There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 78

“Aaaaaaah!”

“What is this!”

The passengers screamed, clinging to anything they could find on the boat.

Splash!

As the boat completely capsized, everyone tumbled into the water.

Chaos erupted among those nearby.

“Your Highness!”

“Are you alright?”

Ellencia thrashed wildly in the water.

“Help me! Someone help!”

But her cries for rescue quickly ceased. She realized the water only reached her waist.

The other young ladies who had fallen in with her were already wading to shore on their own.

To prevent accidents, the Imperial Palace lake was designed with a gradual slope from the edge to the center. The pier area was naturally shallow.

Still, with the Grand Princess having fallen into the water, everyone was in a frenzy.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Lexion approached Philomel, who hadn’t turned around.

“What happened?” she asked.

“It’s a security feature,” Lexion explained. “If you try to move the boat without someone registered as the owner, it will capsize.”

The pleasure boat that had dumped Ellencia and her group into the water righted itself as soon as all the passengers were gone.

“…You knew this would happen, didn’t you?”

It was a question of whether he had deliberately kept silent.

“Phil didn’t seem keen on riding it, and that princess was determined to, so I just expected this might happen,” Lexion replied indifferently.

“Why didn’t you warn me in advance?”

“There was definitely a manual included on the boat. Those who didn’t read it properly are over there. And more than anything… it’s amusing.”

He gave a fox-like smile.

Ellencia, looking like a drowned rat, was eventually carried back to her palace.

Later, she reportedly moaned about being sick, but a physician brought by the Emperor revealed she was faking it.

Philomel asked Lexion if the boat’s owner could be changed, but she received a negative answer.

Annoyed, she simply decided to keep the boat.

‘I’ll just buy a house with a lake later, I guess.’

For now, she had no choice but to keep it in the Imperial Palace lake.

* * *

There was one person who felt a sense of crisis upon hearing the news about the gift the Emperor had given Philomel: the Magic Tower Lord, Lguvin.

Moreover, he had recently learned about the vast wealth the Emperor had supposedly bestowed upon Philomel.

He also had plenty of money, but giving her money wouldn’t differentiate him from the Emperor.

After pondering for a while, Lguvin rummaged through his pockets.

A moment later, Lguvin approached Philomel, who was sitting at her desk reading a newspaper.

“Phil, look at this.”

He held out a book that looked ancient. The cover was entirely black.

Feeling a strange sense of foreboding, Philomel asked, “What is this?”

“It’s a grimoire [a textbook of magic], designated as forbidden. Your birthday was recently, right? It’s my gift.”

Philomel waved her hand. “It’s okay. What would I do with it, not being a mage? And doesn’t being designated as forbidden mean you shouldn’t look at it carelessly?”

Lguvin held the book closer to Philomel. “No, it’s very useful. Even if you’re not a mage, you can easily cast curses with this book.”

“…I don’t really want to curse anyone.”

But she was a little tempted, until she heard the following words.

“But the person who casts the curse also pays the price.”

“…Then what’s the point?”

“That’s what curses are. People are willing to harm themselves in order to harm others.”

“I still don’t want it.”

Jeremiah, who was watching, interjected. “You said you lost that book when I asked to borrow it for research.”

Lguvin said nonchalantly, “Did I? I guess I was too lazy to take it out.”

Jeremiah gritted his teeth, but Lguvin ignored him and put the book in his pocket.

‘How did that fit in there? Is there magic on the pocket?’

As Philomel stared curiously at his pocket, Lguvin took something else out of it.

“Ta-da! How about this? It’s a mandrake [a plant with a root resembling a human figure, believed to have magical properties].”

Philomel also knew about mandrakes. The stems and leaves were relatively ordinary, but the root was shaped like a small human.

“What do you mean, ‘How about it?’… It’s creepy.”

It was a precious plant with various effects, but its appearance was a bit much.

Lguvin explained proudly, “This isn’t just any mandrake. It’s a crazy mandrake that didn’t scream when it was uprooted.”

Come to think of it, mandrakes were known to scream horribly when uprooted. It was said that anyone who heard it would lose their life….

‘It is quiet.’

Philomel tilted her head. “Is it good if it doesn’t scream?”

“Of course. It’s not a well-known fact, but ordinary mandrakes are at best good sleeping pills, but this kind of mandrake can be used as an ingredient in a panacea [a remedy for all diseases]. When it screams, a lot of the good ingredients in the mandrake are used up.”

“…Oh, I see.”

“You don’t like this either?”

“I know it’s amazing, but it’s just that the way it looks is a bit….”

