That day, we ended up staying the night at the mansion as-is.
As Albert’s guests, we were officially granted permission to stay.
We were given a single guest room.
However, it was very spacious, and there were four beds.
“Ahhh, a fluffy bed—this is wonderful~”
Licorice immediately dove onto one of the beds, but the rest of us didn’t follow suit.
We walked around the room, checking the layout…
And also searching for something specific.
“Fate, how was it?”
“I think it’s fine.”
“On my end as well, there were no issues.”
“Daddy, Mommy—what are you doing?”
Aisha tilted her head in curiosity.
“Well… we were checking to see if there were any bad people eavesdropping on us.”
“Oooh.”
“You wouldn’t like it if someone were watching you either, right, Aisha-chan? That’s why we were carefully checking everything.”
To be honest, we don’t fully trust Albert.
There were no contradictions in his story, but…
That alone isn’t enough to trust someone we just met.
It should be the same for him as well.
So I assumed he’d set up some kind of magical listening device in the guest room…
But we couldn’t find anything like that.
It’s not as if Albert truly trusts us—that would be far too naïve.
If he installed eavesdropping magic tools and we discovered them, it would put him at a disadvantage.
So instead, he deliberately did nothing… that’s probably the case.
“With this, at least we can talk about things without holding back.”
“I’m not so sure… There’s still the possibility that we simply failed to find the listening devices. Or perhaps he has a way to monitor us without relying on such tools. When you think about that, it’s hard to relax…”
“Isn’t that fine?”
“Huh?”
“If it happens, it happens. If Albert makes a strange move, it’ll be easy to tell. We can judge him as an enemy.”
“……”
“If nothing’s been set up, then that’s fine too. We can trust him a little more. Either way, we don’t really lose, do we?”
“……Fate, you’ve grown up before I even noticed.”
“Huh? Huh?”
She suddenly pulled me into a tight embrace.
Why?
And um… that’s, uh… pressing against me…
“Hehe, does it feel nice?”
“W-What are you talking about!?”
I hurriedly pulled away from Sofia.
“M-More importantly, we need to decide what to do next.”
“You changed the subject, didn’t you?”
“Daddy dodged it!”
“Aisha too!?”
“Children learn by imitating their parents.”
Licorice said that with a wry smile, neatly wrapping things up.
“Well, jokes aside… let’s discuss what comes next, just as Fate said.”
“Whether we cooperate with Albert or not… right?”
What he’s trying to do is extremely radical.
To put it another way…
If someone’s leg is diseased, normally you’d try to identify the cause and treat it.
But in Albert’s case, his solution is to cut off the leg entirely before the disease spreads elsewhere.
It’s a very extreme approach, but it can’t be dismissed outright.
Depending on the situation and timing, it might actually be the correct choice.
“If the lord is so rotten that there’s no saving him, then what Albert is doing would be right.”
“Yeah… the longer this drags on, the more damage the city takes. More people will suffer. So ending it all at once before that happens isn’t necessarily a bad thing.”
“However… that’s only if his story is true.”
That’s the problem.
We only have Albert’s account—no other information.
Is he telling the truth?
Or is the lord actually the one in the right?
We have no way of judging that yet.
“First, we need to gather information.”
“But will we even be allowed to go out…?”
“Then leave it to the Ultra-Miracle Ultra Fairy Licorice-chan!”
…She just said “Ultra” twice, didn’t she?
“With me, I can slip out easily and gather information in no time!”
“……”
“Both of you giving me those suspicious looks!?”
“Well…”
“Yeah…”
Knowing Licorice’s usual behavior, it’s impossible not to feel uneasy.
Will she really be okay?
Is she going to mess something up?
Is she going to bring back trouble without thinking?
There’s no end to the things to worry about.
“It’s fine! I’ll bring back some amazing, big-time information—you’ll see!”
“Hey, Licorice!?”
Before we could stop her, Licorice slipped out through a gap in the window and flew away.
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