Chapter 37
“Sir Bug? What brings you here?”
“...How are our Lady... Uh, our Excellency...”
His eyes widened as he saw Elysia still holding Ramote’s arm.
It was obvious what Bug was thinking. He might have thought she was thinking of his pure and innocent Master, then threw him away mercilessly.
Ramote clicked his tongue.
Der walked... no, running and thumping toward Elysia as it’s not interested in playing with butterflies any longer.
“Please tell me it’s a lie. I’ll keep it a secret. Keuhk.”
“Nyan.”
Der was staring at Bug as if he was like a flying worm passing by.
Elysia hugged Der and stood up from her seat. Playtime in the backyard seemed to be over, so she decided to go back to her room.
“By the way, Sir, what are you doing here?”
“Since Sir Ryan was absent, I was ordered to serve the Lady.”
Come to think of it, it seems that Cassian had said that he would have her escorted the day she drank the poison. She wonders if it’s necessary, but then it’s Bug.
He would be sure to say something about Cassian if she poked him in the side just a little, though Bug was also a little distracting to have by her side. It was annoying for him to shed tears, continuously saying, ‘how could she do that.’
Still, she planned to carefully dig up information about Cassian from him in the future.
Elysia said, hiding her sly expression.
“Then, please take care of me.”
“Just call me Bug. But, you really have nothing to do with the wizard...”
“Bug, Cassian knows it too, so don’t worry about it.”
“Heuk... what happened to our Excellency...”
Bug seemed to have his own interpretation. Realizing it was useless to say anything, she shook her head lightly and began to move her steps.
“I have no plans to go out today, so take a rest. I’ll go to my room anyway.”
Bug, who had unintentionally nodded his head saying that he understood, took a deep breath.
Then, he shouted at Elysia and Ramote, who had already started pacing away.
“...Lady?! Are you going to go to the room alone with the wizard right now? Lady?!”
***
As soon as Elysia returned to her room, she rummaged through the chest of drawers immediately. It was because she had left the bottle of magic that Cassian had extracted with the tracking magic.
She placed the bottle along with the magic stone on the table before turning to Ramote.
“Old Man. Is there any other way? This tracking magic is what Old Man researched.”
“You want to take it to trial?”
Elysia nodded her head.
No matter how much she thought about it, it wasn’t enough for her to just figure out who it was. It was not like after she found out who it was, put a slap on their cheek and everything was going to simply end like that.
“I wish I could use this twice.”
“I think that would be difficult.”
Still, as she was wondering if there was really any other way, Der suddenly jumped up on the table.
The table wobbled a little, but it didn’t break.
It was thanks to Elysia’s enchantment on every piece of furniture in the room. On the first day she brought Der to the mansion, a few pieces of furniture were broken right away, so she couldn’t leave it alone.
“Der, you can’t touch it. Breaking it will cause serious trouble.”
Saying so, she retrieved the bottle as she glanced at Der heading towards the bottle of magic, interested.
Der was staring at the bottle, which was hanging from its collar, and turned its head.
However, Remote stopped Elysia from trying to put Der down by pointing with his chin at Der’s front paws that touched the magic stone.
“Hold on. Just let it go.”
Der was absorbing the magic in the magic crystal.
Ramote watched the scene for a while before picking the stone up to see how much it had absorbed its magic. After taking away the magic stone, Der raised its claws.
“Kyaang! Nyangnyang!”
As if interrupting the magic it had absorbed, Der raised its claws that came out sharply.
Elysia, who was standing on the side, took the magic crystals to check how much magic had been absorbed. It was an expected matter that the magic would be spilled out like that.
She was surprised by Der’s ability for a moment, then realized that the magic it spewed out did no damage. Contrary to the sharp outstretched claws, the harmless energy made her smile.
“Haha. Are you calling that a threat, Der?”
It was so cute as she patted Der as she smiled softly.
Elysia, who was stroking Der, opened her mouth as a thought suddenly came to mind. She turned her head towards Ramote and asked, “Old Man, can you extract the magic that Der is spilling right now? I didn’t use any magic.”
