There Is No Place For Fakes

“Lexion!”

Philomel shouted at Lexion in a happy voice.

“I saw you just the other day, but it feels like I haven’t seen you in a while. Nice to meet you, Phil.”

Lexion answered with a smile, narrowing his eyes. But Lexion was not alone.

“Wow! Are you Philomel?”

A brown-haired man accompanying him came running busily.

“This person…?”

Philomel asked with a puzzled expression.

“Nice to meet you! My name is Cardin! I’m your eldest brother! Oh, to be precise, the eldest is Lexion, but you can just think of me first! I’m the most reliable of the siblings! Wow, it’s like a dream! I was young. I’ve been praying for a little sister since I was little, and my wish has come true!”

The man who introduced himself as Cardin circled around Philomel and spoke quickly. The green eyes were sparkling.

“Nice to meet you, too.”

In the face of the meeting with the four rich men, Philomel could only say so. Eventually, Lexion and Cardin joined her, and the five of them sat around the table under the canopy.

“So what are all four of you here for?”

“Didn’t Le Guin tell you?”

“What do you want? You always forget about important things.”

“That’s right.”

After listening to the conversation between Lexion and Cardin, Le Guin seems to have no trust in all three of his sons.

“Noisy. Introduce yourself to Phil first. All three of you are so cheeky that she’ll get confused about who’s who.”, said the distrustful father.

“Maybe?”

‘As long as they have eyes, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about confusing these three unique brothers…?’

The first person to introduce himself was Lexion.

Lexion took something out of his arms and handed it to Philomel.

“I have already told you my name, but this is Lexion. I work in the Magic Tool Management Department. Here is my business card.”

“Oh, thank you.”

On a small piece of paper, Lexion’s name and the title of ‘Secretary to the Master of the Magic Tower and Chief Magician of the Magic Tool Management Department’ were written on it.

Cardin took over next.

“I’m Cardin! If it’s okay with you, I’d like you to call me big brother!”

“…I will try.”

Philomel answered with a puzzled expression.

“Idiot. Introduce yourself, not your wishes.”

Beside him, Jeremiah clicked his tongue. Cardin added with a cheeky laugh.

“I am the second of these three brothers. By the way, this sulky guy is my younger brother, Jeremiah. I don’t have a good personality, but when you get to know it, it’s a kind side of…!”

His long-winded self-introduction ended there, as Jeremiah gently pressed Cardin’s foot down. Lastly, Jeremiah briefly introduced himself.

“As you heard, it’s Jeremiah.”

After the three of them introduced themselves, Philomel asked them what she had been curious about.

“So what did the three of you come here for? How did you get into the maze garden?”

Lexion answered as a representative.

“First of all, to answer how I got in, I crossed the wall normally.”

“…yes?”

He wasn’t normal at all. The walls of the maze made of bushes were two heads taller than the height of an adult male. Even if he had a good motor nerve, if he was a sane person, he wouldn’t even think about overstepping it.

‘Besides, it’s the garden of the royal family.’

Was it possible to pay an invoice after trespassing without permission?

Lexion continued.

“If the purpose of coming to the imperial palace is to become a court mage, what would you say?”

“If you are a court mage…”

The conversation she had with Nassar just now came to Philomel’s mind. Come to think of it, he said he was accompanied by three wizards who were applying for court mage positions. And she coincidentally had the same number of siblings he had just met. Then…

‘It wasn’t a coincidence.’

These three wizards accompanied Nassar to the capital.

“Originally, we three were planning to apply, but Jeremiah said he didn’t like it, so I held out.”

“Why should I do that? I didn’t even want to come here in the first place. It was an emergency, so when I returned to the Magic Tower, they forcibly dragged me there.”

At Jeremiah’s grumbling, Cardin slammed the table and shouted.

“A younger sister! It appeared, but what if it’s not an emergency! I’ve always dreamed of having a younger sister! So I came running while catching the Great King Wyvern, but I don’t regret it at all!”

Le Guin grumbled, covering his ears with his fingers.

“Oh, it’s noisy. Someone make it quiet again.”

“It is impossible voluntarily. Otherwise, the Mage Tower soundproof wall reinforcement work was not done.”

Lexion replied calmly.

‘Whoaaaaa!’

In the end, Cardin stopped talking only after the light emitted from Le Guin’s hand hit her mouth.

“It’s quiet now.”

“Eup.”

Cardin, whose whole body was restrained by the string of light, rolled on the floor and whimpered. Jeremiah, who was looking down at the formulation with his pitiful eyes, said.

“Lexion. So how did the interview go?”

“Of course I passed. And Cardin was close to it.”

“To let that idiot go through, all the court wizards have their eyes twisted.”

“When Cardin grabbed the interviewer by the collar, I honestly thought he would fall. Fortunately, the qualifications required for the correspondence position are low.”

“To think that the son and disciple of the owner of the Mage Tower is only supplying mana to the communication stone. If this is known, Le Guin’s status will fall to the ground.”

“It’s already the bottom, so there must be more to fall.”

‘Whoaaaaa!’

“It’s fun. Tell me more.”

When the same light flowed from Le Guin’s hand, the two of them shut their mouths. Philomel was a little confused. It was difficult to think that they had come simply because they wanted to occupy the imperial palace.

‘But why?’

“…Anyway, congratulations on achieving what you wanted.”

It’s nice to see their faces. Lexion answered without hesitation.

“It’s clear that we’ve seen Phil’s face, so we’ve achieved our goal. We became court wizards to meet you.”

“Eup-up!”

Cardin, who was rolling on the floor, made a sound as if he agreed with the gear.

“Yes? Wait a minute. What does it have to do with meeting me and becoming a court wizard?”

“Actually, it stemmed from a small misunderstanding.”

Lexion did not even look at Cardin and began to explain calmly.

“We heard rumors that Phil was taken by the security forces and taken to the capital, so we thought you were being taken away as a prisoner.”

“Eup!”

Cardin sounded in agreement again.

“Le Guin went to see you first, but we couldn’t enter this place with movement magic because of the barrier. That’s why we pretended to be applicants to become court wizards.”

“Annoying. If you leave that to Le Guin, you will lose.”

“Where do you trust Le Guin to send him alone to the heart of the Empire?”

He continued talking after responding to Jeremiah’s complaint.

“And this morning, I learned from Le Guin’s communication that you are not imprisoned and are doing well. I decided to go through an interview with Kim.”

Philomel, who had been quietly listening to their story, raised her question.

“If you just asked for an audience, you could have met me.”

Considering Nassar’s visit today, it wasn’t that Philomel was not particularly forbidden from having outside visits. Lexi came back and smiled and showed his two fingers.

“He had two reasons why he decided to become a court mage.”

“What reasons?”

“I thought of two possible scenarios. The first is when you want to leave this place but can’t. In that case, being an insider makes it easier to get you out.”

“What about the second?”

“It’s time for you to hope for someone else’s opinion. The imperial palace is not a place where you can enter your mind, so we have to become court wizards so we can often face you.”

“Eup!”

“Cardin seems to feel the same way.”

Looking at their smiling faces, Philomel was stunned. She couldn’t understand why they became a court wizard just for that reason. They said she and they were brothers, but she only knew them a few days ago. It was the first time she met Cardin.

“If I said I would go to the Magic Tower right away, what were you planning?”

Philomel asked in a trembling voice.

“You should have written your resignation the day after you got a job, huh?”

The ruined workplace of many wizards’ dreams suddenly seemed shabby.