There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 59

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* * *

That evening, in an alley near the Imperial Palace.

Clang!

Martien Sciennes gnashed his teeth and hurled the bottle to the ground.

“Damn it!”

He staggered down the deserted street, completely drunk.

Martien had just been stripped of his knighthood and kicked out of the Imperial Palace.

Princess Philomell—no, just Philomell—that woman had not only taken away his position as a guard knight but also exposed all his disloyal behavior.

“Damn it! I won’t let this go!”

Why should he suffer such humiliation? And from a girl who wasn’t even a real princess!

Having been expelled for disgraceful reasons, his life as a knight was over. No noble family would hire Martien.

His brother, Viscount Sciennes, would surely pretend not to know him. That was the way of noble families.

Martien ground his teeth, recalling Philomell’s cold face.

“When you think about it, that thing wasn’t even a noble.”

He seemed to recall hearing that her mother was a commoner who was close to the Empress. Her father was unknown.

“Her father must have been some bum she picked up somewhere! Obvious!”

So, a member of the Sciennes viscount family was humiliated by a lowly commoner girl!

He shouted hysterically.

“I’ll kill her!”

But at that moment, a chill ran down his spine. It was a creepy sensation, as if a bug was crawling up his body.

“Who’s there!”

His instantaneous awareness of a dangerous ‘something’ and his readiness was the last vestige of his knightly instincts.

There was a man at the end of the alley.

“Me?”

The man tilted his head and approached. Soon, his handsome face was revealed in the moonlight. His golden eyes shone brightly.

“Who, who are you?!”

Martien gripped the hilt of his sword tightly with a trembling hand.

He felt it instinctively. This man was different. He was a being of a completely different caliber.

The man chuckled in a low voice.

“Some bum she picked up somewhere.”

The man’s raised hand glowed.

In that instant, Martien sensed his death.

“Why, why are you doing this to me!”

“I don’t know, just because you’re annoying?”

Thus, Martien died without even having the chance to scream.

* * *

In the blood-soaked alley, Le Guin said without looking back.

“What brings you here, Jeremiah?”

Then Jeremiah appeared, quickly scanning his surroundings. A gruesome murder scene unfolded before his eyes.

“What about Phil? Aren’t you supposed to be her guard knight?”

Le Guin spoke in a slow voice.

“She’s with Cardin right now.”

“Ah, you left your sister to him and came to take care of this.”

Then Le Guin pointed to the figure that could no longer be called human.

“You’ve always been itching to kill trash. Too bad, I was a step faster this time.”

Jeremiah simply chuckled at Le Guin’s words.

Then and now, only Father would sugarcoat his twisted nature with the noble word ‘justice’.

“It’s fine. It doesn’t matter who cleans up that trash. I just came because I couldn’t shake off the image of him sneering at Philomell at the end, but it seems you were watching too.”

“Yeah. I can’t let someone like that dare to bother Phil.”

But there was another visitor to the alley.

“Ugh! What is this!”

Lexion, who popped out from around the corner, frowned at Martien’s corpse.

“You’ve made quite a mess. If you’re going to do it, do it neatly, so it’s easy to clean up.”

“You nag.”

“You keep making me nag, Le Guin. Why is there so much blood on you?”

Lexion didn’t stop grumbling as he walked, avoiding the pool of blood soaking the ground.

“Ah, I wish Jeremiah had found him first and taken care of him.”

Jeremiah would have ended his life in an instant. If it were him, he would have finished it perfectly and cleanly.

But Lexion was a human who aimed for positive thinking. At least it wasn’t Cardin. It’s a relief he didn’t destroy several buildings to get rid of one guy.

“Keep the access prevention magic up for about thirty minutes. That’s how long it will take to clean up.”

Lexion clicked his tongue lightly and said.

“I’m leaving. You guys take care of it.”

As Le Guin was about to use teleportation magic with a bored look, Lexion stopped him.

“Wait! Are you seriously going to Phil like that?”

“Is it a problem?”

“Of course, it is. What if she faints after seeing you covered in blood?”

Lexion sighed and continued.

“I told you before, right? Even if Phil isn’t entirely good-natured, her values are at a normal level. Please, let’s hide Le Guin’s true nature unless you want to be avoided, okay?”

At those words, Le Guin looked around at his attire.

“Then I should wash up and change my clothes before going.”

Then he muttered in a cheerful tone.

“Because I don’t want Phil to hate me yet.”

* * *

At that moment, at the state guest house.

Philomell was spending time with Cardin. Jeremiah had excused himself and left when Cardin came to visit, saying his work hours were over, so it was just the two of them.

‘Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Le Guin around for a while.’

Philomell tilted her head, but she decided to use this opportunity to get closer to Cardin.

Cardin was the only one among the four brothers that Philomell had never had a one-on-one conversation with.

‘He seems like a cheerful person, but…’

She would be seeing him for a while, so it wouldn’t hurt to get close to him.

But, contrary to her resolve, he was already looking at Philomell with honey dripping from his eyes.

‘……This is overwhelming.’

Swallowing hard, Philomell mustered her courage and asked.

“Um… Cardin… do you like me?”

“Yeah. I like you.”

Cardin answered without hesitation.

“Why do you like me?”

“Because you’re my sister?”

Philomell pressed her temple with her finger.

She had felt it before, but he seemed to have a fantasy about sisters—the prejudice that sisters are cute or have a lot of charm.

‘Is it because he has two dark [brooding or mysterious] brothers?’

If so, Philomell had to break his fantasy before he got disappointed.

“Well, I don’t know what Cardin thinks about sisters, but I’m not the cute type.”

Rather, the opposite.

Everyone described Philomell as a mature child.

In other words, she was like an old person.

“So, it’s better not to have any vain expectations.”

Cardin asked with a slightly gloomy expression.

“What do you mean? I’m not very smart, so I don’t understand unless you tell me easily.”

Was that difficult?

Philomell explained again.

“Um. I mean, I’m not a very good sister.”

Then Cardin, who had been thinking hard about something, asked Philomell a question.

“Do you want to hit me, Phil?”

“Huh? Why would I hit Cardin?”

“Then do you want to swear at me?”

“Not at all.”

“Don’t you want to freeze me?”

“…I can’t even do something like freezing, even if I wanted to.”

Then he laughed cheerfully.

“Really? You’re so nice! You’re a good sister after all. I like you. I like you.”

Somehow, Cardin’s criteria for being a good sister seemed quite lenient.

And it was easy to guess who made those criteria.

Anyway, if being a good sister was this easy, she would be able to get along with Cardin in the future.

Just don’t hit, don’t swear, and don’t freeze.

Feeling good, Philomell held out her hand to Cardin.

“Shall we shake hands?”

“Can I?”

“Of course.”

Cardin nervously wiped his hand on his clothes before taking Philomell’s hand.

It was a touch as if he was handling a fragile piece of porcelain—a delicacy that didn’t suit his rough hands, full of calluses and scars.

“I look forward to working with you.”

“Me too!”

Cardin, who had been overwhelming just a moment ago, now felt like a rambunctious large dog.

Philomell recalled the other three in turn. When she first met them, she thought they were all strange people, but after spending time with them, they weren’t so bad.

She felt that she could get along well with them in the future as well.