Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Ariasfil Learns - 4
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Current situation doesn't make sense, so let's sort it out slowly.
I clearly went all out against Eirin in the duel arena. And my sure-kill attack failed; I was subdued and defeated.
Yeah, that's how it should have been.
"Why are you just sitting there? Is black tea not to your taste?"
But why am I now drinking black tea in a cafe?
The doubt about that remained unresolved.
Come to think of it, as my mind grew hazy, Eirin had held me and formed a teleportation magic circle.
...And we moved here.
...Ah... yes...
It was clearly praise while looking at a friend's descendant, but because of the explanation I'd heard earlier, it felt strangely distant.
If I hadn't heard that talk back then, I wouldn't have thought anything of it.
As the Sage said, there was a sense of incongruity in the cafe too. No matter how off-peak the hour, this place was unusually devoid of people.
"This shop is one I personally operate. You can think of it as a sort of hobby."
I'd seen people working in teahouses as a hobby before, but actually running a cafe was a first. As expected of a mage from a chaebol family.
Now, I didn't want to hear the Sage's words. It wasn't the Sage's fault so much as Leo himself feeling bitter pain from knowing the hidden secret of this situation.
"So, what's the reason for suddenly dragging me to a teahouse?"
"Would 'wanting to leisurely unravel our story just the two of us' not suffice?"
She offered the teacup and sugar bowl with a relaxed smile. Having slightly undone her top button, as she leaned forward, her cleavage came into view.
"Probably insufficient. For that, there's always the normal way of walking here."
"I'm deeply intrigued by you as a man."
Then, in a rare move, she covered her mouth with a light laugh. The Sage spectated her actions as if finding them amusing in his own way.
"I want to learn more about you, but that place had too many interlopers."
Exuding mature allure, she brushed her hair behind her ear.
"Not drinking the tea?"
"Sorry, but once I understand the situation, I'll enjoy it."
Seeing Leo's guarded demeanor, she seemed to find his reaction cute and brought the teacup back to her lips.
"As you see, no poison. It's a richly flavored tea, so please enjoy it at ease."
A deep lipstick mark remained on the teacup's rim. It was an intense shade no man could ignore.
The comparison target was odd, but Leo picked up the teacup without flinching.
"Then I'll gratefully partake."
Leonardo lightly pulled a paper napkin and wiped the lipstick from the teacup. Then he smoothly sipped the black tea.
"Yes, you even mixed in recovery potion. Thank you."
"...Quite hygiene-conscious."
It might seem rude at first glance, but Leonardo was well aware.
"Think of it less as hygiene and more a ritual to keep emotions from the conversation."
"A somewhat disappointing reply. Drawing a line?"
"Feel free to see it as my stance that this approach won't sway me."
Leonardo had faced such temptations countless times and had dignified countermeasures prepared.
"...Ugh...!!"
Ariasfil Reinhardt, having her man stolen by her love rival, swung her sword wildly in the arena to vent her fury.
Even the spectating mages looked around in bewilderment, searching for the vanished Eirin and Leonardo.
"...Th...th...!"
Her rage boiled over so intensely that Ariasfil lost even the power of speech. The filthy whispers that vixen had murmured to Leonardo echoed in Aria's ears too.
I like you. You're more than fit to be my mate.
From now on, be my man. Too many people here—let's move somewhere cozy, just us.
It felt like unsaid words had been added, but Ariasfil clearly heard it that way.
"...Where...! Where did they go...?!"
That woman alone—she wouldn't forgive her. Absolutely wouldn't let her off unscathed. All women coveting Leo, she'd cut down with her own hands.
At that moment, the mana essence resonated with her heart.
"Eh...?"
The spirits drifting around shared mana, pointing out Leo's location.
"...Thank you...!!"
Contrary to her words of thanks, Ariasfil bolted from the arena with hatred and jealousy blazing on her face.
Following the spirits led to a quiet street's teahouse; the mana fairies indicated the cafe interior.
Fortunately, no blinds on the windows, so the inside was visible.
