No, I can’t give up yet.

I’ll give Bridgette a good lesson later, but I still have plenty of options.

I’ll admit that I am one in the black mask, but I just have to reject the engagement in general.

“Certainly, I put on the black mask and saved Miss Karendoll’s at that time, but isn’t that an entirely different matter from our engagement? Besides, even if Miss Karendoll finds out that I am the Black Mask──”

“I guess I’ll just have to tell Sufia then.”

“… Ha?”

“I guess I’ll just have to tell her everything. If you reject the engagement with me, I will reveal everything to her, from the identity of the Black Masked one to the reasons for breaking off the engagement and Kaisar-sama’s brilliant views. I will tell her everything I know to the best of my knowledge. I’ll also tell her why you broke off the engagement in the first place, though I’m sure she won’t believe me at first because of Kaisar-sama’s reputation. However, I’ll overturn all her prejudices and make her believe in the truth.”

That’s a bit of a… No, I definitely do not want that.

“Then I’ll have to kill you.”

If we can’t solve the problem through discussion, we have no choice but to threaten the other party with force.

I don’t want to use this kind of means too much, but it is necessary every now and then.

It was all Bridgette’s fault, and definitely not because I wasn’t a good debater. It is because Bridgette did it.

“Then try to kill me now? Though I know, Kaisar-sama is too kind to harm us. Otherwise, there’s no way you would have rescued Sufia from the incident that triggered the annulment of her engagement to you.”

“That’s not all! At the training camp, Sufia got attacked by bandits, and it was Master Kaisar-sama who dutifully saved her!”

“Yeah, that’s right. But Bridgette, shut up for a moment.”

“Yes! I’ll shut up!”

Bridgette spun her mouth again with a confident expression as she replied happily.

For some reason, the more confident Bridgette became, the more insecure I felt.

Why… is she so useless?

“I know about that incident. That incident is why Sufia is so passionate about you, Black Masked One, and it’s why Sufia talks about it five times a day, so my ear is already full of her tale. So, after that, you can choose to kill me here, me telling Sufia all about you or getting engaged to me. Oh, and of course, if we’re going to get engaged, I’m willing to be Kaisar-sama’s slave to keep it a secret.”

And Karendoll kneeled before me as if offering her head to me.

How did this happen?

With that in mind, I made a hard decision and made Kalendoll my new slave.