The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 197

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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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*

“Hmm. So you’re saying that Crodil ultimately refused to hand over the corpse to Duke, right?”

“Y-yes.”

“As expected. Crodil has many things to hide, so he must be afraid there might be some information to extract from the body. Even knowing that refusal itself is circumstantial evidence of collusion.”

“Huh? …Ah, right. We didn’t need to receive the entire corpse anyway. Your mage friend should be able to read memories from just a few strands of hair, wow.”

“I thought you’d bring back something like a piece of clothing, but you really plucked out hair? Did you want to grab him by the hair?”

“Grab by the hair… I cut it with a sword. Clothes would be noticeable if cut, but hair wouldn’t be noticed even if cut. He had long hair anyway.”

“Haha. Well, it worked out anyway, since Chloe can see memories from objects too. Though it comes with the condition that they must be intense memories.”

“Wow, that’s amazing….”

“What?”

Milton, who had been admiring in fascination, suddenly came to his senses at Elisha’s puzzled expression and the sharp reprimand he heard in his ear.

「Was my command to simply repeat my words exactly that difficult to carry out, Milton?」

“Simply repeat my words exactly… S-sorry!”

So here’s what happened.

After finishing his private meeting with Regent King Crodil, Tesagh had to return straight to the Duchy to handle the aftermath.

But feeling uneasy about leaving Elisha behind when she had business in the Empire, he gave Milton a special mission.

To accompany Elisha and perform protection and support duties, and to handle communication on behalf of her who had difficulties using magical devices….

‘So amazing! You both had plans all along!’

There were many things even he as an aide didn’t know, so it was too interesting to just quietly relay messages.

Anyway, since he had done wrong, Milton apologized repeatedly and began relaying the conversation again.

‘But Duke tells me all the future plans….’

For some reason, it felt like Elisha was subtly holding back her words.

Was it just his imagination?

As he tilted his head in thought, the conversation came to an end. It was when Milton was about to remove the magical device.

「Wait. This is for you, Milton.」

“Ah, yes. Please speak.”

Tesagh’s voice was stiff throughout. It was the businesslike and cold commanding tone that Milton knew very well.

Even though these were words to convey to Elisha, it seemed his familiar tone came out since an aide was in between.

「…Please take good care of Elisha.」

At least this kind of tone was something Milton was hearing for the first time.

Duke is making a request to me! It was so moving that his heart was practically churning.

Words about protecting her with his life almost burst out, but if he did that, he’d obviously get a response like ‘I don’t need any of that nonsense, just do what you’re told,’ so Milton said energetically instead:

“Understood, I will follow your orders!”

「Know that if you fail to do it properly, you’ll be reassigned to messenger bird duty.」

“What?!”

Click―

The communication cut off.

Anyway, not wanting to become a pigeon delivering letters, Milton carefully watched Elisha’s mood.

‘She looks like she has a lot on her mind.’

When he went to the pawnshop after receiving Tesagh’s contact, there was no one on the 1st floor.

Milton, who had been looking around, encountered Elisha coming down from the attic.

She had a somewhat complicated expression, saying there were some things to organize, then exchanged several telegrams with someone and packed a large bag.

And then.

“Let’s go, Milton.”

“Where to, if I may ask?”

“There are quite a few places to go, but you’ll find out when we arrive.”

She immediately went to the station and bought two train tickets.

‘Except for when Duke contacted her, Elisha was lost in thought about something the whole time.’

Where are we going? And what is Elisha’s plan?

As Milton was thinking, he heard Elisha’s voice.

“I’m sorry I can’t tell you the details. You must be curious.”

“Oh, not at all! Please just think of me as a porter and walking communication device, haha.”

“Come on, how can you say that? It’s rude to someone who’s willingly accompanying me without even knowing where we’re going.”

While Milton was deeply moved by the kind praise that was hard to hear normally, Elisha spoke up.

“I think it’s okay to tell you this much. You know that Eivor has the ability to ‘control’ people, right?”

“Yes, I heard about it!”

Milton, recalling the interrogation records, answered energetically.

“But think about the people who were controlled by him. Do you see any commonalities?”

