~ 58 ~
The idling luncheon was over finally. After Verndia left without permission, the dining room remained silent. After the meal, Logan secretly requested an audience with the emperor. It was to convince him about the oracle.
However, the emperor did not accept his request. So, he was about to return to Silkisia without any progress.
“Duke-”
As he was about to climb into the carriage, a soft voice called him. It was Shiona dressed as an imperial attendant.
Even though he was neatly dressed, his sexuality can not be hidden, so Logan took a step back with a frown.
Shiona, who guided him to a deserted place, smiled brightly.
“How was the meeting? His Majesty doesn’t say anything at all.”
“… It didn’t go well.”
To be honest, Logan had already known about the oracle before he stepped into the meeting room. And that was thanks to Shiona, who planted an informant inside the temple. That was why he got to connect other previous oracles with these three present oracles.
Shiona frowned at his response.
“Because of His Majesty?”
“Yes.”
“Ah, what a pity. I thought he would gibe up because such oracles came out.”
Shiona crossed her arms and kicked the ground nervously. Looking at her like that, Logan, who was thinking about something about her for a while, asked a question.
“You really didn’t fake it?”
“Unfortunately, no matter how much I do, I can’t even change the oracle.”
Shiona smiled with a very regretful smile. Her red lips drew a dark arc.
“How can you change the word of God when humans can’t even erase even one of his powers?”
“Ah, righr. What about the sacrifice of the magic circle you talked about back then?”
“Is that necessary to ask about that again?”
Her reply was sullen with a groan, twisting her hair.
“It went bankrupt thanks to the wonderful sabotage of that princess.”
“Who am I to blame for my shortcomings? I don’t think it’s wrong to use something like that.”
It’s still the same to ignore the topic that they had been together for ten years. Shiona lifted curved her mouth at the words that demeaned her forbidden magic. When she found out that her son was in ‘something like that’, she was looking forward to how that lofty man’s face would be distorted.
“Then the Duke will do it.”
“Ehem.”
“Ah, really. Why is everyone so upset that they can’t catch her?”
“… It doesn’t have to be perfect. If only it could erase Psychke’s superpowers, even for a moment. So, if only His Majesty could give up that child…”
“I’m doing this because that doesn’t work!”
Shiona stretched her hands and folded them, but didn’t forget to tap on Logan’s nose, with her pathetic expression.
“It is the power of God. The power of Vicente! Do you think that is easy to erase? Still, that d**ned Hillace burned down the research, so it’s going to be hard to restore it!”
He felt offended by the woman treating him like a child so he slapped her hand roughly.
“Honestly, it’s more urgent to erase Lestir’s ability than her, right? We only need to ensure that Princess Psychke drinks tea every morning, but Lestir finds out because she couldn’t do that!”
“… ”
“The princess used her supernatural ability in front of Lestir, and our festival project failed due to that! His Majesty was so displeased at me. Ah, why did I say that!?”
This mouth of hers.
D*mn this mouth!
Even though she said that the princess used her ice. Shiona slapped her fist on her mouth. Even if she wasn’t excited about the supernatural power of ice she heard about.
“Psychke used her superpowers in front of Lestir?”
“Oh, you didn’t hear?”
Shiona widened her eyes. Then it curved like her crescent moon.
“You are not being trusted, then.”
At the teasing tone, Logan clenched his fists. Was that why Lestir took Psychke from Silkisia?
“That’s right. She used it. Therefore, sooner or later, everything that had been hidden would be revealed soon. I’ve been tracking down the necklace in Lestir, but if he finds it first, they’ll know what have done-“
Enraged, Logan grabbed her by the collar and pushed her against the wall.
“Erase that child’s superpower right now.”
“Oh, is this a threat?”
His eyes were colder than of emperor which made her smile brightly.
“I rescued a person who fell into the water, and he asked me to pay for it?”
“…….”
“Let go now. Otherwise, I’ll tell His Majesty everything. For example, the things you did to suppress the Princess’s abilities.”
“…..”
“They have been asking the same question for over ten years; When will her superpowers wake up. Because of that, the emperor even tied her up with Lestir. If she knew she had been holding back from waking up long ago-“
Wouldn’t it be hard to die well?
Shiona pulled out her tongue and wrapped herself around her neck, pretending to die. Logan gnashed his teeth.
