"I also gave you a communication magical tool before leaving."
When I took out the necklace I had kept inside my clothes and showed it, Xenon furrowed his brows.
"You still haven't thrown it away?"
"Why would I throw this away?"
"Then are you going to sell it?"
"I don't know what the future holds, and it might come in useful, so I'll keep it."
Somehow, Xenon's fork movements were unusually rough. He pressed down on one side of a perfectly fine cake piece, mashing it, and asked indifferently.
"Lady Aneli. If that Imperial Prince and I fight, you'll take my side, right?"
Though he asked with a tone as if just passing by, his eyes that kept glancing at me revealed his determination to hear an answer.
I remembered he had asked before who I would take sides with, so I tested him casually, but I never expected such an immediate reaction.
It was somewhat amusing. In this whole wide world, Xenon would be the only commoner who would put an Imperial Prince and himself on the same line and demand to choose one.
"What reason would you and Prince Heinrich have to fight?"
"Because we don't know the future."
"Even if I don't know the future, I can tell that you two won't have reason to fight. Stop with this nonsensical talk. So when exactly will the magical tool be completed?"
I naturally changed the subject.
Before I knew it, the cake piece had completely lost its original shape. If you play with food, you'll get punished later.
"......Xenon?"
Even while destroying the innocent dessert, Xenon answered dutifully.
"Just give me four more days."
"Four days? Will you stay here during that time?"
"Yes. Fortunately, this mansion is safe. Even if a search party comes, they won't be able to pass through the main gate."
The Imperial Palace search party or Roam's search party, that would be true. But the person I was most wary of right now was someone else.
"What about the Holy Knight?"
Samuel's persistent tracking ability would still be shining.
"I can't guarantee it, but...... A magic that erases traces of magical power is cast over this entire mansion. It's like the function of that ribbon we tied to the Durahans. It's a higher-level magic of that magical tool's function, so perhaps it might hide Lady Aneli's presence as well."
"You can't confirm that accurately?"
"Because we don't know the identity of the traces remaining on Lady Aneli."
So in the end, they can't give a definite answer about safety. I crossed my arms and pondered for a moment, then soon shook off my thoughts.
I've come all this way, so I can't just leave like this. If I come and then need to run away again, so be it. Unlike before, I have a whole four Durahans guarding my side.
Besides, Samuel, at least, wouldn't try to take me away barely alive like Roam, or put on disgusting acts like Maxel saying he missed me.
"Anyway, I'll have to stay in this city for four days."
I've been running around so frantically all this time, so I should use this chance to reorganize my belongings and review future plans.
"Four days......"
I rubbed my chin and tilted my head. Organizing what to do in my head was quick.
I was planning to make a few more forged identification papers anyway, so I might as well go out while I'm at it.
* * *
"You were caught?"
"I apologize. That Holy Knight's ability was more excellent than known."
The man who had lowered his head made excuses to the Duke. Friesian, who was standing in the corner of the office, a little apart, frowned and scolded.
"You should have moved with that in mind."
"......I apologize."
Duke Roam, looking at his subordinate with annoyed eyes, gestured. When the subordinate who was reading the atmosphere left, Friesian opened her mouth with a cold voice.
"After the Sir Arin incident, it's clear that the Temple side has decided to completely cut ties with us. We can't keep following Sir Samuel forever. And it's not even certain whether he really has the ability to find Aneli."
Samuel was the very person who found Aneli when she went outside the Grand Temple. And there was a record of him finding Aneli again after she was kidnapped by the Wyvern.
However, after reporting Sir Arin, no further information was shared.
"He said there was no particular sign."
At the Duke's low murmur, Friesian nodded and answered.
"Yes. It would have been easier if they had found and hidden her first......"
Friesian swallowed the rising sigh and added in annoyance.
"It's certain that Aneli isn't in the Temple."
The Duke didn't make any particular reply. He just stared blankly at the report left by his subordinate earlier.
"The monster that took Aneli last was a Durahan. News has been coming in recently that Durahans have appeared in various places."
Friesian, who glanced at the document the Duke was looking at, continued with a serious voice.
"Even in Freya, where the Crown Prince reportedly visited, rumors circulated that a Durahan appeared. Upon confirmation, it wasn't a Durahan, but we need to search the Durahan appearance areas too. If this continues, the Imperial Family will take the lead."
Maxel's sudden external schedule was only known to the capital nobles after he had left for Freya. Even Lilia didn't know Maxel was leaving for Freya.
Officially, Maxel's movements were to stabilize the uneasy public sentiment, but both Duke Roam and Friesian knew that wasn't true.
Maxel must have moved because he connected the Durahan to Aneli.
"Did the Crown Prince refuse all audiences again today?"
