The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 161

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

A little while ago.

Chloe watched Elisha, who kept looking out the window as if waiting for someone.

Was there a customer she was waiting for? Or perhaps.

‘Could it be related to the illegal gambling den she discussed with Sir Patrick before?’

Elisha had never directly told Chloe about the work she was handling.

That fact didn’t make her feel hurt.

Rather, Chloe knew that Elisha was being considerate and holding back her words.

‘I saw it. Her seriously discussing and worrying about dark magic.’

When Elisha held her hand, when she organized the pawned items that her hands had touched.

Each time, glimpses of her memories were read.

‘Someone who uses dark magic is troubling Elisha. …And yet Elisha didn’t ask me.’

In fact, these were things that would become easier if Elisha asked her.

She could have questioned how exactly she came to encounter dark magic, or what method she used to manipulate magical power.

But Elisha didn’t do that.

“When Chloe is ready to talk, I’ll listen then. Until then, I’ll wait.”

She was keeping her promise to wait.

Chloe took a breath.

Now it was her turn to keep her promise.

“Elisha.”

The promise to live doing good things.

“I’m ready now.”

*

Chloe confessed that she had seen a few fragments of Elisha’s memories.

Chloe, who added that the reason the memories were visible was because Elisha’s worries and anguish were that deep, and that they normally weren’t visible, shrank back.

She habitually worried whether Elisha might find her creepy for reading her memories without permission.

But Elisha.

“Thank you, Chloe.”

Thank you for deciding to bring up a difficult topic.

Saying thank you for trusting her, she hugged Chloe tightly.

From Elisha, who spoke like that, came a refreshing scent of grass and trees. It was a fragrance that gently calmed the heart.

“I’ll help you.”

After hearing the whole story from Elisha, Chloe nodded.

Looking into memories to find a missing person – there couldn’t be anyone more suitable than herself.

Since it was urgent business, Chloe decided to postpone her own story for now and alternately clenched and opened her white left hand and black right hand.

‘The control isn’t perfect yet, but…’

Chloe had avoided using magic as much as possible until now.

Partly because her physical condition was weak, and partly because she was afraid of hearing the hallucinations of dark magic whispering again.

But now that she had made the decision to confess, somehow she wasn’t afraid.

Hallucinations were just hallucinations.

‘I learned from Emma, and she said my condition has stabilized a lot.’

Strangely, the area that had been eroded by dark magic was gradually shrinking.

How was such a thing possible without a special-grade magic stone or the ‘divine-class holy relic’ that Elisha had explained?

Emma said it might be due to the influence of the pawnshop’s holy relics, but she didn’t seem particularly certain either.

Chloe vaguely thought there might be another reason.

For instance…

‘Could it be thanks to Elisha?’

When she was beside Elisha, somehow her mood became calm.

The unknown anger and fear that had been boiling in her chest, which was surely incited by dark magic, subsided.

Like all illnesses, perhaps there were psychological factors too?

Because she was happy being beside her first friend.

A somewhat romantic thought crossed Chloe’s mind.

Of course, she was too embarrassed to say it out loud.

“So, you’re going to search through Elisha’s memories.”

It was as she thought.

Even seeing Chloe’s pitch-black arm, the Duke only narrowed his eyes slightly before immediately moving on to business talk.

Rather than trusting a dark mage, he was trusting Elisha’s judgment in keeping a dark mage by her side despite knowing what she was.

That was more comfortable for Chloe too.

But then?

“Try it on me first.”

“Pardon?”

“That memory magic thing, try using it on me first.”

Elisha, who was preparing to lie down, looked bewildered.

“Why?”

“From what I heard, you haven’t used magic for a while, so there should be a preliminary procedure to verify your skills. Don’t you think?”

“But anyway…”

“You just close your eyes and lie down to prepare.”

A question crossed Elisha’s face as she was about to say “anyway.”

Why was Elisha making that expression? Thinking about it, Chloe accepted the Duke’s verification request.

‘In a situation where he’s even seen my pitch-black arm, this level of request is reasonable. It’s rather generous, actually.’

“Then please roll up your sleeve and extend your arm.”

Chloe, who was drawing a spell formula over the Duke’s arm, hesitated.

“If you concentrate and recall a memory you want to show me… oh, hmm.”

The spell formula bounced back as if blocked by something.

Flustered, Chloe drew the spell formula again, but it continued to be erased.

Could it be?

“…Are you perhaps magic immune…?”

Chloe asked cautiously, but the Duke answered calmly.

“Since it doesn’t work on me, it means your memory magic isn’t dark magic. Try again with an indirect medium.”

Ah, was this a test?

