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And later that afternoon…
Suddenly, Ruth came to Lelia’s place.
Lelia looked up at him, bewildered, as he had come to her door. Ruth, fidgeting, spoke his words carefully, “I’m sorry, Sir Raymond. I have something to say. Can I come in and talk?”
“Oh…”
Lelia pondered for a moment, then shook her head.
“I’m sorry, but inside is messy. Is it urgent?”
“… Then I will tell you here.”
“…”
“I’m sorry Sir Raymond, could you please return the relic I gave you?”
“What?”
Lelia frowned.
[He’s coming for it.]
She still hoped he wouldn’t…
“Actually, it was originally meant to be given to Princess Julianna… I told her about the relic, and she said that she wanted it. Can you return it to me? Instead, I will give you another present.”
“… Please wait a minute.”
Lelia closed the door, leaning her back against her door, and sighing heavily.
[I knew it.]
She acted like she didn’t mind at all, but Lelia inwardly blamed Ruth and headed for the inner chamber.
She pulled out a replica that she had made as an item just in case from the ‘alchemy lottery’.
It looked exactly the same on the outside, but the truth is, the original piece was merged with the other half of the relic and was in Lelia’s bag.
Lelia opened the door again holding the fake relic.
Since the original owner was Ruth, she was conscience-stricken to return the fake, but she couldn’t help it. If she could collect 100 billion shillings and break the magic spell, she thought of giving it back afterward.
[I don’t know when that will be…]
“Here it is.”
“I am so sorry, Sir Raymond.”
Ruth didn’t look directly into her eyes, as if he had no face. Lelia said that it was fine and was tired, so she sent him back.
“Thank you.”
With a happy expression on his face, Ruth quickly walked away.
Lelia sighed deeply and looked at the end of the hallway where he had disappeared.
Then, a low voice came from behind her.
“The one you gave him is fake, right?”
Lelia looked back, startled.
She certainly couldn’t move a muscle.
Looking behind her, she saw that Oscar was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed as he grinned. Lelia stared at him silently, then sneaked in and tried to close the door. But just before the door closed, his toes dug into the gap.
“You’re ignoring me.”
“……”
“You look like you’re trying to hurt me, aren’t you?”
Oscar smiled absurdly, then pushed Lelia away and quickly entered her room.
Thud
At the sound of the door locking, Lelia stepped back.
[Why is he like this…?]
Then, suddenly, something came to mind from last night.
Although she thought that Oscar had noticed who she was, Oscar still kissed her.
At the same time, she remembered what Oscar said earlier.
“I think it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman.”
Goosebumps appeared on her forearm.
Whether it was good or bad, Oscar didn’t seem to have noticed that she was a woman. But he was definitely aware of the fact that she is Leo. She couldn’t even guess how he noticed it.
Oscar smiled and rubbed his eyebrow bones at her nervousness.
“I want to twist your neck in anger, but at the same time I’m so happy that I want to kiss the top of your feet.”
“… Oscar.”
“… I don’t know how long you’re going to pretend you don’t know, but it doesn’t matter to me.” Lelia looked up at him with her anxious eyes.
Fortunately, he didn’t come any closer. However, his eyes were firmly attached to her, as if he was devouring her thoroughly.
“If you’re alive, I would do everything I want to do. I won’t ask for your consent.”
“…”
As Oscar said so, he took a step closer.
Lelia was startled without realizing it, and covered her mouth with her hands. At that movement, Oscar smirked. Instead of coming closer, he looked at Lelia up and down. It was an intense gaze.
“As I said before, I don’t care if you are a man.”
“…”
Taking another step closer, he leaned over and put his face near Lelia’s ear.
Lelia shrugged her shoulders in surprise, continuing to cover only her mouth.
A low voice crept into her ear.
“Like I survived in hell, you too must go through hell.”
“…”
“Don’t worry too much. I will be with you for the rest of your life.”
He whispered behind her back very softly. Her heart thumped to the floor.
After saying those words, Oscar turned around and left.
Lelia was left alone, and sat down as her legs became weak.
Tears welled up.
It was hard.
She couldn’t be honest with him.
This situation was very hard.
She felt like a criminal who threw Oscar into hell.
When staying at the temple, Oscar always relied on her as a friend. He was small and fragile, and Lelia always supported him.
He whispered a sweet promise as if he would keep it for the rest of his life.
So she could understand Oscar.
Had it been the other way around, Lelia would have lived in hell as well.
She would have lived her whole life longing for the dead Oscar.
But what if she found out that him being dead was all a lie, and that he was actually alive?
He must have felt a great sense of betrayal.
