/
The two of them headed towards the garden that was connected to the main hall’s corridor. As there were not many people around, Lelia turned her head to look at Ruth.
Lelia took a deep breath, and said;
“I was insulted by His Majesty… he was saying that I wasn’t a man, but a woman.”
“I… beg your pardon?”
Ruth blinked in shock. He had a blank look on his face as if he couldn’t understand what he was hearing.
How could His Majesty insult him like this?
Lelia continued, “So, I proudly proved myself to be a man in front of His Majesty, and he apologised. He agreed to grant me one wish as an apology for the insult.”
“……”
“I brought up Sir Ruth’s story.”
“……!”
“I told him what a sincere and good man you are. I recommended you as a potential candidate for Princess Julianna fiancé. It was my request to make an official meeting happen for the two of you.”
“Sir Raymond!”
Ruth blinked in disbelief, then wiped tears from his face.
As expected.
Ruth began to look at Lelia with eyes that seemed to say there was no greater benefactor in the world.
[This annoying b******.]
Lelia internally criticized Ruth’s earlier attitude, and she prayed that Ruth would confess to Julianna as soon as possible. With an unsettled heart, she looked at the quest window stuck in the corner of her field of vision.
Sub Quest~
∙ Helping a troubled young man confess his love
It said that the quest had not been completed yet, and Lelia resented the gray glowing bubble.
***
During this time, Kalix returned to the vicinity of his residence and entered his room as if he had lost his soul.
He found Romeo waiting in his room when he returned.
“Where have you been?” Romeo asked grimly.
As soon as Kalix found Romeo, he went straight to him and browbeat him.
“Hey!! Where did I go? Now that I am back… do you know what I just saw?!”
“What is it?”
Romeo had a sour look on his face.
“I…”
Kalix wanted to calm down first, so he sat down in front of Romeo and gulped down the cup of water Romeo was drinking.
“Ah! It’s hot!!”
“What are you doing?”
As Romeo stared at his absurd behaviour, Kalix struggled to cool down his burnt tongue.
After waiting for a while, Kalix took a deep breath and spoke again.
“Lelia… that guy…”
“What?”
Romeo was still suspicious of Lelia.
Romeo was puzzled by the fussy Kalix bringing up a story about Lelia..
In a grave tone, Kalix said, “She’s… a man…”
“……”
‘What happened to your head after not seeing you for a day?’
Romeo frowned as he looked at Kalix like a crazy person.
“She’s a man? Say something that makes sense.”
Romeo was dumbfounded.
‘Lelia… how well did she play the role of a womanizer that it confused Kalix this much?’
‘Maybe she used a really strange drug?”
Romeo already had suspicions that Lelia was an alchemist.
He didn’t yet know whether she was the one who killed Leo or not, but it was clear that she had alchemy powers. She was also very excellent at it too.
So Romeo asked seriously, “Did you take any strange drugs?”
“What are you talking about!”
Kalix winced inwardly, but he pretended not to know anything.
He had some medicine that Lelia gave him.
But he couldn’t tell Romeo about it.
It was a secret from his friends that he suffered from seizures due to his injuries from the battle with the Light Dragon. He never wanted to tell anyone.
Come to think of it, he remembered that he didn’t silence Lelia from telling anyone about it.
Kalix decided he would have to watch Lelia closely when she came back later.
Romeo sighed and asked.
“Then why are you behaving like this all of a sudden? Why would you call a normal girl a man?”
“I saw it.”
“What.”
“… IT.”
“Saw what?”
Kalix was too uncomfortable to describe it with words, so he pointed to his lower body with his index finger.
Specifically, between his legs.
“What are you doing now?”
“Darn it! I’m telling you the truth! It was real! I was surprised too!”
“…”
Romeo’s face hardened.
Kalix must be crazy, it’s clear that his head was injured in the battle with the Light Dragon. As Romeo looked at him as if he was a madman, Kalix was frustrated and began to explain from the beginning.
Cedric and Damian came to visit Lelia and surrounded her. Then they announced that the Emperor wanted to meet her at the main hall, and she seemed frightened.
“I was bored while waiting, so I secretly listened to their conversation through the open archway.”
(Romeo was amazed by Kalix’s boldness at this part.)
Kalix said that the emperor even suspected that Lelia was a woman.
“Then all of a sudden she…! To prove that she’s a man, she started taking off her pants in front of the Emperor!”
“…”
“ I thought she was crazy! I was surprised and tried to stop her, but… well…”
Kalix paused his words and motioned with his hands.
“So it was this much! It was just like me.”
“…”
“Yeah, like this? No… A little smaller than me.”
“No…”
Does it matter now?
Romeo frantically rubbed his hands down his face.
‘I don’t know what the hell is going on here.’
As far as he knew, magic that transforms the body has never been successful.
Besides, Lelia wasn’t a wizard.
Romeo had the heart of a dragon, and he had magical powers far superior to those of ordinary wizards.
So he knew for sure.
