Chapter 11
Chapter 11: Knocking on My Wife’s Door at Night
Viktor sat waiting in the Carriage for a servant's notification, when the low, chattering sound of Weija reached his ears.
"You're interested in that Dormant Volcano?"
The single-eyed Crow was once again grooming its gleaming feathers. Its body had perhaps grown too plump—its beak could no longer reach the spots further back.
Viktor glanced at Weija.
"How did you figure that out?"
Weija tilted its head back and said confidently:
"Otherwise you would never have come to find this Fiancée of yours."
Viktor ignored it—which was as good as confirmation.
Not long after, Viktor's patience held—but Weija's gave out first.
"Why hasn't anyone come to invite us in yet?"
The rustling sound of turning pages paused. Viktor closed his spellbook and said flatly:
"Think about it. If you were a very beautiful woman, home alone, and late at night someone wanted to see you—and that someone was your fiancé—what would you do?"
Weija tilted its head and thought for a moment, then rasped: "Dress up beautifully and make sure to look your most polished for the meeting?"
"I see—she's putting on her makeup specially because you've come, and you're patiently waiting for her."
"Wrong. She'd just think this person was out of his mind, and find him thoroughly irritating."
Viktor denied it without expression—but the Crow was clearly unconvinced.
"Why? All the storybooks I've read write it that way. Could it be that you don't understand women?"
"It's you who doesn't understand Gwen."
Viktor turned his head and let his gaze fall on the gates of the Delin Family Manor.
This righteous, great Knight had never once thought of herself as a "woman" in that sense.
Well—in truth, Viktor himself didn't quite understand Gwen at this point in time either.
Still, he felt that at this stage, Gwen probably despised him.
After all, no woman would have feelings for a man who wore a scowl every day, harbored petty grudges, and had done every manner of wicked thing.
The bond of a fiancée—that relationship was likely nothing but a lifelong stain on the great Knight Gwen's record, right up until the very end.
Which was why, after Viktor died, she spent the rest of her life unmarried.
"Get ready—it's time we went in."
He glanced down and reminded the Crow on his shoulder. The Crow swiftly arranged itself into the pose of 'I am merely a pet,' standing lazily on his shoulder without budging.
After a short while, a Maidservant came to the Carriage and respectfully informed him that Miss Gwen was ready and invited him inside.
Viktor stepped down from the Carriage, followed the Maidservant through the gate, and was shown to the Meeting Hall.
The moment he stepped in, he saw Gwen.
She was seated on a plush sofa, without a trace of makeup, wrapped from head to toe in a snugly fitted bathrobe that left not a sliver of skin exposed.
By all appearances, she had just stepped out of the bath.
Not that she needed any makeup—in Viktor's eyes, even bare-faced, her flawlessly beautiful features were more than enough to captivate any man.
"This late—what are you here for?"
Gwen's tone was cool and detached, carrying a faint note of distance.
Viktor took the seat across from her without ceremony, his own tone equally flat as he got straight to the point:
"I heard you're leaving on a mission. Won't be back for half a month."
Gwen didn't bother asking where he'd heard that. She gave an honest nod.
"Yes. Departing in 1 week."
"Can you take me along?"
Gwen: "……"
Hearing this, her reaction was somewhat… hard to read.
First a flicker of confusion, then a furrowed brow, as though she were checking that she had heard correctly.
Finally, she leaned back, an expression of pure disbelief gradually spreading across her face.
Gwen raised a hand to her forehead and lowered her head, then asked him to repeat himself.
"Say that again."
"Can you take me along?"
Not a moment's hesitation—Viktor repeated it word for word.
"Hff……"
Gwen let out a quiet breath. She had a persistent feeling this person had dropped his head and damaged something.
"Your reason?"
"Without a proper reason, I couldn't possibly take you along."
Viktor: "I have a thorough knowledge of the surrounding mountain terrain, including the weaknesses of the magical creatures distributed throughout the area. With me along, counting the journey there and back, you could return in just 7 days."
Hearing this, Gwen didn't even lift her eyes—it was impossible to tell whether she was weighing Viktor's value or had simply not taken it to heart.
Viktor was about to say more to raise his standing in Gwen's estimation, but Gwen cut him off before he could.
"What I want is the truth."
Viktor's gaze cooled slightly. Looking at Gwen, he said slowly: "……You used your ability on me."
As a Knight born with a righteous heart, Gwen Delin had displayed her one-of-a-kind gift from childhood.
She possessed a Heart of Justice.
When she chose to use it, she could clearly discern whether the person across from her was telling a lie.
This ability was one Gwen could control freely—so when unnecessary, she would not use it.
And yet, she hadn't trusted herself.
Viktor didn't feel particularly angry about it. If anything, it was somewhat expected.
Because it was indirect proof of just how much Gwen detested him.
