There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 106

“……What are you doing?”

At Philomel’s question, they noticed her presence.

“Phil!”

Le Guin rushed over and examined his daughter’s condition from head to toe.

“Are you hurt anywhere? Where have you been all this time?”

“I’m fine. Just a little tired.”

Only after confirming that Philomel was not under any magic did he finally relax.

Lexion asked,

“What on earth happened during the dozen or so minutes you disappeared?”

Philomel was startled and asked back,

“A dozen minutes? Not an hour?”

“A dozen minutes.”

It felt like she had spent at least an hour in the store.

As Philomel was choosing her words to explain the strange phenomenon she had experienced, Le Guin spoke first.

“You don’t look well. Let’s rest for now and talk tomorrow.”

Come to think of it, she didn’t hurt anywhere, but she was so tired that she wanted to collapse and sleep right away.

That was to be expected, as Philomel had been in a constant state of tension, from looking into Elencia’s memories as soon as she returned from her trip to going to the Starlight Shop.

For now, she decided to take a nap as Le Guin said and talk tomorrow.

The next morning.

Philomel was lost in thought, barely eating her breakfast.

“……What should I say?”

‘Actually, this world seems like the world in , and Elencia is the author who wrote the book. But the more I know, the more I doubt whether this world is really a world in a novel.’

‘The Starlight Shop I saw yesterday alone…… seemed closer to a role-playing game than a novel.’

Nancy had brought several types of board games for Philomel, who had recently become interested in dice games.

Among them were games in which participants each took on a virtual role and proceeded with a prepared story.

Recently, she had played a game with the four brothers in which they became a party of warriors and set out to defeat the Demon King.

‘Even there, I could go to the store and buy various magical tools.’

All she did was draw a card with a description of the magical tool and pay with fake money.

“This is, this is…… inside ‘The Returned Princess’s Heart-Pounding Palace Life’!”

Maybe the heart-pounding something that Elencia mentioned wasn’t a game in that world?

“Argh! This X-like game!”

“Profanity detected. Let’s create a healthy game culture through proper language use……”

In fact, the word ‘game’ appeared several times in their conversation.

‘Elencia wanted to hide it, but it seems like this is a world inside a game, not a novel.’

Philomel put down her fork and sighed deeply.

“Haa.”

Whether it was a novel or a game, it was still someone else’s creation.

‘This world is a creation?’

She just wanted to deny it.

She was clearly alive and breathing. She thought and acted entirely on her own will.

‘But I’m a character in a fictional story? No way!’

The scenery of the state guest house, the feel of the clothes, the taste of the food, the scent of the flowers carried on the wind. All of it was so vivid and real…….

But Philomel’s intuition was telling her. The strange objects she had brought with her were telling her.

‘It’s unnatural.’

No matter how Philomel felt, she had to tell Le Guin and her brothers what she had found out so far.

“I’d be lucky if they didn’t think I was crazy…….”

She came out of the bedroom, wondering how to bring up this absurd and bizarre story.

But she ran into an unexpected visitor.

“Nasar.”

“Lady Philomel!”

There was Nasar Averide, panting as if he had been running.

State guest house reception room.

After serving Nasar a cool glass of water, Philomel looked at his face.

‘He looks so haggard.’

His skin is rough. It wasn’t like Nasar, who was always perfect.

Even when he was traveling around the country looking for the missing Philomel, he looked better than this.

‘His eyes look a little swollen too……. Did he cry yesterday?’

Her heart grew heavy. No matter how she thought about it, if he cried, it was her fault.

It had already been almost a month since the two had broken off their engagement. Philomel didn’t think Nasar would be suffering for this long.

“Um, Nasar…….”

Just as Philomel was about to speak with a guilty conscience.

“Is your hand alright?”

Nasar, who had been staring at her right hand until then, said.

“Why my hand?”

“I belatedly heard the news that you punished Count Kelton’s son with your fist.”

“…….”

“If the power was enough to knock out several of his teeth, I was worried that your hand might be injured, so I couldn’t help but rush over.”

“Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I did that? When?”

“Yes? I heard it happened the day before yesterday…….”

If it was the day before yesterday, she was with Le Guin in the Central Plains. The person who was in the Imperial Palace instead was…….

Philomel looked at Jeremiah, who was standing by the door. He subtly avoided her gaze.

“Nasar, wait here for a moment. I’ll be right back.”

