0.
Before heading to the imperial palace,
I suddenly found myself wondering something.
‘Taking me to the banquet hall means she intends to reveal who I am?’
Whether it was making equipment or performing enchantments.
Did that mean it was all right for people to see those abilities of mine?
Curious about Dolores’s intentions, I casually asked her before we left.
"Mother, does that mean people will find out what I do?"
Dolores smiled faintly at the question and calmly explained.
"That depends on who you are dealing with."
"Who I’m dealing with..."
"Yes."
She gazed steadily at me and asked in return,
"Lionel. Why do you think noble titles are bestowed upon people?"
"I’m not sure."
A family’s accomplishments?
Wealth?
Several answers came to mind, but I couldn’t be certain of any of them.
When I failed to choose an answer, Dolores raised her index finger and lightly tapped her lips with it.
Then she closed one eye in a wink.
"It is the weight of one’s words."
"The weight of one’s words."
"That’s right."
Her voice became even gentler.
"The higher a person rises, the more responsibility and weight follow every word that leaves their mouth."
"..."
"That is why such people do not repeat things carelessly. Rather than lightly blurting out what they hear, they hold it close and turn it over in their minds again and again."
The greater the repercussions of a single remark, the heavier that person’s mouth becomes.
"Those who fancy themselves refined, yet lack the weight befitting that refinement—their mouths are the lightest and most dangerous things in the world."
If I understood her correctly...
Even if I revealed my identity, the important thing was before whom I revealed it.
In front of middling people, I would become fodder for gossip and invite trouble.
But if they truly stood at the top,
their mouths would be tight-lipped, so it would be all right.
"So, Lionel, if you truly intend to show your abilities..."
"Please choose someone who can bear that weight."
I vowed to keep those words firmly in mind.
1.
Could the woman before me truly bear that truth?
Of course she could, damn it.
There were hardly any people in the Empire above her.
The meaning of that conversation was surely why Dolores had readily let me go as well.
"You have something you wish to say, don’t you?"
"Yes."
I stared directly into the imperial princess’s eyes.
[You might need to lower your eyes, big brother...]
I thought it would be fine.
It could be an expression of trust.
Sometimes it was better not to avert your gaze.
Her face came clearly into view at such close range.
She had a small, delicate build... though she looked older than me.
Her complexion bore the pallor of illness, and her wrists were slender.
Yet somehow, that very paleness lent her an air of mystery instead.
It was the sort of face that turned frailty into an atmosphere.
In the end, only beauty could transform every little trait into part of one’s allure.
"Your Highness seems quite knowledgeable about jewelry."
"That is rather sudden. Did my jewelry stand out to you so much?"
She took my words at face value, yet immediately probed for my intent.
She did not seem to want to drag out this conversation either.
"Yes. The necklaces worn by both Your Highnesses particularly caught my eye at the banquet."
"They are quite fine pieces of jewelry."
"...They are fine, but."
I gently refuted her words.
"There is one thing many people overlook."
"What is that?"
"Those who carry swords or other weapons train tirelessly in how to use them properly."
I naturally shifted my gaze to the necklace around her neck.
"Yet for some reason, when it comes to jewelry, people believe merely wearing it is enough."
"..."
"Jewelry, too, has a proper way of being used."
The imperial princess’s eyes widened slightly.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that if you continue using it this way, calling it fine jewelry would be somewhat misleading."
Having come this far, there was no reason to keep speaking in circles.
I trusted her position. After all, she was Duke Dolores.
"...Though it is late, allow me to properly introduce myself again."
I placed one hand over my chest and bowed my head.
"Under the protection of House Dolores, I handle the crafting and maintenance of equipment."
Then I slowly raised my head.
"...I am Lionel, a blacksmith."
"...A blacksmith?"
The imperial princess furrowed her brow.
There had to be more than one thing she found hard to understand.
I was young, for one, and what was a mere human doing calling himself a blacksmith?
After all, most human blacksmiths had vanished long ago.
But that did not matter.
I had one certain weapon. It was also a way to prove myself.
Dolores’s existence.
When you thought about it, it was simple. A duke would not keep a child like me by her side for no reason.
