Lying on the bed in the Belitent estate that I’d returned to after escaping not that long ago, I had many stray thoughts. Where did Ruvlian fall to, and what on earth was the god’s reason for dropping me here? Was there a reason Ruvlian and I had to be separated? Or if not, was it simple whimsy?
It was difficult for a mere human to understand a god’s will. The thoughts in their heads were completely different from the start. They were beings who had the power to erase worlds with a single word.
I brought over a pillow from the end of the bed and hugged it. I felt at a loss. I’d spared that crazy bastard from the young Parallel World based on the thought that I had to return from here, but I didn’t know when I’d be able to find and execute a method to cross worlds.
The Belitent duchy’s massive library. And the Magic Tower’s library. If possible, I’d even have to search through the imperial palace’s forbidden archive. Since Ruvlian was the first to succeed in traveling between worlds, right now there was neither anyone who’d succeeded nor any precedent. I had to do everything from the beginning by myself.
Unfortunately, during my Hero days I’d deliberately not taken interest in Dimension Travel Magic, so it seemed I’d have to investigate for even longer. This was really a big problem.
It was fine if Ruvlian came looking for me. Since the curse issue had all been resolved, we’d be able to return to the original world faster. So the key was whether Ruvlian would find me or I could escape from here on my own before meeting the Parallel World Ruvlian.
First, I decided to sleep and wake up. If I wandered around in the middle of being heavily suspected, I wouldn’t see a good end. Since I’d crossed worlds, my power had become greater, so there was no one who could beat me, but if I caused trouble in another world, the cleanup would be annoying. I wanted to prevent the god who would return someday from making my head dizzy by bringing up the incident report story again.
I closed my eyes. It felt like being submerged in darkness. Perhaps because I was tired, drowsiness came over me quickly. Just before falling asleep. Though there was nothing that could be a threat at all, I used magic to make it so I’d receive a notification if someone entered the room, not knowing when the Parallel World Ruvlian might come. Then I quickly fell asleep.
Knock knock. A small knocking sound came, and I opened my eyes in a groggy state. A thin beam of light entered between the drawn curtains hanging at both ends of the wide window. When I pulled one curtain, bright light as if it were morning struck my eyes, making me squeeze them shut before slowly opening them.
Seeing that I’d slept deeply, it seemed no one had come looking during the night. There were indeed no traces of the magic I’d cast being activated either. I swept through my hair once, and at the knocking sound that came again, I checked whether the illusion magic was properly cast. Soon I removed the magic I’d cast yesterday and headed toward where the sound was coming from to open the door.
“Hello. I couldn’t greet you yesterday because it was late. I’m Rinne, a maid.”
A maid with brown hair placed both hands on her stomach and greeted me politely. While holding the opened door, I blinked my eyes several times to appear shy, then nodded slowly.
“His Grace and Her Grace are calling for you to have breakfast together.”
“Did Rinne come to attend to me?”
“Yes.”
“Please just give me the washbasin and clothes you brought. I’ve never had someone attend to me before, so it’s awkward……”
Recalling how Deadrian had worn an embarrassed smile, I imitated it as much as possible. The feeling of my lips curling up was awkward. Since I normally didn’t smile much, acting out smiling was the most difficult.
“Yes. Then I’ll put them inside.”
At the words about coming in, I, who had been blocking the room from the doorway, stepped aside. The maid who entered brought the washbasin to the bathroom inside and also hung the clothes on one side. After that, she said she’d wait in front of the room and told me to come out when I was ready, then went out to the corridor. The door closed.
To disguise a knight as a maid. It seemed I was quite heavily suspected. Though she acted like a maid, I couldn’t help but notice the angular gait that occasionally showed and the calluses on her hands that briefly appeared. Though it seemed she tried to hide it, the three years had considerably enhanced my perceptiveness.
After washing my face with the water from the washbasin, I looked at the clothes the knight disguised as a maid had brought. It was simple attire that was easy to put on alone. When I changed clothes and came out, the knight was standing right in front. Whether it was habit, she was standing with the heaviness of a knight, and at this level, it was practically spoon-feeding me to notice. Though it seemed like it might be to confirm whether I’d notice, even if they were looking at me as being in league with the Master of the Magic Tower, this was a useless act.
“Follow me.”
With those final words, I followed the knight who walked ahead. Then, to act as a naive mage who had no social skills since entering the Magic Tower, I looked around as if fascinated, examining the estate.
The difference from when the Parallel World Ruvlian was the Duke was the presence or absence of magic cast on the estate. If before, unnatural mana had completely enveloped the estate, now it was only pure. Only natural mana could be felt.
