I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother Chapter 22

“Ah. Do you know me?”

I said it without thinking, then smacked my forehead.

Considering the reaction I’d gotten at the ballroom earlier, of course there was no way she wouldn’t know me.

I was just thinking that she would probably treat me like a cockroach and scurry far away when, instead—

Letti expressed her liking for me.

“Oh. Lady Evanroar. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Uh… Likewise.”

I was genuinely impressed by her courage. Even after learning that I was Silia, she wasn’t afraid of me.

What a bold person.

Having taken an instant liking to each other, we quickly decided to leave the imperial palace together.

“You mean there’s actually someone that crazy?”

“Yeah. A damn two-faced sadist.”

“A damn two-faced sadist, huh? He sounds a little like someone I know. Why are there so many crazy people in this world? Sigh.”

Letti told me about the person she was supposed to meet outside, and he sounded like a thoroughly unpleasant bastard.

Someone who could give Dazar a run for his money.

Having found something in common, we began to feel a sense of camaraderie toward each other.

“Just looking at his face gives me the creeps. We’ve been sworn enemies since we were children.”

“Ugh. Being childhood friends with someone like that sounds horrible.”

“You really understand me!”

We gazed at each other sympathetically.

“Letti!”

“Cilia!”

Was this what having a friend felt like?

At last, it seemed I had made a friend too.

“If we go through that exit, there’s a small passage that leads straight outside.”

“Oh! You know the imperial palace so well, Letti. That’s amazing.”

“Ahem.”

Letti bashfully adjusted the yellow cloth covering her head. We had just stepped through the exit when—

“There you are! Where do you think you’re going again?!”

“L-Lord Hael!”

A knight whose appearance practically screamed I’m the most impressive man in the world suddenly appeared, panting heavily!

“Letti? Do you know him?”

“Ahem. He’s called Lord Hael, but… ignore him and let’s go!”

“I can’t do that!”

The man called Hael charged toward us, huffing angrily.

Startled, I instinctively shoved Letti aside and kicked him in the shin!

The sturdy iron leg that had even worked against Dazar slammed painfully into his shin.

Thud!

“Ugh!”

“Gasp. Letti, this way!”

Leaving him behind clutching his shin, we sprinted away at full speed.

We escaped the imperial palace through the little passage Letti had mentioned and kept running.

“Huff… huff…”

After running for quite a while, we finally ducked into a secluded alley and caught our breath.

Letti wiped the sweat from her forehead and laughed.

“My goodness! I’ve never seen anyone take down Lord Hael with a single blow before. You’re incredibly strong!”

“R-Really?”

“That was quite the spectacle!”

She chuckled happily while I leaned against the wall and grinned.

Then I pulled out a small cloth bundle I had tucked inside my coat.

“What is that?”

“We’re going to need a lot of stamina from now on. It’s something to replenish our energy.”

“Oh?”

I quickly untied the bundle, revealing two pieces of garaetteok. I tore off one and handed it to Letti.

“Here. Eat this. It’s probably your first time seeing it, but, hmm… I think you’ll like it! I grilled it with a little honey.”

“It really is a food I’ve never seen before.”

I tore off a piece of garaetteok and ate it first. Letti watched me quietly before taking a bite herself.

Her face was mostly hidden by the cloth and glasses, but I could see the corners of her mouth curling upward.

“It’s delicious.”

“Really? I’m glad.”

“Mhm! This is very delicious indeed!”

Letti smiled happily while holding the garaetteok in her hand.

After meeting nothing but abnormal people ever since entering the Siastor household, I was slightly moved as I looked at her.

Good heavens. An actual normal person!

“W-Would you like to come with me? If you don’t have anything else to do, I mean…”

So I shyly made the suggestion. I wanted to go shopping with her!

Letti looked surprised, her mouth forming a small circle before she burst into hearty laughter.

“Hahaha! How amusing! All right, let’s go together!”

I was overjoyed. At last, I had a female friend!

“Where should we go first? An atelier? A café? A dress shop?”