She hurriedly took the flower from the vase on the table and tried her tracking magic.
There was no change in the vase.
The principle of using the tracking magic itself was to extract the remaining magic after using the magic, so there was no way it could be done.
“Tsk. Didn’t I tell you to study? You just need to change it a little.”
“How am I supposed to do that, Old Man? This is why you’re the great wizard.”
As he stirred his hand, the magic that had been circling around Der flowed into the vase. Elysia looked at the vase with a curious expression.
‘Will I be able to handle this well?’
Ramote, who recognized her thoughts, glanced at the magic stone and opened his mouth.
“Are you sure?”
“...Perhaps?”
When she finds the culprit when she used the tracking magic on the magic gemstone she had, Elysia could use Der to get them justly punished.
Without hesitation, she took the magic stone and completed the tracking magic.
Green butterflies, like the ones she saw in the barracks during subjugation, hovered around the magic stone.
‘I hope that’s not the case.’
She really hoped Lumiere wasn’t as messed up as she thought, that her intuition was wrong. Elysia wanted to believe that Lumiere had told Cassian that she had misunderstood the relationship between her and Revos.
Because she’s a good person. At least, she knew that Lumiere was the original book’s heroine.
Patterns began to appear on the wings of butterflies that were hovering around the magic stone. Soon, a brightly patterned butterfly sat on the magical stone, waiting for confirmation from the caster, Elysia.
She shut her eyes tightly before opening it to the outcome she didn’t want to believe.
Elysia even winds it a few times, but the result does not change.
‘Lumiere’s magic...’
“It’s right.”
‘Really... It’s Lumiere’s work...’
Power entered her hand, which was holding the vase. It cracked and crunched, before breaking in a loud noise.
The surroundings became tranquil as Elysia, who had been thinking where she had gone wrong, woke up from her deep thoughts at the sound of Der’s crying.
“Nyan?”
Der stared at the butterfly and ran into her arms as it flew into the air. Then, it grabbed her hand with its front paw and licked the blood flowing from her wound.
As Ramote was trying to nag Elysia to be more careful, he muttered a small whisper when he glanced at Der with an astonished expression.
“Huh. Does it even drink blood?”
“It shouldn’t be... When I first saw it, I thought that was the only time.”
Because they presumed the contract was made through blood, she thought it happened only then, but that didn’t seem to be the case.
‘Are you drinking only my blood?’
A pet cat that drinks vampire blood. In the meantime, the front paws holding her wrist were so cute that a smirk leaked out Elysia’s lips.
Her wrists were starting to hurt because of the weight.
Meanwhile, Ramote’s hand, which was about to cast healing magic, stopped in mid-air. With a troubled look, he looked at Elysia and the black cat alternately.
It was strange to see her, who had a wound on her hand, grinned, while the small cat was grabbing her wrist and licking her blood eagerly.
However, her wounds were more severe than he thought. So, it was when he tried to pull the cat apart, Der’s eye caught his sight.
Remote’s heart was weakened by the way it appeared so similar to Elysia’s eyes, even down to the same color. Even more so after seeing it sticking around its master with eyes the same color as Elysia’s.
With Der destroying everything like this, it was just like the cat version of Elysia when she started to learn magic.
Barking like a puppy... No, except for the crying.
***
The Duchy of Esteban’s carriage was heading towards the Duchy of Lowell.
Cassian closed his eyes and listened to Lloyd’s report, sitting opposite him. In his head, he thought of how to convince Elysia to take her to his mansion.
His lady seemed to accept everything, but still, it was like a secret wall of iron.
Although he seemed to know the usual flow of events, he couldn’t understand her completely. It seemed like she was just telling him to do whatever he wanted.
‘If it bothers you even a little bit, you can say no...’
Recalling what happened in the past and trying to figure it out on his own, he opened his closed eyes at Lloyd’s next words.
“Sir, it looks like Sir Ryan has caught the lead. I’ll take another look and report again as soon as the background is revealed.”
