Whether or not she had read the novel, a dimension traveler had somehow ended up in this world. Without any official status, she started working as a maid in the Marquess of Shae’s household.
Her unique personality had influenced Aurora’s personality, which, in turn, caused the original story to diverge significantly.
Why did Aurora suddenly take some money and flee to the Eastern Continent, leaving behind the male leads and me?
Perhaps Aurora had wanted to find her.
Thinking she had gone to the Eastern Continent, Aurora might have gone there to search for her. But the truth is, she wasn’t actually from the Eastern Continent—she was a dimension traveler.
Now, all the secrets seemed to be unraveling. No wonder Aurora fleeing to the Eastern Continent felt so random.
‘Could she still be in this world?’
I couldn’t tell if she had found a way to return to her own world or if she was still wandering somewhere, trying to learn more about this one.
But somehow, I felt an odd sense of certainty about her existence.
I had a hunch that she might hold the answer to dealing with Princess Eva.
‘There must be a reason she traveled dimensions.’
Just as my possession didn’t happen by chance—it was likely caused by some magical humanities-related phenomenon from the original Seraphina.
That dimension traveler might also be capable of using extraordinary magic.
‘She might even be helpful in defeating Princess Eva.’
If I wanted to confront Princess Eva, I needed to figure out where that dimension traveler was….
Which meant I had to find Aurora again!
“Damn it….”
“What’s wrong, Sera?”
As I lay sprawled on the floor, pounding it with my fists, Simone gave me a strange look. But I didn’t care.
“It’s nothing. I can’t explain it in detail, but… anyway, I think we really need to catch Aurora. I have questions about that maid of hers.”
“So in the end, we’re back to the conclusion that we need to catch Aurora again.”
Grumbling about Aurora, we decided to wrap up for the day. For the remaining time, we each agreed to look for books individually.
“Hah….”
I let out a deep sigh as I scanned the books in the study. To be honest, books that dealt with automatons were scarce, so finding relevant materials wasn’t easy.
That’s when my eyes landed on the thickest, most massive book in the study. Curiosity piqued, I strained to pull it out.
“What’s this about?”
When I asked, Simone, who was standing on one side of the study, glanced at the book and explained.
“That’s the Holy Scripture.”
“Oh, the Holy Scripture….”
Of course, it made sense now—the thick book with its gilded cover.
“Wait, could it be something like that?”
Why didn’t I think of this earlier when I got transported into a romance fantasy?
“Demons! Dark gods! You know, stuff like that!”
In romance fantasy novels, it’s practically a rule for good and evil to clash!
Having just had this idea, I got excited and immediately opened the Holy Scripture.
And what I found was….
– The Light declared, Darkness can devour anything, so one must never gaze into it.
– It will consume all that is pure, growing stronger with every feast.
– Darkness is the ultimate evil in this world.
Oh, could it be that Princess Eva is the Darkness? It says the Darkness can devour anything! Maybe the Darkness consumed Princess Eva as well!
But thinking about it that way, something felt off.
‘This isn’t all that scary, is it?’
Let’s imagine Princess Eva and Seraphina together in this scenario.
“Hoho, I was actually the Darkness all along!”
“Kyaaa! So scary! I’m fainting! I want to escape this world!”
Honestly, that seems a bit odd. It’s almost… ridiculous.
“Hoho, I was actually the Darkness all along!”
“What even is that, you idiot.”
Doesn’t that feel more natural?
Hmm, it seems the Holy Scripture isn’t related to this after all. I’d better continue investigating automatons instead.
While I was staring blankly at the book, Raffaelo, who had approached me without my noticing, suddenly spoke.
“Seraphina, if you figure out Princess Eva’s true identity, what will you do? Will you go back to the Kingdom of Boleno to fight her?”
Raffaelo tilted his head as he asked, and after a moment of thought, I shook mine.
“No, for now, I’ll keep looking for Aurora.”
“Why Aurora? Can’t you just assume she ran off with your money and move on?”
“Oh, right, my money…! No, no, I think Aurora might have some clues. That friend and maid of hers is suspicious.”
“Hmm… I’ll trust your instincts for now.”
Does that mean I’ll have to read more books?
As I stared hopelessly at the mountain of books in the study, Simone spoke up.
“Seraphina, would you like to dismantle an automaton with me?”
“Huh?”
“That maid artificial intelligence automaton that malfunctioned recently. It seems suspicious.”
“Were you always interested in machines?”
“If we take it apart, we might be able to figure out the structure of the machinery Princess Eva designed. That could help us deal with other devices she created later.”
“Oh.”
That was definitely worth a shot.
Whether I, someone far removed from inventing, could understand it was a separate issue, though.
So we headed to the room where Princess Angela had stored the automaton for disposal.
The maid automaton lay collapsed in the room, eerily resembling a human corpse and exuding a chilling atmosphere.
“This… must be the core.”
I muttered, pointing to the automaton’s chest area.
“Yes, let’s open it up.”
Without a moment’s hesitation, Simone practically tore the machinery apart with his bare hands.
Moments later, he held a shiny, fist-sized device resembling a jewel.
“This must be the core….”
It had been damaged by Raffaelo’s bullet, with cracks running through it as if it might shatter at any moment. So destroying the core would stop any machine—it was that simple.
We cautiously continued dismantling the automaton, but we couldn’t find any significant hints.
Not that we came up empty-handed entirely.
“This looks like some sort of mark signifying Princess Eva’s invention.”
“Doesn’t it?”
We discovered the letter “E” engraved on the maid’s index finger.
It seemed Princess Eva left such markings on her inventions.
Wait a minute, that’s strange.
“Aren’t automatons already mass-produced in factories? Why would this mark be here?”
“Now that you mention it, the automatons working at the Monteverdi estate don’t have such markings.”
Simone’s face turned serious, as if he had realized something.
“If this mark only appears on machines personally created by Princess Eva… then the fact that this automaton ended up in the Lithman Dukedom wasn’t a coincidence.”
“Didn’t they recently gift some automatons to the Cassan Empire? Could it be that Princess Eva personally made those? Targeting the Lithman Dukedom from the start?”
Our gazes met in midair.
The recent malfunction of the automaton—it might not have been a simple error.
It might have been Princess Eva’s intention from the very beginning!
