Chapter 38

Chapter 38

After a while, Carlin came.

"You're very stable."

He said looking at Aria.

"Now that you've been through it all, you know that energy is nothing like a poisonous holy relic, right?"

Energy is very useful depending on how it was used, but there is nothing more dangerous when it comes to side effects.

Carlin nailed it as if he was never going to let her ask him to pierce her core again. Aria nodded her head.

'The Grand Duchess' illness has been cured.'

Maybe she won't be able to use it for a while.

As Carlin said, don't overdo it, and if she keeps learning for a year, she will reach the level.

"You've already changed the future enough, so don't try anymore!"

Of course, these words were heard with one ear and flowed out through the other. The shaman who was quick-witted, noticed this and started nagging even more.

"Recently, they said there are a lot of intruders near the Ingo Mountains."

"Intruder?"

"Yes. Are the whole group out of their minds?"

Aria had a shaky expression on her face. Because she herself was once an intruder.

She, of course, was doing well now that she was betrothed to the Grand Prince.

"It's nothing to worry about, but it seems like my employer is leading the hounds endlessly."

The moment she heard the words, Aria remembered her first meeting with Tristan.

She always wondered if that's how he handles intruders, with the hounds.

"Intruders are the dogs' daily food..."

"....."

"Well, anyway, the Grand Prince is there, but the castle is still without the master."

Carlin spoke very unnaturally and ended up nagging again.

"You don't know what's going to happen when the employer is away, so don't move until you're fully recovered."

Aria put on a sullen expression instead of answering.

The shaman was looking at her as if she would be wandering around thinking about what accident to make.

'It's all for a reason.'

Because Aria was calm and usually just looked at the sky when she was not doing anything special.

"Don't make that face. The Grand Prince is already... Well, he's not in good shape."

Lloyd?

Her eyes, which were like dried fish until she heard Carlin's nagging, suddenly came to life. Aria asked anxiously as she raised her bunny-pink eyes.

"Why? Is Lloyd sick too?"

"There will be more days when he won't be able to leave his room... Anyway, for one reason or another."

The shaman, who is not particularly good at lying, struggled today.

It was an insignificant answer, so she had no choice but to ask with a questionable face.

"What is the one reason or another?"

"It is unavoidable."

"Can't you explain it properly?"

Aria got angry.

Carlin, who had just had this exact same pattern of conversation just a while ago, had a bitter expression on his face.

Birds of a feather flock together.

Compared to Lloyd's creepy aura, Aria was cute with that huffing and puffing.

"It's similar to growing pains."

"What else is similar to that?"

"You'd better not go near it. You'll be deluged."

She's not sure exactly what it means to be deluged.

Aria, as if unable to sleep, remembered the boy whose eyes were dyed black. If so, it seemed like she should allow him to rest on his own for a while.

'If it's growing pains, I wish I could sing a song of healing.'

But she couldn't. Unfortunately, the risk is too great.

"Then tell me how to manage energy in the core."

"Yes? Already?"

"You said I was stable."

Well, that was true.

The shaman wondered if Aria was doing this to tamper with her body again, so he looked at her suspiciously for a moment.

"Then I'll give you the theory, so don't sing until you're fully recovered."

That's a piece of cake.

"No matter how your body is, you will recover in ten days."

Aria nodded her head again.

Only after highlighting it a few times did Carlin teach her the basics of energy management.

"A mass in the core. Think of it as a flowing liquid, not a solid, and imagine it moving around your body like blood..."

***

"Okay, that's right."

The guards at Valentine's Castle checked several items the merchant was carrying in the wagon.

Dolls and toys, medicines, herbs, paper, ornaments, fabrics, and various food materials brought in from outside the border.

All of the finest, for Aria, who was to become the Grand Duchess of Valentine.

They went through the books again meticulously, and belatedly discovered that one item of the transaction was missing.

"Um? By the way, I heard that a pony will also be delivered, so why can't I see it?"

"....."

"Hey. Why don't you answer me?"

"..."

However, the merchant who was questioned bowed his back deeply and did not even move.

"Suspicious."

Without hesitation, the guard drew his sword and placed it against the merchant's chin, forcing him to raise his head.

As the Valentines thoroughly censors the intrusion of outsiders, they reacted mercilessly to suspicious cases, even if they were already a top trader.

