The Tyrant Won’t Let Me Go

“Yeah. Would this be enough compensation?”

A man wrapped in black clothes muttered in a low voice.

There was a faint smell of alcohol from him.

The woman across from him was also covered in a robe that reached her neck and kept her mouth sealed.

“If you do what I ask for, we will give you more rewards.”

The man grabbed one of the piled pouches on the edge of the table with his left hand.

He immediately laid it down in front of the woman as he had untied the strap of the pouch and threw it at her.

Hundreds of shining gold coins rolled in front of her, with her hair tangled in the robe and dangling through the slit.

The woman’s lips trembled under the covered robe.

“For now, take this much.”

“…Thank you.”

A thin sound of metal flowed through the woman’s lips.

The woman’s fingers trembled finely as her hand swept the gold coins into her pocket.

With a rattling sound, the gold coins disappeared into the woman’s pocket.

The man stared still at the figure and reached out his gloved hand toward the glass.

“By the way…”

A shrill voice came out of the robe.

The man who was about to take a sip with a glass of wine frowned and lowered his hand.

“I think you left out the most important reward.”

The strangely sinking voice of the woman resonated in the room.

For the first time, the woman, who had been muttering in a hoarse voice like scratching iron, was speaking in a very clear pronunciation.

Before she knew it, the man, who made eye contact with the woman, who raised her head and looked straight at her, clicked his tongue and searched through his pocket.

What appeared in his pocket was a small bag.

When the man angrily threw the bag at the woman, the woman quickly untied the string that tied the bsg lying on the table and checked the contents.

It was much faster than when she swept gold coins earlier.

“Ooh…!“

The woman exclaimed at the pure white powder in the small bag.

Then, she breathed deeply with her nose stuck in it.

As she sniffed the powder, she then raised her head and smiled ecstatically.

The man’s eyes gleamed eerily as he watched her like that.

“You can do it properly, right?”

The woman, who was about to bury her head toward the bag again, paused for a moment.

Then she lifted her head and raised the corners of her lips in response.

“Of course.”

Tying the small bag again and putting it down next to her, she spoke with a subtle smile.

“Don’t you trust me?”

The man rudely did not answer that question.

As if trying to examine the reaction of such a man, the woman giggled and added another word.

“Nobody knows Ciel Minerva as well as I do.”

However, the man did not show any reaction to that statement.

Therefore, the woman could not tell whether the man believed her or not.

‘Well, it doesn’t really matter.’

That was the woman’s thoughts.

“I don’t need anything else.”

“Just do what you’re told to do.” The man growled as if warning her.

The man’s left hand, holding the glass, trembled with anger.

The woman slowly knew it was time to step down.

“Of course…”

The woman’s chirping voice, which feigned to be confident, reverberated across the room.

✿

The week passed slower than I thought, but faster than Cedric’s.

The week of quarantine ended by returning pure gold shackles to the Magic Research Department.

As I left the room, Cedric stared at me for a long time with a regretful look, despite the fact that we are scheduled to meet again to hold hands in a few hours.

And Hillac was more than happy to see the pure gold shackles after I left Cedric and carried it to the Magic Research Department.

This was because the Magic Research Department rejected his request to wear pure gold shackles at least once for safety reasons.

‘He’s always the same.’

Recalling that time, I took my sword and walked away.

I didn’t know during the first three days of quarantine, but only later did I hear that the magic stone was damaged after using the lightning attack.

It seemed that the magic stone could not withstand the impact on the sword.

After the quarantine period, when I checked the sword, the magic stone was destroyed to the point where it was difficult to even restore it, so I thought I should find Hefan, the imperial blacksmith.

However, I didn’t really have time, so a month had passed since then, and in the meantime, I used the other sword I had as a spare.

Still, this sword with the magic stone destroyed was the one I liked the most, so this time I was very excited and went to find Hefan.

“Hefan!”

Ciel entered the blacksmith’s office located in the separate palace, far from the main palace, and shouted cheerfully.

I sat still in front of a table that functions similar to the reception desk and waited for Hefan to appear behind the door, but I couldn’t feel any signs of movement.

“Is anyone here?”

After ringing the bell, the door finally opened.

However, it wasn’t the good uncle with a big physique and beard that appeared behind the door.

Instead, a young-looking boy with a small build and white skin covered in soot appeared.

“Ully!” ᶜᶦᵉˡ

“Oh, you’re already here commander?”

