Chapter 151
Chapter 151
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: Today’s the Day
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“So, today then?”
I tilted my chin up and down in the mirror, wondering what expression would piss her off the most, or cocked my head sideways as I asked. Luna, who had been adjusting my clothes from the side, nodded.
“That’s right. It’s the day you’re granted an audience with Princess Seria.”
“I’ll infiltrate Arman’s estate and try to initiate a conversation.”
Picking up where Luna left off, Zero replied. I tore my eyes away from the mirror, turned my body, and grinned.
“Zero, it’s fine if you fail.”
“Back then, maybe. But now, that just makes me even more persistent. You’re doing it on purpose, aren’t you? It’s working.”
I averted my gaze slightly at Zero’s words, delivered with a smile that seemed grateful for lighting a fire under him.
No, really, I meant it’s okay if you fail...
Truth be told, Zero had been like that from the start in a subtle way. Even now, knowing full well I’d awakened traits and gotten pretty strong, he sometimes reminded me of those early days out of the labyrinth—hiding sneakily behind my back when he wasn’t even Kane.
His build had grown to the point where it was incomparable now, yet he still seemed like a kid clueless about the world.
“Wait, but... is there anyone in our party who’s actually savvy about the world?”
I muttered my sudden doubt and scanned the room.
Luna subtly avoiding my eyes, Zero grinning as if to say it’s not him. Leaf, whose memories from a thousand years ago were mostly gone, was expressionless by nature, and Kane... Dude, I know exactly what’s up, yet you’re staring me down so confidently?
And Rachel...
“Well, what? Jeez. You guys need to know this. Whether human, elf, or dragon, people don’t know much about stuff outside their interests. Right?”
Thinking about it now, pulling Pian to my side was pure luck, seriously.
Look at the main party gathered here, including me who’s not even from this world.
My handpicked main party—we’ll just brute-force our way through with grit. Seriously. Wow.
At least Pian’s got solid common sense and a broad range of knowledge, and he’s starting to make a name in the information trade, so he’ll be our reliable fallback going forward.
“Ahem. Anyway. What appearance should I go with?”
“Something neutral like Gamur, probably?”
As Zero cleared his throat and asked, I perched my butt on the edge of the table and answered.
“Yeah, definitely. I’ve maintained a male body for so long that female forms feel awkward.”
“Weren’t doppelgangers originally genderless?”
“Still, we have preferred physical traits.”
Fair enough. It was hard to pin down Zero’s exact reason, but since it wasn’t a full-body assimilation of someone else—his form had solidified after training at the Starlight Spring.
“Alright, Gamur it is.”
Luna spoke up as she watched Zero, who grinned and claimed that the brutal beatdown back then had actually let him mimic Gamur’s movements and combat style perfectly.
“At least they’re not forbidding escorts this time. That’s a relief.”
“If they were, I wouldn’t go even if it killed me. After last time, if they had any conscience, they wouldn’t have suggested it so blatantly.”
They had none.
The message had come roundabout, saying to come alone without guards, and I’d pushed back just as roundabout, flatly refusing. In the end, the messenger had grudgingly allowed it in shorthand.
—I feel ashamed that I couldn’t be of much help in the capital. My apologies, Administrator.
“Me too, young master.”
I couldn’t fathom how those two clicked so well as I watched Luna and Leaf, then reached out with both hands to stroke their heads.
And for Luna, a little tug on her ears too.
“What are you talking about? Just being by my side is a huge help.”
Every unit has stages they specialize in, after all.
All-rounders like Kane are rare.
It’s just that this capital was way too stingy toward non-human races.
I’d framed it that way myself to sort my thoughts on units. Still, I patted Luna and Leaf, who felt like real family now, stroking them once more before turning to Rachel and Kane.
“So... can I count on you two?”
Zero would infiltrate Arman’s estate. Luna and Leaf would stand by at the inn and support a join-and-escape in the worst case.
That left Kane and Rachel as my escorts...
Whatever they’d done, Kane had vanished briefly and returned muttering about wishing all humans dead, while Rachel’s head seemed filled with nothing but violence and the thrill of a fight.
‘I have no choice but to trust these guys.’
They had personality flaws, sure, but denying they were my top firepower? Impossible.
“Huh? Jeez. If you can’t trust me and that monster, who can you trust?”
Rachel openly jabbed a finger into Kane’s side, calling him a monster right in front of him. Kane, unfazed as if it didn’t hurt, opened his mouth.
“But I won’t take responsibility for any unforeseen incidents.”
“Is that something an escort should say? You punk, don’t even think about picking a fight with the guards over some hypothetical bullshit. Just breathe easy and come back in one piece. Got it? You too, Rachel.”
“Ugh... What a shame.”
My two top assets were both battle maniacs.
I shook my head at Rachel, who pouted her lips in disappointment.
* * *
“No matter how many times I think about it, it was truly an excellent choice.”
Arman’s adjutant adjusted his monocle as he spoke. Arman, chin propped up, tapped his quill against the paper.
Black ink dotted it, the tiny spot spreading into a larger circle.
“Is that so?”
“You can see the siren craze sweeping the capital with your own eyes.”
Not only the exclusive trading rights for such a rarity, but permission from the original producer to pocket as much as he wanted on the side.
For any other noble, it’d be a miracle that came once in a lifetime, the adjutant said. Arman dipped his dulled quill in the inkwell and swept back his silver hair.
