There Is No Place For Fakes

That evening, in the back alleys near the palace.

Clang!

Martin Sciences threw his bottle of alcohol to the ground, cursing.

Drunk, he stumbled down the street as he had just been demoted from his knight’s position and kicked out of the palace. Princess Philomel, or rather the woman, had taken away his escort knight position and exposed him for his unfaithful behavior.

“Damn it! Why me!”

He was a knight with no job prospects now that he had been kicked out. The aristocratic family had their own way of doing things, and Martin knew he would be ignored.

He gritted his teeth, his mind filled with Philomel’s cold face.

“She wasn’t even a noble!”

He had heard rumors that her mother was close to the queen and was a commoner. Martin didn’t even know who her father was.

“He must have been a loser who made his living by rolling around somewhere!”

Was he being humiliated by a lowly commoner girl as a member of the Sciences family?

He shouted angrily.

“I’ll kill her!”

But suddenly, his spine tingled. It was a creepy feeling, like bugs crawling up his body.

“Who’s there?”

Martin suddenly became alert, prepared to defend himself as the last remaining knight.

There was a man at the other end of the alley.

“Me?”

The man tilted his head and approached Martin. His beautiful face was revealed under the moonlight. His golden eyes glowed brightly.

“Who are you?”

Martin grabbed his sword tightly in fear.

He instinctively knew. That man was different. A completely different being, qualitatively and entirely.

The man laughed in a low voice.

“A loser who made his living by rolling around somewhere.” The man’s hand gleamed. In an instant, Martin sensed his impending death.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“I don’t know. It just annoys me.”

And with that, Martin was killed, unable to even scream in his final moments.

***

Ignoring the gruesome scene behind him, Le Guin spoke without turning around in the dark alleyway.

“What brings you here, Jeremiah?”

Jeremiah revealed himself quickly, scanning the scene of the brutal murder in front of him.

“What about Phil? You said you were an escort knight or something.”

Le Guin opened his mouth slowly to reply.

“She’s with Cadin now.”

“Oh, so you left your brother with her and came here to handle this.”

Le Guin gestured towards a barely recognizable figure.

“You’ve always had trouble killing trash, haven’t you? Unfortunately, for you, I was faster this time.”

Jeremiah simply smirked at Le Guin’s words. Only his father tried to cloak his twisted morality in grandiose terms like “justice.”

“That’s enough. No matter who cleans up that garbage, it’s enough. “At the end, I stepped on the scene of grumbling while looking at Philomel, and you were watching, right?”

“Yeah. We can’t let scum like this interfere with Phil.”

But there was another visitor in the alleyway.

“What is this?!”

Lexion emerged from the corner and scowled at the dead body of Martin.

“You’ve done it splendidly. If you’re going to do it, you should’ve done it neatly. Easy to clean up.”

“Always nagging.”

 You’re making Le Guin nag again. Why is the blood written backwards, anyway?”

Lexion grumbled as he walked around the puddle of blood on the ground.

“Ah, if only Jeremiah had discovered it first and taken care of it.”

Jeremiah would have killed the person immediately. If it had been him, he would have finished it perfectly, too.

But Lexion was a human who preferred positive thinking. He was grateful that no buildings were destroyed just because one person was eliminated, and that it wasn’t Cadin.

“Maintain the barrier spell for about 30 minutes to prevent anyone from approaching. It looks like it’ll take that long to clean up.”

Lexion said lightly, clicking his tongue.

“I’m leaving. You guys take care of it.”

Le Guin attempted to teleport away with disinterest, but Lexion objected.

“Wait! Are you going to Phil like that?”

“No? 

 Of course not. If she sees Le Guin dressed like that and faints, what are you going to do?” Lexion continued.

“What did I tell you before? Even if Phil isn’t entirely kind, her values are sensible. If you don’t want to be hated by her, please hide Le Guin’s true nature. Okay?”

At that, Le Guin tried to flick his outfit

“Well, I’ll have to take a shower and change clothes first.”

Then he muttered happily.

“I don’t want Phil to hate me yet.”

***

At that moment, the state guest house.

Philomel was spending time with Cadin. Cadin said that his break hours were over and left, so only Jeremiah was left.

‘Come to think of it, I can’t see Le Guin at some point.’

Philomel decided to get closer to Cadin during this time.

Cadin was the only one of the four rich men Philomel had not talked to one-on-one.

He seems like a lively person, but…

It wouldn’t hurt to become friends, since they would see each other often.

However, it seemed like her decision was in vain, as Cadin was already looking at Philomel with honeyed eyes.

“It’s overwhelming.”

After swallowing his saliva, Philomel gathered the courage to ask,

“Um… do you like me, Cadin?”

“Yes, I do.”

Cadin answered without hesitation.

“Why do you like me?”

“Because you’re like a younger sister to me?”

Philomel pinched the bridge of her nose with her finger.

As she suspected, he had a fantasy about having a younger sister who was cute and pretty.

‘Probably because he has two younger brothers.’

So, Philomel had to break his illusion before he became disappointed.

“I’m not a cute person, like you might be thinking about me, Cadin.”

In fact, everyone considered Philomel to be a mature child.

In other words, they thought she was like an old woman.

“So, it’s better not to have any unnecessary expectations.”

Cadin asked with a slightly gloomy expression,

“What do you mean? My head isn’t that good, so I won’t know unless you tell me.”

Was it that difficult to explain?

Philomel explained again, “Um, I’m not a very good younger sister.”

Then, Cadin who was considering something, asked Philomel a question.

“Does Phil want to hit me?”

“What? Why would I hit you, Cadin?”

“Do you want to curse at me?”

“Not at all.”

“Do you want to freeze me?”

“I can’t even if I wanted to.”

Then Cadin burst out laughing.

“Really? You’re such a good person! You’re a good younger sister, Phil. Good. Good.”

It seemed that Cadin’s standard for a good younger sister was quite lenient.

And it was easy to guess who made that standard.

Anyway, if it was so easy to become a good younger sister, Philomel felt that she could get along well with Cadin in the future.

Just don’t hit, curse, or freeze him, and everything will be fine.

Feeling happy, Philomel extended her hand to Cadin.

“Shall we shake hands?”

“Is that okay?”

“Of course.”

Cadin wiped his hand on his clothes with a tense expression before taking Philomel’s hand. It was a delicate touch, as if handling fragile pottery. Despite the rough and scarred hands, there was a fine delicacy.

“I’ll rely on you from now on.”

“Of course, it’s me!”

Until a moment ago, Cadin felt burdened, but now he felt like a large dog, eager to go. Philomel raised her hand for the remaining three people. 

They had all seemed like peculiar individuals at first, but after spending time with them, they weren’t that bad.

She felt that they would be able to get along well in the future.