Chapter 15
15
The next day.
'What is with him?'
Simone couldn't hide her annoyance as she looked at the person in front of her.
The person grinned, regardless of her expression, and said smoothly, "Lady Simone, it's been a while since our last request, hasn't it? How have you been… you seem to be doing well! You look very healthy."
"What…"
"I wondered if I'd ever have the chance to see you again, but Archduke Illestone specifically requested me for this task. Of course, there are a few other adventurers joining us, but only one person needs to hear the explanation, so as the leader, I came to find you, Lady Simone."
"Your sociability has improved since I last saw you."
"I'm just happy to see you, Lady Simone. I think this must be fate."
The one spouting nonsense in front of Simone was Louisby, the Crown Prince of the Ruan Empire.
"By the way, Lady Simone, your hair color seems to have changed? Wasn't it a beautiful brown before?"
"It was, I guess."
"Today, it's a sun-kissed blonde."
Louisby kept chattering away, while Simone was openly annoyed. Caught in the middle, Anna didn't know what to do and kept glancing back and forth.
'It's been quite a while since I got rid of the first curse. What is he doing here?'
Originally, Louisby should have joined Abel and his party a long time ago and continued their adventure. But unlike the novel, instead of going on the adventure he was supposed to, why was he still taking requests from the Adventurers Guild?
Simone couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing here?"
"What do you think? I came to take a request."
Louisby grinned and approached Simone.
"It's a request from the Illestone family, no less. Archduke Illestone probably wanted to use someone who had experienced something like this in the mansion before, right?"
This was the time when Louisby, feeling that there was no way to solve his problem in the Ruan Empire, was crossing the border.
Then he met the protagonist, Abel, and joined his party.
No, even if the monster tree incident had delayed him and he hadn't met Abel yet, Louisby shouldn't be spending his time taking guild requests here, right?
"Lady Simone?"
She had just hoped that the story would only change to the extent that the Illestone family episode, which wasn't very important to Simone, would be skipped. If Louisby was still here…
'It means the joining of one of Abel's important companions is delayed.'
It seemed that because he met Simone before Abel, Louisby's interest and expectations for Abel in the original story had shifted to Simone.
Simone frowned. Unlike the grinning Louisby, her expression didn't improve.
'It was obvious, though.'
Abel and Simone were both people who had the potential to solve Louisby's problem.
In the original story, Abel solved his problem because Simone died early, but if Simone had been alive, she would have had the most appropriate power to help Louisby.
'So, if he meets me before Abel, it's natural that his interest would turn to me.'
In the first place, he joined Abel's party because he was interested in Simone's abilities, who was traveling with Abel.
The story might have started to go wrong from the moment Louisby first received a guild request and entered the mansion.
But then what about the fate of the world? Who would stop Abel's rampage?
Before Abel met his mentor, it was Louisby who calmed the rampaging power that went out of control according to his emotions and helped him regain his reason.
If Louisby wasn't there, who would stop Abel's rampage and guide him through the first half of the story?
"Is something wrong?"
"No. Nothing."
Simone moved forward with a serious expression.
"Let's go inside for now. I'll explain what you need to do in front of the Archduke."
Simone headed to the Archduke's study with Louisby.
She was flustered to meet Louisby again, but she thought the Archduke's choice wasn't wrong.
A reliable person who doesn't use Mana. Someone who has experienced the secrets of the Illestone mansion and still survived.
He was the most trustworthy adventurer to entrust the job to.
Arriving at the study, Simone naturally sat on the sofa. Louisby flinched at the sight, but the Archduke didn't care and put down the quill he was holding.
"You've arrived."
Then he glared at Simone.
"I didn't expect you to come along too."
"I ran into him by chance, and since I thought you would call me anyway when Ren arrived, I guided him here instead."
Just then, someone knocked on the study door, and the butler, Kelle, entered.
"Master, Ren is here-"
"Good morning."
He stopped abruptly when he found Simone and Ren sitting in the study. Then he raised the corners of his lips unnaturally.
