CH 76

“Jed, aren’t you excited about receiving magical powers? I hope the day of power bestowal comes quickly. They said they would grant us the powers all at once after the knight selection is over, but I don’t know exactly when that will be, so waiting is becoming more difficult.”

“Yeah, I agree. It would make the life of a guardian knight much easier to receive a significant amount of magical power. I’m worried because the amount of power we receive is random.”

“Jed, you don’t need to worry.”

In the original story, you were ranked first among the guardian knights!

…I was about to say that, but I realized it would complicate the situation if I brought up the original story, so I gave a different reason.

“You seem to be lucky.”

“Thanks for saying that, it puts me at ease.”

Jed smiled softly at me.

When Jed and I seemed to be getting closer, Galley and Velta glanced at each other as if they had seen something wrong. Diego lowered his hand from his forehead and stared at me.

Jed’s expression turned sour as our eyes met while we were chatting.

Diego stood up from his seat and picked up the whiskey bottle on the table.

Then he approached me and poured the whiskey over my head. 

Splish—

It happened in an instant. The distinctive scent of whiskey wafted from my head.

Drip, drip. Whiskey droplets from my hair fell to the floor.

Amidst the sudden situation, everyone froze in place, and Diego left through the corridor.

I quickly regained my senses and hurriedly followed him, shouting after him.

“Why do you dislike me so much?”

Diego stopped walking and stood still.

“Why do I have to go through this situation as if I’ve done something wrong?”

He was seething with anger for some reason.

“What did I do wrong?”

Diego turned around and walked briskly towards me. He grabbed my collar and yelled.

“Because of you, I—!”

The hand holding my collar trembled.

“I—”

Diego didn’t continue speaking and released my collar.

“Darn it—”

He went out, and only then did Jed follow after him. Jed looked at my wet clothes and quickly turned his gaze away, covering my back so no one could see.

“I think you need to change your clothes.”

I looked down at my whiskey-soaked clothes. The shirt was completely transparent, revealing the bandages.

“But I don’t have any clothes. It’s the weekend, so there’s no chance to buy new ones…”

“I have spare clothes. Wear mine.”

He held my hand and led me to his room.

After receiving the clothes, I washed up in the bathroom and entered Jed’s room. Jed’s clothes were big, so there was plenty of room.

“Don’t I look like I’m wearing stolen clothes?”

Jed didn’t even look at me. He seemed like he was about to say it’s okay, but then he closed his mouth when he saw me wearing his clothes.

“Why… is that so? It’s really strange…”

He stared at me for a while and then finally answered.

“…No. It suits you better than I thought.”

Upon hearing those words, I felt happy and couldn’t help but laugh even in this situation.

As we were thinking about what to do, while being with Jed, we discussed our plan to find Milo. I suggested infiltrating the Penso.

Although I had previously hired someone to infiltrate the Penso, only Milo’s clone was found. But since we had no information about the whereabouts of Milo’s main body, I thought it would be a good idea to at least meet the clone and try to gather information about the main body.

“If we have a conversation with the clone, maybe we can get some intelligence on the main body’s location.”

“Well, the clone is likely to have no knowledge of the main body’s location, but since we have no other information… I think it’s a good idea to try infiltrating, as you suggest.”

“Okay, then let’s decide on infiltrating.”

We decided to visit the Penso tomorrow night.

***

In the quiet dawn while everyone was asleep, Jed and I dressed in black and crossed the wall of the Penso. The wall was high, and it was a bit challenging for me to climb over, but with Jed’s help, I managed to do it.

We memorized the rough layout of the Penso mansion that was depicted in a simple blueprint.

Although the blueprint didn’t indicate who used each room, we could roughly determine the locations of the dining room, restroom, and stable.

“I’ll search outside the mansion, and you explore inside. If something happens, come back here or shout, and I’ll come to rescue you.”

“There probably won’t be a need to shout. If something happens, I’ll cross the wall and escape first.”

“Okay. As long as you don’t get caught.”

Jed lifted the black veil I was wearing to make my face less visible. The black veil was similar to the one Jed was wearing.

“See you in a bit.”

“Yeah.”

After my response, I entered the Penso mansion. Since it was the time when most people would be asleep, the inside of the mansion was pitch dark.

Walking through the empty corridor dressed in black felt like being a thief, even though I was searching for a person, not stealing anything. Trying to find a person in this large mansion felt daunting.

Already, everyone was asleep, and it was dark, making it hard to identify anyone…

Just when I had entered and was contemplating how to find the person…

Swish— Swish!

