A Familiar Gesture
How did I feel about men wearing makeup? I thought it was something only celebrities or actors did. That was the extent of my awareness. I had assumed I'd go through life without ever touching the stuff.
"Stop frowning like that. You'll smudge the mascara."
"Understood."
"And keep your mouth still."
"······."
That was before I came here. When I mentioned attending the social gathering, Emilia had naturally led me to her room. And now here I was, looking like this. Last time she'd had to bring a portable pouch, so the selection of cosmetics had been limited. This time she was beaming, saying she could go all out.
It had been at least ten minutes since she started. When was this going to end?
I glanced around Emilia's room. Come to think of it, this was the first time I'd been in here since the move. The spotless space, not a single trinket out of place, perfectly reflected her near-obsessive neatness. With a personality like that, it was a wonder she managed to clean my pigsty of a room. It must have been torture for her.
"Have you found out anything about the ring?"
Emilia broke the awkward silence first.
"No. Unfortunately not."
"I see."
I lied without a hint of shame. I had visited the information broker, but I hadn't asked a single question. All I needed was an alibi to show the Intelligence Bureau that I'd tried to look into the ring. The Bureau had probably poked around themselves, but they wouldn't have found anything either. Aside from the imperial family and a few Ma-in, no one knew about the Miracle Ring.
"What do you think it means? Giving you that ring."
"I chose it myself. There's no deeper meaning."
"From my perspective, it seemed like the Crown Prince deliberately provoked your competitive spirit to make you pick it······."
Emilia spoke with uncertainty. To someone who knew nothing, it might indeed look that way. As if he'd tricked me into thinking there was something valuable in the safe, only to hand over an ordinary ring.
"I suppose that's possible."
"Then let me change the question. What do you think of His Highness the Crown Prince?"
"He is a most dignified person. Beautiful, possessing both wisdom and virtue—a man worthy of the imperial throne."
"No, not that kind of answer······."
Emilia let out a frustrated sigh. Come to think of it, I'd been asked this question at the imperial palace as well. I couldn't figure out why Emilia was asking again now.
"Can I ask one more thing?"
"Since when do you ask permission?"
"Ah. You're right. Then my final question. Just hypothetically. If you had to marry either someone you truly love or someone who would bring you great benefit······ which would you choose?"
"The question doesn't hold. I have no one I truly love."
Because that person was no longer in this world.
"That's why I said 'if.'"
"If such a person appears, I'll tell you then."
Emilia pursed her lips slightly, looking a little sulky. That wasn't the answer she'd wanted. I couldn't understand why this question had suddenly come up.
"There, all done."
I looked into the hand mirror she handed me. I couldn't help but be impressed. It didn't look like I'd worn makeup at all, yet my eyes appeared twice as large as usual. At this rate, I might actually start enjoying it······ No, scratch that last thought.
"I'll be off then. No need to see me out."
"No, of course I······"
Thud! Ting······
The moment Emilia slammed the door shut and left the room, a metallic sound echoed through the mansion. More precisely, it was the sound of metal hitting the floor and bouncing. A dagger······ probably. It must have been hanging on a closet or something and fallen from the impact of the door closing. Emilia's stiff expression confirmed it.
"Did something fall?"
"It's nothing."
"Really?"
"Yes. It's fine."
When I tried to return to Emilia's room, she hesitated and blocked my way. Even then, her face showed no trace of panic. She really was a professional.
An idea struck me. I focused briefly on the surrounding mana and······ cast a minor gravity spell as a prank, making sure to conceal the formula so Emilia wouldn't notice.
"I'll really be going now."
"Yes."
It was a shame I wouldn't get to see Emilia's expression when she discovered my little trick.
"······?"
After seeing Schluss off, Emilia flung open the closet door, and her eyes widened. What should have been there was gone. Or rather, it wasn't in the place it should have been.
"How······"
That clear metallic sound she'd heard earlier had definitely been a dagger falling. The sound of it hitting the closet floor and rolling around. Nothing else in Emilia's room could have made that noise, so she was certain. But why? Why on earth—
"What happened?"
The dagger was hanging perfectly on the closet wall, as if it had never fallen. Since Schluss had heard the sound at the same time, it wasn't an auditory hallucination. Had they both been hypnotized? Or had the dagger flown up by itself and reattached to the wall? Either way, it was utterly bizarre.
"What is going on?"
Emilia stepped out into the hallway and slammed the door shut again, exactly as before. Thud! Ting······ Another similar sound rang out. She rushed back and opened the closet— this time the dagger had fallen.
"What the hell is this?!"
Thoroughly unsettled, Emilia clutched her head and collapsed onto the bed. There was no way to explain what had just happened. The thought that something else might be inside this mansion began to creep into her mind. With a house this large, having one or two ghosts wouldn't be strange······
"Ugh!"
Emilia shuddered and shook her head. That couldn't be it. It absolutely couldn't be. She convinced herself she'd misheard and tried to calm her pounding heart. A person would die quickly if stabbed in the heart, lungs, or liver, but ghosts were different. The fact that Emilia, known as a ruthless assassin, was afraid of ghosts was a secret even from her fellow Intelligence Bureau agents.
