Chapter 56
“Do you understand your usefulness?”
At Jeremiah’s words, delivered with a cold gaze, Ibella opened her mouth with a tense expression.
“Yes.”
Words like ‘I’ll do well’ or ‘I’ll work hard’ rose to her throat, but faced with that icy stare, she closed her mouth again.
“…Don’t stay in contact with the Crown Prince for long. You can only deceive him with your wave for about five minutes. He’s an SS-Class Transcendent, he may notice even sooner.”
“I understand.”
In addition to being able to temporarily emit an S-Class wave, Ibella also had the ability to synchronize her waves with multiple Transcendents. That meant she would likely show a very high match rate even with Kasselard, an SS-Class Transcendent.
What Jeremiah was truly interested in, however, was the A-Class Guide who had recently awakened. Jeremiah himself also didn’t have good matching compatibility with Guides.
His situation was different from Kasselard’s, so his match rates were not that poor. He simply had never found a Guide with a match rate high enough to form an imprint.
‘Forming an imprint just because the match rate is high is foolish.’
At present, he was heading toward the Karnan Empire with three other Guides besides Ibella. All of them were his mistresses or concubines, but he had ordered that this be concealed within the Karnan Empire.
‘I hear she’s of common birth, so making her Empress is unlikely… but I could make her an imperial consort.’
That was only if her match rate with him turned out to be extremely high.
* * *
“At this point, even a fool should realize that I like her, shouldn’t they?”
As usual, Kasselard spoke while working in his office, setting down his pen. His aide, Christian, saw that the approval signature had been written and quietly pulled the document aside to let the ink dry.
“That’s… probably true.”
But how could she not know? He was openly saying that he liked her.
He tried to cling to her whenever he had the chance, and in places hidden from people’s eyes, he kissed her. All of his attendants knew this. Christian had also noticed that the Empress’s informants were delightedly passing along the news.
He deliberately didn’t report this to the Crown Prince, fearing it would only create trouble.
“Then why won’t she confess to me?”
Christian and the other attendants all fell silent.
Why would she even? From their perspective, Baroness Linier was pretending not to notice because even rejecting him outright would be uncomfortable.
Because the other party was the Crown Prince.
And this Crown Prince would shamelessly push forward even if it were exposed.
“Is it because she doesn’t have the opportunity? Or because she’s still only a baroness?”
Isn’t it simply because she doesn’t like you, Your Highness?
The office fell silent again. Seeing Kasselard’s expression freeze cold as his optimistic thoughts came to a halt, Christian realized his mouth had brought disaster.
“I spoke without thinking… I’m sorry!”
“You think I’m going to get rejected by Ephinia?”
At the low question, Christian’s eyes darted around. He looked toward the Crown Prince’s personal attendants, the secretary, the other officials, silently pleading for help, but all of them turned their heads away.
“Answer.”
“Yes! You will definitely be rejected!”
“……”
Was that too honest?
As Christian cautiously glanced at him, a tremendous shock struck his head.
“Aagh!”
Knocked down to the floor with a blow to the head, he let out a small cry of pain, tears welling up. His head throbbed from the impact, but his nose wasn’t bleeding and no bones were broken.
“Why? Why would I be rejected? Aren’t I a good catch?”
“Th, that’s…”
Holding his aching head, Christian hesitated. If he spoke honestly again, wouldn’t he actually die this time? His master had his harsh sides, but he wasn’t truly that unreasonable.
“Being handsome, capable, or of high status does not guarantee that you will be loved.”
“You think that makes sense?”
“It’s true. Humans are complicated, and love is even more complicated. And…”
Carefully putting distance between himself and Kasselard in case he got hit again, Christian continued.
“Your first impression was the worst, wasn’t it? And what happened at that ball isn’t something that can be easily forgotten. Baroness Linier hasn’t been working as a Guide for long, so she might be thinking this.”
That he had changed like this because of guiding, and without guiding, he might return to how he was before.
At Christian’s explanation, Kasselard spoke abruptly.
“Guiding isn’t going to disappear. It lasts until death.”
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