C134: The Sword in the Shadow (2)
The story of the shadow of the first princess was quite famous among the nobles.
After the Marquis of Tetperon, the de facto ruler of the military in the past, was mysteriously killed at his home, which was like an iron fortress, his military unit was torn into small pieces.
However, the clever nobles did not miss where the power of the Marquis of Tetperon was absorbed.
‘In the hands of the first princess, Eileen von Exilion.’
Freuden had no choice but to laugh inside. The death of the Marquis of Tetperon, known to the public, was a natural death due to old age, but no one believed it.
Probably from then on she showed her talent in earnest because she was capable but lacked her own hands.
The first princess, who dominated the nobles with overwhelming charisma and intelligence, gradually interfered with the finances and did what the current emperor could not do without failure.
The nobles, who were still wary of the first princess, had no choice but to pledge allegiance to her because they knew what happened to the nobles that tried to disobey her.
There was a sharp sword in the shadow of the First princess that was waiting quietly to be swung.
Naturally, the nobles were afraid since they didn’t know when the blade in her shadow would slice down their necks.
They couldn’t even defend themselves since the opponent was the one who killed the Marquis of Tetperon. He was so cautious that he maintained a tight security even when he ate a small meal since he had so many enemies.
But in the end he died. He was not even killed while walking around outside, but was found dead in his room, the safest chamber in the mansion so the nobles were afraid of the First princess’ shadow.
The shadow wasn’t active since the incident, but all the nobles know that she could use it anytime she wished.
Eileen, who was not disturbed by anyone, gradually expanded her power, and now she has taken the position of a firm absolute ruler that no one can oppose.
After hearing the whole story, Line was surprised. She heard that the first princess was dangerous and scary, but she, a commoner, could not know that there would be such details.
Naturally, she realized why Erendir was treated like that even though she was a princess.
“Senior… You’ve had a hard time.”
“As expected, junior Rene is the only one who understands my heart!”
Erendir hugged Rene with an emotional expression while Rene struggled with frustration.
Freuden sighed and dissuaded Erendir.
“Let’s stop there. Rene is having a hard time.”
“Hmph! That’s not true for Rene. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes, yes.”
“Look! She says it’s okay!”
“………Ha.”
Freuden felt a headache coming. At the same time, she wondered how Rene was able to become close to that stubborn princess.
He is well aware that Erendir’s suffered countless failures and frustrations while trying to make friends in Theon, but that did not mean that the third princess would just befriend anyone.
Considering Rene’s personality, Erendir may be a good person to be close to.
‘How did she get to know the Third princess?’
Aren’t ordinary people unable to raise their faces in her presence, let alone talk to the princess?
Even if this place is Theon where all students are equal, the remnants of the class remain, and Erendir is not just a nobleman, but a member of the royal family.
It must have been hard to talk to her properly.
‘Isn’t it just like that?’
But come to think of it, although she might have been nervous when she first saw him, she answered every question he asked.
Now that he realized it again, he laughed.
“Let’s stop for now, the food I brought will be cold.”
“Oh! That’s right. Shall we talk after we finish eating?”
“……I guess you liked it?”
“Well, I’ll admit it. The cooking skills of the Ulburg family are quite impressive.”
It’s a dish I made myself.
Freuden, of course, did not say that. He was caught taking care of the flower bed, but he didn’t want to let Erendir know that he was cooking.
That’s how the meal started again.
Unlike when there was little conversation between Freuden and Rene, now Rene and Erendir chatted with each other.
It was Erendir who mainly led the conversation.
Freuden felt sorry that his resting place had become noisy, but decided to move on quietly, satisfied that it was not bad.
The subject of the conversation had already reached the Kunst incident Erendir had experienced.
“You don’t know how much trouble I was in the Kunst auction house this time.”
“What?! Then, were you involved in the incident that happened there?”
“Oh.”
Freuden, who had been listening quietly, also showed interest in this and Erendir thought that the opportunity had finally come and told the story of the day at length.
In particular, in the part where the Beast of Gévaudan appeared, Line took a deep breath.
“It was a terrible monster that looked like it just crawled out of hell. The heads of beasts were all over his body, and the three main heads uttered terrible roars.”
This part was the truth without exaggeration.
When Erendir closed her eyes, the sight of that time was still vivid.
“I still can’t believe I’m alive.”
“I think it’s a real relief that my senior is safe.”
Erendir felt his heart beat violently at her response. Her first friend listened to her seriously and even worried about her. Isn’t this the academy life she dreamed of?
“So what happened to the monster? Is he really dead? Or did he run away? I heard the Knights knocked him down, is it true?”
“Oh, that’s….”
Erendir agonized over trying to answer.
It was the Clockwork Knights under Leathervelk that were known to have eradicated the Beast of Gévaudan, but in fact, it was a man named James Moriarty who really defeated the beast.
However, the name James Moriarty was still kept secret after the incident because Casey Selmore didn’t want to reveal it yet.
-Princess, the whole story of this incident should not be known yet.
-………Are you telling me that I should hide the truth?
-It’s good to follow your sense of justice. But, my lady, the atmosphere is not good right now. Look.
The dust was cleared, and the scene of the Kunst auction house almost in ruins was seen along with the wounded and the still terrified citizens.