Much less personally bring me to this imperial banquet.
That fact alone meant the imperial princess could not help but reassess me.
And then...
"The Moonlight Essence Necklace and the Sun Rising Pendant."
"...You know their names."
Her eyes wavered as I named both necklaces.
A simple appraisal could reveal an item’s name and grade.
A more skilled and thorough appraisal could even reveal its Origin Script.
But they were unique equipment, meaning each necklace was one of a kind.
The moment I named them precisely,
the imperial princess would have no choice but to withhold judgment.
Those two pieces of equipment had never been mentioned anywhere in the community, which meant they had never been made public.
"Have you never had a thought like this?"
"...?"
"That this pendant, rather than healing your body..."
I paused for a moment, then quietly added,
"...seemed instead to be harming you."
The imperial princess did not so much as flinch, nor did any emotion show on her face.
What an impressive poker face... Don’t tell me she genuinely had no suspicions—
[No, big brother.]
[Her pupils jumped for an instant. Just barely.]
I nearly let out a sigh of relief.
Yuna’s analysis.
She already had doubts about this necklace.
If that was the case, then this time...
"Yet no matter where you looked, it was difficult to find evidence that it was harmful. And you could not simply take it off, so you kept wearing it."
"..."
"Even an appraiser—and likely even a physician—would say there was nothing wrong with it."
As I continued speaking, I weighed the woman before me.
"If I were to venture a guess..."
The woman before me was, after all, royalty.
"Since childhood, Your Highness must have been taught to avoid things harmful to your body. And you must also have learned how to distinguish them."
The imperial princess listened to me in silence.
"Yet, strangely enough, while deep down you sensed this necklace was not beneficial, you still did not take it off."
"..."
"Because every indicator other than your intuition told you it was fine."
"..."
"Your instincts were warning you, yet there was no visible evidence. Since Your Highness values evidence, trusting your intuition did not seem rational, so you have forced yourself to overlook that lingering unease."
I paused a beat and chose my words carefully.
This thing pretended to perform its role, too. It reassured its wearer by pretending to restore them.
Then, once its essence was depleted, it revealed its true nature.
The Sun Rising Pendant might have been a victim, but...
"Furthermore... when you first began wearing the necklace, you must have actually felt your body grow noticeably lighter. Or perhaps..."
Flinch.
At those words, the imperial princess’s shoulder twitched.
I finished in a low voice.
"Because you also considered the sincerity of the person who gave it to you... you felt that taking it off for no reason would be like betraying their feelings, so you continued wearing it. Is that not so?"
Perhaps she could not bring herself to disregard the feelings of the person who had gifted her such a high-grade four-star piece of jewelry.
Perhaps that person was especially important to her.
In the end, her instincts warned her, but there was no evidence.
And both items had indeed appeared perfectly normal until all their essence was consumed.
Just as I began to feel like I had suddenly become the lead in a detective story alongside my assistant, Kim Yuna,
the imperial princess, who had silently watched me, opened her mouth.
"...Go on."
There was no great change in her expression.
Still, this had to count as acknowledgment.
"I enjoy conversation. However, I do not wish to take up Your Highness’s valuable time."
I added with a faint smile.
You find dealing with other people tiring and boring, don’t you?
You only came to see me because you were curious about the duke’s child.
But now I’m saying something interesting?
‘If she has some awareness of her own intuition.’
There was no need to drag this out.
Going into excessive detail would only spoil the moment.
"Could you grant me just one chance?"
"A chance?"
"Please entrust the pendant to me for just a moment."
"..."
The imperial princess narrowed her eyes.
Of course. We had only just met, and I was asking her to hand over something she wore on her body.
Not to mention a piece of jewelry belonging to royalty.
"I know very well that this is rude."
Without avoiding her gaze, I met it head-on.
"Even so, seeing it once will be faster than hearing a hundred words."
She stared at me for a long while.
Measuring and measuring again, but...
When one’s life was at stake, a person could not help but change.
"There are far too many things I do not understand."
"I understand."
Rustle.
"I must make sure not to disgrace the duke..."
She raised a hand to her neck.
That would never happen.
This was my field of expertise, so I was confident.
