Chapter 57: 57

Pedro sighed softly and patted his shoulder with his palm.

“How come you haven’t changed at all?”

Bryce’s complexion turned pale, perhaps because Pedro’s eyes, which were not visible from my side, were quite daunting.

“You don’t have the ability to take the title of Archmage from my younger brother, so you just harass him. It’s been a bit quiet these days, so I thought you had finally come to your senses, but I think I was tricked.”

“…Then shall I tell Her Majesty the Emperor?”

Bryce smiled cunningly. 

Although it must have been a provocation, he looked servile because of his clear frown.

“The current Archmage brought in a monster without Her Majesty’s permission and caused a tragedy… I’m just saying. Hehehe.”

Pedro shrugged and said brightly,

“All right, tell her!”

“…What?”

Bryce’s eyes widened as if Pedro’s answer was completely unexpected.

Pedro tapped his temple and wedged it in.

“Tell her, don’t you understand my words?”

“Are, are you serious?”

“Why would I joke with someone like you?”

Pedro took a step closer to Bryce.

Perhaps because of his imposing appearance, that alone felt like a threat.

Bryce was stunned and then suddenly poked his face towards me.

“What do you think, Princess? Aren’t you worried about Hugo?”

Because things didn’t go his way, he was suddenly dragging in a child? How disgraceful.

When Bryce showed interest in me, Pedro’s expression suddenly turned grim.

“Don’t talk to Lily.”

The threatening look that gave me goosebumps was exactly like Alan’s.

I made a sign to Pedro, signaling that it was okay, and pulled him by the collar.

And I made eye contact with Bryce.

“Even if Brother Hugo did something wrong… you’re not in a position to criticize him.”

“What?”

“I heard that you bullied Brother Hugo. Since my brother was very young.”

I swallowed dry saliva. I was nervous, but I had to say something. 

“Her Majesty the Emperor will not listen to the one who tormented the Archmage.”

To be precise, she wouldn’t be able to afford to listen.

‘Because the only evil spirit the emperor is interested in right now is Benny.’

The emperor was not an idiot, and there was no way she would punish Hugo for bringing in an evil spirit after she had decided to use the ‘evil spirit boy’.

Pedro knew it too, so I was confident to say it. 

‘This man is said to be a member of the imperial family, but he doesn’t seem to know anything about what’s happening in the Imperial House.’

There was a moment of silence in the vacant lot on a warm afternoon.

Pedro, who had raised the corners of his lips, soon burst into laughter.

“Pfft… Hahahahaha! Our Lily is so good at talking.”

He stroked my hair back and forth, leaving my braids messy.

But it didn’t feel bad. Because Pedro praised me.

Grab!

Bryce grabbed my hand before I had a chance to avoid it.

He smiled as I looked up in a daze.

“Hugo is a person of many secrets. There are things that he has not revealed to the Princess…”

Bugh!

Pedro immediately grabbed Bryce’s nape and slammed him to the floor.

Then he broke his arm and pressed it to the floor.

“Are you crazy?” 

Grrr, Pedro growled like a beast.

He was ready to bite off Bryce’s neck at any moment.

“I, I did it because I was glad to see the Princess. Hehehe….”

Bryce still smiled unpleasantly and threatened cowardly.

“If, if I get hurt, my distant aunt, Her Majesty the Emperor, will be sad….”

With a murderous look, Pedro tightened his hand until the tendons were exposed.

Fearing that something like this would happen, I shook my head towards Pedro.

Pedro reluctantly let Bryce go and then laughed out loud.

“Her Majesty, who bestowed the title of Archmage on my brother instead of you.”

Bryce’s expression hardened. He seemed to have hit his weakness well.

“Lily, play with me until the larks come. Of course, in his absence.”

Pedro took me and left the place. 

The larks soon arrived at the academy. 

As soon as they heard from Pedro about what was going on with Bryce, they stomped their feet, insisting that they should send troops to the academy.

To make matters worse, Pedro nodded as if he was in agreement.

With all my might, I calmed them down and headed to Hugo’s dark magic lab.

Pedro waved until I entered the academy.

I was following the chattering larks, then all of a sudden, I felt that my wrist, which Bryce had grabbed earlier, stung.

It felt like something stiff was stabbing my skin.

I looked inside my sleeve and widened my eyes.

A small folded note was tangled in a ribbon knot.

***

“What is it? Don’t disturb me when I’m researching. I’m sure I’ve… Ah, Lily.”

The moment Hugo came out of the lab with an annoyed expression on his face, he immediately smiled kindly as soon as he saw me.

“How did you get here? Your legs must be hurting. Please sit down.”

“That’s too much, Hugo!”

The larks roared at Hugo, who rushed out with a chair.

“How do you manage your subordinate?”

“Right, how do you do that?”

