“Ah. Do you know me?”
After spouting out like that, I hit my forehead.
Considering the reaction in the ballroom earlier, there is no way she didn’t know me.
I was thinking that this person would also treat me like a cockroach and would go far away from me.
But, on the contrary, Letsy expressed a favorable impression.
“Oh. Lady Evanror. Nice to meet you.”
“Uh…. Me too.”
I was purely impressed by her courage to not be scared even after knowing that I was Celia.
She is a very magnanimous person.
Feeling favorably about each other, we instantly decided to go out of the palace together.
“No, there is such a crazy person?”
“Yeah. He is a d*mned double-faced person and a sadist.”
“D*mned double-faced person and sadist, you say? He’s a bit similar to someone I know. Why are there so many crazy people in the world? Phew.”
Letsy brought up the story about the person she was supposed to meet after going outside, and that person was very annoying.
He’s a person who outshines Dazar.
Having something in common, we began to feel a sense of camaraderie with each other.
“I get goosebumps just by looking at his face. I’ve had a bad relationship with him since I was young.”
“Mm, Mm. To be childhood friends with such a person. That’s terrible.”
“You understand!”
We gazed bitterly at each other.
“Letsy!”
“Celia!”
Is this what a friend is like?
I felt like I finally had a friend.
“If you go through that exit, you’ll see a dog hole leading straight outside.”
“Oh, oh. Letsy knows the geography of the imperial palace well. Amazing.”
“Ahem.”
Letsy looked embarrassed and adjusted the yellow wrapping cloth. Just as I was leaving the exit with her:
“You were here? Where are you going?”
“S-Sir Hael!”
An obviously good-looking knight who was out of breath suddenly appeared.
“Letsy? Is this someone you know?”
“Ahem. He’s called Sir Hael… ignore him and go quickly!”
“You can’t do that!”
The man called Hael ran toward us while panting.
I was so startled that I pushed Letsy away and kicked him in the shin!
The solid iron legs that worked on Dazar, kicked his shins painfully.
Thump!
“Ah!”
“Huh. Letsy, come here!”
We left him, who was collapsed clutching his shin, behind and ran at full speed away from him.
We left the imperial palace through the dog hole Letsy mentioned and continued running.
“Gasp…. Gasp….”
After running for a while, we entered a corner alley and took a long time to catch our breath.
Letsy wiped her sweat and laughed.
“Haha. My world! This is the first time I have seen someone defeat Sir Hael with one blow. You have great power!”
“Is-Is that so?”
“It was a very interesting sight!”
I leaned against the wall and laughed as she giggled happily.
Then I took out a small wrapping cloth I had kept in my coat pocket.
“What’s that?”
“I’m going to need a lot of physical strength from now on. It is food to replenish my stamina.”
“Oh?”
When I unwrapped the wrapping cloth, two pieces of garaetteok were visible. I ripped a piece of one of them and handed it to Letsy.
“Eat. This may be your first time seeing this food, but umm. It is delicious. I baked it with a little bit of honey.”
“This really is a food I’ve never seen before.”
To meet a machine craftsman and make a deal, you need to have a lot of physical strength.
Besides that, I was planning on doing some other shipping as well.
Letsy watched quietly as I took a bite of the garaetteok first, then she followed me and took a bite as well.
I couldn’t see her face clearly because it was covered by the wrapping cloth and glasses, but I could see her mouth forming an arc.
“It’s delicious.”
“Really? I’m happy.”
“Yes! It’s a very delicious food!”
Letsy smiled happily while holding the garaetteok in her hand.
I was slightly moved to see her, having only met abnormal people since joining the Shiaster duchy.
Oh my gosh. I can’t believe you’re such a normal person!
“B-by any chance, would you like to go around with me? If you have nothing to do….”
So I shyly suggested. I wanted to go shopping with her!
Letsy opened her mouth slightly as if she was surprised, but then she laughed heartily.