‘Since he’s magic immune, he meant to verify whether my memory magic is dark magic. If it were dark magic, he would prevent me from using it on Elisha.’

But…

‘I thought magic immunity meant dark magic wouldn’t work either…?’

Isn’t this a meaningless experiment? Am I mistaken about something?

While Chloe was thinking, Elisha, who had been lying down with her eyes closed, suddenly sat up.

“Did you suspect Chloe?”

“I suspected the magic.”

“Even if you suspected the magic, who experiments on their own body like that?!”

“Isn’t it better than experimenting on you? Just close your eyes again.”

Thinking that Elisha getting angry on her behalf looked just like a squirrel whose acorn was stolen, Chloe smiled a little.

“I’m fine, Elisha. My magic uses an uncommon method, so it would be unfamiliar… I’m more comfortable proving it this way too.”

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes. Besides, revealing your magic immunity to me means you were truly only doubting the effectiveness of my magic. It’s not that you don’t trust me.”

The Duke nodded.

Elisha, who had been looking back and forth between the two, lay down again.

“Then… I’ll try an indirect method. Please hold this orb and recall one memory. The more intense it is, the clearer it will appear.”

Chloe had learned from Emma how to visualize the memories she saw and display them on screen.

She applied the magic that had shown Rosaline’s footage during the tiara theft incident.

Now others could see the same view as Chloe.

‘I’m nervous since this is my first time using it on someone other than Lady Emma…’

What memory would the Duke recall?

Chloe, drawing the spell over the orb, smiled without realizing it.

What appeared before her eyes was someone looking up at the night sky dotted with stars from a high place.

It was Elisha’s back.

“That’s enough. I’ve confirmed it.”

As soon as her figure appeared before his eyes, the Duke leaned forward with a quite flustered expression.

“Hm? What was it?”

Thanks to that, Elisha, who was lying down, couldn’t see the screen.

“You don’t need to know.”

“You’re going to see my memories, so let me see yours too.”

“I said you don’t need to know. …More importantly, why are you smiling, mage?”

Well, because she had felt the Duke’s emotions at that moment too.

An overwhelming flutter of excitement and regret that this moment couldn’t last forever came pouring in.

‘As I thought, this person really does love Elisha…’

Chloe smiled without answering and turned her gaze away from the Duke, who seemed to be getting irritated for no reason.

“Then Elisha, are you ready?”

“Yes.”

Elisha, who had been pouting, soon took a deep breath.

“Since it’s about finding a memory Elisha only glimpsed, it might take quite a while.”

“That’s fine. Should I just stay still while Chloe examines my memories?”

“Yes. If I make a mistake, I might touch your unconscious… I’ll put your consciousness to sleep temporarily, like anesthesia.”

Unlike the Duke’s memory, which was intense enough to find at a glance, this was about retrieving a memory Elisha had only glimpsed.

“Your Grace… I’d like to ask you to watch together. In case I miss something.”

“Understood.”

Chloe closed her eyes and drew the spell.

It was similar to finding a single word in a very large book.

She moved her hands as if turning pages, then stopped after a long while.

‘Found it.’

The Duke’s voice came from outside her consciousness.

“A boutique brochure from Floren Street. It seems to be an illegal establishment disguised as a clothing store. Perhaps it received less suspicion because it looked too respectable.”

Having read the letters on the brochure, next was to find out who the person was that had talked with the woman named Eloise.

“It’s shaky so I can’t see clearly, but it’s a man with his hat pulled down low and navy blue eyes. He seems to have whispered ’emerald color.'”

Whether he had good dynamic vision or not, the Duke succeeded in reading even amid the shaking.

However, Chloe hesitated.

‘At this point, Elisha’s emotions seem somehow a little…’

She seemed upset.

But was there a reason for Elisha to be upset? Did I miss something?

It was when Chloe, who had been thinking, moved her hand to see the next memory.

‘Ah, this is…!’

She made a mistake.

She had touched the margin of the book, that is, the unconscious.

That unconscious was so deep and heavy that just touching it made her feel like she was being sucked into a swamp.

However, it was before Chloe, who gritted her teeth, could even withdraw the spell.

「Leave.」

Along with an unknown voice, Chloe was bounced right out of Elisha’s memory.

“Hah, huk…”

She couldn’t breathe. Her whole body ached and hurt as if someone had beaten her up.

But Chloe could tell.

‘It’s not black magic, or side effects from being chased out of memories. This is…’

This overwhelming sense of powerlessness steeped in distant regret and despair was…

‘Death.’

It wasn’t the unconscious.

It was the afterimage of memory.

Thump, Chloe’s heart sank.

“…What the hell was that just now?”

Chloe quickly raised her head and looked at the Duke, who was staring at the screen.

His face had turned pale.

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