Chapter 78
“Nom… gulp.”
You have to eat to live. Whether it’s food or some other form of energy.
An absolute truth that no living being can defy.
Muriela was diligently filling her stomach with life energy, just as that truth dictated.
Elegance? She didn’t care. She was just hungry. Chomp chomp. Her whole body declared it loudly.
“Ugh… mgh. Cough, gulp.”
She ate too fast and ended up choking, quickly jamming a glass of water into her mouth.
But having learned nothing, she next stabbed her fork into a large hunk of meat.
What would Anna, her etiquette instructor, have said if she’d seen her now?
She’d probably have sighed so deeply the floor would crack and buried her face in her hands.
Or maybe she’d have kept her composure.
But people who weren’t here didn’t need to be considered.
At this belated lunchtime, the only ones at the table with her were Sir Hamilton and Florina.
The two were burdened by the mere act of dining with royalty, but the princess couldn’t care less.
In Solinor’s era, it was completely normal to seat anyone nearby and share a meal, servant or not.
From his point of view, the current custom of everyone eating separately was the strange one.
Of course, even in this era, it wasn’t unheard of for servants to eat with their masters.
Contrary to what Florina had claimed earlier, it wasn’t a breach of etiquette.
The founding king himself had enjoyed such things—criticizing it would be absurd.
It was simply that, as a general rule, servants in the palace were expected to finish their meals before the nobles.
Today’s unusual circumstance had merely lined things up differently.
No one would object, and even if someone did, the servants would have an alibi.
“Phew… that hit the spot. Whewww…”
“…”
Muriela leaned back in her chair and patted her full belly.
The soft thump thump thump sounded cute, but it wasn’t exactly a graceful sight.
She looked more like some village uncle, and poor Hamilton and Florina had no idea what to do.
If Bianca had been present to serve the meal, she would’ve scolded her relentlessly.
But these two were rookies—and having witnessed her terrifying display yesterday, they dared not speak.
And now she even started humming.
Normally, Solinor wouldn’t have behaved like this either.
Bianca had always been nearby, and more importantly, she had never experienced such hunger lately.
She had been living in comfort in the palace, eating at regular times.
But now that she was so hungry her stomach had practically caved in, the past came flooding back.
‘Back in the adventuring days, I’d go three days without a bite sometimes. I remember when we barely escaped danger and finally found food—how much did we eat? Hadwin, that guy ate almost as much as I did. Hahaha. I miss him.’
Solinor’s lips curled into a smile as she recalled those days with his eyes closed.
While he was at it, he began thinking about his old comrades.
‘Where the heck is that woman and what is she doing? How long does it take to check on her grandkids?’
The first person she thought of, of course, was her soul companion, Aiorin.
They had met recently and talked a lot.
She’d been given a task, but then disappeared without contact.
Solinor didn’t know where she’d gone, but no one could hurt Aiorin anyway, so she’d be fine.
She’d come back eventually.
‘Corbin… well, he’s always reachable. He’s the most dependable one right now.’
Next was Corbin, who was nearby in the palace and easy to find.
A central figure in their plot to restore the kingdom.
Unlike the flighty and unpredictable Aiorin, he was much more reliable.
‘Come to think of it, I haven’t seen Aryen or Hadwin even once since I returned. Wonder when I’ll get the chance. If we could bring them to our side, that’d be an enormous asset.’
Aryen and Hadwin, living in the provinces, were extremely important.
According to Corbin’s intelligence, there were few regional lords as powerful as them.
Having served in high government roles, they held vast influence and had elite retainers.
They rivaled even the massive factions that had solidified their positions before the founding of the kingdom.
‘And that old geezer—why isn’t he answering? Zephyr definitely said the message was delivered properly.’
The last was Sylvius. Though reincarnated and outwardly changed, he remained the strongest Grand Magician.
Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since he last saw Sylvius.
He’d tried to contact him not long ago and wondered why there was no reply, but surely he had his reasons.
