IQBSA 14

Chapter 14

“Lucifer.”

Lucifer stretched languidly on the pillow, then landed softly on the floor. Seeing him trot over to me, it seemed he had received orders to keep watch.

*’You minion of the devil.’*

His name is even Lucifer. Whoever named him did a fine job. I used to think it was too cliché for a cat name, but now it fits perfectly.

Seeming reassured by having Lucifer stationed by my side, Roakin averted his gaze from me and spoke.

“Take him and give him some food. He’s been on a hunger strike.”

Roakin fastened the top button of his rumpled shirt and neatly put on his uniform jacket, preparing to receive his guest.

Meanwhile, the messy piles of documents were neatly and orderly arranging themselves back into place.

“Got it.”

He didn’t eat much to begin with, and now a hunger strike on top of that. Lucifer’s stomach looked a bit sunken.

*’You should just eat what’s given. So finicky for a cat.’*

I needed to break this habit someday, but right now he looked so frail he might collapse at any moment, so feeding him came first.

“Let’s go, Lucifer.”

I grabbed some cat food and stepped outside. As I was about to close the door, a thought about the female protagonist suddenly crossed my mind.

“Roakin, did anything happen at the Magic Tower while I was gone?”

“Like what?”

“Like… running into someone…”

“Who specifically?”

Seeing Roakin’s confused eyes, I hesitated.

*’Can I even say the female protagonist’s name out loud here?’*

Officially, I had no connection to Ramona. Even if the two main characters had met, it would look suspicious if I directly asked about it.

“Think carefully. You really didn’t meet anyone?”

“What are you trying to ask?”

Roakin seemed to have no idea what I was getting at.

Above all, if he had met the female protagonist, I doubted he’d be leisurely hanging around me like this.

“Never mind. I’ll be going.”

Concluding that the two still hadn’t met, I closed the door with an uneasy feeling.

The Founding Festival was in just two days—when on earth was Ramona going to appear?

I had a bad feeling about this.

“Oh! Serpine!”

“Hello, Sir Arthur.”

“It’s been a while.”

On my way to the secretarial office, I happened to run into members of the Elders’ Council.

The old man who had just greeted me warmly was Arthur Hilbreath, the head of the Hilbreath family and Eliser’s grandfather. Arthur looked around behind me and asked curiously.

“But… why are you coming from that direction?”

“I guess you haven’t heard from Eliser yet. I quit that job.”

“Oh, dear.”

Arthur’s eyes widened in surprise, and he continued.

“So that’s why that girl Eliser hasn’t been able to come home.”

It seemed Eliser, temporarily covering my duties, had been suffering, unable to even go home.

Arthur, as if understanding everything, patted my shoulder warmly, praised my hard work, and led the remaining elders on their way.

That easygoing personality seemed to run in the family.

*’He reminds me of my grandfather.’*

Whenever I met Arthur Hilbreath, I thought of my late grandfather from my previous life, and my nose would tingle.

Having been raised by my grandparents, after they both passed away, it was as if I was left all alone in the world.

I had a small wish to be born into a harmonious family in my next life and grow up without hardship.

*’Seems like it’s gotten even worse…’*

Swallowing the inexplicable bitterness that arose, I headed down to the secretarial office.

The inside of the office was preserved exactly as it had been before I left.

The potion-making tools, cleaned and neatly arranged on one side after being emptied, caught my eye first.

*’I need to take all of these.’*

They were things I hadn’t been able to grab in my haste to escape last time. To move them to my house, I’d probably need another bag with space expansion magic inside.

Thinking I’d have to ask Eliser again soon, I moved deeper into the office.

The display case, locked with a key to prevent others from touching it carelessly, was also unchanged.

*’They really didn’t process my resignation, did they.’*

A mountain of backlogged potion commission requests was piled up on the desk.

Serpine had shown remarkable talent in potion-making, and gradually, the tricky commissions had been pushed onto her.

Upon completion of a commission, the maker’s name was recorded, and seeing that, people would even specify Serpine from the start.

“What am I supposed to do with all these piled up like this?”

They seemed to have been placed here since they were addressed to me, but since I was away, shouldn’t the Potion Department have taken them and processed them?

I sighed and began opening the backlogged commission requests one by one.

[Lissen Grand Duchy: Please send as many skeleton-killing potions as you can. At least 500L needed.]

*’This looks urgent?’*

Checking the date, fortunately, it was from two days ago. I set it aside separately to pass on to Sheila, as it was an important request.

[Racour Imperial Academy: Need 30 doses of Black Widow venom for class use.

*’I could extract that in ten minutes… Should I just do it?’*

No, snap out of it, me!

