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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Um, so Arwen. Strictly speaking, for now, there’s no other way for you to be inside the palace…”
“Shh.”
The room fell silent after Arwen’s remark.
Belatedly, Rudrick opened his mouth to smooth things over, but Arwen stretched out her front paw and lightly pushed him away.
As if gesturing for him not to say anything more, Arwen continued.
The sight of her licking her front paw was just like a cat, but it was Arwen’s unique cat imitation that couldn’t get rid of the awkward corners.
“…It’s unfair.”
Elena unconsciously muttered her inner thoughts.
Perhaps in this situation, the very position of a pet that Arwen held was the best condition.
To borrow an expression Rudrick often used before the regression, it was an absurdly crazy honeypot.
Although Elena was currently receiving the most vigilance, perhaps the person they really needed to be wary of was not Elena, but Arwen.
Even Eileen, who was next to her, had the same thought, to the point where Arwen’s current appearance was detestable.
“It didn’t make sense from the beginning.”
Eileen quietly added.
It could be said to be Arwen’s biggest merit.
In fact, if you think about it a bit coolly, even the act of shamelessly sitting on his lap like that was something that couldn’t even be imagined before the regression.
Yawning slightly, Arwen responded indifferently.
“That’s why I told you. Go and learn transformation magic first.”
“Arwen, shush.”
“I don’t think I said anything particularly wrong.”
Rudrick frowned and stopped Arwen’s action of adding fuel to the fire, but in fact, both of them knew that Arwen was right.
If I said it was right, there might be a slight misuse of words, so to correct it, it was just that Arwen was absurdly lucky.
The True Ancestor, the monarch of all vampires who was said to be comparable to dragons, the strongest creatures on earth since birth.
Also known as the Elder Vampire.
For her, magic was as natural as breathing for living beings.
Transformation magic, or polymorph magic, was the same.
The fact that she could maintain such advanced magic that completely changed the appearance of the caster or the target for this long was enough to guess Arwen’s magical capacity and more.
Her magical capacity wasn’t thanks to her efforts, but the rest was luck.
Starting with her decision to be the first to approach Rudrick without hesitation and reveal that she had regressed, to Rudrick readily extending his hand to her.
‘Thinking about it like this, it seems a bit too much to simply dismiss it as luck…’
Eileen, who had been thinking to herself, shook her head.
When you can barely take care of yourself, who are you to acknowledge someone else?
And Arwen put a period to her thought.
“Eileen Nord.”
“…?”
“Even after experiencing that incident at the inn, have you still not realized? At this rate, you’ll lose second place to that lizard bitch too.”
“…!”
Those words made her come to her senses as if cold water had been poured over her head, and Eileen made up her mind.
As soon as she returned to the North, she planned to send someone to the Magic Tower.
Although she had never used magic even once in her life, it was still utilizing mana, so it could be considered to have the same trajectory as martial arts.
So she had to invite a mage from the Magic Tower and learn transformation magic this time for sure.
If she was any later, her order might be pushed back from second to third, or even fourth.
Whether he knew of Eileen’s determination or not, Rudrick and Elena looked at each other with faces that seemed to wonder why she was acting like that.
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“It’s tough…”
The days of the Imperial Knights were long.
In the early morning hours, most of the security was handled by simple security guards, except for those on duty, but during the day, the knights took turns standing guard.
However, if you asked them if they could rest comfortably when they didn’t have guard or patrol duties, that was not the case either.
Knights could be compared to modern fighter jets or tanks.
Unless they came from a wealthy family, it would be absurd for a single noble family to operate even a small unit of knights due to the immense cost, but they were the ones who exhibited superior combat power beyond that.
Moreover, knights who even used mana were basically dedicated to enhancing their combat power without engaging in any productive activities in order to demonstrate their powerful combat abilities in battle.
Moreover, as they were not just ordinary knights but the Imperial Knights carefully selected by the empire, their training also boasted a ridiculous level of difficulty.
Serilla collapsed on the bed as if falling over, recalling today’s events of getting up at the crack of dawn, doing morning duties, and then rolling on the training ground like a dog without a moment’s rest as soon as those duties were over.
“It can’t be helped. The next recruitment of new soldiers is six months away, so you’ll have to suffer until then.”
Her roommate, who was from the same class, giggled.
As they were the most elite, carefully selected, the replenishment of personnel was also naturally conservative.
