Chapter 55: Because I’m a Wizard│Read translated stories and daily updates at: Awebstories.com
“Alesia, the pot will burn if you don’t take it off the fire soon.”
“Oh, no! No!”
She quickly took the pot off the fire.
—○
I was so lost in thought that I almost burned the stew. Tonight is the night for my father’s favorite spicy lamb stew.
“Are you all right? You’re not pushing yourself too hard on the water, are you?”
“No. It’s not that difficult, Oto-san.”
His highness also advised me not to overwork myself.
“Don’t worry. I can handle twice that much.”
That night, I told myself, “I’m going to bed early just in case,” and I settled into my room’s bed, but I couldn’t sleep.
I’m curious. In the palace, there is a hidden room. I wonder if the current royal family is aware of its existence.
When the rebellion broke out, the people rushed into the palace and executed the royal family and top nobles in record time, according to a book in the library.
In other words, everyone who knew about the hidden room had to be killed in a single day. The current royal family is very unlikely to be aware of “that” room.
What if someone hid in the hidden room during the rebellion? What if the bodies have been there for decades and have yet to be discovered?
I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who knows about “that” secret room now. The craftsmen who created the secret room are most likely no longer alive. After all, commoners don’t have long lives.
Maybe there are forgotten bodies lying there. Maybe it’s someone I know.
Once you suspect it, you can’t get it out of your mind.
Even if I wanted to open the door and look inside, I couldn’t explain how I knew about the hidden room.
Even though I know it’s a ridiculous fantasy, I keep imagining and picturing, hoping to send the “poor body” back to the family.
It was only a [maybe] idea at first, but the image of a starving person lying in a small hidden room became clearer and clearer in my mind’s eye.
Not checking the hidden room is as unsettling as walking around with a pebble in your shoe.
So, the next morning, after I filled the barrels with water, I asked to see Her Highness Edna.
“What do you want to talk about, Alesia-chan?”
“Your Highness, I’m prepared to be mocked, but I occasionally sense a bad omen in the palace. It’s probably because I’ve never been there before, and because it’s so weak. Will Her Highness show me around the palace?”
“Oh, no! Is this a bad omen? That is something we will have to figure out!”
Her Highness Edna looks at me with a twinkle in her eye, as if she wants to explore her familiar palace.
This is not what I had in mind.
The plan was only to frighten her.
But I’m still curious about the hidden room. I’d like to get the pebbles out of my shoes.
His Highness and I, along with the lady-in-waiting, set out.
Instead of going straight to the hidden room, I took a deliberate detour and returned to it. We’ve reached the third floor of the west tower.
Just as I was about to enter the hidden room, the door to the room I was passing opened, revealing a young man who resembled His Highness Mark. He gave me a sidelong glance before calling out.
“Huh? Edna. What’s the problem?”
“Moshe-niisama! Alesia-chan is now sensing a bad omen in the royal palace…”
“Perhaps I’m imagining things, Your Highness Edna!”
“A bad omen? That’s not a promising sign. You are a wizard, after all. Do you mind if I join you?”
This isn’t exactly what I had in mind.
I wasn’t supposed to take the prince and princess, along with their maids, to look for a hidden room. Should I have tolerated pebbles in my shoes?
…What if there were a slew of dead bodies lying around the room? If it had just been Her Highness Edna, I would have quickly looked in and said, “Your Highness, I can’t let you see this!”
But I’m not sure if I can use that method in the presence of His Highness Princess Moshe.
I was staring at His Highness Moshe’s face, thinking about everything in my head, when His Highness Moshe said, with a sad tone, “Can’t I?”
Sigh…It’s not what I wanted to do, but it’s what I have to do.
“Of course it’s fine.”
The west tower’s third floor has come to an end. There are two doors next to each other. I point to the door on the left and request that it be opened for me. It appears to be unused. There were some white cloth-covered shelves, chairs, and tables. To the left of the entrance, facing the outer wall, there is a hidden room in the wall.
“Is this it, Alesia-chan? Is this where you sense a bad omen?”
“Yes.”
I take a deep breath and walk up to the wall on my left. I fix my gaze on it. A shelf stands in front of the hidden room’s entrance. I can feel the excited expressions of the two princesses and the suspicious gazes of the maids.
“I’ll move the bookcase.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
His Highness Moshe, who is much taller than me, lifts and moves the empty shelf with both hands.
Since last night, I’ve checked my memory several times to remember how to open the door to the hidden room. When someone asks how I knew how to open it, all I can say is, “Because I’m a wizard.”
I squat down and use both hands to press on the third stone from the bottom, which is a completely different colored wall. A section of the floorboard lifts slightly to the right after a few steps. Remove it and step on the stone inside. Inside the wall, there was a thudding sound. Then I pushed as hard as I could on the top of the stone I’d originally pushed in, and the wall, which was barely big enough for a person to fit through, retreated. You could get in if you pushed it to the left.
“Oh! Does Alesia even know of this?!”
“Yes. Because I’m a wizard.”
I pushed my weight to the left on a section of the wall that had been pulled back.
The door under which the door wheel is located makes a loud thump.
An entrance appeared.
I pushed my upper body into the entrance and looked inside quickly to avoid the three people behind me.
However, it is dark because my body is blocking the entrance, and I can hardly see anything.
I take a step back to let the light in, but His Highness Moshe quickly pokes his head in. And then His Highness screams.
Aaah!”
Sigh, this is not at all what I planned.
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