The Lady Only Deals With the Real Ones - Chapter 97

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

*

 

Tesagh, who had returned to the safe house, was faced with Milton on the verge of tears.

 

“Your Grace the Duke! The signal suddenly cut off, so I thought perhaps Your Grace had!”

 

“What. Did you think something went wrong?”

 

“No, I thought you got so angry that you stormed straight into the Imperial Palace to catch that bastard Eivor!”

 

What’s with that?

 

Tesagh looked at him with an incredulous expression.

 

But Milton seemed to think that if it were his lord, he would certainly be capable of such a thing.

 

Milton, who had been dabbing away tears while saying ‘I was worried about what to report to His Grace the Guardian!’, tilted his head.

 

“Huh? Did you receive treatment at a hospital? But didn’t you say through communication that the doctors here were unreliable, so I prepared medicine…”

 

Milton, who had come closer, examined the bandages and band-aids.

 

The treatment was meticulous and thorough, but the bandages and band-aids were commercially available household products.

 

“Oh, these look like household bandages? As Your Grace said, they’re indeed unreliable. I’ll treat you again!”

 

“No need.”

 

“B-but it would be better to use the duchy’s medicine… And who knows what that bastard Eivor might have done to the security magic.”

 

“I said no need. This is sufficient.”

 

At the firm answer, Milton scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

 

“Yes, understood. Well, that bastard’s magic wouldn’t work on Your Grace anyway, haha.”

 

“More importantly, about what you said earlier.”

 

What I said earlier?

 

Milton, who had been deeply relieved that the Duke hadn’t returned after turning the Imperial Palace upside down, tensed up.

 

Did I make another slip of the tongue?

 

“About thinking I had stormed straight into the Imperial Palace.”

 

“Th-that was just…”

 

“Not a bad instinct. It’s not entirely wrong, since I’m planning to storm in soon.”

 

“Pardon…?”

 

“Get some rest.”

 

After Milton staggered out with a pale complexion.

 

Tesagh, sitting by the window, gazed at the distant pawnshop.

 

Just before leaving the pawnshop, Tesagh had asked Elisha.

 

Why she had been waiting for him.

 

Elisha waved it off saying it was nothing, but eventually couldn’t match Tesagh’s persistence and threw up her hands.

 

“Well, I need a partner to go to the Founding Festival with. I thought it would be nice to go with Alter, so I was going to ask. But don’t worry about it and focus on recovering…”

 

“Good.”

 

“What? Isn’t that too much strain? I can go alone, or I can find someone else…!”

 

“I said it’s good, let’s go together.”

 

Elisha, who had been alarmed about where he could possibly go in that condition, eventually agreed.

 

From her adding ‘If you can’t make it, just tell me anytime, it’s okay,’ she seemed to think he was just being polite.

 

But Tesagh wasn’t just being polite.

 

He looked down at his wounds.

 

‘What Eivor used wasn’t simple security magic. It was meant to inflict physical damage.’

 

If it were simply magic to prevent intruders, setting traps or making sirens sound would have sufficed.

 

But Eivor had breathed life into wooden dolls, creating dozens of combat wooden figures.

 

‘Undying wooden figures that kept attacking no matter how many times you cut them down.’

 

Tesagh frowned as he recalled the expressionless wooden figures holding swords.

 

‘In other words, it was security measures aimed at me. That means he knows I’m pursuing him.’

 

It also meant that Eivor considered him a threat.

 

In that case, it wouldn’t matter if he investigated more aggressively.

 

For Tesagh, who couldn’t reveal his identity, the Founding Festival invitation was the perfect opportunity to investigate the palace.

 

Tesagh suspected a corrupt relationship between Eivor and the Imperial family.

 

Tesagh’s brow, which had been furrowed while thinking of Eivor, slowly relaxed the moment he saw the band-aid.

 

“…She said she was worried about me.”

 

She said she was worried. She also said she was concerned.

 

It might just be Elisha’s usual endearing habit of speech. It could just be a greeting.

 

But Tesagh thought that even if that were the case, it didn’t matter.

 

“Now I understand why that grandfather kept wearing band-aids all the time.”

 

The gaze she had focused on him while carefully applying the band-aid without any excitement.

 

The warmth of her hands touching him cautiously, the sound of her laughter when she said it was okay to be dramatic.

 

The moment all of that reached him, his heart raced.

 

All his senses were so focused on her that he couldn’t even feel the pain.

 

With this current feeling, he could go to the Founding Festival several times even while injured.

 

‘She said it would be nice to go with me…’

 

There were ways to investigate the palace even without being invited. So that might be a secondary matter.

 

Only after accepting Elisha’s escort proposal did the second purpose of investigating the palace occur to him.

 

Tesagh let out a hollow laugh at himself.

 

He decided not to deny that his first thought was not wanting to see Elisha beside someone else.

 

“Our Elisha already has a destined partner.”

 

He didn’t know who her destined partner was.

 

Probably… it wouldn’t be him.

 

But Tesagh decided not to hastily hope or be disappointed by such uncertain words.

