Chapter 117

The Emperor was silent for a moment before he slightly parted his lips.

“I want continuous and stable exchanges with the Magic Tower.”

Elysia curled up the corners of her mouth.

The magical tools that could only be obtained from the Magic Tower, which had been given to the imperial family for a long time, were unique in that they were unrivaled by anything. In addition, when they went to war, the Magic Tower supported not only magic tools but also wizards.

The Magic Tower was the reason why the Empire was able to stand firm in the past.

Although there was a downside that the range of support varied greatly depending on Cardell’s mood, it was not even something that the Emperor could complain about. What could they do? They had to hide their identity, but they couldn’t live a life of moving here and there.

There were no better means than the Magic Tower to live a moderate life.

“Continuous exchange… I would have done that had it not been for that assassination attempt.”

She was still angry when she thought of how Duchess Esteban had targeted Cassian. If the Duke hadn’t begged for forgiveness for the credit of finding Cassian, she might have killed them all.

“How about being escorted while staying together in the Imperial Palace?”

It seemed that the Emperor was about to change his approach.

“That would be nice, too.”

Elysia put her lips together at the tempting offer since staying together would be helpful for her to seduce him.

“Then, what would you like to be as your identity?”

Come to think of it, calling Cassian to the Imperial Palace was also the Emperor’s idea.

She came to see him disguised as a suitable noblewoman though it was an unexpected proposal. Elysia wondered if the encounter disguised as a coincidence would be the best, but wasn’t that too short an encounter?

She didn’t know how many encounters she would have to try to get close to Cassian.

“For now, I’ll just say that you are an important guest. Wouldn’t it be fine to say that you came from the Magic Tower?”

Elysia nodded her head. She hadn’t seen Cassian face-to-face for too long.

When he was young, she went to visit him while he was sleeping well, but after he grew up, he woke up like a ghost at the slightest hint of her. It was a very difficult time for her to not show her face because she was afraid that he would not have rational feelings after meeting her again.

In addition, as time went on, his personality became stronger, so she went crazy every time she went to see him. The last time she saw him, she almost lost her reason when she smelled the thick smell of blood in the room from his injuries.

Cassian seemed to be talking about something, but she just ran away.

After that, she just couldn’t go and look for her. Of course, there were many other reasons as well, but how hard it was for her to wait until she came of age!

…They finally got to see each other in two days.

“Wait, did you say the magic tower?”

“That’s right.”

“Did you already tell Cassian that?”

When the Emperor shook his head, saying that was still not done, Elysia frowned in relief. Lately, she remembered hearing that he was prowling around and that he had even found out that the Duchy was supported by the Magic Tower.

Cardel giggled and said he would get caught by his father then.

“That’s troublesome.”

Until she won his heart, she had no intention of revealing that it was she who had been visiting his bedroom.

She missed him so much that she couldn’t stand it, so she went in and out and even got caught.

How creepy it would be to know that she was the same person who was seducing him? To learn that the person who watched him since childhood was that kind of person. Even if she were Cassian, she would be scared.

“It would be better not to talk about the Magic Tower.”

“I will. Then…”

As if the Emperor wanted to do something, he stretched his words.

“Just say I’m a foreign noble. I have a personal acquaintance with Your Majesty.”

She didn’t think Cassian would care too much.

Elysia answered the Emperor and roughly thanked him, snapping her fingers once. The next moment, the box on the cracked table was pushed in front of the Emperor.

“A magic stone. A big one.”

She showed two of her fingers with a smile. She meant two.

The Emperor checked the inside of the box and, trying hard not to laugh, made a chin gesture for the chief attendant to take it. Cardel moved the Magic Tower to the middle of the Jericho Mountains after he became the Tower Master.

Thanks to that, the magic stone overflowed so much that it rolled around on the floor. Elysia would often give the Emperor hard-to-find magic stones as a sign of her support.

“Where would you like your palace to be?”

“Please, have it at the most remote place.”

“….”

