I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother Chapter 72

I happened to be asked a question while observing her expression, and I suddenly felt a little guilty.

It felt like I had been caught snooping.

Perhaps I had unconsciously tightened my arms around Axion, because he squirmed uncomfortably.

Oops, he’s going to wake up.

“Shh. Shhh.”

I soothed Axion in a quiet voice.

It wasn’t something I needed to hide, nor did I have any reason to hide it.

“I saw a minstrel earlier.”

“A minstrel?”

“Yes.”

Judging from what Eishu had said, Kora seemed to possess an ability related to space. She slightly furrowed her brow and continued in a serious voice.

“I inherited a divine magic specialized in space. So the space around me is always under my control, you know. No matter what I’m doing.”

“Uh…”

S-She normally had such incredible magic surrounding her?

I was genuinely surprised as I looked at Kora’s vacant expression.

‘But she still gets lost?’

How terrible did her sense of direction have to be for her to get lost while controlling the space around her?

She was clearly more directionally challenged than her own ability could compensate for.

I marveled at the gap between her ability and incompetence as I listened intently.

“Ahem. You don’t have to look so surprised, you know. I may look like this, but I’m a Transcendent.”

Perhaps she had noticed my look of admiration, because Kora cleared her throat and her cheeks turned slightly red.

No, she didn’t have to be that embarrassed.

‘My admiration wasn’t exactly for a good reason….’

Seeing Kora become shy because she had misunderstood my expression, I could only laugh awkwardly.

My heart was too soft to tell her the truth.

“But earlier, you know. My space was still under my control.”

“…? Why does that matter?”

At my innocent question, Kora spoke quietly in a serious voice.

“It means someone created a new space of their own without destroying my space, you know. At the time, I only felt an extremely faint ripple. Which means…”

“Which means?”

“The person who created that space is more skilled than me, you know!”

“…!”

“My goodness!”

Kora grabbed a handful of her hair as she added that, clearly quite offended in her pride.

“Who on earth was it, you know? Why would they do that?”

Did that mean the minstrel who had appeared earlier was more powerful than Kora?

I thought about it carefully before tilting my head.

I hadn’t sensed anything particularly threatening from him, but… it was certainly suspicious.

Why had he told that story only to Axion and me?

And why take the risk of doing it inside the Imperial Palace?

“I don’t know why either. He just sang a song and disappeared. And I think I was probably the only one who could see him…”

“That’s the problem, you know. I wondered if it might be related to what’s happening now, but if that were the case, he wouldn’t have created a space limited only to you, Cilia.”

Kora rapidly spilled out her words before clamping her mouth shut.

She looked like she couldn’t find an answer no matter how much she thought about it.

She had a point.

If that minstrel had been one of the Followers of Ruben, I didn’t think he would have simply said something so cryptic and disappeared.

‘No, he did talk about something related to Ruben.’

Though the protagonist of the song had been some man who made a contract with Ruben, not Ruben himself.

Ugh. I really had no idea.

‘Until now, I’ve been focusing only on Ruben and the Followers of Ruben. But after hearing the minstrel’s words, I feel like there’s something else involved in this world.’

Was that existence an ally or an enemy?

Since it had appeared, sung a song, and disappeared, perhaps it wasn’t an enemy, at least.

I decided that I absolutely had to write about what happened today in my next reply to Silvestain as I followed behind Eishu and Kora.

“Hmm.”

After walking for a while, we soon arrived at a lobby where a large number of nobles had gathered.

“Your identities will be checked here, and then you’ll return to your respective rooms.”

The knight who had been guiding us spoke curtly before turning around and disappearing.

This was a place I remembered.

‘The exact center of the building that had been provided as guest rooms for the nobles.’

It was a large lobby with various resting areas and spaces for gatherings.

Eishu and I approached a group of nobles gathered near the fireplace.

It looked like the warmest spot.

“Does this situation even make any sense?”

Once we settled down in a place where we could comfortably feel the warmth of the fireplace, I heard the nobles talking.

A middle-aged nobleman was repeatedly speaking in an extremely angry voice.

