Chapter 24: A Delicious Meal

“I’m back.”

It was still bright outside.
Dusk would fall in another thirty minutes, but daylight lingered.
Therese’s dormitory room, however, was dark.

The curtains were drawn, and the lights were off.

A random memory popped into my head—a teacher whose face I no longer remembered once flicked on the lights and said, “What are you, children of darkness?”

“……You’re here?”

Something shifted under the blanket and revealed its face.
Looks like she’d been napping.

“Is it okay to turn on the lights?”

“Mmm…….”

With Therese’s sleepy approval, I channeled magic into the lamp and lit the room.

This wasn’t about master-servant protocol.

I wouldn’t tell anyone, but Therese gets startled when artificial light suddenly floods into a dark room.
She’s grown now, so it just startles her—but when she was younger, she used to have seizures.

“You seem to have eaten well.”

“I’m sorry. It’s a little messy, isn’t it?”

“No. It’s my job to take care of things like this.”

Empty food wrappers and containers were scattered across the table.
I immediately started cleaning.

I worried she might’ve eaten something spoiled, but then remembered—this was Norndeasel.
The best facility in the empire, where even the kitchen staff know basic preservation magic.

Rather than food poisoning, I should be more worried she hadn’t eaten enough.
Though I couldn’t exactly ask.

“I heard from William. You were hurt?”

“N-no. It’s just a scratch.”

“Were you perhaps scratched by a dragon?”

“Ahaha.”

I could only laugh dryly at Therese’s pouty expression.

She wrapped herself tighter in the blanket, hugging her knees.
Tilting her head slightly, she murmured with a faint smile:

“I started to cry when I thought I could’ve lost you.”

“It’s an honor.”

“So I cried all morning, then fell asleep from exhaustion.”

“I’m sorry, my lady.”

“You don’t have to be sorry. Actually, I’m so happy you’re back that I want to jump out of this blanket and hug you tight, but I’m holding back.”

“Hmm. I’m fine with it.”

“No. What if I hug you and I can’t feel anything?”

Needless to say, Therese was a huge coward.

I really am sorry for making her worry.

“What if this is a dream?”

“It’s not a dream.”

“But right now, Cornelia, you’re not wearing your bracelet.”

Ah.
So that’s why.

She might’ve been strangely calm because she thought this was all a dream.

“I told you, it’s not a dream.”

I walked over and hugged her.

She didn’t pull away—even though she was scared.

Therese is small, but I’m not exactly tall myself.
She filled my arms completely.

“Corne… li… aaaaaa…….”

“Ah, my lady. You shouldn’t cry. You’ll get tear stains—”

“Hwaaaaaaaaaah!”

Therese buried herself in my chest and wailed.

Well.

At most, she was middle school or early high school age.
I gently patted her back. I didn’t know if it would help.

But there was nothing else I could do.

It took quite a while for her to calm down.
Dusk fell. The sunset burned. Night arrived all too quickly.

But Therese still wouldn’t let go.

Of course, she’d stopped crying by the time the sky turned red, and by the time it went pitch black outside, even the sniffles were gone.

But she still clung to me.

I thought maybe she’d fallen asleep—but no.

“……I’m hungry.”

After a long silence, those were the first words she spoke.

Therese finally pulled away, her face bright red but smiling.

Cute.

I really can’t understand Edwin for disliking a girl like this.
If it were me, I’d stick to her like glue every day.

…Which, to be fair, I already do.

“Then I’ll go to the dining hall and get some food. Must be hard to go out with a face like that, right?”

“It’s fine. I still have some food left.”

She stretched out her hand, and food reappeared on the table I’d just cleared.

With that gesture, the preservation magic vanished in a quiet shimmer.

Sometimes, I wonder if I’m really “the blade that shatters all magic”—or if Therese is.

Just like with the Saintess, she can dismantle most magic on her own.
Even the preservation spell the cook had carefully cast—gone without a chant or a word.

Normally, you’d need to recite a release prayer.
It’s faster to break it than to untangle it. But she undoes it like nothing.

“What was left again? Steak?”

“Yes. I think so. It’s still steaming.”

Even temple dogs learn to chant sutras in three years.
Cooks in a magic school gradually pick up magic too.

When I first met this cook, his preservation spells would break within a day.

With another flick of her fingers, tableware appeared. I quickly set the table.

