The Empire was involved in this.

It was something that was not easily confirmed.

Even in the kingdom, if the royal family is involved, matters become sensitive, but if it is an empire, they become more cautious.

A mistake could lead to war between kingdoms and empires.

“Are you sure?”

The moment the Empire is involved, it shouldn’t be taken lightly.

You have to check it over and over again to find the exact evidence.

Even though they found it, the majority of them just skipped it due to lack of strength.

That’s why you should be careful about talking about the empire.

Even if they were convinced that the Empire did it.

“We can do this too. No matter how good the technology of the empire is, our central mage tower is also formidable. But.”

He pointed to one side of the marble.

He said, touching the magic circle the size of a fingernail drawn on the bottom of the marble.

“The one pictured here is a magic circle used only by the Empire. It can be said that it is a magic circle exclusive to the empire that eats a lot of magic stone powder and does not use it often. And if you look here, there is a pattern that means the empire.”

True to his words, the pattern of a spear piercing two dragons was drawn in the center of the magic circle.

It is a symbol of arrogance and the crest of the empire.

“So you mean the Empire got involved?”

“It is very likely that. In the case of a magic tool like this, the empire will manage it strictly.”

He nodded at those words.

An astronomical amount of money is required to make the magic orb we obtained.

If you convert the magic stone powder into this magic ball into cash, you can build a hill with gold coins.

Since the magic stone itself was expensive and precious, it was rare outside the Empire and the Central Mage Tower to make and use such a magic tool.

When one of them was lost, the damage was unimaginable.

“Did you find out anything else when you got this?”

“Something else… .”

I remembered the memories of that time.

Other than the masked people, if there is any information that can be obtained from them… .

“ah. One of them said this. If it wasn’t for me, you would have gotten the princess.”

“… !”

His eyes widened.

With a serious face, he fiddled with the marble.

“I vaguely guessed, but… I never thought it would really be an empire.”

he groaned.

It was like he knew something.

“Um… ”

He let out a small moan, lifted the crystal ball, stood up, and walked towards the desk.

“You go away. From now on, I will take care of it.”

“… All right.”

There was no reason for me to refuse to solve troublesome things on my own.

I heard his voice in my ears as I got up from the sofa and left the office.

“Raymond.”

“Yes.”

“You will have to pay more attention to Princess Daria than before.”

“I will keep that in mind.”

I bowed my head to him and left the office.

***

I immediately went to see Princess Daria.

It must have been quite difficult in the meantime, but I was busy taking care of things so I couldn’t care about her.

I went to her bedroom because of what the count said, but I couldn’t see her anywhere.

“Do you know where the princess has gone?”

“Princess Daria? Well… oh I saw you going towards the garden over there.”

I asked the maid and headed to where she was.

At noon, when the sun was high in the sky, she sat in the octagonal pavilion in the middle of the garden.

As she got closer, she was staring blankly at the flowers embroidered in front of the octagonal pavilion.

Because it was a beautiful appearance, it looked like a famous painting.

“What are you doing?”

“ah… Mr. Raymond.”

When I called her, she turned to me with a startled expression.

She immediately turned her gaze to the front again.

“just. I was looking at flowers.”

When she said she was looking at flowers, her voice sounded sad.

As I sat next to her, my head, which was always heavy, became lighter.

-beautiful!

A hatchling descends from my head and jumps into the flower field.

“uh? Why are you doing that?”

A question mark appeared in her head at the marks left by the hatchling as she rolled through the flower garden.

Hatchlings are only visible to my eyes, so I can’t help but be embarrassed when the flowers are suddenly crushed.

“It’s like that sometimes, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

I couldn’t tell her, though, that the hatchling was rolling in the flower garden.

At my appropriate evasiveness, she blankly nodded.

Although it was a bit of an absurd answer, it didn’t matter too much to her now.

“You look very worried.”

“Yes, what… It’s kind of like that.”

At my words, she smiled sadly.

After staring into space for a moment, she opened her mouth.

“My life has always been like this.”

“… ?”

“The people around me were always hurt by the things that happened because of me, and I solved them instead of me.”

“… .”

I shut my mouth at her reproachful tone.

“From childhood until now. There has never been a day without help. So I always had to act passively, and I tried not to stand out from others.”

“… .”

“I lived quietly every day, and I didn’t build power. Even when all the people who came to me left, I stayed still.”

As if recalling that time, she looked up at the sky with faint eyes.

“That’s how the letter of appreciation told me about you when even the reason for my life was fading away.”

she turned to me

Sparks lit up in his empty eyes.

