There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 44

“Lexion!”

Philomel called out Lexion’s name with a joyful voice.

“It feels like it’s been ages, even though I saw you just the other day. Nice to see you, Phil.”

Lexion replied, his eyes crinkling into a smile. But Lexion wasn’t alone.

“Wow! So you’re Philomel?”

The brown-haired man accompanying him rushed over, full of excitement.

“And this person is…?”

Philomel asked, looking bewildered.

“Nice to meet you! My name is Cardin! I’m your first older brother! Well, technically, Lexion is the first, but you can just think of me as the first! I’m the most reliable of the brothers, you know! Wow, this is like a dream come true! I’ve been praying for a little sister since I was little, and my wish came true!”

The man who introduced himself as Cardin circled Philomel, rattling off words at a rapid pace. His green eyes sparkled.

“…Haha. Nice to meet you too.”

Faced with meeting four wealthy men, Philomel could only say that.

Eventually, Lexion and Cardin joined them, and the five of them sat around the table under the canopy.

“So, what brings all four of you here?”

“Didn’t Regin tell you?”

“What do you expect? He always leaves out the important stuff.”

“That’s true.”

Listening to Lexion and Cardin’s conversation, it seemed Regin wasn’t trusted by any of his three sons.

The untrusted father spoke up.

“Enough chatter. Introduce yourselves to Phil. You all have similar arrogant streaks, so it’ll be confusing to tell you apart.”

“Should we?”

With eyes, there was no need to worry about confusing these three unique brothers…

The first to start the introduction was Lexion.

Lexion took something out of his pocket and handed it to Philomel, saying,

“We’ve already exchanged names, but I’m Lexion. I work in the Magical Tool Management Department at the Magic Tower. Here’s my business card.”

“Ah, thank you.”

The small paper had Lexion’s name along with the title ‘Secretary to the Magic Tower Master & Chief Magician of the Magical Tool Management Department’.

Next, Cardin took over.

“I’m Cardin! I hope you’ll call me ‘oppa’ [an affectionate term for older brother in Korean] if you’re okay with it!”

“…I’ll try.”

Philomel replied with a lukewarm expression.

“You idiot. Introduce yourself, not your wishes.”

Jeremiah clicked his tongue from the side.

Cardin added with a good-natured laugh,

“I’m the second of these three brothers. For your information, this grumpy guy is my younger brother, Jeremiah. He has a bad temper, but if you get to know him, he’s secretly kind… Ack!”

Jeremiah stepped hard on Cardin’s foot, ending his lengthy self-introduction there.

Finally, Jeremiah briefly introduced himself.

“As you heard, I’m Jeremiah.”

After the three finished their introductions, Philomel asked them what she had been wondering all along.

“So, what brings you three here? And how did you even get into the maze garden?”

Lexion answered on behalf of them.

“First, to answer how we got in, we simply climbed over the wall.”

“…Excuse me?”

That was not simple at all.

The maze walls made of bushes were more than two heads taller than an adult male. Even if you were athletic, no sane person would even think about climbing over them.

‘Besides, this is the Imperial Family’s garden.’

Who wants to end up cleaning up a corpse after trespassing?

Lexion continued.

“As for the purpose of coming to the Imperial Palace… I’d say it’s to become a court magician?”

“Court magician…?”

The conversation Philomel had with Nasir a little while ago naturally came to her mind.

Come to think of it, he said he was accompanied by three magicians who were applying to be court magicians. And coincidentally, the number of brothers she just met was the same.

No…

‘It wasn’t a coincidence.’

The magicians who accompanied Nasir to the capital were these three.

“Originally, all three of us were planning to apply, but Jeremiah refused.”

“Why would I do something like that? I didn’t even want to come here in the first place. I returned to the Magic Tower because it was an emergency, but they just dragged me along.”

Cardin slammed the table and shouted at Jeremiah’s grumbling.