"Anyway······"
With her nerves somewhat settled, Emilia replayed her conversation with Schluss. That endlessly frustrating exchange.
"It seems he still hasn't caught on."
She'd asked just in case, wondering if he'd noticed the ring's meaning. But Schluss had seemed completely oblivious. He probably just thought he'd unluckily ended up with a worthless ring. In reality, it had been nothing less than a confession from the Crown Prince······
"Haah. You dense bear."
There was far too much evidence. First, the Emperor's question about marriage to the Crown Prince had been far too abrupt. Schluss had brushed it off as a joke, but the Emperor's eyes had been deadly serious. Then there was the safe. It had blatantly provoked Schluss, who was just beginning to be recognized as a master of spell-breaking. Drawn to it as if entranced, Schluss had broken the seal and obtained the ring in question. Finally, through the Intelligence Bureau, she'd heard rumors that the Crown Prince wore a ring identical to Schluss's. At this point, it was certain. The Crown Prince had given Schluss the ring as an indirect confession, and Schluss had taken it despite having the chance to exchange it. The Crown Prince had likely interpreted that as acceptance and was now proudly wearing the ring as a couple's item. Meanwhile, the person in question had no idea······
"I wonder if this is going to cause a huge problem later."
Schluss already had someone he liked. He was madly in love with Iris, the Saintess of Flechette. That much was obvious from the indecent······ game he'd played right in front of her. Iris also seemed to have feelings for Schluss, given how she kept coming to him for help. If the Crown Prince found out, he'd feel betrayed and fly into a rage. Then Schluss would have to make a choice. Whether to choose Iris, whom he truly loved, or the Crown Prince, who would bring him benefit. But that clueless fool had dodged the question, leaving his decision unknown.
"What if······"
There were only two choices. What if one more were added? The thought suddenly occurred to her.
"If I were to interfere······"
Schluss was clearly someone favorable toward the Intelligence Bureau. If she stole his heart and then revealed that she was actually an agent, wouldn't she be able to secure his active cooperation?
"······What nonsense."
Realizing how absurd the idea was, Emilia covered her eyes with her arm. The very notion of winning a battle for Schluss against the Saintess and the Crown Princess was ridiculous. Revealing she was an Intelligence Bureau agent? The more she thought about it with a clear head, the more impossible it sounded. She couldn't even understand why she'd considered such a possibility in the first place.
For some reason, Emilia felt a pang in her chest and abruptly sat up. She needed to check the mail she'd received that morning. The encrypted message from the Intelligence Bureau via Walter Bank.
"It's been a while. I wonder what it says."
The Bureau rarely sent information this way, fearing decryption. Emilia felt puzzled as she applied the decryption key and began assembling the decoded message.
"Schluss. Agent personal information stolen. Danger. Flee······?"
At first Emilia tilted her head in confusion—
"Ha······ They're insane······"
But as she grasped the meaning, her face turned deathly pale.
Night had already fallen. I stepped out of the carriage and straightened my clothes. So that was Heinrich Castle. Its owner was dead, but it was still occasionally used for banquets and such.
"Tsk······"
I hadn't even gone inside yet, but I could already hear fireworks exploding. The sound of lively chatter reached me as well, reminding me of clubs from the real world. I hated places like that. After today, I was never attending another social gathering again.
"Please show your invitation."
"Schluss Heinkel."
"Pardon?"
The guard at the entrance made a stupid sound and looked up. When he saw my face, his eyes widened.
"I'm sorry. Even if you're the top student at the Imperial Academy, without an invitation······"
"I was invited by the House of Flechette."
"Pardon? One moment······"
The guard began frantically flipping through the guest list, looking flustered. When he reached the very last page—
"Ah! Here it is! My apologies! You may enter!"
"······"
He bowed repeatedly, apologizing profusely. I'd been worried I might have to beat some sense into him, but fortunately this one had basic manners.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry······"
I left the apologizing guard behind and finally stepped into the castle.
"Damn it—"
And immediately, my mood soured. Because standing there was a woman in a gorgeous dress, a beautiful lady whose age was hard to guess at a glance—the Duchess of Lichtenburg.
"Ha."
"······"
The Duchess met my eyes, then turned away, ignoring me completely. That bitch. What was I supposed to do? I should be groveling, yet she was acting all high and mighty. I'd planned to leave her alone, but seeing her face changed my mind. I needed to give her some kind of warning. Make sure she never touched me again.
Just as I was thinking that—
"Let's go."
"······Yes."
I froze when I saw the wheelchair appear behind the Duchess. It was Yulia again. She looked exactly like her, no matter how many times I saw her. I never wanted to meet her again. My teeth clenched involuntarily. A maid-like person was pushing Yulia's wheelchair, following the Duchess. That was when it happened. Yulia stuck her hand out behind her.
'······Huh?'
She spread three fingers—the gesture for three—and waved her hand slowly. It meant to meet her separately in three hours. The problem was that this······
'What the hell?'
It was a code that only Han A-rum and I knew. The fact that Yulia, who was merely a character in the novel, was using a signal she couldn't possibly know—that was the problem.