I eventually inflated my cheeks and held out a sword at him who spoke formally to me.

“In private, you can still call me sister just like in the old days.” ᶜᶦᵉˡ

But instead of listening to me, he just laughed.

“Sigh, does His Majesty ever get jealous? I’ll never do that because I’m scared, commander.” ᵁˡˡʸ

“Ah, it’s not like that.”ᶜᶦᵉˡ 

“No. Don’t say that. His Majesty must be sad.” ᵁˡˡʸ

Ully took the sword and replied cheerfully.

It was a bright and clean smile that I could never imagine when I thought of him in the orphanage.

‘I’m glad to know that you’re living well.’

I recognized him at a glance, who had joined Hefan as an assistant and disciple a year ago.

Ully also remembered my unique hair color and eye color, and so we reunited after seven years.

Since coming to the Imperial Household, I have never seen a single child from the Herseli Orphanage except for Ully.

He was the child I cared about the most when I was in the orphanage, and he also relied on me the most.

So I was very happy to see him again. When we met again, Ully looked healthy.

Even when Hefan secretly told me that he was thinking of fostering him as a successor in earnest, I couldn’t stop laughing.

“Oh, are you here because of the magic stone?”ᵁˡˡʸ

“Yeah. What do you think? Can it be restored?” ᶜᶦᵉˡ

“Hmm…”

At my ringing question, I took the glasses on the desk, wore them, and looked at the sapphire embedded in the sword.

“Yes, I don’t think this can be restored. I think we need a new magic stone.” ᵁˡˡʸ

“As expected, I see.” ᶜᶦᵉˡ

“Since you’re here, please leave the sword to me. I’ll replace it for you. How many spares do you have?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Yes, then, I will change it right away, and all I need is a magic stone. Hmm… “

As Ully observed the cracked sapphire, he frowned.

“Everything’s fine, but we’re temporarily out of sapphire. I think it’ll take two weeks to get some again. If you want to replace it quickly, I recommend you buy the jewelry yourself like last time.” ᵁˡˡʸ

Magic stone plays a role in absorbing and releasing the mana.

As such, there are quite a few restrictions on using gems as magic stones.

One of them is that a specific user may use only a specific type of gem as a magic stone.

The types of gems that can be used as magic stones were different for each person.

In my case, I have been using sapphire as a magic stone since it was diagnosed as the most suitable.

“Oh, really? Then I’ll do that.” ᶜᶦᵉˡ

“Yes, then I’ll be grinding your sword until you come to the rescue.”ᵁˡˡʸ

I smiled as I saw him smiling like his teacher.

“Okay. I’ll save it soon. Since you’re grinding it, grind it all up.” ᶜᶦᵉˡ

“Just leave it to me.”ᵁˡˡʸ

Looking at Ully’s confident smile, I somehow left the blacksmith with a warm heart.

[So, are you going out?]

I answered Caliberne’s voice ringing in my head.

‘Why are you doing this all over again? Last time I replaced it, it wasn’t the one in the imperial blacksmith’s shop, but I used it with the gems I got.’

Then Caliber retorted.

[No, I know that. There were a few sapphires mixed in the down payment given by the previous emperor before. You didn’t even use them all, right? Can we just choose from there?]

‘The sapphire given by His Majesty the Emperor is too large to be used as a magic stone.’

That wasn’t the only problem.

The weight and shape of the jewels that the previous emperor had given me as a down payment were too large.

 So I took them from the imperial residence and moved them to the estate that the imperial family gave me.

And it takes about an hour by carriage to get to the center of the capital, while it takes three hours to reach my estate.

So it was better to go downtown and buy some gems.

‘I don’t want to spend six hours on a carriage.’

[Then, there’s nothing we can do.]

In the end, Caliberne responded and accepted it.

When I wrote down the reason for going out and received a permit, I headed to the entrance of the castle, and there were already several carriages heading for the city.

Among them, I took a step to climb the carriage I had called beforehand.

“Ah, Commander. You decided to go downtown today, right?”

When I nodded toward the coachman who was asking me happily, he opened the door, saying, “I understand.”

“Okay, then, you can get on.”

“Thank you.” ᶜᶦᵉˡ

Just as I was greeted by the coachman and set my feet on the stairs at the entrance of the carriage, someone sitting in the carriage turned his head.

“Hello, Ciel.”

As soon as I saw the familiar face that casually greeted me, I took my foot off the stairs and slammed the door shut.