The Youngest Daughter of the Swordsmanship Family Turned Great Mage - Chapter 43

Rosette blushed slightly and straightened her back.

“I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize. Let’s go.”

Joshua took the lead towards the Empress’s palace. Isabel, who seemed familiar with the place, walked with her back straight after checking on Rosette with her eyes, while Rosette hunched her shoulders slightly and looked around.

“Straighten your shoulders and back. And don’t look around needlessly, just look ahead as you walk.”

“Yes.”

“Have confidence. You’re an Adrian too. No need to feel intimidated.”

“Yes.”

The three soon entered the Empress’s palace. At first, the guards were wary, but after seeing Joshua’s face, they let the children in.

After entering the Empress’s palace, the Empress’s lady-in-waiting personally guided them to the reception room.

As the three children entered, the Empress stood up to greet them.

“Welcome, everyone. Was the journey here difficult?”

The Empress of Ernhardt, Ophelia Ernhardt, was a woman with the same silver hair and amethyst-like purple eyes as Joshua. And she was more beautiful than any woman Rosette had ever seen.

‘Wow.’

Rosette, who had been staring at her in awe, belatedly followed Isabel in bending her knee.

“We greet Your Majesty the Empress.”

“We greet Your Majesty.”

“Yes, both of you may rise.”

Ophelia took the hands of the two children and headed towards a large round table. Various snacks were placed there.

“You sit too, Joshua.”

“Yes.”

At the table, Ophelia, Isabel, Rosette, and Joshua sat in clockwise order. Rosette, who ended up sitting next to Joshua, became very tense.

Seeing this, Ophelia smiled softly.

“There’s no need to be nervous. Don’t think of me as the Empress, just think of me as a close aunt.”

“How could I…”

“If Vanessa, that child, were still alive, she would have adored you as her youngest daughter. If you’re Vanessa’s daughter, you’re my daughter too. So feel free to be comfortable.”

But how could that be as easy as it sounded? Rosette nodded, saying she understood, but couldn’t shake off the tension that had crept into her body.

Ophelia poured black tea into Isabel and Joshua’s cups, and hot chocolate into Rosette’s cup.

“By the way, Isabel. You haven’t been coming lately.”

“I apologize, Your Majesty. It’s been difficult to find time.”

“I see, managing the mansion isn’t an easy task. Plus, you have to learn swordsmanship.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“Has your swordsmanship improved? You seem to have grown a lot since I last saw you.”

“I’m still lacking a lot. Everyone says I’ll probably grow tall like my father.”

“Being tall is good for a swordsman. Is Lucas doing well?”

“That child is doing so well it’s almost a problem.”

Ophelia chuckled.

“It’s good that he’s doing well, why say that? If I had known, I should have asked Lucas to come too.”

After that, Isabel and Ophelia continued to exchange brief updates.

“I heard Duke Adrian almost met with a great misfortune?”

“Yes. It’s really fortunate that he’s safe.”

“Yes, it’s truly fortunate. When I heard the news, I was so shocked I couldn’t sleep properly.”

“I’m sorry. If I had known you were so worried, I should have come to see you first and told you.”

“I’m not blaming you, so there’s no need to apologize.”

After chatting with Isabel for a while longer, the Empress suddenly called out to Rosette.

“By the way, young lady, your name is Rosette, correct?”

Rosette, who was biting into a cookie with her front teeth, was startled and hid the cookie behind her back.

“Yes, that’s right. My name is Rosette Adrian.”

“It’s a name that suits a young lady. Was it given because of your hair color?”

“Yes. They said I was named Rosette because I resembled a pink rose.”

Rosette answered shyly, then gathered her courage and raised her head.

“Um, Your Majesty!”

“What is it?”

“Please, please call me Rosette too!”

Isabel rubbed her temple, and Ophelia laughed.

“My, is that alright?”

“Yes!”

“Alright, Rosette. You have such a lovely heart.”

Rosette didn’t know which part showed her lovely heart, but she just smiled brightly.

“Well, Rosette. I hear your magic skills are quite remarkable.”

She was now used to praise from her family and the people at the mansion. But receiving praise from someone she was meeting for the first time was extremely embarrassing. Rosette’s face turned as red as a tomato.

“It’s, it’s nothing special.”

“Nothing special, you say.”

Isabel muttered.

“You can even summon a familiar. Even Celline was very surprised.”

She was subtly boasting about Rosette while pretending not to. In this aspect, she resembled Lucas.

“Oh my.”

Ophelia showed interest.

“You can summon a familiar too?”

“Uh, yes.”

“My goodness, that’s really amazing. I heard our Joshua has quite a talent for magic too, but he hasn’t summoned a familiar yet.”

“Ah, but…”

The young prince already has a familiar.

Rosette was about to mutter that but instinctively closed her mouth.

She glanced at Joshua and saw him subtly shaking his head.

It seemed that his summoning of a familiar was a secret.

Rosette fumbled for words.

“I think the young prince will soon summon a familiar too, given his good skills.”

“I hope so. More than that, could I see your familiar?”

“Of course!”

Rosette immediately summoned Pipi.

Pipi, suddenly summoned, looked around. It had an unfamiliar expression, as this wasn’t the scenery it usually saw.

