Chapter 27
“Huh?”
I tilted my head, scratched my ear, and asked again.
“What did you say?”
“I said I’m the Chancellor of the Quizen Empire. Haha. Saying it like this to you, Cillia… it’s a little embarrassing.”
The Chancellor of the Empire…?
That chancellor?
The highest position among imperial officials?
Suddenly, I remembered drinking juice with Scarlet at a café in the capital.
“It was a very exciting negotiation scene. It reminded me of the fierce debate two years ago between the Empire’s chancellor and the Adrin Kingdom’s minister over the Tishen River.”
Ah.
Uh.
I narrowed my eyes and slowly looked Cedric up and down.
With his cloud-like pink hair and round glasses, Cedric looked gentle and harmless.
But looking closer, he was actually a little tall… And the eyes behind those round glasses were surprisingly sharp.
“So you were the one who argued with the Adrin Kingdom’s minister two years ago?”
“Ah, that? Yeah. I was.”
Huh. That sounded familiar.
I desperately searched my memory of the original novel.
The Quizen Empire’s chancellor.
The Tishen River.
Pink hair.
Round glasses.
And finally, it clicked.
“…That once-in-a-generation genius or something?”
“Ah—don’t call me that, Cillia. You were always better than me. I don’t want to hear that nickname from you.”
Cedric scratched his head shyly.
I blinked in shock.
I finally realized exactly who the man in front of me was.
If Dazhar, the representative of the Emperor’s faction, was the right hand handling military power—
Then this man was the left hand, the core of imperial politics.
The scholar Aksion was deeply admired before he went mad.
The man who, together with Scarlet—this world’s version of King Sejong—led the Quizen Empire toward a bright future.
‘Marquis Seidrig Eihartz.’
So “Cedric” was just his nickname?
No—more importantly.
My childhood friend was that incredible person?
While I stood there stunned, he laughed lightly.
“Well, I’m kind of on a break right now. Like a sabbatical. I dumped most of the work on my aides and came here.”
Then he added,
“I didn’t expect to meet you here, though.”
‘What kind of place is this?
Both the Emperor’s right hand and left hand are gathered here?’
A strange sense of dread crawled up the back of my neck.
And then came a wave of self-awareness.
Cillia… while your friend climbed to the top of the Empire, you were farming.
“Ahem. Anyway,” Cedric said seriously, pulling me out of my thoughts,
“I think we should talk about Crack Day.”
“On that day, it would be best if you left this place for a while.”
* * *
Crack Day was the day when the barrier surrounding the continent weakened.
When that happened, demonic energy seeped through the gaps, and monsters escaped through places called Cracks.
That was why, on Crack Day, the Transcendents each guarded their assigned Crack—eliminating monsters and preventing the fissures from widening further.
Ordinary people didn’t know about this day because powerful barriers were placed around the Cracks in advance.
If civilians knew monsters poured out of the Demon Realm every year, fear and panic would surely consume them.
“Ah yes, that’s right. Crack Day is coming soon.”
Elstern said as he jingled his golden bell.
Whenever he came to teach Vanilla, he always stopped by to see Aksion.
Hey, hey.
No matter how cute Aksion is, isn’t it rude to never even look at the person you’re talking to?
I turned Aksion around so he was facing me instead.
“Ah!”
Ignoring Elstern’s reaction, I rubbed my face against Aksion’s soft cheek.
Jealousy flickered across Elstern’s face.
Pretending not to notice, I spoke.
“So you know about Crack Day too, Elstern.”
“Ahem. Of course. I am a mage of the Magic Tower, after all.”
More like the Tower Master, but I ignored his awkward smile and kissed Aksion’s little nose.
“Kyah!”
Aksion giggled, his eyes curving beautifully.
My baby—so cute.
Ignoring Elstern’s growing envy, I asked,
“Crack Day is dangerous, right?”
“Hm.”
Elstern rolled his eyes thoughtfully.
What?
Is that even a question?
Monsters appear—of course it’s dangerous!
I glared at him slightly, but he still looked conflicted.
“Why? Isn’t it obviously dangerous?”
“Well… yes, but…”
He twirled his hair around his finger, then clasped his hands and leaned back on the sofa.