 

Persistence and determination that didn’t give up easily were his strengths, after all.

 

“Oh, there was one more thing I wanted to ask. The prize for the pea shooting contest was a sheep doll, and I received it for you. Do you want to take it?”

 

“You’re saying to take it, but your expression looks like you really don’t want to give it.”

 

“It’s cute… And who was it that left so quickly without giving me a chance to hand it over? Really. …Is Alter really going to take it?”

 

“Forget it. You keep it. It looks like you, smiling like an idiot.”

 

“What-?!”

 

Thinking of Elisha hugging the sheep doll tightly and smiling brightly made his mouth go dry for no reason.

 

‘…Like an idiot.’

 

Tesagh, who was moistening his throat with water while looking out the window, paused for a moment.

 

‘What’s that?’

 

There was someone pacing in front of the pawnshop at this dawn hour.

 

Tesagh hurriedly grabbed his telescope and saw a man with an obviously anxious expression knocking on the pawnshop door.

 

He looked familiar somehow. Who was that person?

 

‘Hugo, Count of the Rionet Family?’

 

Tesagh flipped through the investigation records of ‘Michele,’ the original owner of the pawnshop.

 

Tesagh, who had found it suspicious that there were strangely no related records, had concluded that perhaps the records weren’t originally absent but had been erased.

 

Based on the physical description and name he had gathered through inquiries.

 

‘Perhaps he might be Duke Michele Fiochedade Rionet, who disappeared about 20 years ago,’ he had been half-convinced.

 

But for a count of that ‘Rionet’ family to visit the pawnshop this late at night?

 

Hugo, Count, who had been desperately knocking on the door, looked as if he had found salvation when he saw Elisha.

 

A while later.

 

When Hugo, Count came back out, and Tesagh saw Elisha seeing him off while holding her head as if she had a headache, he narrowed his brow.

 

Flash. Flash. Flash.

 

After leaving Eivor’s hideout, the light from the clip that I hadn’t paid attention to caught my eye.

 

‘…Three?’

 

Three indicators were glowing.

 

Tesagh gritted his teeth, recalling that only two had been glowing even when he visited Eivor’s hideout.

 

‘So Eivor went to the pawnshop.’

 

Not just went there. It means he stayed there for quite a long time!

 

His wounded hands clenched with a grinding sound.

 

*

 

The next day, late at night.

 

‘At least I’m glad the headache went away in just one day.’

 

I stretched and stood in front of the communication device.

 

‘I’ve sent out all the messages… Good, now I can depart.’

 

Around lunchtime today, a message had come through Ailren.

 

…Your ‘friend’ asked when you might be able to come. If I may humbly add my opinion, it seems she has something to tell you…

 

Lina’s invitation could be used for both the main event and the pre-party entrance.

 

So I was thinking of going at dawn when everyone had gone to sleep, but Lina has something to tell me?

 

‘Then I should go early!’

 

Of course, I couldn’t make it in time for the party’s start due to business, but I could roughly make it before the party ended.

 

Wearing a relatively simple cocktail dress compared to the main event gown, I gathered my things and got into the carriage.

 

Once in the carriage, I discreetly lifted the hem of my dress to touch the sword strapped to my thigh.

 

‘Is it okay to bring this? I almost got caught when I went through the secret passage last time.’

 

I didn’t know then, but after hearing from Alter that it had a threat detection function, I thought ‘oh no.’

 

What if the magic device detector turned pink not because of Ailren’s mana poisoning, but because of this sword?

 

Even if it’s for danger detection, a weapon is still a weapon, so if it gets confiscated, there’s nothing I can do about it….

 

‘But having this makes me feel somewhat reassured. Alter probably won’t be able to come.’

 

Although the wounds weren’t deep despite being covered in blood, an injury is still an injury.

 

Accompanying a partner is for tomorrow’s main event.

 

The wounds can’t possibly heal completely in one day, right?

 

‘I left a message through William telling him not to worry and just rest well, but I wonder if Alter saw it.’

 

Thinking of Alter covered in blood made my heart sink, but I tried to shake off the thought.

 

‘I can do this alone! Cheer up, Elisha!’

 

As I clenched my fist, the carriage had already arrived in front of the Imperial Palace.

 

Just as I was getting out of the carriage, I let out an exclamation.

 

‘Wow, it’s incredibly magnificent….’

 

Having only come and gone through the secret passage, this was my first time properly seeing the Imperial Palace.

 

The colorfully decorated trees, the garden with flowers in full bloom, and the elegantly glowing Imperial Palace at night were truly beautiful.

 

Lina did all this?

 

I was so busy admiring everything while showing my invitation and entering that I didn’t even notice someone approaching.

 

“You’ve arrived.”

 

This voice?

 

“Knight?”

 

Ailren, wearing a dazzlingly pure white ceremonial uniform, bowed his head slightly to me.

 

“I’ll escort you to the banquet hall. This way.”

 

As I followed him, the gazes of various young ladies focused on us all at once.

 

I nodded my head and thought.

 

It seems like the highlight of this banquet’s decorations is Ailren’s beauty.

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