That day, late in the afternoon.
Lellia quickly composed herself.
Unfortunately, she didn't have the luxury to grieve for long.
'I need to return to the territory quickly.'
If Yuriana the Imperial Princess and Lute hurriedly donated the sacred artifact to the temple, it would be dangerous.
'The temple will quickly realize it's a fake.'
At that thought, anxiety suddenly gripped her heart.
She was rushing to pack her belongings when it happened.
'But do I really have to take all my friends with me...?'
Lellia hesitated at the sudden thought.
What would she tell her grandfather, grandmother, uncles, and aunt?
And how would she explain things to her friends?
Her friends knew her as 'Leo's' younger male cousin. A boy who, due to unfortunate circumstances, had been raised as a girl.
It was truly a suffocating situation.
Wait.
'If Calixs goes to the territory and rolls up his sleeve while saying those things...'
Her grandfather might suffer a great shock.
It would be better to reveal the truth to her friends as soon as possible, but...
It would take quite a while to gather 100 billion Shillings, so revealing that she was a woman first wasn't a bad idea. That had nothing to do with Golden Tongue magic.
'But honestly saying I'm a woman is also a problem.'
If she said that, Calixs would demand an explanation about what he saw back then.
'Then I'd have to explain about alchemy...'
If that happened, she couldn't avoid suspicion. Romeo was already suspecting her anyway.
'...Right. I'll just leave everything behind and go alone.'
Lellia made up her mind.
Taking all her friends to the territory was too much after all.
She felt sorry, but it couldn't be helped.
Once she finished handling the territory's matters, she could go find her friends again.
Lellia collected herself and began packing the clothes from the wardrobe.
'Why is there so much?'
However, there was simply too much to pack.
It was all because of the clothes Romeo had given her as gifts.
They were precious clothes she couldn't just throw away... so she began packing them one by one into the bag the boutique had provided.
She wouldn't be able to take them when she left, but she planned to pack them carefully and leave them behind with a message of thanks to Romeo.
Then her hand stopped in front of the cufflinks.
This was a gift Romeo had given her, but it was also embedded with a tracking spell.
A thought crossed Lellia's mind.
'Surely there aren't tracking spells on other items too?'
Lellia called out to Yeongeum just in case.
"Yeongeum."
[??]
"......"
Lellia frowned at the speech bubble floating in the air. Just question marks, nothing else.
This thing... just eats crystals and gets less and less sincere.
[( •̅_•̅ )a...]
"I have something to ask. Besides these cufflinks, are there any other items with tracking spells on me?"
[Yeongeum will check right away!(๑•̀∀•́ฅ ✧)]
After a brief moment passed.
[Found <1> item capable of special tracking magic! But don't worry! Yeongeum has blocked them all!(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧₊˚]
Something glimmered inside the packed bundle. When she opened it, she found a fountain pen. This could be used for tracking too?
'So that's how he found me after the war ended.'
Lellia felt cold sweat running down her spine for some reason.
"Well, I'm glad you blocked it at least."
Still....
Lellia narrowed her eyes.
Now that she thought about it, Calixs had completed the final quest, but Romeo had made no progress.
Griffith and Oscar hadn't even started yet, so that wasn't strange, but...
Was it perhaps because Romeo suspected her?
Lellia entered the affinity window and checked the list of 'Special Affinity Targets.'
She decided to click on 'Romeo' to check his affinity.
[If you check the affinity at your current location, you can only view the affinity from the last time you met face-to-face. Would you like to check the affinity of Special Affinity Target
"I'll check."
She said that and waited for the answer.
[Access to information has been blocked by magical power.∑(;°Д°)]
What?
Lellia's brow furrowed.
[system: Hacking the magic formula. Please wait a moment.]
She bit her lip in inexplicable anxiety and paced around the spot.
The packing seemed mostly done. Actually, there were only a few important items.
'I'll leave the imperial palace tomorrow night and borrow a horse to depart.'
She was planning her secret escape when it happened.
A system window shimmered and rose up.
However, the speech bubbles that appeared in succession weren't Yeongeum's messages, but different content.
[Wait, what is this?]
[What's wrong?]
[No, I just saw some strange text floating in the air. Griffith, you don't see it?]
[...Not at all.]
"!!!"
Lellia covered her mouth in surprise.
The system window that appeared as usual contained an unknown conversation instead of Yeongeum's words.
At the same time, those words sounded as if they were whispering in her ear, and this was definitely....
'These are Romeo and Griffith's voices!'
Lellia called out to Yeongeum in her mind in surprise.
Yeongeum, what did you just do?
[system: Information collection complete.]
[Ending system hacking! ✧٩(•́⌄•́๑)و ✧ Would you like to check Special Affinity Target
'No! That's not important right now!'
[The quest has been completed and the next quest will proceed.٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶ Would you like to check it now?]
'Just wait a moment!'
Lellia waved away Yeongeum's system window and looked at the other speech bubble window hidden behind it.
But that speech bubble was already fading away.
Just before the speech bubble disappeared, Lellia barely managed to witness the conversation.
[So, did you look into Leo?]
[There are too many strange points. But there's something even stranger, about Lellia...]
Unlike before, the voices were very faint, but it was definitely a conversation between Griffith and Romeo.
After the speech bubble completely vanished, Lellia paced anxiously.
It seemed the game system had encountered an error while doing something to check Romeo's affinity.
Just moments ago, Romeo had witnessed a speech bubble floating before his eyes.
'What on earth are Romeo and Griffith discussing right now?'
That speech bubble from earlier was definitely a conversation between Romeo and Griffith in real-time.
They must be having a conversation in the room across from here.
Though they hadn't said anything to Lellia, it seemed the two had been separately looking into 'Leo's' death.
There were so many other things on her mind that she hadn't even considered that possibility.
The problem was that 'Lellia' was mentioned in their conversation.
What exactly were they finding suspicious?
After pacing for a while, Lellia came to her senses belatedly. This wasn't the time.
'I'd better leave tonight instead.'