There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 11

* * *

Time flew by, and Philomell turned ten. As usual, she was spending time with Nasar, who had come to visit her.

Nasar suddenly asked,

“Does Your Highness perhaps dislike me?”

Philomell, who had been reading a book, looked up in surprise at Nasar, who was sitting across from her.

“What? Of course not. That’s not true.”

However, the boy’s dark expression did not lighten.

“…Did you perhaps hear the conversation I had with my father back then?”

The ‘back then’ Nasar was referring to was the day he came to visit her with his father. And the day Philomell decided to give up on her feelings for him.

When Philomell remained silent, Nasar stood up and knelt on one knee on the floor.

“I apologize.”

“Nasar! Get up!”

Philomell was startled and reached out her hand.

“No. I will beg for forgiveness until Your Highness is appeased.”

But Nasar resolutely kept his head bowed.

Philomell said cautiously,

“It’s not something Nasar needs to apologize to me for. It’s not like you were badmouthing me behind my back, and it wasn’t something you said on purpose for me to hear, so it’s okay. I just happened to overhear it.”

“…The problem is that I harbored such thoughts in the first place.”

‘This is awkward,’ Philomell thought.

It wasn’t that Philomell disliked Nasar.

Of course, she had resented him at the time. But after some time, the resentment faded away.

“How can you do that? It’s not like I can control my own heart.”

Philomell sincerely thought so. His love was not something she could have just because she desperately wanted it, and even if he couldn’t love her, it wasn’t his fault.

But Nasar stubbornly refused to get up.

“I must even control my heart. So, it is my fault for harboring wicked thoughts.”

Philomell felt a little sorry for Nasar.

‘How much did the Duke push him to be like this?’

The Duke of Averide was famous for educating his son very harshly. Academics, swordsmanship. It seemed the Duke pushed him even harder because there was nothing Nasar couldn’t do if he was told to.

Philomell herself had begun to understand Nasar’s difficulties a little more as she began to take heir lessons in earnest.

The shoulders of Nasar, kneeling before her, looked particularly small.

The tearful boy pleaded.

“If there is anything else about me that Your Highness finds displeasing, please let me know. I was born to serve Your Highness, so if you just tell me, I will fix it.”

Philomell couldn’t stand it any longer and shouted,

“Why is Nasar someone who was born to serve me? Nasar is just Nasar!”

“But my father always said that I should serve Your Highness with that mindset……”

It seemed that this young boy had been educated to be the Princess’s partner since a very young age, to the point of brainwashing.

‘Duke! What did you do to your son!’

Philomell grabbed her forehead.

‘If he’s so hung up on me like this and then finds out later that I’m not the Princess, won’t he resent me for no reason?’

She couldn’t leave Nasar in this state.

“Nasar, sit here.”

Philomell said firmly, and the dejected boy obediently followed.

“Repeat after me.”

“Yes?”

“Just repeat what I say, exactly as I say it.”

“I understand.”

“I am a precious person.”

Nasar hesitated and repeated.

“……I am a precious person.”

“I am not a being born for someone else.”

“……I am not a being born for someone else.”

“I will live as my heart desires.”

“I will……”

The boy’s voice, which seemed to fade away, burst out after a moment.

“Live as my heart desires.”

He was the heir to the Dukedom and would eventually marry Princess Ellensia, but Philomell still wanted him to live his own life.

“That was good. Let’s keep doing this.”

“Yes!”

And so, the brainwashing reversal, which even Philomell doubted would be effective, continued for a while.

When the promised time passed, it was time for Nasar to return.

“Then, Your Highness… I will take my leave now.”

Nasar hesitated and said goodbye. But somehow, he didn’t seem to want to go back very much.

‘Is the Duke going to make him do this and that as soon as he gets back?’

Philomell felt sorry for him, who was acting like a puppy who hadn’t eaten, so she stopped Nasar from leaving.

“Nasar, have dinner with me today before you go.”

“…May I?”

“Of course. I’ll let the Duke know. And Nasar.”

“Yes.”

“In the future, if the Duke says anything that contradicts what we repeatedly said together today… just ignore it.”

“……I will try.”

“If he says something really ridiculous, tell me. I’ll scold the Duke.”

Nasar chuckled, thinking it was a joke.

