shook his head immediately at Lily’s slow addition, as if it wasn’t even worth thinking about. “I think you’re interpreting things too much in our favor.”

“But doesn’t it seem quite possible? This greenhouse has a Sun Grass colony.”

“And?”

Titania tilted her head, looking at Cyril who had added the counter-argument to Luke.

“That’s— well…”

“In a Sun Grass colony of this scale, unless you prepare like we do, your cognitive abilities will decrease due to the heat,” Donovan answered for Cyril, who was at a loss for words.

“Agniele’s setting was that he usually distinguishes people by their mana, right? Since his senses would have been relatively dulled by the heat, if we assume his reliance on vision increased while he was here…”

It wasn’t strange to see it as the catalyst for him recognizing Ensi’s face.

“Come to think of it, this greenhouse seems to have the perfect conditions to take Agniele down. If I were exposed to this much heat defenselessly, I’d lose my mind too.”

Lily’s academy grades were lower than Agniele’s, but her swordsmanship was on par. Perhaps because of that, the members’ expressions became complicated. The suspicion grew.

“A face-sucker encountering Ensi’s face while their judgment was impaired, huh.”

Luke peered into Ensi’s face, murmuring the deductions they’d made so far. He was trying to imagine it as if he were Agniele. The other members followed his lead, staring blankly at Ensi.

The spirit, feeling the burdensome gaze along with Ensi, twisted its body and quickly flew up to hide behind Ensi’s back. In contrast, the subject of the many stares, Ensi, crossed his arms and tilted his chin with a somewhat rebellious attitude.

“If it’s revealed that the intruder was Agniele, we can be sure he doesn’t have impure motives.”

“Exactly. It looks like he just purely fell for him.”

“Actually, it was more surprising that no one had confessed to Ensi until now.”

“Ensi, congratulations!”

As Titania offered her congratulations with a pure, bright face, Ensi swallowed a sigh.

Donovan glanced at Ensi, whose expression showed his complicated feelings, then noticed the earth spirit approaching sluggishly and welcomed it with open arms.

“Good job. If there was an intruder yesterday besides us, could you let us know?”

As he whispered in a gentle tone, the spirit pushed its way into the very center of the gathered members.

Phew— The spirit took a deep breath and exhaled, causing a small cloud of dust to rise. Standing in the center of the artificially swirling dust, the spirit stamped its feet and spun around, and the earth slowly rose.

What started as a rough pile of dirt gained precision with every passing second. As the shifting form finally took on the complete shape of a person…

The members, who had been watching with all their attention, let out a collective gasp.

“Whoa… holy cow.”

The subject of the form the spirit had sculpted was, no matter how you looked at it, Agniele himself.