IMHMF 19

Chapter 19

“Mmm…”

“You are awake.”

“Eden?”

Eden was sitting in front of me before I knew it.

Where is Raven?!

I pushed myself up from my seat and looked around for Raven, but he was nowhere to be seen. Thinking he might be somewhere out of my sight, I looked around various parts of the library, but Raven was nowhere to be found.

And from the moment I pushed myself up from my seat, Eden had been following behind me before I realized it.

“Who are you looking for?”

“Raven.”

“Raven?”

“Yes. Librarian Raven.”

“According to Raven, you were sleeping so soundly that he left so as not to disturb you.”

“……”

What?!

He put me to sleep himself and then went off somewhere!

He had put me to sleep simply by placing his hand on my head.

Raven, who said he would teach me the ancient language and then put me to sleep… Right, the ancient language!

The ancient text whose very title I had been unable to read before falling asleep now began to be legible to my eyes.

I began to open the book and read without hesitation, forgetting even to respond to Eden’s voice calling my name.

The letters that had looked like nothing more than curling drawings began, slowly, to be readable.

The characteristic of a sorcerer is that one can easily impart the knowledge one possesses to another. This is a sorcery devised by Luna Killia, the first and founding sorcerer, in the forty-ninth year of the early empire. The method requires that what the sorcerer wishes to teach and what the recipient wishes to learn must be the same. …(abridged)…

The founding sorcerer… Luna Killia.

“Eden. What was Raven’s surname?”

“…Raven Killia.”

“……!”

I remembered what Raven had said as he put me to sleep.

“This is a gift for the lady who gave me comfort.”

Just what is Raven’s true identity?

The change in Siobhan’s imperial knighthood schedule, the family alliance Alb had told me about, the engagement between Eden and Hesse Herrmann, and then Raven’s appearance and the discord between magic users and sorcerers.

There were a great many parts that had not appeared in the novel, things I had not known about.

Something was clearly going wrong.

As I sat alone with a serious expression, not continuing the conversation, Eden asked in a rather worried voice.

“Loa.”

“……”

“Did something happen?”

Telling Eden would clearly cause complications.

Let us keep this a secret for the time being.

“No. It is just…”

“……”

“I think I had a dream. It is nothing.”

“I see. Then let us be on our way.”

“Where… ah.”

I had forgotten. The reason we had come to the imperial palace today was to meet the emperor.

“Do we have to go back to the front of the imperial palace?”

“It would seem so.”

“Do not do it this time.”

“Do what?”

“The princess carry. Do not do that.”

“……”

“Let us do this much.”

Having said her piece, Loa took Eden’s hand and linked arms with him. Holding hands and linking arms with Eden was something she had never done before, so it felt awkward, but it was far better than meeting strangers while being carried in a princess carry.

After maintaining a brief silence, Eden gave his affirmative answer.

“…Very well.”

“But Eden, do we really have to stay this close?”

Eden did not open his mouth, but his expression alone seemed to give an answer.

That expression right now. It is the expression of someone wondering why I am asking something so obvious.

“What if we are not close enough?”

“Your limbs would not all arrive intact.”

Goodness. The side effects were more serious than I had thought.

Perhaps because of his words, I pressed closer to Eden than usual.

We returned to where we had first gotten out of the carriage and headed toward the imperial palace. When the Hylus family carriage came into view, the imperial palace guards quickly opened the gates.

The carriage moved a little further before coming to a stop, and the coachman opened the carriage door. Eden, who stepped out first, extended his hand to me with warmth.

“My lady.”

It was the first occasion where I would appear before the emperor as the prospective Duchess. The weight of meeting the emperor came upon me more heavily than I had expected.

When I placed my hand over his, he gripped it firmly. Then he opened his mouth so only I could hear.

“Are you nervous?”

“…A little.”

“You only need to remember what I told you.”

“Not to have a private audience?”

“And.”

At his question, Loa made a sound as though deliberating.