I couldn’t do this when I’d said I was quitting.

Suppressing the itchy feeling that kept urging me to work, I continued sorting the requests.

“Phew. All done.”

I finished sorting them into two piles: one to pass to Sheila, and one to return as is. But I didn’t see the Empress’s name anywhere.

*’If the Empress has any sense, she wouldn’t write her own name openly.’*

So I also checked for the possibility that it had come under a different name.

However, the potions requested in the documents were all of the kind so potent that if a human drank them, their insides would melt and they’d die instantly.

*’But the Crown Prince is still alive, isn’t he?’*

It was clear that none of these were commission requests sent by the Empress.

I picked up the requests to hand over to Sheila and headed for the Potion Department.

Shelves lined up at regular intervals filled the large space. Inside the shelves, potions classified by type were packed to capacity.

In one corner, potions were bubbling as they were being brewed, and a few managing mages were busily moving around them, carrying various tools.

Not seeing Sheila, I entered her office.

“Serpine?”

Sheila, who was brewing coffee, looked surprised to see me and asked.

“Didn’t you quit? What brings you here?”

“I just stopped by to hand over the work too. How have you been, Sheila?”

“Not good at all.”

Sheila showed me a face with deep dark circles and resentful eyes.

*’Those dark circles are pretty bad.’*

As expected, the Founding Festival was legendary.

It was a festival for others, but for the Potion Department, it was nothing short of a disaster. Even on my way here, I was overwhelmed by the potion volume, which was two or three times larger than usual.

My heart ached for them, but since I wasn’t going to do their work for them, I deliberately averted my gaze.

“Would you like some coffee?”

“I’m fine. More importantly, are these all the commission requests that came in for me?”

I held up the bundle of requests I had brought. Sheila took a sip of her coffee from her mug and then spoke.

“I believe so. Why? Were you waiting for a specific request?”

“No, nothing like that. I was just asking in case any were missing.”

“I processed all the requests that came in until this morning, and there wasn’t any addressed to you, Serpine.”

“I see.”

So the request *did* come, or didn’t it? I tilted my head curiously and placed the bundle of requests on Sheila’s desk.

“…Serpine, what is this?”

Sheila stared at me with trembling pupils.

“From now on, I’d like the Potion Department to handle any requests that come to me.”

“…”

To the dumbfounded Sheila, I gave instructions regarding a few potions that required special attention during manufacturing.

“Well, good luck then. I’m a bit busy now, so I’ll be going.”

Turning my back on Sheila, who was clutching her head in despair, I carefully exited the Potion Department.

And so, I returned to the secretarial office empty-handed.

*’In the original story, the female protagonist found the commission request while cleaning… So if it arrived, there’s a high probability it’d be in my room, so why isn’t it here?’*

Wondering if it had fallen somewhere, I even crawled under the desk to search, but found nothing.

*’Maybe only the female protagonist can find it? Is it not showing up because I’m looking for it, and the female protagonist is supposed to?’*

It’s not some game item… That can’t be it.

Even if the Empress had cast a spell on the request to make it visible only to a specific person, it would make sense for it to be visible to me, not Ramona.

Because it was *my* commission request.

“Lucifer, do you think the request didn’t come?”

Lucifer, in a bread-loaf pose, stared blankly at me as if asking what I was talking about.

“Oh, right. Food.”

I had been so engrossed in searching for the request that I completely forgot to give him his food immediately upon arriving.

“Myaaaoow.”

Lucifer tapped his food bowl with his front paw and meowed in complaint, demanding it right away. I quickly poured food into his bowl and crouched down in front of him.

Lucifer began to nibble at his food.

“How did you survive without me?”

Not only did Lucifer need me to feed him directly, but he also required me to stay by his side until he finished eating.

He was a cat just as finicky as his owner.

While watching Lucifer eat, I suddenly sensed someone behind me. It sounded like it was coming from the potion lab.

“…What was that?”

In an instant, a line from the novel flashed through my mind.

*’She is suddenly murdered by the Empress.’*

That was Serpine’s fate in the original story.

And the moment I realized that, besides the cat, I was alone in this room, my fear grew uncontrollably.

Even having died once before, death was always a terrifying thing.

*’I should have just stayed glued to the Magic Tower Lord.’*

I must have been too reckless, wandering around alone. What was I even doing, going out of my way to look for some request when I should have just been observing the meeting?

Regretting it now was useless.

Lucifer seemed to sense something suspicious too, stopping his eating and craning his neck to survey the surroundings warily.

I rose from my crouched position and crept silently toward the direction of the sound.

I was on high alert, but the intruder revealed themselves more easily than expected.