After asking for his understanding with a smiling face, she dragged Jeremiah out of the reception room.

Jeremiah confessed the truth after several questions.

“I tried to stop him. But Cardin did it on his own…….”

His explanation was this.

That day, Cardin was so frustrated with being stuck indoors that the two of them strolled around the Imperial Palace. Then they discovered Count Kelton’s son groping a maid’s butt.

Before Jeremiah could stop him, Cardin punched the young master in the face. Of course, in Philomel’s form.

Count Kelton’s son was slammed into the wall and fainted on the spot, and three of his teeth were knocked out. And several maids who witnessed the scene applauded.

It turned out that Count Kelton’s son was a habitual molester of maids.

The low-status maids couldn’t dare to report the Count’s son’s crimes and were only suffering in silence.

Philomel rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache coming on.

“No, it’s a good thing! It’s a really good thing!”

‘Why do it in front of everyone? You have to do it secretly.’

‘No wonder the maids looking at me yesterday and today had unusual eyes.’

Nancy also brought the meal with more sparkling eyes than usual. Still, she had done a righteous deed, so she decided not to blame Cardin or Jeremiah.

“Didn’t Count Kelton complain about anything?”

“Of course, he was furious because his only son was in tatters. But it was resolved well.”

“How?”

“The Emperor, who heard the news and came later, said this.”

“So, you’re saying that that bastard hit Philomel’s fist with his dirty face.”

Jeremiah muttered with a somewhat admiring face.

“It was an absurd claim, but since the Emperor said it, Count Kelton or whatever couldn’t argue.”

“…….”

“Anyway, thanks to that, Count Kelton couldn’t say a word and apologized for his son’s mistake and said he would give you half of his entire fortune.”

“Those things should be received by the suffering maids, not me.”

“Yeah. Cardin insisted on that, so in the end, the money was given to the victims under the name of compensation for mental damage.”

In addition, Count Kelton’s son was scheduled to be formally tried as soon as his injuries recovered.

Philomel was relieved. It was an unexpected situation, but it seemed to have passed somehow.

‘Except for my image……. What if someone asks about this?’

She had to make an excuse that she was secretly doing strength training.After roughly finishing the conversation with Jeremiah, Philomel returned to the reception room. Nasar was waiting patiently for her.

“Did you wait long?”

“No.”

Philomel held out her right hand, which Nasar was still staring at.

“Here, look. It’s fine, right? You don’t have to worry…….”

Her words stopped. Because he was holding her hand tightly and examining it.

Strangely, she was nervous. It wasn’t the first time she had held hands with Nasar.

The feel of the calluses from holding the sword bothered her.

“……Um, can you let go now?”

“Yes? Ah! I’m sorry.”

Only then did Nasar realize the situation, and he blushed and hurriedly let go of Philomel’s hand.

“…….”

“…….”

Even after sitting back down, an awkward silence flowed between the two.

‘This is all because of the favorability!’

Knowing that his favorability was as high as 94%, she kept being conscious of him.

At that time, Nasar’s figure flickered and shook.

‘Huh?’

Philomel rubbed her eyes.

Looking again, a red bar was floating above his head. Along with the number 94.

No matter how she looked at it, it seemed to indicate favorability.

‘Why is it suddenly visible when it hasn’t been visible until now?’

Moreover, the bar and numbers faded and deepened from time to time.

Suddenly, Nasar lowered his head powerlessly.

“I must look terrible, right?”

He seemed to be conscious of Philomel’s gaze in a bad way.

“That’s not true! You look great today, as always.”

“……Is that so?”

“Of course!”

In that moment, Philomel almost shouted, “Ah!” without realizing it.

‘95%’ Favorability increased.

‘Does it go up this easily?’

Philomel had only given him a compliment. Even that was a trivial compliment that he would have heard countless times.

Curiosity about favorability suddenly soared.

Philomel got up from her seat and approached Nasar. Then, she gently pinched his cheek.

The stretching cheek was so white and soft.

He asked with a lisp,

“Did I make some kind of mistake……?”

“No. I’m just being mean to Nasar for no reason.”

She answered honestly and glanced upwards.

‘96%’

It went up again! She wondered if it would be as easy to fall as it was to rise, so she did it.

At this point, Philomel became a little scared. Is it okay for favorability to rise so quickly?

‘What will happen when it reaches 100%?’