EP.200 After the curtain falls (6)
The office of the first princess, Leruel, located in the villa.
There was an unexpected silence in the room, which was filled with documents strewn here and there and the smell of ink. What broke the silence was Leruelle’s short breathing.
“···her.”
An expression as if he had just taken a shot.
Leruel’s lips parted slightly. Breath leaked out through the gaping gap.
“Uhm…”
Her eyebrows draw an arc. Eventually, Le Ruelle lowered her head, closing her eyes. Her shoulders and spine shook slightly. What she heard was laughter.
“Even if I tried to act my personality, I wouldn’t be able to do it…”
Leruelle raised her head and bent her index finger to sweep the area around her eyes. There was a little water around her eyes. As if she was dumbfounded, Le Ruel spoke in a voice filled with laughter.
“That’s a pretty harsh assessment, professor.”
“Uh… Is that so?”
“Yes. I’m just saying it differently, how common are idiots like you? Doesn’t it seem like he’s saying that?”
Lruel playfully pretended to slit his throat.
“If anyone had heard this, it would have been a remark that would have resulted in them being accused of insulting the royal family. but···.”
She finished her sentence with a short breath.
“That sounds good to me. As expected, I like you. “I really like that honesty.”
Action without hesitation.
A language that spits out whatever comes to mind.
An honest human being who is no different on the outside or the inside.
‘It’s an uncommon human group.’
In a royal city where intrigues and secret struggles take place, people like the professor in front of us are very rare. It was not just rare in the royal capital. Wherever you go, honest people are rare.
‘Those who live life without packaging.’
Those who are honest with themselves.
Those who have confidence that comes from honesty.
“There are really only a handful of people like you.”
Because it’s only a handful.
“That’s probably why it feels attractive.”
Leruelle mumbled and tapped the table. There was still a smile on her lips.
“Yes, professor, just as you said, it’s not common for a bastard like you to be the real girl.”
“yes? Why am I suddenly…”
“Didn’t you know? “You are a fool enough.”
I really didn’t know.
Looking at the professor who tilted his head and blinked his blue eyes, Lruel shook his head inadvertently.
‘A fool who doesn’t know he is a fool is the most dangerous person…’
I didn’t say anything back.
Leruel just buried it in his heart and took a long breath. As I exhaled, I felt like some of my strength was loosening.
“Whoa…”
The shoulders that were straining, the corners of the eyes and mouth that were paying attention to each and every expression to create an expression, all of those actions seemed meaningless in front of the professor in front of me.
“······.”
Leruel looked at Rania sitting across from him in silence. As I look at her blinking her blue eyes, as if she still doesn’t understand her, a smile forms on her lips.
He is an honest human being.
As she is a person who lives with honesty, her words are always filled with sincerity.
It takes a hundred words to convince someone of a lie, but such rhetoric is not necessary when speaking the truth. A single sentiment or a single sentence consisting of a few words is enough.
“That personality, even if I tried to act, I couldn’t seem to do it…”
One word, one sentence.
“···aha.”
Lruel laughs out loud.
A unique personality, an impression of myself created since childhood in order not to be looked down upon by others. A unique personality that no one can easily imitate.
Is it too convenient an interpretation to think of it as part of the life one has built and feel rewarded for it?
Leruel sighed and laughed.
‘···It’s more of a dream interpretation than a dream.’
I feel much more at ease.
The direction is a little strange, but in any case, the professor in front of him trusts him. Lruelle is happy about that fact.
“…Thank you.”
A small, barely audible voice lingered around.
2.
“So, have you figured out my brother’s whereabouts? “I heard that Lord Kalt has started an investigation.”
Rania shook her head wordlessly.
“They said there was no trace left. “I was told that it was impossible to find.”
“That’s… surprising.”
Lruelle said, touching the corner of her mouth.
“If even Lord Kalt couldn’t find any traces… it would certainly be impossible to find my brother. “What are you going to do now?”
“Given the current situation, I am thinking of going to the person most likely to be involved.”
“You mean the king of this country.”
Rania is silent.
Silence meant yes.
“I don’t really want to recommend it.”
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With a tap, Leruelle touched the table.
“Because you won’t gain anything from meeting me.”
“···There’s nothing to gain?”
“My father is like a doll.”
The image of my father that I saw growing up.
Leruelle continued, remembering that.
“The fight between blood relatives and the heated power struggle, all of that was tolerated by my father. “When I was very young, I still fell into the category of ‘normal’ humans…”
Not now.
Even in the face of his sister’s death, he just showed the same expressionless expression as always. He remained indifferent even to the death of his own child.
“It’s just a doll now. “Rather than a human being, I feel like a machine that manages this country.”
“···is that so?”
