"Do you know what lies beyond the village if you keep going straight?"
"Gelburn."
"I see you've memorized the map. You do realize how large a city that is? It'll be difficult to hide your identity with such sloppy dye work."
"Decent magic tool shops are only in major cities anyway, so I would have had to visit one eventually. Gelburn was selected as a magical technology research and investment site, so I should be able to obtain the best magic tools in the Empire there."
Gelburn was quite an important city, even home to a magical research institute established in collaboration with the Magic Tower for magical technology research.
In particular, its Great Library, one of the附属 buildings, held the largest collection of books in the Empire.
If it was the Great Library, I should be able to glean some information. Thinking thus, I nodded.
"You'll be caught at the entrance before you even reach the magic tool shop."
"I'll wait outside the city for now."
"Pardon?"
At that moment, Xenon, who had been chewing on meat, looked at me with rounded eyes.
"Going in first to buy things is your job."
"Why me?"
"Because Gelburn will sell appearance-altering magic tools. If you buy an appropriate one, I'll be able to enter and exit without inconvenience using that tool."
"No, using people like this is problematic..."
"Of course, I intend to pay a suitable fee for your trouble."
At my words, Xenon fell silent. However, his expression still looked conflicted.
"Money must flow from you like a magical spring."
"In these circumstances, at least I have money."
Truthfully, it wasn't quite a magical spring, but I was well-off. The precious metals stored in my spatial dimension had been gathered since Roam.
That alone was sufficient, but with the money from the Temple added on top, though I hadn't calculated the exact amount, it was certainly enough to spend freely as flight funds and settle down in some distant foreign land.
At my declaration, Xenon muttered in a soulless voice.
"O God. Please forgive this foolish agent who greedily covets wealth."
"God doesn't hear prayers from unbelievers. If you dislike it, tell me quickly. I need to hire someone else."
"Are there even people to hire in these mountains?"
At the indifferent counter-question, this time I was at a loss for words. Of course, if it really came to it, I could lure some animals and manage somehow... but I couldn't ask animals to steal magic tools for me.
And going to the village to find someone didn't seem reliable either.
"You're right."
I readily nodded and admitted it. At my calm answer, Xenon raised his eyes as if surprised.
Gazing at him steadily, I continued in a deliberately soft voice.
"It's hard to find someone who knows my identity yet won't take interest in me. So you are special to me. In that sense, I want you to help me. The reason I mention money is because that's all I have."
I turned my head slightly and lowered my gaze. I could feel Xenon's eyes following, but pretending not to notice, I finished speaking with a bitter expression.
"If that wounded your feelings, I apologize."
"W-why are you being so suddenly honest? What am I supposed to do?"
[Heartless male. I'll apologize on his behalf. This one is just very timid.]
Seeing even Nesi speak like that after the flustered Xenon, apparently my expression looked quite pitiful.
"I-I never said I wouldn't do it. I was hired short-term anyway, so I can just think of it as an extension of the work! There's no need to! Say things like! That I'm special, and such! Ahem."
......If this were Roam or the Imperial Palace, it wouldn't have worked at all.
The saying that Magic Tower descendants, always holed up in gloomy towers doing only research, truly don't know how to use their heads in other matters seems to be correct.
"So you mean you'll buy the magic tool for me?"
"Yes, yes. I'll buy it, so don't look so deflated..."
"Good."
Having successfully reached an agreement, I rose first. Xenon, who had been waving his hands with a flustered face, looked at me frozen stiff.
"Wait, just now. Was that acting?"
"Acting? I honestly laid out the situation."
When I answered expressionlessly, this time his jaw dropped.
If he opens his mouth that wide in these mountains, won't insects fly in? Thinking this pointless thought, I turned my body indifferently.
"I'm glad we resolved this through conversation."
"Why do I feel like I was deceived?"
"What good would asking me about your personal impressions do? More importantly, the meal is finished, so hurry and clean up so we can depart."
[A seasoned attitude change. This male should watch and learn.]
Nesi sighed and muttered. Unfortunately, only I could hear Nesi's muttering.
Nesi looked upon Xenon with pity yet still showed worry in this way. Indeed, finding a wolf like him would be difficult.
......No, obtaining a being who genuinely worries about me is itself an impossibly difficult thing for me. I erased the thought that had risen unbidden without hesitation.
I don't expect it anyway.