The Emperor gazed at her as if puzzled by those words, and his face blushed. Afterwards, the chief attendant cleared his throat. Seeing them, Elysia frowned as she looked at the Emperor and the chief attendant.

…He looked like Bug.

“I don’t want to run into people who come and go in and out of the imperial palace.”

She wanted to have time alone with no interruptions. It would be best to be as quiet as possible because she might get out of control and bite him by the neck.

“Please control access to the surroundings and the attendant. Um… Please take appropriate measures to come only when called.”

“I will.”

“I will tell you about the exchange once this is over.”

“Oh, you might as well carry this around.”

She accepted the Emperor’s offer.

Her identity card had the imperial seal stamped on it. She didn’t seem to need it, but Elysia replied that she would use it well and gave it to Der as a toy.

* * *

“Mother.”

“Cardel?”

Elysia, who was resting in her palace given by the Emperor, opened her arms toward her son, whom she had seen after a few days.

Meanwhile, Cardel pressed his lips, perhaps he had something urgent to say, and then he obediently approached and hugged her. Seeing him like that, she lightly hugged and kissed him on the cheek.

“You have to wait a bit more.”

She wondered if he had suddenly come because he wanted to meet his father quickly, but looking at his expression, it seemed that was not the case.

“Not that.”

“What?”

“I got a strange contact from the Magic Tower.”

“Strange contact…?”

Elysia tilted her head and accepted what Cardel held out.

[ We have the identity of the person you are looking for. ]
A portrait was enclosed in the letter with a short sentence. It was a portrait of Cassian given to Duke Esteban.

The next moment, she gazed at Cardel and gestured.

“Tell me in detail.”

“They said he didn’t come back to the mansion after going out last night…”

“Who.”

Elysia cut off Cardel’s words as if she couldn’t believe he was talking about Cassian.

“Father.”

“…Has Cassian been kidnapped?”

Just looking at the enclosed portrait, it seemed like that was the case.

Elysia wondered what was going on as she rolled her eyes. After a while, she strangely burst out laughing even though she should have been worried about this situation. It was clear that the situation was not so dangerous just by looking at Cardel’s expression as he conveyed the words.

“Seriously, why is he acting so cute?”

“Is this… cute?”

“Yes.”

In the meantime, there were more than just a few contacts saying that they had Cassian. No one had even stolen the portrait, as they didn’t know that there was the magic tower behind it, so she had never actually been contacted like this.

There had always been a small mask like asking for money, knowing that a wealthy person was looking for Cassian.

“Your father is too suspicious.”

“He created a situation where it was inevitable.”

“That’s right.”

She nodded her head. If he really didn’t want her to find out, he should have cleaned up his tracks. Elysia, who was still looking at Cassian’s portrait, frowned.

“As expected, this should have been retrieved…”

Elysia sighed in belated regret.

“He left a trail so that only wizards could find it.”

“Does he want me to come quickly?”

She knew he was trying to find out about the person who had visited his bedroom. Still, she didn’t know he would link up the Magic Tower and tie it up with the guest of the Imperial Palace, who had requested him as an escort.

If this was the case, wouldn’t she be caught?

“What are you going to do?”

“Well, should I go myself?”

Elysia pondered as she recalled her past memories. When she first received reports that there was a resemblance to Cassian, he had been kidnapped. How surprised she was that she went looking for him without thinking, but it wasn’t Cassian.

After she repeated that a few times, she got to the point where she just thought it wouldn’t be Cassian this time.

Elysia bit her lip at the memory and reached out her hand.

“Come here.”

As she was still lost in her thoughts, Elysia grabbed Cardel’s arm and sat him down in front of her. Cardel’s behavior of sitting down with his back straight was natural.

Then, she ran her fingers through his hair, untangling the ties that Cardel tied around his hair. Doing his hair by herself was a small hobby of hers, and it was something she did habitually when she was nervous or when she felt like she was about to get eaten by her emotions and fall into the abyss.

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