Episode 197
"Hmm~ hmm~ ♪"
Rosewin, seated in the carriage, hummed a tune while applying her makeup.
"......."
Meanwhile, the female employee sitting blankly across from her furrowed her brows and rummaged through her pocket.
"Don't you dare smoke."
At that, Rosewin, who had been applying makeup, scolded the female employee firmly.
"This is magically processed, so it's actually good for your body..."
"Still no."
"It doesn't even produce smoke..."
"Still."
The female employee, who had been trying to persuade her somehow, ultimately wore a hollow look as she leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes.
"Why are you acting like this lately? Did something happen?"
Rosewin, still fixing her makeup while looking at her hand mirror, glanced at her and asked, to which the female employee answered in a low voice.
"...Something did happen, but you don't need to concern yourself with it."
"Right, I see."
The female employee watched Rosewin, who nodded briefly at those words before focusing back on her hand mirror.
"Ah, it's over there."
"Hm?"
"It's there, the detective agency."
She pointed at a shabby building located in an ordinary alley, not far from the back alley they had just left.
"Ha."
Rosewin let out a hollow laugh.
"Seeing it in person, I'm truly speechless."
Soon after, she crossed her arms and began to speak.
"They should know when to stop bluffing. Promoting that old, shabby building as a detective agency? Ridiculous."
"......"
"That office is supposedly competing with our Information Guild these days? I don't acknowledge it. It's clearly a case of clever fraud. The identity of the so-called owner isn't even known..."
However, Rosewin, who had been chattering away for a while, soon had to stop speaking.
"Is that person... the person I think it is?"
"...The Bywork Marchioness?"
The Bywork Marchioness, who held the empire's social scene in her grasp, was just coming out of the shabby building.
"W-what."
Rosewin, who had been dazed after witnessing the scene, soon muttered with a flustered expression.
"Why is she there..."
"She must have come out after submitting a request."
"I know that!"
Rosewin shouted at the female employee who still wore a hollow look in her eyes.
"Someone who couldn't be recruited even when we tried to bring her into our guild... Why is she coming out of there...!"
"Well, compared to our guild..."
"...Watch your words."
"Never mind, nothing."
After glaring at the female employee who went even further with her words, Rosewin finally burst out in frustration.
"Stop for a moment!"
"Pardon?"
"I'll pay you, so please wait here!"
Rosewin said that and angrily tried to get off the carriage, but the employee grabbed her and asked.
"Where are you going?"
"Scouting the competition."
After answering the female employee thus, Rosewin began striding toward the shabby building as the employee watched.
- Click
With a resigned expression, the employee put a cigarette in her mouth, lit it, and muttered.
"...I'm really going crazy."
.
"Hmm, hmm!"
Rosewin, having entered the shabby building, cleared her throat.
"Is anyone here?"
When she asked that question, the fox ears protruding from the counter twitched.
"Greetings, human?"
Miho, who had been dozing off, emerged with a sleepy expression and began to speak.
"What is your purpose in coming here?"
"...How peculiar, a fox beastman."
Rosewin looked at Miho with slight curiosity, then cleared her voice and began to speak in an elegant tone.
"I would like to speak directly with the detective, if that would be possible?"
At Rosewin's question, having covered herself with a special robe she always used during her secret outings to hide her identity, Miho stared at her for a moment before saying.
"A guest that strange human would like, I see."
She muttered thus and came out from behind the counter, beginning to guide Rosewin and the female employee.
"Go through here..."
"Hello~! Nice to meet you!"
As soon as they arrived at the reception room, she entered the room before Miho's guidance was even finished.
"Yes, hello there."
"...Tch."
However, seeing the detective whose face was already covered with a cloth enchanted with protective magic, Rosewin tried to sit down with a disappointed expression, but.
"...Rosewin."
".....!"
When the detective called her name, she froze in that very posture.
"........"
And then, a brief silence followed.
"W-what are you saying..."
"Please sit down first. If you keep standing like that, it'll be uncomfortable for both you and me."
"......."
Rosewin, who had been about to make an excuse to break the silence, sat down awkwardly at the detective's words.
