How About a Refill? ~The Elegant Tea Party of the Grand Witches~ - Chapter 57

Contact from Gil

A few moments ago, in the Goldfish Palace, Emilio was pacing restlessly in his office.

“We still don’t know where Miriam is!? Ah, if this was the case I should have increased the guards in the palace!” 

After coming back from the headquarters of the True Salvation Religion, he had rushed to the room where Miriam and Robin were staying.

Several palaces were built in the grounds of the royal palace, just like Beatrice’s mansion was built around a courtyard. The Ruby Palace, built to receive guests, was the most heavily guarded after Diamond Palace where the Royal Family resided.

However, this time it seems the security there was negligent.

Emilio had felt an unsettling feeling over him as soon as he had entered the Ruby Palace.

The guards stationed outside Miriam’s room were not there anymore.

When he looked into it, he found that they received an order under his name to change positions. But, of course, he had given no such order.

Because of the guards changing their positions, the Ruby palace which was known for strict security became almost unguarded.

And then, when he went to the room, the person who was supposed to be there greeting him with an open smile, was not there.

Knock-knock.

The door opened soon after the knock. The person who had entered the First Prince’s office without even waiting for permission was no other than his aide, Leonardo. 

“How did it go!? Did the teleportation magic work!?”

Beatrice had tried using the teleportation magic to summon them to the palace, so Emilio asked him with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. But Leonardo hung his head with a somber expression.

“Unfortunately, it looks like they have put up some measures against it so we can’t do it. And something else happened.”

“What?”

“Prince Ivan was also kidnapped.”

Emilio was left speechless at that.

“It can’t be…”

“They’re probably trying to set the two together. If rumours get out about this, even if nothing happened between them, it would be difficult to have her become your fiance. But, if the two of them marry each other then it would be within reason. After that, they just need to manage you. Ivan still has the right to succeed so he might be able to do it, so he’ll get both the throne and Miss Caparoni. This is probably what that Duke is thinking.”  

“…Damn it!”

Flutter!

A fluttering sound came from the window, when they turned to it, they saw a letter stuck there.

“What’s this?”

Leonardo picked up the letter and checked it.

He furrowed his brows in confusion as he read it.

“Leo? What does it say?”

“This is… see for yourself.”

He looked at the letter to find it had been sent from a mansion about half an hour away from the capital, in Duke Saint Angelo’s territory. It said the captured people would be taken out of the premises in the dark of the night, and was signed as… ‘G’.

“Can we trust this G person…?”

At that time, they received a report from the Caparoni steward that Alessia had prepared a spy to go look for them.

Leonardo quickly instructed the spy to go scout the address written on the letter. A few hours later he received a report confirming the suspicions that, judging by the number of red robed people going in and out, they might actually be kept in the residence. 

　◇

“G is without question Gilbert Dala de Feline.”

Eleonora was looking over the letter that had arrived in Emilio’s office and examined the traces of magical energy left on it. She could feel faint traces of the magical energy of the silver dragon that resided in him.

And then she suddenly recalled the silver haired, golden eyed man she had fought the other day.

The day when Emilio and Miriam were attacked, he had been on the roof of a nearby building. 

However, it didn’t look like he was there for backup. He had a complicated expression on his face, a mixture of pity and contempt. His knuckles were white from clutching his hands so hard with blood dripping down from his nails digging into his palms. 

When he noticed Eleonora approaching, he let out a stream of blades made from wind without any reserve.

Eleonora would have dodged easily if it was done by a normal person. But, she couldn’t keep up with the speed of his magic and had ended up getting an injury on her arm.

And, just like that, Gilbert Dala de Feline procured a teleportation magic circle, and disappeared. 

That moment, his hood had fallen back and she had glimpsed, just for a second, his silver hair and golden eyes. 

“There is something up with that man. The Caparoni spy informed us that they’re trapped in that mansion so we will also head there. Of course, there’s a possibility that they moved to a different location so we will continue the search from another team as well.”

Everyone nodded at Emilio’s instructions, and then began preparing to dispatch.