Author: Nikss

 

 ⚔︎ 

 

“Ugh!”

 

At Cedric’s words, the woman struggled violently, made a sound of pain, and kept groaning.

 

With her tongue burned out, she could no longer speak properly.

 

“Rukia, how much information have you already obtained? I think that’s just the last question.”

 

“Oh, yes… That’s right.”

 

Rukia, who hesitated to answer, replied to Cedric’s cold question.

 

“I was just wondering if there’s any need for further interrogation later…” Cedric said as he glanced at the woman lying on the floor.

 

“As long as we have already reached that point, there’s no meaning in any additional questioning. Besides, we’ve got almost all the important clues, so I don’t think further interrogation is really necessary.”

 

The curse that spread from the tip of the woman’s tongue now engulfed her throat as well as her whole mouth.

 

Looking down at her still, Cedric muttered indifferently.

 

“After the interrogation, I told you to cut her tongue, but I can’t believe she’ll make my wish come true like this.”

 

His face was full of ridicule.

 

The woman tried to harm the most precious person to him with that tongue,

so it was appropriate to burn that tongue.

 

However, if I did, the information we needed could not be extracted from her. Burning the tongue of an old, skinny woman could be criticized by the people as too cruel of punishment, so I refrained from it.

 

“Even if there is no further interrogation, I believe you will proceed with the investigation well. Right?”

 

“Yes, you can rest assured, Your Majesty,” Rukia answered the question with confidence.

 

“Yes. The reputation the Magic Research Department has built up to this point can’t have been achieved solely through interrogation.”

 

“Of course.”

 

Upon hearing Rukia’s answer, Cedric took out a pocket watch and checked the time.

 

‘There’s not much time left until my promise with Ciel.’

 

Closing the watch’s lid, he casually passed by the woman trembling like a person in a seizure, with her mouth burning with black.

 

“I think I should get going.”

 

“Ah yes. I will take care of the rest.” Rukia answered.

 

“Okay. See you next time.”

 

Rukia spoke to Cedric, who left the interrogation room, and Cedric nodded and walked out of the room.

 

Unlike when he headed to the interrogation room, his steps going to Ciel were very light.

 

He entered the interrogation room worried about whether the group who bought Ciel’s biological mother knew any information related to Caliberne.

 

After letting Rukia out for a while before the formal interrogation and canceling the voice transmission magic inside the interrogation room. 

 

Cedric asked Ciel’s birth mother, who drank the confession pill if she knew anything about ‘The Empire’s Only Sword of Victory’. 

 

The woman answered ‘No’.

 

First, it seemed that they didn’t know or were not sure about the relationship between Ciel and Caliberne behind this incident.

 

‘I wish it could last a few more years without knowing anything.’

 

If we can survive like this for another 8 years.

 

If I can stay as I am now…

 

Cedric clenched his fists with a desperate feeling boiling inside him.

 

 ⚔︎ 

 

“You did a great job today, Marquis, Lauren.”

 

“No, sir. Thank you for your hard work.”

 

Marquis Lauren smiled as he scrambled through the papers and organized them.

 

“Then, I understand that when the envoys of the Dritt Kingdom visit, the number of people will be assigned as mentioned today.”

 

“Yes, I understand.”

 

Just then, someone knocked on the door of the conference room.

 

“Oh, come in.”

 

Entering through the open door was a familiar blonde and green-eyed man.

 

“I’m sorry. The Ministry of Finance has decided that they need to see the Marquis urgently…”

 

“Oh, I see. I’ll be there soon.” The Marquis got up and collected the papers and said.

 

“I’m sorry, Captain Minerva. I must take my leave first.”

 

“No, it’s fine. We’re roughly finished, so there’s no problem at all.”

 

“Yes, thank you. There’s still tea and refreshments left, so don’t worry and eat comfortably.”

 

Then he turned his head to glance at Kashuel and clapped his hand as if he had thought of an idea.

 

“Oh, and this is Duke Alehard. He came in as the first-class top Wizard this time, and he works so well at his job.”

 

“I’m flattered,” Kashuel blushed slightly and shook his head.

 

“You’ve most likely heard a lot about Minerva, the Imperial Knights Commander, right?”

 

“Oh, yes, that’s right.”

 

“There will be a lot of things you two will encounter in the future, so it would be nice to have a conversation today and get to know each other.”

 

The Marquis glanced at the two of them with a gentle gaze and spoke.

 

“Then I’ll be on my way now. I hope you two have a good time.”

 

“Oh, wait a minute…”

 

However, Marquis Lauren was already distracted by the treasury’s call, so he didn’t pay attention to them anymore and left the room.

 

With such an awkward atmosphere, only Kashuel, and I remained.

 

Kashuel just stood still with a puzzled expression on his face.

 

At that time, I knew that we would see each other, but I didn’t seem to think that we would meet each other like this again.

 

“Well, please sit down first…”

 

“Oh, yeah.”

 

Kashuel quietly sat across from me and kept staring at me, but when I raised my head, he secretly avoided my gaze.

 

‘What should I do with this tea?’

 

There was still a lot of tea left, but Kashuel might not like the tea, so I was the only one who drank tea.

