Rothgar was in a surprisingly good mood after leaving his "disappointed" persona behind. Pushing the human woman toward his desired outcome—watching her think she was outsmarting him while she was actually dancing in the palm of his hand—was entertaining. He was in no hurry.

While Anna hadn't fundamentally changed his view of humans, she had altered his perception of their potential for complexity. Having been away from the Human Realm for so long, he decided he should observe it more closely to ensure no other surprises would waste his time once he was finished with Anna.

At lunch, Rothgar dined with Earl Edgar Wilson. Utilizing Patrick's memories, he mirrored the son's behavior perfectly, and the Earl noticed nothing amiss.

By 3:00 PM, Rothgar was walking through the garden with his valet, Waldo. The tall, blonde Abigail was tending to the flowers. The garden was a memorial to the late Countess, and the Earl maintained it meticulously. Rothgar, despising fragile things as much as he despised humans, didn't spare the blossoms a glance.

As he passed Abigail, she suddenly let out a sharp, suggestive shriek and collapsed in a graceful heap just a foot in front of him.

Rothgar stopped, frowning down at her. Abigail looked up, her golden hair spilling over her shoulders, her face a mask of feigned terror. "I am so sorry, Lord Patrick! I'm so clumsy... I don't know what happened, I just lost my balance. Please, do not be angry!"

Rothgar gave her a cold, sidelong glance and walked right past her without a word. He wasn't about to fall for such a clumsy performance. Had these maids seen Anna's "success" and decided to copy her? Before meeting Anna, he might have played along to win the wager quickly, but now, his pride was set on conquering the original schemer first.

He put the incident out of his mind, but before he could even exit the garden, another figure charged out from the shrubbery like a phoenix on a suicide run.

Patrick's body was fit, and Rothgar's possession had enhanced its physical capabilities. He stepped aside with ease as the figure went flying into a rose bush, followed by a very real scream of pain.

Rothgar looked over to see Fiona. She had committed fully to the "reckless little kitten" persona, hoping that where Abigail had failed, her own brownish hair—similar to Anna's—might win the Lord's heart. Instead, she was now pinned by thorns. She looked at "Lord Patrick" with tearful eyes, hoping for rescue.

"Lord Patrick" vanished from her sight.

"Fiona, how could you... Hahaha! Does it hurt?" Abigail asked, walking over and laughing at her friend's predicament. Abigail's own fall had been controlled and painless; seeing Fiona suffer more than she had made her feel much better.

On the other side of the garden, Rothgar was already exiting. When a third maid—the pale-gold haired Kelly—suddenly went limp as he passed, he was able to dodge her with practiced ease. Kelly fell hard onto the stone path.

One fall was a coincidence. Three at once was a pattern. Rothgar realized these were the same maids who had bullied Anna. They must have seen his "devotion" to her and decided to imitate her "accident."

He let out a cold sneer. His opinion of humans remained unchanged: they were despicably tedious.

He ignored Kelly and kept walking. Waldo followed, remaining an invisible shadow as per his usual protocol.

The next day, however, the phenomenon became as common as seeing a slime in the Abyssal Realm. As he looked down at the fourth maid of the morning sprawled at his feet, Rothgar reached his breaking point.

Humans were truly despicable, filthy, and stupid!

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Anna had assumed she would have to rely on her imagination to guess what "interesting" situations the demon might encounter. To her surprise, the superficial friends she had made—Abigail, Kelly, and Fiona—seemed to genuinely consider her a confidante. On her second day, during a brief break, the three of them came looking for her.

While Abigail and Kelly looked much the same, Fiona's face was covered in red splotches, as if she had been stung or scratched by something.

"Fiona, what happened to your face?" Anna asked curiously.

Fiona's expression immediately soured. Beside her, Abigail and Kelly doubled over, clutching their stomachs as they vividly recounted Fiona's mishap to Anna.

Although Anna had intentionally guided this development and expected it, the reality of it still made her want to burst into laughter. Falling into a rose bush... that is just too tragic! Hahaha!

If Anna had been slightly wary of Fiona before because of the girl's earlier attempt to strike her, that concern had completely vanished after hearing about her ordeal. It was so pathetic that Anna found herself laughing until tears of joy blurred her eyes.

Then, the news Abigail shared next made Anna even happier.

"Anna, you wouldn't believe it! Someone spread the word about what we did, and now everyone is trying to imitate us!" Abigail said indignantly. "We might have failed, but we still had a chance! Now that so many others are copying us, they're going to steal our opportunity!".

Anna suppressed her laughter, keeping her face stiff as she asked, "They all... fell in front of Lord Patrick? How did he react?".

"How else? Lord Patrick is so devoted to you; he didn't even spare us a glance!" Fiona shot Anna a resentful look.

Anna thought to herself that this demon was certainly "fixated". According to her observations, while her first meeting with him had been a coincidence, he had since targeted her soul specifically and showed no interest in anyone else.

This was why she had dared to guide her superficial friends to "frame" him with these staged accidents, just to annoy him.

She suspected that because she was a transmigrator, her soul might be "tastier," which was why he wouldn't let her go. In fact, she had delivered his breakfast earlier that morning, and his face had looked quite grim. Though she had some guesses as to why, she hadn't known the details until now.

Learning that a wave of people was lining up to annoy the demon made Anna, who had been living in constant fear of him, feel immensely satisfied. Even though he was a demon and she was terrified, who said she couldn't give him a little "tit for tat"? Besides, she hadn't directly incited these other people to act; it wasn't her fault they were following the trend.

Anna put on the mask of a truly innocent, ignorant girl and looked at Fiona with a worried expression. "I didn't want this to happen either..."

After Anna had claimed she had a "lover" and rejected Lord Patrick's proposal in front of them, the trio's hostility had cooled significantly. Even if they were still a bit annoyed by her beauty, it was just normal jealousy and didn't stop them from associating with her.

Their reasoning was simple: Anna didn't want to marry Lord Patrick, yet he was infatuated with her. If they became her friends, they would have frequent opportunities to see him. Although he had caught them bullying Anna, if they treated her well from now on, he might eventually turn his gaze toward them.