There Is No Place For Fakes

With no foreign diplomats or nobility to visit the empire, Philomel was the only one left in the statehouse.

In other words, the statehouse and the well-known sponsors belonged to a great wizard and his four children.

“What? Jeremiah became Phil’s guardian knight?”

Cadin, who was slow to hear the news, made a fuss.

“Why Jeremiah! I can do it well if you ask me!”

“But you’re not a knight.”

Jeremiah answered, and Lexion tilted his head beside him.

“Come to think of it, didn’t Cadin follow Jeremiah when he took the mage knight qualification test?”

Then Cadin slumped and muttered on the table.

“I failed the written test.”

“It’s surprising. Even a basic knight would know common sense in writing. That’s just a giveaway question.”

“This guy is stupid.”

Jeremiah snorted.

“But what do you mean by calling your brother stupid? Just say his intellect is a bit low.”

Their father stepped in to stop their quarrel.

“Quiet down. Aren’t you guys supposed to be working? Why do you keep coming to see Phil and me every day?”

Lexion calmly replied, “Of course, we finished our work before coming. And we came to see Phil, not Lord Le Guin.”

Jeremiah shrugged.

“Don’t you know what a guardian is? I’m with Philomel for work.”

Finally, Cadin said, “I’m just playing around!”

Philomel just laughed.

“Hahaha… I’m glad everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.”

She let out a sigh and handed him what she had brought.

“But, Le Guin. Could you take a look at this for me?” 

Le Guin picked up the book that Philomel had handed him with his fingertips.

“What is this? A dictionary?”

To be exact, it was <Princess Ellensia> with the cover of the dictionary.

“This is the book I mentioned before, that I wanted you to investigate personally.”

Determined to discover the truth in the book, Philomel began to read it not long ago about the prophecy.

The result was not greatly different from what Philomel already knew.

Even the owner of the Mage Tower seemed unaware of the existence of prophecies such as.

Frankly, it was more disappointing than expected. However, it couldn’t end with disappointment.

Philomel took a deep breath and decided to entrust to him.

It just took a bit of time for her to gather the courage. After all, Philomel had never shown the book to anyone before, let alone entrusted it to someone else.

She was anxious. Although she had memorized the contents, she had an obsession that she could not do anything without the book. She found that she had relied on the book without even realizing it.

When Le Guin tried to open the book, Philomel hastily grabbed his hand.

“Sorry, but could you try not to look at the contents?”

“Why?”

“Because…”

Philomel hesitated, unsure of what to say.

‘It’s too much to ask for someone not to check the content when investigating, right…?’

But she didn’t want to show the pages containing the contents she didn’t want anyone to see.

She had torn up pages that contained contents that she really didn’t want to show anyone.

Through various experiments, she found that if there were more undamaged pages than damaged ones, the book’s restoration ability wouldn’t work.

Just as Philomel hesitated about showing him the contents.

“Okay. If you don’t want to show me, I won’t look.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Philomel replied hesitantly.

“What, between us?”

Le Guin didn’t seem to matter.

Philomel clearly knew that to find out as many results as he wanted, the content also needed to be verified.

But I didn’t feel like showing them the book, either. It was also because I didn’t want to show the “Philomel” in the book, and because I liked them but didn’t believe them completely.

Let’s stay together a little longer and show it when we get closer.’

Philomel looked down at her fingertips and thought.

Le Guin, who received the book from Philomel, looked here and there and said.

“I don’t feel much energy, but I should take it to the mage tower and take it to see it.”

Lexion replied quickly.

“Yes. Go this time and finish your backlog or urgent work. You never know how much longer you’ll be here.”

Philomel was a little worried to hear that.

“As expected, isn’t there a lot of work to do on the tower?”

“Don’t worry. It won’t be a big deal if you’re here. I’m the only one who worked at the tower

One sad office worker was young at Lexion’s voice.

“… Cheer up.”

That was all Philomel could say.

It was then that a maid’s voice was heard at the entrance of the patronage.

“Mr. Philomel! Are you here?”

“Oh, my God, everybody, hide…”

The moment, Philomel was so startled that she said it.

Le Guin returned to the cat, and Lexion and Cardin’s figures disappeared in an instant.

It was only Jeremiah who sat peacefully in his seat as before.

Philomel looked back at the maid, thinking that there was no need to worry that others would reveal their existence.

“What’s going on?”

“You were in here.”

“I was just taking a break.”

“I apologize for interrupting. It’s just that His Majesty the Emperor has invited Lady Philomel to a banquet. I recommend it lightly, so you don’t have to feel burdened…”

“Is Princess Ellensia going to be there too?”

Philomel interrupted the maid’s words and asked. “Yes, that’s correct.”

After a moment’s thought, Philomel nodded her head.

“Okay, I’ll go and let them know.”

There was a limit to how much she could hear through other people’s ears if she wanted to know about Ellensia. She couldn’t leave out meeting her directly.

***

Philomel left for the banquet with the Emperor.

Jeremy followed her, and Cadin went back to work before getting caught.

Only Le Guin and Lexion remained in the state house.

Le Guin was extremely dissatisfied.

“What’s this? Why is he calling someone else’s daughter? 

“Isn’t it their side that raised Phil for ten years as their daughter?”

“What are you talking about? It’s my blood that’s mixed with hers.”

“Just because you gave birth to someone doesn’t mean you’re the only parent. In this case, Phil recognized their side as her parents. Le Guin, you stayed here because you wanted to be recognized by that child too.”

 Is that so? I didn’t know that.”

Then, after thinking for a while, he opened his mouth again.

“Should I just kill them?”

“Who? The Emperor? And the Princess too?”

Lexion asked with a trembling expression.

Le Guin spoke absentmindedly.

“Are you crazy?”

Le Guin, who recalled the memory of Philomel attaching the maid, who was a thief, to Ellensia as a third piece, said.

“The reason Phil is staying here is because of that, princess. Killing her would solve everything.”

Lexion sighed and rubbed his forehead.

“Will you just stay put in the empire? Please refrain from endangering us all the way to the mage tower. I will pass on, going to the underworld with Lord Le Guin.”

Le Guin became agitated from a completely irrelevant point.

“Do you think I’ll lose? I’m stronger than the emperor.”

“Well, if we only consider personal strength, I think Le Guin is superior. He also has a history of winning.”

His gaze under the glasses turned cold.

“But you must know why the Bellerophontic royal family has reigned over the continent as losers for so long. The emperor can wield the power of the gods. Among the past emperors, there were even those who summoned gods in the face of the danger of the country’s demise. No matter how great Le Guin is, how can he handle the gods?”

“You haven’t fought them, so you wouldn’t know.”

“Don’t be arrogant for no reason… anyway, that can’t happen. Remember that if you do, you’ll lose any chance of getting Phil’s favor.”

At the mention of not being able to win Phil’s favor, Le Guin visibly flinched.

“She doesn’t even like murder, and she may have built up some affection for the other side from spending time with them. As I said before, pretend to be a good person in front of Phil.”

“… Alright. I was just saying it for fun.” Le Guin grumbled as he got up from his seat.

“I need to go to Mage tower after a long time. It’s also to fulfill Phil’s request.”

With a flash of light, Le Guin disappeared.

Lexion also headed out in the background.

As if praying, he murmured, “I hope nothing happens while I’m staying here.”