Discovery

Aurora, who had put down her fork and knife, crossed them on her plate. It meant she had finished her meal.

Then, the maid who had been standing politely behind her approached as if she had been waiting. A handkerchief was held in her hand. It was a handkerchief made of silk, adorned with gold, and looked truly, disgustingly expensive.

The maid, with very polite and precise movements, gently wiped the corners of her mouth. Aurora calmly accepted her touch.

While one maid wiped Aurora’s mouth, another cleared away the fork and knife placed in front of Aurora, and yet another disappeared with the solitary remaining plate.

As soon as the plate was cleared, a new plate was set down. Almost simultaneously, the maid who had been wiping her mouth finished her task and stepped back. The handkerchief was as clean as it had been before wiping her mouth.

What was placed on the new plate was a chocolate cake. And one topped with chocolate and generously drizzled with chocolate syrup.

The cake, which looked so sweet it seemed like it would make her tongue ache just by looking at it, Aurora nonchalantly took a bite. And at the sweetness spreading throughout her mouth, she shivered slightly anew, thrilling.

As if she couldn’t bring herself to eat another bite immediately, Aurora, who had deeply stuck her fork into the cake to secure it, opened her mouth.

“The work is still ongoing. I don’t know if it will succeed or not, though.”

“Thank you very much, nim.”

“No need for thanks. Because of that bastard, you all ended up coming to my territory. I have to take responsibility.”

After being ordered by Kaikillia to wait indefinitely in the Imperial Palace until she called them again, Aurora was going around trying to reinstate the Knights of the Silver Dawn.

Of course, it was because it was something that trash, who was once her father, had committed, and she felt she had to resolve it with her own hands; it was definitely not out of a desire for atonement or anything like that.

Aurora was too cold-hearted to atone, and in fact, most of the numerous atrocities that bastard had committed were dealt with at the level of obligatory cleanup. Only the Knights of the Silver Dawn were an exception.

Above all, if she carelessly tried to conclude the matter of the ‘thing’ that was accused of being a demon worshiper and executed, there was a chance her sincerity would be doubted, with people asking if she was trying to conceal evidence under the guise of cleaning up.

Being interrogated in such a way was something she would refuse even if it meant death.

‘……Well, it might get a little lonely, though.’

She chewed another bite of chocolate cake. Because if the Knights of the Silver Dawn returned to the Imperial Palace, that man would surely leave with them.

Delta.

The benefactor who saved Aurora’s life from that damned thing, who brazenly carried out incomprehensible actions, a man hiding some great secret. And….

‘Let’s stop getting sentimental.’

The third bite of cake disappeared past her throat. A sweet scent wafted into her nasal cavity, and the taste of chocolate spread throughout her mouth. It was a truly terribly sweet taste.

Yes, she had to stop getting sentimental. There was nothing she could do. Wasn’t there already a woman with whom he had mingled bodies?

Even if polygamy was permitted under Imperial law, it was merely a permission. If there were no restrictions, nobles would have dozens of wives and concubines.

For polygamy to be permitted, tremendous achievements commensurate with it were required. Even for nobles, there was no exception. Family prestige? That was utterly unimportant.

Only individual great deeds were the entire condition.

Rumor had it that the first Emperor of the Empire had decreed it so, but Aurora didn’t know the details. It was natural, as her interest in such matters had only begun recently.

‘Well. If it’s Delta, it might not be entirely impossible.’

She recalled a rumor circulating within the Imperial Palace. When the unprecedented situation of a dragon appearing in the Imperial capital occurred, there was a rumor that a man had directly confronted that dragon.

While everyone else had fainted, he alone bravely faced the dragon to protect the people, and in the end, that living apocalypse and intelligent natural disaster had fled first.

The protagonist of the rumor was none other than Delta.

‘It’s probably exaggerated.’

Aurora thought so. A dragon fleeing from a mere human? It was nonsense. No matter how many times she thought about it, only the conclusion that it was impossible emerged.

However, it might not be an entirely false rumor either.

Unless someone deliberately lied with malicious intent, rumors were always bound to be based on some degree of truth.

Perhaps the fact that Delta confronted the dragon was true. Instead, it wasn’t that the dragon fled, but rather that something in the situation coincidentally aligned, causing it to retreat for some reason.

‘If it had been a complete fabrication from the start, Aunt-nim herself wouldn’t have stayed quiet.’

If it had been a completely fabricated rumor, Kaikillia herself, as the person involved, would never have stayed silent.

But Kaikillia neglected the rumor. It was impossible for the Emperor not to have heard a rumor spreading throughout the Imperial Palace, so it could only mean that she had intentionally left the rumor alone even after hearing it.

Precisely since the dragon’s attack, the fact that Delta’s companions, Aurora and the Knight Captains, were receiving much better treatment was also one of the pieces of evidence.

The Emperor, who must have heard the rumor, was intentionally neglecting it, and Delta’s companions were receiving lavish treatment in the Imperial Palace, so for the people, it was as good as a foregone conclusion.

“So, Delta hasn’t returned yet?”