On the way to the dining room, I felt the gazes of the servants following me, but I pretended not to notice that either. Originally, most mages were at their own pace.
“You may enter. His Grace and Her Grace are waiting.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you for guiding me.”
I nodded my head lightly and opened the door to enter the dining room. On the long, vertical white dining table, there were candlesticks in a row in the center, spaced apart, and aside from that, it was completely filled with food. It was an amount that three people couldn’t finish.
“Hello.”
“Sit.”
The Duke answered and indicated a seat with a nod, while the Duchess substituted a greeting by lowering and raising her head with a benevolent smile.
After pulling out the chair at the indicated seat and sitting, I stared at the various knives, forks, and spoons arranged to the right and left based on the soup in the round plate. During my Hero days, I’d learned etiquette, so of course I knew what was used for what purpose. The memory of Montrio teaching earnestly and Ruvlian playing tricks was still vivid.
However, if I showed I knew how to use them here, there’d be an unnecessary plot hole. The naive, unsociable mage I was acting as was a commoner, so their identity was unclear. Moreover, since there weren’t many mages, even commoners received good treatment, so they could learn etiquette if they wanted to, but most mages were obsessed with one thing. They were the type who would research one more thing in the time it took to learn etiquette.
“I’ve only lived researching magic, so I don’t know etiquette.”
“I didn’t expect that and failed to be considerate. I apologize.”
“No. It’s not! You don’t need to apologize.”
Imitating the surprised expression Alli had made, I widened my eyes and waved my hands. Ah, this is hard. Should I have just listened to the god crying about writing an incident report later and put everyone in this estate to sleep to find a way back? I regretted it, then came to my senses again.
I disliked the god’s crying sounds more. I didn’t have the confidence to endure that headache. Moreover, if I put the Duke who would have excessive work to sleep, what kind of words might spread outside? And people might come looking for the Duke. If I put the people who came to sleep, and kept putting them to sleep, even unnecessary rumors would spread, so this was the best option.
Having made my decision, I lifted my gaze that had been on the variously placed spoons, knives, and forks. As if I’d thought about what to use and reached a conclusion.
“Since I don’t know etiquette, may I just eat freely?”
“Do so.”
At the Duke’s words, I grabbed the large spoon most familiar to commoners. Then I secretly purified the soup with Divine Power before eating it with a spoon. There could be something like truth serum or something else in it.
“Is everything you said yesterday true?”
“Yes.”
I’d already purified it so I wasn’t certain, but seeing him ask directly, it seemed right. The various things I did and rolled around during my Hero days were helping like this.
“What did you mainly do at the Magic Tower?”
“From when I entered the Magic Tower until recently, I became interested in Time Magic and researched it before giving up. Another mage was researching traveling between worlds, which was interesting, so I decided to join in.”
“Ha, a method to travel between worlds?”
“Yes. But now it’s become difficult to return to the Magic Tower……”
Recalling Ruvlian making a dejected expression, I lowered my head and trailed off my words. It was groundwork to examine books related to Dimension Travel.
“Then I’ll provide you with a library. My ancestors had interest in various fields, so though it won’t be as much as the Magic Tower, if you look, there will be many books.”
“Really?”
Surprised expression, surprised expression. I expanded my eyes as much as possible while doing mind control. The faint suspicion that had been hovering reduced in size. There really must have been truth serum or something in it. It became certain.
However, the suspicion only reduced in size. It didn’t disappear completely. Allowing the library was also likely an intention to reduce my range of movement and monitor me. There was no way a Duke, no less, would readily offer it as an apology for suspecting a naive mage.
“Yes. You can ask the maid who guided you today to show you around.”
“Thank you!”
Smiling brightly was what I was worst at. Because of that, I covered my mouth with both hands and recalled when I first became aware of my feelings for Ruvlian. So that the excitement from that time would show in my eyes.
As I moved my spoon again to eat the soup, the Duke who had passed on his god-crafted appearance to Ruvlian smiled. Except for the fact that beneath the curved eyes there was suspicion rather than affection in the pupils, the smiling appearance was quite similar.
The moment I wondered why, when they were this similar, there weren’t suspicions that Ruvlian was of Belitent birth, the Duke’s voice came.
“However, I have one request—can you grant it?”
“A request? For me?”
“Yes, for you. My son’s room that you saw yesterday originally had magic cast on it. It was magic that sounded an alarm if anyone other than designated people entered the room, but yesterday that Master of the Magic Tower erased it, putting me in a bind. Could you cast it anew?”
Looking at the Duke with his still-smiling face, I thought:
Was the Parallel World Ruvlian’s lack of conscience hereditary?