“Do it fast.”
Cassian raised the corner of his mouth and rubbed his chin with his hand.
As expected, he was young and he was quicker to figure the matter out compared to Lloyd.
Of course, it is said that the two are conducting an investigation together, but it was only on the surface as there was still at the level of information sharing. Contrary to the fact that Ryan agreed when asked to do it together, he still seemed to be quite wary.
‘He’s pretty good.’
“This must never leak out. I’m sure you know that, Lloyd.”
“Yes. The investigation is also being conducted by Sir Ryan alone.”
“If you grab the lead, you’ll get a rough outline. Now, get rid of all the useless ones and those who know a little bit. Leave just the last one, the mastermind.”
Lloyd broke out in a cold sweat and swallowed a dry saliva.
When Cassian said to leave only one person who did the work, it meant that he was going to handle this matter himself. Whoever was behind it will be firmly caught wrong. Even if they try their best, he will watch their every move.
‘His Excellency and Sir Ryan... They’re all very nice to the Madam.’
Lloyd shook his head and thought of Elysia.
He already knew that during the investigation phase, Sir Ryan had dealt with a couple of people. This may have been to prevent information leakage.
“Try Marquisate Blanche. There is no limit to the surveillance.”
“Yes, I understand.”
“Ah, put someone on the Blanche’s Lady. Don’t miss out on who she is meeting and what she is talking about.”
Cassian had just heard from Elysia in a letter yesterday about who was responsible for the subjugation.
He laughed bitterly as he recalled the words Lumiere had said during the subjugation. She was already annoying enough and he wanted to get rid of her, but he was kind enough to let it slide then.
“It would be nice if the name Blanche disappeared from the Empire.”
“...Yes?”
Lloyd rummaged his ear with his finger, wondering if he had heard it wrong.
Was he trying to get rid of Marquisate Blanche?
Even after the wedding preparations were over, it seemed difficult to sleep at home for a while.
Lloyd tried to figure out Marquisate Blanche’s fortune and calculate how many months it would take to destroy it.
‘Two months or so... When this is all over, I’ll have to take a vacation even if it means to hang on by the Madam. If it’s the Madam, I might even get a bonus.’
Lloyd thought so, but corrected his thoughts again because she had recently said she would delay the wedding date in front of His Excellency’s bedroom.
However, didn’t His Excellency say that he had never heard of such a thing?
‘Madam... please.’
He prayed and prayed that Elysia would not turn away from him again.
***
Ramote is leaving after one day of his stay, and Elysia is out of the mansion to see Ramote off.
After licking her blood for a long time yesterday, Der fell asleep and did not wake up after a day. She was worried that Der had slept too long, but she let it sleep soundly.
‘I remember when I drank Cassian’s blood and passed out.’
“If possible, don’t meet Arbel until I stop by the temple and check things out first.”
“Yeah. I don’t really want to see him either.”
“I don’t have a day off because of you.”
“You know, I have no one but Old Man, right?”
“Yes, yes, I know.”
Elysia rushes from behind Ramote and forces him to answer, saying that he really doesn’t know.
As soon as Lloyd got out of the carriage, he bumped his face into Cassian’s back, who was standing still in front of his nose.
He didn’t see Cassian because he had a lot of documents in his hand.
“Your Excellency? Why don’t you go in and stay still...”
Cassian’s gaze was very piercing. He was staring somewhere.
Lloyd followed his gaze with a puzzled face, and the Madam and the Archmage were there.
The Madam... She was whispering while hanging on the Archmage’s back. Behind them, Bug was also seen wiping tears with a handkerchief.
At the strange sight, Lloyd crept back to the carriage.
‘Let’s run away.’
“You...Your Excellency, then I will go back to the mansion first.”
“Lloyd.”
“Yes?”
“I told you to prepare a room connected to my bedroom.”
It was only the day before when His Excellency had ordered to prepare the Madam’s room on the floor where his bedroom was.
‘...If you want to imprison the Madam... No—’
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