Meanwhile, Calix returned to the vicinity of his quarters and entered the room as if his soul had left his body.
Inside the room, Romeo had returned at some point. He asked listlessly.
"Where did you go?"
As soon as Calix discovered Romeo, he marched straight up to him and shouted.
"Hey!! You're the one who went somewhere and only just came back!!! You... do you know what I just saw?!"
"What did you see."
Romeo had a bored expression.
"I just..."
Calix must have thought he needed to calm down first, for he plopped down in front of Romeo and gulped down the cup Romeo had been drinking from.
"Argh! It's hot!!"
"...What are you doing right now?"
As Romeo looked at him in disbelief, Calix flustered about trying to cool his burned tongue.
After watching that sight for a while, Calix finally calmed down, took a deep breath, and continued speaking.
"...It's about Lellia."
"Why?"
Romeo had already been suspecting Lellia. When Calix brought up Lellia while making such a fuss, he was puzzled.
Calix, who had started with a serious tone, spoke cautiously.
"That kid... is a man."
"......."
Did something happen to his head in the one day they hadn't seen each other?
Romeo frowned as he looked at Calix like he was a strange person.
"I said he's a man."
"Say something that makes sense."
Romeo was dumbfounded.
Lellia, just how well had that kid played the role of a flirt that even Calix was acting like this?
Wait a moment.
'Did he perhaps use some strange medicine?'
Romeo was already suspecting that Lellia might be an alchemist.
He didn't know yet whether he was the culprit who had caused Leo's death, but he was certain he possessed alchemical abilities. And quite outstanding ones at that.
So Romeo asked seriously.
"Did you take some strange medicine or something?"
"What are you talking about!"
Calix felt a twinge inside but pretended not to know anything.
There was medicine he had taken. The medicine Lellia had given him.
But he couldn't say that.
The fact that he suffered seizures from injuries sustained in the battle with the Mad Dragon was a secret from his friends. He absolutely didn't want them to know.
Come to think of it, he realized he hadn't made Lellia promise to keep quiet.
Calix thought he would have to firmly warn Lellia when he returned later.
Romeo sighed and asked.
"Then why the nonsense all of a sudden? Calling a perfectly fine girl a man."
"I saw it."
"Saw what."
"...That."
"So what specifically."
Calix couldn't bring himself to say it with words and pointed with his index finger at his lower body. Specifically, the center of it.
"...What are you doing right now?"
"Damn it! I'm telling you it's true! It was really there! I was shocked too!"
"......."
Romeo froze with his brow furrowed.
Calix must have gone crazy. He definitely injured his head during the battle with the Mad Dragon.
As Romeo looked at him like he was looking at a crazy person, Calix began explaining from the beginning in frustration.
That Cedric and Damian had come looking for him.
That Lellia had seemed so frightened, so he had accompanied him, and the Emperor had told them to wait in the next room.
That out of boredom, he had secretly watched the conversation between the two through an open archway. (At this part, Romeo was appalled at Calix's audacity.)
That the Emperor had outright suspected Lellia of being a woman. He told him everything.
"And then suddenly that kid...! Said he'd prove he was a man and dropped his pants right in front of the Emperor! His pants!"
"......."
"I thought he was crazy, I tell you! Anyway, I was so surprised I tried to go in to stop him, but would you believe..."
Calix suddenly stopped talking and thrust his thick forearm forward.
"It was about this size? Similar to mine."
"......."
"Yeah, about this size? No. A bit smaller than mine."
"No..."
Is that important right now?
Romeo dragged his palm down his face in irritation.
He had no idea what kind of situation this was.
As far as he knew, magic that transformed the body had never been successfully performed by any mage.
Moreover, Lellia wasn't a mage.
Romeo possessed far superior magical power than ordinary mages thanks to the Dragon's Heart.
So he could say with certainty.
Lellia was neither a mage nor an alchemist.
He couldn't sense any aura similar to the magical power characteristic of alchemists at all. Nor was it hidden with magic either.
No magical power could be felt from Lellia.
'This is driving me mad.'
There was more than one or two suspicious points.
He was certain Lellia had also detected the tracking spell he had placed.
He had no idea by what method either. It was a spell at a level that even the imperial mages couldn't detect.
He had left the imperial city yesterday to investigate Lellia as well.
To see if perhaps there were techniques passed down among alchemists that he wasn't aware of.
If an alchemist could completely erase their traces, their influence would become far greater than it is now.
They would be able to evade the Temple's surveillance.
That was why Romeo suspected that Lellia might be one of them.
But no matter how much he asked around, he couldn't obtain even a bit of information about such people.
Not because his intelligence network was weak, but because they simply didn't exist.
This was a fact he had confirmed using magical power, so he was certain.
But what? He's a man? He has that thing down there?
Romeo was about to lose his mind.
'Just what is that girl's identity.'
Or should he say boy?
He couldn't be certain whether Lellia was truly the culprit who killed Leo or not.
Of course, he had trusted Lellia at first... but he found it strange that the kid kept using suspicious alchemical medicines.
Romeo bit his lip in confusion.
Calix was still waving his forearm, going on and on about the shape, the size, this and that.
Then, suddenly, one hypothesis occurred to him.
Lellia, what if that girl was a man from the very beginning?
'If that's the case...'
Romeo's eyes narrowed. Soon, one corner of his lip lifted slightly.