"Yes."
"Even the meeting with Lilia?"
"......Yes."
Fortunately, he returned without success. He insisted on staying at a closed farm in the middle of the night and ended up stirring up a beehive and getting stung all over. His face was so swollen that he had no choice but to return to the Imperial Palace right away.
Some people secretly laughed, saying how desperate he must be to hand over his schedule to Prince Heinrich.
"He's been saying strange things after returning from Freya."
"Strange things?"
Duke Roam, who had pushed the report to one side, said calmly.
"He said Aneli's neck was severed."
"......Does that mean Aneli is dead?"
"I don't know. He says he can't even distinguish properly whether he met Aneli or a ghost."
The Emperor, ahead of the Harvest Festival, opened the national treasury exceptionally, worried that strange words might circulate.
He increased the scale of local harvest festivals and grandly prepared the capital festival to divert people's attention as much as possible. The search parties and guards that had been moving actively through cities were also said to be restraining themselves for the time being to maintain the atmosphere.
Nobles who don't know the Imperial Palace circumstances well understand the Crown Prince's recent accident as just an amusing farce.
However, Duke Roam, who frequently enters and exits important places in the Imperial Palace, knew how sharp the Emperor was right now.
The Emperor highly valued the Crown Prince's perfect and excellent abilities. He would never welcome a sight of him returning after being stung by bees and talking about ghosts. Moreover, if he's going around saying things like the resurrected one's neck wasn't there?
If the story leaks incorrectly, conflict with the Temple will spread, so it was understandable that they confined him in the Crown Prince's Palace.
"What do you think? Do you think Aneli really died as he said?"
If Aneli's neck was severed as the Crown Prince said, that means she's dead.
If she wasn't dead but only her neck was severed, that would be an even bigger problem. Such a form would look more like a monster than human.
"......To be honest, no. If she was going to die this meaninglessly, she wouldn't have been resurrected in the first place."
"Right, I think so too."
The Duke, with his hands behind his back, approached the window.
The capital is now busy preparing for the Harvest Festival. The same was true for the Roam Duke's house.
The garden and mansion were cleaned and decorated neatly to create an atmosphere. A private banquet was also scheduled soon.
From the past, the mansion's banquets were always handled by the Duchess and Aneli. Around this time, Aneli was always late and busy going back and forth between the Imperial Palace and the mansion.
But now, all of that has become Lilia's responsibility.
Since Lilia has a good eye for selecting servants, I thought she would do her work well, but somehow, it seemed vaguely stalled.
"Is there no particular news from the search party?"
"No."
"Lilia hasn't said anything separately about the prophecy either?"
"No."
Lilia's prophecy was like an inexhaustible spring. Did we rely too much on it?
"Father, since the topic came up, there's something I want to tell you."
Friesian, who had been pressing her lips together in silence, lowered her voice.
"Lilia secretly owned several mines."
"Mines?"
"Yes. I confirmed that she owned them before coming to the capital. The profit looked considerable, but even when I asked indirectly, she didn't seem to have any intention of confessing honestly."
Mines. Lilia's original family had declined, so they couldn't even leave a mansion, let alone mines.
Duke Roam's gaze settled coldly.
"It's said that not long after Lilia became the owner, a vein was discovered. She must have known in advance through prophecy, of course."
Friesian twisted her lips.
"......I don't know why she hid that and accepted being treated as a young lady of a declining noble family in the capital."
Lilia's sunshine-like smile and warm heart captivated the capital nobles. Everyone said they were moved by her appearance of smiling steadfastly even in poor circumstances.
They even made tacky sentimental comments about how a new wind was blowing in the bleak central social circle.
It's known that what captured Crown Prince Maxel's heart was also such appearances.
Saying to take in poor Lilia as an adopted daughter and give her the Roam Castle.
Then the engagement problem between Roam and the Imperial Family would be resolved, and the young Duke of Roam could inherit the title safely.
It was Maxel who suggested such an opinion.
'......If he had known there were mines in Lilia's name, he wouldn't have used the expression "poor".'
Recalling Maxel, who put strength on his shoulders as if proposing a wise plan, Friesian twisted her lips.
"......Maybe the prophecy was wrong from the beginning."
"Do you think so?"
"Aneli...... The prophecy that our family would be annihilated because of Aneli didn't come true."
A heavy air settled between the Duke and Friesian. The Duke, with a dark gaze, turned away from the window toward his daughter.
"Because we put that child on the execution platform."
Duke Roam's lips trembled.
If everyone was toyed with by a wrong prophecy? The mere imagination was terrible.
"Before that child could annihilate Roam, we killed her first. There's no way to verify the truth of the prophecy now."