I quietly stored away my intense desire for destruction in the back of my heart. Unfortunately the man responsible wasn’t one of the nobles present, so I would have to wait to deal out my revenge… I looked at the now grey crest in my hand and gently tapped it with my finger. The blue spark of the spell I had used to alter the video feed flew out and melted into my hand, restoring a little bit of my very low mana pool. The first part of the video and the ending with the payment had been completely real, of course, but I had figured that the king wouldn’t be as willing to let me take care of the man unless my name was completely cleared from this situation, so I…….added a little extra to the video. Of course, all of the stuff I had said about draining power and Lonan using the artifact to alter his own soul was true…...he just hadn’t said it in the video. I glanced at the king and caught him staring at me, I quirked my head questioningly at him, did he suspect something? He shouldn’t, I made the information dump so obvious that no one would believe it was a fake……..The man smiled at my gesture.

“Ah, sorry, I just got distracted there for a moment, Miss Delta, it seems I owe you an apologie, for a moment there I was holding some doubt about your involvement…….”

Oh, so he just wanted to apologize…..I shrugged, if I had been in his place, I would have doubted me too…..I looked at the two bloody eggs he held in his hand. The king followed my gaze and gave a soft chuckle.

“Two level five magical beasts, these are hard for even me to get…...it’s a pity they’re useless since Lonan bonded them.”

My eyes bulged as I saw his hand start to tighten around the eggs, preparing to shatter them. I dashed forward and snatched the eggs away from him. Hugging the eggs to my chest, I stared indignantly at the king, really, did he not know that a binding can be released so long as the master that bound them is killed before they hatch!? Well, performing a second binding does mean that it takes a lot longer for the beast to mature once it’s been hatched, which wouldn’t work with a human’s short lifespan…..but still, how much information have humans lost track of!? The man actually had the nerve to blink blankly at me when he had just been about to kill to innocent baby animals!!!

“Eh? What are you doing Delta, magical beasts will only respond their bonded master, and since Lonan is dead, these two won’t even be able to hatch because they can’t feed off of Lonan’s energy signature! It’s a mercy to just kill them now, it’s not like they’ll feel anything anyways…...”

Ignoring him, I focused on the eggs, I didn’t have very much mana left at all despite the spell I had recycled, but there was just enough for my purposes if I was careful. I began to run a thin layer of blue fire up and down the eggs, completely burning away Lonan’s blood as I stretched a thread of mana into each of the eggs to carefully melt away any trace of Lonan’s magic from the eggs.

King Edric’s Point of View:

I watched in horror has Delta began to cook the two magical beast eggs. W-was she planning to eat them?

“H-hey, you do know that magical beast meat is poisonous, right!?”

I covered my nose as the smell of burned blood started to fill the air and took a small step back. That wasn’t even the proper way to cook eggs, they should boiled or scrambled, not roasted! The center will be undercooked if she uses this method…...blech, it’s not like these are real eggs, there are actual magical beast bodies formed inside those! Delta glanced at me calmly at stopped cooking the eggs, there was no longer even a speck of blood left on their gleaming white and gold shells. She couldn’t be trying to…...I watched in bewilderment as Delta calmly bit her thumb and let a drop of her blood fall onto each egg. Could she not know that removing the blood on the egg didn’t release a binding!?

My jaw dropped open at what happened next. The eggs started to glow with a golden light, a signal that a binding had been completed. Delta smiled sweetly at the eggs and tucked them safely in her bodice.

“W-wah, b-but howwwwww!??”

S-she actually bonded them!?? How did she do that!!!!!???? Delta just looked coldly at me, her thoughts practically written across her face, ‘you almost killed two innocent baby animals! Why should I tell you anything!’. Her bird was also glaring evilly at me….Now that I think about it….the bird with the injured wing, and now saving two magical beast eggs from destruction…...could it be…..

“Miss Delta…….could it be that…….you have a weakness for animals?”

Delta’s eyes widened, she was clearly surprised at my change in subject, and her cheeks flushed a soft pink that clashed with her tough image. I couldn’t help the grin that stretched across my face at her reaction, and Delta gave an offended huff before turning to leave. She suddenly staggered and I reflexively grabbed her shoulder, steadying her. Her bird squawked as my hand brushed it’s talons and it pecked me.

“Ow! That hurt, I was only trying to help, Delta, are you okay?”

I turned her around and realized that her face was extremely pale. Immediately I sent a small stream of mana into her body, checking the state of her mana pool.

“You’re completely out of mana! Do you realize how dangerous that is!? It takes longer to restore your mana pool when it’s completely empty, and those guys are probably going to try and send some assassins after you tonight. You know what, you’re staying in the palace tonight, I’m going to have some guards watch you, most of the mana you lost was from killing Lonan, right?”