"I-I am Rosewin..."
"Seems like you're anxious lately?"
"Pardon?"
Then the detective began to reason with narrowed eyes.
"By the looks of it, seems like a man problem... jealousy, perhaps? Or anxiety?"
"W-what are you talking about!"
"Yet feeling such emotions over a man you never even had... you are quite an amusing person."
"What are you saying!!"
At Rosewin, who shouted as a result, the detective began explaining in a calm voice.
"Dark circles have formed, and there are signs of fingernails being bitten. Your hair is brittle too. Just from that, I can tell you've been suffering mentally for days."
"So what does that have to do with...!"
"Then what could be the reason? Someone who can have anything they want given their position, and who even became a companion to the hero, which was their 'lifelong wish' not long ago—why would such a person be agonizing like this?"
".....What?"
As increasingly sensitive information started coming out, Rosewin became flustered, while the detective continued speaking without caring.
"Using the process of elimination, the only problem that could drive you to such a state... no matter how high a position one holds, even the Emperor would be helpless in such matters—I can only conclude that a 'romance problem' has occurred."
"......."
"Am I wrong?"
"N-no, you're wrong!"
When Rosewin shouted, the detective, who tapped the desk with their fingers for a moment, said.
"Indeed, it must be jealousy."
"W-what?"
"Seeing that there's no dating ring or anything of the sort, it seems you weren't lovers, but if a romance problem occurred... you must have been in unrequited love and had them stolen by someone else, right?"
"Bullshit! Unrequited love, my ass..."
"Oh my, is that not it? Then you must have lost someone you had in mind."
"I said that's not it!"
"Then... you pushed them away and they haven't come back?"
Rosewin flinched at those words.
"Unconsciously thinking they were yours, a toy within your control that you were playing with, but suddenly they left home and didn't return, so you must have been quite flustered, no?"
When Rosewin fell silent at those words, the detective, who cleared their throat briefly, continued in a cold voice.
"But, what if you never had them to begin with?"
"...What?"
"What if all of this was your delusion? Or, what if you kicked away your last chance with your own feet?"
"W-what..."
"What should you do...?"
"What exactly are you?"
Rosewin asked, unconsciously frightened as she looked at the detective.
"I'm a detective."
An all too simple answer came back.
"...L-let's talk."
Thus, after a brief standoff, Rosewin finally spoke.
"I think there's a big misunderstanding..."
She tried to begin with a trembling voice, but.
"Ah, come to think of it... there was a reserved guest."
The detective, who suddenly clapped their hands, made a face as if only just remembering and asked Miho who had been standing beside them until now.
"Miho, when did you say Serena was coming?"
At that, Miho, who made an absurd face for a moment before clearing her throat, answered.
"Ahem, f-five minutes from now, human."
Rosewin's complexion grew pale at those words.
"I-I-I, I should... be going now."
"Pardon? You came first so it's fine. If necessary..."
"N-no, no. Then I'll be leaving."
Leaving behind the detective who tried to stop her, Rosewin exited the room with cold sweat running down her face.
"........."
Then silence began to flow in the room.
"Phew, that's satisfying."
The detective muttered in a relieved voice in that situation.
"So..."
Glaring at the female employee who still hadn't left and was staring blankly at her.
"...who exactly are you?"
She asked in a low voice.
"You're really smart... I wish he had even half of that one's intelligence..."
However, the female employee ignored her question.
- Swoosh...
Quietly began to manipulate the moon's mana, waving her hand toward the detective, Serena, as she muttered.
"Using the moon's mana on me... that's a bit sad."
"........."
Then, Serena and Miho quietly collapsed face-down onto the desk.
"I'm sorry but... right now, you mustn't figure out my true identity, Serena."
The female employee, who was about to leave the room after confirming that sight, looked back at Serena with a lingering expression.
"By the way, when will the curse of subjugation be lifted."
She muttered in a voice full of curiosity.
"The sun as DLC with age restrictions? They said that was unlocked..."
"When will that happen?"
.
"We've arrived~!"
"Hoo."