Lelia was not a wizard, nor was she an alchemist.
He didn’t feel anything similar to the alchemist’s magic, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t found a way to hide it.
He couldn’t feel any magic from Lelia.
‘I’m going crazy.’
There wasn’t a single trace of anything suspicious.
It was also clear that she had noticed the tracking magic he had cast on her.
He didn’t know how to figure this out. It was a level of magic that even the Imperial Wizards couldn’t figure out.
The reason why he left the palace yesterday was to investigate Lelia.
Perhaps the magic passed down among the alchemists had changed without him realizing it. If an alchemist could completely erase the traces of their magic, their power would be much greater than they are now.
Because it will help them avoid the temple’s inquisitors.
So Romeo suspected that Lelia might be one of them.
But no matter how much he tried, he could not get any information about it.
It wasn’t because the information wasn’t there, but it was like it didn’t exist at all.
He could be sure of that fact since he had even used his magical powers to find out.
‘But what? A man? Does she have a p****?’
Romeo was in awe.
‘What the hell is that girl?’
‘No, should I say boy?’
He wasn’t sure if Lelia was really the culprit that killed Leo, or not.
At first he believed in Lelia, but… he wondered if she was using a strange form of alchemy.
Romeo bit his lip in confusion.
Kalix was still waving my arms around, while talking about shapes and sizes.
A hypothesis suddenly came to mind.
‘Lelia… wasn’t a girl, but a boy in the first place?’
‘If so… .’
Romeo’s eyes narrowed. Soon, one corner of his lips rose slightly.
***
Lelia trudged back to her room. After hearing the whole story, Ruth apologized to her and declared there was no benefactor like her.
Lelia already expected this reaction from him, but was still dumbfounded.
Ruth consoled Lelia by saying that she must have been distressed.
“But how can they suspect such a good person as you of being a strange pervert who hides his gender? I feel wronged for you!”
Lelia, who had suddenly become a “strange pervert who hides their gender “, entered the room with a weary walk.
She wanted to make sure Romeo was back and that Kalix was alright, but she felt weak all over. She fell on the bed and lay down.
By the way, it was fortunate that the drug had properly activated on time…
Everything had almost fallen apart.
In fact, when the emperor doubted her, she thought her heart would plummet to the ground.
She was so nervous and anxious.
She missed her family at the Superion estate.
Of course, it’s nice to be with her friends, but…
They didn’t know who she was.
Perhaps that’s why it felt as if there was a thick wall between them.
Lelia fell asleep as she obsessively recounted her future plans in her head.
She couldn’t even imagine that her friends were talking about her.
***
When Romeo came up with one hypothesis, the same was true with Kalix. Of course, it was a little different from what Romeo thought.
“Come to think of it, I’ve heard of it when I was in the mercenaries. There are people who suddenly change their genders, like women becoming men because of their healthy lifestyle.”
“Really…?”
“Yeah! Isn’t that what happened to him? He used to be a woman, but now he’s a man. All out of the blue!”
“…”
Then Kalix suddenly snapped his fingers and said out loud,
“That’s it!! That’s why he ran away!”
[Editor: You are so far off base Kalix… (ノ_<。)]
“…….”
“If the emperor found out, he would have treated him strangely, so he ran away! We had heard that he ran away when he was a kid. That it was all of a sudden!”
“Well, that’s possible.”
Romeo didn’t think so, but he gave him a half-hearted answer.
Kalix was just so wild and simple that it would have been better to let him have his own theories.
Also, the hypothesis that Romeo thought of was not certain yet, so it was dangerous to say it out loud.
However, Kalix became more entrenched when Romeo sympathized with him.
“Poor boy. Then, because of this, isn’t it right to see him as a man? But I made him say ‘Brother’… How upset would you be?”
[Editor: In Korea, girls and boys call their ‘brothers’ differently. Girls say Oppa and boys say Hyung. Kalix is probably thinking that Lelia’s pride was hurt by saying Oppa as a ‘man’]
“…”
“He’s a deep guy. You can tell by the size down there. Aren’t I profound too?”
Kalix’s words went in one ear and out the other, while Romeo fell into his own thoughts.
“Poor boy. I’ve made up my mind, I’m going to think of him as my little brother in the future. Well, he’s Leo’s brother anyway, so he’s our brother too. Isn’t he?”
“ Yes… do whatever you want.”
“That child, how did you grow up so well with such a wounded heart? I admire such a beautiful man.”
“You are…really amazing…”
“What?”
“No, I like it because it’s simple.”
Kalix grinned as if nothing had happened.
Romeo clicked his tongue quietly when he saw Kalix like that.
***
Meanwhile, at the border of the Auraria Empire.
A man wearing a black robe and riding a white horse crossed the border.
The soldiers who let him through muttered with excitement.
They were excited because they saw a hero who played an active part in the battle against the Dragon.
A beautiful-looking man named Griffith.
He crossed the border and quickly headed for the capital of the Auraria Empire.