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Chapter 41
Was I really putting myself in danger by doing this?
Calix, noticing my hesitation, jumped at the opportunity to convince me.
“Rena. Please. I’m all for finding the culprit, but let’s not do it here.”
“…”
“If what you’re saying is true, then that means there’s at least one more person here targeting you besides the emperor. Do you really have to do this?”
“…This time could be different.”
“Even if it is, you don’t have to be the one to find out.”
It didn’t seem like a good idea to say that I did want to find out for myself.
“Alright. Then… let’s go back to the capital estate, for now.”
I finally nodded, agreeing to Calix’s plan.
‘I’ll just have to watch the imperial palace with magic instead.’
And that was the end of that conversation. Calix said he would go to the emperor first thing in the morning and inform him that we’d be returning to the estate for my recovery. Given my status as the duke’s mage, my deteriorating health while being detained without progress on the investigation was not something the powerful Duke Hertrio would ignore.
I nodded, giving him permission. Calix stayed by my side all night, on edge and guarding me carefully.
The next morning.
A storm swept through the imperial palace at dawn:
The culprit behind my poisoning had been caught.
“What do you mean, caught? They found the culprit?!”
“Exactly what it sounds like. The culprit turned themselves in.”
“Turned themselves in?”
Suddenly? After over a week of silence? A culprit who had eluded every investigation just confesses out of the blue?
We were all gathered in Calix’s room, packing up to leave for the capital estate, as he had said he’d inform the emperor. But the shocking news of a confession had stopped us in our tracks.
Sir Rodrigo was the first to speak, his expression incredulous.
“That can’t be the real culprit. A sudden confession? It doesn’t make any sense.”
No one else said anything, but from the look on their faces, they all seemed to agree. It was too suspicious for the true culprit to appear out of nowhere after everything had gone cold.
“So, who is it?”
Sir Waret asked, and Calix answered with a blank face.
“Name’s Milon. She was a palace maid.”
“A maid?”
“Did you say a maid?”
A maid tried to poison me? Why? This was getting more and more nonsensical.
“So where is she now?”
Calix’s gaze fell on me, deep and somber.
“…She’s dead.”
“What?”
I frowned, not understanding what he meant.
“She left a suicide note confessing to the crime and killed herself.”
“…”
“…”
Silence fell over the room.
A maid named Milon had supposedly tried to poison me. She kept quiet for over a week and then, as soon as I woke up, she leaves a confession and kills herself?
I was stunned. My mouth stayed open in disbelief.
“So… what did the note say?”
I finally managed to ask, my head still spinning. Calix recited it in a monotone, like reading from a textbook.
“She wrote that after learning you were of commoner origin, she wanted to stand by my side too. She thought if you were gone, she might have a chance.”
That reason was so ridiculous it didn’t even feel real.
“…So she thought she’d have a chance with you if I died, but then I woke up, so she offed herself?”
“That’s what the note says.”
“Did you see the note?”
“Yeah. The emperor showed it to me.”
“And nothing about it seemed off?”
“Just a plain scrap of paper. What’s there to be off?”
“But,” he added firmly, “the handwriting, the tone… It’s not a forgery.”
‘Does this even make sense?’
I was too stunned to speak. Someone tried to kill me—me, who was publicly known as the Duke of Hertrio’s mage—over a petty love triangle?
“That’s insane.”
“Exactly. It is insane.”
Calix echoed my words, clearly unconvinced.
“Do you actually believe this?”
“Believe it? Please. A kid could write a better story than this.”
His cutting assessment was oddly reassuring. The knights standing nearby clearly agreed with him. A few even clucked their tongues, shaking their heads.
Even while repeating the supposed motive of jealousy, Calix remained incredibly composed. Maybe the absurdity of it all made it easier for him to stay calm.
“What about the others?” I asked, referring to the nobles still stuck in the palace. “What are they saying?”
“They probably think it’s weird, but I doubt they care much. To them, a commoner being jealous of another commoner? It’s laughable.”
“…”
“Even if they do find it suspicious, is it more important than their own safety? They’re probably just desperate to get out of here.”