-People are afraid. The citizens’ anxiety will worsen when they find out that the person who killed the beast is a newly emerged big criminal.
-So, Casey, you’re saying that the city’s knights, not the criminals, taking care of the beast is a way to end civil unrest.
– Comfortable lies are sometimes better than uncomfortable truths.
Erendir could not bear to contradict her since that was the only way they could solve this series of situations.
And the word of James Moriarty and his gang was spread, they’d hide themselves in deeper darkness and Casey wouldn’t be able to track them.
-…… I see. I won’t say anything about this.
– Thank you.
Erendir, who recalled the conversation at that time, immediately replied to Rene.
“Of course, the Clockwork Knights, which Leathervelk is proud of, came forward and solved it.”
She felt guilty while talking, but it was inevitable. Erendir, who was trying to avoid the subject, suddenly remembered seeing a familiar person at the Kunst auction house.
“Oh, come to think of it, I think I saw Mr. Rudger at the auction house that day.”
It must be confusing because she saw him from afar, but Erendir thought she could recognize his unique atmosphere.
“What? Mr. Rudger?”
“Rudger Chelici?”
The two people who were listening showed interest in this story because they didn’t know the name would come out.
“Well, I’m sure that’s right because he can’t hide his unique atmosphere.”
“Why on earth did Mr. Rudger go there?”
“Well, isn’t there any reason why you can’t go to such a place just because you’re a teacher? Seeing that he went to work without any problems afterwards, Mr. Rudger might have just stopped by and left early.”
“But it doesn’t look good on me.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. He doesn’t care much about luxury goods or jewelry, does he?”
There is definitely that feeling. Erendir, however, could not readily agree with Rene. It is always the case that a person is different from the inside.
“Come to think of it, junior Rene received the framework from Mr. Rudger, right? How was it?”
“Oh, that was surprisingly normal.”
“Didn’t Mr. Rudger say it before? In the elemental attribute class.”
It was then that Freuden, who had been listening to the two conversations, intervened.
“Wait, Rene. Did Mr. Rudger call you in person?”
“That’s right. You don’t know how worried I was about her.”
Instead, it was Erendir who answered.
Freuden’s eyes turned to the school bag that René brought. When he first met Rene, he remembered the book she had hidden from him.
‘The book at that time. I think I’ve seen it somewhere.’
Freuden had a strange feeling that something was about to come to mind.
Then Rene said,
“Oh. Come to think of it, I heard that magazines are popular among students these days.”
“Magazines, right? Oh! I think I’ve heard that before.”
Rene took a magazine out of her backpack and showed it to her.
For a moment, Freuden’s eyes turned to the bag, but when Rene showed the magazine, he naturally had no choice but to turn his head there.
The magazine was literally a thin-looking book. The cover was full of promiscuous pictures, and the letter No. 1 was engraved on it.
“What’s that?”
When Freuden asked, Rene replied with a smile.
“It’s a book that was recently published in Leathervelk. But it’s not an official publication, so it’s a little thin, but there are a lot of interesting things.”
“What’s interesting?”
“Oh my. Don’t tell me you don’t even know the magazine that’s popular among students these days?”
Erendir smiled at the thought that she had finally had one over him but Freuden shook his head with a growl. He didn’t realize it when they were formal but he wasn’t tired when facing the real face of the Third princess.
“So what’s great about the magazine?”
“You can think of it as a book full of miscellaneous stories. Like a newspaper, it contains a variety of big and small news.”
“Then it’s not different from newspapers, right?”
“No. It’s totally different. Most newspapers are published by newspaper companies, so they distort the contents according to their taste. But this magazine speaks from a more neutral point of view. Of course, the publisher of this magazine worked hard on it.”
“Is that all?”
“Of course not. In addition to other information not covered by the newspaper, the real reason why the magazine is so popular is because of the various short stories in the second half!”
Freuden responded with a sour reaction, saying, “There’s nothing special.”
However, contrary to Freuden’s light-hearted view, these short stories were quite sensational among students.
Most of the books published on the market were formal or difficult to express in lengthy words. It’s the same with fiction.
Literary novels were too messy to read, and even nobles who tried to force themselves to be formal often gave up reading them.
The short stories in the magazine were the opposite. They were well received by the public for their short and concise sentences and refreshing development.
Recently, it’s popularity among the aristocratic students was rapidly increasing to the point where they were reading them one by one.
Simple yet intuitive short stories are much more interesting than hard-to-read literary novels.
There were already many people waiting for the next magazine because it had the charm of cutting off the content at an important moment and making them expect the next number.
‘There are so many things going on these days. Maybe I should read it too.’
Freuden put aside his review of the magazine but suddenly he frowned slightly while recalling a name.
‘Rudger Chelici.’
His name has often been heard recently but because he only saw him from distance he didn’t pay much attention to him.
The only thing he remembered was that Rudger Chelici has a very serious atmosphere. He didn’t pay much attention before, but recently the name was heard so often that Freuden recalled Rudger’s face, which he had seen then and he ended up overlapping it with the strangely familiar faces.
‘I think I’ve seen him somewhere…….’
Freudian eyes became sharp.
