Chapter 48

The maids were still worried about me, saying, "If your head hurts even a little, you should call a doctor," a hundred times before they finally let me go. As soon as I arrived at the duke's castle, I headed to the study to greet my grandfather after a long time. When I opened the door and went in, my grandfather and Viscount Debussy were sitting there. "Miss, I was very worried." "Elirot, I'm fine now. I'm sorry." I bowed my head slightly and said. Viscount Debussy shook his head and said, "What's there to be sorry about when you're sick?" My grandfather quietly stared at me. Viscount Debussy spoke to my grandfather, who was sitting quietly, "Doesn't His Grace have anything to say?" "What's there to say? You're better, that's all." "Elirot, then I'll go." Just as I was about to leave after greeting my grandfather upon arriving at the castle, he said, "Come here and sit down." I felt a bit scared by my grandfather's low murmur and hesitantly went over and sat down again. What's wrong? Did I do something wrong? Did they abandon me because I was unhealthy at three years old? I rolled my eyes, thinking all sorts of things, when the butler knocked and came in. Behind the butler, maids followed in with food. The first maid presented the food. A dish made from the tail of a fantasy fish. It's a famous dish known as the pinnacle of nourishing food. "Eat it." "…Yes." The second maid also presented a plate. A foreign elixir. I heard it's a famous tonic that nobles secretly smuggle from foreign lands as a health supplement. "Eat it." "…Yes." The third maid also presented a plate. Tricolor grass. A nourishing herb, its name is its price. "Eat it." "…Yes." I chewed the nourishing herb diligently. I'm going to burst and die if I keep this up. * * * Duke Astra frowned as he watched Elirot, who looked like a vagrant, groan. "Why can't you eat anything else? Are you still sick?" Viscount Debussy looked at my grandfather with an exasperated expression. 'I thought he was going to use it for something when I told them to get all this.' The information department had been focused on this for two weeks. 'I even thought the emperor had a terminal illness…' Elirot looked at Viscount Debussy with sad eyes. Viscount Debussy stepped in at the pleading look. "That's enough." "You didn't eat anything!" "Medicine can be toxic if you take too much." "…" Duke Astra narrowed his eyes and said, "Pack it all up and send it to Elirot's room." All of it? Elirot had a pained expression. * * * After leaving my grandfather's room, I walked towards the annex. The chapel was unusable due to the explosion, so the children were currently being educated in the annex. I saw children loitering at the end of the corridor. "Elirot…" "Hey!" Dione and Lianthin ran over side by side. Both of their hair had grown quite long. They seemed to have grown a bit taller too. 'Well, it has been half a year.' Lianthin, who had run up to me, glared at me and said, "Idiot! You got caught in the magic explosion, didn't you!" "Don't shout. I haven't fully recovered yet." Dione started to cry, and Lianthin bit her lip and muttered, "Idiot." "I'm going. You should take your medicine." Lianthin walked away by herself. But after a short distance, she suddenly turned to look at me. "I went to the intermediate classroom while you were gone! I'm better than you, got it?!" She sniffed. She was really a character. Dione asked me several times, "Are you really okay?" "Yes." "Really?" "Yes." "Really, really?" Before I left, I don't know how many times I said "Yes." The maids behind me sniffled again. 'One touching reunion scene is enough.' I said, "Later!" and ran out of the room again. As I ran, I soon arrived at the second gate. In front of the second gate, the needle beast I had seen last year was growling and drooling. "We were friends in the past, or rather, in the future." I'm not scared of it at all now. Bang! …A little scared. But the more I thought about it, the more ridiculous it seemed. 'I didn't make it attack Dalia, did I?' Dalia stumbled towards me while drunk, and the needle beast attacked to protect me. I was just playing with the needle beast that night. I pulled out something I had hidden in my clothes with a flourish. It was a wooden flute. When I blew into the mouthpiece, a clear sound came out, and the growling needle beast calmed down. 'It's a flute made from white jing wood.' The smell of white jing wood, which humans can't detect, is perceived as a pheromone by monsters. But it doesn't work on all monsters. "Then, when the white jing wood in the Hadeks Mountains fell, the monsters that attacked us…" "They must have thought we were attacking their young. I'm sorry, humans…" Han Jihyuk and I sniffled, and Michelan frowned. "Are you talking about the flying monsters in the Hadeks Mountains? They're called Caruaton." "Caruaton?" "They eat weak individuals. They must have come to eat the young." This is how you have to choose carefully. 'This one can be tamed.' Needle beasts are often used as guards. They shouldn't be difficult to raise. I petted the needle beast, which was lying down due to the flute's sound, saying, "Good, good." I heard someone coming from far away. I could tell who it was just by the footsteps, so I didn't turn around and just kept petting the needle beast. "Ack!" It was Han Jihyuk. Grumble! The needle beast, which had been lying down, suddenly stood up and growled at Han Jihyuk. "Don't scare me like that." "Why are you so big…" "Why are you here?" "What about the Empress Dowager's painting?" Han Jihyuk said he met the person with the Empress Dowager's painting while I was unconscious. He used the excuse of making a copy, but hid the original and sent two fakes. "Still, you did a good job." "…I did it because I thought you'd nag when you woke up." He seemed anxious because I wasn't doing anything. He was worried about what might happen to me. Han Jihyuk looked at the ground with a pout. I smiled. "Did you bring the painting?" "I put it in your room." Han Jihyuk and I went back to the room. The painting he had brought was wrapped in packaging and stood there. "Why is the painting so big…?" "The painting itself is small, but the frame is big." Han Jihyuk tore off the packaging to show me. The frame really was quite unique. 