Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Cookie's Report
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Cookie placed a wing over his pounding heart, patting himself to calm down.
[The Grand Duke really is a scary person, Lucy.]
Ah, right. His voice couldn't reach Lucy from here.
Once he was outside a certain range, he couldn't hear Lucillea's voice, nor could he send her his own.
Cookie gazed wistfully in Lucillea's direction and muttered.
[That’s a bit of a shame.]
Wouldn't it be great if his voice could reach her even from far away?
[Then I could give her a thrilling, real-time update.]
*Hooo.* After taking a deep breath, Cookie finally peeled himself away from the window he’d been stuck to.
His legs were still trembling slightly, but he thought of Lucillea waiting for him and decided to press on.
As he carefully walked across the snow-covered windowsill, a series of tiny plops sounded. *Plop, plop, plop, plop.* A trail of ridiculously tiny bird footprints marked the pristine white snow.
[Ah, cold! Oof, my toes!]
What if my cute little toes freeze and snap right off?
[I’m going to ask for a ton of fruit when I get back….]
Feeling inexplicably sorry for himself, Cookie grumbled as he moved to the edge of the sill.
He then peeked his head out and cautiously looked up at the floor above.
*Phew.* Thankfully, the window to the Grand Duke’s drawing room was shut tight.
[Heeheehee, he may be a scary Grand Duke, but he couldn't find Cookie in the end, could he? With my swift movements, he didn’t even realize I was hiding here, did he?]
Feeling smug at having outsmarted Elbadin, Cookie lifted his chin and swayed his body from side to side as if dancing.
*Couldn't find me, could you? I hid well, didn't I?*
Just then, he felt the sensation in his toes disappearing.
[My toes are really going to freeze at this rate.]
Deciding he needed to get back to Lucillea quickly, Cookie glanced up at the sky once before soaring into the air.
[Luuucy! Poor Coookieee!]
Just in time, he saw Lucillea pressed against her bedroom window, looking for him.
[Yay! Lucy!]
Lucillea opened the window and held out her arms toward him.
[Lucy….]
The harsh winds made the return journey difficult.
But regardless of the cold, the sight of Lucillea with her arms outstretched for him filled him with a surge of strength.
[Lucy! Luuucy!]
“Cookie!”
Lucillea gently caught the incoming Cookie, cupping him in her hands.
[Lucy!! Waaah!]
Cookie, who had been looking so smug just moments ago, suddenly burst into tears.
[I was so scared I thought my heart was going to explode! Do you have any idea how terrifying the Grand Duke was?! If I’d been a second later, he would have caught me!]
With a series of disgruntled chirps, the unique sound he made when complaining, Cookie grumbled on.
*There, there. Is that so?* Lucillea wholeheartedly agreed with Cookie’s brief assessment.
‘If I didn’t have memories of my past life, I probably would have frozen up and cried or fainted, too.’
Just like any other child would have.
Lucillea gently stroked the back of Cookie’s small, round head with her index finger.
“You did a great job. I have no idea how startled I was, either.”
It was true. When the window had burst open and Elbadin appeared, her heart had sunk seeing Cookie dive to the floor below just in time.
For a brief moment, she had even regretted sending him.
Once Cookie had calmed down a little, Lucillea met his eyes and asked.
“So? Did you hear what they talked about? How did they seem? Did they look like they were on good terms?”
[…My toes are frozen, you know?]
“Ah.”
*Hooo.* Lucillea blew warm air onto Cookie’s toes and asked again.
“They weren’t fighting, were they? Was the atmosphere tense?”
*Ahem.*
Cookie lifted his tiny beak and said.
[They seemed to be on veeery bad terms.]
“…Huh? Bad terms?”
[Yes! They were like the village chief of Mielle and Nancy, the head of the women’s association.]
“…Ah.”
Lucillea let out a short sigh.
In Mielle Village, the chief and Nancy of the women's association were mortal enemies.
They stopped just short of pulling each other's hair whenever they met, but they were the type to curse each other out with just their gazes.
“It was that bad?”
[Yes! The Grand Duke said, “What’s a busy man like you doing here?!” and the priest said, “The High Priest wishes to see you, Your Highness!”]
Cookie began recounting what he’d heard, mimicking Elbadin and the priest’s voices.
