Chapter 78

Chapter 78. Closer to Body and Mind (2)

And the next day, my uncle called us over and served us the last breakfast.

“Annabelle?”

Uncle asked as he brought out spicy tomato stew that was good for a hangover.

“The little duke and I drank too much alcohol yesterday, but what’s wrong with your face?”

“Maybe it’s because the bed has changed…”

Ian was drinking water next to me, and he said indifferently.

“No way. I slept perfectly last night. Did you sleep with the window open?”

To be honest, I couldn’t answer because I had never checked to see if the window was open or closed.

“Looking at it the other day, you didn’t even check it and went straight to bed. Checking the condition of the room before sleeping is one of the basics…”

“Perhaps… It must not have been that you two really slept in the same bed the day before yesterday.”

Ian’s nagging was blocked by my uncle’s words.

I couldn’t say much because my uncle himself had created this situation, but he seemed quite uncomfortable.

“No! We slept separately!”

After hurriedly denying, I secretly asked Ian.

“Well… Did you sleep well because you were alone yesterday?”

“It’s not because I slept well, but because I was too drunk.”

Ian answered in a voice that was calm.

“I can’t even remember how I got to the room.”

In the end, it was said that Ian didn’t remember anything and slept well.

It also meant that I was the only one who had trouble sleeping because of the past that I learned anew.

‘Well, it’s all a thing of the past. Let’s forget about it too. That’s good.’

Of course, I thought it was good, but I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable.

My uncle shrugged his shoulders and said.

“Since you got a hangover, it was a good drink, wasn’t it?”

“I think so.”

I stayed silent while the two of them talked about what they drank yesterday.

It was a bit awkward to make eye contact with Ian.

I wondered if this strange feeling would go away if I quickly got out of Caronda.

“Leave it to me. Please do not worry and return safely.”

After breakfast, when it was time for us to leave, my uncle resolutely told Ian.

“The criminals will be closely monitored until the knights arrive from the imperial family.”

“Yes.”

I smiled and greeted my uncle.

My uncle added, shaking his head.

“How could Lanella be such a heinous criminal? I thought she was stupid but a really nice girl…”

I asked, blinking my eyes.

“She was stupid?”

“She wanted to pretend to be smart, but she wasn’t. You can’t hide that.”

After all, she didn’t seem very smart when she secretly vomited out a lot of information last night.

And seeing her bravely ascended to the capital and in and out of my mother’s dressing room, the state was not attentive either.

“Please give thanks also to Prince Robert. Even in this remote southern part of the country, he’s got a secretly high approval rating, and I can understand why.”

“The approval rating is high?”

“Yes. He’s a member of the royal family who truly thinks about their people. It was right to see that he cared about this much.”

He was from an imperial family who truly thought of the people and the throne at the same time, but I did not say that.

I hadn’t seen his face once, but now my enemy was Crown Prince Carlon.

And I had to help Robert somehow to punish the human being.

There were many reasons why Robert had to bring Lanella’s party to the warp and bring her to the Knights.

The first was to spread this issue across the country while they penetrated the empire.

The second was to extract the remnants of Carlon from the Imperial Knights.

No matter how much control Carlon has over the Imperial Order, he would be immediately expelled from the Order if he abandoned his obligation to transport those who participated in Black Magic.

So, if there was a movement to secretly let them go or kill them, Robert was going to reverse it.

Because what we needed now was to somehow grab his tail.

But, I also had my own purpose.

“I’ve been living under fake families for almost all my days eating frozen yipper meat.”

In my words, my uncle gritted his teeth.

“Frozen meat, oh my god…”

Then, I glanced as if I was leaving something for him.

“Make sure they stay on the edge of starvation.”

If you went to the Imperial Palace prison, you were treated well because of human rights. It was obvious that the prison would give them something better than frozen yipper meat.

Therefore, in order to suffer for a long time, they had to be placed under someone who could bully them thoroughly for a long time.

“Then please, Uncle. See you later.”

“Yes, Annabelle.”

My uncle smiled and stroked my head.

“I don’t mean to go up to the capital, but I think I’ll miss you.”

And he said it in a faint way.

“I will escort those sinners directly to the capital as you say. I should see Oscar, Marilyn, and your brother. I thought I didn’t need a family, but it’ll definitely be different once I get older.”

My uncle’s dark blue eyes looked at me still.

“It’s all thanks to you, Annabelle. Thank you for coming to Caronda and being my niece.”

