I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother Chapter 52

What is it?

Was there something stuck to my shoulder?

While I tilted my head in confusion, Cedric’s eyes gradually narrowed.

He took a step toward me.

“What is it?”

“Wait, just wait a moment, Cilia.”

It felt incredibly unfamiliar to see someone who was normally nothing but kind and gullible suddenly look so serious.

Without realizing it, I took half a step backward, then—

Wait. I didn’t just get intimidated by this guy, did I?

My pride was needlessly wounded, so I took another step forward. As a result, the distance between Cedric and me became even closer.

“What is it?”

“Here. I’m talking about this.”

Cedric, now close enough that our noses almost touched, suddenly raised his hand. His hand was, as expected, heading toward my shoulder.

Come to think of it, this was the spot where—

Those followers of Ruben left their mark before.

As soon as that thought occurred to me, a line I’d seen in the booklet last time flashed through my mind.

[They exist everywhere, in the lowest places and the highest places. They grow by nurturing hatred for this world. They are among us.]

Among us…!

I grabbed Cedric’s hand as it reached toward my shoulder.

“Argh! C-Cilia! That hurts! I said it hurts!”

While Cedric groaned in pain, I quickly subdued him.

I twisted his arm and simultaneously moved behind him, pushing him forward.

Thud!

He fell forward, leaving me sitting squarely on his back.

“Why are you doing this, Cilia? L-Let’s talk this out…!”

Cedric let out a dying squeak.

I narrowed my eyes and whispered quietly.

“Confess while I’m still asking nicely.”

“H-Huh?”

“You’re one of Ruben’s followers, aren’t you?”

At my question, Cedric flinched and trembled.

That’s it. It’s him. It definitely is.

The moment my suspicion turned into certainty.

“You’re the one who stopped Miar’s growth, aren’t you? Huh? You’re totally a spy.”

Oh my goodness. The Prime Minister of the Empire is a follower of Ruben!

And on top of that, hadn’t he been using the excuse that he was an old friend of mine to stick around and investigate the new food supply?

“You can’t keep doing this. I’ll tell Dazar right away…”

“Wait, wait! Cilia, just wait. I’m not one of Ruben’s followers!”

“Don’t lie to me. I saw you freeze up just now.”

Cedric shook his head as though he was so unfairly accused that he was going crazy.

“That was because I was completely dumbfounded! Dumbfounded! How could I possibly be a follower of Ruben when I’m the Prime Minister of the Empire?”

“…Hmm.”

“Did you forget why I came here? I came to learn about developing new food sources.”

Hmmmm.

“I’m really not. What on earth made you suspect me like that?”

Seeing him insist so earnestly that he wasn’t one of them, he actually looked slightly truthful.

…Actually, accusing Cedric of being one of Ruben’s followers had been more of a deliberate provocation. There was no way this guy was really a follower of Ruben.

Still, I had learned that, perhaps because he was the Prime Minister, he knew everything about Ruben’s followers. Apparently, everyone around me knew about Ruben or his followers except me.

I loosened my grip slightly around his arm and answered as though muttering to myself.

“Well, you were about to do something when you saw my shoulder.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Because there, I…”

Oh. Should I tell him this? I hadn’t even told Dazar or Elston about it just in case.

I instinctively closed my mouth.

Then I rolled my eyes around before opening my mouth again.

“It’s just something. I had a feeling, that’s all.”

“Ugh. What on earth are you talking about, Ciliaaaaaa?”

Cedric whined with tears welling up in his eyes.

“Are you angry because I tried to touch your shoulder? I was only trying to remove a strange seed that was stuck to your shoulder.”

“…Huh?”

At Cedric’s words, I slowly looked at my shoulder.

Just as he said, there was a tiny rice seed stuck firmly to my shoulder, clearly something that had gotten there while we were working earlier.

“Ah.”

Once I understood what had happened, I quickly released the arm I had been holding down and got off his back.

“What the heck? Why do you keep making people misunderstand you?”

It had been a joke, but still.

When I said that sheepishly, Cedric’s gentle eyes crumpled into a wounded expression.

“Cilia has always been so extreme with her displays of affection, both when she was young and now.”

Phew.

Cedric let out a long sigh, looking rather pitiful.

He thinks this is a display of affection?

Thinking back on how the original Cilia had enthusiastically “cooked and ate” this hopelessly gentle Prime Minister, I once again felt solemn.

I felt a little distressed remembering all the times she had tormented him in the name of love, so I decided to hurry him out.

“Then hurry up and go. It’s late.”

The sun hadn’t completely set yet, though.