[He also said something like, ‘The temple that sucks the… go-ryeol? Go-yeol? Anyway, the temple that sucks the lifeblood from the empire's people should shut up!’]
“It must be *gohyeol*.”
[Ah, yes, yes! That’s it!]
Cookie, delighted as a child who’d gotten an answer right, continued with a more serious expression.
[But things got a little strange from there.]
“What did?”
[The Grand Duke sent everyone else out of the drawing room, right? Then, all of a sudden, the priest's tone became polite. On the other hand, the Grand Duke started speaking informally.]
As if he were addressing one of the grand ducal household’s employees. The priest, too, had been nothing but deferential to the Grand Duke.
What Cookie relayed next only complicated things further in Lucillea's mind.
‘A priest named Lucanel was passing on inside information about the Imperial Family and the temple?’
She couldn’t know how much Cookie remembered or how accurately he was relaying it, but based on the content alone…
‘They aren't on bad terms, they were just pretending to be…?!’
In short, it meant the priest named Lucanel was a spy the Grand Duke had planted in the temple.
There was talk about a new magic department being a bit strange, that the Empress was behind it, and something about a mage of unknown identity.
She decided to pretend she hadn’t heard any of that.
‘My head hurts enough as it is.’
Ugh. Why were so many things happening before the original story had even started…?
After getting Cookie some fruit and nuts, Lucillea walked over to the sofa and flopped down.
‘So the Grand Duke’s family wasn’t just sitting on their hands.’
They had collapsed so pathetically in the original story that she assumed they hadn't prepared at all.
‘Still, for them to have prepared enough to plant someone in the temple, they sure fell easily.’
Was it because Serdian was too powerful once he became emperor?
Her thoughts drifted that far, but it didn't feel immediate.
‘For now, that's a very distant future.’
Serdian had to come of age and ascend to the throne first.
And.
‘There’s no guarantee I’ll even be alive by then.’
The time she was given only extended that far.
‘I have to improve my relationship with Serdian before then.’
Whether it was the relationship between Elbadin and Serdian, or between herself and Serdian.
‘If either one improves, my chances of survival go up.’
Of course, the option of improving the relationship between her and her biological father, Elbadin, was not among the examples.
It was as if that possibility didn't even exist in Lucillea’s mind.
*Hup!*
Lucillea shot up from her seat again.
“This is no time for me to be lazing around just because I’m full and warm!”
She exclaimed in a spirited voice, then grabbed her coat again and left the bedroom.
It was time for dinner.
***
*Chirp, chirp.*
Cookie made a sound as if something displeased him.
“Oh my, I’ve never seen a parrot before!”
“Me too, me too. I’ve only seen them in books, never in person!”
Lucillea, who had gone to the east annex dining hall to meet Serdian, failed to find him and ended up here, in the main building’s laundry room.
The maids gathered in the laundry room crowded around Cookie.
Cookie, his eyes narrowed, glanced at Lucillea.
Lucillea was sucking on a lollipop one of the maids had given her, asking the employees various questions with an innocent face.
“So you’re saying the head butler brought Serdian his dinner?”
“Yes, since Jed went to the Marquis’s estate. The head butler took dinner to the east annex for him.”
“I seeee…”
So that’s why the dining hall was empty…
‘That brat… There’s no reason for him to avoid me like this!’
Lucillea wanted to barge into Serdian’s room right away, but she decided to hold back.
She couldn’t risk making him dislike her even more.
‘Well, since it’s come to this, I might as well ask these ladies a few things while I’m here.’
She’d been worried since she had never spoken with the employees before, but contrary to her concerns, they were surprisingly kind to Lucillea.
One of the maids, who was folding freshly dried laundry, spoke up.
“You didn’t know about the fifth floor?”
Lucillea’s eyes widened as she nodded.
“No one ever told me. Oh, but I did hear something.”
*Hm?* The maids looked at Lucillea with curious faces.
“What did you hear?”
“They asked what kind of trick I pulled on His Highness the Grand Duke to get to go to the fifth floor as soon as I arrived.”
“…Pardon?”
*Gasp.* The flustered maids all shut their mouths at once.
*Ehehe,* Lucillea laughed innocently.