“Hmm…”

As my deliberation seemed to be going on a bit long, Eden’s expression began to stiffen, and he answered in a tone that sounded more curt than before.

“Never mind if you cannot remember.”

“You are right. What else did you say again?”

“No.”

After climbing quite a number of stairs, someone who appeared to be the emperor’s lady-in-waiting approached.

“Welcome, Duke Hylus. And Lady Rumania. The emperor is waiting.”

Guided by the lady-in-waiting, we arrived at where the emperor was. The door, decorated in gold and crimson as though to display the emperor’s majesty, was enormously grand.

Perhaps because a knock from an ordinary person’s hand would not be heard, a large door knocker was affixed to it.

Knock, knock.

Unlike an ordinary knock, the door knocker produced a louder and clearer sound. It echoed for quite some time due to the high ceiling before fading away.

The firmly closed door began to open with a heavy sound. Only after the door had fully opened and we stepped into the space within did the emperor come into view.

***

I wanted to swallow the nervous lump in my throat, but the atmosphere was so utterly silent that even the sound of swallowing seemed like it would echo loudly in this state. It was the voice of the lady-in-waiting who had just guided us that broke the stifling silence.

“Duke Hylus and Lady Rumania have arrived.”

Lady Rumania?

In this world, the custom upon becoming engaged was to address someone according to the male party’s title, yet that lady-in-waiting had called me Lady Rumania.

Since I was engaged to Eden, who was a duke, she should have called me the prospective Duchess, or Duchess, or at the very least attached my own title and called me Young Countess. For someone meeting me for the first time to address me by stripping away all titles and simply calling me lady was clearly a show of disrespect. All the more so if that person held a lower title than oneself.

At first I let it pass, thinking perhaps what I knew was wrong, but the emperor’s response made it clear.

“Haha, Garnet. Rumania is now Hylus’s fiancée, so why not address her accordingly.”

Right, Garnet. So you want to try me, do you?

The emperor, who wore a hearty laugh, moved his steps forward. With each step he took, what drew the eye was the cane held in his hand. And his gait, which seemed slightly uneven.

The current emperor, Kaiser Istria, had lost both his parents in a fire that broke out in the imperial palace when he was young, and had ascended to the throne at the tender age of eleven. Having taken on the role of emperor from such a young age, one might expect him to be strictly regimented, but he never lost his smile.

In the novel as well, he had been described as quite a playful emperor.

The emperor was draped in a golden sash. Not only the sash, but most of what surrounded him was golden. Whether it was truly gold or simply gold-colored I could not say, but the cane he held was unmistakably gold.

He had black hair that looked just like mine. If mine was a black with a deep blue hue like the depths of the ocean, the emperor’s was a black like a truly dark night sky. Everything draped around him contrasted with the color of his hair, making it appear all the more intensely black.

“I offer my greetings to the Sun of the Empire. I am Eloa Rumania, daughter of Count Rumania and fiancée of Duke Hylus.”

No sooner had my greeting ended than the emperor stepped abruptly toward me and extended his hand.

The sudden request for a handshake left me considerably bewildered, but I could not refuse the hand the emperor had extended.

The moment I clasped the emperor’s hand, I looked over at Eden. He gave a small nod, as though to tell me it was alright. For some reason, that nod put my mind at ease.

No sooner had my hand been taken than the emperor pulled it toward him with considerable force. The pulling itself was surprising enough, but the words he then directed at me were even more so.

“You have not been caught by Hylus over some weakness, or owe him a debt, or committed some grave offense, have you?”

“Pardon?”

I had resolved to maintain a poker face no matter what situation arose or what words I heard while standing at the door, but that resolve crumbled before long. At the emperor’s unexpected words, all I could do was ask back in bewilderment.

Before I knew it, Eden had drawn close to me and gripped my shoulder, pulling me toward his side.

Thanks to that, I naturally moved away from the emperor, but I ended up inadvertently nestled in his arms.