If it weren’t for Princess Elena, the second princess who happened to be attending the academy at the same time, she could have graduated as the top student, but even she, who shone as the second-best at the academy, was just a new recruit here.
As Serilla groaned and buried her face in the pillow instead of answering, her classmate casually asked as if she had just remembered something.
“By the way, Serilla, did you hear about that?”
“…Hear about what?”
“I mean, about this closing ceremony. I heard your younger brother was sitting at the head table with Her Highness the Princess. A senior who was on security told me.”
“What…?”
The effect was excellent.
At the sight of Serilla immediately raising her head, when she was about to collapse and fall asleep without even washing, her classmate clicked her tongue.
“You really react right away when it comes to your brother, proving you’re his sister.”
“You’d be like this too if you had a much younger brother. No, but why was Rudrick sitting at the head table with Her Highness the Princess? On purpose?”
“He’s the next court mage, isn’t he?”
“No matter what, that’s not a reason for him to be sitting at the head table.”
“I heard that your brother, Her Highness the Princess, and even Her Grace the Grand Duchess went out to the terrace together and then came back in.”
“…?”
Serilla frowned at the sudden story.
As if asking what that meant, her classmate added an explanation.
“It wasn’t like they went out to the terrace together from the beginning, but when they came back, there were three of them. The senior said he even heard the nobles gossiping about whether it was a love triangle.”
“…”
Serilla’s furrowed brow showed no sign of smoothing out.
So to summarize what her classmate said, it seemed that the Second Princess deliberately brought Rudrick to the closing ceremony and sat with him at the head table, and even the Grand Duchess of Nord was involved, creating a subtle atmosphere.
After roughly picturing the situation in her mind, Serilla asked again.
“Is stabbing a royal punishable by beheading?”
“Are you crazy? Don’t ever say that carelessly, even as a joke. If someone hears you, you’ll really be in big trouble.”
Her classmate stopped her, startled by Serilla’s quite serious question.
That was how sincere Serilla’s eyes and expression were just a moment ago.
Serilla scratched her head and answered her classmate who was responding with a straight face.
“No matter what, I can’t bear to see my younger brother being made to cry.”
“No, it’s just a rumor circulating in the palace. It’s gossip. Nothing’s been confirmed, okay?”
“…Is that so? I think I need to have a serious talk with Rudrick later.”
“Get a grip. It’s weird for siblings to be that close in the first place, but you’re really extraordinary.”
“You’d be like this too if you saw Rudrick when he was little. He was so cute.”
“Sigh, I guess people without younger brothers will have to live with envy.”
Her classmate grumbled and got up first to go wash up, but Serilla, who was left behind, sat still on the bed, lost in thought.
If she heard it from a senior who was on security at the banquet hall, not just anyone, the fact that Rudrick sat at the head table with Princess Elena must be true.
Then the key point was the story the nobles were gossiping about afterwards.
Was it the typical exaggeration of nobles who really had nothing better to do, or was there actually such a subtle atmosphere surrounding Rudrick?
The younger brother she met after ten years had grown up to be quite tall.
Although he still had the same face from when he was young, at first she was surprised to the point of unconsciously perceiving him as the opposite sex rather than a brother, that was how much he had grown.
As long as Rudrick was also an adult, even if she was the eldest daughter who would inherit the family, she had no right to meddle in Rudrick’s love life.
She was well aware that the only person who had that right was their mother.
However, what bothered her was the identity of the other party.
Moreover, as someone who had watched Elena throughout her time at the academy, she couldn’t shake off the feeling that Elena, although competent, was always hiding something.
Even if the two of them were really dating, it wouldn’t be bad to give him some serious advice to think about it at least once.
It shouldn’t be strange for an older sister, especially the eldest sister, to take an interest in her youngest brother’s love life.
Especially if the other party was a princess of a nation.
“…I’ll need to make some time soon.”
She already knew well that Rudrick was staying at the palace.
It was a distance she could visit without burden if their schedules matched.
Moreover, she felt the need to hear someone else’s opinion at least once, so Serilla, who felt the need to hear the opinion of her younger sister who was still attending the academy, muttered and picked up a pen and paper.
But what Serilla didn’t know was that Elena and Eileen were not the only women targeting Rudrick.
Sometimes there were truths that were better left unknown.
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Thanks for the chapter!