“That’s exactly why I’m saying it. No matter how I read the contract, there’s no loss for me, so I signed. But still.”
He couldn’t fathom what Adelian wanted in showing him such unearned favor.
The one thing to be most wary of in any deal was goodwill without reason.
Even in his hardships, he knew that well. The Southern Isles crawled with schemes, intrigues, and pirates.
“The more I read the reports, the more questions pile up.”
“You mean Young Master Adelian?”
“The public parts, fine. But even the underbelly I paid a fortune to uncover—it’s a total mess.”
To the point where Arman doubted if the man he’d met that day was truly Adelian.
The only common threads in the documents Arman was reading were his appearance and that arrogantly intense aura.
The Kruger family’s sole disgrace and stain. The epitome of a profligate, cruel, stupid noble with nothing but his bloodline—the incompetent poster child Adelian versus the Adelian Arman had seen and assessed with his own eyes were worlds apart.
‘What’s his deal?’
The alliance was sealed anyway. Some might call dwelling on it pointless now.
But an alliance meant both sides had to strive not to betray each other for the rest of their long lives.
And that hinged on how well you understood the other party.
Like not shoving sweets into the mouth of someone who hates them, assuming everyone loves them.
Even if you couldn’t be friends sharing good times, allies shouldn’t create rifts with petty harms.
‘So, in conclusion on Adelian... that’s it?’
That he was leaning in himself.
No matter how he thought about it, he didn’t seem like a total wastrel, nor someone following orders—the conversation had flowed smoothly without hitches, and the glint in those eyes wasn’t that of a debauched playboy.
“I’ll figure it out eventually. As I do my part.”
A normal person might just bask in it as the luck of a lifetime, but from Arman’s position, it truly felt like a debt of the heart, just as Adelian had said.
‘Acting like he knows my temperament.’
As he sorted his messy thoughts and rose,
His adjutant, who had grabbed the door handle to bring a glass of wine before bed, froze along with him.
“......”
Not a word passed between them.
Even Arman’s adjutant, an aura user who doubled as close protection.
Before debating strength levels, it was a primal fear stabbing at the core instinct of any living being.
The moment a finger twitched or the tongue slipped in this space thick with razor-thin ice.
A premonition of being devoured alive by something.
‘This is...’
He’d felt similar killing intent once before.
When he’d opened the arena to test Adelian after inviting him, unleashing his own.
‘But compared to then...’
That had been like standing in a pit coiled with snakes.
This was an even more primal dread.
As cold sweat seeped from Arman’s body, trickling down his nose and dripping to the floor.
“We meet at last.”
A voice spoke.
Yet despite no paralysis, instinct screamed that one wrong twitch would erase even his form. Arman held his breath, eyes darting without opening his mouth.
A faint floral scent like fresh grass. A black-robed figure concealing everything from face to toe, yet with a slender tall frame.
The hood near the ears subtly distorted in shape.
‘An elf?’
“I’ve heard about you... from him.”
An awkward pronunciation, like mimicking someone else’s voice and speech.
‘Using an artifact to disguise voice and tone to hide identity?’
The fact they’d spoken meant intent to converse.
Unlike the earlier stifled terror in the silence, Arman’s pale lips parted slowly.
Like a child just finding his voice, tongue thick and sluggish.
“...Who are you.”
A pale, supple hand approached Arman’s bronze neck as if to grasp it, halting half a fingernail’s breadth away before slowly descending.
Then it gripped his shoulder as if to crush the collarbone, and the black-robed figure replied languidly.
“We are...”
* * *
What a sullen face.
Seria giggled at her nursemaid.
“Why so glum, nursemaid? Huh? You used to say just seeing my face filled you up and made you happy.”
Dressed this prettily, he won’t be able to hold back a smile? Seria grabbed the hem of her dress and spun a full circle in place.
Like an angel just descended from myth.
Wavy honey-gold hair and deep amethyst eyes meticulously faceted like gems.
Rose-blush cheeks and soft skin, plus a white dress embroidered with gold thread for accent on her stunning figure.
So breathtaking she almost didn’t look alive, she’d even added a violet pansy to one side of her hair for liveliness.
“It’s because you’re dressed like this just to meet... that wastrel Adelian of all people.”
Her nursemaid’s grumble made Seria’s eyes widen in unfamiliarity before she covered her mouth with both hands and laughed brightly.
“Oh, come on. You told me yourself before.”
Show your enemies even more beauty and nobility.
Let them know they can’t touch your class.
“Exactly.”
“But... in this outfit at a ball, invitations would flood in instantly.”
If she could snag a decent one as a consort, that’d be nice.
At her sigh-tinged words, Seria’s purple eyes flashed coldly.
“Nursemaid, I want to be with someone purely for who they are. I’m perfect, so I don’t need to weigh utility for whoever stands by me.”
Some nobles saw marriage as life’s greatest task or ultimate prize, but Seria was different. Marriage? Do it or don’t—it didn’t matter.
If she became emperor, she might take multiple consorts for continental balance like her father, but no need now.
Of course, that didn’t mean she’d forgive Adelian for dragging her name through the mud.
Since the dirt was there anyway, her temperament demanded she repay it in kind to settle.
“Then I’ll be off, nursemaid.”
“Come back safe, Crown Princess.”
Seria flashed a radiant smile at her waving hand.