Reposa alternately looked at Ciello and the Duke. The pleasant expression on Ciello’s face proved that he was her employer.
“Really… are you, the Duke?”
“Don’t make me say it twice.”
The Duke’s cold voice fell over Reposa’s head. Confused, Reposa looked at him.
‘Surely the eye color and hair color are the same…’
Reposa recalled ‘Fool Trepe’ whom she had encountered several times on the street. If you put them side by side and tore them apart, there were similarities. Black hair, golden eyes. A taller height than others.
This was not a difference made by simply tidying up the hair or taking off glasses. The composure of a predator that was felt from the straightened shoulders and the straightened waist. A cold gaze like a hunting dog targeting prey.
The attitudes that made FoolTrepe and Estribal look like completely different people were just that.
Even if you put the same glasses on this man now and put a strange pin in his hair as ‘Fool Trepe’ at the time, he would be able to trample all that disguise with laughter. If only he wanted to.
“Why are you usually like that…”
“Didn’t I tell you? All of this is top secret.”
The senior magicians had said. Never, never dig into the identity of the client. The only thing a magician should be curious about is the truth of the world. Reposa realized that word more earnestly.
“Ah, if this matter leaks out, my mission will increase by one.”
“Wha, what mission?”
“You’re less observant than I thought.”
He bent his waist and whispered low.
“The task of delivering your neck to the Emperor.”
Cold sweat ran down Reposa’s spine. The Duke straightened up.
“So don’t make me too busy. As you can see, I’m busy spending time with my lover.”
He spoke in a soft voice, pretending to wrap his arm around Ciello’s shoulder without touching her. Ciello also did her best to smile naturally.
“Wait, is that real too? You’re not an adopted daughter, but Ciello…”
The Duke replied with a look of contempt.
“Do I look old enough to have an adopted daughter already?”
“Ah…”
Reposa looked at the Duke again.
The Duke was not a young man. However, what influenced his impression was not his age, but his unique martial atmosphere and cynical expression.
As if he had deliberately held onto an already exhausted soul, he existed at a point where his age could not be known.
“So now I’ll give you the last chance to refuse my request. What will you do?”
Reposa shook her head as hard as she could.
“No, no! No! I’ll do my best as far as my abilities can reach. But I have a question…”
The Duke signaled her to continue by flicking his chin.
“Why did you ask me for this job, and not an imperial magician?”
At Reposa’s words, Ciello also looked at the Duke. Ciello was also curious about that part. But the Duke’s answer was cold.
“This question seems to have arisen from your personal curiosity. If you want to hear the answer, convince me first.”
Reposa answered carefully.
“…When researching, there are times when I need to ask other magicians for their opinions. I know this request is top secret, but if the royal magicians can know the content… With their help, I can find the answer faster.”
Hearing her words, the Duke shook his head firmly.
“This request is very rare even within the royal family. It’s so much so that it can’t be officially requested even to a royal magician.”
The Duke took out a gun from his bosom and put it down. A brave eagle biting a snake was engraved on the gun.
“This is…!”
Reposa opened her eyes wide. Ciello, who was already curious about what this crest was, looked at the two alternately.
“You may not know, but this is not the Atuna royal family, but the Emperor’s personal crest.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve seen it a few times at the academy. I saw it from a distance, but he was really beautiful. His Majesty the Emperor…”
Reposa’s cheeks turned slightly red.
At that sight, Estribal frowned and was about to say something, but shook his head. He put the gun back in his bosom and spoke coldly.
“Anyway, this matter must not be leaked to anyone. Do you understand?”
Reposa obediently nodded her head.
“Yes. I understand. I won’t disappoint you twice.”
Ciello sighed with relief inside at the situation that was finally sorted out. The Duke asked.
“Are you going to start right away? If it doesn’t interfere with the research, I’ll observe today.”
“Yes. Then sister. Can you come this way…?”
Reposa’s tail of speech was more polite than before. Ciello awkwardly stood near the magic circle drawn on the floor. Reposa held a magic book in one hand and a short wand in the other.
“First, we need to check if there really is a spirit. It could be a temporary phenomenon…”
–Probably not.
A golden bead with wings popped out around Ciello’s shoulder. Reposa gasped, catching her breath.
“This is… Can this really be possible? In the world, it’s not a lower spirit…”
Reposa quickly skimmed through the magic book while looking at the bead.
“Serpiente, the spirit of time. The detailed information seems to have been lost, but… I’ll investigate more.”
“Spirit of time…”
“Yeah. Spirits appear in the form of animals with similar characteristics. For example, the spirit of wind often appears in the form of a bird. The spirit of time that appears in the form of a snake… Ah. It’s so beautiful.”
Reposha spoke, looking at Serpiente with a rapturous face.
–That’s right. You’re not just a mouthy magician.
Serpiente wriggled inside the bead. The Duke also nodded.
