Chapter 49 :

Chapter 49 - Discovered

Ran Abiran’s coming-of-age ceremony was more shabby than imagined. Celos, who had thoroughly mocked him and returned, felt so refreshed, as if the indigestion that had built up all this time had gone down, that even his steps were light.

Was it because of the alcohol he had excitedly drunk? He turned his steps not toward his room, but toward the garden, where he rarely went. The cold winter wind struck his cheeks. It was then that the smile that had filled his face disappeared in an instant.

Wheat-colored blonde hair reaching the waist. It was someone he could not fail to recognize. She was not alone. No, now it seemed she was alone. Because the thing hanging limply in her hand no longer seemed to be a living person.]

It was one part of the original work.

The night of my coming-of-age ceremony was the day Mentil’s hidden ability was revealed, and the day contact between her and Dito Abiran, the Second Prince, began.

The tree outside the window had not yet taken off its colorful clothes.

It was still autumn.

In other words, at least more than three months remained.

I had barely managed to set the starting time of the incident properly, but this time I had faced an even more serious problem.

The red book was a thin, old ancient book of about fifty pages, and could be seen as a kind of history book, or a travelogue.

This had to fall into Ratel’s hands at the right time because it would become the guidepost for the protagonist and his companions’ journey.

And that was now, right here.

* * *

The Empress had teatime around morning, so the room was empty for about an hour at this time.

They said the guards in front of the door blocked even a single ant from entering, but that did not apply to the window.

“Chirp.”

Even if I was discovered, the chance that they would kill me just because one small sparrow had entered was low.

Aside from the fact that flying up here with tiny wings had taken a little effort, everything had been very easy so far.

With a sigh, I carefully landed on the floor in human form.

Fortunately, the carpet was thick, so not even a small sound was made.

It was a simpler room than I had expected.

Compared to the First Prince bastard’s room, which had been plastered with gold, her room was furnished overall with furniture in darker colors.

The room, already dark to begin with, did not receive much light either because of the large, heavy curtains covering the window.

Though in the sense that each and every item was undoubtedly expensive, the two were similar.

The glossy carpet with unique patterns spread across the floor, the mirror made of white marble hanging on the wall, and even the telescope by the window.

A telescope in this world, where religion overwhelmed science.

It was an item I had not even dared to buy in the real world because it was expensive, so I could not even guess how much it would cost here.

If I took it and sold it.......

No, this is not it.

I overcame the temptation and took a step.

The red book was here.

It was in this place.

A huge bookshelf that occupied the entire wall of the large room.

[The Story Told by Karl Machen’s Stars], [The Basics of Celestial Observation], [Great Emperor Sierra’s Moon], [The Three Moons], and so on.

It was filled with books about stars and the moon.

Considering how little scientific research about celestial bodies existed in this world, given its religion, this was an enormous number of books.

Of course, the red book was not simply one book among them.

Among the countless books, I took out one that looked the oldest.

Since they said the red book had been hidden for quite a long time, rather than a new book that had not been made long ago, it would likely be a somewhat worn book.

[Song of the Moon]

It was a hardcover book wrapped in blue leather.

There was no need to read it.

I approached the window and pulled back the curtain just a little.

Then I lifted the book to the window where the morning sunlight poured in and quickly flipped through the pages.

Along with the old smell of ink brushing my nose, the worn pages turned one by one.

Among them, there was one page where the amount of light passing through was different from the others.

I stopped turning the pages and held that page up to the sunlight.

That page, which looked no different from an ordinary page, absorbed enough sunlight and emitted transparent light, revealing hidden letters.

The corners of my mouth rose slightly in relief.

It seems no one has found it yet.

I put the book back where it had originally been and closed the curtain I had opened a little.

Darkness returned to the room again.

The books that almost filled one entire wall seemed to number in the hundreds.

Among these hundreds of books, around fifty contained a hidden page like this, through which light passed.

In the original work, a clue was given through the romantic phrase, “Find it as the light guides you”.

It was fortunate that it was still in its place, but I could not feel completely relieved.

If Mentil and Dito found this before the protagonist, it would be a major accident this time.

The protagonist would miss the guidepost for his journey, while Dito and Mentil would take a shortcut.

But I also could not steal it now.

If they learned that it had disappeared now, there was no way the Empress and Emperor would stay still, and there was no way Dito would fail to notice that.

In the worst case, Dito might change his plans so far and move in a completely different direction.

Then the original work would truly be ruined.

But I also could not simply pray that Mentil and Dito failed to find it.

Anxiety was one thing, but there was no guarantee that Tollin would not be included among the next Crisa family members Mentil would bring.

An original work where Tollin disappeared would never turn out favorably for the protagonist.

According to the original work, Mentil and Dito join hands after my coming-of-age ceremony, and the two try to find the red book by using Mentil’s ability.

But the protagonist arrives earlier than that, takes the red book, and succeeds in running away.

That is the stable order of the original work.

It cannot be earlier, and it cannot be so late either.

But this damned original work had once again moved up one of the incidents that would happen by three more months.

The only consolation was that because I had moved up the beginning of the original work much earlier, the protagonist might arrive in the capital a little sooner.

