After enjoying tea and cake with Kaito at the cafe, the time for Marie's pickup drew near. They parted ways right there at the shop, and Marie headed toward the designated meeting spot they had agreed upon earlier.
Until that moment, she had been floating through a dream. It was a state induced by the presence of Kaito—a man whose existence defied all common sense. But as soon as she was left alone with a moment to breathe, reality shifted into high gear and crept up behind her.
"Marie!"
"Ah... F-Father..."
The original plan was for the Hamilton Marquis House to provide transportation, after which she would join her father at their estate. However, upon hearing that Marie might run into Kaito there, Baron Rich had become too anxious to wait and came to fetch her himself.
Seeing her father's face must have allowed her guard to drop. A small sense of relief trickled in, and the reality she had been trying so hard to ignore finally bared its fangs.
"M-Marie? What's wrong? Your face... you're not just pale, you're practically ghost-white. And you're sweating buckets!"
"F-Fa... Father... Something's wrong. I can't... I can't wake up from the dream."
"A dream? What are you talking about?"
"Because... because everything until now had to be a dream. If it isn't..."
The color drained so completely from Marie's face that it seemed she had no blood left in her veins. She began to shake uncontrollably, drenching her clothes in sweat.
Startled by her state, Baron Rich hurried to get her into the carriage. Even once seated, her trembling showed no signs of stopping. If anything, it only intensified. He realized immediately that she was in a truly abnormal condition.
"F-Fa... Father... I think I'm finished. I've committed... an unspeakable discourtesy toward Kaito-sama."
"A discourtesy? Just... calm down. Take a deep breath and tell me what happened once you've settled yourself."
"I thought it was a dream because things like that aren't possible! But if it was real... then I shamelessly begged Kaito-sama for expensive clothes and accessories. I even accepted a high-capacity Magic Box! Abababa... Altogether, it was a staggering amount—more than 3 Platinum Coins! Even if he was the one to suggest it, it's gross lèse-majesté! I'm doomed. That terrifying God will surely execute me. Father, please forgive me for being such an unfilial daughter and dying before you."
"Calm down! I don't understand the situation. Start from the beginning and go in order..."
"Ah... no, I can't... I can't do it anymore... Auugh."
"Marie!? Stay with me! Marie!!"
With her Invincibility Mode having expired, everything she had been ignoring rushed into her mind at once. Unable to withstand the muddy torrent of information and emotion, Marie finally lost consciousness.
This left Baron Rich in a difficult position. He understood that something monumental had occurred and that Marie was terrified she had offended Kaito, but he lacked any specific details. Without them, there was no way for him to act. Clutching his unconscious daughter, the Baron sat in the carriage, his own face turning pallid as he stared into space.
Of course, Kaito didn't think Marie had been disrespectful at all. On the contrary, he had enjoyed their time together immensely, and his opinion of her had actually gone up quite a bit.
While more than 3 Platinum Coins was an astronomical sum by any normal standard, to Kaito, it was an amount below Alice's binge eating. It truly wasn't a significant amount to him.
Furthermore, regarding Machina—the terrifying God Marie feared—the deity had no reason to punish someone for making Kaito happy. Marie's concerns were entirely groundless. However, at that moment, neither she nor Baron Rich had any way of knowing that.
One thing that would trouble Baron Rich later on was that Marie was now widely recognized among the nobility as Kaito's lover or mistress... but that, too, was something they remained unaware of for the time being.
Serious-senpai: "She called you 'that terrifying God'..."
Machina: "How rude! What's so scary about me? I would never unreasonably punish a friend of My Beloved Child, nor would I harass them with accusations of begging when My Child doesn't mind. Well, feeling a sense of awe or reverence toward a God is only natural, so I won't call her comments lèse-majesté."
Serious-senpai: "I think it's because you're threatening every noble in sight... Not to mention you actually showed some of them a glimpse of hell by making them experience the future."
Machina: "Serious-senpai? Right now, I'm talking about meat slabs that can understand at least the basics. I'm not talking about trash. Your example isn't appropriate."
Serious-senpai: "...Ah, right."