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Chapter 40
“Hiccup!”
I was so startled that I hiccupped. Felix was no different.
His eyes, wide like a rabbit’s, scanned my face once before he slowly released my shoulder.
While I was trying to calm my racing heart, Felix glanced between the half-open room and me.
“You. Why are you coming out of there?”
“Uh, um…”
Flustered, my eyes darted around desperately, but I couldn’t think of a decent excuse.
“…Because I work here too?”
“I know that.”
Felix cut me off sharply.
“What are you doing here?”
“U-uhm.”
“Do you know what floor this is?”
“The sixth… floor?”
“That’s right. And the sixth floor—”
He jerked his chin toward the hallway.
“—is only for the guildmaster’s office.”
Gulp.
I swallowed dryly.
“Usually, the people who work here fall into one of two categories.”
“…”
“Either they assist the guildmaster…”
Or—
“They handle the guild’s most critical operations.”
“Hiccup!”
“Yeah. People like that work here.”
I clamped my mouth shut and took a few small steps backward. Felix’s sharp eyes followed me as he stepped forward.
Just then, from a distance, a strained voice called out:
“Y-your highness. Why are you here today?”
“I had business.”
Felix nudged a potion bottle on the floor with his boot.
“Perfect timing.”
“Since we’ve met like this—”
“Let’s have a little chat.”
“…”
One dot, two dots, three dots.
While I carefully studied the floor patterns, I bit my dry lips.
“So you were making potions?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And you didn’t report that until now?”
“Well, it’s not ready for release yet, so I wanted to wait until we had a proper finished product before telling the head of the house… I mean, yes, sir.”
Gilbert shrank his shoulders under the weight of the scolding.
“I thought so.”
“B-but you had some idea, didn’t you?”
“I was suspicious, yes. You suddenly brought a complete stranger up to the sixth floor.”
I flinched under his sharp stare.
“I’m sorry. I did some preliminary tests, but I planned to report it once it was perfected. If I told the lord before that, the duke would’ve been furious.”
That much, Felix couldn’t deny.
I stayed quiet as well, holding my breath. The head of the Kazriden family—Felix’s grandfather—was known for being fiercely protective of his only grandson.
After losing his son so helplessly, he had gone to great lengths to shield the boy from any harm.
“So the important client Gilbert mentioned was the Kazriden family…”
Judging by their conversation, it seemed Gilbert had planned to introduce my potion to the duke himself.
But I didn’t quite get it.
Potions were supposed to heal injuries, weren’t they? I’d never heard of one that could stop seizures or anything like that, even in the original story.
Felix, who had been silent for a while, rubbed his forehead and asked,
“So this thing she made… is it that good?”
“It’s amazing. You won’t regret it, I swear.”
Gilbert’s voice was full of conviction. Hearing him praise my potion like that made me feel a tiny bit proud.
“Hm.”
Felix eyed the bottle suspiciously, then uncorked it.
Gulp—
He downed the entire thing in one go.
Bang, bang—
A man tapped on the window. A moment later, the door opened.
“What you asked for.”
“Got it. You wanted to know where that kid goes during the day, right?”
Winstons nodded, and Dion cleared his throat.
“I followed her carriage—it went straight to the center of the Black Market District.”
“The center?”
“Yeah. She got off, and I trailed her for a bit. Guess where she went?”
Dion frowned slightly, recalling the girl he’d seen that morning.
“Raymond.”
“…What?”
“She went into Raymond. You know, that guild under your command!”
He clapped his hands together.
“And she went through the entrance only authorized personnel can use. You know—the one reserved for the guildmaster’s aides and executives.”
“…”
“She walked in so naturally, I thought it was her own house.”
Winstons let out a dry laugh. Finding a job in Proud was never easy—it was a den of illegal activity.
And Amelia, for all her competence, was still just a kid. He’d worried she might get caught by some scumbag and forced into harsh labor.
“Raymond…”
His face grew serious. Sure, it was relatively safer there, and the pay wasn’t bad.
But still—
“Dion. Look into one more thing.”
“What?”
“What exactly she’s doing there. Make sure she’s not overworked or mistreated. If anyone’s threatening her or acting out of line, I want to know.”
That place was full of rough people.
Hiring a child to work there?
“Find out who that inconsiderate bastard is who hired her.”
“Haaah…”
Meanwhile, Gilbert—now labeled as the “inconsiderate bastard who hired a child”—collapsed onto the sofa.
“Lady, I thought I was going to faint back there.”
“Same here…”
We were probably the same age, but the way Felix inspected and drank the potion—like a mob boss in a crime film—was terrifying.
“No doubt about it. He’s definitely the villain.”
Even as a kid, he already had the makings of one.
“Do you think he’ll be okay?”
“What do you mean?”
Gilbert, sitting upright at last, looked at me. I remembered the pale-faced boy who’d just walked out.
“The young lord. He looked really unwell after drinking the potion.”
He had looked pale even before, and now I was worried. What if it caused some weird side effect?
Gilbert paused for a moment, thinking, then shook his head.
“He’ll be fine. Didn’t you see his face come back to life?”
“What?”
“His complexion improved. Didn’t you notice?”
I blinked. I hadn’t looked that closely—I’d been too tense.
“When he came in, he looked terrible. I think he wasn’t feeling well today.”
He crossed his legs and clicked his tongue.
“But right after drinking your potion, his face brightened up. I bet he just looked serious because he was surprised.”
“Because my potion worked too well?”
“Exactly.”
Gilbert nodded firmly.
“I told you—it’s really effective.”
Seeing my lingering doubt, he added reassuringly,
“Ask him later if you want. If he didn’t like it, he would’ve kicked us out on the spot. The fact that he didn’t means he’s impressed.”
“Well, if that’s true… then I’m relieved.”