When he did that hair-twirling thing, he looked a bit silly—but like this, he actually looked like the Tower Master.
“Did you know that the Siastor estate has never had guests?”
“Hm…”
That didn’t sound like casual trivia.
“No. I didn’t know.”
Elstern continued eagerly.
“Not just the Siastor family—other Transcendent families also don’t allow people into their estates. Nobles think it’s arrogance, but the real reason is the nature of these estates.”
The nature of the estate.
Because this estate itself… was a Crack.
‘So Elstern knows too.’
Earlier, Cedric had said:
‘I told you before—this is that Siastor estate.
This mansion—no, this castle itself—is a Crack.’
‘What?’
‘This place itself is a crack. So on Crack Day, monsters appear all throughout the castle.’
What?!
This place was that dangerous?
That wasn’t in the original novel!
I thought there was a Crack somewhere nearby—not that the estate itself was one.
“But… I’m here right now.”
“Yes. That’s exactly my point.”
What did that mean?
I stared at him blankly.
Aksion puffed his cheeks too, either copying me or sharing my confusion.
Cute.
Elstern noticed and clutched his forehead, hearts filling his eyes.
“Haa… What I mean is, the Duke must have had his reasons for bringing you into a Crack.”
“Hmmm.”
“Wouldn’t it be best to talk directly with the Duke?”
That made sense.
Agreeing, I asked another question.
“By the way, Elstern… Do you know someone called Ruben?”
“What?”
Pfft!
Elstern spat out the tea he’d just sipped while gazing lovingly at Aksion.
His pants was soaked.
He clearly knew.
As expected of the Tower Master.
Handing him some tissues, I asked again.
“You know what Ruben is, right? What is it?”
“W-where did you hear that?”
“I just happened to see a book in the estate library.”
“…Hm.”
Sweat beaded on Elstern’s forehead.
“Well… that’s an area even more classified than Crack Day…”
So even more secret—something civilians definitely weren’t supposed to know.
After pressing him a few more times and getting nothing but spilled tea, I gave up.
‘Dazhar won’t tell me. Elstern won’t either.’
Since Crack Day was the urgent issue, I entrusted Aksion to Karl and went to see Dazhar.
* * *
“… What did you just say?”
Dazhar’s expression was absolutely rotten.
It felt like he could kill someone with his eyes.
Still, thanks to his good looks, he didn’t look ugly.
As usual, he was sitting on the window ledge, holding a long smoking pipe.
There were no attendants in his office.
He extinguished the pipe and gestured for me to sit on the sofa.
“So, you’re saying you’ll leave for about a week.”
Leaning back gracefully, he asked,
“Why? Why bother?”
“Why bother? Because a dangerous day is coming, obviously.”
“Hm. I was going to explain, but it looks like you heard it from Marquis Seidrig first.”
Since ordinary people didn’t know about Crack Day, he assumed Cedric told me.
Given how he’d once treated me like a scammer for mentioning the Eastern Continent, explaining further would only cause trouble.
And Cedric had told me, so I nodded.
‘That day is dangerous, so you should leave the estate, Cillia.’
In my mind, Cedric had gone from
“pitiful childhood friend who used to get bullied”
to
“the Chancellor of an empire.”
Strangely, it made me trust him more.
When I stayed silent, Dazhar spoke first.
“Don’t worry. I’ll place a separate barrier around the annex where you’re staying.”
“…?”
“There will be absolutely no harm.”
“……”
“You don’t trust me?”
“No.”
My immediate answer made Dazhar frown.
“Why not?”
“Because Aksion has a Dragon Heart. A demon dragon’s Dragon Heart is extremely attractive to monsters, isn’t it? What if they’re drawn to it? What if even your barrier isn’t enough?”
In the original novel, monsters often targeted him because of that Dragon Heart.
Dazhar snorted arrogantly and crossed his arms.
“What do you take me for?”
“……”
Suddenly, Vanilla’s whisper flashed through my mind.
‘He’s a bastard.’
Seeing me stay silent, Dazhar narrowed his eyes.
“You.”
“Yes?”
“You just insulted me in your head, didn’t you?”
“No?”
My confident answer only made his eyes narrow further.
