Startled, I looked up at Sophia, my eyes darting side to side in shock at her unexpected words.

“Did you… really say that?”

She cleared her throat and averted her gaze, looking a bit like someone who’d just done something shameful.

“Yes, exactly those words…”

“‘Silly dummy’…?”

I had heard much harsher words in my time, but “silly dummy” didn’t even qualify as a swear word to me. Perhaps Sophia was sugarcoating things. As I was about to press her further, Levinas spoke up first.

“Your Highness…! Don’t use bad words!”

Levinas’s ears shot up, and Saebyeok’s ears twitched despite …