Chapter 69
...Isn't that settled by now? The culprit is Duke Riviere!
"But I met with Duke Riviere today, and I didn't encounter any decisive moment showing that the duke was lying."
"Oh... really? But it's true that if he answers carefully, he can avoid lying."
"What do you mean, Reiji?"
As my lady tilted her head,
"For example, even if Duke Riviere were the mastermind, saying, 'I didn't add any poison' wouldn't be a lie. The servant was the one who actually put the poison in."
"Ah..."
"Just as Reiji-san says. As expected, you seem to be quick-witted."
Earl, you are complimenting me, right? You don't mean, 'What a schemer you are,' do you?
"Even taking that into account, His Majesty the Holy King discussed various matters, but—from the outset, I thought it unlikely that Duke Riviere was the mastermind."
"Oh... really?"
"For one thing, the information that a Talent Gem with five stars or more had appeared—or might have appeared—has barely circulated."
Ah, right.
The investigation is back to square one... (In the voice of a gruff middle-aged detective.)
"Today's meeting was truly exhausting."
The Earl leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.
"Father, shall we have them bring us some tea?"
"Yes, please do."
Eva rang the bell, summoned a maid, and had her brew tea.
For the moment, the Earl's story had come to an end—and now it was my turn. There was something I had to ask him.
"It wasn't just using the 'Magic Eye of Adjudication' on those high-ranking individuals that exhausted me."
As the maid left, just before I could bring up the matter, the Earl picked up his teacup and said this.
"They told me I could use the Magic Eye, but demanded a price in return..."
"A price—don't tell me..."
I looked at my lady. Could they have demanded that he give her to them as a bride?
They might actually do it! Young Louis looked like he might run crying to his papa!
"That's right."
The Earl nodded amiably—though it was a suspicious smile—and said:
"They want Reiji-san."
"I knew it! My lady—huh?"
Me?
"Yes, you."
Me? What?
When I glanced to the side, my lady also wore an expression that said, 'Of course.'
"I move faster than the Second Captain of the Holy King's Knights, and I detected poison that even Etan-sama of House Ebeigne and the guard assigned to him failed to notice. And I did it all without a Talent! Well, I only learned today that you have no Talent, but isn't it only natural that they would want someone like you, who detected poison that even kitchen staff with Talents such as 【Observation】 failed to find?"
"..."
Seriously. Put that way, I guess it does make sense? No, wait, does it? I'm only fourteen, though.
"...Reiji, are you going to leave for another house?"
My lady's hand gently came to rest on the hem of my clothes.
(—Ah, I'd just promised myself I wouldn't make my lady anxious today.)
I quickly put on a cheerful smile.
"Of course not."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Eva, Reiji-san's smile is suspicious, but what he is saying appears to be true."
Earl! Don't just casually activate the 'Magic Eye of Adjudication'!
"However, I think you should be careful from now on as well. The Sword Saint was there today, too, and their eyes lit up when they heard about Reiji-san."
Ugh, I really didn't want to hear that.
Wait, though—if I could watch the Sword Saint train, wouldn't I be able to learn 【Dragon Swordsmanship】...?
(...No. I should stop. If I get greedy at a time like this, I'll fail. I won't let my guard down again.)
I told my lady once more.
"For now, the Earl and I have aligned interests. I have no reason to leave this place."
"Interests...? Aren't you merely employed by Father?"
"Come to think of it, I haven't told you, have I? I asked the Earl for two things: 'new information about Talent Gems with five stars or more' and 'a search for someone named Lulushya.'"
At that, the Earl put a hand to his forehead.
"Reiji-san, isn't that information supposed to be top secret...?"
"Not really. It's nothing special. Actually, feel free to spread the word far and wide."
"...I thought it was top secret, so I made discreet inquiries."
I smiled broadly at the Earl in return.
"You never asked."
It was payback for what he'd said to me before.
"If I hear anything, I'll tell Reiji!"
"Thank you. I'll look forward to it now that you're a full-fledged noblewoman."
"Leave it to me!"
My lady thumped her small chest.
"I will work hard so that I can talk with Reiji on equal terms, too! First of all—Father."
"What is it, Eva?"
"Thank you for all the groundwork you've laid until now. The 'Job Placement Offices' Reiji and I visited—they were all organizations under your influence, weren't they, Father?"
I nearly spit out my tea.
No, Earl! Why are you glaring at me!? I didn't put these ideas in my lady's head!
Well—I was just about to say exactly that myself.
"...Eva, what do you mean?"
"Father, I thought about many things throughout the day today. Things very often fail to go as planned. Yesterday's 'entertainment,' arranged by His Majesty the Holy King, seemed to go well at first, but after poison was discovered in Kurvshrat-sama's sauce dish, the banquet itself ended in failure."
Ah—what a realization.
Looking at my lady's profile, I was too astonished to speak.
Maybe I had misjudged my lady.
I'd thought of her as 'someone to protect,' and as someone who had 'been very sad today.'
"I want a society in which every citizen of the Holy Kingdom is given the freedom to live. And yet, until Father told me about them today, I knew nothing about Talent Gems of exceptional value—even though Talent Gems can greatly influence the lives of our citizens. I was in a position to investigate and ask questions, but somewhere in my heart, I merely assumed, 'The nobles must be the ones who own them.' That, of all things, was the 'taken-for-granted superiority of nobles' that I needed to reject."
My lady truly was a full-fledged lady now.
She was standing on her own two feet and thinking with her own mind.
"Even though I find it difficult to correct ideas that have hardened over time, I cannot help but think it strange that we could visit the 'Job Placement Offices,' have the directors who let the word 'slave' slip arrested, and punish them so easily—not once, but six times in a row."
"...So you were the one arranging all of it?"
My lady did not cower even when faced with the serious expression of her father, known as the 'Cold-Blooded Lord'; she simply nodded.
"I thought about it all day today. Without Reiji... When my heart nearly broke at the thought of what I would do if he disappeared, I realized that Reiji must be fighting his own battles as well. If Reiji was willing to fight to protect me, then I thought he would not waste his time even when he was on his own. And so I arrived at the conclusion I have just explained."
It had been only one day since the 'New Sprout and New Moon Banquet,' where she had become a full-fledged noblewoman.
In that short time, my lady had truly become a full-fledged lady.
If I was the one who had set this in motion—how proud I felt.
Her physical appearance was irrelevant. I thought the way she stood with her back straight, along with what she had said and her bearing, was beautiful.
——From here on, you will choose Talent Gems, learn many things, sometimes fight, sometimes fail, sometimes rejoice, and sometimes suffer—but having been born with noble blood, you must fight that destiny——
That was what the Holy King had said about nobles.
My lady was, indeed, a noble. If that conduct was what it meant to be a noble, then she was the very embodiment of one.