"...I went to meet him, but you were already here. Who guided you here?"
Ren looked at Simone without a word.
Kelle's face frowned again.
"Don't guide guests carelessly."
He had gone to pick up the guest who needed to be brought to the Archduke's study himself, so he didn't know how embarrassed he was when the adventurer who was supposed to come was not there.
"Yes, I understand."
Simone said indifferently and looked at Illestone.
"Now that Ren is here, shall I start the explanation? Is that okay?"
Archduke Illestone gestured for her to do so.
Simone immediately began the explanation.
"The task that Ren needs to help with this time is finding a jewel."
"Easy. It's a request I've often done."
"Please find the legendary jewel, Saintess's Desire."
"…Pardon?"
Louisby's expression, who had been smiling all along as much as Simone, stiffened. His eyes shook with embarrassment.
"Saintess's Desire… That, are you talking about the legendary magic stone?"
"Yes."
Louisby's mouth closed at her firm answer.
Saintess's Desire.
A jewel that the Necromancer Anasis, who had driven the Ruan Empire to the brink of destruction 300 years ago, had created to seduce the Saintess at the time.
After the Saintess was expelled, the jewel was said to have been thrown into the sea so that no one could find it.
'But I thought that was just a legend?'
The most famous story among the tens of thousands of legends that were created when the empire's fear of Anasis was at its peak. He just thought of it as that.
Does that jewel actually exist?
No, even if it did.
'How does this woman know about it?'
How does she know something that even he, the Crown Prince of the Ruan Empire, doesn't know?
Is it because she's also a Necromancer?
Simone thought as she looked at Louisby's bewildered expression.
'Because I read the book.'
Simone thought lightly and said, "There is a small, remote village with a sea below the cliff."
"A village?"
Simone calmly explained what she knew, receiving the gazes of the three people focused on her.
"Saintess's Desire is said to have been thrown into the sea from the cliff in that village."
"Where is that village?"
Simone shook her head at Louisby's question.
"I don't know. Archduke and Ren probably know that small village better than I do."
They would know everything about the Ruan Empire.
"All I know is that the village is a place where abandoned old people gather. If you meet someone there, ask them."
Simone recalled the appearance of the jewel described in the book.
"Ask if they have ever seen a red jewel in the sea."
『It was like the blood of the living filled with resentment, or the eyes of a Necromancer.
The red jewel shone so brightly that no one could take their eyes off it.
Even if that someone was a Saintess.』
The old woman who had the jewel was also fascinated by the jewel and cherished it like her own life.
Archduke Illestone, who was listening to her, said, "Even if you ask the residents about such a magic stone, they wouldn't know."
If that jewel actually existed, it was not something that ordinary people, who had no power, especially the old people who had been abandoned and lived together, could easily obtain.
Simone sighed.
"If they don't know, you have to search the sea."
She was already worried to death that it was too early, but she didn't know why the Archduke kept pouring cold water on her.
'If that old woman doesn't have 'Saintess's Desire' at this time, I might have to search the vast sea below the cliff where the jewel was thrown.'
"If it doesn't come out even if you search the sea, you have to find another way."
If that happened, the day she would undo Jace's curse would inevitably be delayed.
In a situation where every day was urgent.
Archduke Illestone looked at Louisby.
"Ren, can you find that magic stone as she says?"
Louisby hesitated for a moment and said, "I think the first thing to do is to find out where the village is. I'll try to find it. I'm planning to search at least the sea."
Of course, it was also to gain Archduke Illestone's trust and create more opportunities to meet Simone, but more than that, if Saintess's Desire actually existed in the Ruan Empire, he couldn't just let it go.
Saintess's Desire was a dangerous magic stone that should not be easily touched by human hands.
"Lady Simone, I would like to ask you a little more about the jewel. Could you spare me some time?"
"Well…"
Actually, she was planning to go out to the village with Anna today, but she could spare some time for the success of the plan.
Simone looked at Archduke Illestone as if asking for permission, and Archduke Illestone gestured for her to go out.
Simone got up from her seat.
"Then let's go to my room."
