Chapter 1 - Part 1
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It was late at night, so all the lights were turned off. This was a space meant only for Julianna, and when she doesn’t stop by the tower, no one comes by to check.
“It’s pretty spacious.” Romeo muttered a little.
It was a splendid tower with a unique style.
“Yeah.”
What they all commonly remembered was Cedric and Damien’s faces. They had joined the Dragon slaying team belatedly.
In conclusion, they did not get along very well with these four people.
Cedric and Damien were always in the centre of attention, and these four tended to avoid any sort of attention, staying in a group. However, looking at the results, it was these four people who made a bigger contribution to the Dragon’s death.
They called the twin brothers, Cedric and Damien, ‘talking pups’.
Moreover, the twins were the sons of Emperor Perseus.
As of now, Emperor Perseus was one of their suspects. It was natural for Cedric and Damien to seem bad to these four.
Of course, they could not yet be sure that Emperor Perseus was the culprit. In order to find solid evidence, they had to find the person named Lelia, another suspect.
“She killed Leo, lived comfortably in a place like this, and ran away… But why did she run away?” Kalix muttered, lowering the blindfold that had been on the whole time.
“She must have thought that she could become the Empress if she killed Leo, but got taken aback when Emperor Perseus appeared out of nowhere. Maybe she ran away because she didn’t want him to find out.” Griffith replied.
Romeo, who had been listening, added one more hypothesis, “Maybe she ran away because Cedric and Damien would assassinate her.”
Oscar also voiced his opinion, “On the contrary, Emperor Perseus may have hidden her.”
The more new information was collected, the more it seemed strange.
When one question arose, another question came up, and back to square one.
But the four instinctively believed that one thing was certain.
That a woman named ‘Lelia’ was very deeply involved in Leo’s death. And that she was most likely the culprit.
The biggest reason for their doubt was Leo’s last message.
“How do you find someone whom even the emperor gave up on chasing?”
Kalix stared openly at Romeo, telling him to do something.
“…”
At that gaze, Romeo blinked, like it was absurd.
Romeo already had magical powers, but after the battle with the Light Dragon, he gained tremendous magical power. The fact that he had absorbed the magic from the heart of the Light Dragon was a secret that no one but these four knew.
However, his abilities were not yet stable, and he had periodic painful seizures.
“Hey, there’s got to be some kind of trace left for magic tracking. What am I supposed to do when there’s nothing?” When Romeo objected, Kalix turned his head and looked at Griffith.
“…Griffith, it’s a chance to prove that divinity is superior to magic.”
“It’s the same in my case too. How can I track when we have nothing to trace based off of?” Griffith replies angrily.
“This is why God can’t be trusted.” Kalix murmured as Griffith replied.
Oscar asked Romeo, “Then, what about that fountain pen? We can’t use it?”
“Oh, come on.”
A few years ago.
Romeo learned one thing from his native wizard of his home country. It was the fact that he could trace the magic stone embedded in the fountain pen he shared with his friends. However, when he traced Leo’s fountain pen with that method he learnt from the wizard in his home country, it couldn’t be done.
The native wizard explained the reason.
It looked like someone had separated the magic stone from the fountain pen. As a result, the wave of magic got cut off, making tracking impossible.
Upon hearing the reason, Romeo and his friends speculated that the culprit might have been the one who took the magic stone from the fountain pen. Or someone stole it in the chaotic situation.
In any case, Romeo had asked the wizard in his home country to study another way to keep track, and some good news had come.
However, at that time, Romeo’s magic was not completely stable, so it was difficult to try.
“I’ll have to try that method first…”
Of course, no one knew what happened to the fountain pen.
Leo may have disposed of it, someone else might have stolen it, or the culprit might have taken it.
But since there was nothing right now, they had no choice but to track it down.
“For the time being, we need to keep an eye on the Emperor.”
Their eyes glistened at Romeo’s words.
Even if the culprit was the emperor of this empire, they were determined to complete their revenge.
***
A few days later.
Days had passed since the banquet began in earnest. The banquet was scheduled to last seven days. Those invited to the banquet were high-ranking Aurarian nobles and heroes who had contributed to the war.
They hadn’t been to the banquet in the last few days, but today, the four of them had to attend.
As today’s banquet was to be attended by the Emperor himself.
Some of the people gathered discussed why Oscar, Kalix, Griffith, and Romeo came to Auraria.
Those who take it positively liked it, saying, “It’s a great opportunity to prove the reputation of our empire.”
