Episode 49
Finally, the Foundation Day was just a week away.
“Cough! Cough!”
Phoebe entered the room, coughing.
I slightly furrowed my brow and asked.
“Are you okay, Phoebe?”
“Ahem…!”
Phoebe cleared her throat noisily, then thumped her chest.
“Lately, I’ve been visiting Lady Sellar frequently under various pretexts.”
I listened intently to Phoebe’s words.
“And?”
“Well, now I have to pretend to be infected, just as the attending physician said.”
I chuckled, but Phoebe put on a serious face.
“It just so happens the Foundation Day is near, so many ladies have come, right? I forced out coughs that weren’t even there so much while I was there that… Cough!”
I laughed and handed Phoebe a cup of tea.
“So now your throat really hurts?”
“A little.”
Phoebe grinned mischievously, then quickly adopted a conspiratorial expression.
“They were completely fooled! They asked if I’d caught something from nursing Your Highness, and as soon as someone asked if it was an epidemic, they all slowly started backing away!”
“Oh dear, hasn’t this become too troublesome for you?”
I was worried Phoebe’s path to marriage might be blocked, but the spirited maid was unfazed.
“Troublesome? Not at all! It’s not like I’m really sick!”
Then she added energetically.
“Later, when the situation improves and you give birth to the baby amid blessings, please spread the truth far and wide that this Phoebe Nilo is tougher than a rock. Understood?”
“Of course.”
Then, Phoebe erased her smile and slightly lowered her voice.
“But I also heard a strange story.”
“What is it?”
“An old lady asked if we’d started seeking a marriage partner for Your Highness.”
I frowned. Phoebe continued, as if to reassure me.
“So I answered like this: ‘Oh my, Madam! You sure make jokes to someone who’s been nursing the patient!'”
Was the Empress up to some scheme?
‘But I didn’t think they’d try to marry me off before Cyril, given the usual order.’
As I worried inwardly, Phoebe suddenly put her palms together and acted cute.
“Then, may this loyal maid of Your Highness now have the honor of hearing the baby’s heartbeat?”
“Again?”
“What do you mean ‘again’!”
She deftly found and grabbed Ren’s magical tool.
“I don’t wish for anything else. I just want a healthy, pink-haired baby.”
Then she came closer to me, who was giggling, and placed the cup-shaped tool on my belly.
“I’m serious, Your Highness. If, heaven forbid, a red-haired baby is born, just think how much more the Empress would torment you? The baby will take the father’s surname, so there’s no need to inherit red hair…”
—Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump-thump…
Thanks to the excellent performance of the magical tool, I could hear the baby’s heartbeat too, right by my ear.
Phoebe listened with a satisfied expression, then continued.
“See, nothing to worry about! His Excellency the Archduke, His Highness the Crown Prince, or at the very least, the son of the Empire’s Magic Tower Master!”
“It could be a daughter.”
“Whether son or daughter, I doubt those gentlemen would raise them with discrimination? You can tell the whole from a part, just look at how well they treat you.”
Having said that much, Phoebe narrowed her eyes slyly.
“So, when are you going to tell us which of the three is the father?”
Well… after it’s born, we’ll see who it looks like…
I couldn’t bring myself to say that and hedged.
“When the time comes… I’ll let you know.”
Phoebe said positively.
“Thinking of the baby, Babenberg is best, but I also like the idea of living in Flavi with its nice weather.”
“Isn’t it a bit much to say that while listening to the heartbeat with the tool Ren gave you?”
As soon as I asked, Phoebe clapped her hands.
“So it is Lord Ren? Or don’t tell me…”
Then her eyes grew wide, and she said.
“Don’t tell me… you don’t know who the baby’s father is either? Ah, no way… That can’t be, right?”
Ha ha ha ha ha.
“Good heavens! What do you take me for, Phoebe…?”
You really have a sharp eye.
I was spooked by the maid’s perceptiveness but had to keep forcing a laugh for quite a while.
Now, the diary had become the greatest joy of my day.
On days when I touched the pattern and no new pages were revealed, it was utterly disappointing.
On the night before the Foundation Day, I read the newly appeared diary and chuckled.
“Seeing how he got held back for two years with that brain of his, it seems the Tower Master had no intention of attending the academy at all.”
Ernst definitely said that.
