Breakfast.
It was the start of a day that wasn’t particularly special, and one of the rare moments I had with Adele. That’s why I intentionally slowed down my eating during breakfast.
I looked over at Adele sitting across the table, visibly picking at her food unlike her usual self. She should have easily devoured more than two plates by breakfast, yet here she was, taking her time to chew on just one piece of bacon, looking exhausted to anyone who could see.
The slight trembling of her fork backed up my train of thought.
“Adele, is something wrong?”
“Ah… I was up all night.”
Adele scratched her cheek, looking a bit embarrassed. But it wasn’t hard to tell that wasn’t the truth. The slight tremor in her eye muscles and the slightly constricted red pupils were evidence enough.
I quickly figured out the reason behind her state.
‘Has she regressed?’
Questions popped up in my mind: Where had she regressed from, and why? There probably weren’t any dangerous places among the locations she had gone to, after all.
While I was deep in thought, Adele seemed to lose her appetite and gently placed her fork on the table. Her obviously different demeanor caught both my attention and that of Allen, who widened his eyes in surprise. Perhaps noticing his expression, Adele flashed an awkward smile.
“I’m sorry. I just have a bit of a loss of appetite today.”
“…Alright. Make sure to rest well.”
“Yes.”
She gave a slight nod in response to my words and left her seat. Meanwhile, Allen’s face was clouded with concern as he watched her.
Even I, who didn’t get to see Adele often, was worried about her condition. So one could only imagine how much more concerned Allen, who watched her in daily life, must feel.
After all, she might become the future mistress of this duke’s household, so it was only natural he’d be worried. I had given her a diffuser as a gift, but it seemed that wasn’t enough to improve her state.
What on earth had happened to cause her condition to be like that?
“I sure hope it’s nothing serious…”
Allen muttered, his voice filled with worry. I felt the same way, but I wasn’t about to show it.
Instead, a more reassuring method was to directly find out what had occurred.
“Ilho.”
Black mist started to rise, coalescing into a small statuette resembling a crow. It was Ilho, the head of the crows, unmatched in espionage. This statuette was a kind of communication artifact created for him to relay information wherever he was.
“Where did the young lady go last night?”
– To the Royal Library.
A library, especially the Royal Library? Just knowing that alone made it difficult to deduce the cause of her regression.
Considering Adele’s personality, which abhors the very idea of regression, she wouldn’t willingly turn back time unless it was related to death or something similarly dangerous. I had tested her regression multiple times and knew this fact well.
That meant she must have died in the library, which was practically in the middle of the palace. Killing a countess reading quietly among the books there? Even the braver souls would think twice.
– The Emperor’s Hand targeted her.
At that, I froze momentarily.
“It was a mistake.”
I had thought the library would be safe since she insisted on going alone, but here we were. I regretted not ignoring her protests and sending Evan to accompany her instead.
Now, I understood the reason for Adele’s regression.
The problem remained: what was the reason the Emperor’s Hand targeted her? What motive could there possibly be in wanting to kill Adele, the weakest piece among the Emperor’s pawns?
– And the Princess saved her.
“Princess?”
I hadn’t expected that name to come up. Had the Princess even met Adele personally? As far as I could remember, they had never crossed paths.
A memory flashed back of Adele sneaking out one night. I pieced that in with the information that the Princess had saved her from the Emperor’s Hand, and one conclusion came to mind.
‘Was she going to meet the Princess that night?’
It was a conclusion bordering on delusion.
But my finely honed instincts told me it was the truth. I didn’t need to overthink it.
I could just go ask her directly.
“I’ll be back in a moment.”
“Sure. Take care.”
Leaving Allen’s words behind, I awakened the mana scattered within my body. A peculiar hum filled my ears as a pure white magic circle materialized before me.
Teleportation.
As long as I calculated the coordinates correctly, I could teleport anywhere. Even if it was right in the middle of the palace, as long as the calculations were precise, I could definitely activate it.
