Much later, Cider returned from being liberated from the Grand Duke with a tired expression and smiled briefly upon finding Esperanza. The Grand Duke seed to have quite an interest, as he was still giving speeches at magical engineering universities even thirteen years later.
Esperanza, who had rushed over in one breath, grabbed Cider's coat sleeve and spoke bluntly without any greeting.
"I saw them. The people threatening the queen."
His gray eyes widened briefly, then settled into seriousness. He lightly pressed his index finger against Esperanza's lips.
"Shh. Soone might hear."
Cider, who had led Esperanza to an empty corridor, asked back.
"Are you certain? Don't answer with words."
When he extended his hand with prominent tendons, Esperanza drew a circle on it. As large as the size of her certainty. Cider nodded.
"Let's talk about the details when we get back. I have sothing I want to confirm too."
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Esperanza, who had maintained silence until they returned to the mansion, finally opened her mouth only after arriving at Avondale Mansion, the place safest for them where they didn't need to be conscious of anyone's gaze.
"There were two people. Dressed in long riding hoods covering from head to toe. One was tall and the other was sowhat shorter. I couldn't see their faces though. They seed to be heading to the queen's reception room."
They looked ominous at first glance. Esperanza and Cider couldn't find out their identity when even Galliston couldn't. There was no reason to either. But they couldn't help being concerned. The queen's tearful request and the image of the small, naive Prince Louis kept circling in her mind.
Upon entering the laboratory, Cider removed the recorder attached to Esperanza's earlobe. The interpretation device spun with busy sounds. The sound of tal machine parts colliding. The voice that had been mixed with noise gradually beca clearer.
"What is this?"
She couldn't understand it at all. It was definitely her own voice, but it was more like a collection of phones than speech.
"The part you recorded. You recorded everything including the conversation you had with the duchess outside. Did you et Prince Louis?"
"It ended up that way. But is that really my voice?"
"Yes. The reason you can't understand it is because it's coming out backwards. In reverse order of mana storage sequence."
"Why do you leave it like that?"
"Because it doesn't matter as long as only I can understand it."
"...Ah, ah, yes."
She had nothing to give back except a lukewarm response. Well, if he could understand it himself. With people like him around, perhaps there was no need for technology to advance.
Cider, who had briefly stopped the machine, connected sothing additional to it. Lights ca on the instrunt panel. Cider, who had looked back at Esperanza with a puzzled expression, asked.
"Should I make it so you can understand it?"
"You can do that? Then hurry up, quickly."
Perhaps pleased with that reaction, Cider slowly turned the dial. Then when he pulled the lever, sound flowed out again a beat later. This ti it was a clearly understandable sentence.
'Recently, they even demanded that I hand over city-owned property.'
The queen's voice spoke that sentence a bit slower than originally heard. Cider pressed a button to stop the sound, then gestured toward Esperanza as if asking what she thought.
"Why this?"
"City-owned property. I feel like I've heard this kind of talk sowhere before."
"Where did you hear it?"
"From you. The day we first went out together, rember?"
Esperanza could recall that day too. The day she first properly witnessed Nine Holder from thirteen years ago. The Cider Claiborne of that ti had maintained a sowhat aloof attitude. Compared to then, the current him was almost as warm as a spring breeze.
Ah, that's not it. Anyway, the first outing day.
"I went into the Alter District and you chased after , and we t Jack then, and before that we looked at monster hide together."
So much had happened that day. Esperanza briefly beca nostalgic, then realized that the scenes she had just recalled still hadn't included the part related to 'city-owned property.' So when did they have that conversation?
Fortunately, Cider didn't wait for Esperanza to review all the conversations from that day by herself. He pinpointed the exact mont of the conversation.
"Before that. You said this: 'That's where the Hunter Association used to be.'"
She rembered! When they were looking around Nine Holder's downtown area from thirteen years ago in the carriage, Cider had pointed to so building and called it a 'city-owned building.' She couldn't rember the building's location or shape well, but Esperanza could vaguely recall that conversation.
"You think that property is this property?"
"There's no proof though."
She didn't know how long the Hunter Association had been in that location, but there weren't that many possible scenarios where the Hunter Association, which wasn't even a public organization, could demolish a city-owned building and construct an association building.
Of course, the city probably owned a great deal of property, and they would have bought and sold state-owned land even before the Hunter Association building was erected, so what those people demanded from the queen might be a completely different place.
But if Cider's prediction was correct. That is, if the property those people obtained by threatening the queen was exactly the Hunter Association's location thirteen years later.
"The people threatening the queen might be Hunter Association people."
Like Hatter's equipnt shop, they would be preparing for the opening of 'Golden Claw' one by one. The fact that the Hunter Association wielded particularly strong political influence could also be understood if they had the queen's life in their grip.
