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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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In a blind spot of the detached palace where few people passed by.
If it were the main palace where the Emperor resided, there would be many people coming and going, from the security forces to the attendants and maids, but due to the characteristic of the detached palace being located separately from the main palace, there were hardly any people passing by the surroundings.
Because of that, no one noticed Arwen crouching in the familiar darkness, anxiously biting her nails.
Until Sylphia, who became suspicious of the sudden flow of mana in the Imperial Palace, came to find her.
“Oh my.”
Sylphia, with a bored expression, flinched as soon as she saw Arwen.
Someone like Sylphia could easily grasp all of the magic that occurred in the Imperial Palace.
Thanks to that, she had walked here out of curiosity as to why a sudden teleportation spell that could penetrate the Imperial Palace’s unique tight security had occurred.
“Why are you being so miserable here? Even when hiding, you always hide in such a secluded place, as if someone would say you’re not a bat or something.”
“…Lizard wench.”
Arwen’s frowning gaze turned her head towards Sylphia.
The strongest creature on earth, the dragon, and the True Ancestor who was called the monarch of all vampires.
Nevertheless, their relationship was so bad that they mercilessly cut each other down as “lizard” or “bat,” but the situation was a bit special now.
Arwen wasn’t frowning because she was angry at Sylphia, and Sylphia was simply peeking around out of curiosity about what had happened.
“Why, did Rudrick say something like ‘I really hate Arwen!’ to you? That shouldn’t be the case, so why are you squatting here being a nuisance?”
“…It’s similar.”
“Huh…?”
A stone thrown carelessly hits and kills the frog.
The words Sylphia casually threw hurt Arwen’s heart more cleanly than any harsh words they had exchanged while bickering with each other until now.
Arwen didn’t directly hear such words from Rudrick, but it wasn’t difficult to predict the subsequent development.
Perhaps because Arwen’s words were unexpected.
Sylphia’s eyebrows rose, and then she nodded as if urging her to say more.
“…That is.”
Arwen, who hesitated whether it was okay to tell Sylphia, who could be considered her rival, soon opened her mouth.
Because she thought it was better to reveal her embarrassing flaws to Sylphia than to be hated by Rudrick.
As Arwen began to talk about what happened during the night with a rather serious expression, Sylphia’s expression also became serious.
“Hmm, hmm…”
As Sylphia listened silently to Arwen’s story, adding various interjections, her expression began to be filled with shock at some point.
And finally, after explaining the whole story.
“Y-y-y-you…”
“…”
“Are you crazy?!”
Although her pronunciation was slightly off due to her surprise, neither of them had the leisure to care about such trivial things.
“…This is how things turned out. I can only express it as my negligence. I didn’t expect the mana arrangement to loosen while I was sleeping.”
“No, sleeping in the same bed is fine. But it should have been in cat form. If that magic is dispelled, it means you just slept in the same bed together!”
“Rudrick wouldn’t have allowed that either… That’s why I was deeply troubled. At this rate, surely…”
“Surely my foot!”
Sylphia, with an agitated expression, reached out and grabbed Arwen by the collar.
And like a spin dryer wringing out laundry, she violently shook Arwen while grabbing her collar.
Thanks to that, the always neat and tidy suit was terribly wrinkled.
“You got ahead of me on something I haven’t even done yet?! Are you really crazy?!”
“…That’s not the important thing, is it?”
“It is important! For ten years, no, precisely eight years, I occasionally only imagined it but never put it into action!”
“Huh…?”
As soon as Sylphia’s words ended, Arwen gave a dumbfounded laugh as if she couldn’t believe it, and then swatted away the hand grabbing her collar with a cold expression.
“As expected, your nature is low, so you were having such lewd fantasies behind the scenes?”
She gave her a look of contempt.
Sylphia, who unconsciously spoke her true feelings out of envy, flinched, but soon raised her voice without backing down.
“I don’t want to hear that from someone who pretended to be a pet and then dispelled the magic to sleep when they thought it was an opportunity.”
“Th-that’s…! It wasn’t intentional, it was a mistake!”
“Who knows if it was a mistake or your true intention disguised as a mistake? It’s none of my business, right?”
“…It’s all wrong. I’ll definitely be hated. I don’t know why I made such a mistake.”
It was a bit awkward to call it a justification, but for now, the blame lie with Arwen.
Without the need for a long argument, the upper hand quickly went to Sylphia.
‘…Indeed, this isn’t a normal situation.’
Even if ‘nothing’ happened while sleeping, considering the era, the fact that an unmarried man and woman slept in the same bed was enough to be the subject of gossip.
It was a fact that even a fool would naturally know that it wouldn’t be good if this information spread.
As if the argument with Arwen just now was a lie, Sylphia instantly changed her expression and spoke in a low voice.
“Don’t go around blabbering about this to anyone.”
“…”
“Do you want some strange rumors to spread and block the marriage path of a decent bachelor? Well, even if it gets blocked, it’s obvious that the five of us won’t give up.”
“…I know.”