Rosewin, who had rushed out of the detective agency and maintained silence after boarding the carriage, let out a deep sigh at the coachman's words announcing their arrival.
"Me... feeling jealousy?"
Soon after, her cold voice continued.
"R-ridiculous. Me, toward Frey? That doesn't make sense. That would absolutely never happen."
Although her voice was trembling in contrast to her cold tone, Rosewin, who muttered thus to compose herself, said.
"What are you doing! Hide quickly!"
"...Sigh."
Having finally succeeded in smoking a cigarette in front of her, Rosewin grabbed the female employee's arm and got off the carriage, then quickly hid in the bushes.
"Ugh..."
Rosewin made a pained face for a moment due to her innate fastidiousness, but soon she began to look at the mansion's yard with sharp eyes.
"What are you doing?"
"Seeing what Frey has prepared."
"Pardon?"
"How clueless. Just bow your head."
Rosewin said that and pushed down the female employee's head.
"...Huh?"
Then her eyes went round.
"Frey...?"
And after a moment, Rosewin's expression rapidly darkened.
"So soft..."
"Hic... hic..."
Frey was stroking the head of a red-haired girl.
"W-what?"
The girl, with her face and chest buried in his arms, trembling as she leaned against him, was according to Rosewin's information, 'Irina Philiad.'
She was definitely one of the people who disliked Frey.
"........"
However, Irina was clearly flirting with Frey, seducing him as a woman.
"...What is this."
Rosewin made a disgusted expression as a result.
"E-even so, Frey would anyway..."
She forced a smile and muttered thus, but.
"...Ah?"
Seeing Frey's expression bearing an unreserved, bright smile, her eyes began to waver.
"......!"
Rosewin, who had been blankly watching them for a while, suddenly got startled and lowered her body.
"...What is it now."
"I-I almost made eye contact with that woman."
"Pardon?"
"Lulu. The one with the evil eye looked this way. It's a top-grade protective magic robe that even she shouldn't be able to see through, but you never know."
After saying that and hiding for a while, Rosewin peeked her head out and began spying again.
".....!"
At some point, seeing the three people in the carriage, her mouth fell open.
"L-Lulu?"
"...Master."
Lulu was on top of Frey, who had a very flustered expression, trying to take off her clothes.
"Like this, I..."
"Where do you think you're going."
"...Eek!"
Lulu, who had been glancing sideways for some reason while trying to say something to Frey, suddenly collapsed with her whole body frozen as Irina made a cold expression and waved her hand.
"Ah."
However, that scene could only appear quite distorted to Rosewin, who was watching the situation through the carriage window from the bushes.
"Ah......"
Thus, Rosewin, who had been making a dazed expression and mumbling in a vacant voice for a moment.
- Swoosh...
Without realizing it, she rose from her spot and began walking slowly.
- Thud, thud.
One step, two steps.
As she approached the carriage, her expression grew increasingly dark.
"...F-Frey?"
After hesitating, she finally knocked on the carriage door.
"........"
And silence began to flow.
- Crash!
Soon after, a noisy sound was heard, and then.
- Creak...
The carriage door slowly opened.
"Hmm...?"
Frey, with flushed cheeks and a bewildered expression, began to stare blankly at her.
"......Hmm."
Rosewin, who briefly glared at Lulu who was straightening her clothes behind him, then looked ambiguously at the ears on Irina's head, who stood beside her with a cold expression.
"...What brings you here?"
At Frey's question, she frowned and spoke.
"The surprise event is going too far, isn't it?"
"...What?"
"Fine, let's say you won."
Leaving behind Frey's dumbfounded expression, Rosewin took out some documents from her embrace.
"I brought what you requested. So take this and now fix your mood..."
She said that with a sigh, but.
"I'm sorry, Rosewin."
When Frey cut off her words with a dark expression, she tilted her head.
"Right now, I don't want to face you."
"Pardon?"
"And that will probably be the case from now on as well."
Rosewin, who showed signs of panic at those words.
"I can no longer..."
Hearing the words that came from Frey's mouth, she began to wear a blank expression.
"...I don't think I can like you anymore."
".......Ah?"
Strong sunlight was shining down on them.