A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 136

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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My teacher approached him with long strides and lifted his foot without hesitation. And then—
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
Ravi, who had been lying on the bed, tumbled to the floor below.
“Master!”
“Insolent brat. You sensed your teacher’s arrival and yet played ignorant.”
As if you couldn’t read my aura when I entered through magic.
“…What brings you here?”
“I heard you were digging in the ground again, so I came to see for myself.”
….
“What is it?”
Whoosh!
With a casual wave of his hand, a nearby chair flew swiftly through the air. Kador settled into it and fixed Ravi with an unwavering gaze.
“Why are you doing this again?”
“It’s nothing, Master.”
Ravi turned his head away, avoiding Kador’s stare.
Snap!
“Master, you’re trying to kill me!”
“Yet you still have the presence of mind to defend yourself.”
In that instant, as ice arrows came hurtling down, Ravi had no choice but to hastily cast a defensive spell.
“So tell me what the problem is.”
Kador cast another spell, retrieving another chair from across the room and positioning Ravi in it.
Ravi complied without resistance, as if his body moving at his teacher’s magical command felt perfectly natural to him.
“Will you continue to remain silent?”
Kador suspended several ice arrows in the air. Upon seeing this, Ravi released a long sigh and hung his head low.
“Master.”
“Yes.”
“I…”
“Go on.”
“…might become an orphan.”
Ravi’s head drooped even lower, as if he were bearing the weight of the entire world’s sorrows alone.
“So you’re finally being cast out from the Sorpel Family.”
Kador’s reaction, by contrast, was remarkably indifferent.
“You lasted longer than I expected. So when are they casting you out?”
….
“The procedure turned out to be simpler than I thought.”
“Pardon?”
At these unexpected words, Ravi’s head lifted slightly.
“Adoption.”
Ravi’s eyes widened slightly.
“If you’re completely cast out, come find me. I can spare you an empty room.”
Kador rose from his seat with those words. Ravi, who had been watching him blankly for a moment, finally allowed a faint smile to cross his lips.
“That’s unexpected….”
“You brat.”
“I have no intention of calling you Father, Master.”
“Rot in hell.”
After launching one final ice arrow, Kador left the Research Laboratory entirely.
The smile gradually faded from Ravi’s lips, which had been curving upward in suppressed laughter.
“…That man has appeared.”
Though he was young and their time together was brief, Ravi still remembered that man’s face with perfect clarity.
Camilla’s biological father.
“And now, of all times.”
Ravi barely managed to swallow the curse that threatened to spill from his lips.
It irritated him—that she, Camilla, was with him right now.
And that he hadn’t returned.
“Damn it….”
A long sigh escaped from his lips as he uttered the quiet curse.
Whoooosh!
But in that moment, a familiar flow of mana washed over him.
“Master?”
Kador, who had just left moments before, reappeared before Ravi.
“Stop moping and help me with something.”
“What is it?”
“You know the new students are heading out to explore the Tower of Guardians in a few days, right? Just go along and escort the kids.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“…Understood.”
Before his answer had even finished, Kador vanished swiftly from sight.
Chapter. Returning
“You want to enter the Imperial Academy?”
“Yes.”
Daive made a sudden declaration at the breakfast table, expressing his desire to attend the Imperial Academy.
Everyone was unable to hide their bewilderment at this unexpected choice from a child who had been diligently pursuing his studies through private tutoring all this time.
“Why so suddenly?”
“Friends….”
“Friends?”
“I want to try making friends with someone.”
His following words were equally unexpected, so no one could easily comprehend them. After all, this was a child who preferred being alone to mingling with others.
“Ah….”
Only Camilla alone understood why the child had suddenly made such a choice.
When the family meeting was held not long ago, many children attended as well.
The heads of households brought their own children, who were around Daive’s age, hoping to catch the eye of the family patriarch at least once.
After Camilla exposed Ersha’s embezzlement and turned the Council Chamber upside down before stepping outside, she could see the children playing.
They gathered in small groups, sipping tea or conversing, each passing their time in their own way.
And there—separated from all of them, sitting alone in a corner—was Daive.
He emanated that familiar, frigid atmosphere, refusing to allow the children to approach him. It was so different from how he was when he was with King or with me.
Seeing my former self reflected in him, Camilla exhaled a long sigh.
‘I was like that too.’
I hated people approaching me. I was afraid of being hurt.
If even my parents didn’t like me, who would? With such thoughts, I closed my heart from the beginning and refused to grow close to others.
‘To be honest, being alone was more comfortable.’
I questioned whether I even needed to make friends. I didn’t want to form complicated human relationships and suffer the mental exhaustion that came with them.
‘But Daive is different.’
Even while emanating that cold atmosphere, Camilla clearly read the longing in the child’s eyes—a desire to fit in with his peers.
Yet watching Daive fail to truly blend in with the other children, she came to a realization.
The child severely lacked social skills. He simply didn’t know how to interact with his peers at all.
So she made a suggestion. There was a suitable place where someone his age could encounter and interact with many people.
‘The Academy?’
‘Isn’t it boring to take lessons alone at home?’
‘But….’
‘You might even make friends.’
‘…Friends?’
That was the end of it.
After all, it was the child’s decision to make, and I didn’t say anything more, lest it seem like coercion.
But today, the child conveyed that he wanted to attend the Academy.