He should have at least told me, he should have at least told me… resentment must have flooded him with that thought.
All of her precious memories and friendship must have been regarded as an illusion of his own, and he must have been full of shock that he had been betrayed.
She felt a surge of guilt that she had hurt her friends all over again.
It was considered impossible to deceive them again like this now.
Lelia was unable to get out of her vortex of emotions for a long time.
***
Late that afternoon…
Lelia quickly subduded her emotions.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t afford to be sad for a long time.
[You must return to the estate quickly.]
It was dangerous if Julianna and Ruth donated his holy relic to the temple in a hurry.
[In the temple, you’ll quickly find out that it’s a fake.]
When she thought of that, she suddenly became impatient.
It was time to pack up quickly.
[But do I really have to take all my friends with me?]
Lelia paused at the sudden thought.
How do you explain to her grandfather, grandmother, uncles and aunt?
How else would she explain it to her friends?
Her friends knew her as the cousin of her ‘Leo’. It is a sad story that she grew up as a woman even though she is a man.
It was truly a heartbreaking situation for her.
[If, by any chance, Kalix goes to the estate and he sticks out his forearm and says something like that…]
Her grandfather may be in shock.
It would be better for her to reveal her facts to her friends as soon as possible…
It will be a while before she collects 100 billion shillings, so maybe it wasn’t too bad to reveal that she was a woman. It had nothing to do with breaking the spell.
[But it’s also a problem to be honest with her that she’s a woman.]
With that said, Kalix will then ask you to explain the pe*** he saw back then.
[Then I would have to explain alchemy…]
Then she can’t escape their suspicions again. Romeo was still suspicious of her.
[… Yes, let’s just leave everything and go alone.]
Lelia decided to make up her mind.
It was probably too much to take all her friends to her estate.
[I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help it.]
After she’s done all the work at the estate, she can then go back to find her friends.
Lelia came back to her senses and started packing her wardrobe.
[There are so many things.]
But there was too much to pack. All because of the clothes that Romeo gave her.
They are precious clothes and cannot be thrown away… She eventually started packing her clothes one by one in the bag she had brought from the dressing room. She would be able to take them all with her when she left, and she was going to take good care of them and leave a thank you message to Romeo.
Then her hand stopped in front of her cufflinks.
This is Romeo’s gift to her, but it’s also her tracking spell.
Leria wondered if it was possible.
[Isn’t the tracking magic applied to other objects as well?]
Lelia called for her alchemy in the hope that it might be able to help.
“Alchemy.”
?
“…”
Lelia wrinkled her brow as she looked at the speech bubble floating in the air. It was just a question mark.
It’s… just eating the crystals, and becoming less sincere.
( •̅_•̅ )…
“I have something to ask you. Aside from these cufflinks, is there anything else with tracking magic on me?”
I’ll check it out right away!(๑•̀∀•́ฅ ✧)
It was after a short period of time, Alchemy responded.
<1> objects capable of special tracking magic found! But don’t worry! All of them were blocked by Alchemy! (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧₊˚
Something gleamed inside her pack of luggage. When she opened it, it was a fountain pen.
Could this be traced?
[That’s why you were able to come to me after the war was over.]
Lelia felt like sweat was running down her back.
“I’m glad you blocked it anyway.”
By the way…
Lelia narrowed her eyes.
Come to think of it, Kalix completed the final quest, but Romeo made no progress.
Griffith and Oscar haven’t even started yet, so there’s no question…
Maybe it’s because Romeo is suspicious of her?
Lelia entered the favorability window and checked the list of ‘special favorability subjects’.
She then decided to check her likeability by clicking on the name ‘Romeo’.
If you check the favorability at the current location, you can only check the favorability at the time of the last encounter. Would you like to check the favorability of <Romeo>, a target of special favorability?(｡•̀ᴗ-)✧
“I want to check.”
She responded and waited for an answer.
Information has been blocked due to magical power.∑(;°Д°)
What? Lelia’s brow wrinkled.
System: Hack magic formulas. Please wait.
For some reason, Lelia started biting her lip with a sense of uneasiness, and she paused on the spot. It looked like she had almost all of her luggage. Yet in fact, there were a few important things missing.
[Tomorrow night, I’ll go out of the Imperial Palace, borrow the horse and leave.]
It was when she had decided on such an unknown plan.
The system window flashed.
However, the speech balloons that appeared one after another were not the message of the Alchemy, but a different content.
[Wait, what is this?][What’s the matter?][No, I just saw a strange character in the air. Griffith, can’t you see?][…Not at all.]
“!!!”
Lelia covered her mouth in surprise.