“I won’t have it alone.”
“Oh, I am not dying. If I try to kill a princess, you won’t even know, right?”
Shiona let out a thread of her incomprehensible laugh. Logan glared at her ferociously, then he forced himself to let her go. Shiona elegantly straightened her wrinkled collar.
“Please make a meeting with the princess soon.”
Logan looked at her curiously.
“It’s His Majesty’s order. He told me to separate her from Lestir. I’ll have to take a look at her magic to check her out.”
Crumpling his face, he shot her as if to argue.
“What for is the meeting? Because of that b*stard Lestir, I can’t even approach her.”
“Ehh? You’re her father. Even though her father will approach her, she won’t even listen?”
Logan’s face hardened even more. Shiona expression changed similarly.
“You are really useless. You and your son are the same.”
“… Son?”
At the mention of his son, Logan’s face hardened. It was quite the sight, and Shiona laughed.
* * *
Meanwhile. Shortly after Widnix left Lestir’s mansion.
Psychke locked herself inside her room.
Skipping breakfast and lunch, she moved her quill to organize something.
‘I won’t die in vain like before.’
Widnix’s words tightened the reins of her slack mind.
‘Unless the Leas case is resolved, death is inevitable..’
He said she was a victim of the Leas case, so she was thinking of trying to find what happened about it.
She didn’t even know that the incident of Leas was related to her death in the first timeline. Despite that she died because of the fake emerald necklace.
For now-
‘I need to find the emerald necklace Lillian is making. Let’s start there.’
She was not playing because her body got smaller. She had asked information from Guild to investigate the three workshops that Lillian had commissioned.
And that information was now in her hands. All the preparations are done, the only thing left to do was to put it into action. She kicked off her seat and got up. She knew that if Croa knew, that crow would try to follow her, so she sneaked out of the mansion.
* * *
The place Psychke was heading to was 271-2 Corte.
It was a master craftsman’s ore stone shop, which is now said to be the best in the capital.
「 “We don’t accept requests.” 」
She simply ignored the notice written in large letters in front of the door and went in.
With a jingle, the small bell at the top of the door rang.
“We are not accepting requests.”
The craftsman acted brusquely, covering the workbench with a cloth. If he was proud of his workmanship, he wouldn’t be afraid to show off them off.
Showing off how perfectly crafted it was will also help him receive additional requests. So, Psychke guessed that there was the emerald necklace of Lilian under that cloth. He probably didn’t want to be caught crafting dangerous items like Keitan’s necklace.
“Lady Hilvia Esland has sent me.”
As she left the mansion, she borrowed a male employee’s clothes. She also changed her appearance with her bracelet before entering the crafting shop.
She was pretending to be Hilvia’s errand boy.
“Hmm? The lady always comes in person.”
“She is currently sick, so I came instead of her.”
The craftsman looked at her unsure. It was to be expected. Psychke took out a pink fan that sparkled with all sorts of jewels.
It had been dropped by someone who ran away after begging her to marry him.
“He said he could show you this. If you still don’t believe me, you can send someone to her right now.”
Wherever she went, Hilvia never took her fan off her body. She said one couldn’t even touch her unless she was a limb. It means that there is affection for her fan.
‘Although word got around that Hilvia lost her debt, and she got a new one.’
She had worked out beforehand to prevent her suspicions just in case she didn’t know.
‘She spread rumors that the fan had already been dismantled and sold to a jeweler.’
She put several jewels she has on the fan and sold them to a jeweler. Rumors with evidence becomes the truth. It was known that the missing folding fan of Hilvia was sold. Sure enough, the jeweler shook his head without a question.
“No. She’ll have to trust you enough to pay her fan. What’s your business?”
“Her lady wants to cancel the necklace in the making.”
“…. Yes?”
The shocked craftsman’s expression stiffened. That response convinced Psychke that her guess was correct. The craftman couldn’t have accepted a request in creating a necklace without a guarantee.
“Even if it was for a family member, she wanted to cancel it no matter what.”
“No, you wrote a contract, and now what are you saying?”
“I mean.”
Psychke convinced herself that the man in front of her was Isolet. And she sincerely comforted him.
(TL: Remember that she disguised herself as a man, btw.)