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Chapter 45.
Inside the sturdy box lay twenty-five strands of hair, unchanged and in their place.
“Rosia Levian…”
Next to the box, he placed the small case she had given him. Inside was a cloak brooch made of the blue diamond that had recently become the talk of society.
Lexian recalled the events of a few days ago.
Why had Rosia been at the entrance of an illegal gambling den, and how had she known about that place?
She wasn’t the sort of person who would gamble illegally.
“That’s something I can’t know.”
Telling himself not to make biased judgments, Lexian considered the possibility that she had been gambling illegally. If that were the case, what on earth were the things she’d brought out of the den?
When she saw his injury, she hadn’t hesitated to use what she had to treat him.
A medicine strong enough to make new flesh grow instantly — he’d never even heard of such a thing.
And that wasn’t all. The worn cloak she had prepared beforehand and her calm, deft movements — she’d looked far too accustomed to such situations.
Reports also said that she had gone to the slums from the crown prince’s escort and had helped an old man who was being beaten.
“What on earth is she?”
He had known for a while that she wasn’t an ordinary noble lady, but the more he learned, the more unbelievable things became.
What was even more ridiculous was that he had wanted her to come to no harm — so much so that he hadn’t written her name in his report.
“Lex!”
The woman who had called his nickname in concern.
It seemed she hadn’t even realized she’d called him that unconsciously.
The problem was that hearing it had made him feel good.
Rosia Levian was strange — and so was he, for feeling this way.
“This means nothing.”
After staring at the hair for a long time, Lexian picked it up.
Rosia Levian — the woman who kept invading his thoughts.
Surely it was because of this damned hair. He had been curious because it seemed like hers, and once he confirmed it was hers, his gaze kept drifting to it.
He hated himself for being caught up in these unknown emotions.
He tried to throw it on the floor, but as if someone were holding his hand back, he couldn’t move. After a long bout of frustrated breathing, Lexian finally, carefully placed the hair back into the box.
“Damn it!”
Unable to control his strength, he slammed the desk — it cracked down the middle. Quickly catching the box before it fell, he sighed.
He had asked the Magic Tower to identify the magician who had appeared at the hunting grounds, and the answer was that it had been a magician who escaped from the Tower years ago.
The Tower, insisting that it had no connection with a magician who had tried to kill an imperial noble, angered Lexian. He had demanded what they would do if that runaway magician harmed anyone again.
The emperor had also pressured them, saying the threat of such magicians must be made public, and the Tower had reluctantly handed over a list of the runaways’ appearances, powers, and ages.
No real progress had been made — and then the illegal gambling incidents had exploded one after another.
Recent investigations showed that all the gambling dens found in and around the capital were created by the same organization.
The money from those dens all flowed into one place, and Lexian suspected that this organization was connected to the ones who had tried to kill Rosia.
Could Rosia know something about them too?
Given that she even knew he was a Sword Master, it wasn’t such a far-fetched assumption.
“Yet she doesn’t try to reveal what she knows…”
Rather, it looked as if she were using that knowledge as a tool.
“She approached me — someone she barely interacted with — as if it was part of a plan.”
She had even managed to make him attend that tea party, where she’d cleared him of the false accusation that he had bullied Merina. She had also succeeded in revealing that Merina behaved strangely toward others.
Indeed, Merina did have a twisted personality that made her accuse innocent people — so Rosia’s actions hadn’t seemed excessive.
Still…
Lining up all of Rosia’s inexplicable actions led to a single conclusion.
Her behavior was that of someone pursuing a specific goal.
Rosia clearly had a special purpose — something far beyond simply gaining a foothold in high society.
If he hadn’t recently mastered the ability to form a barrier of magical energy around himself, he would have died in that explosion.
Rosia seemed to realize just how dangerous things were — yet she showed no sign of stopping.
“A task so crucial she can’t give it up even if it costs her life. What could it be?”
After staring at the strands of hair again, Lexian called for his butler.
Charles entered, startled by the broken desk, but quickly composed himself.
“Charles, have the knights of our house keep Rosia Levian under watch. Stay completely hidden — but if she’s in danger, help her.”