Back in their adventuring days, he and Corbin were the two main strategists of the party.
Of course, unlike Corbin, Sylvius’s plans were usually incomprehensible to most people.
***
As soon as Sylvius stepped into the manor’s entrance, he was surrounded by strangers.
From what he’d seen earlier using his reconnaissance spell, he had assumed they were soldiers based on their posture, but now that he saw them up close, that wasn’t the case.
Their physiques weren’t particularly large—in fact, they were agile-looking.
Eliminating other possibilities, they felt more like assassins or veteran thieves.
‘Hmmm. Strange. Who are these guys? As far as I know, Solineum doesn’t have a thieves’ guild or anything like that.’
Unlike the long-standing kingdoms of the southern regions, Silbrenoa was a young nation.
As such, its capital lacked many of the underground elements typical of older cities—like a thieves’ guild.
Solineum, by continental standards, was quite a large city with a big population.
With more people comes more crime, usually—but Solineum had Corbin.
Having grown up in the back alleys of the southern kingdoms, there was no one more experienced in dealing with the underworld.
There had been some attempts by small-time criminals to form organizations.
But Corbin’s sharp eye, honed through countless schemes, exposed their tricks immediately.
“Brother, it’s been a while.”
As Sylvius was speculating on their identities, his younger brother stood from his seat and approached.
A sly smile curled on his lips, and he tilted his head back in smug confidence.
But this was Sylvius.
The kind of man who could crush everyone present with the flick of a finger—this wouldn’t scare him.
“Yes, good to see you. Brother. Have you been well? Ah, no need to answer—I can already tell.”
Even though he was surrounded, Sylvius answered casually, and his brother’s expression subtly twisted.
He didn’t seem pleased with Sylvius’s composure. Sylvius simply smiled at him.
‘Good grief. You get rattled that easily? What a useless heir to a merchant guild.’
Sylvius mentally knocked a few points off his brother’s scorecard and then glanced around.
“And who are these people? Some new friends you made?”
His brother’s face grew even more sour, but Sylvius didn’t miss a beat.
“Thank you all for being friends with my brother. He’s not the most social, so this eases my worries. And you, miss—what do you see in him? Though, I admit, he did inherit my looks.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Do you still not understand the situation?”
His brother growled with open hostility, but that wasn’t enough to intimidate Sylvius.
“Wow, so many guests. Is there a party today? My little brother’s grown up—throwing parties all on his own now?”
Of course, Sylvius had every intention of getting captured, but he had no intention of losing the verbal battle.
Messing with people was too fun—especially when the target was his spiteful little brother.
That just made it twice—no, three times as fun.
“Just shut up already!”
His brother, red with fury, shouted. But Sylvius kept up his charade.
“Brother, what kind of way is that to speak to your elder? Especially in front of guests. Does the family name mean nothing to you anymore? It truly breaks my heart.”
Finally, the brother let out a deep sigh and got to the point.
“I already know you’re plotting treason. We found tons of evidence in your study while you were out, so don’t even think about denying it.”
“Oh! That’s quite impressive. So, what exactly did you find?”
Sylvius clapped like he was praising someone, genuinely impressed—or at least pretending to be.
His brother looked like he was about to explode, but managed to hold it together.
Meanwhile, Sylvius finished grasping the entire situation.
‘Ah, so this brat’s finally trying to push me out? Hahaha. I’ve been wondering when he’d move. Looks like he thinks the time is now.’
Naturally, whatever “evidence” he’d found in the study was likely fabricated.
Not hard to do. Sylvius had deliberately left all sorts of false trails just in case.
He hadn’t expected Solinor’s return to shift the timing, but it wasn’t unexpected.
At this point, the identities of the “guests” were also becoming clear.
‘Heh heh heh… so they’re spies sent by Corbin, huh…’
Contrary to his brother’s assumptions, the one caught in a trap today wasn’t Sylvius.
—
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