“This is what I felt while watching my father for the past ten years. My current father is a person with whom human connection is impossible. “She won’t get any information.”
“Then right now…”
What should you do and what do you plan to do?
At Rania’s questioning gaze, Lruel lowered his gaze. Her eyes turn to the empty teacup.
“well.”
Refilling the teacup with water and holding it in his mouth, Lruelle thinks about his future course of action. The thought didn’t last very long.
“I guess I’ll have to cut it out.”
“Cut it out?”
“I plan to cut it out as if I was removing twigs and pulling out rotten roots.”
“Tap,” he said.
Leruelle narrowed her eyes as she put down the teacup.
“I see this as an opportunity, Professor.”
opportunity.
“Currently, there is no heir to the throne in the palace. The Second Prince is away in battle, and Ayla is staying in Aplia. “The story is that I am the only one left here.”
Leruel laughed while touching the back of my neck.
“It’s time for a crazy dog off leash to bark.”
From the birth of this country until now, Lruel has not known about the secret existence behind the curtain. He endures for hundreds of years and does not know what it wishes for.
‘I don’t know any of that, though.’
Still, it didn’t matter.
Because what you have to do is the same as always.
“Until now, and in the future, there is only one thing for me to do.”
That’s a story Leruelle once told. Lruel once again tells the story he told at the end of the three-day mission.
“It will be my job to pave the way until that child sits on the throne.”
The oath he made while watching his sisters die.
The potential I saw in my one remaining sister.
Leruelle smiled as she remembered them. It’s not a soft smile. It’s an alluring, challenging smile that goes well with her look.
“Trust is a value that can be maintained through mutual effort. “I have a duty to do my best in my position.”
Rania thinks as she looks at that.
‘···At first, I thought it was a long time ago.’
Fourth princess, Ayla.
Until now, Rania had not been able to greatly sympathize with the potential of the girl whom Lruelle trusted so much.
However, now that I have watched Ayla through a series of recent events, it is different.
She is definitely a special girl. It does not only refer to talent loved by stars. Rather, because she rejected the stars, her value shines even brighter.
Because it didn’t depend on the stars.
Because I moved forward with my own choice.
The step the girl took was definitely worthwhile. She proved her worth.
“A child with the blessing of a star that always appears in the royal family once every generation.”
Inadvertently, Rania ponders a story that she had previously considered insignificant.
Because the royal family was blessed by the stars.
Because we are blood relatives chosen by the stars.
I just accepted the words that were spread around the world without thinking about it. But now that she is here, Rania questions the facts she took for granted.
‘The stars are providence. It’s the fairest rule.’
The star symbolizes scales.
Fair scales must always be level. If the star has always blessed the royal family, wouldn’t it have been to level the scales that were tilted?
A shadow cast over the royal family.
Light to remove shadows.
So, a blessing given out of necessity.
‘then.’
If only there was someone who could lift the dark shadow that had fallen on the royal family.
‘I guess that means it’s just him.’
That is the stage given to Stella.
Maybe it’s just a guess, but I have a feeling that this guess is probably correct. Rania looked at Le Ruel who was sitting across from her.
I’m sure that’s what’s in those golden eyes.
Looking at the princess who felt the same potential as herself, Rania smiled inadvertently.
“···You look like a princess.”
“I’m trying to live like myself.”
The two hold out their hands without worrying about who goes first.
After shaking hands lightly, the two stood up.
So they head to their respective stages.
A stage comes to an end.
And, another stage begins.
I don’t know what’s hidden beyond the stage, but I just do my best with what I can do at the moment. As always.
3.
While Aplia was on an untimely vacation, I was spending the day meeting many people one by one.
“Professor Rania, I brought you coffee!”
Sometimes I talk to Ayla, who comes to me with a bribe I can’t refuse, and I spend the day answering the questions she asks…
“Sir, I think I’m going to die. The work never ends…! When you submit your documents, a new pile of documents will arrive…!”
I patted Kalt’s back as he screamed at the influx of documents, and thought, I can endure it since I have become a quasi-superhuman. We spent the day teasing him.
Of course, I helped with the paperwork afterwards.
It was quite enjoyable to see Kalt giving me a look of sincere respect after a long time.
“What on earth is that elf doing?”
The most memorable thing was the conversation with Yetual, the black magic tower lord who had been tormented by Cardi. I could only laugh bitterly at the words of the Dark Tower Lord, who was complaining to me with wide eyes.
‘It doesn’t make sense to be an old man of at least a thousand years.’
Even the 1,000-year-old king of the elves calls him ‘a kid’, and he is an old man among old people. If you think that the essence of a thousand years is contained in the old man’s behavior from Jjambap… your eyes will become distant.
“Anyway, you look like an old brat.”