The problem: approaching to eavesdrop would get her caught.
"...Then..."
Ariasfil used the aura technique Leonardo had taught her. Concentrating body-wide mana into one sense organ amplified that sense several-fold.
Aura to the eyes boosted eyesight; to the ears, hearing. Leo had originally taught it for poisons or ambushes, but Ariasfil felt no qualms using it.
She was protecting her knight, after all.
Enhanced vision clearly revealed the hazy cafe interior. There sat Eirin and her Leo, cozily facing each other over tea.
"...Th-that... vixen...!!"
Look at those lust-filled eyes—that fox was desperately writhing to seduce pure Leo.
Deliberately exposing cleavage, lowly eye-smiling, sweetly offering the teacup—all utterly infuriating.
Leo, flustered, hadn't even touched his tea.
If she rushed in now, she could rescue Leo from that vixen.
The moment she thought to charge,
"As you see, no poison. It's a richly flavored tea, so please enjoy it at ease."
That brazen fox crossed the line. Aria herself had barely attempted a kiss, yet this woman casually tried an indirect one via teacup.
Her filthy saliva clung thickly to the rim.
'...Don't drink... Don't drink it...!! Leo...!!'
Shattering that hope, her knight grasped the handle.
"Then I'll gratefully partake."
Betrayal sank deep into her body.
This Leonardo probably didn't remember their dream kiss.
Permitting that teacup meant allowing an indirect first kiss with that woman, didn't it?
If her knight touched lips to that cup, she'd overwrite those tainted lips with hers again and again...
"Yes, you even mixed in recovery potion. Thank you."
Leonardo took a light sip. But Aria felt no rage or jealousy. Her Leo had loyally wiped the cup with a napkin before savoring it.
'...Sorry for doubting you...!! I love you...!! Leonardo!!'
His wise handling made love well up in Ariasfil even more. If only things could progress further, she'd embrace him with both arms and whisper endless praise.
"Quite hygiene-conscious."
The vixen's face twisted slightly. Surely punishment for brazenly coveting what was hers.
"Think of it less as hygiene and more a ritual to keep emotions from the conversation."
"A somewhat disappointing reply. Drawing a line?"
"Feel free to see it as my stance that this approach won't sway me."
Erecting iron walls, Leonardo gracefully emptied his teacup.
"Is that so? I thought it a decent strategy myself."
Eirin instead found his reaction amusing and smoothed her expression.
"Frankly, it's natural. You're ambitious, after all."
Ambitious—one word defining her, yet Eirin didn't deny it at all.
It was a fact she herself acknowledged.
"Ambition makes even love a foundation for goals. Love-forged bonds are easy to exploit, aren't they?"
Marriage and engagements were common political tools across nobility and kingdoms. Love as pretext to link and gain profit—a political means. To Eirin, love was just that.
"No matter how tempted, unless baron-rank or below—or mage lineage with exceptional wealth or blood—you won't bind with the opposite sex. Isn't that right?"
An assertive tone. She could deny it easily, but Eirin listened with a smile.
"...Impressive. Thought you a mere boy, yet an old sage slumbers within."
In this delicate dynamic, Leonardo felt agony like rubbing sand and salt into a raw wound, but he barely held his expression steady.
"But persuasion by another method might change things."
With that, she proffered a large envelope. At first glance money, but it held photos and documents.
"This is..."
"By tradition, the Temperius family mustn't join the Magic Tower. If magic strays, the Tower reins it in—but if the Tower corrupts, none but our house can check it."
A righteous statement. Indeed, when Tower scandals arose, none impacted it more than the Temperius family.
"I see. A splendid spirit and sense of responsibility befitting your station."
"Those documents contain issues our family's spirit must shoulder."
Examining the papers and photos, Leonardo carefully repocketed them and questioned.
"Is it alright showing these to me?"
"Well... a gamble, but no loss seems likely."
Photos depicted various mages; documents detailed their personal info. More precisely, their crimes and corrupt acts.