No soup, no bread—just steak.
But in a moment like this, asking for more would be greedy.

“It looks delicious.”

Therese had already gotten out of bed and sat down, eyeing the meat.

Her eyes were still bright red.

“Enjoy your meal. I didn’t do anything.”

She sat, and I sat beside her.

It might seem improper for a maid to dine beside her master, but it was Therese’s strong insistence.

At the dining hall, of course, we sat separately.

“What happened to the bracelet?”

“I don’t know either. I thought you’d know, my lady.”

“Hmm.”

Therese frowned, cutting her steak in deep thought.

“Did you perhaps start your period?”

“Pardon? Ah, no.”

“Mmmmm.”

She’d said something similar when we first met.

Duoto had mentioned adults shouldn’t wear the bracelet for long.

But as far as I remember, that hadn’t happened to me yet.

…Though, biologically speaking, it probably should have by now.

If I’d been a girl from the start.

“Hmm. Did the bracelet perhaps get damaged during a fight?”

“Ah.”

“Did it?”

“Ah, yes. It broke while I was fighting the attacker.”

“Then that might be the cause. I’m not sure, but…”

I should probably ask Gloria about this later.

“Then should I say it now? ‘Congratulations on becoming a girl’?”

“That’s, umm. Ummmm.”

“Maybe there’s a way to go back. We haven’t investigated yet, right?”

Though Therese said it lightly, her words only deepened my dread.

I tried not to show it… but I wonder if I did.

Maybe it was better to stop hiding it.

“I had something to apologize for.”

“For making me worry?”

“That’s something I’m obviously sorry for.”

“Apologize for that first.”

“I’m sorry…….”

Therese’s half-lidded eyes were terrifying.
I quickly bowed my head.

Of course I should’ve apologized for that first.

I’d thought she’d be over it since she cried so much earlier… but no.

“And what else are you sorry for?”

“Because of me, you’re now indebted to Prince William.”

“That? Hmm. It’s fine. Cornelia is more precious.”

“My lady…….”

“That kid… Why is he so desperate to become king?”

It seemed William was planning to oust Edwin.

Even threatening Edwin’s fiancée, claiming they were on the same boat.

“You don’t need to worry about him. I’ll handle it.”

“Thank you, my lady.”

“Yes. Thank me as much as you want.”

I was relieved to see her sounding like her usual self again.

“And you met Orlevette?”

“Ah, yes.”

“If it weren’t for William, you’d have been dragged away and interrogated. That was close.”

“‘Investigation’ sounds scary when you say it like that.”

“Yes, investigation. Like dunking your head in a water bucket, or pressing a branding iron to your thigh, or gently pulling out your fingernails, or running electricity through your body.”

“……Do they usually call that an investigation?”

“As long as they get your testimony, it doesn’t matter how.”

I’d thought this world, with its commercialized magic, might use lie-detecting spells or something.

But no.

It’s just the same old, barbaric nonsense.

Listening to Therese, I realized—Orlevette didn’t come after me because of evidence.
He just felt suspicious.

The Saintess was attacked? Suspicious.
Cornelia wasn’t with Therese? Even more suspicious.

So he hunted me down and tried to extract a confession—truth or not.

And yet… he still got close to the truth. That’s the worst part.

“As expected, the one we need to deal with first isn’t William, but Orlevette.”

“Deal with sounds a little scary when you say it.”

“Is that so? Well, there are royals involved.”

Therese smiled coldly, then added with a different tone:

“But Cornelia, what do you think of the old saying: ‘The dead tell no tales’?“

“It’s neat and nice. I should get well soon, shouldn’t I?”

“Well, it’s fine. I’ll just watch this time.”

She said it with a loaded voice and popped a piece of steak into her mouth.

“Actually, dealing with Orlevette is simple. I’ve never counted, but I bet there are more people in this world who want to kill that dandy knight than we have fingers.”

“Karma really is cruel.”

“I’m sad too. People who do good deeds always seem to die young.”

“A person who tortures innocent people in the name of justice isn’t good.”

“Oh my. Cornelia, if that kind of talk gets out, you’ll be arrested for lèse-majesté.”

His cape is golden, after all.

Therese added the last part with a smirk.

Apparently, our friend Orlevette was someone very high-ranking.

Definitely not just a regular police officer.