Chapter 59

The Lost Intruder
The private beach of the Heartland family—one of the Three Great Houses.
Ordinarily, no outsiders should be able to set foot here.

Had I just imagined the figure I saw at the edge of my vision?
If not, this was a serious situation.

To confirm, I dashed toward the rocky outcrop.
Carefully navigating the uneven terrain, I scanned my surroundings.
Before long, Lucina, noticing my actions, followed after me.

"Is something the matter, Master Lake?"
"I thought I saw someone around here just now."
"That can’t be… This is the Heartland family’s private beach. If an intruder were here, we would have noticed immediately."
"… It seems we only just realized it now."

Sensing something, I turned back toward the beach—where I now saw armed soldiers.
They had likely detected the presence of an intruder and rushed over… but why did they take so long?

Well, considering they served the Heartland family, they were probably highly capable.

I was about to return and inform them that I had spotted someone—when suddenly, I heard movement.

"! Lucina!"
"Yes. I heard it too. Over there."

There was no doubt—someone was beyond these rocks.
Lucina and I decided it would be faster to capture them ourselves rather than call the soldiers.

—But we were both in swimsuits and unarmed.
A brief flash of concern crossed my mind—was it dangerous to pursue too recklessly?

Just as I turned to glance at Lucina, I noticed she was already holding a knife in each hand.

Wait… She was definitely empty-handed just moments ago.
Where did those come from?

Curious, I asked, and she pointed the tips of the knives toward her own chest.

"I believe this should answer your question."
"… Impressive as always, Lucina."
"I am honored by your praise."

Come to think of it, she had once mentioned that maid uniforms were great for concealing weapons.
For her, the ideal outfit seemed to be one that allowed for maximum weapon concealment…
But still, how did she manage to hide them *there*?

I was immensely curious, but I decided to save that question for later. Right now, we needed to focus on tracking the intruder.

After a short pursuit, we finally caught sight of them—

"!? A girl!?"

I had assumed it would be some obvious villain sneaking in to attack the Heartland family…
But instead, standing before us was an adorable young girl—the complete opposite of what I had expected.

"A girl… I didn’t see that coming."
"What shall we do?"
"… We can’t just ignore her."

I felt a wave of relief, but we still couldn’t let our guard down.
Remaining cautious, Lucina and I approached her.

"What are you doing here?"
"Huh?"

As she turned around, I involuntarily held my breath.
The girl had long silver hair styled into braids and appeared to be around my age.
And she was *incredibly* cute.

Her light blue eyes locked onto mine, rendering me unable to move.
Lucina’s deliberate *ahem* snapped me back to reality.

"S-So… What are you doing here? This beach is off-limits to outsiders. What’s your name?"
"Anna."

Even her name was cute—*that’s not the point!*
First, I needed to figure out her situation.