IDMH - Chapter 136


The letter Adele sent to Prince Philos reached his hands about a week later.

A faint smile appeared on Philos' face as he saw Adele's large seal stamped on the luxurious envelope.

Logos, who was guarding from the side, also smiled happily upon seeing Adele's seal.

“Did Lady Leopold send you this?”

Philos nodded, pushed aside the documents he was looking at, and read Adele's letter intently.

[To His Highness the Awesome Prince.]

From the first sentence, Philos could clearly feel the distance.

He thought they had become close, but was he mistaken?

Prince Philos's eyes sank slightly with sadness.

In the meantime, his eyes were busy reading Adele's letter.

As is the case with most letters, it began with a quick greeting.

The information about the birthday gift he sent was in the middle of the letter.

[I am so happy to receive the gift I have been waiting for along with my birthday present.]

There was also talk about 'that'.

[I would like to repay Your Highness's kindness, so please accept my gift.]

Is it finally starting?

Philos suddenly remembered what had happened last spring.

After dropping out of the academy, he focused on building his foundation by following Adele's instructions.

One of them was to select the Imperial Knights who would become the sword and shield of the Imperial Family.

As soon as the second semester started, they received a list of this year's graduates, and the good students among them were interviewed in advance in the spring.

Philos, who visited the academy for the interview, contacted Adele and asked her to meet him because he had many questions he wanted to ask her.

But he didn't expect Adele to meet him 

She said that it would be bad for her to stand out in public and that they should avoid meeting in person, so he thought she would refuse this time too, but surprisingly, she replied that she would.

Since it was his first time meeting Adele in person, Philos not only dressed up but also went to the meeting place holding a real bouquet of flowers.

A bouquet of red roses to match her red hair.

“Take this.”

But before he could even hand her the bouquet, Adele handed him a neatly folded note.

The note contained an address somewhere in the empire.

“What is this?”

“This is the house where an eccentric alchemist lives.”

"Alchemist?"

“Yes. By any means necessary, you must seduce the alchemist living here and learn the secret of making fake gold.”

It was absurd to say that she was trying to trick an alchemist, but what she said after that was even more absurd.

Fake gold.

Philos stared blankly at the note for a while.

Turning the stones found on the street into gold was the dream and fantasy of alchemists.

So, since ancient times, many alchemists have tried hard to turn stones into gold, but no one has succeeded so far.

Philos had heard somewhere that a similarly synchronized alchemist had appeared once a hundred years ago.

After that, all countries, including the Allied Powers, banned research on turning stones into gold.

The reason was simple.

If they exchange pebbles for gold and the value of gold falls, the value of their currency also falls.

People who already had more than enough gold to spare would not welcome that happening.

If the alchemist was caught while trying, both of his hands would be cut off to prevent him from researching again.

He's heard that alchemists who cannot give up their dreams and romanticism despite such harsh punishments are secretly challenging the law of smoking... but he never thought it would actually exist.

It was surprising, and surprising at the same time, that Adele knew where such an alchemist lived.

And instead of arresting him right away, tell him to find out how to make fake gold by any means necessary.

“I think it will take about two weeks.”

“Yes, just a moment.”

Philos waved his hands and shouted urgently at the flow of the story that was completely incomprehensible to his common sense.

“How do I not know where this alchemist is? And you want him to know how to make fake gold. What on earth is he trying to do...?”

"Shhh."

Adele cut off Philos' words by bringing her index finger to her lips.

“I understand that you have many questions, but you must not forget the first promise we made Your Highness.”

Philos had no choice but to keep his mouth shut at the subsequent remark.

As the corners of his eyes drooped, Adele added.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. Once you figure out how to do it, you’ll naturally understand what I’m going to do next.”

“...It sounds like you’re urging me to find out quickly.”

“Oh my, I got caught.”

Adele, smiling with her eyes folded into crescent moons, was more splendid and beautiful than the roses she held in her arms.

“Please let me know as soon as possible. The sooner you do, the sooner I can plan the next step.”

Philos was captivated by that mysterious charm and the question 'why' no longer came to mind.

Philos put aside what he was doing and devoted all his energy to tricking the alchemist, and in just ten days he figured out how to make fake gold.

