There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 93

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The two immediately put their plan into action.

Philomel decided to go directly to Elencia’s hometown.

Le Guin offered to go alone, but Philomel felt guilty leaving everything to him since it was, in a way, her responsibility.

‘I also want to see the house where Elencia and Katrin lived one more time,’ she thought.

Jeremiah remained at the state guest house to see them off.

“Tch, I’m getting restless just staying here,” he complained, but someone had to stay behind to maintain appearances.

Philomel looked at him and said, “I’m sorry. If someone comes looking for me, deal with them appropriately and send them away. The doll can’t talk, so Jeremiah has to convey my intentions.”

Next to Jeremiah stood a doll that looked exactly like Philomel.

It was a doll created by Le Guin using magic. It was virtually indistinguishable from a real human in appearance and could even mimic simple movements.

The only limitation was its inability to speak.

That’s why it needed Jeremiah’s assistance.

Jeremiah grumbled. “Okay, hurry back. Le Guin doesn’t need to come along.”

“You rude brat.”

“Why are you two fighting again? Alright, let’s go. Jeremiah, I’ll buy you all the sweets you want!”

Whoosh!

In an instant, a bright light enveloped them.

When they opened their eyes, they found themselves in the mountains.

Le Guin frowned, surveying the trees. “Did we arrive at the wrong location? I don’t see any houses.”

Since this was a place he had never visited before, he had relied on the coordinates on the map to execute the teleportation magic.

However, rural villages like Elencia’s hometown often had discrepancies between their mapped locations and their actual positions.

Philomel unfolded the Utina region map she had brought.

“We shouldn’t be too far off. Let’s walk a bit.”

“Should I just carry you and fly? We could scout from the air.”

“You can fly?”

“Of course.”

While Philomel and Le Guin were discussing their options, they heard a commotion nearby.

The two quietly moved towards the sound, as if by unspoken agreement.

Various items were scattered on the ground, surrounded by about half a dozen young men. Judging by their rough appearance and behavior, it didn’t seem like an ordinary gathering.

The two concealed themselves in the bushes and observed what they were doing.

A man holding a teddy bear said nonchalantly, “Hey, there’s nothing here worth any money.”

The man who was opening a pot lid replied, “Hey, you’re the one who took the only ring left in the jewelry box. Give it back if you don’t want trouble.”

“Hey, possession is nine-tenths of the law. Besides, for a house where a princess supposedly lived, there’s nothing of real value.”

…A house where a princess lived?

Another person, examining cosmetic bottles, responded to the teddy bear man. “Hey, this is all treasure.”

The teddy bear man looked puzzled. “How is this treasure?”

“You idiot. The new princess, Elencia, is the most talked-about person in the empire these days.”

“So what?”

“Try advertising that these are the cosmetics used by the princess when she lived as a commoner. They’ll sell like hotcakes.”

“They’ll really sell that well? It’s just junk.”

“Anything that belonged to a famous person will sell, even if it’s trash.”

The pot man added, “I still can’t believe Elencia is a princess. It feels like just yesterday she was running around the neighborhood.”

The cosmetics man grinned slyly. “Besides, Elencia was really pretty. There are perverts who would pay a fortune for the belongings of a pretty woman.”

The teddy bear man cheered. “Wow, then this is all treasure! Let’s go back to that house and get more!”

The pot man chuckled. “What’s left? We searched through the trash cans and swept everything clean.”

At that moment, the man who had been silently rummaging through the pile of books shouted, “Oh! This is a jackpot!”

“Why, what is it?”

The man held up a pink notebook.

“It looks like a diary!”

“Whose?”

“Look at this childish drawing on the cover. Would Aunt Katrin have written this? It’s obviously Elencia’s.”

The other men’s faces immediately lit up.

“Really?”

“This has the highest collectible value of all this stuff.”

“How much would it sell for?”

“You know we’ll all share the money equally, right?”

“Are you crazy! I found it!”

Philomel watched the group of men, their atmosphere growing increasingly tense as if a fight was about to erupt, and thought, ‘This saves me the trouble of finding the diary myself.’

A faint light emanated from Le Guin’s hand.

“Shall I take care of them?”

“They’re bad guys, but… please don’t kill them.”

Le Guin pushed through the bushes and stepped in front of them. The men, caught red-handed, shouted.

“Wh, who are you!”

“Are you after this too!”

“We called dibs first!”

“If you’re an outsider, get lost!”

Whoosh!

The men who rushed at them fell to the ground in the blink of an eye.

Le Guin took the diary from the arms of a man who was twitching, the whites of his eyes showing.

He handed the diary to Philomel and said, “One guy ran away. He didn’t attack me; he just ran from the start. Should I bring him back?”

Philomel brushed the dirt off the diary and replied, “Leave him alone. We didn’t come here to play vigilante.”

Right now, the priority was to examine the contents of this diary.

A pink diary with a cute bear drawn on the cover.

Could Elencia’s secret really be written inside?

Philomel sat on a nearby rock, her heart pounding as she opened the diary.

‘First, let’s start from the first page.’

Elencia’s first diary entry was written about three years ago.

[Month o, day x, sunny. Mom bought me a cute diary. I’m going to write in it every day from now on!]

The next diary entry was dated a week later.

[Month o, day x, sunny. I forgot to write in my diary. From tomorrow, I’ll really, really write in it every day!]

And a month later.

[Month o, day x, cloudy. I decided to just write in my diary whenever I feel like it. Today, Mom made beef stew for dinner. It was delicious.]

[Month o, day x, sunny. Today’s breakfast was tasteless cabbage soup. Lunch was hard bread, and dinner was boiled potatoes.]

[Month o, day x, rainy. Jacqueline from the house downstairs boasted that she went to a big town and ate a pastry called a cream puff. She said cream puffs are very delicious and soft. I want to eat one too…….]

[Month o, day x, sunny. Mom made a dish with peas and carrots. I ate the peas and secretly threw away the carrots.]

[Month o, day x, cloudy. Bread for breakfast, potatoes for lunch, and grilled pork for dinner.]

Philomel narrowed her eyes.

‘It’s almost all about food.’

Was Elencia such a glutton?

‘She liked spicy food, but I didn’t really get that impression…….’

In any case, what was important was not the beginning of the diary but the part written when she suddenly changed.

Philomel quickly flipped through the pages of the diary.

“Huh?”

Then her hand stopped.

From a certain point, the short diary entries suddenly became longer. That wasn’t the only strange thing.

[■■ ■■ ■■■■■ ■■ ■■■■ ■■■■ ■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■ ■■]

A string of countless unfamiliar letters.

Letters she didn’t recognize were lined up on the white paper.

It wasn’t just that she couldn’t interpret the meaning; it was a completely unfamiliar script that she had never encountered before.

Philomel was confused.

As a successor to the throne, she had been exposed to almost all kinds of scripts during her education.

Even if she didn’t know the meaning, she was usually familiar with the letters themselves.

But this script was different.

She had never seen it before, and it didn’t resemble any script she knew.

‘A script used only by a minority tribe? Or an ancient script?’

But it was strange that Elencia was using such a script.

Le Guin approached as Philomel stared at the diary with a serious expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“Le Guin, do you recognize this script?”

He frowned as he looked at the page Philomel held out.

“I don’t. I’ve never seen it before.”

“Could it be an ancient script?”

“Well, I’ve explored many ancient ruins, but I’ve never encountered this script.”

“A script used by a minority tribe on a remote island, or something…….”

“I don’t think so.”

The two pondered for a long time, but they couldn’t come up with any plausible explanations.