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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: Calix’s Discovery
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Meanwhile, Calix returned to his quarters and stumbled into the room, looking completely dazed.
Romeo was already in the room, though it was unclear when he'd returned. He asked nonchalantly.
“Where have you been?”
The moment Calix saw Romeo, he strode over and accosted him.
“Hey! Where the hell have *you* been?! You… you have no idea what I just saw!”
“What’s gotten into you?”
Romeo’s expression was indifferent.
“I just…”
Deciding he needed to calm down first, Calix plopped down in the seat across from Romeo and gulped down the contents of the cup he’d been drinking from.
“Agh! It’s hot!”
“…What are you doing?”
As Romeo stared at him in disbelief, Calix frantically tried to cool his burnt tongue.
After watching the spectacle for a moment, Calix finally composed himself, took a deep breath, and continued.
“…It’s about Lellia.”
“What about her?”
Romeo, who was already suspicious of Lellia, was puzzled when Calix, who was making such a scene, brought her up.
Calix began gravely, speaking in a hushed tone.
“She… is a man.”
“…”
*Did he lose his mind in the day I haven’t seen him?*
Romeo frowned, looking at Calix as if he were a lunatic.
“I’m telling you, he’s a man.”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
Romeo was flabbergasted.
Just how well had that girl, Lellia, played the part of a flirt for even Calix to be acting like this?
Wait.
*Could she have used some kind of strange potion?*
Romeo already suspected Lellia might be an alchemist.
He still didn’t know if she was the one who had killed Leo, but he was certain she possessed alchemical abilities—exceptionally skilled ones, at that.
And so, Romeo asked gravely.
“Did you take some kind of strange potion?”
“What are you talking about?”
Calix flinched inwardly but pretended to be clueless.
He had, in fact, taken a potion. The one Lellia had given him.
But he couldn’t tell him.
The fact that he suffered seizures from an injury sustained during the battle with the Mad Dragon was a secret he kept from his friends. He never wanted them to find out.
Now that he thought about it, he realized he hadn’t told Lellia to keep it a secret.
Calix made a mental note to give Lellia a stern warning when she returned.
Romeo sighed and asked.
“Then why are you spouting such nonsense? Calling a perfectly normal girl a man.”
“I saw it.”
“Saw what?”
“…*That*.”
“What is *that*?”
Unable to bring himself to say it, Calix pointed with his index finger toward his own lower body. Specifically, toward the center.
“…What are you doing?”
“Dammit! I’m telling you the truth! It was really there! I was shocked, too!”
“…”
Romeo froze, his expression hardening.
Calix must have gone mad. He must have hit his head during the battle with the Mad Dragon.
As Romeo stared at him like he’d lost his mind, Calix, frustrated, began to explain from the beginning.
About Cedric and Damian’s visit.
How Lellia had seemed so terrified that he’d accompanied her, only for the Emperor to tell him to wait in the adjacent room.
How he’d gotten bored and secretly watched their conversation through the wide-open archway. (At this, Romeo was aghast at Calix’s audacity.)
He recounted everything, right up to the point where the Emperor had suddenly questioned if Lellia was truly a woman.
“And then, she suddenly…! To prove she was a man, she dropped her pants right in front of the Emperor! Her pants!”
“…”
“I thought she’d gone insane! I was so shocked I was about to go in and stop her, but then…”
Calix trailed off, then held out his own thick forearm.
“It was about this big. Almost the same as mine.”
“…”
“Yeah, about this big? No, maybe a little smaller than mine.”
“Wait…”
*Is that really what’s important right now?*
Romeo ran a hand over his face in frustration.
He had no idea what to make of this situation.
As far as he knew, no mage had ever succeeded in body transformation magic.
Besides, Lellia wasn’t a mage.
With a dragon’s heart, Romeo possessed magical power far superior to that of an ordinary mage.
So he could tell for certain.
Lellia was not a mage, nor was she an alchemist.
He couldn’t sense any of the unique energy characteristic of an alchemist. Nor was she using magic to conceal it.
He couldn’t sense any magic from Lellia at all.
*This is maddening.*
There were too many suspicious things about her.
She had clearly detected the tracking spell he had placed on her.
He had no idea how. It was a spell so advanced that even the Imperial Palace mages couldn’t have detected it.
He had left the Imperial Palace yesterday specifically to investigate Lellia.
He wanted to see if, perhaps, the techniques passed down among alchemists had changed without his knowledge.
If alchemists could completely erase their traces, their influence would grow far greater than it was now.
They would be able to evade the temple’s surveillance.
That was why Romeo suspected Lellia might be one of them.
But no matter how many inquiries he made, he couldn’t find a single shred of information about such individuals.
Not because his information network was weak, but because they simply didn’t exist.
He was certain of it, having even used magic to confirm his findings.
And now this? A man? With… *that*?
Romeo felt like he was losing his mind.
*Just what is that girl’s true identity?*
Or should he say, that *boy*?
He couldn’t be sure whether Lellia was truly the one who had killed Leo.
He had trusted Lellia at first, of course… but her continued use of strange alchemical potions was suspicious.
Romeo bit his lip, his mind in turmoil.
Calix was still waving his forearm around, rambling on about its shape, its size, and what have you.
Then, a hypothesis suddenly struck him.
What if Lellia—that girl—had been a boy from the very beginning?
*If that’s the case…*
Romeo’s eyes narrowed. A faint smirk touched the corner of his lips.
