There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 108

Le Guin shot up from his seat, demanding, “Dating is what you do before you get hitched, right? So, are you marrying that Nasar guy or what?”

“Marriage? Goodness… I don’t know about that yet.”

“‘Don’t know’ means you might! Do you like him? Why? What’s so good about him?”

Lexion intervened to stop his father’s barrage of questions.

“Now, now, calm down. Even families should respect each other’s privacy.”

“You stay out of this…”

“Ahem. A good father doesn’t meddle too much in his children’s love lives.”

“…Tch.”

Le Guin clamped his mouth shut, looking like he had a lot more to say.

“And that goes for good older brothers too,” Lexion added, making Cardin and Jeremiah flinch.

Philomell wasn’t sure why they were making such a fuss over her dating Nasar, but thanks to Lexion, things quieted down.

After exchanging a friendly look with him, Philomell spoke, “More importantly, let’s discuss Elencia. If this place is like the world in the game, what exactly is the novel she wrote?”

The four put their heads together, but no plausible theory emerged.

From the start, other worlds were veiled in mystery to them, making it hard even to imagine.

Cardin, roughly messing up his hair, exclaimed, “Why don’t we just peek into the princess’s memories again with that king’s bead!”

Lexion agreed.

“I concur. Phil, using the Eye of Truth seems like the only way to get to the truth right now.”

“Ah… that.”

Philomell scratched her cheek and pulled out the Eye of Truth from her pocket. The translucent bead had a crack in it.

“I noticed it was like this after using it once.”

She gave an awkward smile, then lowered her eyes.

“…Could it be because I hit her too hard?”

She was filled with regret. She meant to just tap her lightly, but seeing that blonde nape, she got a little personal and put some force into her arm.

“I never thought it would turn out like this.”

She wasn’t in a position to tell Le Guin not to cause trouble.

Jeremiah spoke to his dejected sister, “It’s okay. If something that’s supposed to be a sacred artifact broke because of your strength, that’s just weird. Or maybe that woman has a rock for a head.”

Lexion added, “The princess’s divine power probably caused that much impact on the sacred artifact.”

“Could that be? Aren’t they similar types of power?”

“Normally, that wouldn’t happen… but divine power is the power of the soul. It’s possible it changed when the soul changed. The altered divine power could have damaged the Eye of Truth.”

He stared at the cracked bead.

“In any case, it’s best to use the Eye of Truth carefully. At most, we can only use it once more.”

“Right. Elencia isn’t stupid; she’ll be wary of the Eye of Truth.”

It would be troublesome if she defended herself with her divine power like last time. That’s why Philomell only glimpsed a part of her memory and got bounced out.

‘I need to aim for when Elencia is completely defenseless.’

Thinking of that blonde nape, Philomell gently gripped the bead.

* * *

West Palace, the princess’s residence.

“Ugh, my head.”

Sitting down, Elencia rubbed the slightly swollen back of her head. It felt like a bump was forming. It was all because of that woman, Philomell.

Thinking about what happened last night made her grind her teeth. She got hit in the head, her memories were exposed, and she even had the book she wanted snatched away after finally getting her hands on it.

‘Philomell had it after all.’

The suspicion that might be in this world arose not long ago.

“To commemorate the novelization of our game, we’ve decided to distribute as a limited-time item in the game!”

A game official’s words, which she had casually dismissed at the time, suddenly came to mind.

‘ might be here too.’

This assumption immediately resolved the doubts she had harbored about Philomell.

Until then, she had only suspected Philomell of being a transmigrator; she hadn’t even considered . Since the person had changed, she naturally assumed she was a transmigrator like herself.

‘No wonder she never touched spicy food when we ate together.’

Even when she casually dropped things during their conversations that would have made a Korean person react, Philomell showed no particular response.

‘Instead, I just got pegged as the idiot who keeps saying weird things.’

The moment she thought of , she finally arrived at the answer: ‘Could Philomell just be a character who got her hands on the book?’ At the same time, she desperately wanted that book.

Because…

‘I can’t remember the game’s story!’

She vaguely remembered what the game’s story was like. She had only roughly played the game, looking at online guides.