It seems that while taking the same classes as me, he somehow developed a desire to graduate.
Otherwise, how could he sit in the seat next to me every single day without being late once?
Oh, he wasn’t late?
I smiled, remembering Len’s grumpiness when woken in the morning.
Of course, even if he wasn’t late, his class attitude was poor.
But why did he, who never even held a pen, sharply catch the mistakes in my equations and point them out every time?
Then today, he asked me again like this:
“You really don’t know any mages?”
Even though I clearly answered last time I didn’t know any!
In the end, I had to give some kind of answer.
“I do know one, that person.”
The Tower Master retorted, sounding exasperated.
“That person? Is that ‘knowing’ them?”
Did Ren want her to remember his younger self?
The first meeting with Len that wasn’t in Louise’s memories?
I read the diary with great interest.
Then he asked again.
“You’re a royal, aren’t you? You must have seen mages in the imperial family.”
It was truly astounding.
Was he using informal speech so boldly because he knew I was royalty?
While he held me back, we were the only two left in the classroom.
“I did… but it’s as if they’re not here now.”
When I reluctantly answered, he asked again.
“Why?”
Around that point, I finally got angry.
“Why should I tell you?”
Fortunately, the Tower Master didn’t stop me as I noisily gathered my books and left.
Does he perhaps know about my acquaintance with Lord Moghold?
Is he sitting next to me to pry information about Lord Moghold?
Moghold!
‘Finally, Moghold’s name appears…!’
My palms were sweaty with tension.
The Louise in the diary continued her worries.
Is he carrying out some order from His Majesty the Emperor without my knowledge?
I’ve only received help from Lord Moghold for half my life; I’m afraid I might end up causing him harm.
So, Moghold went into hiding after passing the Tower Master position to Ren, and Louise seemed to be in contact with him.
‘Then they were much closer than I expected?’
The fact that not a single letter under Moghold’s name remained might be because Louise deliberately destroyed them to prevent him from being tracked.
‘Please let this continue in the next diary.’
No matter how much she wanted to hide things about Moghold, she could still write about them in the diary!
Lying in bed, I anxiously and earnestly wished for it.
“…Thus, I, Charles, in recognition of the achievements of the Second Prince Rurik, who has elevated the prestige of Brentanni, bestow upon him the title of Duke of Ostia, along with Signac.”
At the title bestowal ceremony held at the end of the Foundation Day commemoration, Rurik knelt on one knee before the Emperor with a stiff face.
“One heart, one sun, one Empire.”
The auditory hallucinations and headaches left by that damned book were still tormenting him.
‘Not that I would have been very happy about it anyway.’
There were many reasons he couldn’t be happy.
First, because the Emperor’s intention was too easily read, giving him Signac, the territory closest to Babenberg.
Second, because the intention to use this reward as a pretext to urge him into the next war was utterly transparent.
Sure enough, the Emperor spoke in a booming voice.
“Also, to commemorate his past military exploits, we specially crafted and bestow upon him a new demonic sword.”
So that’s why the Tower Master, who had surprisingly attended the official event and stood guard in the front row, stepped forward and presented a sword wrapped in velvet.
“The Tower Master worked hard on it. It is the demonic sword ‘Yusef’.”
Before everyone’s eyes, a sword with a blue light shimmering magically was revealed.
“Wow…!”
Exclamations of admiration poured from the nobles attending the ceremony.
The demonic sword ‘Belich’ had a relatively plain scabbard compared to its blade, so when he first received it, he could carry it quietly without necessarily boasting about it externally.
But the new sword seemed determined to mesmerize people, with both its hilt and scabbard gleaming brilliantly.
It might be fine for intimidating the enemy on the battlefield, but it was clearly cumbersome otherwise.
‘An enormous amount of magic stone must have gone into it.’
But Rurik felt no joy at all.
“I pledge eternal loyalty under the skies of Brentanni.”
Just as he reluctantly stretched out both hands to receive the new sword…
An immense pain pierced through his skull and shot down his spine.
“Hghk.”
The Tower Master must have heard him bow his head and groan, but he turned away, pretending not to hear.
Rurik did not remember how the Foundation Day ceremony ended.
Because even after immediately setting down the new sword after receiving it, the terrible headache did not release him for the entire day.
