There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 21

* * *

Ding-dong.

The temple bells rang, announcing the evening hour.

There’s no time. I have to move as quickly as possible. I didn’t know when a search warrant for me would be issued, and the divine power contained in the ring was limited.

I wish the Emperor would turn a blind eye to Philomel’s escape, given all the affection she had built up over the years.

“…I guess that’s impossible, right?”

“Why would it be impossible! There’s no limit to the discounts at our store!”

I was startled by the answer to my quiet mumble.

“Pretty lady! Come in and take a look around. If there’s a hat that suits you, I’ll give you a big discount!”

The hat shop clerk was enthusiastically soliciting customers.

‘Pretty? Did she recognize my face?’

Before I knew it, my hand went to the ring.

Philomel was currently using one of the ring’s spells: the presence-erasing magic.

To others, her impression would remain vague, making it difficult to clearly recall Philomel later.

“The pretty lady over there, come and take a look!”

The middle-aged woman passing by laughed heartily at the clerk’s affability and entered the store.

He was saying it to every woman nearby. It was a relief that there wasn’t a problem with the magic.

“…A hat shop.”

Hats decorated with colorful feathers and artificial flowers adorned the hat brims inside the display case.

I didn’t have time to shop. I needed to find transportation to Angelium and a place to stay for the night as soon as possible.

But…

“I do need a hat to cover my face. A headscarf is a bit old-fashioned.”

Philomel justified herself as she entered the store.

The excited look couldn’t be hidden. She was experiencing an incredible sense of freedom for the first time in her life.

* * *

“Count Polan.”

“…Duke Averdeen.”

Nasar called out to Polan, who was walking quickly, stopping him.

“Have you received any new information?”

Nasar’s expression darkened as Polan shook his head.

It had already been a week since Princess Philomel disappeared. The Princess’s whereabouts were still unknown.

He had barely persuaded the Emperor, who didn’t want to leave Utina, to return to the capital, but there were no significant leads in the capital either.

Three days ago, they gave up the secret search and announced the Princess’s disappearance nationwide.

The whole country was turned upside down by the news that the only Princess had gone missing.

The Princess’s description was distributed throughout the country, and a huge reward was offered, but not a single strand of hair was found.

When they were dispatched after receiving reports of seeing the Princess, it was just someone who looked alike or the reporter’s mistake.

“Where could she be? We need to find her quickly…”

Nasar said with a worried expression. Looking closely, there were dark circles under his eyes. As the Princess’s fiancé, he must have been devastated.

I couldn’t forget the look in Nasar’s eyes when he came to Polan to ask for information sharing.

There was a sense of desperation that I couldn’t have imagined from the always upright Grand Duke.

These days, he was constantly traveling between the places where the Princess was reportedly seen and the capital, even leading the Duke’s knights.

“I know how you feel, Grand Duke, but take care of yourself. If someone else collapses again…”

“Has someone collapsed?”

I blurted out something I shouldn’t have.

“I, I feel like I’m about to collapse. There’s so much work to do.”

“Ah, I see. You must be having a hard time too, Count.”

Fortunately, Nasar didn’t seem to mind Polan’s excuse.

“I’ll be on my way then. Please let me know if you receive any information, no matter how small.”

“Are you going to a new place again?”

“Yes. I’m thinking of going to Saengen.”

“Why Saengen?”

“The Ring of Red Flames only allows the user to move to places they have been before. I visited Saengen with the Princess before. It’s just a guess, but… she might have gone there.”

Nasar quickly walked away.

“I must be tired too. I’m making these kinds of mistakes…”

Polan sighed as he walked to the Emperor’s office.

The search was a headache, but so were other things. Rumors were spreading rapidly that the girl who looked exactly like the Empress who appeared in the detached palace was the real Princess, and Princess Philomel was a fake.

Everyone I met subtly probed me about the rumors. Even if I dismissed them as baseless rumors, they all seemed convinced.

Something was wrong.

The rumors were spreading too quickly. Now, even ordinary people were saying that the Princess ran away because she was caught being a fake.

I tried to quell the rumors as much as possible, but Philomel’s portraits on the street were being treated like wanted posters.

Frankly, Polan couldn’t be sure if the rumors were all true. However, it was clear that the Emperor had not ordered her to be found to punish her.

What kind of monarch in the world would faint while trying to find a criminal to punish?

Just thinking about it made my heart sink even now. Justice had collapsed on the floor of his office.

“Your Majesty! Are you unwell?”

“…Be quiet.”

He soon regained consciousness at Polan’s shout, but it was a truly dizzying moment.

The reason he collapsed was the excessive use of divine power.

