There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 112

The culprit appeared in the councilor’s office with perfect timing.

“Philomell!”

The court physician smiled happily upon seeing the new visitor.

“It’s been a while. How is your stomach that was bothering you back then?”

“Don’t tease me for no reason. You know it was just a feigned illness.”

After exchanging light greetings, they looked at Elencia.

“Philomell was the first to notice Sansalcho as a potential treatment for Martian disease.”

Philomell shook her head at the court physician’s words.

“I simply gave advice to the physician from Elita that the court physician introduced to me.”

“Both my friend and I still wonder why Philomell was so interested in Martian disease so early on. Every time we ask, you just give us an enigmatic smile.”

“It just happened by chance.”

“Then how did you find out about Sansalcho?”

“I saw it in a dream.”

“She’s always like this.”

‘Saw it in a dream,’ my foot!

Unable to listen to that annoying conversation any longer, Elencia grabbed Philomell’s arm and left the councilor’s office.

Philomell obediently followed until they reached a secluded place, then she smacked Elencia’s hand away.

Elencia, burning with anger, shouted.

“Why did you mention Sansalcho already!”

“Because it’s to make a cure.”

“Does that make sense?”

“Why not? I don’t understand why you thought I, who read , would just sit still until now.”

“There’s no benefit to you if the cure comes out early!”

“Isn’t saving many lives a benefit?”

Elencia fell silent.

“Shall I tell you what you’re thinking? You probably expected me to do nothing until the disease completely spread throughout the country, because that’s what you originally intended to do.”

That’s right. That’s why she planned to make the first move before Philomell stepped in.

Philomell stared at Elencia with contempt.

“I’ve realized for sure with this. You don’t see the people of this world as fellow human beings.”

“……!”

“Even if thousands, tens of thousands of people died, you wouldn’t have revealed Sansalcho. Not until the moment came when you could be the greatest savior.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“If it’s not, then answer me. Why did you try to monopolize Sansalcho?”

“That’s also to make some money…….”

“You were going to act like a savior and make the people get the cure only through you.”

“That’s not it! Then what about you? You bought Sansalcho too……!”

Huh? Come to think of it, that’s strange.

Even though she knew that enough Sansalcho was secured for the cure, Philomell bought Sansalcho through the Hounds Merchant Group.

Seeing that move, Elencia was convinced that Philomell was aiming for the same thing as her.

“Why, why did you buy Sansalcho? To make me misunderstand?”

“Well, that’s one of the reasons…….”

Philomell smiled like a villain.

“I just thought I’d help the Hounds Merchant Group make some money on the side.”

“……What?”

“I expected that if I bought it, you would hand over more money and divert our Sansalcho, and I was right.”

Elencia was speechless.

‘That can’t be. It can’t be. This can’t be happening.’

She desperately tried to deny it, but the reality unfolding before her eyes did not change.

Leaving the dumbfounded Elencia behind, Philomell turned around.

“At least if you had done a more thorough investigation, you would have noticed that the epidemic was subsiding.”

Then she snorted and scoffed.

“Blindly trusting the game and is your downfall.”

The sound of that sneer lingered in Elencia’s ears for a long time. Sharp fingernails dug into the tender flesh of her palm.

Returning to the Southern Palace, Philomell asked Le Guin, who was beside her.

“Um, was I too provocative?”

Elencia’s fiercely distorted face was vivid in her mind.

Her original goal was to provoke that woman as much as possible, but she was worried that she might have gone too far just now.

Le Guin, who was there in cat form, shook his head.

“It was perfect. Seeing that contemptuous look, she was indeed my daughter.”

“……I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“More importantly, when did you take care of the cure?”

“Before I ran away. I thought I should do that much before leaving.”

Around the time when Martian disease began to break out collectively in Elita, Philomell asked the court physician to introduce her to a local doctor.

‘Well, all I did was suggest using Sansalcho for treatment.’

The doctor from Elita, who was a colleague of the court physician, was initially taken aback by the intervention of a foreign princess.

However, just in case, he administered Sansalcho to the patient, and it actually showed improvement.

After quite a long period of research, he and his colleagues succeeded in developing a cure.

The recipe for the cure was not written in detail in , so the local medical staff had no choice but to figure out the rest.