In conversation with him, Gwen would even resort to using her Heart of Justice to measure whether he was telling the truth.
"I don't trust you."
Gwen was blunt, and offered no further explanation.
Suddenly, Viktor let out a quiet, unburdened laugh.
He thought for a moment, then said again:
"Mount Vesuvius is home to a type of magical creature. They produce a unique crystal on their bodies—I need that material to craft magic items."
With that, Viktor's eyes carried a streak of intense, genuine desire.
【1st-Tier Magic: Self-Suggestion】
Effect: Hypnotic suggestion applied to oneself. For a limited time, any 1 chosen ability may be randomly boosted by 1 level.
Dealing with Gwen's Heart of Justice was simple—all he needed to do was tell the truth.
Even if that truth was fabricated on the spot, as long as Viktor himself believed it, it was the truth.
Mages had their own methods—a flexible sense of morality and a sharp, resourceful mind.
Gwen finally looked up at Viktor.
"It seems you do know that volcano—otherwise you wouldn't say something like that."
"To get what you want, you'd even use the Royal Knight Company as your personal escort."
"Truly like you—self-serving as ever, Viktor."
Viktor, for the first time in a long while, let go of the poker face and smiled with a nod.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
Gwen would not suspect Viktor's motives from any angle other than pure self-interest—because that was simply the kind of person he was.
She also knew that if she refused, Viktor would only press her more persistently to get what he wanted.
In that case, she might as well agree.
"I'll submit a request for an accompanying mage. Just come find me on the day."
Seeing Gwen agree, Viktor smiled and said in return: "My thanks. For a Knight like Gwen—who, even for someone as self-serving as me, is still willing to offer selfless help."
"I'll have everything sorted within this week. No need to see me out."
With that, Viktor rose and left.
Gwen gave a nod and watched him go.
Yet somehow, that smiling face Viktor had worn while paying her the compliment lingered in her mind and wouldn't leave.
Had Viktor ever smiled like that before?
Back in the Carriage, Viktor leaned calmly against the seat, his obsidian eyes staring at some indeterminate point.
"Are you angry?"
The Crow asked, puzzled.
"Why would you think that?"
Weija: "I've been looking at that poker face of yours long enough. Just instinct."
"You wouldn't smile like a blooming chrysanthemum unless something was eating at you."
Angry?
Hearing its words, Viktor thought about it briefly.
Perhaps something deep in his upbringing made him want to be a good person—yet in her eyes, what he had done was described in such righteously disparaging terms as sheer selfishness.
And the only way to earn that person's approval was to play the role she had already decided he was.
Angry—not quite.
Just left him feeling somewhat nauseated.
***
In the days that followed, Viktor taught at the Academy by day and buried himself in the Basement by night, researching Magic Potions.
As long as materials were supplied in sufficient quantity, he could produce around 100 bottles per day—all of which he handed to Leah to sell.
Leah confirmed that once the shop was finished with renovations, the Potions would go on sale, and for the time being, only this 1 type would be sold.
The shop needed to establish its reputation first, before they could consider sourcing other magic items.
Viktor knew, of course, that once these consumables hit the shelves, they would cause a frenzy.
So he told Leah not to sell all of them at once—50 bottles per day, limited supply only.
Scarcity marketing.
Leah was a merchant through and through—she understood at once.
At the Academy, Viktor was equally busy—on one hand thinking through topics for the Public Lecture, and on the other, he had made a decision.
Each class, he would have Heni sit in and observe from the side.
He framed it as: absorbing experience.
Erika came to his office every evening, always bringing a long list of questions to ask, and the visits were becoming more and more frequent.
Viktor found it somewhat tiresome, but Weija answered each question tirelessly.
To keep Weija from chattering nonstop inside his head, he had no choice but to relay everything to Erika on its behalf.
As a bonus, he was quietly catching up on magical knowledge from Weija along the way.
After secretly studying alongside Weija, he came to realize—Erika truly was a genius.
The obscure, complex content Weija presented was completely beyond his own comprehension, yet Erika grasped it the moment it was explained.
Even at that level, she always seemed to have an endless stream of new questions waiting to be answered.
Viktor couldn't help but feel a quiet sense of admiration.
A student with both talent and dedication like Erika—if she didn't top every exam, who would?
Everything was moving along smoothly. Before long, the 6th day of his agreement with Gwen had arrived.
Heni followed quietly behind Viktor. Today she would once again be observing from the side as she had been doing every day.
She didn't quite understand why Professor Viktor had her sit in on the lessons—after all, she was the one who had written the curriculum in the first place.
Not until the 2 of them reached the classroom door did she finally grasp what Professor Viktor had been building toward all these days.
"Today, I want you to go in there yourself, and use your own knowledge to teach this class."
Heni: "???"