After a moment, she nodded and then shrugged away from my grasp and walked over to the metal tree that had once been her sword. She scooped up the tree and looked at me expectantly……..I had expected her to put up more of a fight!?

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Delta’s point of view:

I looked at the king, waiting for him to tell me where I would be staying. I wasn’t stupid enough to go off on my own when I literally had no mana to defend myself with, just because I didn’t want to injure my pride. The King stood there, looking surprised for a long moment, then turned to the man standing at his side.

“Theron, guide Delta to one of the guest rooms, and have Ren and Brom guard her room.”

Theron nodded and walked for the door, motioning for me to follow him. The King trailed after us as we passed through several hallways, I groaned in my mind, this maze of hallways was another problem with humans, I can already tell I’m going to get lost a lot…...We finally arrived at the guest room I was staying at for the night, and I turned to look at the king, who had followed us the whole way here. Doesn’t he have something more important to do? Theron also turned to look at the king.

“You, what are you doing…...”

“Ah, well, Delta still hasn’t answered my question about the eggs…..”

…..He followed me all the way here, just for that!? Why didn’t he just ask me in the meeting room, or on the way here!??..............could it be……..this guy is an idiot!? I looked suspiciously at the king, he scowled at me.

“There’s always paper and ink and quills kept in guest rooms for convenience, I figured I could have you right it down. I know you were wondering if I was an idiot just now, you shouldn’t think such thoughts about a king!”

…..Hmmmm, half-idiot then…..but what is this about the paper and ink, it makes the castle feel like an everyday inn!? And if guest rooms have paper and ink, why didn’t the meeting room have some!? I turned and walked into the guestroom, it was simple, but everything was clearly of high quality. Spotting a desk, I walked over to it, opening the sealed jar of ink and dipping the simple quill that had been lying beside it in it’s dark depths. I pulled open the single drawer in the desk, and as I expected, found a stack of thick, cut paper. I pulled out a sheet and quickly wrote out what I wanted to see. I raised the paper up, blowing on it to dry the ink a little bit, then handed it to the king. He took it looked over it for a moment.

“Ehhhhh!? To think it was such a simple method…….using a special flame to burn off the blood and remove the other person’s mana traces at the same time…...the spell for the flame is really simple too…….But I suppose this bit about it taking a lot longer for the magical beasts to mature is troublesome……….Hmmmm? You wrote a question at the end…...Ah, I had all the paper taken out of any meeting rooms to decrease the chance of sensitive information being spread…..well, least, that was the excuse I gave, I really just wanted to mess with those guys.”

…….I feel sort of worried for this kingdom now…...Really, what an abuse of power….maybe while I’m here, I should try to ‘fix’ him a little bit…..But for now, it’s time to sleep! I shooed Theron and King…..Edric? out of my room and helped Firesong onto a comfortable perch on the frame. Not even bothering to undress, I pulled off my boots and scabbards and then sank happily onto the deliciously soft bed. I was asleep in a matter of seconds.

King Edric’s Point of View:

Theron slapped me on the back of the head almost as soon Delta closed the door behinds. I rubbed the sore spot and glared at him.

“What was that for?”

Theron gave me a long glance, then sighed. I swear, he acts like my mother half the time, well…..what I imagine my mother would’ve acted like.

“Please show even just a little bit of the proper dignity of a king when around strangers…...Really, I could practically see the worry about the future of this country in Delta’s eyes…...It’s not like your father is alive, you don’t have to act like this anymore!”

I shrugged, glancing back at Delta’s room.

“Eh, I feel comfortable around her, most people I talk to are edgy because I’m king, except you of course, but…….Delta, she treats me like a completely normal person, even more than you do…….It’s interesting……………Anyways, I enjoy imagining that sack of bones rolling around in his grave~”

Theron groaned.

“I get that you hate him, and you have every right to, but he’s dead, you shouldn’t let him influence how you act anymore. I know you’ve been working hard since you’ve been crowned king, but your attitude completely conflicts with that!”

I grinned at him.

“I know~

To tell you the truth, while the majority of it is because I enjoy riling up the nobles, I do have an actual reason for acting like this~”

Theron narrowed his eyes at me suspiciously.

“I’m not sure if I believe you…...”

I shrugged and started walking.

“Eh, I don’t really care whether you believe me or not. Anyways, about Delta…...I get the feeling she’s spent a lot of time around royals...I would wonder if she was a spy, except that with her taking the oath as my guard, she won’t be able to give away any sensitive information….the fact that she knew how to release the binding on the eggs, something we thought was impossible, is interesting as well……....Well, I’m sure I’ll be able to get a clearer picture of her reason once I get to know her better~”

Theron gave a soft sigh.

“So you’ve found another interesting ‘toy’........suddenly, I feel a bit sorry for Delta……

Still, I would be careful, Delta seems like a puzzle even you might not be able to solve….”

I just continued to stroll through the hall, humming happily under my breath.

I do so love a challenge~