"Such deeds truly transpire within the Tower?"
Sage, you're an accomplice—stay quiet.
"That's why I came to the Tower. Roughly a week ago, contacts arrived from Tower Lords and family-tied mages. Then I reported these misdeeds."
"...On this scale? How...?"
The answer was a secret everyone present knew.
"Thanks to the Sage's legacy you unearthed—the Pendant of Truth and Facts."
That was Leo's plan. He hadn't anticipated such swift mutual implosion, but the situation held no disadvantage for him.
"Publicly displaying the pendant in the museum let us supplement scant evidence. Quite the coincidence."
"...Disconcerting. I merely wished to reveal the Sage's legacy to the world..."
He felt the Sage's gaze icily piercing from the side, but Leonardo pressed on calmly.
"Is that so? I see you as the scheme's mastermind."
Spot-on reasoning... but yielding would play into her hands.
"Suspicion's understandable, but I must ask your certainty. Why?"
Because Leo possessed leisure and conviction.
"First, your arrival coincides with evidence gathering—and post-pendant, you installed it in the public museum. Suspicious."
Certainly reasonable grounds. No surprise as a suspect.
"But... acquiring this evidence demands vast investigation. Even Temperius and the Tower overlooked these."
Logic still incomplete.
"Moreover, were I the mastermind, one factor demands consideration."
Leo held ironclad alibi.
"The gain from risking such an incident."
Motive's absence.
"No motive."
Why she kept Leo merely suspected—not evidence-gathering prowess or legacy acquisition—was the opacity of purpose and gain from this elaborate scheme. Thus her probe.
"...As expected, simple ploys fail."
"Almost sounds like you deem me guilty."
Leo's actions stemmed solely from futures glimpsed as a regressor—territory unimaginable, inscrutable to her present-bound self.
"...Frankly, 'true culprit' or 'perpetrator' doesn't fit. The act's ambiguity as crime to begin with."
Rather, it'd exposed ambient crimes, aiding probes—thankworthy to Tower and families alike.
"But impressive. You pierced my reasoning's flaw outright."
"Mutual understanding of positions—foundation of communication and deduction."
Ariasfil, eavesdropping from afar, looked flustered.
'...What're they even saying...?'
The convoluted flow was beyond grasping for one butting in abruptly.
Oblivious to her, Leo wiped hand moisture with a napkin.
"Thanks for the kind words. Gained much from the fruitful duel and talk."
As he rose to leave,
Grab
"Thus, all the more regrettable you are."
Eirin seized Leo's wrist.
"Were you noble—even from a fallen house—I'd forge ties with ours somehow. Marriage? Child's play."
A distant girl vented seething hatred at the audacity, but the range hid it from notice.
"Unfortunately not."
She applied slight force, reseating him.
"So, a proposal. What if I made you noble?"
Leonardo faltered at the offer, his words trembling faintly.
"...Bestowing a title? Even for Temperius, realization's tough—impact huge."
"Cute notion."
She handed other documents. Leo scanned to quell his doubt.
"...These people..."
"Title inheritance leans more familial than blood."
The papers listed unmarried mages and those childless or bereaved by accident.
"Should a noble mage house adopt you—what becomes your status?"
An easy query—even Ariasfil, lost in the talk, could answer.
"But I have parents. Special circumstances, yet..."
"I've considered that. Rude imposition on you, but I'll voice it resolutely."
She took a soft sip before speaking.
"Accept the adoption overture, and I'll deploy all Temperius intel and techniques to find your parents."
Temperius magic rivaled the Tower's—peerless in tracking and scrying, given investigative duties.
Leonardo sensed faint trembling in his hands.
Perhaps because even past life yielded no mother's corpse. Or heart-deep wish for her survival.
Leo himself cared not to unearth why.
"Even absent ties to our house."
At those words, Aria mustered neither jealousy nor ire.
Eirin's proposal weighed too crushingly; Aria's own love felt infinitesimally light thereby.
Ariasfil could only lapse into despairing silence.