Aurora glanced out the window. Outside, darkness had settled thickly.

“Yes. I heard news that he headed somewhere with the Eternal Mage-nim, but I haven’t heard anything since then.”

“He’ll manage just fine on his own. You can stop worrying about it. If we worry, we’ll just be at a disadvantage for no reason.”

She said it sincerely.

She trusted Delta’s own abilities, and above all, she didn’t know how he did it, but the fact that he even managed to coax Minerva into going out with him, made worrying about his life or death a foolish thing to do.

If she was going to worry, she should worry about something else.

“……Iris, isn’t it a bit noisy outside since a while ago?”

Claudia frowned slightly. It was just as she said. The Imperial Palace, which normally should have been quietly immersed in silence, had become so boisterous that it could be heard even in this dining room.

“I felt it too. I don’t know what’s going on.”

“I can’t see it from here. It’s probably on the opposite side, isn’t it? Is there anything that could cause such a commotion from there that it could be heard all the way here?”

Rije tilted her head and looked out the window, but unfortunately, it wasn’t in this direction. Aurora, after a moment of thought, stood up. It seemed worth checking out.

The Knight Captains also seemed to have caught on to Aurora’s intention, and followed her.

‘……What the hell is that sight?’

I leaned my back against a wall far away from the center of the commotion, disgusted. I couldn’t bring myself to be near that scene of collective madness.

I should have known from the moment Minerva said she would contact me in advance to say she found the Crystal Scroll.

“Scientia-nim! Please step on my back and go!”

“No, Scientia-nim! Please step on me first!”

“Follow the order! How dare you cut in without any sense of decency!”

‘Are they crazy bitches?’

Just from the sounds, it was unusual. It was a chaos of shouts, with some saying “Step on me first!” and others “I should be stepped on first, how dare you cut in without any decency!”

At the center of the commotion was the Crystal Scroll, held precious in Minerva’s arms.

Saying that the person holding that couldn’t be allowed to step on the dirty bare ground, they were doing such things, asking her to step on their backs and enter the Magic Tower.

In the midst of it, Minerva, who had lost her wits, was actually stepping on them and passing by, and those who were stepped on were trembling with delight, looking as if they were dying of happiness. It was simply a complete disaster.

‘I can’t stand to watch this anymore.’

I shook my head, widening the distance. With hundreds of mages collectively doing such things, it was truly nothing short of a gathering of crazy bitches.

It was fortunate that Minerva was known as the one who discovered the Crystal Scroll. Because if the truth had been revealed, I might have been the one at the center of that chaos.

No matter how outstanding the appearance and figures of the mages surrounding Minerva were, joining that group was absolutely out of the question.

“Silence! Silence! What is all this commotion about!”

Then, a group of mages with solemn expressions appeared from afar.

Their faces were beautiful beyond words, and despite wearing loose robes, they were women with considerable figures, enough for the curves of their chests to be visible through them.

“I understand that you’re happy because the Crystal Scroll has actually been found! But even so, aren’t you ashamed to be engaging in such behavior?!”

As the newly appeared mages shouted several times, the commotion subsided slightly. The other mages who had been prostrating themselves before Minerva also subtly got up.

Of course, Minerva didn’t stop. Whether she used magic even in that dazed state, she was steadily walking through empty air.

“Mages have pride, and they have dignity! What the hell is all this behavior?!”

‘Wow, so there was a normal person among the mages after all-‘

“How dare you even think of prostrating yourselves before us, the elders! You ill-mannered brats! Can’t you follow the order?!”

‘….’

It seems like the point of their anger is severely misplaced.

As soon as I thought, ‘Are those people somewhat normal?’, the mages who had been scolding them prostrated themselves flat before Minerva. Mages were indeed all the same kind of people.

As I watched the chaotic scene in the Imperial Palace garden, where everyone was vying to be stepped on first, with pathetic eyes, I heard a voice from behind me, equally dumbfounded.

“What is that? Why are they all crazy? Did they take drugs or something?”

It was Aurora.

Behind her, the Knight Captains, wearing equally dumbfounded expressions, were following.

“Have you arrived, nim?”

“Yes, I have. I’m here, but. Aren’t those people over there Minerva-nim and the mages from the Magic Tower? Why are they acting like that in the middle of the night?”

“Indeed. I’m curious about that too.”

“Even though you went out with Minerva-nim and came back?”

“That’s true, but, does that seem related to understanding this?”

“……Sorry. My mistake.”

The sight of hundreds of women tangled together, bowing their heads to the floor, and trembling with strange moans every time Minerva stepped over them, could not be called pleasant to behold, even as a formality.

It felt more bizarre than erotic.

“It’s hard to watch any longer, so why don’t we move somewhere first? I will explain it afterwards.”

Since Aurora and the Knight Captains seemed extremely curious about what had happened outside, I offered to move locations. All five readily accepted.

As we moved further into the Imperial Palace, the sounds of chaos grew progressively fainter. As soon as we entered a room a suitable distance away, Aurora opened her mouth.

“So, what happened?”