The Nymph Wants to be Plundered - Chapter 203

“He moved that nymph who had been staying in His Majesty’s bedroom upstairs. In the end, that was the right thing to do. He’s someone constantly burdened with official duties—he can’t be bothered every day even after returning to his bedroom to end the day.”

“Ah, I see.”

Though it was an unpleasant matter for Polyxene , she forced herself to nod as if understanding. It was the king’s administration, after all. Setting aside Mel with her loose tongue, there was nothing wrong with Iel’s logic. Rather, it seemed to bring back old memories, so that was good…

Wait a minute. Could it be… No, it couldn’t be. If the purpose was to separate the bothersome nymph to the second floor, then yes! There would be no reason to excessively decorate by placing large orders with the small folk. That makes even less sense—why would he take care of her while deliberately keeping her far away? It must be some other, other reason.

It absolutely had to be that way. Even if Cassis pitied the nymph who nearly died from Lya’s poison, it should remain nothing more than sympathy.

Polyxene found this sign that her vague judgment from before might be overturned to be quite ominous. However, this wasn’t a situation where she could dig deeper. If Iel became displeased with her again, it would be terrible.

With Mel gone now, Iel was the only one she could ask anything about the Hall of Glory. The act of trying to forcibly discover the truth of this ominous prediction felt dangerous. Even this information had been obtained with the guarantee that she would leave the castle…

But she couldn’t just retreat like this. Once she was sent off to Macriss, it would be difficult to return before autumn, and it would be unfair to be driven away dejectedly, leaving only suspicions and resentment behind.

What should she do? What excuse could there be to subtly dig into the relationship between Cassis and that nymph without directly bringing them up? Biting her lips hard in thought, Polyxene spoke carefully.

“Big brother. If anything happens to disturb the castle’s order after I leave, you’ll handle it, won’t you?”

“That is indeed my eternal duty. Like the path you’ll walk from now on, Polyxene . I’m truly pleased that you and I will be walking toward the same goal.”

The Millennium Knight’s face shone with pride. Rather than feeling any pangs of conscience about this, Polyxene put strength in her gaze and said.

“Of course I trust that, but if a situation arises that would be difficult for you to handle in your own name, please don’t hesitate to use my name.”

“Hmm?”

“You know, my talent. The one that slightly dulls the mana fluctuations of mages close to me. If external mages come into the castle acting arrogant, please mention me to put them in their place. You could even hint that you’d summon me back to the castle.”

After saying it, it felt like a rather flimsy excuse.

Since the World Tree was undoubtedly the most powerful entity within Jupiter Castle, mages and spirits often couldn’t use their powers well inside. Naturally excluding Cassis, who was both king and guardian of the World Tree. Therefore, those born with exceptional magical talents generally didn’t yearn for castle life, but rather went out to live together separately or in seclusion.

Living in isolation tends to blur one’s sense of reality. Hence, when mages were invited into the castle for some needed magic, they would often come in acting arrogant and get their comeuppance.

Iel fell into thought for a moment.

Hmm, come to think of it, His Majesty the King has hardly touched the magic installed in the Hall of Glory since his ascension, has he? The same goes for the palace and other places.

To check whether trap magic that hadn’t been activated and had been left alone for a long time was broken or not, they would need to bring in a couple of mages soon. Those were quite tricky, so the castle’s mediocre-level mages wouldn’t even come close to handling them.

“I understand. Such a thing probably won’t happen, but if it does, I’ll call for you. There’s no need for armed conflict—you can just stick close to them and glare intensely. Hearing what you said reminds me that we should soon inspect not only the Hall of Glory but also the magic installed in the palace.”

“…Yes.”

The Hall of Glory.

When the name of the space Polyxene was dying to enter came up, her breath seemed to stop completely.

“Even if we start preparing now, we’ll take our time doing it after autumn, but if it’s before then, you’ll need to return from Macriss. You could also monitor the mages entering the Hall of Glory, so keep that in mind.”

Since it was words thrown out with a gambling-like mentality, even Polyxene couldn’t guarantee whether that plan would actually be realized. Her small talent was particularly useless in ordinary times and didn’t work at all on high-level mages.

But she felt she should be satisfied with obtaining the precious opportunity to enter the Hall of Glory.

‘I need to stop here. If I get too greedy with small desires, I’ll end up losing everything.’

Polyxene tightly closed her trembling lips and nodded with difficulty. Even if the nymph and the noble king had some complicated entanglement, she could just unravel it. What if she couldn’t unravel it? Surely that wouldn’t happen. The nymph had to be a worthless being that the elves could lose entirely. Then Iel looked at her with considerably softened eyes.