Chapter 115
Chapter 115
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 115
Chapter Title: Microwave (4)
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3rd day morning.
The heir to Penheim's throne, who had vowed to definitely meet Marquis Elvin and learn the tin can manufacturing method, hadn't come out of her room.
It was right after she had parted ways with Liv and finished a light wash-up while gazing at the rising sun.
The bellboy tilted his head, noting that she hadn't even eaten breakfast despite knocking on the door with no sign of her emerging.
Seeing the bingsu piled high with meat toppings made the reason easy to guess.
"Your Highness, are you in there?"
— No such person here...
"Come on out. Are you really going to give up on the empire's secrets over some food fuss?"
— I'd rather die. I miss Piy.
Should I take that to mean she wants chicken?
After struggling for two days in the empire's salon, which could rightly be called a heaven of bizarre foods, she must have been missing home cooking.
"I'm coming in?"
I opened the door with the spare key the hotel had given me under the pretext of being her guard.
The first thing that caught my eye in the room with its white marble floor was a massive bed fit for the Persian dynasty.
On the floor rolled the medicine packet I'd delivered yesterday and empty purified water bottles.
"Louis, where do you sneak off to every night? Bet you're going to eat something tasty without me...?"
When I poked Erzebet wriggling under the covers, a trembling hand shot out and grabbed me.
Her cheeks looked gaunt as she revealed herself along with her disheveled hair.
"Reading books at the library."
"What about meals? Does the library have anything resembling normal food!?"
"Well, they seem to have coffee or something... Who knows."
I hadn't eaten anything since arriving in Uzet.
Soda water at best?
Liv was such a light eater that she managed Uzet's peculiar foods just fine.
She argued that people could think straight on just seaweed stems alone, but I wasn't as much of a genius as her, so I couldn't agree at all.
"If it's that rough, how about I go to the market and find something edible?"
"Really...?"
"Yeah. Buy some simple ingredients, borrow the hotel's kitchen facilities, and cook it up."
I was fine, but if she kept skipping meals like this, it'd wreck her health regardless of tin cans or anything else.
And touring the city sounded more fun than standing around bored all day at a party.
"The issue is I won't be by your side if something happens..."
"It's fine! The guidebook doesn't mention any terrorism or dangers at Marquis Elvin's party, so please...!"
Her face brightened as she even begged me outright, so she must have been desperate.
"Then I'll prep something you can eat for dinner. So get up already."
"Promise? It's a deal?"
"Yeah, yeah."
I wasn't much of a cook, but I could manage deep-frying chicken, so I decided to grant her request.
Only after she got dressed happily and left the hotel could I finally get my first proper sleep in three days.
As the sun began to set, I woke up from the luxury bed I'd used for the first time, slipped on some slippers haphazardly, and headed to the streets.
The crisp autumn breeze swept through the street trees, carrying the hues of sunset, filling Uzet's cityscape with vibrant red and yellow maple leaves in full bloom.
Every sight that met my eyes—from the sky to the ground beneath my feet—was awash in brilliant crimson and gold. But one color that stood out even more passed right in front of me.
It was Saintess Caroline, her hair redder than the deepest autumn leaves.
"Haa..."
As if even such encounters had become routine, she shot a sour glare at a temple on one side of the street before turning to me.
"Where you headed?"
"Market to buy chicken."
"Okay."
Her unchanged blunt tone and curt reply seemed to shut down further talk.
Yet her direction suddenly flipped to match mine exactly, opposite from where she'd been going.
Was she looking for the market too?
Having her follow silently behind made me a bit scared she might suddenly stab me.
But what touched my shoulder amid the tension wasn't a cold blade, but something much shorter and blunter.
"Wanna smoke one?"
A cigarette about the length of a finger.
She was offering it to me.
"Nah, don't need..."
"It's the finest tobacco leaves, grown only in Monarch's northern Solproid region, blessed with holy water. Unless you're a church priest, you couldn't buy one for 100 gold even if you tried."
"I'll take a puff."
I snatched the cigarette quick.
"Got a light?"
"Figure it out yourself."
"Can't use magic."
"What? Haa..."
Caroline brought her finger to my lips, and a white holy flame ignited.
Among continent's smokers, there had once been heated debates about how the choice of flame affects the taste.
Mercenaries hardened by battlefields swore by the natural fire from flint, while some nobles claimed the blue flame—one of the higher elemental magics—elevated the flavor further.