Click.
The imperial princess unclasped the chain and held the pendant out to me.
It was around then that I noticed every heir in the banquet hall had, at some point, turned their attention toward us.
The moment my hand touched the pendant,
Ding!
a notification suddenly appeared in the Tower interface.
[...?!]
[Solau, Child of the Sun and the god who governs the sun, has become aware of your existence!]
[『I did not believe it when I heard the news. How truly remarkable.』]
W-What was this?
I froze for a moment at the sudden message, but...
‘Solau? Solau is the pendant’s owner.’
Why would he...
Given the situation, I did my best to act as though nothing was wrong and accepted the pendant.
Whatever this Solau business was, it was not important right now.
I immediately rose from my seat.
"...Surely you are not planning to run away with it?"
"I’m not especially fast on my feet."
I headed toward something I had been eyeing for a while now.
A small flowerpot sitting in one corner of the banquet hall.
A small houseplant was growing in it.
The reason this pendant could replenish its essence by extracting vitality from humans...
was because human beings possessed such abundant life force.
And as royalty, she must have received vast amounts of life force through medicinal elixirs, medical treatment, and the like.
But what if the target was not a human, but an exceedingly small living thing?
It was not even a plant rooted outdoors.
It was simply a plant stuck in a pot, barely clinging to life in a corner that did not even receive proper sunlight.
Maybe someone gave it water once in a while, whenever they happened to remember it.
If a plant like that was the target... there was no reason for it to take long to confirm.
"What are you doing right now?"
She was less patient than I had expected.
Rather than answer, I stopped before the plant.
‘Sorry.’
Whirr.
I wrapped the Sun Rising Pendant around it.
Then I blocked the plant from the heirs’ view with my back.
At that moment,
─────────────────
[Special Effect: Eclipse]
[It begins absorbing the vitality of the entity wearing it.]
─────────────────
[Warning! The life force of the worn medium is at a critical level.]
[Immediate removal warning. Remove immediately.]
─────────────────
One, two, three.
How many seconds had passed?
Shhhhhh...
One leaf drooped limply.
At first, there was only one.
Rustle.
Then two leaves blackened.
Shhh...
A third, then a fourth.
One by one, the leaves withered and sagged helplessly.
The once-green plant began drying into ash-gray husks in an instant.
"...!"
The imperial princess sucked in a breath.
For the first time today, her expression crumbled.
──────────
[Immediate removal recommended.]
[Remove immediately.]
[Remove immedi—]
──────────
Before the warning messages could even finish,
Rustle.
the plant was finished first.
Even seeing it again, this was one insane item.
The plant had dried out completely, leaves and all.
In only a few seconds, it had been drained dry in its entirety.
Keeping the plant hidden behind my back, I quietly removed the pendant.
Crumble...
Then I held it out to the imperial princess.
Standing now and meeting her gaze, she was at least a handspan taller than me.
She looked back and forth between the withered flowerpot and my hand.
"Did I not tell you?"
With a faint smile, I returned my opening words to her.
"If you do not know how to use it, then calling it fine jewelry is... somewhat misleading."
"..."
The imperial princess could not say a word.
Her face drained white as she stared back and forth at the remains of the flowerpot, which had been perfectly fine until just moments ago.
"...How could this happen? There was no magical trickery..."
Only after a long while did the imperial princess finally manage to speak.
I could not use magic, so what magical trickery could I possibly pull?
It was one hundred percent real.
More importantly, I wished she would take her necklace back.
Having seen the plant get sucked dry, the imperial princess looked reluctant to take the necklace itself back.
Even though she had not wanted to give it to me earlier.
As I stood around holding the imperial princess’s necklace, more and more attention began gathering on me. It was getting to the point where I would be better off going somewhere else altogether.
I was fine with the imperial princess and prince seeing it, but I did not want other people to see.
"Your Highness, how much can you trust me now?"
"...!"
At that moment, her eyes widened as though she had realized something.
"Could it be my brother’s, too...?!"
"Ah..."
I slowly nodded.
"That one, if anything."
"..."
"Is even worse."
Because I only speak the truth.
You know that famous saying, don’t you? There is only one truth.
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