24-Hour Regression Counseling Office, Episode 31
* * *
At that moment, Sorinte stopped mid-step on his way to the Ducal house.
Far in the distance, the Imperial Palace was visible.
‘The reason I was certain I had regressed was because the Crown Prince was alive.’
A man who should have been dead was alive.
‘The counselor is the Crown Prince’s temporary teacher?’
A strange light swirled in Sorinte’s pupils.
On the battlefield, even a Sword Master can die to a blind blade.
In such a place, Sorinte had survived alone.
The reason was his intuition.
Just as now, an inexplicable intuition had shown him the way.
“…There’s something there.”
Between Counselor Laura Lien and the Crown Prince.
He wanted to find out what had happened, but—
“I have no hands or feet,”
Around him, who had always been alone, there were no people.
“Hmm, should I go myself.”
Sorinte, who had a record of being banned from entering the Imperial Palace, resumed his steps toward the Ducal house, lost in thought.
One by one.
Just as the counselor said, he had to solve them one by one.
* * *
“This is troubling.”
Tom furrowed his brow as if he had taken on an unsolvable problem.
“You don’t look troubled at all?”
However, his tone was utterly serene.
“It showed.”
“Yeah.”
Laura raised a small knife.
Shhk.
A firm green stem was split in half.
She split that stem in half again.
She placed the four pieces into the basket.
The name of this vegetable was ‘Puh.’
A vegetable used in various dishes, and currently, she was doing side work.
Cleaning in the morning, side work in the afternoon if there was nothing else.
It was an excellent schedule.
“If we consider the situation His Lordship told us about—”
Scrub, scrub.
While wiping glasses to be used for the tavern’s evening business, Tom spoke.
“In the end, the clients won’t be able to avoid finding out about each other’s existence, will they?”
“Hmm.”
“The Crown Prince, an administrative official, and the mad dog eldest son of the Ducal house. They may be far removed from one another, but looking at how things are going, they seem bound to get entangled sooner or later.”
Laura could not bring herself to deny those words.
Really, anyone could see it was only a matter of time.
The three of them discovering each other.
“Then what should I do?”
“I don’t know?”
“….”
At Tom’s nonchalant answer, Laura sighed without ceasing to cut the Puh.
‘This is getting to be a headache.’
Her head already hurt because three clients had appeared at once, and now things were going to get complicatedly entangled.
And that wasn’t all.
Shhk!
The hand wielding the small kitchen knife grew cold.
Without noticing Tom’s flinch, Laura continued her thoughts.
‘The empire’s destruction! The Emperor dying!’
The problems before her eyes were too big, and too many.
‘I’m just someone from a ruined noble family!’
Did she have troops? Power? Or honor?
She had none of them.
“I’m going crazy.”
Shhk.
The blade flashed.
Tom alternated his gaze between Laura and the kitchen knife.
‘Why did it suddenly come to this?’
Laura had accepted the current situation for now, but questions remained.
“…Has the world really gone mad?”
Or was it Lady Lilian?
Naturally, irreverent thoughts came to her.
That was how hopeless it was.
Shhk, shhk.
Her hand movements grew faster and more precise.
“Hm.”
Tom swallowed hard.
He could no longer bear to watch Laura cut the Puh down as if it were the enemy of a lifetime.
“My Lord.”
So he changed the subject.
“Did you ask about the Reilin Order?”
“No, not that far. Did you happen to pick up anything?”
Tom shook his head.
“No. I checked whether any rumors about the Reilin Order were circulating in the mercenary district, but there were none at all.”
“Is that so?”
The mercenary district was a place where not only mercenaries, but merchants, adventurers, and all sorts of people gathered. Because of that, it was a place where all kinds of rumors flowed out.
“Yes. So for now, I’m looking into whether there are any related stories on the noble side as well.”
“Hm.”
After thinking for a moment, Laura asked.
“To find out information about other countries too, it would cost a lot of money, right?”
“Yes….”
Tom’s gaze clouded over.
“You’d have to pay the Information Guild several months’ worth of living expenses, wouldn’t you?”
“…Right?”
“…Yes.”
Laura hung her head low and silently cut the Puh.
Tom comforted such a Laura.
“But now the money to live on comes from the Imperial Palace. So isn’t that something?”
“I don’t know how much I’m getting yet.”
“They’ll pay well. They’re not thugs.”
“What if they don’t pay?”
“Then they’re thugs.”
Tom’s gaze turned fierce. Seeing his eyes turn fierce with an expressionless face was an unsightly spectacle.
Laura subtly avoided Tom’s gaze and resolved.
