Chapter 98
Given the Nabel Empire’s nature, rather than that woman herself taking the lead to deceive them, it was more accurate to think the Nabel Empire had sent her from the start with the intent to commit fraud.
When Kasselard stepped down from his seat and stood in front of the magic device, Ibella stood across from him with a tense face. She tried to smile softly, but it wasn’t as easy as she wanted.
‘Lord Jeremiah is scary too, but… this person feels even less human.’
If their ranks had been at least somewhat on the same level, she would have felt less fear by a Guide’s instinct, but the gap was absurdly large, so her body was trembling.
“It seems Ibella is nervous because she isn’t used to a place like this.”
Jeremiah said that and gave Ibella a look, but she only broke into a cold sweat. Kasselard, watching her with indifferent eyes, placed his palm on the magic device. Ibella hurriedly pressed her palm to the opposite side as well.
‘J-Just like usual… I just have to do it like usual!’
She had met countless Transcendents and practiced matching waves with them. Even if only for a very brief time, S-Class Transcendents had been kind to her, because she could emit waves similar to an S-Class Guide’s. So…!
“Huh?”
“Thirty-eight percent?”
Jeremiah also, as if he couldn’t believe the result, raised his voice in shock.
Still, it was a higher match rate than with Agnes. Emperor Anox, who had placed high hopes in the Nabel Empire’s Princess, rapidly lost interest. It stung, but the Empress had been right. ‘I almost did something stupid.’
“P-Please test again! That can’t be right!”
Jeremiah’s urgent voice rang through the audience hall.
Ibella had matched waves with him up to 85%. Even if Kasselard was SS-Class, she was sure the match rate would be at least 78%.
It wouldn’t be possible to have a match rate as high as that woman who was his current Guide, but since Ibella was an S-Class Guide, he had judged that would be enough by itself to control Kasselard.
“Any magic device has a margin of error only up to five or six percent. It’ll be meaningless, won’t it?”
As if he couldn’t be bothered to indulge them any further, Kasselard returned to his seat. Seeing his back as he climbed the steps, Jeremiah felt dizzy.
First being treated poorly, and now this humiliation!
It felt like he could hear laughter from somewhere, and Jeremiah snapped his head around. It seemed to be someone among Karnan’s nobles, but when their eyes met, they shut their mouths as if they had never laughed.
At that, Anox spoke in a generous voice.
“It seems the Princess is suffering greatly from travel fatigue. There are other Transcendents in this country, so it would be good to check her match rates with them as well.”
After that, Jeremiah didn’t even know what state of mind he answered the Emperor in. The Emperor permitted them to withdraw, so Jeremiah returned to the lodging with the delegation.
* * *
“How the hell did this happen!!”
The moment he entered the lodging provided when foreign royalty visited, Jeremiah began shouting. In front of the Emperor and Empress, he had forced himself to act calm, but just recalling it made his whole body feel like it was heating up.
For me to be humiliated like that. And in front of that dull-witted Karnan Emperor, of all people!
Ibella lay flat at his feet. She couldn’t even lift her head, and she was starting to choke under the killing intent pouring off an S-Class Transcendent.
“I-I’m sorry! I’ve never felt waves like that in my life, so…”
“Do you think that counts as an excuse? You ruined everything!”
You stupid thing!!
He wanted to slap her right away, or grab her by the hair and slam her into the wall, but there was a high chance the imperial family would hold a banquet for them later. Healing Ibella’s wounds with the mage they had brought wouldn’t be difficult, but if he broke bones by mistake, it would become troublesome.
‘Think. I have to think!’
For Jeremiah, it was nothing to be scolded by the Emperor back home because things had failed. What he couldn’t bear was that Kasselard… that a being with far greater power than him was alive.
He had planned to steal that bastard’s Guide and make him die slowly and miserably, or else watch him die while struggling to close the Nabel Empire’s rift, believing in a promise that would never be kept!
But his great plan had been trampled from the very start!
‘Things have gone off track, but it’s not a failure yet. Karnan needs Guides, and… the fact that Ibella isn’t S-Class hasn’t been exposed.’
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