That was true. I bit my lip, deep in thought.
“I need to go take a look myself.”
“What? Go where?! That’s too dangerous—”
“Lord Calix is right. It’s too risky for you to move around, my lady.”
“Allow us to investigate in your stead.”
As several people reached out to stop me, I smiled reassuringly.
“It’s fine. I’m not saying I’ll go myself.”
“…?”
“Sir Ishar, could you fetch me a small bird from outside?”
“A bird?”
“Yes. Just an ordinary one—something no one would notice.”
Ishar looked confused, but left. Exactly 30 minutes later, he returned with a small brown bird wrapped carefully in a handkerchief. The bird fluttered its wings nervously, head tilting this way and that.
I took the bundle and could feel the bird’s warm, fast heartbeat through the cloth.
‘Birds really do have higher body temperatures than humans.’
“That was quick. How’d you catch it?”
“This is nothing for me,” Ishar replied, looking embarrassed by my praise.
“To create the Mage’s Eye, you must first make eye contact with a living creature that will serve as the medium.”
I recalled the book passage and looked straight into the little bird’s eyes. The bird tilted its head, staring curiously back.
Watching me closely, Calix finally realized what I was doing.
“You’re doing what you did back on the train?”
“Yeah.”
Still keeping my eyes on the bird, I answered. I was forming a Mage’s Eye—a magical link that would turn the bird into my eyes and ears.
‘Connect the mana. Connect the mana. Feel the bond between me and the bird.’
After focusing for a while, I lifted my head, certain the spell had taken.
“Oh…”
A small sound escaped me.
‘This feels… strange.’
From that moment on, I was the bird. The bird was me, and I was the bird. It tilted its head when I willed it, blinked when I wanted it to.
My vision split in two—my own human perspective, and the bird’s view. It was like watching two screens inside my head.
“Did it work?”
“Yeah. Don’t talk—I need to focus.”
I shut my human eyes to cut off that vision. Calix gently guided me to sit in a chair.
The bird, now completely calm, rested quietly in my hands. I tossed it into the air, and it fluttered once around the room.
Through the bird’s eyes, I saw the astonished expressions of everyone in the room. From above, I could see all their heads and the room’s layout clearly.
Calix was still holding my hand, glancing back and forth between the real me and the bird-me.
‘Watching myself from up here feels… weird.’
My human self was sitting motionless like a wax figure. It felt eerily like an out-of-body experience.
Calix, checking on me, suddenly lifted his head—and even in bird form, I realized: our eyes met. As if he knew I was watching through the bird.
He grinned.
“Even as a bird, you’re cute.”
Good thing birds don’t blush.
I flew low over the heads of the towering humans and slipped out of the room.
‘I’ll release you soon, promise.’
I silently apologized to the bird. Not that it could understand—it probably didn’t even know it was being possessed.
I flew out through a window. Everything looked gigantic, like I was a miniature in a land of giants.
When I soared high enough, I saw the imperial palace come into view. But the bird’s small body had limits.
So I perched on a branch nearby. It amazed me—someone who’d never had wings—how easily I had adapted.
‘The book said most people struggle with this at first… Guess I’m a genius.’
I hopped to the end of the branch. From there, I could see the palace building.
It was unfamiliar to me. The first floor had a series of evenly spaced large windows. Through one, I spotted a group of maids walking down a corridor.
‘Yes. The best way to get intel in a place like this—listen to the maids.’
I fluttered toward the hallway window.
‘I am a bird. I am a bird.’
I whispered that mantra over and over, trying not to look suspicious.
Thankfully, no one seemed to notice me. Or care.
Emboldened, I flitted down toward the floor behind them.
‘I am a bird. A cute, harmless bird.’
Then, staying low, I followed the group.
“…We’re not even sure, right? Milon never seemed interested in things like that.”
“Maybe she was just pretending. Anyway, we all recognized the handwriting in that letter, didn’t we?”
“But still… Milon? I can’t believe she would… She was… she was…”
Thankfully, the maids were already gossiping about the very topic I needed.
‘Of course. Maids always gossip in groups at times like this.’