I didn't know who was right, but the cigarette Caroline gave me harmonized its leaf and ember beautifully, delivering delicious smoke deep into my lungs.
As my head buzzed pleasantly, my wariness toward her loosened just a tad.
"Thanks, but why this?"
"...If I don't seduce you, the world ends or something."
"What'd you say?"
"Nothing. More importantly, why buy chicken at the market?"
Maybe because she was from the Blood Oath Brigade, even casual words carried an interrogative edge.
Her sharp eyes made her the epitome of a fierce woman.
"Nothing big. Her Highness can't stomach the food here."
"Hmph, ridiculous. Throwing a food fit in foreign lands—especially a country where getting your identity exposed lands you in prison."
"Can't be helped. In a warzone, she'd eat dead monster meat, but this is an academy city."
"War? You fought in the Great War too?"
"Well... a bit."
We kept walking and chatting without stopping.
Surprisingly, we clicked in conversation.
Neither of us had lived the aristocratic life of typical academy students.
Her tales of alleyway childhood or working as an inquisitor under the church echoed my own battlefield days quite closely.
Even as we deftly steered stories away—she to hide her brigade origins, I to conceal being a hero—a strong sense of kinship bloomed.
"What, so you stabbed the heart of everyone you saw to check for doppelgangers?"
"That's what we did back then. You don't still do that?"
"Idiot. In Monarch, we found a countermeasure by evening. It's barely used now due to side effects, but since the war's over."
"What's that?"
"It's kinda classified... but nothing major. Cup your ear."
Her straightforward personality and similar age made it easy to talk.
I didn't like the church or holy kingdom much, but as a saintess, she was essentially stamped 'good person' by Hella herself, so no real enmity.
"Doppelgangers copy memories but can't perceive external brainwashing. Implant a deep subconscious trigger like 'releases upon seeing a mirror,' and the moment it's replicated, it's already different from the original..."
But mid-conversation, Caroline suddenly pulled away from me.
Wondering what was up, I glanced around—just as a fancy carriage from the opposite direction halted.
The person who emerged from it was—
"Boss~!!"
"Ah, Chairman?"
Gone were her usual shabby robe and pointy hat that looked like it'd assign dorms; Lehel appeared in a completely transformed look.
Draped in gold and jewels, her dazed eyes clearly hinted at the source of her funds.
"Win big?"
"Yess~! This place is a dream city for sure!"
"Dreamy, yeah..."
"Oh, Saintess too? Hello!"
"Yes. Hello."
Unlike Lehel's beaming smile, Caroline didn't seem pleased at all.
She greeted awkwardly, avoiding eye contact.
"If I win more, I'll swing by your room, Boss! With booze like in Sandalphonia! What's the address?"
"West wing of Merritts Hotel across the street. But I might be too busy..."
"Perfect! There's a casino nearby where my old pals hang out. I'll drop by, and if you're not there, might as well gamble. Oh, but what're you two doing?"
"Nothing much, ran into her on the way to market. Buying food since Her Highness feels ill."
"Ah~ I get it. Between us, honestly, the empire deserved to fall. After the emperor's decree stuffing raisins in every bread, revolts broke out everywhere. I hunkered down south eating mostly rice for a while..."
Lehel seemed genuinely thrilled rather than glum from losses, naturally prolonging the chat.
"You two close?"
"Yep! Boss and I are co-signing everything! Want this gold necklace, Boss?"
"No need."
"...For real?"
Caroline dropped the last of her cigarette from her hand.
Her eyelids twitched, shoulders slumping as if her soul had fled.
She suddenly veered to the street corner and started muttering oddly into the air.
— Wait, I didn't know he was married! Even if I follow the oracle...
— I thought it was just youthful folly? He's no noble either! That Roshiar kid last time just spouted nonsense too.
— Goddess shouldn't give oracles like this from the start? Can't even restore my body? Got grabbed on the street thirty times today alone!
— No reply as expected? Ha, fine. We'll see when I get back to Pharenchia and grab the Ouija Board. You know it's a 3rd-grade holy relic, right?
— And handle Sacreer yourself, so butt out, Reincarnation Duke.
— I... was talking first...
Hiiing!!
"Wha—what?! The carriage is moving on its own! B-Boss, see you later—!!"
Her sudden outburst spooked the horses into bolting, leaving Lehel bent over the window as she vanished into the distance.
Then Caroline tapped my shoulder again from behind.
"What the hell was that just now?"