A Perfectly Natural Symptom
The Crown Prince, likewise, seemed to have thought of someone, a trace of flustered confusion crossing his face.
"Above my head…?"
"Yes, sir — she'd be the only woman in any position to give you orders."
"……"
"There will be any number of complications before it actually comes to pass, but all in all, your romance luck is strikingly strong and favorable!"
"Congratulations, Lord Rian."
At my words, the Crown Prince jolted. Apparently he had no self-awareness on the matter whatsoever.
"No — I can guess who it might be, but that's not what this is about…"
"Next, please!"
The Crown Prince tried to protest, but with the priest already summoning the next customer, he had no choice but to give up his seat.
"That's just how the world works, Lord Rian. Things never flow in the direction you expect."
"No, it really shouldn't…"
I decided to leave the Crown Prince to it. He seemed to be going through what fans back home would call the denial phase — that awkward stretch right after you fall for something and refuse to admit it.
Then, having collected himself a little, the Crown Prince spoke up.
"Still, I did find something suspicious about that priest."
"Pardon? Suspicious how?"
"That man was gathering information under the pretense of reading fortunes."
And he was right. The priest had asked us not only for our names and dates of birth, but for heaps of trivial personal details besides. We had of course fed him fabrications, but most patrons would have trusted the Temple and offered up the real thing for the sake of an accurate reading.
"You're saying the fortune-telling was just a front for collecting information? But what would he even want with everyone's data? Oh — hold on. Could it be…!"
My eyes went wide as something dawned on me.
"He's going to steal their identities and take out loans in their names…!"
"No, there's no way it's that…."
"I was simply entertaining the worst-case scenario."
"That would indeed be the worst. But it isn't that."
Looking somewhat dumbfounded, the Crown Prince explained it to me.
"I don't have detailed access to Temple intelligence myself, but wouldn't it be used for the Grand Priest's ability?"
"You mean Miracle?"
I thought back to the Miracle I had seen in the original story.
"That's the one. From what I hear, it's an ability that can only be used with a price attached…."
"Information, names included, makes for an excellent price. It's entirely possible he offers up everything he collects as payment whenever he invokes it."
"Oh… I'll pay a visit to the Temple next time and find out for myself."
Not that I had risen above intern priest just yet.
If I leveraged the fact that CEO Park Geo-seong's essay was their Holy Scripture cleverly enough, a promotion might well be within reach….
"…Just don't push yourself too hard."
"How kind of you! Thank you, Lord Rian!"
"Right…."
We combed the rest of the festival after that, but it yielded little of note, so we decided to call it a day.
"By the way — has anything changed since I last visited the guild?"
The Crown Prince asked as we rode, and I answered him.
"We've taken on two new hires."
"And? How are they?"
"One is sweet, and one is sharp."
"The sweet one — could he perhaps be…."
"There's one called Chief Cedric. He's diligent, and very sweet."
"…Funny how 'competent' never came up."
"You're quick on the uptake."
"……"
After all, anyone genuinely competent wouldn't have joined our guild in the first place.
For some reason, the Crown Prince's face fell. Could he actually be disappointed in our guild?
"Ahem. Where is your house?"
"Oh, you can just drop me off in front of the guild."
"It's already evening. It would be dangerous for you to walk alone."
"Thank you."
His point was sound, so I accepted the kindness. He rode with me all the way home, a short distance from the guild.
"Thank you for your help with today's commission. I'll be counting on you going forward."
"Of course. I'll do my very best."
Walking me all the way to my door — the Crown Prince seemed gentler than I'd given him credit for. Unexpectedly enough, he knew how to be kind to the people who served under him.
Just then, the Crown Prince's gaze snagged on the street. The block in front of my house was on the shabby side.
I had inherited the house from my parents and held it in my own name, but it was hardly what you'd call a fine residence. Trash rolled along the roadside, and the walls bore the scars of old cracks.
"Is the security here… all right?"
"Oh, yes. It's the capital, after all. It's not bad."
"It seems like it could be a little dangerous, coming home late from work at night."
"Now that you mention it, I have heard rumors of the occasional pickpocket! But where in the world is there no pickpocketing?"
