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“Yes, I did. The village has nothing, but the people who live there are very kind.” 

The best way to relieve tension was to get distracted. Simultaneously, it would also serve as a reminder of her motivation to do her best.

“You’ve been sending money to that village, right?”

“Yes. If it wasn’t for everyone’s encouragement, I wouldn’t have achieved my dream of even just joining a theatre troupe. So I am now repaying everyone’s kindness.”

“Well then, if we resolve this incident successfully, I’ll have to give you special compensation, won’t I?”

My words weren’t entirely accurate. If she achieved some results as a spy, she should be given a reward. However, I specifically emphasized that I would reward her if the incident got resolved. I thought that, this way, she would be able to focus on the job more.

“…You’re right. I have to do my best for the sake of everyone in the village. I cannot afford to be anxious here, in order to also send money to the village.”

She slapped both of her cheeks and, the next moment, she had assumed a relaxed stance. I guess she was able to get into character very easily, just as one would expect of an actress.

And so, we arrived in front of the theatre, located in the town square right at the heart of the royal city. Isabella, who had completely regained her composure, asked me what we should do now.

“Let’s see… Could you follow my lead?”

“Sounds good, show me what you’ve got!”

“Well then – please give me your hand, young Lady.”

I slightly lifted my elbow and let Isabella link her arm around it. Of course, because of the height difference between us, it was simply to keep up appearances.  For this reason, I utilized her sense of balance. Looking like I was escorting Isabella, we entered the theatre. Although it seemed like there were no performances that day, a theatre attendant sat at the reception.

“Oh, dear me! It’s Miss Isabella with…”

“I am Isabella’s patron.”

When he heard my words, the man at the reception looked like he really wanted to give his opinion on that. However, when I retaliated with a look that seemed to ask: ‘Is there a problem?’, he put on a poker face.

“I apologize for asking this so suddenly, but could you get me the manager?”

“The manager? Certainly, please wait a moment.”

The man politely bowed his head and went through a passage with an entry that was restricted to authorized personnel only. 

“…You surprised me. Why did you say you’re my patron? Given your age, wouldn’t it be more convincing if you said that you were the son of my patron or something like that?”

“That’s exactly why I said it.”

‘A son of a patron made a selfish request to go on a date with Isabella.’ Even thinking about it realistically, something like that was still within the realm of possibility. However, that was precisely why it would likely raise the question of whose son I was. Although somewhat spoiled and willful, I wouldn’t be the patron myself, so I wouldn’t be someone they couldn’t afford to offend without it becoming troublesome 

However, if I were a patron myself, then that was a completely different story. ‘A mysterious child that had sufficient financial means to become someone’s patron.’ Considering my somewhat high-handed self-introduction as well, they didn’t know what sort of thing might offend me. I anticipated them to come to the conclusion that the best plan of action was to avoid asking unnecessary questions. Upon explaining so, an indescribable expression appeared on Isabella’s face. 

“Honestly, I’ve been thinking this from the first time I’ve met you. You really aren’t an ordinary person, are you?”

“That’s because I’m an exclusive butler.”

“No, even if you tell me something like ‘it’s reasonable for exclusive butlers’…”

Isabella appeared to want to say more, but she didn’t add anything after that, because the receptionist from earlier just returned. He emerged from the depth of the hallway, bringing a man一seemingly the manager一along.

“My apologies for the wait. I am the manager of this theatre. Lady Isabella. And-”

“My name is Fame.”

“Master Fame… was it? Excuse my rudeness, but haven’t we met somewhere before?”

“No, we’re now meeting for the first time.”

“…Is that so?”

The man seemed puzzled. He might have seen me somewhere before. However, as I was more or less in disguise today, my real identity was unlikely to get exposed in this situation.

“What, you want to say something?”

“No, my apologies. Well then, Master Fame, what is your business with us today?” he asked politely, despite addressing a child that looked to be no older than thirteen. I guess that was to be expected of a manager.

“To tell the truth, I am interested in the doll of Light and Darkness.”

“…The doll of Light and Darkness?”

With an expression that seemed to say: ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ he answered in a way that didn’t match the code.

However-

“Don’t play dumb. You know about the doll of Light and Darkness, don’t you?”

“I have heard rumors about it. However, to make them into a doll would be a shame.”

The words that flashed through my mind一‘I knew it’一didn’t show up on my face at all. It was probably a way for this man to mislead me, as he was suspicious of me. However, when I uttered the first phrase of the code, I didn’t fail to notice the man’s eyes widening momentarily. Therefore, I continued to question him. 

Moreover, I finished off by saying: “But I heard that there’s a doll maker for whom it’s possible.” 

