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Chapter 5
“Phew…”
Another deep sigh escaped her mouth.
Arnoah raised one hand and pressed her forehead with her finger.
‘I’m really screwed now.’
“Ha… What should I do?”
There was surprisingly only one thought in her head that complicated it all.
She has to stop Vainas from ascending to the Emperor’s throne somehow.
It would be a shame to spend a lifetime in front of everyone under the name of Empress Vainas.
With Bona and Madam, Larisa took not only the jewels that Empress Anastasia left for her but everything else in her dowry.
‘I might be able to do it.’
Of course, Vainas would not last long as an emperor.
There was no reason why the forces that assassinated Luciano and Arien would not assassinate him.
Then Arnoah would die with him.
In her periphery, she could feel the gaze of the one that she had forgotten was present.
“Did you get along with your brothers?”
A pair of silver-gray eyes were staring at her in curiosity.
“…”
“You look more angry than sad.”
Arnoah raised her eyebrows.
Considering that he was a wizard, he seemed to have good intuition.
Their race, which enjoys all kinds of things that others can’t do with natural magic, lacked common sense.
They are not good at reading other people’s facial expressions or figuring out their emotions.
“It’s just a lot of thought to take in.”
Arnoah answered calmly and turned back her gaze to the letter.
Just three more lines were written.
[I sent you a gift. I believe you will use it well. I wish you luck with all my heart. Anakin is waiting for you.]
“Is that all?”
Arnoah murmured as she closed her eyes gently.
After attending the Academy of Magic, he began to speak more and more like a riddler. Women seem to like it.
He seemed to feel that her beauty was not enough. She doesn’t know if it was because of that, but there were endless women around Anakin.
“Where is it?”
Arnoah still held out her hand with her eyes closed.
“…”
There was no answer.
When she opened her eyes again, the statue-like wizard was just staring at her.
“What?”
“Gift.”
“Should I have bought you a present?”
He asked unexpectedly and continued.
“A consolation gift, something like that? Brothers’ dead bodies?”
“No, it’s not that…”
“Isn’t it none of my business?”
Arnoah stopped talking and touched her forehead again.
The man in front of her looked like he knew nothing. He didn’t seem to have brought any presents.
“…are you sure you don’t have one?”
“Uh. There isn’t anything.”
He shook his head with a shrug.
He was too confident for someone who should be taking the gift out.
Arnoah frowned as she alternated her gaze between the letter and the wizard.
Anakin wasn’t the one to put useless words in a five-line letter.
He was not the kind of person to say that there was a present when it was missing.
“How did you get here?”
She suddenly asked while her head was aching.
No matter how high Anakin’s position is, does it make sense to send a high-end wizard just to deliver a letter?
He must have paid a humongous price.
“… A good man is someone who does a favor for a friend, isn’t he?”
The wizard’s face, which had been relaxed since the first time she saw him, had finally hardened.
Like trying to hide something he didn’t want to get caught into.
“Good man?”
Arnoah asked again.
What kind of nonsensical thought was that?
‘I’ve never heard of him having a good friend in the Magic Academy.’
If a non-magician wanted something from a wizard, he must pay for it or…
“There is a situation. That’s what I know. Hmmm… You made a bet.”
Arnoah murmured blankly.
The wizard trembled at her words.
“That’s right.”
Arnoah looked straight at him and declared.
It felt like a ray of light shone on my cloudy head.
A wizard’s bet. When someone calls the wizard’s full name and asks for a bet, the person called must accept it.
It’s a game for wizards and a kind of rule made by God who first scattered mana in the world. But it is rare. The full name of a wizard is long, complicated, secretive, and difficult to identify not only for the general public but also for their fellow wizards.
In addition, most wizards who have been betting through conditions have lost their bets.
As a result, they would die or something precious would be taken away, and Anakin was not that kind of a person.
“What bet did you make?” she asked, forgetting her discomfort.
If it was a battle between a high-end wizard and Anakin, they were clearly up for a fierce and flamboyant battle of immensely dangerous magic and expensive artifacts…
“Umok.”
“Huh?”
“It looked easy, but I didn’t win any of the three games. It’s hard to connect five stones.”
It’s a bet then after all. He had to put a good thing to play a wizard.