"…I see."
"Thank you for your concern."
"I wasn't worried, exactly… Well. Yes."
He seemed about to offer some excuse, then shut his mouth and rode away.
With the Crown Prince gone, I let myself into the snug warmth of my home. However short my time in this body had been, the place already felt entirely like my own.
Come to think of it — why did I transmigrate here in the first place…?
My own case made sense enough; I had apparently worked myself to death at the end there. But why had Audrette Lavendel vanished? Ah, right — the original story probably never bothered to explain details like that….
And amid the stray thoughts drifting up one after another, I drifted straight off to sleep.
After seeing Audrette off and returning to the palace, Cedrian found himself snagged on yet another thread of their earlier conversation.
Not a single word about me being handsome.
The way she had spoken of Chief Cedric — it had been the detached manner of a supervisor evaluating a subordinate, pure and simple.
He sank into anguished contemplation before the mirror.
…Are brown eyes really that unattractive?
He had chosen brown precisely because it drew the least attention, and granted, the magical item left his features oddly muted and different from his true face — but there was simply no conceivable way "Cedric's" face wasn't handsome….
"Your Highness? What seems to be the trouble? You've never shown the slightest interest in your appearance before."
"…Is it so strange for a man to look in a mirror?"
It was then that the words "brown eyes are perfectly ordinary" — spoken once by Audrette, and once by Latel, that scholar of the Tower of the Stars — came flooding back, and Cedrian bristled at Eric's remark.
"It isn't strange, no — but you have been rather odd lately, sir. You're showing every last one of the 'symptoms' His Majesty the Emperor predicted."
"What? What exactly did Father predict?"
"That sooner or later you would stare into mirrors, fuss over your appearance for no reason, try sweeping your hair into different styles, dab on cologne, gaze blankly at empty air, struggle to fall asleep at night, and suddenly laugh — or agonize — all by yourself… In short, His Majesty assured me these are perfectly natural symptoms. I have no idea what he meant by that, of course."
"I can't imagine what Father is thinking. Pay it no mind."
Cedrian had just moved to wave Eric out of the room when something occurred to him, and he spoke instead.
"By the way — are there still pickpockets in the capital these days?"
"Pardon? Naturally there are."
"To think public order has slipped that far. The very foundations of the empire are shaking."
"No, Your Highness. His Majesty has worked tirelessly to lock up every last robber and sex offender, every assailant and murderer, every thief there is — what on earth are you saying? Compared to the old days, it's nothing short of a blessing that all we have left is pickpockets!"
"We cannot rest content with that much. For the well-being of every subject of the empire, I intend to see even the pickpockets eradicated."
"Good grief… Did you happen to spot a pickpocket somewhere, sir?"
Cedrian hesitated a moment, then pressed on.
"It would be best to crack down on the pickpockets around the Global Information Network Guild in particular. Have the guard patrol the area more frequently. Left unchecked, they could yet pose a threat to me as well. This is for our guild's sake."
"…Our guild, Your Highness?"
"……"
Cedrian pretended, quite gratuitously, not to have heard Eric, and turned a sudden fascination on the mirror instead. But should his guild master ever fall prey to a pickpocket, the entire guild could well be plunged into crisis.
"What on earth…?"
When I tilted my head, having only just arrived at the guild, Cedric — already seated at his desk — spoke up.
"Is something the matter, ma'am?"
"No, it's just — did some kind of crime break out in the capital? The guards have been patrolling my neighborhood awfully often lately."
"Well, it improves public safety, doesn't it? Surely that's a good thing."
"I mean, I suppose so… Wait. Don't tell me—"
My conversation with the Crown Prince from the other day flashed through my mind, and my eyes flew wide open. I was hardly so oblivious as to miss a connection this obvious!
"Now that you mention it, I have heard rumors of the occasional pickpocket! But where in the world is there no pickpocketing?"
"…I see."
This was without a doubt the fruit of the Crown Prince's orders! And the reason he had commanded a crackdown on pickpockets was….
"So His Highness really was looking out for the safety of his people, after all!"
"Thank you."
"What? Why are you thanking him, Chief Cedric?"
"The words just slipped out."