“Mmm. You should rest too, Cilia. Ah, come to think of it, this came for you.”

Cedric, his face once again as gentle and innocent as though he’d never looked dejected, handed me a letter as if he’d almost forgotten about it.

The appearance of the letter was familiar.

It’s Leticia.

Leticia… In other words, Emperor Scarlett would occasionally send me letters like this through Cedric.

Perhaps she was cautious about sending them directly to me, because sometimes she sent them through Dazar and sometimes through Cedric.

I wonder if she realizes that’s even more suspicious.

The Prime Minister of a nation was acting as a letter carrier.

At that moment, Cedric cautiously asked,

“By the way, Cilia. How did you find out about Ruben’s followers? That’s a top-secret matter…”

“Huh? Oh, somehow?”

“You’re not supposed to know about that…”

“There are things in this world that people aren’t supposed to know? Now hurry up and go.”

I gave Cedric a very thorough escort out.

Then, when I unfolded the letter, I found something rather surprising written inside.

[Let’s meet, Cilia.]

After stripping away all the flowery phrases about the nice weather and whatnot, the only sentence left was those eight words.

“Hm…? She wants to meet?”

I blinked a couple of times before gently scratching my cheek with my index finger.

Meeting Leticia.

Was I really going to get to meet my first female friend? I was starting to feel a little excited.

 

***

 

“This is the report we received today from the Transcendent Morocanil.”

“Hmm.”

The Emperor of the Empire, Scarlett, nodded at her aide.

The sight of her was so dignified and solemn that her aide, who was secretly one of her biggest fanboys, felt like he might get a nosebleed.

When Emperor Scarlett accepted the documents her aide handed her, the ribbon tightly binding the papers came undone on its own.

This is still fascinating every time I see it.

After her previous aide had retired due to old age, he had become the Emperor’s aide this year. He still possessed a certain untainted innocence.

I wonder what it says.

No one other than the Transcendent and the Emperor was allowed to open any documents exchanged between them.

Unless the Emperor touched them, the barrier surrounding the documents prevented anyone else from accessing them.

“I see… So that’s how it was.”

It seemed that something serious was written inside.

The Emperor Scarlett’s perfectly straight eyebrows bent at a fifteen-degree angle, and the corners of her lips drooped slightly. That was proof enough.

As mentioned before, he was one of the Emperor’s secret biggest fans, and when it came to the Emperor, he possessed an extraordinarily sharp observational ability.

Her mood has gotten worse.

If so, there was only one thing a mere aide like him should do.

“I’ll take my leave.”

“…Very well.”

Get out of there as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, who knows what kind of stray sparks might fly my way.

No matter how much of a secret fan of the Emperor he was, he hadn’t forgotten his position.

If he lingered around when his superior was in a bad mood, he might end up getting scolded for something he wouldn’t normally have been scolded for.

The aide hurriedly left.

“……”

And immediately after he departed, Emperor Scarlett relaxed the stiff expression she had been wearing.

“Phew. Then I suppose it’s about time I head out.”

In fact, she hadn’t even finished reading the documents.

If she read them now, she’d have to work overtime again, and if that happened, she would be late for the precious appointment she had scheduled for today.

“I’m sorry to my aide.”

Ahem.

But it couldn’t be helped.

She needed to shorten the schedule she’d arranged with him as quickly as possible so that she’d have enough time to escape.

If I don’t, Sir Hael will notice something strange and come after me.

Scarlett tucked the rolled-up documents into her clothes and quickly pulled out a yellow cloth bundle from a secret compartment beneath her desk.

With practiced movements, Scarlett tightly wrapped the cloth around her head, then nimbly opened a secret door hidden beneath the desk.

“Upsy-daisy.”

The place where she usually worked was located on the second floor and was guarded by a great many knights. But—

There was a way to get out.

All she had to do was slip into the secret passage known only to the Emperor.

“I’m looking forward to this.”

Thinking about meeting her very first female friend, Scarlett’s heart began to thump excitedly.

“I should buy her something delicious today.”

Ahem.

Because she was the Emperor, everyone assumed she had plenty of money, but in reality, she was the person with the least amount of actual cash.

That was because money in her position was exchanged almost entirely through checks or promissory notes.

Since she rarely had any reason to handle actual cash, Scarlett had been quietly saving up money bit by bit whenever she got the chance.

It had all been for today.

“I suppose it would be better to read the documents Morocanil sent a little later.”

Work while having fun, too. Wouldn’t that be killing two birds with one stone?

Excited, Scarlett thought so to herself.