Over the communication stone [a magical device for long-distance communication], he expressed his deep gratitude, saying:

“Everything is thanks to Her Highness the Princess! I will report this fact to our King and ask him to reward you at the national level.”

She was grateful for his heart, but Philomell dissuaded him.

At the time, she was planning to run away soon, so she didn’t want to waste time on other things.

‘Above all, I didn’t have anything to say when people asked how I knew about Sansalcho.’

It was easier to cover it up than to do good and raise unnecessary suspicions.

Thus, the fact that Philomell was involved in this matter remained a secret known only to a few people. It was a truly rewarding experience.

Many lives that would have been sacrificed according to the contents of the book were saved by her small actions.

Ruth, Melinda’s mother, was one of them. She contracted the disease while visiting relatives in Elita.

Melinda was still grateful to Philomell for introducing her to that doctor back then.

The Emperor also briefly said one day when he had tea time with her.

“I’m proud of you.”

There was no other mention of it, perhaps because Philomell wanted to hide it. Thinking of Eustis, she felt inexplicably overwhelmed.

‘I don’t know how to treat him when I see him next time.’

She had felt for some time that he cared for her more than she thought, but she didn’t know he valued her more closely than Elencia. Although the current Elencia is fake.

To be honest, she had mixed feelings.

Half of her felt, ‘What’s the point of knowing now?’ and the other half felt, ‘Still…….’

Philomell organized the situation to shake off unnecessary thoughts.

“In a nutshell, Elencia went to great lengths to make a cure that already exists.”

In addition, the Hounds Merchant Group’s funds became ample at this opportunity. Thanks to the Escal family’s wealth.

At that time, Jeremiah, who had been out, came into the room. He had been away for a while because a communication had come from the Magic Tower.

“The human wearing the mask of the Princess seems to have run out of patience.”

“Why?”

“I heard that she’s looking for a magician named ‘Jeremiah’ through the Magic Tower.”

“……She’s desperate to raise her favorability [a measure of how much someone likes or trusts her].”

The only reason Elencia would look for Jeremiah was that.

“I didn’t know it was her before because she was looking for me anonymously, but now she’s revealing her identity and looking for me.”

“Has anyone looked for Jeremiah before?”

“Yes. Since I came here, someone has been offering a high price to hire me.”

“I didn’t know that. But why didn’t you go?”

“I was offended that they were trying to buy me with money…… and they were looking for something called Ice or whatever.”

Flames flickered in Jeremiah’s eyes as he said ‘Ice or whatever.’

In Philomell’s eyes, the latter was the main reason. Unfortunately for Elencia, the Jeremiah she was desperately searching for was very close by. She didn’t recognize him even when he was right in front of her because of the transformation necklace.

Jeremiah sighed and swept back his hair.

“Geez, favorability. I can’t believe I have such a troublesome thing attached to me.”

Philomell inadvertently checked the favorability rating floating above his head.

‘89%’

It had risen by 1% from the figure she had checked at the store.

Jeremiah frowned, noticing her gaze.

“Can you see it again?”

“Yes. I couldn’t see it for a while, but suddenly I can see it again.”

Moreover, the shape was constantly flickering.

“What is it?”

“73.”

He looked relieved, saying, ‘That’s more like it.’

At first, when Philomell told him the truth about the numbers, Jeremiah got angry, saying that couldn’t be true. Because of that, she had no choice but to gloss over it and say the numbers were lower as a joke.

‘He seems embarrassed, so I’ll have to keep lying for the time being.’

Philomell secretly resolved.

After that, the three of them had a leisurely time eating snacks.

“Le Guin, don’t eat snacks while lying down. You’re dropping them on the floor.”

“I’ll clean it all up with magic later. Mind your own business.”

“I’m saying it because I can’t stand to watch.”

“Then turn your eyes elsewhere.”

“Why are you both like this.”

Philomell familiarly stopped the two from bickering and looked at Le Guin, asking a question to change the subject.

“Come to think of it, you’ve been going out a lot lately.”

“Yeah. I have some business to take care of.”

She was a little curious about what that business was, but she didn’t ask.

‘He must have his privacy.’

However, the family’s peaceful moment was broken by Nancy’s voice.

“Young Duke Averide has arrived.”

Nasar had come to visit.