He said he had thinly drawn out his divine power like a spider web to detect his divine power emitted by the Ring of Red Flames.

I don’t know how far away the Princess was that he was using such a crude method.

I had never seen Justice pushed to his limit like that since his wife’s death. It was understandable, since his daughter had disappeared before the shock of encountering a girl who looked exactly like his wife had subsided.

Moreover, there were rumors that Princess Philomel, who he had thought was his own daughter, was a fake.

As I was thinking about this and that, I arrived in front of the office.

I could hear voices inside. A cute voice chattering away. Could it be Elencia?

As they returned to the capital from Utina, they couldn’t leave the girl who might be the Princess behind, so they brought Elencia with them.

The Emperor had met with the girl several times to confirm her identity, but he didn’t seem convinced.

“Your Majesty, it’s Polan. May I come in?”

“…Come in.”

In the office were Justice, Elencia, and an elderly woman. She was the Princess’s nanny a long time ago before being kicked out.

“Oh my! Your Majesty, this person is definitely Isabella’s daughter! She looks exactly like her when she was a girl.”

The nanny teared up and hugged Elencia tightly.

She was brought in to confirm whether Elencia was Empress Isabella’s daughter.

The Empress’s parents had passed away a long time ago, and her only sister was missing. So, the nanny was the only one who remembered the Empress’s childhood.

Elencia blinked and asked.

“Am I really the daughter of His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress?”

“Of course! Who else would be your daughter?”

“I’m so happy! I found the father I wanted to see!”

Elencia and the nanny hugged each other and smiled brightly.

In contrast, Justice, who was sitting a little further away, opened his mouth with a complicated expression.

“You quit when Philomel was nine years old, didn’t you?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The nanny answered sullenly, as if the topic of Philomel was uncomfortable.

“You took care of Philomel from the time she was a baby. A total of nine years. You took care of her.”

“That is so.”

Justice chuckled. With a face that didn’t look pleasant at all.

“But you’re accepting it so quickly. I still… can’t believe that my daughter isn’t my daughter.”

The atmosphere became quiet.

As everyone was watching the Emperor, the knights rushed in.

“Your Majesty. We have captured the woman you mentioned. She was discovered by an inspector while trying to cross the border gate adjacent to Utina.”

A brown-haired woman with her arms tied with ropes was thrown to the floor.

“Mom!”

Elencia ran to the woman after confirming her face.

“Mom, are you okay?”

Polan soon remembered who the woman was.

“Katrin Hounds.”

Justice got up from his seat and approached the woman.

“So it was you.”

The murderous intent that flowed out made the people in that place nervous.

“Ugh…”

The woman’s face was filled with fear when she saw the Emperor.

“Dad! Calm down. Mom…”

Justice instantly drew the sword of the knight next to him and pointed it at the woman’s neck.

“Dad!”

“Now, tell me. Did you really switch my daughter with your daughter?”

Katrin, who was trembling at the fierce momentum, opened her mouth after a long time.

“Y, yes. Elencia is Your Majesty’s daughter. Princess Philomel is… my daughter.”
Pusuk. The sound of flesh tearing and a chilling scream echoed.

“Aaaaaaack!”

The tip of the sword was embedded in Katrin’s hand, which was on the floor.

“Kyaaak! M, Mom!”

Polan grabbed Elencia’s arm, who was screaming, and pulled her out.

Considering Justice’s nature, Katrin would die in this place. But even if she was just a kidnapper, she was Elencia’s adoptive mother. Showing her dying in front of her eyes was cruel.

“Answer me. Why did you do it.”

“Aeuuuu.”

There was no way a person writhing in pain would have the 余裕 [room/capacity] to answer.

“Why did you repay Isabella’s grace with enmity? Have you forgotten how well Isabella treated you?”

“Keueu. Y, you…”

The face distorted with pain barely mouthed the words.

“…You! If you hadn’t ignored me! If Isabella hadn’t come down to my hometown! This wouldn’t have happened!”
The woman screamed as if the physical pain had made her forget her fear. It was hard to find the once witty young lady in her devilish appearance.

The Emperor silently pointed the blade at Katrin’s neck again.

“Dad! Please! Please don’t kill Mom!”

His daughter’s tearful appeal couldn’t stop the raised blade.

Polan covered the eyes of the struggling girl so that Elencia would not see the terrible scene.

However.

Changgaeng!

Instead of the expected death throes, there was the sound of metal hitting the floor.

Justice dropped his sword from his hand.

“…She looks like you.”

He muttered blankly, looking down at Katrin, who was trembling with fear.

“Why didn’t I know until now? That she looks like you.”

Then he turned and moved towards the door.

“Put her in prison.”

That was the disposition for Katrin.