But for what purpose? Were they foreseeing the era of dungeons and hunters? To prepare for that era, or to gain power by taking advantage of that chaotic era using the royal family's power?
However, this hypothesis quickly t with counterargunts. If the queen and duke held the key to dungeons, they wouldn't be so easily defeated. Then, perhaps they were...
Perhaps having the sa thought, Cider tapped the armrest of his armchair and said.
"The duke said he could only change the direction of the train he was riding."
There was an unspoken premise there. The duke probably deliberately didn't ntion it. A gentle voice posed a sharp question.
"How could he do that? Can he do it once but not twice? Why doesn't he use it to eliminate the opponent? There are many things he didn't answer for us."
If the answer was related to them. Then everything would make sense. What if it wasn't actually the duke who could control the occurrence of dungeons, but 'them'?
"We need to verify the hypothesis."
"What do you plan to do?"
Esperanza bit her lip slightly and released it. She hadn't expected to use this card so soon. She hadn't known this card would beco so useful.
"I'll go into the palace and check directly. If they're Hunter Association people, there's no way I wouldn't recognize their faces."
Instead of the expected words of agreent, a long silence flowed. Cider tilted his head sideways. After examining Esperanza's face up and down, he frowned and asked.
"I must have heard wrong, right? Are you saying you're going to break into Augustum Palace right now?"
"Yes."
"It's dangerous."
Esperanza blinked and pointed to herself with her finger.
"?"
That couldn't be.
"We don't know anything about the opponent."
Cider, who had straightened up from leaning against the armchair, brought Esperanza's inventory list from the bookshelf and skimd through it. It was sothing he had made when he emptied out her inventory when they were invited by the duke last ti. Various types of equipnt and magical tools and their abilities were densely written. Everything was written in abbreviations, so the actual inventory owner couldn't read it.
"Among these, leave this one, this one, and this one behind. I'll fix them up."
"You said it was dangerous though?"
Cider, who had only slightly raised his eyes while maintaining his posture of examining the list, said.
"I didn't say not to go."
"Ah, yes."
"I'm saying let's prepare before going."
Huh? Wait a minute.
"I'm going alone."
This ti he completely lowered even the hand holding the list.
"Why?"
"As you said, it's dangerous."
"Because it's dangerous, you're leaving
behind? It should be the opposite. If sothing happens by any chance, it would be better to have
there to at least establish justification. If you're alone, you're really just an intruder."
Cider shook his head as if dumbfounded. But Esperanza just pressed her lips tightly and stared at him.
In principle, everything he said was correct. It was all correct. But what couldn't be done couldn't be done. Esperanza's reason was as simple and clear as Cider's counterargunt.
Cider stood out. He did everywhere. His eye-catching appearance was the biggest problem, but covering his appearance wouldn't solve it either. He would stand out even if he wore three layers of presence-concealing cloaks. He was the worst choice for infiltration.
The problem was, how could she say such a thing? You stand out too much just by existing? How could she say sothing like that? Esperanza puffed out her cheeks while looking for a way to deflect, then gave up and stood up abruptly.
"Ah, I don't know. I don't know. I'm leaving early in the morning, so if you can wake up, try to wake up!"
At her words, spoken curtly like a child throwing a tantrum, Cider looked up at Esperanza blankly. Unfiltered words flowed from between his slightly parted lips.
"Just now you were really cute..."
"What?"
Oh no. Cider smiled broadly.
"Ah, I misspoke."
It was clearly a face-saving smile.
But it was already too late. She had heard it. Her cheeks burned. What did he say? They were equally flustered.
Their eyes t, and they ca to a silent agreent to pretend nothing had happened with all their might. As they awkwardly regained their lost smiles, Cider pushed Esperanza's back.
"Esperanza, take what I'm giving you and go on out."
"I'm serious. I'm going alone."
Worried he might say he'd follow, Esperanza repeatedly emphasized. Cider answered with a snort. The argunt that started to avoid the situation gradually mixed with sincerity.
"You think I can't wake up?"
"You can't even open your eyes before noon!"
"How do you think soone like that attended parliant?"
Pretending to attend parliant? How absurd. Did he have any conscience?
"You got scolded by Pri Minister Tempton for not attending parliant too much."
Cider smiled his picture-perfect smile again. However, that smile contained a bit of fighting spirit unlike usual.
"Is that important? What's important is that you'll end up going to the royal palace with ."
"We'll see."
Esperanza's competitive spirit was also ignited.
And exactly three days later.
"Don't answer even if soone talks to you. If we get caught, I'll get scolded by Her Majesty too, got it?"
Esperanza was standing at the main gate of Augustum Palace. With a sowhat clumsy accomplice.
Without Cider Claiborne.
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