After that, Lguvin offered several other items as gifts, but each one was somehow off, making it difficult for Philomel to happily accept them.

Having taken everything out of his pockets, Lguvin scratched his head and disappeared to find something else.

Philomel said to Jeremiah, who was cleaning his sword, “Lguvin has a lot of strange things.”

“If you only consider their value, they’re all amazing. There are many things you can’t buy even with money.”

‘Should I have just taken them and sold them?’

Still, it seemed better for such precious things to go to someone who could make better use of them than herself.

Jeremiah said nonchalantly, “He thinks that if something is good for him, it will be good for others too, so he acts like that.”

“I see. So he was thinking of me in his own way.”

A warm breeze blew into Philomel’s heart.

She had only thought of Lguvin as the worst when she first met him, but as she spent time with him, she found that he had his good points.

He wasn’t like a father, but she felt a little closer to him.

Until recently, Philomel only thought that she had to get close to Lguvin because he was helpful to her, but these days she was less conscious of him than before.

Maybe it was because Lguvin had been in cat form for a long time. It also seemed to be because of his childish personality.

Sometimes Philomel herself wondered, ‘Am I not paying too much attention to him?’

Philomel decided to be a little nicer to Lguvin.

‘Next time, even if I don’t like the gift, I’ll pretend to be happy and accept it!’

But Philomel’s determination didn’t last long. That’s because Lguvin came back with an egg that was bigger than his own body as a gift.

“It’s a dragon egg. I brought it from a dragon lair.”

“Oh my gosh. Did you get permission?”

Lguvin answered nonchalantly in front of Philomel, who was so surprised her mouth dropped open.

“No. Would they have given permission?”

“How can you just take a dragon egg! Put it back quickly!”

“Don’t you want to raise a dragon?”

“I don’t! No, how can a human raise a dragon in the first place!”

“You like cats, though.”

Then Jeremiah, who was next to her, shouted, covering his forehead, “Are cats and dragons the same? Go back and return it right now!”

And so Lguvin went to return the dragon egg, and they barely managed to avoid the misfortune of an angry dragon coming to the Imperial Palace.

It seemed like she needed to rethink becoming closer to him.

But there were others who wanted to give Philomel gifts. One day, Lady Melinda and her friends visited the Southern Palace.

Melinda, who had finally persuaded her family, led two other young ladies to see Philomel.

Both of them had shown Philomel favor since she was a princess.

While having tea in the Southern Palace garden, Melinda brought up the topic first.

“The gift I prepared to give to Philomel… would it be okay to give it to you now?”

Then Lady Etoile, who was sitting next to her, expressed the same intention.

“If it’s not a bother, I’d like to as well. It’s a gift I chose carefully while thinking of Philomel.”

Lady Godrif also agreed.

“Me too! Ah, of course, if Philomel is uncomfortable, I can’t help it.”

The reason why the young ladies were so cautious was because Philomel had run away on her birthday, which was when they were originally going to give her the gifts.

The gifts they had prepared to give at the birthday banquet had not yet been delivered due to the sudden incident.

‘They’re worried about me, thinking that giving me the gifts will remind me of that time.’

Everyone was so kind. They were being considerate, worried that the memory of when she ran away would be a wound to her.

The topic of conversation was also filled with only everyday things. Philomel’s heart warmed.

‘I thought all the relationships I had while living as a princess were just illusions….’

These people, Countess Delles, Nassar, and maybe even Eustis, were sincerely thinking of Philomel.

It was a story she would never have known if she hadn’t returned to the Imperial Palace.

She wanted to continue to have a good relationship with them, at least until she left this place.

Philomel smiled brightly and replied to the young ladies, “Thank you. But if they’re things you prepared as gifts for the Grand Princess, they must all be incredibly expensive. Are you sure it’s okay to give them to me?”

Melinda exclaimed, “Of course! I’ll bring them when I visit next time.”

The others added a word each.

“Me too! Should we recommend it to the other young ladies as well?”

“If the number of people increases, it will become like a birthday banquet.”

A birthday banquet. The words gave Philomel a good idea.

When you think about it, it was Philomel’s first birthday as just Philomel, not as Grand Princess Philomel.

Although her real birthday had passed a long time ago, so what? The day she decided was her birthday.

Philomel said on the spur of the moment, “Then I’ll formally invite the young ladies to my birthday banquet. Since you’re giving me gifts, I should treat you properly. If there’s anyone else who wants to attend, please let me know by letter.”

And so, Philomel’s belated birthday banquet was held.