“I really want to go.”
As if he had thought it over for a long time, the child’s voice carried considerable resolve.
Duke Escra seemed to ponder for a moment, while Jainer simply smiled quietly as always.
[Daive….]
Only Sharua, the child’s mother, gazed at Daive with eyes brimming with emotion and joy.
* * *
[Thank you.]
Sharua, who felt great joy even at Daive’s small change, offered her gratitude repeatedly.
[And… I’m sorry.]
“Sorry for what?”
Seeing Sharua suddenly bow her head toward her, Camilla tilted her head in confusion.
She understood the gratitude, but what was she apologizing for?
[I knew from the beginning.]
“Knew what?”
She bowed her head even lower, as if bearing a grave sin.
“Kaise had a woman.”
“…What?”
Camilla didn’t immediately grasp what she was saying.
Kaise had a woman? Could she possibly be referring to her own mother?
“The moment I saw him return with his memories restored, I knew right away. During that missing year, there had been someone else by his side.”
“Really? How could you tell?”
“He was subtly different in small ways. Most of all… I could feel one person’s touch in everything about him.”
“Ah…”
So this was how terrifying a woman’s intuition could be. She must have sensed it from something as simple as the stitching on a button sewn onto his clothes.
“But I didn’t say anything.”
I knew a woman existed, but I simply pretended not to notice.
“Truth be told, my heart was wounded.”
If I had given even the slightest hint back then, given his nature, he wouldn’t have let it pass. He would have searched for that woman by any means necessary.
“If he had…”
Wouldn’t Camilla have met her father long ago, rather than after all these years?
“I’m truly sorry.”
Watching her bow her head again, Camilla shook her head lightly.
There was nothing for her to apologize for, was there? I probably would have done the same.
Though it happened due to an accident that caused him to lose his memories, Sharua was still his wife.
Why would she offer hints about a man who returned after living with another woman for an entire year?
“Instead, let me give you a gift!”
“That’s not necessary.”
A gift? As long as she didn’t make me dig up a tomb like Hersel did, I’d count myself fortunate.
Of course, the medicine that came from there did save Duke Sorpel’s life, but I wasn’t particularly fond of gifts from ghosts.
“No! Please accept it!”
Despite Camilla’s refusal, Sharua remained quite insistent.
* * *
“Welcome.”
As I stepped through the grand entrance, a man and woman in formal attire bowed respectfully.
“We’re delighted to have you visit Gracia Central Bank.”
Seeing the two of them with their professional smiles, I smiled back.
But I couldn’t help swallowing dryly without realizing it.
I was well aware that these two seemingly ordinary people were high-ranking mages who wielded sixth-circle magic freely and swordmasters who radiated auras.
If the staff greeting guests at the entrance possessed this level of skill, then what of the others…
From the employees sitting at the counters to the security personnel stationed throughout, not a single person here could be underestimated.
‘No wonder there’s never been a single robbery.’
It truly lived up to its reputation as a bank boasting the highest security.
“Aren’t you busy?”
I paused mid-step toward the counter and glanced back.
Looking at the two people clinging to my heels—Duke Escra and Count Alton—I shook my head slightly. I said I’d handle this alone.
“I told you. This place is more dangerous than you think.”
“If you enter the wrong password three times or more, you’ll be arrested immediately. I’ll do my best to use the family’s influence to prevent it from coming to that.”
…So she still doesn’t trust me.
Camilla had come to this place to change the ownership of the safe.
Whose safe? That of the deceased Sharua.
[There’s a safe my parents left me. Since my Older Brother passed away early, I was the sole heir.]
‘And?’
[I want to give it to Camilla.]
‘You didn’t give it to anyone else? Don’t people usually settle these things before they pass?’
[I suppose I was angrier than I realized. The fact that Kaise had another woman… So I never taught the password to anyone. It was my own small revenge.]
‘You could just give it to Daive.’
[Since he’s young, Kaise would have ended up managing it anyway. I thought it would be better for it to become state property after fifty years or so.]
‘But still….’
[Of course, it was a rather pointless act. Kaise had no interest whatsoever in the wealth I possessed.]
Well, money is good, and gifts are good.
‘Everything’s fine, but….’
I couldn’t help but wonder how to handle this.
If I mentioned a safe that had been dormant for so long, everyone’s expressions were predictable without even seeing them.
And if I said I knew how to open that safe….
‘What else can I do?’
In the end, I went ahead with my usual shamelessness.
‘I saw a safe belonging to Sharua in a dream?’
‘Yes, I saw the password to the safe as well.’
‘….’
‘May I open it?’
Duke Escra’s reaction was surprisingly simple. He didn’t ask for detailed explanations and simply nodded. He merely offered some advice about the Central Bank.
I thought he was letting it pass so easily.
‘Are you prepared?’
‘Pardon?’
‘The weather has warmed considerably, but it’s still chilly, Miss Camilla. Perhaps some gloves….’
‘As it happens, I received something as a gift. I’ll give it to you.’
‘…Are you both going as well?’
When the day finally arrived, seeing the two people who had set everything aside to follow me, Camilla shook her head lightly.
Believe it? Not a chance.
But still….
‘The gloves are pretty, so I’ll let it slide.’
These people really can’t lie.
A faint smile played at the corners of Camilla’s lips as she glanced at Duke Escra’s large hands.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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