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Chapter 35
Could this woman really smile like that?
Sila pictured Rosia as if she were wearing a thick mask. A face with no vitality, a painted-on smile.
Sila’s heart began to race at the sight of Rosia laughing so brightly, as if she were alive.
— I wondered why “that person” said not to kill you… You are strange, aren’t you?
Even as someone scolded her, Rosia kept smiling.
She looked so genuinely happy that, thankfully, she seemed not to care about what Tolle was saying.
— Our master. He’s someone who takes interest in every rare and strange thing in the world. He’s weak for anything intriguing.
“Damn him, how he talks.”
If Tolle had still been alive, Sila would have been the one to kill him first.
Even while Tolle was threatening them, Rosia’s smile never faded. If anything, it deepened, and Sila felt a chill run down her spine.
A woman who could smile like that in a situation where she might actually die felt less eerie and more tragically resigned.
— Die!
Rosia’s face began to take on a bluish tint, and then she moved away. What came into view next was Reksian.
Whether he’d gone berserk or not, the knight’s sword that faced the black aura-emitting Tolle poured out a bright blue sword energy.
“Reksian Rishians—so he really was a sword master.”
Sila remembered the knight she’d met at the imperial ballroom: the man who had looked at her with evident displeasure.
— No!
“Are you insane?”
Before she could think much about Reksian, Rosia leapt in front of Tolle, and Sila blurted out without realizing it.
Fortunately, darkness immediately followed.
‘Tolle is dead.’
The Blue Bird—formed after learning of the “center of the world”—was an organization created to find people who could be the “axis” (nasa). Because they sought people everywhere—the empire, kingdoms, nobles, and the back alleys—they became a criminal organization, and so the Mage Tower separated from the Blue Bird.
Though the Mage Tower was neutral, it was like a nation-state of sorts.
If the Mage Tower were found committing illegal acts, many countries would form alliances and oppose the tower. It might be fine for one person, but would the rest of the tower’s mages survive? That was uncertain.
The Mage Tower contained weaker beings too—apprentice mages and those aspiring to be mages.
Fortunately, Tolle left no trace of the Mage Tower, but Sila erased the residual traces of mana from the surroundings just in case.
“Rosia, you’re really strange. You’re the strangest person I’ve ever seen.”
She wasn’t some incurably ill or elderly woman, yet she could be so indifferent to death.
“Only the old man at the center of the world showed that sort of attitude.”
No, that man wasn’t even clearly human, so he was an exception.
Sila added the remark softly, then rose and made a gesture in the air.
A white robe appeared in midair and the man who removed his mask smoothed his disheveled hair.
“What should we do….”
Sila’s straightforward approach to meeting Lady Levian, a high noble of the Empire, was unexpectedly direct.
After the day Stella and Pony fussed over sending medicine to smear on my neck and forehead, I stopped receiving visitors.
Instead, Calvin came home and followed me around every evening.
“Calvin, if you really care about me, shouldn’t you let me rest?”
“Ah, true.”
Calvin made a silly face and left for training at the exercise hall, leaving me alone in the bedroom.
My mother still hovered, nursing me, and my father would come by to see me after returning home; when the marks on my neck faded, I was free.
“Phew, finally some peace.”
I fetched the ‘Mirror of Truth’ from the study attached to my bedroom.
This mirror answers only three questions, and it always answers in a simple ‘yes/no,’ so you must ask questions that suit that kind of reply.
If you wasted the chance, it would be a shame.
No sooner had I pulled the leather cloth off the mirror than a frantic knock sounded.
Knock knock!
“Ah, ah, miss!”
I hastily slid the mirror under the pillow and Cassie entered carrying a scarf and shawl.
“What is it, Cassie? I told you I’m not accepting guests.”
“Well, Madam said this is a guest you can’t refuse!”
I suspected it might be the crown prince again, but Cassie looked far too delighted.
“You don’t need makeup to look so fresh and lovely.”
She said the same thing she had said ten times that morning, then stepped back. Another knock sounded.
When the door opened, my mother and an entirely unexpected man appeared.
“Hello, Rosia.”
A man with water-colored hair greeted me with a languid smile.
“The lord of the Mage Tower?”
“I heard Rosia was unwell.”
He swept in with his long sleeves fluttering and let his eyes droop slightly.
“I’m no noble of the Empire—just slow with the news. Forgive me for my tardiness?”
“Let me think about it.”
When I replied casually, the lord of the Mage Tower laughed out loud, and my mother blushed watching him. It would be a problem if my father saw this.
“Mage Tower Lord, please take your time.”
Even though she must have seen him before, my mother couldn’t take her eyes off his face.
“No need to prepare tea. I’m in a hurry.”
My mother, half enthralled, half forgot to close the door properly as she left. The Mage Tower Lord snapped his fingers.
“If someone listens from outside, our conversation will sound like nothing but a buzz.”
“Is what you need to say so important you’d go that far?”
The Mage Tower Lord had come for something, no doubt to kill me. But even he wouldn’t dare kill someone openly in the middle of the Empire. If he did, he’d have to silence everyone in the house afterward. Killing is easy; cleanup is not.
Luckily, Ted had gone down to his provincial estate.
“There’s strong mana in this room.”
Pretending not to hear me, the Mage Tower Lord went on.
“There—under the pillow.”
He was pointing at where the Mirror of Truth was.
Caught, I thought hiding it was pointless, so I slowly took out the mirror.
“A hand mirror?”
“Yes. It was a prize the hunting contest winner received from His Majesty the Emperor.”
I emphasized in a way that clearly telegraphed: ‘So if you take this, you’ll be openly insulting the Emperor.’ The Mage Tower Lord snorted.
“You know how to use it?”
Yes, I did. But I couldn’t reveal that.
“Are there other ways to use the mirror besides its stated purpose?”
“It looks like an ancient relic, so maybe? But I’ve never seen it before. I’ll look it up if you lend it to me.”
“Thanks, but no.”
Because I already knew how to use it.
“Why? Would you rather it sit unused? Afraid I’ll tell the Emperor? I won’t do that.”
“You’re very kind, but really, I’m fine.”
“I want to see it. I’m just curious.”
Now he was being blunt—planning to use force to look at it.
“If the Emperor gave it personally, you must return it. If His Majesty asks where the mirror went, I’d have to say the Mage Tower Lord took it.”
He’d been investigating the Mage Tower and me all this while.
The Mage Tower was neutral, so its mages could travel across the continent easily—except for the Roksan Mountains where fairies and elves lived. But the Tower itself was like a nation: if the Tower Lord snubbed the Emperor, diplomatic frictions would be inevitable.
“Are you wasting words to say ‘don’t take it’? You’re being threatening over a mere mirror. Rosia, you’re narrower-minded than you seem.”
“You’re saying that because I refused? I only stated the truth.”
“Strange—someone so indifferent to death clings to a single object. If you die, what good will it do?”
“It’s something to make death more complete.”
I smiled instead of answering, and the Mage Tower Lord’s face shifted.
“Say my name, Rosia.”
“If you promise you’ll never kill me.”
Half joking, expecting a refusal.
But the answer that came from the Mage Tower Lord’s lips was not what I had expected.