Sure enough-

“…Understood. It’s this way, please.”

The manager bowed politely and led us towards the corridor with the restricted entry. At that moment, Isabella’s arm, still linked with mine, stiffened minutely. Despite coming all the way here, she was probably wishing and hoping that the theatre was not to be involved. I had no idea what the doll maker of Frau was doing, but that was precisely why I couldn’t just let them be. With that purpose in mind, I pulled her arm a little bit closer. Isabella looked at me, looking startled and then she nodded, as if she had gathered her resolve.

And so, we were led in front of one of the rooms, deep within the theatre. There, the man stopped, told us to ‘wait here shortly, please’, and, facing the centre of the room, he called out: “Customers are here!”

Before long, a fair-skinned woman in her mid twenties appeared, but –

“Welcome- huh, Sir Butler?”

The moment she saw me, her eyes grew wide. However, she was only frozen for a second before immediately closing the door and standing in front of it, blocking the way.1

“What is Sir Butler – no, the reputed Master Cyril – doing here?”

“I came to meet the Dollmaker of Frau.”

Now that we had come this far, it wasn’t necessary for me to keep acting, and I addressed her in my usual manner.

“Sir Butler came out to meet m- …No, um, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“…Ah, haven’t you clearly acknowledged that you’re the Dollmaker of Frau just now?”

“I d-didn’t! I definitely didn’t!”

She seemed to be awfully panicked. She didn’t even seem to realize that stubbornly insisting that she hadn’t just acknowledged it, in itself, was the same as acknowledging it. Incidentally, it seemed that, at this point, the manager had also noticed her strange behavior, but Isabella was dealing with him and kept him quiet. Therefore, I was able to concentrate on the woman in front of me.

“Then, what is on the other side of that door?”

“N-nothing!”

“Oh, is that so? Since it’s a room, I thought that there would be at least a table or a desk?”

“…Hueh? Ah, aah, that’s right. Of course, there’s a table and a desk!”

“Then, would you allow me to take a look at what kind of desk you are using?”

“I-I-I can’t!”

Although she looked panicked, she was simultaneously being very stubborn, which was troublesome. At this point, the sort of crimes that the Dollmaker of Frau was committing were all unclear. Now that she insisted that she didn’t know anything, it would also be difficult for her to come up with a bold attack tactic.

That’s what I thought, but –

“I- I won’t ever let you through here!”

The instant she said this, she leapt forward. I didn’t expect her to be able to daringly attack me, but that didn’t mean that I was caught off guard. I instinctively cast a silent offensive magic spell while simultaneously trying to narrow down what her aim was.

Considering her title, the Dollmaker of Frau, there was a chance that she was using some questionable magic or medicine. However, she was empty-handed. She hadn’t been carrying anything earlier, and she hadn’t done anything to suggest that she was going to pull out any hidden weapons either. On the contrary, when she sprang at me, her moves were that of a complete amateur. 

I dodged to the side and as we passed each other, I took hold of her arm. Not liking the way her arm was getting twisted, she pushed her body forward. Using that momentum, I twisted her arm even more and her body turned 180 degrees, arching up.   

“Aaah whoa!?”

It seemed like she was a real beginner, and her body arched more than I expected. Just before the defenseless girl’s back was slammed against the floor, I placed my hands on her back. I stopped my movement and pulled her with my body instead, catching her in my arms.

“Geez… what were you thinking? A little learning is a dangerous thing, you know?”2

“Haha, whoa, Sir Butler is holding me in his arms… eek!”

“Are you listening to me?”

She didn’t respond. When I peered into her face, wondering about it, steam was rising from her head, and she had lost consciousness. I hadn’t the slightest idea of what was going on, but this was our chance.

“Oh, it appears that she is feeling unwell. I think she should lie down for a bit inside the room,” I shamelessly declared, and boldly entered the room to allow her to rest. I then laid her down on a sofa and looked around the room brazenly. And when I caught sight of an area in the inside of the room, sectioned off by a curtain, I gasped.

When she noticed me doing so, Isabella stepped inside the room. Then, she followed my line of sight and gasped the same way as I did.

“…I see, ‘the dollmaker of Frau’, huh?”

A young boy and a young girl were sitting on a sofa, right next to each other as if they were cuddling, and there was a young woman lying on a bed. And there were many more scenes such as these filling the room. They looked as if they were alive, but no soul resided inside of them.

The young boy and young girl sitting on the sofa were scaled-down dolls of Fol, in the role of Aurelia, and me, in the role of Alfred from the play ‘Espressivo of Light and Darkness’. As I had memories of my previous world, I recalled the term ‘figurine’.