“Uh… Most of them had green eyes!”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Most of them committed crimes without consciousness or memory…!”

“Right. And?”

“Uh, um.”

Milton, who had been speaking excitedly since Elisha was responding well, soon became puzzled.

At first it felt like he had made some great discovery, but there were always exceptions, so could this really be called a commonality?

Seeing Milton’s expression become subtle, Elisha smiled slightly.

“I got stuck there too. I wondered if there was a condition that he could only control people with green eyes, but that didn’t seem right. I thought maybe he controlled by manipulating others’ consciousness and memories at will, but that didn’t seem right either.”

“As you said….”

“So I thought, it must be one of two things. Either Eivor deliberately chose confusing targets to mess with his pursuers.”

Milton, thinking that damned mage would do such a thing, looked up at the following words.

“Or there’s another commonality we don’t know yet, one that doesn’t appear in the personal files.”

“Oh! Then, then…!”

“I sent many telegrams earlier, right? One of them was sent to someone who will investigate that ‘other commonality’ for us.”

“Because there might be commonalities that can only be known by meeting them, not just from documents! That’s what you mean!”

“Yes. Since Eivor died suddenly, there might be people whose fates changed unlike before. Then we could hear their stories directly, making the investigation smoother.”

The person doing the face-to-face investigation would probably be Information Guild leader William, right?

But what did she mean by people whose fates changed ‘unlike before’? And how did Elisha obtain the investigation list in the first place?

Milton, who didn’t know these were names from wanted posters in her previous life, was curious, but since he was already prepared to chew rocks if Elisha said so, he decided to just accept it.

‘But it doesn’t seem like Elisha told me everything?’

She said ‘this much’ was okay to tell him.

Could it be that Elisha secretly suspects some commonality?

Lightning suddenly struck Milton’s mind as he pondered.

‘If that Eivor bastard who controls others is alive…!’

Milton, who didn’t know about the conversation between Elisha and Ailren at the Imperial Palace, still thought Eivor was probably alive.

There was no particular evidence, just intuition.

The bastard who made them suffer so much died that easily? No way! That level of emotion.

But if so, there’s a problem.

“D-do you think I might get controlled? If that’s why you’re reluctant to share information with me…!”

What if I get controlled and end up harming Elisha?!

Elisha, who had been staring at Milton as he searched for a way to jump off the train with his face turned pale, opened her mouth.

“I did think about that for a moment too.”

But?

“Still, I think it’ll be fine. Sir Milton.”

“Are you… trusting me…?”

Tears welled up suddenly.

It was when Milton, moved to cover his mouth, was choking back sobs.

“Hmm, rather than that. I think I could beat Sir Milton…”

“…Pardon…?”

“We’ve arrived. Let’s get off.”

As Milton, who had been asking back blankly, stumbled off the train, only then did their destination come into view.

『Rionet Duchy』

Why here?

As he looked around, Elisha rummaged through a large bag and answered.

“Actually, the reason I didn’t tell you was because I was afraid you’d run away if you heard what we have to do here.”

“Pardon?”

“We’re going to do treasure hunting here. The kind where we can’t leave until we find it.”

“Pardon?”

Elisha, who had taken something out of her bag and placed it on Milton’s head with a thud, smiled.

“Then let’s go. To dig in the mine!”

Milton, realizing from his reflection in the train window that he was wearing a miner’s hat, was about to say something, but lost his words when he noticed that Elisha walking ahead was wearing the exact same hat.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“I’m, I’m coming! I’m on my way!”

Still, being a mole is better than being a pigeon. Of course it is.

Quick self-rationalization was Milton’s specialty. He followed Elisha toward the mine.

*

Tesagh, who arrived at the duchy late at night, headed straight to the office.

The process of explaining the circumstances and discussing solutions in a gathering that included the Border Guard, mages from the Magic Tower, and even Chloe was brief and without unnecessary details.

Although Tesagh had organized and passed along information during the travel time, and the Border Guard had established strategies based on that which only needed approval, the meeting ended in less than 30 minutes.

“Is there any separate news from the informants?”

“No, not yet.”

“I see. Then let’s end the meeting here. Dismissed.”

There was one reason.

The Empire was too quiet.

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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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