On the other hand, some questioned, “Didn’t you come to search for information about Auraria?”
In fact, the four of them were even thinking of killing the emperor if he was the culprit.
So it was better to avoid suspicion for the time being.
For that reason, they wore fancy robes and quietly attended.
People glanced at the four exceptionally tall and handsome young men.
There were noble young ladies who were wondering whether to make conversation, but they hesitated due to their auras, which made it difficult to talk recklessly.
It was as if there was a transparent wall built around them.
Inside the banquet hall with elegant music, an unexpected viewer was gazing at the four young men.
A handsome young man named Ruth had his eyes fixed on them.
‘What the hell are they doing in Auraria?’
Ruth was also the leader of the Dragon slaying squad, but unlike Cedric and Damian, he had a good relationship with the four of them.
At least, they stopped by to say hello before.
Looking closely, the four of them seemed so serious that it was difficult to approach them all.
Ruth contemplated whether or not he should go to the president and talk to him.
Boom boom.
At that time, they all heard a knight thumping on the floor with a cane.
Soon the big door opened and the twin brothers, Cedric and Damien appeared in colorful robes.
And in the middle….
‘Julianna…!’
Ruth had a lot of conversations with Julianna yesterday, having reunited with her after a long time.
In the process, he felt special emotions flowing back and forth.
Especially how glad he was that Julianna had been waiting for him, too.
At that moment, Ruth’s gaze suddenly turned to the four young men.
“…!”
Ruth felt his heart pounding all of a sudden.
Those four eyes were directed up the stairs. A very intense look. Soon they began to talk about something.
‘No way…’
Ruth had one suspicion.
‘Is it because of Julianna that they came to Auraria?’
That couldn’t be the case, but he wondered, what if.
This was because of Cedric and Damian who had joined late.
They always carried a portrait of Juliana in a necklace pendant, often showing off to warriors from each empire.
Each time they did that, Ruth didn’t like it.
No matter how young they were, she was a woman he liked.
‘Could they have seen her portrait?’
A corner of Ruth’s mouth went down disapprovingly.
That was certainly a possibility.
Her portrait was so beautiful that no one could take their eyes off her. Of course, she was more beautiful in person.
Anyway, it was worth enough to come and see the real thing.
It was a joke, but some people actually said, “Shouldn’t we go to Auraria to see Princess Julianna’s face?”
But he never imagined that they would come here for that reason.
‘I mean, they are men too…’
Ruth felt nervous, along with unnecessary jealousy.
He adjusted his dress and walked towards Julianna, who came down holding her brothers’ hands.
“Julianna.”
“…Ruth.”
Looking at the two smiling eye-to-eye, Cedric and Damian coughed disapprovingly.
Meanwhile, Romeo murmured as he watched them.
“Is there any chance those princes are the culprits?”
“…Maybe they are behind it, but they probably didn’t poison it themselves. They would have been outside the Imperial City at the time.” When Griffith answered sincerely in his own way, Romeo’s face crumpled.
“I hope that is so.”
“Let’s kill them together.” Romeo murmured little after little.
There was a reason why he went so far against Cedric and Damian princes.
When it was first known that those four were heading to Auraria, Cedric and Damian visited them and said, “Why are you going to Auralia? Is there something you want?”
“Maybe they know they won’t be welcomed back home?”
Demien, standing beside Cedric, scoffed rudely and he nodded.
“Huh, could be. Or maybe… Did you see the portrait of our Julianna too?”
“… Are you serious?”
Damien reacted very sensitively to Cedric’s speculation.
Immediately after that, a fight suddenly broke out and the conversation was cut off.
Unlike the other three, who had been ignoring in the first place, Romeo still remembered the conversation.
“Who wanted to see ‘Julianna’ again? It must be them.”
As Romeo murmured, Kalix pulled him back and asked angrily, “Stop talking nonsense. Did you do more tracking?”
Romeo narrowed his brow at that question.
“Don’t you get tired of asking that question for days? Do I look like I’m playing? Why don’t you just keep your mouth shut when you’re doing nothing?”
As if familiar with Romeo’s scolding, Calix shrugged his shoulders.
Romeo sighed and continued his words.
“It cannot be traced. Looks like the magic stone has been removed or sold.”
Romeo took out his pen in his pocket to try again as he remembered it.
When he touched the place where the blue magic stone was driven, an invisible magic came out of Romeo’s fingertips.
And then–
“Huh? Wait a minute.”
Romeo’s eyebrows jumped up.
***
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