“Those, I… that’s!”

The dollmaker of Frau woke up, realized that we were looking at the dolls, and jumped to her feet. Then she ran in front of the dolls with astonishing speed, obstructing the view of them.3

“Th-thi-this isn’t what you think!”

“Doesn’t matter if it is or not, one of those dolls is definitely me.”

“N-no, that is… well… it’s an accidental resemblance?”

“As if it could be.”

Letting out an ‘uh-oh’, she involuntarily fell to the ground. However, since it seemed that she still planned on playing innocent, we weren’t going to make any progress like this. I turned my gaze towards the manager, who had now walked into the room, the color draining from his face. The fact that he didn’t obstruct me despite things getting to this point must be because he had realized my real identity. Although I gave off a different impression because of the disguise, my face was still the same.

“…Mister manager, you knew about this, didn’t you?”

“N-no, that is… that…”

“You’re still trying to say that you’re not involved, despite knowing the code?”

“I-I deeply apologize!”

The manager got down on his hands and knees and began to explain. Apparently, he approached the doll maker of Frau and had her secretly make dolls of the theatre’s leading actors and actresses.

And since the dollmaker of Frau would occasionally go see the school festival’s plays as well, they set their sights on ‘Espressivo of Light and Darkness’, which had become the talk of the royal city.

However, to wilfully recreate the image of the daughter of a marquis or the daughter of an earl – not to mention the image of a prince- was very problematic. Because of that, they just produced dolls of Fol and me.

“Then, what does it mean that you had set your sights on Lady Sophia?”

“Th-that is, um… Your doll was getting sold for an unusually high price, and that became a secret hot topic. And, since there were people who said that they would pay any price for a doll of Lady Sophia…”

“So you were blinded by your greed?”

Certainly, this wasn’t something I could praise them for. To be fair, if one were to check the laws of this kingdom, even selling dolls or pictures of actors and actresses without their permission, it wouldn’t be regarded as a crime. However, that was only the case when those actors were commoners. It was a different story if they were nobility. And on top of that, Fol was actually royalty. 

I couldn’t simply disregard all this and give them a stern warning, but, officially, they still hadn’t created anything besides dolls based on commoners. If I were to push too much, that would most likely invite speculations regarding Fol’s true identity.

As I puzzled over what I should do, I discovered a register.

“Is this… the customer register?”

I wasn’t sure whether it was lucky or not, but, among the doll buyers’ names, there weren’t any that I recognized. However, among the names of the people who wanted a doll of Lady Sophia, one rang a bell.

It was a fake name, but I feared that, probably, it was… 

“Mister manager, Dollmaker of Frau. If you accept my conditions, I shall turn a blind eye to this incident.” 

“Y-you really will?”

Light appeared in the eyes of the two, who had believed up until that point that they were about to die.

“I truly will. First off, please get permission from the models the dolls are based on. Since you also sell their name, it can benefit the actors as well. If you offer them some compensation, most will probably agree to it.”

“…Understood, I promise to get their permission without exception.”

The manager’s complexion still wasn’t looking good, probably due to him thinking of the cost of getting permission. However, I was sure that, before long, he’d notice that, by getting permission, they would be able to get more detailed references and such.

The more important issue was that they had already sold a doll of a royal member, Her Highness Folcenia, without permission. Although I had a hunch that she would happily cooperate with them, I needed to consider the worst case scenario. Therefore-

“Then, next, you will recover the dolls based on anyone whose permission you didn’t get.“

“Th-that is… I will do my best, but some of the customers are nobles, so…”

“If necessary, consider bringing up Marquis Rosenberg’s name as well.”

Brandishing political power couldn’t be considered a good move. However, Fol had faked her identity because she was fated to die of an illness soon. She escaped that fate, so it was very likely that she would become active as a member of the royalty. It would be disrespectful to own a doll of a royal member, not to mention creating one without permission. In the unlikely event that she wouldn’t give them her permission, even if the dolls had to be recovered by using the name of a marquis household, everyone involved would  probably feel grateful eventually. 

“These are the two conditions. In addition, I will also help you to acquire permission from the academy’s students.”

“Really?! Then, please, certainly, help us with getting Lady Sophia’s permission as well!”

“…Let’s try and ask her.”

Somehow, the result of that seemed obvious to me but… I didn’t share my speculation.

After that, Fol, unsurprisingly gave her permission with great relish, and the other members of the Student Council gave their permission in exchange for getting  the dolls from the ‘Espressivo of Light and Darkness’ series. The Dollmaker of Frau began to sell the dolls officially but… well, this was all a later development.