 

However, while contemplating because it didn’t seem polite to leave it behind, Kashuel opened his mouth first.

 

“The tea is going to get cold.”

 

Raising my head to look at Kashuel, he tilted his head, pointing towards the tea.

 

“It doesn’t taste good when it’s cold.”

 

“Oh, but drinking alone is a bit…”

 

I’d rather bring the tea if there’s a meeting held at the Knights facility.

 

Today, I had a meeting with the Marquis in the imperial palace at the wizard’s conference room, so I couldn’t do that.

 

“It’s okay. You can just drink it.”

 

“Well… Or would you like some of these cookies?”

 

I asked, gently pushing the plate containing the cookies toward Kashuel.

 

Then Kashuel smiled and leaned forward, “Do I still look like a child to you?”

 

“What? No, it’s not like that…”

 

“Well, you don’t have to be that flustered. It’s just a joke,” Kashuel added, eating cookies with his long fingers.

 

“Oh, that’s a relief. I thought you were angry.”

 

“I’m not a narrow-minded person enough to get angry about that,” Kashuel said.

 

Well, I don’t know. When we were young, I think he was always angry when I said anything or did something.

 

‘No. He just didn’t seem to like me.’

 

As I was thinking of Kashuel’s devilish childhood in that way, Kashuel raised his eyebrows and glanced gently at me.

 

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

 

“No. It’s nothing.”

 

I smiled casually, but Kashuel continued to look at me suspiciously.

 

“Ha, did you think that I am a narrow-minded person who can get angry over such trivial things?”

 

“No, that can’t be true,” Ciel answered.

 

“I think that’s right.”

 

He lifted the tea cup and said, squinting at me, “Well, I understand. That’s how I was being temperamental back then, so you’d think so.”

 

“Did you know that you were madly being harsh on me?”

 

Startled, the words came out involuntarily from my lips.

 

Even though we were young at the time, my mental age was already that of an adult, so there was no significant blow to his tyranny. But while I was in the imperial palace, Kashuel was constantly terribly angry at me.

 

Only Cedric could break the high nose of this ferocious little boy who was chasing me like he was devouring me just because I ignored his offer to be friends.

 

At that time, he was not well aware of his bad personality, even in front of Cedric.

 

‘But you knew for yourself…’

 

[Wow, has he grown taller? Didn’t they say that he came from studying abroad?]

 

‘Yes.’

 

After answering Caliberne’s question, I thought to myself.

 

‘What happened when he went to study abroad to make this naive child like this?’

 

At that moment, Kashuel burst into laughter.

 

It was such a peal of cheerful laughter that the awkward air that circulated in the conference room so far was overshadowed.

 

“Yeah. I knew it. Now that I see it, I must have been a childish kid who had a dirty personality and didn’t even know what he was doing.”

 

Wow, how could he get my thoughts right without making a single mistake?

 

Still, I couldn’t say that in front of his face.

 

“Ah, no…”

 

“What do you mean, no? I can tell from your expression that I’m right.”

 

My heart was pounding and I couldn’t say anything.

 

‘He went to the wizards’ academy. Has Kashuel only learned mind reading there?’

 

[Mind reading, huh?]

 

‘Oh, that’s just what I’m saying. Do you think it’s really what I thought it was? Mind reading?’

 

[Our innocent fool, Ciel, that’s enough. You confused salt and sugar last time, too.]

 

‘Why are you talking about that here? You need to raise your awareness of reading the context. At the very least, even Kashuel, who has a bad personality, has learned to notice like that.’

 

[Hey, have you finished talking?]

 

I completely ignored Caliberne’s buzzing words, saying, ‘How can I compare myself as a noble sword to the devilish little boy?’

 

“Come to think of it, you tried to call me ‘Kashuel’ the first time you saw me,” Kashuel squinted and said.

 

Well, when I saw Kashuel, I inadvertently forgot his title and tried to call him by his first name.

 

“Oh, that’s… I didn’t mean to.”

 

Cedric came in the middle and fortunately, I didn’t say it to the end.

 

“Then what were you going to say? Kashuel Alehard? Or Kashuel, that little punk?”

 

“No!”

 

Then Kashuel grinned and bit the cookie.

 

“I’m kidding. You didn’t react much no matter how much I talked to you when we were young, but now it’s quite fun to tease you.”

 

“Don’t make such a useless hobby.”

 

“Okay, I’m sorry. I must have teased you too much.”

 

Kashuel leaned his back against the chair and raised the corners of his lips to smile.

 

“Well, I liked that you seemed to call me Kashuel. I couldn’t hear it until the end because of Cedric.”

 

“Yes?”

 

‘What is he saying now?’

 

Didn’t you try to tease me for calling your name earlier?

 

When you were young, you got mad because I spoke informally, but now you like it?

 

“I think at least you remembered my name.”

 

Kashuel smiled softly.

 

 ⚔︎ 

 

“What?”

 

The red-blooded eyes staring fiercely at Paul were full of spite.

 

Seeing the teacup cracking, Paul sighed, thinking that he would need to throw another precious teacup today as well.

 

“Kashuel and Ciel are drinking tea together?”

 

Cedric’s eyes glowed gruesomely with burning jealousy.

 

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