The wizard pointed at his head as if his defeat was truly shameful.
It was a useless shame.
Arnoah thought to herself that there were few people in the world who could beat Anakin in mind games.
Tap! Tap!
‘Anakin’s got a lot of things, but why did he have to bet?’
Arnoah was lost in thought again.
“W-why?”
The wizard grinned and spoke vaguely.
Her friend was known for sweeping artifacts from all over the market.
He also had a lot of money because he carried out business under countless pseudonyms.
There was only one person in the Academy who had to be dragged into a bet, but not hire or make a deal.
“You…”
Arnoah, look straight at the wizard.
She then murmured.
“You’re the Chancellor.”
‘The crazy ones, the dirty ones, the one who wanted to be a wizard’s owner, the one who wanted to kill people to make soul stones, the lonely ones, the good ones…’
If she remembered correctly, all of these descriptions were leading to one person.
He has such strong mana that it was meaningless to trade in expensive artifacts.
His sharp eyes grew bigger.
“He said you were smart. You really are.”
He seemed surprised at the moment, but quickly recovered his composure and smiled.
“Right. Isn’t it obvious?”
He said so.
“Now that the Emperor is dead, I have to be a messenger.”
Arnoah understood what he meant right away.
The Emperor’s replacement was the most important thing that could happen in the Empire, although he was feeling embarrassed and shy about it.
With the decision of the Emperor who established the Empire a long time ago, it was the role of a wizard to announce that there was a significant change in the status of the royal family.
The Chancellor had the duty to announce the replacement of the Emperor.
In exchange for doing the work faithfully, the wizards were able to have their own territories in the empire.
“So to speak, I stopped by on my way. Anakin asked me to do this.”
He said as he slowly stretched his legs and stood up.
“I’d like you to tell me where the next Emperor, Vainas, is. I have to pay rent for the land.”
Using wizards as messengers was a system to prevent treason.
She doesn’t know about other nobles, but wizards were not greedy for the throne.
They want the kind of master that allowed wizards to live independently on their lands, instead of taxes.
He prompted her again.
“Hey?”
“….Anakin told you to meet me before Vainas, right?”
Arnoah asked him.
Now that the wizard was identified, she recalled what was written on the letter.
‘I sent you a present. I believe you will use it well.
I wish you luck with all my heart.’
“Yes.”
The wizard nodded as Arnoah laughed in vain.
Now she understood the contents of the letter, and what she had to do.
Arnoah swallowed once as she remembered.
‘Don’t be so mean. No, don’t even look at the throne. Remember today when you think like that. Remember yourself that has no power, you’ll fall when I let go of your arm.’
Luciano’s eyes, which had been shining brightly, flashed through her head for a moment.
‘But what are you going to do now?’
Dead men tell no tales. Neither this continent, the Empire, nor the Imperial palace belonged to him anymore.
“….You.”
Arnoah opened her mouth again.
She tried to avoid even thinking about it in her head, but when she tried to speak out, her body trembled in tension.
“You won’t listen if I ask you to do something, right?”
When she suddenly asked this, the wizard started to laugh.
“Isn’t that obvious? If it was so easy to command a wizard, we would have been slaves to the royal family.”
“Then we’ll bet.”
Arnoah, who was sitting on the floor, said while standing up.
“What? Bet?”
He asked back as if he were dumbfounded.
“Do you think it is easy?”
His face, now nearer to me, looked more beautiful in the moonlight.
His arrogant confidence made him look more than perfect.
She then uttered the words with her own mouth.
“Then you know you have to name the Wizard, or his…”
“Velcarianas Dian Asgar Rupellesion Ferhen Nerdi.”
His confident face blanked out like a cat deprived of snacks in front of its own eyes.
“…What?”
“That’s right, Velcarianas Dian Asgar Rupellesion Ferhen Nerdi.”
“How the hell did you…”
“What do you mean, how? You don’t know who my friend is?”
She shrugged it off blatantly.
So he thought that Anakin would go through all sorts of ancient books, bribe a close associate, and keep the secret to himself?
Anakin was not a man full of loyalty to just anyone.
He wasn’t afraid of wizards either.
“You are also called ‘Bell’ for short.”
Arnoah then drove the final nail on the coffin on the bewildered wizard.