“What’s that sound of a whip?”

As I was walking through the corridor, I heard the sound of a whip. The sound was coming from a room with a slightly ajar door, from where light was seeping out.

As I approached, I could hear voices.

“So, May Flotina completely ignored you, right?”

It was a voice of a woman I had never heard before. It was a harsh and grating voice that made my ears ache.

“Yeah. He acts all high and mighty just because she’s close to Young Lady Nazret. He even tried to throw me in front of a monster to get me killed.”

This time, it was a familiar voice. None other than Clovin’s voice. Who was he talking to?

Could it be his younger sister? The woman who killed the original May?

To see who Clovin was talking to, I peered into the room through the slightly open door.

Clovin was sitting in a chair, and I caught a glimpse of a woman who seemed to be Clovin’s younger sister. And…

“!!”

In surprise, I almost let out a sound, but I covered my mouth.

Several children, presumably slaves, were kneeling and sitting in a row.

They all looked younger than me, around twelve or thirteen.

What was even more shocking was the fair-haired boy who was sprawled on the ground, being struck by the whip.

Swish— Swish— The woman was mercilessly lashing the boy with the whip.

“Ignore my brother is the same as ignoring our Penso. Ultimately, it means ignoring me. I will never let it go.”

Despite the pain, the boy didn’t flinch. He was covered in wounds, yet he remained motionless.

Amidst fear and concern, I continued to observe the room, and our eyes met. Cherry-colored eyes that I had seen somewhere before.

Eyes similar to Heint’s. It was Milo.

“Ugh—”

At that moment, someone covered my mouth and pulled me back. That person pushed me against the wall, and before I had a chance to escape, they held a knife to my throat.

A man dressed as a servant. The light from the room illuminated his hair.

“Who are you? Did Hestia send you?”

It was fair-haired.

“Milo…?”

But the man who was being whipped in the room was also Milo. What happened? Was it a clone?

The man removed my veil and inspected my face. When my nose and mouth were revealed from under the veil, he paused.

“You…?”

He seemed to know who I was as well.

He slowly lowered the knife he had held against my throat. He no longer seemed wary of me and sheathed the knife.

“…Follow me.”

Without knowing any English, I followed him outside the mansion.

He led me to a place where we could avoid the patrolling knights. As he turned to face me, his cherry-colored eyes shimmered faintly.

There was no doubt. He was Milo.

Milo was taller than I had imagined, handsome, and had a cold demeanor.

“Did you come to find me?”

I nodded my head.

“Do you know who I am?”

“You are Princess Flotina, right?”

“Yes. Princess Flotina… huh? Princess?”

Her eyes widened with surprise as he questioned.

“Just now… Did you say princess?”

“Yes.”

“…How did you not notice? I used mental magic to conceal my gender.”

“Mental magic doesn’t work on demons.”

Mental magic doesn’t work on demons. Milo possessed demonic powers, which made him immune to mental magic.

“I see… Even if you couldn’t tell my gender, how did you know that I was Flotina’s person?”

It wasn’t like I resembled Persis, and there were no markings of Flotina on my clothes, so there was no way to know. How did he figure it out?

“I knew from the beginning. I saw you visit Nazret often.”

“You secretly went to Nazret frequently…”

Milo nodded, adding that he used a clone for that.

“We’ve been looking for you. Your father really wants to see you. Let’s go to Nazret, Milo.”

At that moment, Jed also spotted us.

“May.”

Jed came over to my side and gave Milo a nod.

“We found you quickly.”

“Yeah.”

I alternated my gaze between Jed and Milo. Jed with his dark blue hair and Milo with his curly fair hair.

Both had a cold demeanor, but the feeling they gave off was different. If Jed had an icy and solid coldness, Milo had a soft and gentle coldness, like ice cream.

Jed was the epitome of a cool and aloof guy.

When I glanced at Jed, he smiled at me. Feeling shy, I averted my gaze, and this time, my eyes met with Milo’s. His expression darkened.

I asked him, 

“Is there a reason you can’t go home right now? Is it for revenge?”

“…My main body is captured by Gliw-gon, so I can’t go back yet.”

“Captured?”

“Do you know that I came here under Hestia’s orders?”

“Yeah, I heard.”

“As instructed by Hestia, the first thing I did when infiltrating the Penso was to create two clones.”

The Milo who was being whipped and the one standing in front of me in servant attire, both were clones, not the main body.