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Selena furrowed her brows as if she couldn’t comprehend my words.
She opened her mouth slowly, choosing her words carefully.
“Do you mean to say, to do it, moderately?”
“Exactly that. Report if it’s something worth reporting, and if not, don’t.”
At my words, Selena’s eyes widened. Anger surged in her gaze.
“Are you asking me to betray the Mangott?”
“That’s for you to decide.”
I received her gaze in silence.
Selena sharply retorted.
“Do you think I would follow such an order? You might as well kill me.”
“Why would I kill you? It would only dirty my hands. If you refuse my offer, go to the Mangott and tell them ‘Send someone better.'”
“…”
This was my ‘punishment’ for Selena. It wasn’t about whether she would follow it or not. If she didn’t, she would simply be ‘replaced.’
However, Selena hadn’t spoken yet. I could see the traces of her dilemma.
“How would you know whether I’ll hide the report or disclose everything to Lord Frondier?”
Selena didn’t refuse. Instead, she asked.
Doubts had already started to entwine in her mind.
“I don’t know.”
“Excuse me?”
“Time may reveal it. But even that doesn’t concern me.”
Selena tilted her head, probably wondering how it could be a punishment if I didn’t know.
“Selena. Do you remember what I said?”
“What exactly?”
“Your name.”
Selena closed her mouth.
I asked again.
“Have you checked with the Mangott?”
This time, Selena didn’t answer, looking at me somewhat indignantly.
Perhaps she was displeased at the thought of being manipulated by me. However, there’s an undeniable fact.
“You couldn’t have. Because you can’t trust the Mangott.”
Selena is a noblewoman, of the family ‘Barnier’. The exiled group, Manggot, won’t let Selena near the family home.
But, in the first place, it was Manggot who killed Selena’s father, so that’s even more of a reason.
Of course, I didn’t tell her that they killed her father, so Selena wouldn’t know, but even then, she should know that Manggot wouldn’t release her.
That is, Selena has no way of knowing, right now, whether what I’m saying is false or true.
I plodded over to the bed and sat on the very edge.
“Selena, you have to choose.”
I clasped my hands together. I pressed the tips of my fingers from both hands together.
I heard somewhere that you can make the other person trust you if you do this. But I’m not sure if it actually works.
“I won’t pry into whether you actually send the report or not. Eventually, I’ll find out, even if you don’t want to. But you will miss the only and last chance you have.”
“……A chance, you say?”
“A chance to find out who you are.”
Selena flinched. She wasn’t just surprised. It’s the words she had been desperately avoiding, heard out loud.
“If you stay loyal to Manggot, you’ll be safe, at least for the time being. You’ll be able to finish your life out inside Manggot without problems. But,”
I looked at Selena. Her pupils were already shaking uncontrollably.
“If you, Selena, help me, I’ll stake my name on bringing you to your family. So that your life can return to its original orbit.”
“……What could you possibly,”
“Don’t you know? My name is ‘Frondier De Roach.”
It sounds grand, but really, what’s so difficult about bringing one child to her family?
It’s just that Selena happened to be in Manggot, which is why this simple matter is becoming so complicated.
……More than anything else.
Manggot’s method of killing the father and then using the daughter as their ‘piece’ doesn’t sit well with me.
“…….”
Even after I said all of this, Selena didn’t open her mouth. Of course she wouldn’t. To come over to my side, or to abandon me. It’s too much pressure to make a choice right away.
“……either way, nothing will change. You’ll make reports like you always have, and I don’t know what you’ll report. I’ll take the silence as a yes.”
“A yes? But I didn’t answer.”
“I’ll take it as that. I won’t hold you responsible.”
I made sure that Selena had a good way to get out of it.
“So, as a commemoration for you being on my side, I have one question.”
I’m proud of my audacity. Don’t you think I’m almost an artist at this point?
“How far have you reported to Manggot? Try to answer with an appropriate lie.” I asked Selena, who couldn’t even say anything but dart her eyes around.
* * *
I headed to the inn where Aten and Sybil were staying.
I wanted to thank them for joining forces to block the barrier, and especially Sybil for lending me Cassian.
I quickly found them. They were in front of the entrance of the mansion.
But their expressions were not ordinary. As soon as they spotted me, their faces hardened.
Then they trudged towards me.
“……uh, hi. I came to say thank you……”
They just stared at me without any reaction, as if they were listening to me. No, maybe glaring is a better word.
Sybil glanced at Aten, and Aten nodded and put her hand on my shoulder.
Paat!
Aten’s hand on my shoulder lit up.
This light, this feeling, it’s familiar.
‘Ah, it’s a healer’s ‘Mana Care’.”
A skill that allows one to check the condition of another person’s body by infusing their own mana. I heard that Aten also used this when I collapsed after fighting Renzo.
Has Aten already become capable of using Mana Care freely?
“……Hm.”
Aten seemed to have checked and then nodded at Sybil.
“It doesn’t look like you’re hurt anywhere.”
“──sigh.”
Sybil let out a deep breath after hearing Aten’s answer. It was a sigh of relief.
……I see. She was worried. I didn’t get a chance to tell her when we left the barrier. I was too careless.
“Um, sorry. I wasn’t trying to hide it,”
“You bad kid───!!!”