Back in the office, our future head of the Mage Tower, secondary-male-lead face and all, had gone completely, deathly pale.
“Seamus, are you okay?”
“…”
Seamus managed a faint nod.
Aren’t the male leads of every romance novel, this genre included, supposed to be able to drink like fish?
Did this place, some kind of office-worker apocalypse, really need to chase hyper-realism this hard, of all things?
I looked at Seamus with genuine pity.
Yes. This is what a first-year’s hangover feels like. Endure it.
Seamus turned his face away from me.
A faint flush rose across his pale face, apparently embarrassed to be caught this wrecked by a hangover.
“This is just the first time I’ve had that particular poison. I’ll build up a tolerance next time.”
“Sure, sure. Livers are trainable…”
Knock knock.
That was when a small knock sounded at the door.
A thin, high voice followed, calling out my name.
“Hellooo! Is Miss Leila Rowell in there?”
“Ah, yes, she’s here!”
Who could possibly be looking for me?
But when I opened the door, there was—
No one there at all.
Was I still drunk enough to be hearing things?
“Hellooo! Down here!”
“…?”
Following the voice down, slowly—
A cheese-colored cat wearing an adorable little blue bread-roll hat looked up at me.
Round, fluffy head, round, fluffy body — an unbearably cute cat.
The cat pointed a front paw at me.
A pink jelly bead of a nose caught my eye.
“Hello, Miss Rowell! Popo is a magic animal!”
“Huh? Huh?!”
“Popo’s here for the employee satisfaction survey! Excuse the intrusion!”
The cat hopped smoothly onto the shared table and settled in comfortably.
Its plump little belly poking out was unbearably adorable.
Cute…!
Romance might be a lost cause here, but at least fantasy was still alive and well in this world.
I met Popo’s eyes and slipped straight into baby talk.
“Hi, hi! What’d Popo come all the way here for?”
“It’s about Miss Leila Rowell’s artifact!”
Popo pulled a sheet of paper and a quill out of a little pouch slung over one shoulder.
“Whenever an artifact’s made, Popo has to do a satisfaction survey!”
“Wait…! Popo has to do this?”
Did this world really put even adorable little animals to work?
“Yesss! Response rates are way too low when a person does it!”
“Ah. Hm.”
…I thought back on every single employee survey email I’d ignored throughout my working life.
Full of regret over my past-life self, I resolved to answer this one properly and diligently.
“First, how’s the fit feeling?”
“Nice and snug, feels great.”
“Then, did you get a chance to try the ‘record,’ ‘playback,’ and ‘audio record’ functions?”
“Hm?”
I toyed with Popo’s tail, tilting my head.
“Was there something like that? I don’t think I ever saw it.”
Popo gave an annoyed little cat-tongue click.
“Aww, the crafting team’s still a mess, so they must’ve forgotten to mention it. Please go ahead and test the function now, even if it’s late!”
“Okaaay.”
“Thank yooou. Well then, see you again next time!”
Popo hopped down off the desk in one bounce. Watching that little figure walk away, I clapped a hand over my mouth.
“Haah… so cute…!”
Small, adorable things really will be the salvation of this world!
Seamus watched right along with me, looking just as fascinated.
“…I’ve seen plenty of magical animals, but that one’s something else.”
“Even by Mage Tower standards?”
“Something that refined is rare. Talking that fluently, on top of it…”
So it wasn’t just cute — it was genuinely remarkable.
Since we were already on the subject, I figured I might as well test the functions properly and get a report out of it.
“Hm, let’s see. To use the record, audio-record, and playback functions, you press the top of the ear cuff while picturing the function you want…”
I was in the middle of testing that, checking the instructions, when—
The exact scene from the moment Henry was kidnapped popped up sharply in front of my eyes.
Ah-ha! So recording was set to default on the whole time?
The footage had captured the instant Seamus reached toward Henry’s core.
Seamus watched the footage right alongside me.
“Come to think of it, Seamus, this might just be my imagination, but.”