She had encountered countless similar games, novels, and comics, so the contents were all mixed up in her head. She even got confused about the contents of the novel she had written herself.

‘I only put effort into the romance parts; I just copied the text from the game for the other parts!’

If she had come to this world with that book from the start, things wouldn’t have gotten so twisted.

‘I underestimated this game and Philomell too much.’

She had underestimated the game, thinking she could clear it with her eyes closed because she had easily played it using guides.

She also thought that if she just poked Philomell’s temper a little, she would quickly reveal her true colors and self-destruct like in the game.

Elencia clenched her fist.

‘This is the result.’

The Emperor’s favorability had been stagnant for some time.

Originally, he was a character whose favorability would skyrocket no matter which option you chose, providing basic favorability to beginners who had just started the game.

But for some reason, the Emperor she actually met kept trying to act like a parent, saying no to this and no to that.

“…How dare he.”

He was just a piece of data. He should be giving her favorability.

At that moment, the nanny, who was lying on the bed, nagged, “Princess, what have you been muttering about since earlier? It’s a bad habit. Correct it.”

“I know! I know!”

Elencia shouted and then bit her nails.

The nanny closed her mouth at the unexpected reaction.

Recently, her patience had reached its limit. The reason she had kept that damn old woman by her side, even making a grand vow, was to show the Emperor.

‘Look, your real daughter is me, not that fake!’

She thought that if the Emperor saw his daughter, who looked just like his wife, employing his wife’s nanny, he would realize something.

But the nanny, who had settled into the bed, constantly tormented Elencia. She couldn’t even rest comfortably in her own room.

“Father, I’ll take responsibility for the nanny! So please give her one more chance!”

She had already boldly said that to the Emperor, so she couldn’t kick the nanny out now.

Despite all her efforts, the Emperor still hadn’t come to his senses.

‘Just how did Philomell manage to win him over!’

Even more problematic than the Emperor were the male leads.

In contrast to the Emperor, whose favorability wouldn’t drop below a certain level because he was her father, their favorability scores were miserable.

Jeremiah didn’t even appear, and Nasar openly rejected her.

Nasar, in particular, was infuriating. She was the one who made him the most popular character in the game.

‘I managed to raise Killian’s favorability to some extent, though…’

As the man’s smooth face came to mind, Elencia opened her inventory window.

Killian and his father, Count Escal, were scheduled to visit the West Palace in a few hours. There were things she needed to prepare before welcoming them.

Soon, an item appeared in the window.

[Love Potion

Description:

When fed to a character, favorability increases randomly within a range of 1 to 10.

(Cannot be used on characters in the ‘Family’ category)

Usage Condition: Existing Favorability 30 or higher

Quantity: 0]

‘I should have stocked up when I went to the store yesterday.’

This game had a ridiculously small basic inventory space. To enjoy the game properly, users had to purchase paid items to expand their inventory.

‘This damn game! They’re just trying to suck money out of me!’

Elencia grumbled and headed to the bathroom.

The only consolation was that she could enter the store from anywhere through the system menu.

After one of the Elixirs of Wisdom disappeared before, she procured items from the store as needed.

However, a little later.

“Aaaaaah!”

Elencia screamed and ran out of the bathroom.

“Where did all my items go!”

Elencia’s body trembled as she paced around the room.

‘Who could it be? Was Philomell a transmigrator after all? Or is there a new transmigrator at this point?’

Trying to calm down, she desperately racked her brain.

All the items she could buy were sold out. The culprit’s favorability must be equal to or higher than hers.

‘If the favorability notification board still had the numbers, I could know exactly!’

Unfortunately, the notification board reset after a certain amount of time. It was also impossible to infer the favorability based on the items the culprit had purchased.

Elencia could only see the stock of items she could buy.

‘Calm down. There are only four characters whose favorability is displayed.’

Eustis, Nasar, Jeremiah, Killian. She knew who was receiving abnormal amounts of love from the Emperor and Nasar among them.

‘Philomell!’

There was no one else besides that woman who could gain more favorability from them than she could.

Besides, this happened right after she ran into Philomell yesterday.

‘There’s definitely a connection!’

Elencia immediately headed to the South Palace.