“Your sister! Appeared, and what else is an emergency! I’ve always dreamed of having a younger sister! So I ran over while I was taking down a Great Wyvern [a powerful dragon-like creature], but I don’t regret it at all!”

Regin covered his ears with his fingers and complained.

“Ugh, it’s so loud. Someone shut him up.”

“It’s impossible voluntarily. Or we wouldn’t have reinforced the Magic Tower’s soundproofing walls.”

Lexion replied nonchalantly.

Whoaaaa!

Eventually, Cardin stopped talking only after being hit in the mouth by the light emanating from Regin’s hand.

“It’s quiet now.”

“Mmph.”

Cardin, who was bound not only in the mouth but also all over his body by the string of light, rolled on the floor, whimpering.

Jeremiah, who was looking down at his brother with a pathetic look, said,

“Lexion. So, how did the interview go?”

“I passed, of course. Cardin barely made it.”

“For them to pass that idiot, the court magicians must be blind.”

“I honestly thought Cardin would fail when he grabbed the interviewer by the collar. Fortunately, the communication stone position requires low qualifications.”

“The son and disciple of the Magic Tower Master is just supplying magic power to the communication stone. If this gets out, Regin’s status will plummet.”

“It’s already at the bottom, is there anywhere else to fall?”

Whoaaaa!

“Interesting. Tell me more.”

As the same light as before flowed from Regin’s hand, the two shut their mouths.

Philomel was somewhat confused.

It was hard to believe that they simply came to the Imperial Palace because they wanted a job.

But why?

“…Anyway, congratulations on achieving what you wanted. I’m glad I got to see all three of your faces too.”

Philomel suppressed her confused feelings and rattled off insincere greetings.

Lexion replied calmly.

“Now that we’ve seen Phil’s face, we’ve achieved our initial goal. We became court magicians to meet you, after all.”

“Mmph! Mmph!”

Cardin, who was rolling on the floor, somehow managed to crawl over and made a sound as if agreeing.

“Excuse me? Wait a minute. What does meeting me have to do with becoming a court magician?”

“Actually, it started with a small misunderstanding.”

Lexion calmly began to explain without even looking at Cardin.

“We heard rumors that Phil was caught by the security forces and taken to the capital, so we thought you were being forcibly taken away as a criminal without a doubt.”

“Mmph!”

Cardin made another sound as if agreeing.

“Regin went to see you first, but we couldn’t enter this place with teleportation magic because of the barrier. So, we were pretending to be applicants to become court magicians to get in.”

“How annoying. You could have just left it to Regin.”

“How can we trust Regin to send you alone to the heart of the empire?”

He responded to Jeremiah’s complaint and continued.

“And this morning, we learned from Regin’s communication that you were doing well without being imprisoned in the prison. It was a bit different from what we expected… but we decided to take the interview since we came all the way here.”

Philomel, who had been listening to their story, raised a question.

“I could have met you if you had just requested an audience.”

Considering Nasir’s visit today, Philomel wasn’t exactly forbidden from meeting with outsiders.

Lexion chuckled and held up two fingers.

“There are two reasons why we bothered to become court magicians.”

“What are they?”

“We had two scenarios in mind. The first is if you wanted to leave this place but couldn’t. In that case, it’s easier to get you out if we become insiders.”

“What’s the second?”

“It’s when you want to stay here of your own will. The Imperial Palace isn’t a place where you can enter and exit as you please, and we can only see your face often if we become court magicians.”

“Mmph!”

“Cardin seems to feel the same way.”

Looking at their smiling faces, Philomel was dumbfounded.

She couldn’t understand that they became court magicians for such a reason. She and they were siblings, but they had only known each other for a few days. And she had never met Cardin before.

“What if I said I was going straight to the Magic Tower?”

Philomel asked in a trembling voice.

“We’d have to write a resignation letter one day after getting the job, I guess.”

The dream job that many magicians longed for suddenly seemed pathetic.