CH 35

Julia Owenbridge

The next day, an invitation flew in.

Golden wax on a golden envelope. Gold was the color that represented the Royal Family of Trevereum.

“The sender is… the Princess.” 

The Emperor had a prince and a princess, and the letter had been sent by the Princess, Julia Orewenbridge. 

Naturally, this had never happened before. Kyrie and Julia were estranged because they were in different factions. Kyrie squinted at the letter. 

“I look forward to what she’s going to say.”

She calmly placed the envelope down onto the silver tray, then smiled when she saw MarryAnne holding a bunch of leaves next to her.

“MarryAnne, what is it?”

“It smells bad! MarryAnne must stop the Lady from reading it!”

“You mean from this letter?”

“Yes! Do you think MarryAnne should handle it? MarryAnne is confident about this stuff! If you touch this, you will get a lot of eye boogers, or it will make insects bite your toes, or it…”

“What if you get taken away for interfering with the royal family?”

“Then! Then……! Hng, they can’t…”

Kyrie lightly hugged MarryAnne, whose expression had become gloomy. In her arms, MarryAnne rubbed the leaves on the letter.

“Then shall we go to see who smells bad, Anne?”

*******

Julia Orewinbridge was blond and had green eyes.  

Kyrie was almost blinded by the gold light reflecting off her long curly hair. 

Her room was also full of brilliant gold, and a few golden leopards who had their teeth and claws pulled out roamed around.

“Ah. Come on in, Miss Buchanan. It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” said the Princess in a frank voice. 

Kyrie bowed.

“I greet the dear daughter of the Sun.”

“Huhu, Miss Buchanan, you’re still following court etiquette.”

‘Because I don’t know when and how you will try to trap me.’

Kyrie responded in her mind.

Julia was greedy. It was her nature that she had to have whatever she wanted, and she was persistent. 

She was fickle and had a fiery personality, but at the same time, her political sense was exceptional and difficult to deal with. 

Kyrie had seen Maria suffer at  the Princess’ hands many times.

“May I ask why you requested to meet me?”

Julia grinned.

“You know my personality too well, Miss Buchanan. Yeah, well, let’s talk about something important?”

She burned incense on the table and laid down on a long sofa with her legs up, her attitude was very rude, but there was no one who dared to blame the Princess in her own palace.

“It’s nothing, so relax, okay? So, Miss Buchanan, the Legendary Lord stays in your countdom, right?”

“Yes, he does.”

“Hmm…”

Julia received a long pipe(hookah) from her servant and filled it with tobacco. 

When the smoke rose, Kyrie, who was not familiar with the smell of tobacco, coughed, but Julia did not seem to care.

“Can I meet him?”

“Cough, meet, cough, Nathaniel?”

Julia’s eyes narrowed.

“No ‘Sir’? You two must be close.” 

(P/R: in the raw, Kyrie called Nathaniel without -nim)

“It’s not to that extent.”

“Huh. Well, that’s good, Yes, I want to meet with Nathaniel”. 

(P/R: Here, Julia adderesed Nathaniel without any honorifics)

“Cough….I beg your pardon, Your Royal Highness, I am not in a position to ask him for anything.”

“Well, I’m not really asking Miss Buchanan to do anything. I’ve heard about Count Hill’s salon. It’s said the Patriotic Lord went there.”

Julia twisted her hair with her hand without the pipe, the scent on the table and Julia’s cigarette smoke made her appearance half opaque.

‘Why doesn’t the smoke scatter?’

Kyrie hid her doubts and looked at Julia calmly.

“I don’t know what made you do that. Regardless, it’s good.” 

Julia’s gaze, as if piercing through the smoke, touched Kyrie.

“You were aiming for this in the first place, right? It’s just because you think it would be nice to be given a chance. Am I right?”

“Yes, of course, I know what you mean, but…” 

“Or you can invite me, right? That would be nice.”

“What? How can the Princess come to the countdom…”

“Never mind that. Yeah, salons would be nice. Let’s open a salon. Do you need money? The Buchanan family isn’t that poor.”

“Your Highness Princess, I can’t let you go to such a humble place.”

Julia flipped her hair annoyingly.

“Is that so? It’s fine. Who would dare to say anything when I, the Princess, say it’s okay?”

“People will still talk.”

“Miss Buchanan.”

Suddenly, the smile disappeared from Julia’s face. She soaked in her cigarette smoke with a chilly face, then blew and spit it into Kyrie’s face.

“Didn’t you hear what I said?”

It was a gloomy and meaningful word. Suddenly, Kyrie realized. It was magic. The magic was blended in the smoke.

Kyrie quickly blurred the focus of her eyes. 

Most of these cases were mind-control magic and anyone in the aristocracy learned to pretend to be possessed by mind-control magic.

“But…..but, Your Highness Princess.”

“Come on, listen to me.”

“But…”

“Shh. What I said was right, wasn’t it?”