I smiled because I was shy.

“Then, really. Bye!”

While warping with Ian, I was pleased to remember my uncle’s last words.

When I warped, I was in front of the capital’s clock tower again.

I couldn’t believe I had traveled a huge distance in that short moment, so I felt like it was a dream.

As soon as we arrived in front of the clock tower, the jewels of the ring that had reached the end of its life were destroyed and broken.

“Wow, this is how it ends.”

After removing the ring that only had the broken pieces left, I was amazed by the broken jewelry, so I muttered while looking around.

“Our Caronda schedule is over too.”

“Yes.”

Ian answered while taking off his round glasses.

“The connection between you and Prince Robert is over.”

“Huh? Um…Yes. But now that the work is done, shouldn’t we go to the palace to report it?”

“Well.”

Ian thought a little, and then he said.

“You don’t have to go. I will go alone.”

“Oh, will you?”

It was already awkward for Ian and I to go to the Imperial Palace together, so I was sympathetic.

If I had to ride together in that strange dating carriage again, I didn’t think I could handle the atmosphere.

“Yes. You don’t even need to see the prince.”

“Then let me tell you a few things.”

“Is there anything else I don’t know?”

“Yes. Actually, I went to see Lanella last night.”

I added various explanations to Ian.

I should have talked to him last night, but now I had a chance.

“The ‘origin of black magic’ is a transaction discovered through the devil.”

“Devil… It is similar to what the prince explained last time.”

“Yes. The other one was said to have dedicated divine powers to find out. It failed due to lack of divine power, but somehow it seemed that there was a connection in the temple.”

Ian’s expression turned serious.

“The prince was expecting that too. He mentioned the temple last time.”

It was probably referring to the sending of messages to the temple when raiding the general store.

Of course, at that time, only Cessianne, who had good faith, responded.

I didn’t know who the collaborators of the temple were, but it must have been a very cautious person.

“And again… This is my opinion.”

I said avoiding Ian’s eyes.

“The foreigner they hired to kill me. It’s probably not an assassin. There’s no way they would try to move carefully since they know it could not work.”

“I think so too.”

As if Ian had thought hard about the matter, the answer came immediately.

His words continued.

“It’ll probably be more like an application for a formal duel so it results in a normal and legal death.”

Exactly the same idea as me.

Perhaps the way to get me out was to turn to Richard and Elburn for help.

Carlon didn’t know me, but those brothers had been tangled with me anyways before.

Of course, if this southern incident was known, we might be able to predict when the note they sent had arrived.

With that in mind, I had to come up with the next plan.

Fortunately, there was one thing they never knew.

It was that my skills were making an unimaginable leap each time I destroyed the ‘origin of black magic’.

“I think it would be a good idea to prepare well for the duel. We can use it to break traps.”

I continued speaking calmly.

“And one more thing. It’s important…”

In fact, that was the most important thing.

“I don’t think they even know what the third ‘origin of black magic’ is. She said they couldn’t find it because they didn’t have enough power to dedicate to the devil. Maybe we’ve destroyed two, so we’re looking for the last.”

I sighed as I spoke.

The Crown Prince has even brought in demons for money and power.

It was not possible in this world, so he brought the evil things of another world.

“We must find it. Maybe we should find it first.”

“Let’s start them.”

Ian said calmly and then asked.

“Go to the Duke of Wades. As soon as you get to the duke’s house, take action right away. Can you tell your family directly?”

“Huh? Yes…”

“It must be difficult to keep up. I am going to enter the palace right away.”

“You will enter the palace?”

So he meant to go straight to Robert and tell him all of this.

“Yes. Since it’s an issue, I thought it’d be better to deliver it as soon as possible.”

“The prince must be surprised too… Starting with the morning breeze.”

“You don’t have to worry. He always wakes up early in the morning.”

“Hmm.”

I answered back, kicking my tongue.

“A bird that wakes up early in the morning dies from overwork.”

“Anyway, it means don’t worry.”

Ian changed the subject embarrassingly without responding to me.

“Aaron and Oscar are hired by the Duke of Wades, so there will be nothing difficult.”

I could feel his willingness not to even mention the prince at all.

“Marilyn can be said to have been hired as an exclusive clothing tailor for vacation for my mother.”

“Then what about me?”

“You can say that you came in as a disciple of my mother. That’s true.”

It was surprising how thorough he thought about it that I could get an answer right away.