Ch.46Words Over Actions – 5

My astonishment must have shown on my face, as Charlotte immediately added:

“I merely stated that I don’t know what I don’t know, my dear. Surely I wouldn’t lie to you. So stop making that strange expression.”

“I didn’t think you were lying. I was just surprised that you answered you didn’t know, Charlotte.”

“So you trusted me that much. I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Well, yes. So what do you think that space is, Charlotte?”

“I don’t know that either.”

“……”

“I clearly told you I wouldn’t lie to you, so don’t make that strange face. Where that space is, who created it, why it was created—I couldn’t figure out any of it. I was barely able to determine only that it’s made of material that doesn’t exist in this world.”

Befitting someone worthy of being called a genius, there was almost nothing Charlotte didn’t know.

Even on the rare occasions when she encountered something unfamiliar, she would casually toss out the answer after just a few hours or days of consideration.

In fact, items bearing her touch were abundant throughout the kingdom.

The anti-counterfeiting measures for the kingdom’s official currency—copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins—were designed by Charlotte. The teleportation gates connecting the kingdom’s major cities to the capital were possible thanks to Charlotte’s development of mass production processes for mana stones. Even the adventurer identification plates were based on her ideas.

Aside from her extreme cruelty, Charlotte was quite a capable monarch.

The only problem was that those who served her trembled in fear, knowing that at the slightest mistake, they would lose not only their titles and territories but potentially their lives and family legacies as well.

‘She’s probably the closest thing to an all-rounder.’

If asked whether Serena could fire dozens of spells without incantations like Charlotte, the answer would definitely be no.

And Christine would be the same. But in my estimation, Charlotte could probably imitate both of them, albeit clumsily. Though it was just a guess, it was closer to certainty.

Of course, she would never match the real Serena and Christine, but the mere fact that she could attempt such feats, however awkwardly, put her outside normal standards.

Most people couldn’t even see or react to such things, let alone replicate them.

The one exception might be Christine’s mana nullification. Even I had never seen anything like that before.

Since mana doesn’t work on it, it’s not a phenomenon that can be researched with magic, and Christine wouldn’t agree to be researched anyway.

“Even I don’t know everything, despite who I am. After all, haven’t I kept you by my side for over a hundred years without killing you?”

“That’s true.”

When I agreed, Charlotte seemed to have no interest in talking further. She closed her mouth and began rubbing her face vigorously against my hand.

While ignoring both Serena and Charlotte clinging to me from either side, I pondered who could possibly have the power to forcibly eject these two.

‘Nothing really comes to mind.’

Unless they had entered some divine realm, I questioned whether any being existed that could overpower those two.

Moreover, such spaces aren’t just found anywhere, and there’s no way Serena and Charlotte wouldn’t have detected the divine power saturating the surroundings.

Furthermore, religious groups had been greatly diminished due to Christine’s rampage over the past few decades.

Even if all those people combined their divine power, they probably couldn’t match even the tip of Christine’s toe. How could they possibly open a gateway to the divine realm in such circumstances?

Recently, these groups had been regaining strength thanks to Christine’s relative restraint, but they would never dare return to their old ways.

They would be too busy watching their step around us. Compared to the days when rumors circulated about possible divine possession of saints, their current state was pathetically diminished.

It was their own doing, after all.

My train of thought was interrupted by a warm, soft sensation on my finger.

Looking toward Charlotte to see what was happening, I found her licking the tip of my index finger, which she had placed in her mouth. When our eyes met—her blood-red ones with mine—she gave me a coy smile.

When I tried to pull my finger out, there was a cracking sound as my wrist shattered. The feeling in my finger disappeared.

After calming Serena, who had noticed what happened from stroking my cheek, I checked Charlotte’s hand gripping my wrist.

Her hand was tightly clenched. Whatever was inside would have been crushed like a wrung-out rag.

As my wrist regenerated, Charlotte’s tightly closed fist reopened to the width of my wrist.

This time, I didn’t try to pull my finger away. Why would I, when my wrist would just be shattered again? Better to leave it as Charlotte wanted.

Come to think of it, I’d experienced something similar recently.

The difference was that Christine had been the one to crush my finger by biting it, but Serena had played the same role of being surprised.

Or rather, she had been about to get angry but was stopped by me.

Charlotte’s tongue fluttered over my fingernail. After lightly kissing the tip of my finger, she slid down the side and licked the hollow between my index and middle fingers.

She didn’t seem to mind at all that her saliva on my finger was getting on her cheek.

Her bright red eyes remained fixed on me, unwavering, accompanied by a smiling gaze, as if gauging my reaction.

It was hard to believe this seductive demeanor belonged to someone who had just crushed my wrist.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m licking your finger. Can’t you see?”

“That’s not what I’m asking.”

“I know.”

“So?”

“There’s no particular reason. I simply wanted to do this.”

When she boldly answered that she was licking because she wanted to, I found myself at a loss for words. The sound of her sucking on my finger came from inside her mouth.

I thought at least she wasn’t biting it off like Christine would, but then I flinched, feeling like I might have just dug my own grave.

Whenever I think such things, they tend to come true. I cautiously observed Charlotte’s demeanor.

She was just looking at me with a happy face, making sucking sounds, with no sign of doing anything else. If anything, she seemed to be carefully avoiding letting her teeth touch my finger.

I wouldn’t particularly mind if she bit off my finger, but the sensation of having a body part bitten off was strangely unpleasant.

Not being cut by weapons, but being bitten off by teeth, whether from monsters or whatever. I don’t know why.

Serena had removed her face from my hand that was caressing her cheek and was now fiddling with her fingers.

Despite wielding a sword so often, Serena’s hands had no calluses or scars, making it believable that she was a lady raised comfortably in a noble household.

My hands, of course, remained as they always were.

“Serena, would you like to try too?”

At those words, Serena’s eyes widened. She blinked at me a few times, then looked back and forth between my hand and me.

“My lord, what did you just…?”

“Hmm? I didn’t say anything special. Just asked if you wanted to try too.”

As I spoke, I poked Charlotte’s cheek with the remaining fingers of my left hand. Charlotte bit my finger lightly in protest.

It was truly just a light bite, barely noticeable.

“There’s no particular reason. Why, we were in a similar situation recently, weren’t we?”

“By similar situation, you mean…”

Serena furrowed her brow. She seemed to recall our meeting with Christine in the forest. It probably wasn’t a pleasant memory, considering Christine had crushed me under a boulder and then prayed in front of it.

“I thought the setup was almost identical to now. I wondered if you might want to try it too.”

The reason I was in this situation now was because Charlotte had suddenly barged in, which must have felt like a bolt from the blue to Serena.

Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure that last time I was with Serena when Christine burst in and did something like this. What is this, déjà vu?

While I was internally shuddering at this realization, Serena, who had been deep in thought, seemed to make up her mind and spoke.

“My lord.”

“Go ahead.”

“I have no need for such whorish behavior.”

“What did you just mutter?”

Charlotte, suddenly degraded to a whore, narrowed her eyes fiercely. I put my finger back in her mouth to prevent a fight and waited for Serena’s next words.

“So, I request that we continue our city tour from earlier.”

Crunch. My index finger was bitten off.