IQBSA 15

Chapter 15

“I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t know anyone was in here.”

It was a cleaner in a maid uniform.

The cleaner had apparently bumped into the potion-making tools I had stacked to one side, and was grunting as she tried to keep them from toppling over.

The only thing she had that could be used as a weapon was a broom propped up beside her.

‘Serpine wouldn’t meet such a bizarre ending—getting killed by a mere broom.’

I lowered the potion bottle I had been holding, ready to strike, and breathed a sigh of relief. As I took a closer look at the cleaner’s appearance, her face seemed somewhat familiar.

‘Where have I seen her before?’

Dark brown hair and jet-black eyes. Even rosy cheeks dotted with freckles.

“…Hazel?”

It was definitely the clerk who had been in trouble at the dress shop in Erden Village.

“Huh? The person who bought that dress for me? Eek!”

Suddenly, the items Hazel had been holding came crashing down and rolled across the floor. I’d heard she was accident-prone at the dress shop, and it seemed she was no exception here either.

“I’m so sorry! I’m really sorry…”

“It’s fine. Can you help me pick up the things that fell first?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

I picked up the manufacturing tools scattered on the floor and carefully stacked them back in their original places.

Hazel also scurried around like a busy squirrel, gathering the fallen items and bringing them to me.

“I’m really sorry. This is my first day, so I’m still not used to the work…”

Once the cleanup was mostly done, Hazel fidgeted with her fingers and spoke with a somber expression. Looking at her, I recalled the original story.

The very scene where Ramona encounters Roachin while cleaning the Magic Tower. Their first meeting.

‘…Could she be Ramona?’

The Founding Festival was right around the corner, and there was still no sign of Ramona. But according to the original plot, Ramona should be in the Magic Tower around this time.

“Your name is Hazel, right?”

“Yes. Oh, but how do you know my name?”

“I heard someone call you that at the dress shop.”

“Ah… so you heard everything.”

Hazel scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.

‘…She doesn’t seem to be lying.’

Even if her name was different, she could have just lied about that, so it was worth suspecting she might be Ramona. But Hazel’s eyes were too pure and innocent for that.

Besides, her appearance was completely different from what was described in the original. The heroine was said to have silver hair and blue eyes, but Hazel’s appearance was the complete opposite—dark and warm-toned.

Ramona was said to be the most beautiful woman in this world, but Hazel was far from that classic beauty standard. She had a simple and cute look, like a mountain girl from the Alps.

“You said you started working at the Magic Tower today, right?”

“Yes!”

Hazel nodded and answered cheerfully.

‘What’s going on?’

Where on earth was the heroine, and why was this girl in front of me instead?

Hazel blinked her innocent eyes as if waiting for my next words.

Just as I was about to speak again, still confused, a loud sound echoed through the quiet room.

*Growl—*

“I haven’t been able to eat anything since yesterday, so…”

Hazel, the owner of the stomach alarm, quickly covered her belly and looked flustered.

“…Shall we talk while we eat, then?”

I took Hazel to the dining hall and brought over food for two.

“Here you go.”

Hazel’s face turned ashen at the sight of the porridge-like soup.

Seeing her reaction reminded me of my own face when I first encountered that soup—I felt a sense of kinship.

“If you’re going to work here, you’ll have to get used to it. You’ll be eating it every day. It might look like that, but the taste isn’t bad, I think?”

At my words, Hazel bravely picked up her spoon.

“Then I’ll eat well!”

Even though she was accident-prone, her bright energy overflowed, making her a character with a strange charm that was hard to dislike.

“Ah! It’s actually edible, despite how it looks?”

After taking a spoonful of the soup, Hazel’s eyes went wide. Then, like someone who hadn’t eaten in days, she busily continued spooning it into her mouth.

The soup bowl began to empty at an alarming rate.

‘…Why do you have to go around not eating properly, making me feel sad.’

I waited until Hazel had completely emptied her bowl before starting my questions.

“How did you end up coming to the Magic Tower? Weren’t you working at the dress shop?”

“It seemed like the dress shop work wasn’t really suited for me, so I was looking for other jobs. Then the employment office contacted me, saying there was an opening for a cleaner at the Magic Tower, so I said I’d take it right away!”

“They contacted you saying there was an opening for a cleaner? Could you tell me more about that?”

“I heard the person who worked here before suddenly disappeared, so they were urgently looking for a replacement. I don’t know the details either.”

Hazel shook her head from side to side.

‘This smells fishy.’

At first, I suspected Hazel might be hiding something, but the more we talked, the less that seemed the case. Rather than Hazel, it was the cleaner who had suddenly disappeared before her who was suspicious.

Could that woman be the heroine?

‘But if she were the heroine, she wouldn’t just suddenly disappear, right?’