“…… Yes.”

Kyrie’s judgment was right. As she responded softly to her, Julia flipped her hair over and put her pipe down.

“That’s why kids with strong minds are so annoying.” 

Julia, who thought Kyrie was completely enchanted, shook her legs just like a kid.

“It’s a bit…yes, yes, it’ll get better. How annoying.”

“…….” 

“Why does mother make me do such annoying things……what exactly is in that library?”

Standing, Kyrie recalled the words that passed by.

It was also written down on a record of national history in Treverum. 

Also, the Annals were not disclosed to the Emperor, and can only be read by officers of the Royal Library. That was Vallabriga’s will and magic.

Judging from what Julia, the Emperor was aiming for the Royal Library, but it seemed that he could not break the taboo. 

In the library, there would certainly be records related to the laboratory of Vallabriga or the magic that sealed Nathaniel.

This made it clear.  

The Royal Family wanted to gain a leash for the Legendary Lord that suddenly appeared. 

Whether by using magic or by winning the favor of the Legendary Lord.

Kyrie carefully waited for Julia to give her more information, but Julia did not say anything else of use. 

Julia would never have imagined that Kyrie wasn’t enchanted by her even in her wildest dreams, so she muttered to herself softly, swinging her legs on her sofa.

“Well, I want to see the Legendary Lord because he is very handsome. It would be nice if I could get him under my control, but it would be impossible since he is stronger than me…. I still want to see his face. Hmm. Will you help me, Miss Buchanan?”

Julia asked at Kyrie. It was said that she liked to covet beautiful and handsome men. Kyrie nodded slowly.

“Of course……. Thank you for giving the honor of inviting the Royal Princess to the countdom.”

“That’s better.”

Julia chuckled.

“I didn’t like you because you played too hard to get. You’re just from a count family… But mother said she liked you because of that.”

“…….” 

“I don’t like the country bumpkin Cassner either, but she’s kind of cute. It’s really thrilling to play with that bungle of inferiority complex…”

Julia giggled. Then she soon threw an ashtray into the forehead of a nearby servant, appearing to have lost all interest. And ordered without looking at the painfully groaning servant.

“Take Ms. Buchanan, put her in a properly ventilated place, then tell her to get lost.”

* * * 

After the servant handed Kyrie over to MarryAnne, who was waiting outside, they left. Only then did Kyrie calm down with a long sigh.

“Ha…”

Her heart pounded.

‘I didn’t think she’d use magic.’

Although the ability of wizards has decreased compared to the past, wizards were still fearful. 

Naturally, the use of magic on nobles was also prohibited by law. That was why it was all the more shocking that Julia, the person who would know this best, would use mind-control magic so casually.

‘The Royal Family is serious. They really want Nathaniel.’

Just as Kyrie reached the pavilion linking the palace and the annex building while lost in her thoughts. 

Something caught Kyrie’s gaze as she turned her head. It was a flash of golden hair in the distance.

“Rubinia Cassner?”

MarryAnne turned her head right away at Kyrier’s murmur. Her big black eyes immediately found the target.

“Yes! It’s Miss Cassner, Miss.”

“Can you see her clearly?”

MarryAnne opened her mouth as if it were nothing.

“Her hat has pheasant feathers, and her hair is rolled up and braided! There are several books in her shawl. It seems to be made of new lace! I think that would suit my Lady better.”

“Can you see the titles of the books?”

“They are「Roland-Barck Alternative Design Part 2」 and「Inge Ananta, the Vimen Rock」” 

“Really?”

Both were books that Kyrie knew. She had heard of the name, but only the first edition of the book was available on the market. Kyrie looked at the direction in which Rubinia appeared.

‘Over there…’

Kyrie’s purple eyes became sharp.

‘The direction of the Royal Library.’

She climbed onto the wagon after reaffirming the disappearance of Rubinia’s back. Suddenly, Kyrie mumbled as she took off her cape to MarryAnne, who froze. 

“But why didn’t the magic work?”

“Ah!”

Then MarryAnne shouted briefly. 

She touched Kyrie’s cape with her small hand and took out a leaf with a strange pattern. 

The leaf turned black as soon as it was taken out.

“I knew it would be like this!”

“What is that?”

“MarryAnne thought it would’ve been like this, so MarryAnne put the leaf in earlier! Because the envelope smelled bad!” 

MarryAnne, who spoke in high spirits, quickly changed her attitude and whispered, looking around.

“But it’s a secret! MarryAnne doesn’t want to be taken away…!”

Kyrie laughed, feeling like the thread, which had seemed to wrap tightly around her heart, had loosened. 

She took a deep breath, then her columbine flower colored eyes glinted coldly. 

There was no turning back anyway.

Now it was time to see what the Emperor was going to do.

*****

T/N: author made Julia a bit too much hateful ig

columbine flower

Fan art: 

I think I shouldn’t post fan arts