‘Tomorrow, I must definitely ask Mr. Cross how much the salary is.’
Shhk. Shhk.
The hand cutting the Puh to pieces grew busier.
Chapter 3: Are You a Customer Too?
The capital of the Klan Empire.
The unnecessarily huge and old Count Lien estate, located in the center of the noble residential district.
During the brief moment Laura stood at the main gate, she received countless gazes for the first time in a long while.
“They’re staring from everywhere.”
At Tom’s nonchalant remark, she suppressed a sigh.
Today, the windows of the surrounding mansions were all open, and today, many carriages passed in front of the Count’s estate.
“It’s understandable, seeing as it was decided in a single day that you would be the Crown Prince’s temporary teacher.”
Then Tom muttered in a cold tone.
“They’re coming.”
Laura turned her gaze to where Tom had jerked his chin.
A carriage approaching from that direction soon stopped, and Pail, the Crown Prince’s knight, got down and greeted Laura.
“I will escort you.”
Laura expressed slight displeasure.
“…But there is also a carriage sent by His Highness the Crown Prince.”
At those words, Pail gave a faint smile.
“This is a carriage sent by Her Majesty the Empress Dowager.”
“The Empress Dowager?”
Laura’s eyes naturally grew wide.
‘No wonder it was so extravagant.’
The carriage was decorated with gold. Even the horse was adorned with gold and jewels.
‘I heard Count Kiona’s family is tremendously wealthy.’
And she had heard that the Empress Dowager also possessed enormous wealth.
‘This is incredible.’
Faced with the incredibly expensive-looking carriage, Laura’s heart trembled for no reason.
“Even just one of the jewels on that horse—”
She deliberately ignored Tom’s muttering.
Pail also pretended not to hear Tom and spoke.
“Yes. Her Majesty the Empress Dowager said that since this is an official occasion where the Crown Prince’s teacher is being received, even if temporary, all propriety must be observed.”
“…I see.”
Outwardly calm, but internally sheer chaos, Laura climbed into the carriage.
‘Why is the Empress Dowager taking such good care of me?’
Why, when she had been quiet all this time?
She could not fathom the intention behind it at all.
‘It’s not a bad situation.’
But for Laura, it was not a bad situation.
She did not know the Empress Dowager’s true intentions, but at least people would mistakenly believe that the Empress Dowager was behind Laura.
‘Strange.’
It really was strange.
‘The Empress Dowager wasn’t someone who took political actions.’
Just as Laura seemed far removed from politics, the Empress Dowager also had no connection to politics.
The House of Count Kiona had also been a very quiet family.
‘Of course, they were wary of our family.’
The current head of the Kiona family had glared at his grandfather, the previous head, every time he saw him.
Really, literally glared at him.
And then he would always pick a fight.
‘…Well, at least he was transparent about it.’
At least he didn’t resort to dirty tricks.
‘And he came when Grandfather passed away.’
The Chears family came too.
They probably came because they were next door, but Count Kiona had come without even sending a separate message first.
And he stayed for nearly half a day before leaving.
When no other noble houses had come.
“Thank you for coming.”
To Laura’s greeting, Count Kiona uttered a single word.
“Hmph.”
He truly said only that and then left.
It had been absurd to Laura, but she was more grateful than anything.
Recalling that time as she boarded the carriage, she saw Cross.
“My Lord.”
“Mr. Cross, nice to see you.”
Clack, clack.
The carriage soon began to move.
Laura subtly looked around the carriage. The interior also looked quite expensive.
“There are none.”
“Excuse me?”
At the sudden remark, her gaze turned to him.
“There are no separate eavesdropping magic devices inside the carriage.”
Laura’s eyes grew wide.
“Don’t tell me, with magic?”
“…Yes.”
Cross let out a deep sigh.
“I’ve grown so accustomed to magic that searching for magic devices was easy.”
“Mr. Cross, even if you are accustomed to magic, you know that finding hidden magic devices requires considerable ability, don’t you?”
“…I know.”
Cross gave a bitter smile.
“Kallen’s magic ability seems to be tremendous.”
Laura observed Cross, who was staring at the carriage wall instead of looking at her.
Cross’s complexion—
‘He looks quite unwell.’
The moment worry seeped into Laura’s pupils, Cross pulled out a bundle of documents from his bag.
“Here it is.”
“Excuse me? What is this?”
“It is the record log of the changes so far that I mentioned yesterday.”
“You’ve already organized it all?”
Laura’s eyes grew wide. She was sure he had said he would write it anew?
“Yes. It was a simple matter.”
“I-I see.”
Laura turned the blank front page of the documents.
Dense characters entered her eyes.