"Open your mouth."

Then the merchant trembled like shivering in a cold sweat, then closed his eyes tightly and barely opened his mouth.

"You...! You got your tongue cut off!"

The gutter rat's prey!

The guards were planning to immediately subdue it and call the 3rd Knights in charge of security.

Then another merchant, who had been watching them, ran desperately and knelt down on his knees.

"Si, Sir! I guarantee this person's identity! Don't you know my face well? I've been to Valentine's Castle a few times to deliver stuff!"

As he claimed, the merchant was familiar with the guards.

But the guard raised his voice, pushing the blade closer to the merchant, whose tongue had been cut off.

"What makes a difference with your guarantee? The person's tongue is cut off!"

At those words, the other merchant, who knelt down on his knees, said, begging till his hands reached his feet.

"This guy's tongue was cut off because the lord of the territory he was staying in before made fun of his mouth. He's also unfairly framed!"

"Huh, you're wasting time for nothing! How else can you prove that!"

"There's solid evidence, Sir. Look at this merchant plaque!"

Saying so, the merchant jumped up from the ground and searched through the arms of the merchant whose tongue had been cut off.

Then came a wooden merchant plaque that was carried by each merchant belonging to the merchant alliance.

[Name: John

Characteristic: Tongue cut off]

The guard saw it and lowered the sword he was holding threateningly.

And he muttered as he put it in his scabbard.

"Well... tell me earlier."

You didn't even give me a chance to talk.

As the merchant stared at him with a silent, resentful look, the guard looked over the mountain and coughed heavily.

"I know that the white-snow pony is all owned by the imperial family, and it is difficult to conceive and it will take some time, and I was contacted recently..."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Well, good. Pass."

The gates were opened.

After many twists and turns, the two merchants, who were able to enter the inside of Valentine's Castle, bowed down to the guards and got on the wagon.

"Wow, that was going to be a big deal, right?"

The merchant gently shrugged his shoulders and said to the other merchant.

And when the guards' appearance became invisible, he hardened his expression coldly and slapped the back of the other merchant's head.

"Hey, you ate a pony all of a sudden and you almost got caught before we even started. You bastard."

"..."

"I can't believe it, on a dignified mission like this..."

The merchant lamented his condition and threw the merchant plaque he was holding on the ground.

Then, when he was in the hands of a merchant, what used to be a merchant's plaque turned into an ordinary stone and rolled around the floor.

"It's an honor that your ability is suitable for this mission."

"..."

"Right? As planned, stay as far away as possible and do your job without intervening. I'll take care of the rest."

The gutter rat's prey nodded obediently without resistance.

Hans, the limb of the gutter rat, glanced at the prey with a distasteful gaze, then stared straight ahead again.

Their target was the Grand Duchess' candidate.

***

"Isn't it too early for a walk?"

Dana said anxiously, chasing after Aria.

Then Betty responded.

"That's right. You're not feeling well already, but if you take in the cold wind, you'll have a fever again."

"Cold wind... I think it would have been better to wear thicker clothes."

"Right, I think so too. Wouldn't it be better to go back to your room and prepare new clothes for now?"

Aria thought for a moment if it would be okay for her to tell them that today is a windless summer.

Though she gave up looking down at the shawl that Dana had wrapped around her shoulder before leaving.

'...I think I'm going to get hot."

She took out a new card and wrote down on it.

[Can you both be here?]

Chief maid and chief lady-in-waiting. Both of them must have been quite busy as they had high positions.

'When I came to the castle, they had to take care of me until I got used to it, so they were sticking around all day....'

Is it possible that their job so far has been abandoned?

Staring at them with such a gaze, Dana and Betty were sweating profusely and avoided her gaze.

As expected, they must have left everything they had to do because they were worried about Aria and followed her.

That was then.

"Chief maid! Chief lady-in-waiting!"

A fairly large number of servants flocked to find Dana and Betty.

Aria looked up at the two of them.

As if saying that: there are so many things to do that I'm desperately searching for you two , but you left it all behind.

"No, no."

"I've finished today's schedule to some extent!"

Then the chief maid and the chief lady-in-waiting clapped their hands as if saying that wouldn't be the case.

"What kind of fuss is this all of a sudden?"

"Something has happened! The maid's mansion is on fire!"

"What?!"