Letti listed the sorts of shops noblewomen commonly visited. She seemed excited, as though she herself had never been to them before.

I shook my head seriously.

Those weren’t the places I intended to visit.

“No. We’re going to a shop called ‘The Muscle-Bulging, Ripped-and-Jacked Machine That Can Make You Like This Too.’”

“!”

Letti seemed to stumble for a moment, but surely that was just my imagination.

The shop called The Muscle-Bulging, Ripped-and-Jacked Machine That Can Make You Like This Too had also appeared in the original novel.

Its owner was an old man named Ralph. Since this was much earlier than the events of the original story, he would probably be middle-aged now.

He was from a small tribe that had been destroyed by the Quizen Empire. He had been forced into slavery until ten years ago, when Emperor Scarlet’s declaration abolishing slavery made him a citizen of the empire.

More importantly, in the original story, he was the one who built the enormous defensive machines that ultimately protected the empire’s walls when Axion destroyed the empire.

Though Axion’s condition at the time had been so severe that he had simply let it go.

In any case, Ralph was an extremely capable man.

And that was the huge, muscular man standing right in front of me.

“What?”

“Hello. Are you Mr. Ralph, the owner of this shop?”

“I am. Why?”

Clang! Clang!

The workshop was filled with suffocating heat and the sound of metal being hammered.

Bare-chested men worked diligently, sweat pouring down their bodies.

Standing in the middle of them like a gigantic statue, a hulking, muscular middle-aged man looked Letti and me up and down.

“Did you come to the wrong shop? The jewelry shop is across the street.”

Following his gaze, I looked down at my clothes.

Ah. Right.

Since I had dressed up for the ball, my outfit was far too extravagant.

And Letti, with a yellow cloth covering her head, looked downright suspicious.

I shook my head.

“No. We came to the right place.”

“You’re saying you really came here?”

“Yes.”

Ralph dropped the enormous hammer in his hand onto the floor with a heavy thud and crossed his arms.

“What brings such distinguished ladies all the way here?”

His tone was far from friendly.

I remembered that in the original novel, he was described as hating every noble except Emperor Scarlet, who had freed him from slavery.

The look he gave us was filled with contempt and disgust, but—

“This place is quite fascinating. I never knew there was somewhere like this in the capital.”

“Letti. Don’t touch everything so carelessly. What if you hurt yourself?”

Neither of us paid much attention to his attitude.

I was already quite accustomed to such looks, both before and after possessing this body, and I already knew about his past, so I understood.

Letti, meanwhile, was completely fascinated by a huge hammer machine pounding something rhythmically.

“Hey.”

“Oh, sorry. We came because we wanted to commission something.”

“A commission? I don’t take commissions from people like you, so get lost.”

He snorted.

“I bet you came here wanting some automatic rotating table for tea time or an endlessly operating fan. Something to keep your makeup from running in the heat.”

“!”

What the heck?! Those machines sounded incredibly useful!

“My inventions aren’t meant for such frivolous purposes! They’re meant to repay His Majesty Emperor Scarlet for his kindness! They are creations that will be used for the prosperity of the empire!”

“Oh?”

Letti, who had been staring at the hammer with shining eyes, suddenly turned toward him.

Her appearance was even more conspicuous than mine, and she seemed quite intrigued by what he had said.

“So, get lost.”

Ralph certainly had a patriotic mindset, but it didn’t particularly move me.

With an unimpressed expression, I tapped the table between us.

“I’m disappointed. I’ve secretly admired your work for a long time, only to find out that you’re actually someone who judges people solely by their appearance.”

“What?”

“That machine for grinding miar into powder that was distributed to mills two years ago. That was your invention, wasn’t it?”

“H-How did you…?”

Because I had seen your signature on the machine the last time I visited that mill.

“You were trying to reduce the amount of labor needed at the mills so you could lower the price of miar powder somehow, weren’t you? For the common people.”

“……Who are you?”

Ralph narrowed his eyes and stared intently at me.

A look of wariness appeared on his face.