Hahaha!
“How fun. Okay, let’s go together!”
I was so happy. Finally, I have a female friend!
“Where should we go first? Atelier? Café? A dress shop?”
Letsy listed the stores that noble women commonly visited. She looked excited as if she was going for the first time, too.
I shook my head with a serious face. Those were not the places I was going to go to.
“No. The place we’re going to is a store called ‘You Too Can Make Bulging Muscles, That Machine’.”
“!”
It seems like Letsy had a wrench in her step, did I see it wrong?
The store called ‘You Too Can Make Bulging Muscles, That Machine’ was a place that also appeared in the original novel.
The owner of the store was an old man named Ralph, but now is much earlier than the time of the original novel, so he must be middle-aged.
Coming from a small tribe that was destroyed by the Quizen Empire, he was a slave until 10 years ago, but became a subject of the empire thanks to Emperor Scarlet’s declaration of slave emancipation.
Above all, in the original novel, when Axion destroyed the empire, he was the one who created a huge defense machine and defended the empire’s walls until the end.
At that time, Axion’s condition was not a joke, so some things were just overlooked, but.
Anyway, he was a very talented person.
This giant muscular uncle in front of me right now.
“What?”
“Hello. Are you Ralph, the owner of this store?”
“Yes, and?”
Clang! Clang!
The workshop was filled with stifling heat and the sound of metal being struck.
Shirtless men were working diligently while sweating constantly.
In the middle of it all, a bulky, muscular middle-aged man stood like a gigantic statue, looking me and Letsy up and down.
“Did you come to the wrong store? The jewelry store is across the street.”
I followed his gaze and looked at my clothes. Aha, oh dear. Since I was dressed up to go to the ball, my outfit was very flashy.
Also, Letsy, covered in a yellow wrapping cloth, was very suspicious.
I shook my head.
“No. I’m sure I’ve come to the right place.”
“You said that you came looking for here?”
“Yes.”
Ralph let down the huge hammer he was holding on the floor with a thud and crossed his arms.
“Why did you precious people come all the way here?”
It wasn’t a voice filled with very good feelings.
I remembered that in the original novel, he was introduced as hating all novels except Emperor Scarlet who rescued him from slavery.
His eyes that looked at us were full of contempt and disgust….
“It is very surprising that a place like this is on the island.”
“Letsy, don’t just touch anything. What if you get hurt?”
Neither of us cared much about that type of thing.
I was very used to that kind of look before and after transmigrating, and I was not surprised because I already knew his past.
Letsy’s eyes were glued to the giant hammer machine pounding something.
“Look here.”
“Ah, sorry. Well, I came here because I wanted to make a request.”
“Request? I won’t accept anything like that from you, so go back.”
He snorted.
“I’m sure you came to ask me to make an automatically rotating table or an infinitely running fan for tea time. So that your makeup doesn’t smudge from sweat.”
“!”
What’s this! Those incredibly useful machines.
“My work is not for that purpose! It is to repay the favor of Her Majesty, Emperor Scarlet! I’m saying they are works that will be used for the prosperity of the empire!”
“Ohh?”
Then Letsy, whose eyes were shining as she looked at the hammer, quickly turned her head toward him.
She, who had a more unique appearance than I did, seemed very interested in what he said.
“So go back.”
Ralph had a very patriotic mindset, but I wasn’t that touched.
I patted the table between him and me with an annoyed look on my face.
“I’m disappointed. I secretly admired you after seeing your work, but in reality, you are a person who only judges others by external factors.”
“What?”
“The machine that grinds miar into powder, which has been supplied to mills since the year before last, is that your work?”
“How did you….”
That’s because I saw your signature on the machine I saw at the mill I visited last time.
“You were trying to somehow lower the price of miar powder by reducing the labor required at the mill, right? For the common people.”
“…What are you?”
Ralph squinted and stared at me.
A look of wariness appeared on his face.