“What did you say, Raniel?”
“You didn’t say anything?”
I joked and looked at the person in front of me.
The person I was supposed to meet that I had been putting off after being told to come see me after I recovered a bit.
“Cardi.”
Ancient elf.
The great sage of the past, Cardi Van Armiel.
“How long are you going to give me this green tea?”
Looking at him, I pointed to the teacup on the table. A teacup filled with thick green liquid. Cardi claims it is green tea, a traditional drink of the elves, but I don’t think it is at all.
“Can’t you just give me some water?”
“good for health. “Just drink it.”
“Ayit sitpal…”
I pushed the teacup away.
No matter how good it is for your health, that was just a bit weird.
“It just occurred to me.”
Before Cardi could add another word, I changed the subject and began to speak.
“If I were the dean of Aplia, I think I would lose my hair too. “Do you feel that way these days?”
What kind of bullshit is that?
To Cardi, who was looking at me like that, I shrugged my shoulders and continued speaking.
“No, think about it, Cardi.”
“What do you mean?”
“Not a day goes by without an incident happening, and in less than a year, the building is being repaired for the second time… What’s more, disaster has struck Aplia twice in a year?”
Skull gourds are seen very often, but that only applies on the battlefield.
“A month after school started, it was closed again. Moreover, there are knights coming from all over and looking for Aplia with their eyes lit… Isn’t it strange that hair loss isn’t happening?”
“So what’s the point, Raniel?”
“No, that’s just the way it is.”
An old store.
I clenched my chin as I tilted my now familiar chair, which periodically made a creaking noise.
“A lot of incidents have happened over the past year, right?”
“I see.”
“Are you preparing to take care of everything one by one?”
“Aftercare?”
“Yeah, take care of it.”
I pointed to my pupils.
“Kalt, we need to treat that child’s eyes, and we need to find out the dark story behind the royal family… I was thinking about all this and my head was spinning. Cleaning up afterwards is the most annoying thing. “I always feel it, though.”
“So I sympathize with the Dean’s pain, that’s why.”
“It’s that kind of Sam. “I don’t know if hair loss is really happening.”
I sighed and fell down on the table.
As I was tapping the cup filled with tasteless green tea with my hand, Cardi opened her mouth.
“···Are you feeling okay?”
“It won’t be bad. He is also recovering. “If you add up the cost of the potion you poured into my body, I could build a mansion, so it should be okay.”
“Then that’s a good thing.”
Cardi put down the glass she was cleaning.
And then he walked away and headed somewhere. That place was the store’s warehouse. A warehouse full of dust.
Chin chin.
Soon, Cardi returned to her seat, shaking the dust off her clothes. In his hand was a box. I asked, pointing to the box.
“What is that?”
“These are clothes I wore long ago.”
The box opened with a creaking sound.
What was inside the box was a robe. Cardi waved the robe in the air before wrapping it around her shoulders.
“Oh, that…”
I opened my eyes wide.
It was a robe I had seen somewhere before.
“The first Mage Tower lord, Armiel’s robe…!”
It was a robe decorated in the artifact storage box on the top floor of the Gray Magic Tower. It is the symbol of the Gray Magic Tower, and strangely enough, it was called the Robe of Fantasy because it could not be made with the same design no matter what.
As I looked at the robe with my eyes shining, Cardi’s head slowly tilted.
“···Armiel ‘sama’?”
Cardi opened her eyes and looked at me. I covered my mouth and lowered my gaze slightly.
“No, well…”
“What kind of disrespect is this that doesn’t suit you? “Raniel.”
“Isn’t he being respectful to you? “How many wizards respect the first Mage Tower Lord…”
I was also one of them.
Until I found out that Cardi was Armiel.
‘Of course, he is a respectable person…’
It’s probably a bit awkward to use a thousand-year-old old man as a role model.
‘by the way···.’
I slowly raised my head and glanced at the robe Cardi was wearing. After all, it wasn’t called a fantasy robe for nothing. It was a robe with a more perfect design than any other robe I had ever seen.
gulp.
As I was looking at the robe like I was fascinated, Cardi tapped the table.
“Raniel.”
“Yeah, huh?”
“Aren’t you planning on taking a month off from your professorship?”
“vacation? suddenly?”
“We have somewhere to go together.”
I tilted my head.
“Where should I go?”
“okay. “I heard your body is feeling better too.”
“No, there’s nothing I can’t take on vacation…”
I asked a question.
“Where are you going to spend a month?”
What came back to me when I asked that question was an answer I never imagined.
“Land of ashes.”
Cardi said.
“My homeland, Arcadia, was reduced to ashes hundreds of years ago.”
A word from the author (author review)
We’ve already reached episode 200…!
I packed a lot today too 😀