After dealing with issues such as forbidding them from mentioning Isabella’s cooperation, we withdrew. I turned to Isabella as we returned to the main city square.

“Miss Isabella, your information was extraordinarily useful this time. I’ll be counting on you from now on, as well.”

“Then, may I be so bold as to hope for a reward?”

“Yes… How about this?”

I threw a potato that I had taken out from my pocket to her. 

“…Um, are you messing around with me?”

“No, I’m totally serious. You don’t know potatoes?”

“I do. They’re really popular in the royal city right now.”

“That’s right. Although the demand for them is rising, they are not grown anywhere in this kingdom besides Marquis Rosenberg’s territory. Moreover, making up for their several faults, they have an unusually huge advantage to them: they are easy to grow on any kind of land.”

“In other words… what you’re trying to say is that I should send them to my hometown?”

“That’s not entirely correct.”

I told her about my plan for growing this tuber in the territories of Lady Sophia’s faction members. Moreover, when I mentioned the name of Count Ford’s territory, Pamela’s home, Isabella’s expression changed. Her hometown was also in this territory.

“I will recommend the potatoes to be distributed to your home village as well, how about that?”

“Would something like that… be possible?”

“Yes. Lady Pamela’s home was put down as a candidate to begin with. Therefore, doing something such as including your home village in the potato-cultivating areas will not be a problem.”

As I explained, Isabella put her hand to her mouth and her eyes widened. Likely, she realized how much this reward would affect her poor village.

“Is it really alright… for you to do so much for me?”

“Well, this is a special occasion. I cannot do this every time.”

“That’s more than enough. Thank you, I didn’t think that you’d go this far for me.”

“The most important thing is that it’s to your liking. When you obtain some information again, please, do let me know.”

I bid Isabella farewell and turned on my heel, but, just as I was about to leave, Isabella called out to me and I turned back around. Isabella’s face was right in front of me. 

“This is my thank you for the surprise,” she whispered to me as she hugged me, bringing her mouth close to my ear. Then she drew back, and said: “Send my regards to Lady Sophia, alright?” and ran off.

“…Now you’ve gone and done it,” I muttered as I watched her retreating back.

Like this, the busy day came to an end. When I returned to the manor, as I expected, Rouché was waiting for me in front of my room, out of breath.

“Is something the matter?”

“Lady Sophia is waiting for you.”

“Then let’s go to the Lady’s… ah, she’s in my room, isn’t she? I’m just letting you know that-”

“I know. That’s why I didn’t report Isabella’s prank to her. So, please, hurry and explain it to Lady Sophia.”

When I was shoved into the room, Lady Sophia was waiting for me, standing tall, her arms crossed.4 It seemed that the one tailing me had been Rouché, after all. Lady Sophia had probably heard all sorts of information from her as she hurriedly returned before me. 

“Cyril, you said so yourself, right? That it wasn’t a date. You said so, didn’t you?”

“Yes, of course. I don’t go on dates.”

“Why are you telling me such lies?!”

Her pupils were dyed red, and her hair fluttered with magic. Because of her magical overcharge illness, both her magic and emotions ran wild. However, I was used to this. I walked towards my Lady and presented her with a little bundle I had taken out of my pocket.

“…Huh? What is this?”

“A present. I thought that it might suit you so I bought it for you, my Lady.” 

I retrieved a corsage from the bundle. It was a red rose corsage that I had discovered at the shop that sold the blue rose corsage. The red corsage was a variation of it. It wasn’t a product with a quality that was adequate for a young Lady of a marquis household, but…

“If you like, please put it on the next time you sneak out.”

“D-did you perhaps go into the city to buy this, Cyril? And going with Miss Isabella, too, was it because you wanted her to help you pick out a present for me?”

I gave her a smile without saying anything. It wasn’t affirmation, but it wasn’t unusual for silence to be understood as affirmation either. It seemed that Lady Sophia was also misled in the end,

”So it was like that…,” she said and smiled happily. 

Well that didn\'t go as I expected :D. At least no one\'s doing voodoo dolls to harm Sophia I guess! Thank you for reading! A chapter from Cyril\'s father\'s POV is up next!

1. Verb here implies that she has her legs and arms spread wide so I think it’s safe to imagine she is doing a starfish-like pose.
2. 生兵法は大怪我のもと – ‘namabyouhou wa ookega no moto’ – basically if you have rudimentary knowledge of something and then act on it, it can lead to injuries/harm.
3. Same verb used here as before, she is starfishing in front of them.
4. 仁王立ちをした – ‘nioudachi wo shita’, it means to draw yourself to your full height, strike a daunting pose; google searches suggest that it specifically means poses like this, with legs apart.