/
“I’m sure he’ll return it after examining it.”
Mumbling diffidently, I let out a sigh.
The double pane window, the magic barrier, and the knights outside the door were useless.
“How on earth did he enter . . .”
He was uselessly talented.
Moreover, I couldn’t watch the dream till the end, so I felt restless.
I was sure what Trevor was about to say at the end looked important.
The sudden mention of ‘the Duke’ related to his abbey trip was also one of the reasons my head turned complicated.
Which of the three Dukes did he mean?
Hastings? Bolton? Or maybe Miller?
“Hm.”
Then, I heard footsteps that shattered my thought.
The impatient sound running across the hallway soon got closer.
I had prepared for it, but once I saw the desperate face opening the door, the apologetic feeling surged up.
“Adel disappeared.”
I saw the sweat decorating Jeremy’s forehead.
It seemed as though he checked on the pot’s existence as soon as he woke up.
It’s fine. He took it while saying he’ll only examine it.
As far as I know, Adel had no particular danger except for giving me strange dreams.
Even if he tried to examine it, he wouldn’t find anything unusual.
“There’s a little problem with Adel, so I entrusted her to Zen.”
Jeremy turned stiff in an instant.
He, who sat next to me with a grave expression, continuously poured out questions.
“Is she in bad shape? Or is there any other problem with her? Is her slow growth also one of her problems?”
“It’s okay. He took her to find out the problem.”
“This is the first time I know that person has deep knowledge about plants. Well, you told me before, Marianne. That the first present you received was a flower.”
Zen certainly had no connection with plants.
The present he gave me back then was in fact in a terrible shape, hence it couldn’t last for days and ended up withering.
Still, Adel is out of the ordinary.
Wouldn’t she survive? Wouldn’t she try her best to survive and return to Jeremy’s side?
I decided to think over Adel’s life force.
I called Zen through the crystal ball just in case, but seeing how he didn’t answer, there must be something with her.
These days, there were too many things that I couldn’t talk about for me to complain about the increasing number of things he didn’t tell me.
“Marianne?”
“Ah, sorry. Anyway, I’ll try my best to give you Adel back without a scratch.”
If that was impossible, I would ask Bertin to shower her with divine power, or try to buy a fake.
I felt regret as I saw Jeremy, who was down, but that wasn’t my intention.
Then, when I was about to have breakfast. Jeremy’s voice, which sounded like he was surprised, made me flinch.
“You’ve woken early, Lady.”
Mom, who walked down the stairs gently and sat next to me, nodded and said,
“I don’t know who it was, but someone ran through the hallway in the morning. It was noisy so I ended up waking up.”
“. . .”
“While I’m awake, I’m thinking of having breakfast then sleeping again. Last night, I skipped dinner because I was lazy, so I’m feeling empty inside.”
Jeremy, the culprit who woke her up, went quiet.
Meanwhile, as if it wasn’t a lie that she was hungry, her spoon began to move busily as soon as the plate was placed before her.
“Greta, book me an appointment in Madam Rienne’s shop this afternoon. Tell her I need to do my hair to suit my dress before night.”
“Yes, my Lady.”
Listening to her, I asked her.
“Are you going somewhere?”
“I am. I got an invitation to a party.”
“What kind of party?”
“A simple ball. You usually have no interest in this, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just think you’re busy.”
She laughed as if she was dumbfounded.
“You’re the one who’s busy. I don’t think there’s any changes with me?”
That was the truth.
It was me whose daily life was reversed.
Mom went out and meet people as usual.
If there was another thing that changed was that I began to get interested in her business.
It’s still a dream so far.
It was a very suspicious and strange dream, but it was still a dream so far.
However, Mom’s face kept overlapping with the cold appearance in my dream.
Mom’s face as she snapped at those who nonchalantly wanted to eliminate Zen, and as she chased after Mikel Jayhorn.
The barrier between the dream and reality was fading.
* * *
I, who took great courage to bring Mikel’s book to the academy, visited Professor Grein once again.
He welcomed me with a distressed expression.
“You are stubborn.”
“Here is the book.”
He took the founding myth book along with heaving a sigh.
“What is it that you want to know?”
“The Saintess mentioned there, she’s different from the one who stays in the holy city now right?”
He, who looked down at the old illustration, nodded.
Then, he added as though giving me a warning.
“This is why I told you this is dangerous. This book doesn’t simply distort the founding history of this empire, but also appoint a figure of heresy as the Saintess. This is a double problem. Neither side would forgive this.”
She borrowed God’s voice and power, then used it.
With that power, she helped the Emperor and the three families to subdue God.
Those two arguments alone have already made the most powerful forces turn their backs.
Once again, I realized the reason he was chased.