He had told Rosia to call for him if she intended to do something dangerous, but he doubted she ever would.
It was more of a wish — a faint hope that she would call for him.
Discovering this growing desire to be closer to her, Lexian clenched his fist.
“And contact me no matter where I am.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Lexian, who never accepted personal calls while on duty, saying “no matter where I am” meant this would be his top priority.
Charles, watching him, couldn’t help but silently hope that Lady Levian might come to care for his master as well.
* * *
As the illegal gambling dens in the capital were exposed and those involved arrested and identified, my parents finally began to relax.
Calvin’s endless praise of how well I’d endured physical training seemed to have helped too.
Taking advantage of their lessened attention, I quietly slipped out of the mansion alone.
It was time to gather what I needed to question the Mirror of Truth.
Whenever I sent others to fetch what I wanted, they failed to bring it back properly — so I had no choice but to go myself.
My destination was the slums in the capital — the same place where I had once encountered the crown prince.
Deep in the slums, past fourteen different alleys and through eight abandoned houses, there was an apple tree.
At this time of year, it bore a special kind of apple, and only by offering that apple to the mirror and asking a question could one receive an answer reflected on its surface.
A kind of tribute, in other words.
The tree bore only one apple every three months, and the mirror would answer three questions in total.
So if I wanted all three apples, I had to start collecting now.
I had tried gilded apples, ordinary apples wrapped in gold leaf, even apples made of solid gold — but none worked.
Only the golden apples from that particular tree in the slums could make the Mirror of Truth respond.
“It always makes things so complicated.”
This world had never given me anything easily.
I had even sent members of the Blue Bird branch to one of the illegal gambling dens near the capital, but strangely, whenever I sent people to find something I needed, they came back empty-handed — or as corpses.
If I wanted something, I had to move myself. I had to bear all the consequences myself.
Whether I got caught by the knights and branded suspicious, or got stabbed by some stray blade — it would all fall on me.
Well, in the novel too, the villainess Rosia had been relentlessly unlucky.
Whereas the heroine, Merina, had everything go smoothly without lifting a finger.
The way this world so faithfully followed the novel’s settings — it was disgusting. I hated it so much that if I could, I’d destroy it.
“Potatoes for sale! One bundle for a coin!”
“Get lost, you bastard! Bring me more liquor!”
After passing the bustling market and the noisy lawless district,
“Spare a coin, please…”
came the area of beggars and vagrants — the slums.
Today I wore an old cloak over a riding outfit that let me move easily.
Alley one, two, three…
Counting on my fingers so I wouldn’t lose track, I passed each alley. It wasn’t that specific alleys mattered — you just had to pass fourteen of them.
Then, after eight abandoned houses, a small clearing with the apple tree appeared.
According to the book that mentioned it, this place was “connected to another world.”
The fourteen alleys and eight abandoned houses were the passage.
When I closed the door of the last abandoned house, the familiar clearing came into view.
In the center stood a tree about three times my height, surrounded by walls on all sides.
A single golden apple hung from the highest branch. I climbed up, as I’d done before.
The apple was just beyond my reach, so I cut the branch with a knife.
“Ow.”
Catching the falling branch, I scraped my palm on a sharp edge.
The pain was sharp, but if the golden apple hit the ground, it would shatter, so I endured it.
Finally, I pulled the branch down and plucked the apple, placing it into the pouch I’d prepared and hanging it around my neck.
After climbing down, I roughly straightened my clothes and retraced my way — through eight abandoned houses and fourteen alleys, in reverse.
“Whew…”
I ended up somewhere different from where I’d first entered.
The ground was filthy, the people around me barely able to move — this must have been the deepest part of the slums.
If anyone picked a fight with me here, it would be troublesome, so I quickened my pace.
“Waaah, waaah!”
A baby’s cry came from somewhere.
I froze.
A baby, here? In this filth, where food was scarce — it would die soon enough.
I couldn’t save everyone.
“Waaaah!”
As if reading my thoughts, the baby’s wailing grew louder. With a sigh, I turned toward the sound.