“Please hold onto the discipline of the academy!”

Hugo was bewildered by the sudden clamor and raised his glasses.

“The academy wizards are more like co-workers than my subordinates… But what’s going on? Did they ever get caught making a corolla in the flower garden of the academy? It’s research material.”

Hugo didn’t seem to care, but at the next words of the larks, his expression turned serious at once.

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“One of the wizards grabbed the Princess’ hand however he wanted!”

“What was his name?”

“I remember. It was Bryce!”

“…What?”

Hugo, who was preparing tea for two people, stopped moving.

“What are you saying… Is that true?” 

Hugo hardened with the teapot in his hand, as if he was quite shocked.

Green tea dripped from the kettle and wet the desk.

Confused, I inadvertently grabbed the kettle, but threw it away.

“Brother Hugo, be careful! This… ahh, it’s hot!”

The teapot was hotter than I expected, although it must have been a while since the boiled water was transferred.

Hugo belatedly came to his senses and hurriedly grabbed my hand as if the world had collapsed.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I got burned a little bit….”

“Larks, can you prepare healing magic? I will bring you the most powerful magic tools.”

Sure enough, Hugo made a fuss as if I had cut off my finger.

We reached an agreement by barely stopping the larks that came running all at once, then placed a cold towel on my hands.

The larks said, “You must solve this problem!” With those words, they finally left the lab.

Hugo mumbled in the quiet room.

“…Can you wait here for a moment? Bryce, I’ll have to go see that damn bastard. How dare he insult you.”

Hugo jumped up and went up the stairs. He disappeared into the dark without a chance to stop him.

“Lily, I’ll keep the door closed just in case.”

Thud!

Before I could answer, he went up the stairs and the doorway was closed tightly.

He told me to ‘wait’, but it was actually confinement. 

‘Can I take it out now?’ 

I looked around the quiet lab and searched my inner pocket.

The note from Bryce was caught between my fingertips.

I pulled it out and looked at the folded paper for a long time.

If it was a note without anything of importance, I would just throw it away.

But what Bryce said earlier kept running through my mind.

“Hugo is a person of many secrets. There are things that he has not revealed to the Princess…”

The things he had not revealed.

Maybe it contained useful details I could use when escaping from the duke castle. 

I hesitated and fiddled with the note. The folded part opened and the inside of the paper was visible.

‘If I’m curious about the contents, I can open it up like this and I’m done.’

‘However…’

Suddenly, I remembered the postcard I had seen in the Imperial Palace.

There was a simple magic on the postcard, the letters were shining brightly, and a notification was sent to the servant when the postcard was folded.

‘What if there’s magic on this note, too?’

I still didn’t know what kind of magic this note contained yet. So I was so nervous that I couldn’t open it.

If I opened it, a huge amount of light might come out and I might be blinded.

After contemplating over and over again, I finally lifted my eyes from the note.

‘It would be better to give it to Hugo after all.’

Although the people of the Bauner family were strangers to me, I trusted them more than the fish that suddenly appeared in front of me.

I dropped the note on Hugo’s desk.

Then a clear light suddenly rose from the ordinary note.

“…What? What is it?”

The note rose in the air and unfolded itself.

Even if I tried to grab the note again in bewilderment, the shining thing slid through my fingers.

“Isn’t this a foul? I didn’t even open it!”

I tried to stop it, but there was nothing I could do. I shut my eyes tight.

The bright light spread and then disappeared.

I heard a series of ruptures of something breaking.

I slowly opened my eyes.

“What’s going on”?

The note disappeared. Other than that, nothing seemed to have changed.

As I got down from the chair and looked around, something ‘squeaked.’ It was stepped on.

I looked down and tilted my head.

“A lock?”

What was under my feet was a broken lock. 

When I squatted down to take a closer look, the change in the scenery from before caught my eyes belatedly.

The cabinet by the desk was slightly open.

The broken lock seemed to have been hanging over there until just now.

“Is it broken?”

When I touched the cabinet, the front panel opened.

It was full of black books.

I glanced at the title of the book in white and was speechless.

“This…”

<Ancient Resurrection Cases>, <Black Magic of Resurrection>, <How to Bring Your Precious Ones from Paradise>.

It was all books about how to bring the dead back to life.

Unknowingly, as I pulled out a book, the stacks of papers placed side by side fell to the floor.

“Ugh.”

Taken aback, I gathered the scattered papers in my arms. And that was when I saw roughly scribbled words.

「This can’t work.」

At the top of the paper, the date from several years ago, Hugo’s signature, and the title ‘Experiment Journal’ were written.

「Even if it succeeds, it is impossible for an existence that has once died and is resurrected to be normal.」 

「It will never be Lilietta.」 

「It’s just a completely different monster.」 

“Lily?”

As I read the last sentence, I heard Hugo’s voice behind me.

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