'This…' "It's a frame used by smugglers." "Smugglers?" This is a crime-ridden city, so a lot of crimes happen here. I once learned in class that a long time ago, drugs were smuggled using such frames. I immediately called Conrad to the room. "You called?" The summoned Conrad looked at me with a puzzled expression. I flipped the painting over and said to Han Jihyuk and Conrad, "Press the corners of the frame! Don't get it wrong at all!" One, two, three! Click! Thud! The painting fell to the bottom, and a box came out. "Ack! The painting!" While Han Jihyuk frantically caught the fallen painting, I quietly opened the box. And… "Wow─." There was another painting inside. The condition of the painting was good. It turned out there was a protective stone inside the box. "This is the painting." A girl's back, hanging from a window with a view of the sea. She had brown hair and a small scar on her neck. There was a signature on the back of the painting. [Ordiazel K. Marelis] I shouted as soon as I saw it. "This is it!" "Huh?" "What?" "The painting the Empress Dowager is looking for, this is it!" Ordiazel is the Empress Dowager's deceased mother. That's why the art museum she established is called the Ordiazel Art Museum! It wasn't just a painting passed down from her mother. "She was looking for it because it was a painting her mother drew…" "If it's a painting by the Empress Dowager's mother, it must be of high status. Why was it hidden?" Conrad answered. "Back then, paintings by female artists were believed to bring misfortune and were burned." So, it wouldn't have been possible to bring a painting by a female artist into the palace. "What are you going to do? Are you going to give it to the Empress Dowager right away?" "Plan change." "What?" If it's such a precious painting, I'll use it as a trump card. I can't use it now. I laughed devilishly and said, "Keep it safe." "Okay." Han Jihyuk, who was carefully handling the painting, said, "Ah," and looked at me. "You got letters. Quite a few." "I already received them all." I even wrote replies. To Lianthin, Dione, Hilda, and Greta… and to the black dragon sister who sent a poem, I replied that I received them well. "There are some that didn't reach you." "What?" "Letters without a return address." Letters without a return address… "Alexis?" "Yeah." Han Jihyuk waited a moment and then brought in a bundle of letters. After Conrad and Han Jihyuk left, I lay on my stomach on the bed and read the letters. I heard from the pink-haired girl that you were sick. When I told you to go, I didn't really mean it. 'I had already forgotten about it.' It must have bothered you that much. They say spring has come. The guard picked wild herbs and made something strange. The other kids said they didn't want to eat it, but Luca ate it and made a fuss. It was delicious, but since you guys didn't want to eat it, he told you not to. I saw him secretly throwing up in the bathroom. Luca is like an older brother. He probably forced himself to eat it because he didn't want the guard, or rather, the training camp director, to be disappointed if no one ate what he made. The kids found out that you've been unconscious for months. The pink-haired girl has a big mouth. Tomorrow, a meteor will fall, and the kids said they would pray for you to wake up. I made a wish. I don't like the Luca kid. It seems we didn't get along well and had a fight. If Luca is like an older brother, he could have been a good friend. It's a shame. The guards mentioned the training camp. They were very surprised when they saw me. When I was getting ready to sleep, the head guard came in and explained everything. That this prison is actually a training camp, that trainees are not supposed to know this fact, and that you paid a large sum of money to have me taken care of here. They thought I would be shocked, but they were surprised by my calmness. But I was more shocked to realize that I was supposed to not know about it. Huh?! I jumped up and grabbed the letter. You knew? When? You noticed from the moment you were openly brought into the prison. This place is not ordinary. I was sure when I found out that the chessboard and pieces you left with Luca were handmade. They wouldn't give a prisoner something with sharp edges, even in a juvenile prison. …I see. That's why he told me not to spend money. The head guard, or rather, the training camp director, Karl, gave me a choice. Whether to receive training or leave. This guy. To take the money and just let a kid go! I scowled and continued reading the letter. I said I would think about it. Karl told me I could go out, and I left the prison after a few months. It must have felt good to be out after so long. Did you refuse training because of that? I groaned and turned to the next page. I went to the Diamond Province to deliver a letter to you. I was stopped even by the guards at the first gate. While I was being stopped, I saw well-dressed kids with clean hands riding up on horses. They weren't asked anything, but I was asked my name, whether I had parents, my age, where I lived, and my family relationships… In the end, they were the ones who went up, and I couldn't even deliver a letter to you. I started the training. Next time, I'll deliver the letter to you myself, not through the pink-haired girl.