Then Adele told him her next plan along with a pleasant compliment.

Yeah, that's a really big plan.

“No matter how much I think about it, the courage to do that is amazing.”

Logos nodded as he heard Philos muttering to himself.

He also knew very well what Adele was trying to do with the fake gold.

“That’s true. If she makes a mistake, not only will everything she's built up over the years crumble, but she’ll also have to give up everything she has. I could never do that.”

Logos shivered as if he was terrified just thinking about it.

Meanwhile, Philos, who had finished reading the letter, put it down with a smile.

“That’s why Young Lady and I have different personalities. You need to have the guts of Young Lady to do something like this.”

“That’s true.”

Logos nodded in agreement.

Philos held the end of the letter he had finished reading to the candle.

He didn't want to burn the letter Adele had sent him, but he had to destroy the evidence because it contained important information.

Hurrrrr, the high-quality letter paper caught fire in no time.

Philos looked at the blazing flames and said when the letter was half-burned.

“We should also start preparing. If Young Lady succeeds in her plan, it will be our turn next, so we should prepare in advance.”

“Your Highness, do you think that Lady Leopold will definitely succeed?”

"Of course."

Philos dissolved the letter, which had now been burned to ash, in water.

“None of her plans have failed so far. So this one will definitely work out well.”

***

“Darling, didn’t you miss me? I missed you so much that I couldn’t even sleep for so long!”

Leo showed up again today, acting like my lover, and he clung to me and acted all sorts of cute.

It was very disgusting to see a grown man acting cute like a child.

I wanted to tear him away, but since there were so many eyes watching him, I took him to the study.

As soon as we entered the study and were alone together, Leo as if he had never been so attached to me, pulled away and straightened his wrinkled collar.

“Oh my, acting is so hard. I think I should get a separate acting allowance.”

“I’ll give you as much money as you want, so just do your job well.”

“Of course.”

It was strange that the smiling face seemed annoying, but it wasn't.

I asked, sitting on the red velvet sofa.

“So what did I order you to do?”

“Almost done.”

Leo, who had taken a seat on his own without being told to, reported with a very serious expression on his face.

“I hid my identity from them, and they will never be able to associate us with anything.”

“So it’s not finished? What do you mean it’s almost done?”

“That still leaves one problem.”

What's the problem?

“What is that?”

“There is no warehouse to store those items. I found out that they are larger than I thought, so it would be difficult to take them all to the Leopold duchy.”

“Just how big is it?”

“That’s the biggest thing I’ve found out.”

Leo stood up and spread his arms out to shoulder width, giving an estimate of the size.

It's bigger than I thought.

“They say that even if something like this doesn’t work, you can do ten.”

And there are a lot of them too.

It was certainly impossible to take everything to the Duchy of Leopold.

Moreover, it was even more impossible because I had to go there secretly.

“Then how about renting a warehouse nearby to store it until the work gets underway?”

“If there is a guarantee that the warehouse manager or owner will keep it a secret, then that is okay too.”

That's the problem.

“Yes. I’ll look into that part, so you just go ahead and do it. It’ll take a week for things to get done anyway, so I’ll definitely look into it within that time.”

“I will proceed with confidence.”

After Leo left, I also started preparing to go out.

Because I decided that it would be better to go out and find a good storage place rather than staying in my room and racking my brain.

As I was getting ready to go out, I was about to go down the central staircase alone.

“...”

“...”

Unfortunately, I ran into Perdes, who was coming up from below, head-on.

Ever since Perdes confessed to me while under the influence of drugs, things have been awkward between us.

Not only did we not look for each other, but even when we did run into each other occasionally, like now, we would just exchange a quick hello and pass each other by.

“Good morning, Mr. Perdes.”

So I thought it would be the same this time, so I said hello and tried to pass by.

“Are you going out?”

Perdes asked something other than a greeting.

I suddenly stopped in my tracks and looked up at Perdes, who was standing right next to me.

“Where are you going?”

“Oh, the weather is nice so I’m going out to change my mood.”

When I made the same excuse I had given to the servants, Perdes just stared at me blankly and said.

“I was thinking of going out for the first time in a while, so let’s go together."


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