He slammed his hand against the table and shouted,

“What do you mean there are rebels at the Hall of Rest? This is the Emperor’s conspiracy!”

The Emperor’s conspiracy?

Considering they were in the middle of hunting down rebels, that was quite a bold statement.

Apparently, the surrounding nobles thought so too, because they hurriedly tried to restrain him.

“Haha. My friend, you’re getting a little worked up. Calm down. His Majesty must have had a greater purpose in doing this, don’t you think?”

An older nobleman glanced around nervously as he patted the angry man on the shoulder. Another young noblewoman beside him crossed her arms and said,

“But to search for rebels at the Hall of Rest, where every noble in the Empire has gathered… This is an extremely threatening move toward us nobles.”

“Exactly. And then there’s the Miar incident… What exactly does she think of us nobles?”

“Almost everyone who was in the Academic Hall earlier was taken away. Just because they attended a strange lecture.”

The nobles vented their anxiety and anger simultaneously.

Intense emotions were easily contagious.

The people gathered in the lobby looked around uneasily as they continued whispering among themselves.

They were all talking about Scarlett.

“The atmosphere doesn’t seem very good.”

At my muttered words, Eishu and Kora nodded at the same time.

“It was rather sudden,” Eishu said awkwardly.

Just then, the doors to the lobby opened, and someone entered.

The nobles’ expressions brightened as soon as they saw who it was.

“Ah…! The Prime Minister! It’s the Prime Minister!”

Huh?

I also widened my eyes when I saw him.

It was Cedric, who had given me the schedule and had been nowhere to be seen since.

He smiled warmly as he looked at the nobles gathering around him.

“You’re all here.”

“Oh, Prime Minister. We’ve been waiting for you.”

As Cedric walked in with a friendly expression, the nobles hurried toward him one after another.

‘That’s strange. Isn’t Cedric one of the Emperor’s most prominent supporters…?’

The nobles who had been enthusiastically badmouthing the Emperor moments ago were now delighted to see Cedric.

Something about this didn’t add up.

“I imagine you were all quite surprised by this sudden incident.”

“We were a little surprised. What exactly happened?”

“That’s right.”

As the nobles continued grumbling with dissatisfied expressions, Cedric listened to them with a warm smile.

“Of course. I understand how you feel. I was also surprised by His Majesty’s decision.”

“What? Does that mean even you didn’t know this was going to happen today?”

When the nobles asked with wide eyes, Cedric raised both hands as if telling them to calm down.

He shook his head.

“No. I knew about it. I simply didn’t expect His Majesty to proceed so decisively.”

“Ah…!”

“So that must mean the situation is that serious.”

“Just how serious could it be…?”

Cedric furrowed his brow deeply and continued in a solemn voice, his face filled with concern.

Before long, the nobles were listening intently to him.

“I don’t know the details myself. But since His Majesty has taken such drastic measures, I believe he will reveal everything soon.”

“Hmm.”

“I would appreciate it if you could be patient and wait until then with an open mind.”

“Ahem!”

The nobles cleared their throats and exchanged glances before each offering a few words.

“If that’s what you say, Prime Minister, then I suppose we can wait a little longer.”

It was the nobleman who had slammed his hand on the table earlier and voiced his dissatisfaction.

After he said that, the other nobles nodded and chimed in.

“Yes. Rather than wasting our emotions like this, it would be better to simply rest and put our minds at ease.”

“If that is your word, Prime Minister, then we’ll put our minds at ease.”

Once the nobles’ anger had more or less subsided, Cedric smiled warmly as though he were grateful.

“As expected, you are all very broad-minded.”

With that, the nobles stopped gathering together as they had before and dispersed into small groups.

They began looking for ways to pass the time, such as playing chess or reading books.

It was quite a different sight from the way they had been trembling with anger just moments ago.

‘…What?’

As I watched the whole sequence of events, I felt something was off.

I couldn’t put my finger on anything specific, but there was something strangely unsettling about it.

“Cilia.”

Not long after I narrowed my eyes and became lost in thought, Cedric suddenly leaned his face into my field of vision.