“It’s not a joke. I can really scold the Duke.”

At least as long as the Duke knew Philomell was the Princess.

That day, Nasar ate dinner and chatted with Philomell before returning home.

Nasar shyly confessed that he wanted to become a hero, not a Duke, when he grew up. The Duke would never let his precious son go off to defeat monsters, but Philomell cheered him on.

It was a time when she felt like she had learned a little about the boy ‘Nasar,’ not the male protagonist in the book, not the Duke of Averide.

‘Okay. This is enough.’

Philomell thought as she watched Nasar leave, waving her hand.

There was no need to be any closer to Nasar than necessary, but there was no need to be on bad terms with him either.

“We can just keep things as they are.”

Everything was peaceful.

* * *

That night, after Nasar returned.

Philomell took and approached the fireplace with the fire burning.

“I’ve memorized the contents……”

In the meantime, Philomell had read, read, and reread this book.

Just in case, she changed the important contents into encrypted phrases and left them in other places separately. Not just in one place, but scattered here and there.

There was no longer any need to keep dangerously. It was time to destroy the only evidence.

This book was too dangerous. Somehow, the maid who cleaned the room hadn’t found out about the book’s existence, but there was no guarantee that would continue to be the case.

“Here goes!”

Philomell hesitated, looking back and forth between the fireplace and the book, then closed her eyes and threw the book into the fire.

Whoosh.

The paper burned down and turned to ashes without leaving a trace. But at that moment, an anomaly occurred. A beam of light spread across the floor right in front of the fireplace, and appeared. In perfect condition, without even a speck of soot.

Philomell was so surprised that she just stared blankly at the book on the floor.

* * *

The next day, Philomell visited the Imperial Magic Research Institute, located in the Magic Tower building.

“Here’s your tea.”

The magician, Humphrey, placed a cup of warm tea in front of the Princess.

“Thank you.”

Philomell, wearing a cute cape, replied cheerfully.

He watched the young Princess drink her tea with a satisfied smile.

Humphrey was a magician who was introduced to Philomell after she told Count Polan that she was curious about magic. He was originally a talented person in the Magic Tower, but he had recently changed jobs.

“Your Highness, so what are you curious about? I will tell you as much as I know.”

“I read in a book that there is such magic……”

Philomell deliberately gave examples of fantastical magic from fairy tales that a child would be easily fascinated by, and poured out questions. It was a disguise to hide what she was really curious about.

“It seems that the author of the book exaggerated it……”

Humphrey answered with all his heart.

After some time had passed exchanging questions and answers, Philomell casually brought up the topic she was most curious about.

“It would be really nice to have a book that tells you the future at times like this!”

“Are you talking about a book of prophecy?”

“Yes! Now that I think about it, I’ve only heard rumors about books of prophecy, but do such books actually exist?”

Humphrey rubbed his chin and carefully chose his words.

“You could say they exist, and you could also say they don’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, isn’t what people usually call a book of prophecy a book that accurately records what will happen in the future?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“But that’s impossible both theoretically and realistically.”

‘Impossible?’

Philomell’s expression frowned on its own.

“You look disappointed. But it’s true. The future that a magician predicts with magic is just a facet of countless possibilities.”

“What about the priests?”

Philomell asked, unable to let go of her lingering feelings.

“The prophecies of priests are the same. In fact, even the prophecies made by the High Priest are about 30% off. In fact, it’s hard to say that the remaining 70% are completely correct.”

He passionately explained.

“Most prophecies just spout vague words and then, when a plausible result comes out later, they claim that it has been realized. It’s like putting on earrings if it’s on the ear, and putting on a nose ring if it’s on the nose. The temple is unnecessarily conservative……”

Oops.

Humphrey covered his mouth with a startled look.

“Oh, I’m definitely not questioning the existence of God. I tend to go a little too far when I talk about magic……”

“So, what Humphrey is saying is that there is no such thing as a book of prophecy?”

“That’s right. Most of the books that are touted as books of prophecy on the market are mostly nonsense. Only a very small portion of them are books in which priests or magicians have written down the possibilities they have glimpsed. How can anyone know the future for sure unless they are God?”

But Philomell already knew such a book.

‘Then what is that book’s identity?’

Philomell pursed her lips tightly.