Senior, I've Come to Visit - Chapter 53

“Since you’re a smart person, I trust you won’t do anything foolish. Think about how to solve the fundamental problem you mentioned.”

“Yes.”

“You’ve worked hard. You may leave.”

At the queen’s gesture, I bowed politely and exited the receiving room.

“….”

One of the queen’s attendants, who had been waiting outside, followed behind me.

By the time I stepped out of the queen’s palace, it had already grown dark. The cool night air helped clear my dizzy thoughts a little.

It felt like an enormous number of things had happened during the short time I was in the receiving room.

“I know the way. I’ll walk alone.”

Even the presence of the queen’s attendant felt unpleasant, so I refused the escort, or surveillance.

“Yes, Wizard. Please get home safely.”

Only after I was alone did I finally release the breath I’d been holding.

Iella.

My mind was filled entirely with worries about Iella.

Iella, my brother-in-law, and Rubel.

The queen had three cards she could use to threaten me. Of course I worried for my brother-in-law and my niece Rubel, but the one who frightened me most was Iella.

Retracing my steps back toward the carriage, walking alone through the dark palace grounds, old memories kept surfacing. Memories of gathering herbs deep in the forest as a child and running into a demonic beast.

Back then, Iella had tried to lure the beast away to save me and ended up in danger because of me. And I abandoned her and ran. When she suffered a fatal wound from its sharp claws, she survived only because my magic manifested at that moment like a miracle. But that didn’t change the truth. I had been cowardly and weak.

Time passed and, as if fate were mocking me, Iella was in danger again because of me. And this time, her beloved family too.

Even though I’d bought myself a little time with an excuse, I couldn’t shake off the fear that the queen might go after Iella at any moment. The queen was someone I couldn’t trust at all. I had no idea when she’d strike behind my back. I’d come all this way to deliver the lactation-promoting potion I’d worked so hard on, only to be threatened into making a new poison. At this point, I even wondered whether the potion had just been a test.

This wasn’t good.

I had to go see Iella right away. Until I saw with my own eyes that she was safe, the fear wouldn’t leave me.

And Iella needed to know about the queen’s threat too. I didn’t want her to be frightened and anxious like I was, but she needed to know in order to prepare and protect herself.

“Haa….”

I was catching my breath, hurrying forward, when it happened.

I could see the area up ahead where the carriages waited, and in that moment, a figure made me stop dead in my tracks. Under the lamplight, standing tall beside a carriage.

Even from behind, I recognized instantly that it was Nardi.

“….”

Why is he here? How?

He wasn’t alone. He was speaking to someone in front of him, but his large frame blocked my view of the other person.

I kept walking quickly toward the carriage regardless. As I drew closer, I caught a glimpse of the person he was speaking to, and I was startled again.

Rocceni Ferretti.

A while ago, or what felt like a lifetime ago, I’d heard her name back in the cafeteria. Nardi and Rocceni. The two people whose names had been mentioned together were standing in the same place.

So they did know each other.

My already terrible mood hit rock bottom. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but why did it have to be right here, exactly where I was headed, as if on display?

“…You don’t even show up to gatherings anymore.”

It was Rocceni’s voice, the first time I’d heard it since graduation. I remembered it being colder, but now she sounded almost like she was pouting.

“I’ve been busy.”

Nardi’s voice, on the other hand, was colder than usual.

I didn’t bother hiding my footsteps as I approached. Hearing the sound, Nardi turned around.

“Senior!”

A bright smile spread across his face. Because someone else was present, he used the title “Senior.”

“What? She’s the one you said you were waiting for?”

Rocceni stepped forward and, noticing me, looked completely bewildered.

Had Nardi been waiting for me?

I told him not to come, but he came anyway.

“Why are you waiting for her and leaving together? Did you get close working on the same team?”

Her sharp voice made me instinctively glance around. No one else was nearby, but this was inside the palace. I had no idea where the queen’s eyes might be. I didn’t want anyone to see me interacting with others, and I was in a hurry, so I tried to walk past them. But Nardi blocked my path.

“I have something to discuss with Eloise. Please leave now.”

“Nardi!”

Rocceni shouted in shock, as if she never imagined he’d say something like that to her. She came to stand between us, looking back and forth at our faces. Her unpleasant gaze swept over me from head to toe before she asked:

“Why are you even in the palace? With what right are you here?”

“I had work.”

When I answered briefly and formally, Rocceni’s face twisted.

“Work? Do you think this is still the academy?”

She was scolding me for not using honorifics.

And she wasn’t wrong. Back at the academy, if we were the same year, even commoners didn’t use honorifics to nobles. But after graduation, that didn’t apply. I should’ve spoken politely. Since I didn’t, the noble lady was understandably offended.

“Oh, yes. I apologize.”

I replied mechanically, stripping away all emotion. But even that didn’t calm her. She glared at me as if she wanted to kill me.

“…A commoner acting all high and mighty.”

“What exactly do you think you’re doing right now?”

At that moment, Nardi spoke in a cold voice I’d never heard from him before. I thought it was my first time seeing him truly angry.

“Leave.”

“I was talking to you first!”

“I came here to meet Eloise.”

“You’re pushing me aside because of a commoner?”

Whoosh-

A barrier formed instantly, dividing us from Rocceni. Nardi had cast it to block her from coming closer. Was he responding to her rudeness with equal rudeness?

“What happened?”

Inside the dome-shaped barrier, he leaned toward me.

“….”

I turned my head to look through the barrier. From this side, we could see out, but from her side, she couldn’t see us. Rocceni Ferretti, her face frozen in shock, stood there trembling. Her expression twisted as if she were about to cry, then she spun around and ran in the opposite direction.

“Eloise.”

Nardi took hold of my forearms, and I looked up at him. He wasn’t giving even a glance beyond the barrier. His gaze remained fixed only on me.

“Your face is completely pale. Are you all right?”

“…I told you not to come.”

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to see you. I wasn’t even talking to her. She only came because she heard I was here.”

Ha.

Why did he have to come and make himself seen, pulling Rocceni in as well?

Moreover, even if Rocceni worked at the palace as a wizard, if she heard he was here and came running, the queen might have noticed Nardi’s arrival as well. For now, the barrier blocked sound and sight, so we wouldn’t be seen, but she might have already seen him before it went up.

“Don’t pay any attention to anything she said. She’s been a problem since long ago.”

Don’t pay attention, he said.

A commoner acting all high and mighty.

It wasn’t rare for me to be ignored or mocked for being a commoner.

Then why was I this angry?

If I’d heard it alone, I would’ve brushed it off easily. But hearing it right in front of Nardi, with him hearing it too, made me feel humiliated. My pride felt scraped raw, and heat rushed to my face.

Bad things really did come all at once. The queen’s threat, followed immediately by Rocceni’s insult, hit one after another.

I’d never felt dissatisfied with my own status. I’d never thought deeply about it at all. But today, everything felt unfair, and I felt small in a way I’d never experienced before.