“For example, is a chair handcrafted by an artisan considered art?”
“It is art.”
“What about a chair mass-produced in a factory? What’s the difference?”
“………”
“Is embroidery made by a painter considered art?”
“It is art.”
“Then, is embroidery stitched by a young girl at home also art?”
“……”
“If I play the piano, is that art?”
“It is art.”
“What if I just bang on the piano with a hammer to make noise?”
“Error detected, error detected.”
Finally, the automaton seemed to be in confusion.
Seizing the moment, Raffaelo quickly fired his gun.
Bang—
As the core shattered, the automaton collapsed helplessly to the ground.
We sighed in relief at the sight.
“Phew, it’s finally over.”
“Why do automatons cause trouble wherever we go?”
“We might as well start a Luddite movement at this rate.”*
As we grumbled, a group of artists approached us.
They looked particularly moved as they turned to me.
“Oh, the distinction between art and craft—what a thought-provoking topic.”
“Indeed. In reality, art has always been defined by those in power.”
“And that interactive performance was wonderful too.”
They seemed eager to continue the conversation, but we didn’t have time for that. Because—
“Aurora!”
We had to catch Aurora.
“Hehe, guys, take care—ahh!”
Aurora had already prepared to run away from us. She had even lifted her skirt, ready to sprint.
“No way, we can’t let Aurora escape!”
This time, we had to get some answers from her!
Just as my desperate voice echoed, Raffaelo sprang forward like lightning.
To our surprise, Aurora was caught!
“Ahhh! Let me go!”
“Aurora, stop pulling my hair!”
“I have to get away!”
Even as Aurora nearly pummeled him, Raffaelo refused to let her go.
Eventually, Aurora gave up struggling, and Raffaelo managed to restrain her arms.
With her arms secured, she could no longer escape.
“Finally, we got her!”
“Hehe, if you just let go, we can talk—”
“And you’d obviously run away!”
“Tch, you’re too sharp for your own good.”
At last, Aurora was captured.
Now, it was time to have a proper conversation with her.
“Aurora, we need to talk.”
“Hmm, hmm hmm~”
Aurora hummed a tune, pretending not to care. But I glared at her and yelled—
“You crazy woman! Give me back my money!”
Because of Princess Eva’s threats, I had momentarily forgotten my original reason for chasing Aurora—it was about my money! The money that Aurora took!
“That was my entire fortune!”
“Hehe… but I already spent it all.”
“Gah!”
“Seraphina, are you okay?”
“Sera, don’t faint on us!”
With Simone’s support, I barely managed to stay on my feet. My head was spinning.
“Why the hell did you do that?!”
“I told you, you wouldn’t understand me.”
“Nobody truly understands anyone! If that were possible, I’d be a god, not a human!”
“…That’s a fair point.”
Aurora nodded in agreement, which only made her even more irritating to me.
“What have you even been doing all this time? And how are you communicating in Cassan?”
“Oh, I bought an expensive translation artifact.”
“With my money?”
“…Hehe.”
“Arghhh!”
As I clutched my neck and wobbled, Ghieuspe stepped forward this time.
“What do you want?”
“Huh?”
“You must want something from us.”
“Whoa! Ghieuspe actually said a full sentence! You’re growing, Ghieuspe!”
“………”
Ghieuspe took a shaky step backward.
“Aurora, do you know how worried your family is about you?”
Raffaelo spoke up.
“You’re making everyone worry! Just come back already!”
At that moment, Raffaelo sounded almost like Aurora’s mother… No, wait, that’s not the point here.
“You’re giving me so much stress!”
“Wow! Mission accomplished!”
“Ugh, I’m so mad!”
Aurora was seriously something else. She was taking down people one by one.
“Hmph, you have an even worse personality than Simone.”
“That’s a serious accusation.”
“What do you all take me for?”
“Anyway, Aurora, stop this nonsense! If you stop now, I’ll pull some strings and get you an opera role in the capital.”
“Oh, that’s tempting, but…”
Aurora glanced sideways.
“No, I still can’t. I have my principles.”
“Aurora, do you have a secret you can’t tell us?”
This time, it was Simone asking.
“Are you being threatened by someone? If there’s something you can’t say, just give us a hint.”
“No, it’s not that… If anything, I’d be the one doing the threatening.”
“……….”
At this point, we didn’t even know what to say to Aurora anymore.
How the hell did she end up being the original protagonist of this story?
Oh, right. The original story.
That’s what I needed to ask her about.
“Forget it. There’s actually something else I wanted to ask you.”
“Hmm…”
“What’s the deal with Princess Eva? What do you know?”
Aurora had previously mentioned ‘Princess Eva’ during a quiz.
There was no way she didn’t know something about this whole situation.
At that moment, Aurora’s expression turned serious, and she shook her head firmly.
“No, I can’t say anything yet.”
“What do you mean, ‘yet’?!”
“It’s not time.”
“Can’t you just tell me? This is serious!”
I shot an irritated glare at Aurora, but she stubbornly kept her lips sealed.
“I’ll answer anything else you’re curious about. Just ask something else first.”
“………”
Even though my anger was boiling over, there were still too many things I needed to know from Aurora.
For now, I decided to start with something she was actually willing to talk about.
Aurora had gotten close to her maid, changing her personality and ultimately twisting the original story.
That maid—the true culprit behind distorting the original plot.
And, possibly, someone who had been transported to this world just like me.
I was sure she could be a huge help in taking down Princess Eva.
I needed information about her.
“I want to know about your maid—your friend.”
“Oh, you mean Maria?”
“Maria?”
“She had a different name back in her original world, but here, she goes by Maria.”
Aurora willingly provided the information.
“Do you know where she originally came from?”
“I don’t. She told me the name of her country, but I couldn’t find it on any map. I think it might be some undiscovered land.”
“You don’t remember the name?”
“Nope. It was way too hard for me to pronounce. But Maria always said she came from a place really, really far away—a place I could never reach.”
“Hmm…”
“Actually, I was so curious about where Maria came from that I even traveled to the Eastern Continent to look for it. But I never found it.”
“So that’s why you went there!”
I finally understood why Aurora had randomly traveled to the Eastern Continent. Everything was connected! I should have thought like a magician earlier!
“Then… where is Maria now?”
As soon as I asked that, Aurora’s usual playful demeanor vanished.
For the first time, she looked at me seriously with her deep pink eyes and said—
“I don’t know. Maria disappeared one day, just like that.”
🍓; *The Luddite movement was a social movement in early 19th-century England (around 1811–1817) where textile workers protested against the rise of industrial machinery. The Luddites feared that new technology—such as power looms and mechanical knitting frames—would replace their jobs and threaten their livelihoods. Today, the term ‘Luddite’ is often used (sometimes jokingly) to describe someone who resists or dislikes new technology, though the original movement was more about protecting jobs than rejecting technology itself.
