Calming himself, he then walked over to the group while occasionally glancing at the entrance.

As he picked up a teapot to refill the empty cups at the table, one of the women who had heavy makeup on—as did the others—said, “You know, you look pretty handsome up-close! Still, you’re not quite my cup of tea! Only Queena would fall for someone like you!”

“Oh? Could you actually be Queena’s pretty boy?” asked another woman.

“Humph! As if someone like him would ever be qualified to be hers!” replied a third woman rather contemptuously.

After saying that, the women seemed to lose interest in him and they quickly found themselves resuming their previous topic of conversation.

“Anyway, I’m very happy now! Haha! At long last, someone finally took the blame for me!” said another woman from that group who looked to be slightly older than Gerald.

“Oh? What sort of blame, Freya?” asked one of her friends.

“Just some incident none of you were probably aware of… Actually, I think it’s