“I don’t like it. The very fact that Rudrick is the subject of gossip by trivial and insignificant humans. You know what I mean, right?”
“That goes for me as well.”
“Good, we’re on the same page. Then behave yourself.”
Leaving those words behind, Sylphia turned around without hesitation.
Now the important thing was to slowly observe how Rudrick reacted.
Sylphia, who could be said to have been screwed over two days ago, was already feeling uneasy.
In such a situation, Arwen’s absurd mistake was like volunteering to be an experiment subject in her place.
‘I was lucky.’
The corners of Sylphia’s mouth turned up slightly as she turned around.
‘Well, if the two of us put our heads together, we might come up with some clever trick… But there’s no need for that, right?’
As Sylphia thought, the two were rivals fighting over one man anyway.
There was no reason for Sylphia to help her.
Arwen was still sitting miserably with a dark expression, but as she put it, it was none of Sylphia’s “business.”
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“I already know what kind of cute trick you played before coming here. No, it would be a bit strange to call it a trick here. Should I rephrase it as what kind of deviation you committed?”
“I apologize, Your Highness the Princess, but this old man doesn’t quite understand what you’re saying…”
“You can’t cover the sky with the palm of your hand.”
Elena muttered in reply and sat on Lorenzo’s desk with her bottom in a cheeky manner.
Even the Imperial Court Mage had no way to properly respond if Elena, the Second Princess, approached him like this.
It wasn’t something he could shout at her to get lost as if speaking to a subordinate.
Lorenzo, who was already hesitant due to Eileen’s persuasion, broke out in a cold sweat, but Elena smiled faintly with an inscrutable expression.
“Immersing himself in intense training after realizing something and cutting off communication for a while… Well, it’s a plausible excuse in the nature of mages.”
“…”
“But if there’s something you’re mistaken about, it’s that you judged Rudrick as a simple mage. His way of thinking is a bit different from ordinary mages.”
“…I don’t know what you mean, Your Highness.”
“Well, to put it simply, understand that I grasped the full story of the matter as soon as I heard about it. You might think it’s plausible, but to me, it was that crude.”
Lorenzo stiffened.
The princess in front of him already knew everything.
In fact, it was Elena’s characteristically brilliant mind and the eight years of experience before the regression that instantly grasped the unfolding situation and reached a conclusion.
In reality, she was only pressuring him with a bluff without definite evidence, but at least the current Lorenzo couldn’t see through that.
Wanting to drive the point home, Elena said leisurely.
“How much were you bribed for?”
“Your Highness!”
“You don’t have to raise your voice like that, I already know. You must have received shiny gold coins from my cousin as hush money. Under the pretense of research funding support or something.”
Lorenzo, who was taken aback, raised his voice, but there was no way Elena, who was truly the Second Princess of the Esgelant Empire, wouldn’t notice Eileen’s movements.
Elena smiled brightly.
Making a circle with her fingers.
“I heard there has been progress in your research on exploring the truth that you’ve been conducting. Starting with the magic circle needed to open the door leading to the origin… Honestly, the budget executed in the Imperial Palace alone would be tight, so I won’t particularly reprimand you.”
“However…”
“Well, it’s not like you stabbed me in the back, so there’s no need to cower like that.”
Elena, who giggled, offered an irresistible proposal.
“Regardless of how much my cousin gave you, I’ll increase the research budget by twice that amount. And I’ll give it all to you in a lump sum.”
“L-lump sum…!”
“And I’ll turn a blind eye to all the abnormal phenomena occurring because of that research, I mean, beyond that ‘door’ you created. They’re literally just strange phenomena, not particularly causing harm to the surroundings.”
“You knew, Your Highness.”
“If I may offer one piece of advice, don’t indulge too much in whatever you see beyond that.”
Elena took out a checkbook from her bosom without any amount written on it.
From now on, it would have the value of the amount written on a blank check.
Elena asked to confirm.
“How much is the annual budget my cousin supported you with?”
“…It’s 50,000 ducats per year.”
“Then this should be enough for this year.”
First, she wrote a 1, followed by five 0s.
It was a scene where a huge sum of 100,000 ducats was exchanged in an instant without any hesitation.
Elena, who even scribbled her signature in an elegant handwriting, tore out the checkbook and handed it to Lorenzo, asking.
“So where is Rudrick?”
“…As far as I know, today is the last day. Then by now, probably…”
“I knew it would be like this.”
Hehe.
Elena, who let out a low laugh, stood up as if she had finished her business.
It was Elena who swept through like a storm and left, but Lorenzo couldn’t dare to blame the royalty, let alone the princess.
In a way, it was like betraying Eileen and siding with Elena, but in fact, Lorenzo was originally classified as a pro-princess faction.
And decisively, it was too much money to refuse Elena’s offer.
If the truth of magic lie beyond the origin, the truth of the world was money.
Lorenzo, who had been conducting uncertain research with other people’s money for a long time, firmly believed so.
It was the sorrow of a mage.
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Worst girl is coming. I almost forgot her but no, we can’t have good things