Before long, the magic circle was complete. The gently vibrating circle enveloped my entire body. Amidst the wind sounds from somewhere, my surroundings flipped in an instant.
Thud.
Was it because I hit my head on the ground? A sharp pain shot through me. No matter how accurately I calculated, there had to be some error when teleporting within the palace.
After all, the palace was under a magic seal that suppressed spells. While it didn’t cancel out my powers as a grand mage, it still influenced the accuracy of my calculations.
As I rubbed my forehead, I heard muffled laughter behind me.
“Pfft… hehe…”
Turning my head, I saw the Princess trying to stifle her laughter with her hands. I shot her a glance, but her amusement showed no signs of calming down.
“Cough… heh heh…”
“Could you please stop laughing?”
“But wasn’t it a bit too much to ask me to hold that in?”
Just like that, the Ironblood Duke found himself on the floor, head thumping and in pain. She claimed she was just amused by the situation itself.
But from where I stood, I found it far from funny.
“Ugh, alright fine, I’ll stop.”
When I persisted, the Princess cleared her throat.
“More importantly, what happened to your eye?”
I had been meaning to ask that since earlier, but I hadn’t managed to due to her continuous laughter. The Princess fiddled with the eyepatch over her left eye.
What on earth happened during the months I hadn’t seen her since the banquet?
“Oh, this?”
She replied nonchalantly.
“It was the Emperor’s doing.”
As she said that, she removed her eyepatch.
In place of the eyepatch, there was no wound nor scar at all. But when she opened her eye, I saw her cloudy, dulled golden iris.
I furrowed my brows involuntarily.
“Quite an eye sore, isn’t it?”
“What in the world happened?”
“I just had a little accident while riding.”
The Princess spoke, sounding as if it didn’t matter at all. Just like the time she lost her pinky, she seemed to care little for maintaining her physical form. Surely, that was due to the curse placed upon her.
She fell silent, not willing to say more on the subject, and put her eyepatch back on. After a brief silence, she seemed a bit irritated and asked first.
“So, what brings you here?”
The Princess looked at me with a questioning expression.
“Adele von Este.”
As I spoke her name, she fell silent once more. Surely the Princess had a good reason to be attentive to the name I had mentioned.
In situations like this, a little nudging was all that was needed.
“You must have some inkling.”
“Haha. I never thought I’d get caught so quickly in just one night.”
She let out a shy smile, looking a bit awkward.
“I guess I should be more careful next time when deceiving the Duke.”
As the Princess acknowledged the truth of my statement, a series of events began to connect in my mind.
The reason why Adele had sneaked out at night, why she had chosen to spend the night in the Duke’s library, and on top of that, why she had gone to the Royal Library.
And why she had been attacked by the Emperor’s Hand there of all places.
Sure enough, Adele must have heard about my rebellion plans from the Princess.
“Thank you for sharing our plans with her.”
At that, the Princess wiped the smile from her face and stared at me. The relaxed demeanor she had moments ago had vanished completely.
“You being too perceptive could be a double-edged sword.”
She sighed as she said that. The way she didn’t deny my claim confirmed my suspicions were indeed correct.
“Why did you inform her?”
“Adele is the key figure in our plans, isn’t she?”
I nodded, and the Princess slowly continued.
“Yet, isn’t it stranger that she remains unaware of those plans?”
She was right; being a central figure meant Adele would surely need to know about the plan eventually. But still…
“There was no need to inform her so soon.”
At my words, she paused for a moment.
The Princess tilted her head, seemingly processing my statement. After a long moment of thought, she finally deduced something.
“Do you think Adele might betray us?”
“There’s no guarantee she won’t.”
“That much suspicion makes things hard…”
The Princess sighed heavily, murmuring. After a brief moment of considering her response, she continued.
“You saved her from a disaster-level monster during the Hunt Festival.”
“That’s true.”
“Isn’t that enough?”
What on earth was she worrying about?
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