Where on earth is this damned protagonist bastard?

If he did not arrive on time, I would ultimately have no choice but to choose the final method.

And that was an option that would do me no good.

Please come quickly.

If you have arrived in Abiran, you should arrive before long.

Click.

The sound of the door opening was heard at that moment.

To send the Empress the moment I prayed for the protagonist to be sent, as expected, god was not on my side.

Thanks to thinking that I wanted to transform into the smallest animal I knew, I narrowly avoided the Empress’ eyes.

Since I transformed into the smallest animal among the animals I had encountered, the appearance did not come out that well, though.

Judging by the shape of my hands, it seemed I had transformed into the small field mouse I had once seen in the forest.

At that size, there was no difficulty hiding behind the large curtain.

Tap.

Along with the light sound of shoes, the Empress fully appeared.

Since my possession, the only times I had seen her were brief glimpses from far away.

Each time, my impression had been that she looked sharp and cold.

This was my first time seeing her from such a close distance.

Her rich black hair, mixed with a few strands of gray, was tightly put up, and her neck stretched straight as if proving how upright her posture was.

She looked like the model of a beautiful middle-aged woman, and although her face had not forgotten the passage of time to the point where her age was impossible to gauge like the Emperor’s, her eyes looked clearer than his, which had been hazy.

In a way, frighteningly so.

She did not glance anywhere else and headed straight toward the bookshelf where the books were placed.

“.......”

The book said there was no other device on the bookshelf, so there was no way she would notice that I had touched the book, yet I became tense.

Fortunately, the Empress looked around the bookshelf a few times, then turned her head.

I let out a sigh of relief.

“...... Beast smell.”

But at the next words she spoke, I had to feel the hairs on my body stand on end.

* * *

Did she just say beast smell?

Did she smell me just now?

No, that could not be.

Even Rasia and Celos, whose five senses were more developed than ordinary people’s, had never said there was a beast smell when I transformed into a crow or a squirrel.

The Empress was definitely not a member of the imperial family, but an ordinary human.

Then was there a setting in the original work that the Empress had a dog-like nose?

No, no matter how much I looked back on the original work, there was no such setting.

But unless she had a dog-like nose, there was no way to explain how she was walking so precisely toward the curtain where I was hiding.

The Empress seemed to focus her senses on her nose, furrowing her brow as she slowly narrowed the distance to the window where I was hiding.

I looked behind me.

Damn it, the window was slightly open, but this was the third floor.

In the luxurious Empress’ Palace, where the ceilings were high, the third floor was a terrifying height.

And of all things, the form I had taken was a rat.

Was the probability higher that the Empress would find me and quietly leave me alone, or that she would call people?

It was not a difficult calculation.

The option of calmly revealing myself in rat form before the Empress immediately disappeared.

If I went out the window and immediately transformed into a bird and flew away, could I avoid being discovered?

Or should I first jump down, then transform into another animal right before I fell?

While countless thoughts flashed through my head, the Empress had already come close enough that I could accurately estimate her height.

Yes, let’s jump down first.

Since my body is small, I will survive somehow.

Knock, knock.

The moment I made up my mind and put strength into my legs, the sound of salvation echoed.

“Your Majesty the Empress, it is Jen.”

The one who saved me from the crisis of almost jumping from the third-floor window was the Empress’ personal maid.

The Empress took her gaze away from the curtain and stepped back.

“Enter.”

A petite woman with purplish-blue hair entered.

Jen Sia.

The Empress’ personal maid.

She was also a character who appeared in the original work.

“What is it?”

At the Empress’ stiff question, Jen lowered her already bowed head even deeper.

She handed her a thin bundle of papers.

“It is said that fifty children and several priests from Komiel village urgently need to enter the temples of the capital. Since the number of people is fairly large and the cost is high, the documents requesting that payment have arrived for Lord Celos.”

The Empress frowned and skimmed through the papers.

“A fire broke out in the temple, and there is no room left where the ritual can be carried out?”

At her mutter, the maid answered.

“I had someone confirm it, and it is true that a fire broke out in that region.”

The woman, who had flipped through the bundle of papers front and back, nodded and handed the papers back to the maid.

A sneer hung on her beautiful face.

“They use all sorts of things as excuses to demand money. Just give it to them.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Ah, wait.”

The Empress stopped Jen, who had taken the documents back and was about to leave.

Slap!

Along with a sharp sound of friction, Jen’s head turned.

The woman, whose cheek had reddened, immediately lowered her turned head again without letting out even a groan.

The Empress shook out her hand and looked down at Jen.

“Replace all the maids in charge of cleaning the room. It seems they are not cleaning properly. There is a nasty smell.”

Jen bowed her head as if apologetic.

“I am sorry. I will scold them harshly and replace them all.”

Not long after Jen left, the Empress also left the room.

Only then was I able to breathe out deeply.

Although I had barely escaped a suffocating situation, the feeling of joy was greater than relief.

Yes, this was nominally the world where that fellow was the protagonist, so it would not proceed so hopelessly.

Komiel and the temple.

The protagonist’s appearance was approaching.