* * *
As ladies coming of age typically do, around that time I too selected my knight.
Becoming the knight of the Lady of Roam was every knight's dream, so many had volunteered. All were knights with outstanding abilities.
Among those lined up who admired me, my choice defied everyone's expectations. I chose the only one among them who did not admire me.
He—my knight, Arlin Toson—was an old retainer who had watched over me and my sister Prician since childhood. He was someone I regarded quite intimately outside of family, and he even had a record of volunteering to be my sister's knight and failing.
I designated him as my knight with quite pure goodwill. And a bit more time passed before I learned of the unrequited love he held for my sister.
It was a fact I learned by chance when I picked up a love letter Arlin had written but never sent to my sister.
The letter stated that he had wanted to become my sister's knight, and after that failed, he dreamed of belonging to the direct knight order of the sister who would become the family head.
Perhaps he carried that unsent letter in his bosom, mulling over his dream.
That seemed to be the case even after becoming my knight, so he still hadn't let go of his lingering feelings for my sister.
He, who could have become a member of my sister's knight order, had simply ended up selected from among those who had volunteered as a formality.
Even so, he always performed his duties diligently. He often seemed to think of me as an analogy to his younger sister.
Encountering my sister frequently while guarding me probably raised his job satisfaction as well.
Whatever his private feelings, he was an excellent guard knight. I entrusted my back to him. I considered him my right arm, and occasionally entrusted him with somewhat unofficial duties as well.
At first, he performed all of that without complaint. Even after Lilia appeared, that remained true. He worried about me wasting away, supported me, and cared for me. What were his parting words again?
「M-me, in a secret tryst with the Princess!」
When someone stirred up rumors of my scandal, speaking of secret meetings between him and me. When family members, fearful the rumor might reach the Imperial Palace, interrogated him anxiously.
「The one I hold in my heart is someone else!」
「Lies! There are witnesses who saw you leaving the Princess's room late at night!」
Seeing Prician's cold face, he rambled on desperately to avoid causing misunderstanding with the woman he loved.
「That's impossible! It wasn't me, it must have been another man!」
「Another man?」
I often summoned Arlin at night, trusting him.
To obtain the vicious drugs to feed Lilia, or to meet with underworld figures, I had to send someone trustworthy.
Arlin volunteered to guard me whenever I went to make contact directly, and when I gasped for breath on the way, he even brought medicine.
He was the knight who stayed by my side as I was dying. The only person who brought me medicine when I was ill. I sought out my guard more than the servants.
Not knowing that the person in question found it bothersome.
「I cannot speak carelessly of my master's transgressions. However... the Princess is very prone to loneliness.」
The trust I had shown Arlin became nothing more than excessive attachment from a lonely master.
「You'd best abandon any thought of escaping with clumsy lies, Arlin Toson. To dare covet your master?」
Arlin, who had been stammering while watching for reactions, was suddenly frightened by my sister's threatening tone.
It was natural—he wasn't simply falling out of favor with the woman he loved, but faced complete expulsion from the Roam family.
「I delivered letters! To men!」
「What?」
「I apologize, you gave the command so I couldn't refuse. But I swear I never entered the Princess's bedchamber!」
「Men?」
「It's certain! They were low-status individuals easy to silence. I sometimes guarded the path when you went to meet them directly. I can tell you the location as well.」
「Sir Arlin! How can you say such things!」
I cried out pale-faced, but no one listened to my voice.
That was because everyone knew I had used him often.
「Good heavens, the Princess of Roam doing such filthy acts!」
Thinking back now, Prician didn't seem to have been trying to verify the truth of the rumor.
My sister already believed it was true. That day's interrogation was merely a process to determine what could be salvaged.
「I remember the men's faces. I will resign as the Princess's guard and immediately find and kill them.」
Arlin desperately spat out the words my sister wanted to hear. And so he gained his opportunity.
To make me the Princess of Roam who had rolled in filth.
A few days later, he brought the heads of men I didn't even know and presented them as the ones who had played with me.
As my closest confidant, he had personally confirmed the scandal as truth.
I learned later.
That the one who claimed to have seen a man leaving my room late at night was Lilia. When Lilia, who possessed prophetic abilities, said so, the truth was already decided.
Even so, it was Arlin who fabricated non-existent evidence.
So it could only be ridiculous, Arlin Toson.
"To think the captain of the Roam family search party was you."