CH 18

“You know Ermund? It was his great-grandfather’s brother who traveled to the other side of the world and made a name for himself in business, and now he’s an excellent business partner for Basquiella.”

Bahidman stood up and patted Lancia’s head.

“And how is Count Ermund the Jackal?”

“Ah, he is at peace.”

“That’s a pleasure to hear. Count Ermund is a nobleman of impeccable character, and he is at peace.”

Lancia’s eyes widened like a child listening to a fairy tale. The look of fear in her eyes that had frightened Bahidman a moment ago was gone. She nodded vigorously, looking reminded.

As they talked, Eisel approached Bahidman’s desk and placed the assignment he had given her on it.

[Festival……yearly……scale…….]

Eisel glanced at the papers Bahidman was organizing. He turned to see Bahidman approaching after the conversation behind him had ended. He instructed Lancia to serve cookies and tea.

“How was your exam today?”

“You always ask me things my father doesn’t ask.”

Instead of answering, Eisel pulled a test out of her bag and held it out. It was clean, ungraded paper. Bahidman took it, glanced at it, and handed it back with a slow smile.

“Today we will take a test, not a class.”

“A test?”

A test out of nowhere? Eisel tilted his head.

“Come in.”

Bahidman gestured to the other side, and the door opened and a boy about 13 walked in. The blue-haired boy bowed deeply to Bahidman and stood in front of Eisel.

“You’re a …… boy.

At first glance, the boy’s thin lines could be mistaken for girls’. Even Lancia, who was eating a cookie in the distance, stared at him in surprise.

“Say hello.”

“Elias Julgert Wesanitzel.”

Elias Julgert?

Eisel rolled her eyes and furrowed her brow at the vaguely familiar name.

“Wait, Elias Yulgert is…….

“Please call me Lars.”

‘Isn’t he the heroine?’

Eisel stared blankly at the boy in front of him.

· * *

Eisel remembered only one Elias Yulgert. The heroine of the original, the beloved of the Lords and ladies of the land, the only heroine in the novel’s universe to have a harem. She had a brilliant memory, a brilliant mind, and a divine skill with arrows.

Her archery skills, honed by elementalism, showed that Elias would never be protected by men.

“I thought there was something more. What was it?

Eisel frowned as she recalled Elias’ memories of him. She realized that there was one talent that was far more significant than the elemental arts, but she couldn’t remember what it was.

But then she realized it was more significant than that. In the novels she’d read, she’d hated the character Elias. The reason was simple.

‘He quit at the last minute.’

He joined his enemies. He didn’t do it because he wanted to, but because his younger brother, the only one he had, was taken hostage. He was forced to sell information. As a result, she sacrifices herself out of guilt and leaves the original behind.

‘I mean, who wants a heroine who dies at the end?’

When Elias appeared in front of her, she felt confused. She wondered if his only brother had taken his sister’s name. However, in her mind, Elias’s brother was nearly ten years older, so it couldn’t be him.

“Why do you look at it that way?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m sorry, you look so pretty.”

“I appreciate the compliment, but I don’t think that’s the right way to describe a guy.”

‘What’s wrong with saying you are pretty for a man? Oh, I’m cross-dressing, so I’m being sensitive to avoid being recognized as a woman.’

With a grimace, Elias sat down and set down his thick filing cabinet, his eyes rolling low as he motioned for her to take a seat. When Eisel sat down across from him, Elias opened his briefcase.

“Your Excellency, I understand Eisel prevented the gunpowder accident, is that correct?”

“I wouldn’t say prevented, more like accidentally…….”

“There is no accident in this world. It’s all skill.”

Elias was very dry as he cut off Eisel’s words. When she stopped talking, Elias flicked through the papers. When he flipped through the papers without saying anything else, Aizel rolled his eyes and looked at Bahid.

Standing beside him, arms crossed, watching the two of them with a faint smile on his laid-back face, Bahidman pressed his lips together at Eisel’s look.

“What are you thinking? What is this training for?” Eisel asked with a confused look in her eyes, but Bahidman only stiffened his jaw in response. Meanwhile, Elias, who checked the documents, closed the filing cabinet. The sound of the heavy filing cabinet slamming shut caught Eisel’s attention.

“That’s enough for now. We’ll do the rest of the interviews on-site.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“It means you’ve made the first round.”

First round? I was interviewed? As Eisel looked on in bewilderment, Elias spoke straight.

“His Excellency, the Duke of Basquiella, recommended Eisel as my aide.”

“An aide?”

Eisel looked at Bahidman, who smiled, then back at Elias.

“I’m only eight years old?”

“Age doesn’t matter, skill counts.”

Eisel frowned, wondering what was taking place on here. He wondered who was assigned to be an aide to an eight-year-old who was old enough to go to school and eat what his mom cooked for him right now.

“A common theme among the people who recommended you was your memorization skills. You’re adept at remembering things, and you understand things quickly. They also said you read a lot and are very knowledgeable for someone at your age.”

“Who was the person who recommended me?”

“His Excellency the Duke of Basquiella, Eisel’s teacher Belen, and your parents.”

‘My parents? When did they recommend such a thing?’

Eisel’s eyes narrowed at the mention of her parents. Elias, however, didn’t seem to intend to respond to that reaction.

“Being an aide doesn’t mean you have to follow me around every day, just once a week. Instead of classes, you’ll follow me around the field, and that’s what Eisel’s classes will be about.”

“What field?”

Elias, who was used to answering anything asked, pressed his busy lips together. His red lips paused for a moment, then he rolled his eyes and glanced at Bahidman, then back at Eisel.

“You’ll know when you get there.”

Eisel felt an uneasy feeling, but shrugged it off, hoping nothing was wrong. What does this have to do with the test, anyway?

“Is this a test?”

Eisel turned to Bahidman. Bahidman’s relaxed face twitched.

“The test and its answers. Bring those two things to the test.”

“That’s what the test is.”

Eisel grumbled, and Bahidman smiled thinly. He wouldn’t tell her.

Eisel sighed and turned away from Bahidman to look at Elias. The test is unknown to her, and she is supposed to take it.

“Instead, I’ll give you a gift if you pass the test.”

What kind of test is this, a gift? Eisel let out a small sigh as she realized that the test to become Elias’s aide was going to be very difficult.

· * *

So that’s why she hid it.

A week passed, and Eisel stared at the entrance to the mine as she followed Elias out. As she watched the miners come and go in silence, she turned to Elias, who stood beside her.

Elias, basking in the sunshine and wearing full safety gear, looked down at Eisel, who stood beside him, looking up at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do I have to get in there?”

“Yeah. Of course we should go in.”

Elias replied flatly. What’s natural? Eisel narrowed her eyes. Was it normal to want to take an eight-year-old into a mines right now? Miners were a dangerous profession, legally reserved for adult males. During slavery, slaves worked in the mines, but after slavery was abolished, mining was reserved for adults, and men.

Intensive, dirty, grueling work.

There was no way an 8-year-old girl could be in there. Sure, she was dressed as a man.

Eisel fiddled with her safety gear and frowned. Even if she did, it wouldn’t be healthy to enter in there and breathe in the dust. She didn’t like the idea of dying of dust, even if it was faster than the end of the world. Elias, however was unperturbed and offered her a mining helmet.

“Have I been told what I’m doing?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll tell you now. I make maps.”

Maps? At Eisel’s tilt of her head, Elias opened the briefcase he always carried with him. It was crammed with maps of all kinds.

“It’s my job to travel and map places where there are no roads yet, or where there are roads but no maps, and this is my latest assignment, this mine.”

The explanation reminded Eisel of Elias’ unexpected talent.