“It makes sense. Because of the way snakes shed their skin, they are said to be eternally immortal beings.”
“You probably got a power related to time. Will you tell me?”
Ciello looked at the Duke and Serpiente. The Duke nodded, and Ciello cautiously opened her mouth.
“I can turn back time. Not much, about 10 minutes.”
“10 minutes?”
Reposa looked at Ciello with a ridiculous expression.
“No, you can only turn back 10 minutes even after contracting with a spirit? That doesn’t make sense.”
“I don’t know. It’s because my existence is weak.”
Ciello pouted her lips and looked at Serpiente. But Serpiente’s answer was still the same.
–That’s right. The rest is a problem for you humans to find out for yourselves.
“Is it because of the prohibition? You can’t speak in detail.”
Reposa asked, looking at the scar on Serpiente’s forehead. Serpiente disappeared without a word, but no answer was an affirmation.
Reposa furrowed her brows and tapped her head with her wand.
“I think I roughly understand. Non-magicians don’t know this, but in this world, existence is time. The time you’ve lived becomes stronger as it remains in someone’s memory. If you were a famous actress or war hero, what’s 10 minutes? You could turn back hundreds of years.”
“Sorry for not having an existence.”
Ciello grumbled, pouting her lips. Reposa rolled up her long sleeves.
“Anyway, let’s check. Your existence.”
“…It’s not dangerous, is it?”
“Yeah. It’s just a check for now.”
Reposa quickly wrote down some unreadable characters with her wand. Then Reposa chanted in a strange language.
Rahido, Angsuz, Kenaz.
At that moment, the characters merged into a round ring in one breath. One ring wrapped around Ciello’s body in a complete form, and several small rings floated around Ciello.
“What… What is this?”
Surprised, Ciello looked at Reposha. The Duke’s eyes also widened a bit. Reposa calmly explained.
“An entity with a personality usually has one big ring and several small rings. We call this the existence of the ring.”
“But what’s the problem? I also have one big ring and several small rings.”
“That includes Serpiente’s ring. Your ring would be about the two smallest rings there?”
Reposa sighed deeply and the rings disappeared.
“Your power of existence. Your existence is too weak. You’ve just become normal by contracting with a spirit. If I try to forcibly separate you and the spirit in this state, one of the two existences will disappear.”
“So what should I do?”
“Should I shout my name in the square?”
“That might be a good idea.”
“What?”
Ciello looked at Reposa with a ridiculous face, but Reposa was serious.
“I’m not joking. Sister’s name has been in the newspaper, and there must be one or two people who know that the problematic maid is you, including me, so the power of existence would have grown that much. Now sister should be able to turn back more than 10 minutes.”
Reposa took off the pocket watch she was wearing around her neck and handed it to Ciello.
“Does sister want to try? Just turn back this watch.”
“Uh, where…”
Ciello took the watch and hit it with her finger on the other side. The clock hands started to move backwards quickly.
“Oh…!”
As Reposa said, the clock hands moved about 20 minutes. Ciello looked at the watch with a curious expression and asked.
“I’ve become twice as strong!”
“What’s 20 minutes. At least sister could turn back as much as your age.”
“It feels like tree rings.” (TL: round rings that appear on horizontal cuts of the trunk or branches of a tree)
Reposa wound the pocket watch and reset the time.
“Anyway, I can’t debut sister as an extreme actor right now…If you give me time, I’ll do more research.”
“Okay. At least report the research results once every ten days.”
“Yes, I will do that.”
“Is that it for today?”
At Ciello’s question, Reposa nodded. Ciello slowly headed towards the Duke.
The Duke, with a smile for Reposa to see, draped his arm around Ciello’s shoulder. The two left the lab.
“…Take care.”
Reposa politely bid farewell to the backs of the two.
The Duke seemed to be escorting Ciello affectionately, but in reality, the Duke’s hand barely touched Ciello’s body. Reposa looked at that gap for a very long time.
A carriage was waiting for the two who had left the magicians’ street. As Ciello got on the carriage, she said,
“That…from where did you hear?”
“From beginning to the end.”
‘So you must have heard that I’m not an adopted daughter.’
Worried that she might have revealed her heart that she still didn’t know herself, Ciello tensely bit her lip.
“Rather, it’s a good thing. It would have been difficult if that magician had directly sought advice from the royal family.”
Estribal paused and added.
“It means that His Majesty the Emperor would have been troubled. It hasn’t been long since the succession to the throne ended, and the national treasure was stolen.”
“The succession to the throne?”
Ciello turned her attention to the word ‘succession to the throne’.
“Yes. You should know to some extent. Keep in mind. The succession to the throne is between the current Emperor and the first princess…”
Estribal began to explain with a strangely relieved expression.
****
At the place where their carriage passed, a black shadow rustled on the wall. After a while, a secret voice came from between them.
“Ciello…Is Ciello that woman?”