She hadn’t even met the sub-male leads yet. Where could the heroine have gone alone? Had the original plot changed because of me, causing the heroine’s actions to change as well?

I had no idea how the original story was progressing anymore. As my head ached from the plot that refused to match the original at all, Hazel pointed somewhere with her hand and asked.

“By the way, what’s that?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

I turned my head in the direction of Hazel’s finger and froze in shock.

“‘From today onwards, anyone who allows Serpine Mirabel to leave the Magic Tower without the Tower Master’s permission will be subject to immediate dismissal.'”

‘…Crazy. Did he actually post that up?’

So that’s why people kept glancing at me. He’d actually gone and posted that ridiculous notice.

Having Hazel kindly read it aloud only doubled my embarrassment.

“By the way… who is Serpine Mirabel? Seeing that a notice was posted, it seems like a pretty serious matter. I thought I should at least know who she is so I don’t make a mistake. I really want to do well this time, without any errors!”

Hazel’s eyes blazed with passion, and she clenched her fist with determination.

‘You’ve already made a mistake, though.’

Reading the notice aloud wasn’t enough—she’d also asked the person in question, a two-fold mistake.

“I’m Serpine Mirabel.”

“…Gasp. At the dress shop, you—you said a different name.”

“I had my reasons back then, so I used a pseudonym. Oh, just so you know, please keep it a secret that I used another name in Erden Village, okay?”

“Of course! You can count on me.”

I’d made a point of asking her, but for some reason, I didn’t feel much trust, and I nodded uneasily.

“Then that means you’re the Tower Master’s secretary, Miss Serpine! I really wanted to see you again, and now we’re working in the same place—what an honor!”

“It’s not really an honor…”

Unable to handle Hazel’s overwhelming enthusiasm, I pretended not to hear and continued eating.

After finishing her explanation about how she’d come to the Magic Tower, Hazel stared at her empty bowl and smacked her lips.

“Um… can I have another bowl of this?”

“Eat as much as you want. The humans here don’t eat much anyway, so there’s always leftovers.”

“Wow, really?”

Hazel beamed like a child, saying she’d never seen such a great job.

“Then go get some more. I have somewhere to be, so I’ll head out first.”

“Yes!”

Leaving Hazel, who ran off excitedly to get more soup, I left the dining hall and headed straight for the servants’ dormitory.

“Oh! That girl? What was her name again.”

The cleaner, Leah, rolled her eyes as if trying to jog her memory.

“I’m sorry. No matter how hard I think, I can’t remember.”

But after a long pause, that disappointing answer came out.

With the Founding Festival approaching, most of the servants had already gone home on vacation.

Among the few who remained, Leah was the only one who knew anything about the cleaner who had suddenly disappeared, and I had managed to catch her just as she was about to leave.

“Try to think harder. You really don’t remember anything?”

I grabbed Leah’s hand and spoke in an earnest tone.

“Well, actually… aside from when she first arrived, I never really exchanged a word with her. She kept to herself so quietly, and our cleaning areas were strictly divided, so we rarely ran into each other.”

“If you really can’t remember her name, what about her appearance? Weren’t her eyes blue?”

“Oh, that’s right! I remember because her eyes were so pretty, even at a glance. But how did you know that?”

Sensing her suspicious look, I quickly came up with an excuse.

“Well… I think she’s someone I used to know, so I’ve been looking for her.”

“Oh, I see.”

My heart leaped at the confirmation that the disappeared cleaner’s eye color matched the heroine’s. But this was a world where blue eyes were common, and that alone wasn’t enough to conclude they were the same person.

“What about her hair color? Was it… silver?”

Silver hair would be a clue substantial enough to confirm she was the heroine. Silver hair was the symbol of the heroine’s family, the House of Silodian, and wasn’t very common in this world.

I waited for her answer with anticipation, hoping to finally catch the heroine’s trail, but Leah’s face showed only bewilderment.

“I’m not sure about that… She always wore her robe pulled up tightly, so I don’t even know what her hair color was.”

“…I see.”

I felt deflated.

“Is there anything else? Any particularly distinctive features?”

“Hmm. I’ve told you everything I know. Can I go now?”

Leah gestured with her heavy luggage, signaling that she wanted to leave.

“…Yeah, go ahead.”

I had no choice but to slowly release my grip on Leah’s hand.

“Then have a happy Founding Festival.”

Leah shook off my reluctant hand and left coldly. It seemed everyone working at the Magic Tower was devoid of any human warmth.

Left alone in the corridor, I thought to myself.

“Something’s definitely fishy.”

Couldn’t the disappeared cleaner have worn her robe pulled up to hide her silver hair?

Leah’s testimony was somewhat helpful, but it wasn’t enough to confirm anything.

‘I wanted to avoid this place, though.’

I reluctantly moved on to the next location.