“Worst bitch. But now he is a genius in swordsmanship.”

I could feel the heat from her.

“When the chief prosecutor of the kingdom said that even he couldn’t see the depth of his talent, you were interested. And when I asked the prosecutor, the more I learned about you, the more curious I became.”

“… .”

“At some point, I became envious of you. I felt cool that you live your life the way you want to the point that I think you don’t think about your family.”

Isn’t this an insult?

He seems to be complimenting me, but I feel dirty for no reason.

I doubted whether I was saying that I was just living.

“So I visited you at the graduation ceremony. Is what I heard from the letter of appreciation really true? .”

“How was it?”

“There was nothing wrong. Aside from rejecting my offer, you were the first person to treat me like that. No matter how powerless I am, I am royalty. It was a bit of a shock when I said I was going to get married but was turned down with a single stroke.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

“No. Rather, it was better. I could see that he was a person who didn’t want to treat me well because he was royalty and didn’t care about his status.”

she smiled faintly.

“I thought it would be okay if you looked at me as I am. And since Count Millennium is there… But I guess I was mistaken.”

The smile disappeared and she took on a sad expression.

“I came and the people of Yeongji had a hard time. Everyone suffered and suffered because of me.”

what are you trying to say

She hesitated for a moment, then opened her mouth slowly.

“I don’t want to do any more damage. So I’m going back to the royal family. If I’m not here… ”

“Puh.”

“… ?”

I couldn’t hold back my laughter.

I wondered what he was so seriously thinking about, and it was just that.

If I had worried about that in the first place, there was no way I would have accepted her.

No, even if he accepted it, he would have sent her back to the royal family at the time of the incident.

She was buying worries that she didn’t have to.

“There is no need to worry about that.”

“However, too many people have suffered because of me.”

“it’s okay. It’s not a matter for the princess to worry about. It’s not just the princess’ problem anymore.”

“Yes?”

“It doesn’t matter that there are intruders just because the princess is here. Rather, the problem is that there are intruders just because the princess is there.”

“What is that… ?”

“Is that it?” she asked me.

not. Obviously different.

It was true that there were intruders because of the princess, but it’s a different matter if it’s a millennium.

This is clearly millennial disrespect.

It was tantamount to indirectly showing that it didn’t matter if Millenium, who was under the protection of the Archmage, stepped forward.

Apart from the princess, it is impossible for millennials to be ignored.

“And don’t say you’re going back. It would be more dangerous to go back to the royal family.”

“Then the damage will be greater.”

“It doesn’t matter. We are not so merciless as to throw out anyone who comes to us. And to die at a time like this would rather dishonor us. They said they couldn’t protect the princess and sent her back.”

“… .”

“You don’t intend to bring such dishonor, do you?”

“… Yes.”

She nodded hard.

smiled at her

“From now on, the princess is safe and comfortable here, when the threat is gone. You can do whatever you want, whether you want to go back then or not. Until then, stay under our protection. Got it?”

“Yes. Okay.”

She looked at me and smiled.

***

As time passed, his dissatisfaction with the princess faded.

Now that the remnants have been captured and the peace is over, no one was idle enough to curse the princess.

I lived a busy life to eat and live.

“Oh really. How come you don’t have days to rest?”

I was busy as well.

I was just about to solve one thing and take a break, but something else happened.

The once-a-year banquet of the famous masters of magic and swordsmanship was approaching.

“They say they’re opening bigger than last year… I just can’t do it.”

Why bother doing such an event?

As the banquet approached, I had a lot to do.

Typically, making and delivering invitations.

You don’t have to go and tell them, but go directly to Warrag or Skylar.

There are 70 nobles who will attend the banquet this time.

It was surprising that there were that many nobles in the kingdom. So many people attended.

I didn’t know because I didn’t do it myself before, but now that I’m doing it myself, I can feel the number.

“Aren’t you going to give the crown prince an invitation?”

“Yes. I have no intention of giving it to you, and even if I did, I don’t think you’ll come because you’re a busy person.”

“Hmm… .”

The royal family had a strong desire not to come.

It’s already annoying to deal with the aristocrats, but I think I’ll get annoyed with the royal family.

‘It’s going to be very noisy when he comes.’

he’s a prince

The moment he participated in such a place, it was obvious that a lot of troublesome things would happen.

Nobles would do their best to impress him, and he was sure to annoy me by flaunting his friendship with me.

There was no need to bother buying it.

That’s why I didn’t contact him, and I told him not to inform the princess.

– Of course, there will be my invitation too, right?

How the hell did you know and contacted me?

I couldn’t help but be frustrated.