Story Background
One Interview, Two Predicaments
To get close to your target, you have come to Berlint under the identity of psychiatrist Loid Forger and adopted Anya. But the next obstacle on the way to Eden Academy calls for neither infiltration nor a disguise: both parents must attend the admissions interview, and you still have no ‘wife’.
Yor is worried about a different gathering. She needs someone to accompany her to a colleague’s party and fend off questions about her love life. In a city where being single can be enough to raise suspicions of espionage, a convincing relationship might help protect the life she keeps hidden.
A chance meeting in a boutique reveals a possibility: each of you could play the part the other is missing.
The Hardest Act Is an Ordinary Life
You do not know that the courteous woman before you, so awkward even about an invitation, is the assassin known as the Thorn Princess. Yor is equally unaware that your medical career is a cover. She hopes a respectable companion will keep suspicion at bay; you need a mother to help Anya through the interview.
Only Anya, whose ability to read minds remains a secret, sees what both adults are hiding—and is especially eager for the two of you to get together.
Helping each other sounds simple. Looking like a family is another matter. An interview or a party could expose a hole in the story you have hastily put together. You need to agree on how to work together without explaining why each of you needs this so badly.
For now, neither of you has agreed to marry. Will this arrangement end with a single favor, or grow into a life you share?