“What.”
“Did Henry say something to you, that day…?”
At the time, I’d assumed it was just my imagination and let it go without thinking twice.
But watching the footage now, it was unmistakable.
Henry’s lips were clearly moving.
The same shape, over and over.
What’s he saying?
I replayed that exact stretch again and again, trying to mimic the shape of Henry’s mouth myself.
“Uh… ah… aht-ee? No, wait, you. You…”
And then I froze completely, without meaning to.
Because what kept repeating on the screen was—
<You saw me, didn’t you?>
<You saw me, didn’t you?>
<You saw me, didn’t you?>
Right after I watched the ear cuff’s recorded footage.
An emergency meeting was called immediately.
The male lead, the mastermind, and Seamus all watched the footage I’d pulled up, dead serious.
Eventually, the mastermind spoke first.
“Sure enough. Going by the shape of his mouth, Miss Rowell’s reading is accurate.”
“But the palace infirmary confirmed no trace of black magic on Henry.”
The male lead answered, then turned to Seamus with a question.
“Have you ever seen a black mage in person, Finley?”
“…No. Black magic’s a forbidden field of study even at the Mage Tower.”
“Then.”
The male lead, the mastermind, and Seamus all turned to look at me, at the exact same moment.
The conclusion was obvious.
“Does that mean someone from the ‘Seres Order’ saw me, through Henry?”
“…Probably, Rowell.”
“Why me? Because I’m Henry’s sister? Because of my eye for cores?”
At my question, the male lead and the mastermind exchanged a strange look with each other.
What’s that about?
Like they were sharing some secret only the two of them knew?
That was when the mastermind snapped his fingers.
“Hm, might as well come in now? This concerns you too.”
At that, the person who’d been shut away in the room with that brand-redacted folding bed came in, glancing around nervously.
“Priest Lumiere, hello…?”
“Hello, Miss Rowell.”
I still hadn’t gotten the chance to ask why he’d been dragged in earlier, since the emergency meeting cut in first…
He didn’t look like he knew why he’d been dragged in either.
The male lead nodded, and Priest Lumiere spoke up, awkward.
“Actually, I already mentioned this to the two of them earlier. But wasn’t I looking into your lineage, Miss Rowell?”
“Ah, um. Right, you were.”
Right. He’d made that promise back when I’d just finished signing that miserable employment contract.
Was that really relevant to bring up right now, in this situation?
“But I checked every surviving house and every extinct one, and none of them matched you, Miss Rowell.”
“Ah, I see.”
I answered flatly, not particularly upset about it.
I hadn’t set my expectations very high to begin with, after all.
Which makes it even less clear why he’d bring this up right now, of all moments.
But for someone whose investigation had failed, Priest Lumiere’s eyes were shining, brightly.
Worryingly so.
“But the Temple keeps relics made by those who’ve passed on. Faint traces of divine power still linger in them, even now.”
“And…?”
“S— so, the conclusion is.”
Priest Lumiere clenched both fists, tight.
“You, Miss Rowell…! You carry the exact same wavelength as the last Saintess!”
“…Sorry?”
“There’s a relic she left behind! I hardly dared to hope, but I checked anyway, and the wavelength matched, Miss Rowell!”
“…”
“Which means you’re a blood relative. A direct descendant, no less!”
Priest Lumiere shouted it out, overcome with emotion, but I couldn’t keep up with any of it.
The last Saintess — you mean the one who got killed by the Mad Emperor?
The one every citizen of this empire learned about in history class.
The one nobody, to this day, actually knew the real reason for her death?
“Sorry, what?!”
“You’re shocked, aren’t you — I was too, Miss Rowell. They said the Saintess had no family, at the time…”
“So, are you saying the Saintess had an illegitimate child?”
I went straight for the direct hit.
Priest Lumiere staggered like he’d taken a chop to the back of the neck.
“Th— that is, technically, correct… but, could you say ‘a child born outside marriage’ instead of ‘illegitimate’?”