The white sparrow was especially curious about Ophelia, whom it was seeing for the first time. As Pipi stared at Ophelia, Rosette quietly whispered.

“Pipi, this is the Empress. Say hello.”

Pipi was startled, then stood on two feet on the table. It then bowed its head towards Ophelia.

As if it had seen it somewhere, it held one wing out like a person. But then it lost its balance and bumped its head on the table.

Pipi cried sadly. The Empress, who was stroking the spot where Pipi had bumped, opened her palm.

“Come up here.”

Pipi hopped onto her palm with its two legs together. It wagged its tail feathers at Ophelia, acting cute, and even got some biscuit crumbs.

Rosette felt a little betrayed, but Pipi, oblivious to its master’s feelings, happily pecked at the biscuit crumbs.

“It’s amazing no matter how many times I see it. To summon a familiar at such a young age. Even in my home country, the Kingdom of Evelyn, I never heard of someone summoning a familiar at eight years old.”

Rosette felt extremely embarrassed at Ophelia’s praise.

In the past, she had first summoned Pipi at eleven years old. That was also an amazing feat, but it didn’t have as much impact compared to eight years old.

The fact that she had a familiar at eight years old now was purely due to her past memories.

In other words, it wasn’t entirely due to her own ability. Her mana core, too, shouldn’t have existed yet if things were as they should be.

“I was just lucky.”

“In times like this, you should just say thank you. Don’t be too modest either.”

At Isabel’s advice, Rosette blushed even more and mumbled.

“Thank you for the praise.”

The Empress reached out and gently pinched Rosette’s soft cheek.

“How can you be so cute? This is why I should have a daughter. Joshua doesn’t have any cuteness.”

“Mother.”

“Did I say something wrong? Anyway, why don’t you teach Joshua how to summon a familiar?”

“Me?”

“Yes. You’re the senior, aren’t you?”

To teach the prince, and a prince who had already summoned a familiar at that. It was nonsense.

But Ophelia was looking at her with an expectant face. Rosette stammered as she tried to explain her own method of summoning a familiar.

“You just think about wanting a friend…”

Joshua snickered. He was clearly mocking her. Rosette felt like crying.

“A friend? Me?”

“Or family…”

Rosette’s voice became smaller. Ophelia called out to Joshua in a slightly lowered voice.

“Prince.”

The changed form of address revealed that she was slightly angry. Joshua wiped the smile off his face.

Ophelia whispered kindly to Rosette.

“He’s just embarrassed. Try to understand. Later, when Joshua manages to summon a familiar, maybe your familiars could become friends. I wonder what kind of animal Joshua’s familiar will be.”

The young prince’s familiar is a wolf. A large silver wolf.

But because she couldn’t say that, Rosette vaguely answered.

“I hope the young prince’s familiar is a bird.”

“A bird?”

“Yes. So it could become friends with Pipi, wouldn’t that be nice?”

“That’s true.”

“I’ll handle my familiar on my own.”

Joshua, who replied curtly, stood up from his seat.

“By the way, Mother. May I show the young lady around the castle?”

“Oh my, you mean Rosette?”

Ophelia seemed a bit surprised, then smiled meaningfully.

“Of course, that’s fine. There must be many interesting things to see, go ahead and show her around.”

“Thank you.”

This time, Joshua spoke to Rosette.

“Let’s go, young lady.”

“Ah, yes.”

It seemed the time had come.

Instead of asking the foolish question “Why are you showing me around the castle?”, Rosette tensed up and followed him.

Joshua stuck close to Rosette and whispered.

“How much do you know about that incident?”

“I know what kind of poison was used. But I don’t know where it was put, so we need to look for it. It’s probably in a place related to herbs or tea.”

“Then let’s go find out about that.”

Joshua went ahead and explained things Rosette didn’t know.

“The culprit who poisoned Mother was a lady-in-waiting named Sophia Cannon. She’s the second daughter of Viscount Cannon, and has been in the Empress’s palace for about 5 years.”

“Is there a reason why Sophia Cannon was identified as the culprit?”

“She fainted after burning incense for Mother to help her sleep. Mother had insomnia and often used sleep-inducing incense. Not many people knew about that, including Sophia Cannon. Naturally, she had to be identified as the culprit, don’t you think?”

“Did she admit to the crime?”

“No. She claimed innocence until the end.”

Joshua gritted his teeth.

“Detestably so.”

“Was poison found in the incense?”

“No. Coincidentally, no known poison components were found. But the court physician of the Empress’s palace said they might have used a new, undiscovered poison. However, despite continuous investigation, they couldn’t identify its composition until the very end.”

“And yet they executed Sophia Cannon?”

“Yes. I said we should investigate more, but His Majesty concluded it that way. Saying Sophia had a motive.”

“A motive?”

“Yes.”

Just then, some maids passing by bowed to the two of them. Joshua ignored them, while Rosette nodded slightly.

“The Cannon viscounty was struggling with debt, but about a month before Mother passed away, they cleared their debt. Viscount Cannon claimed he won money from gambling, but there was no one to prove it.”

“Because gambling houses are illegal. They probably didn’t want to get involved.”

Rosette nodded.

“It certainly seems suspicious given the circumstances. But there’s a higher chance that Sophia Cannon is not the culprit.”