Gathered into Poetry at This Moment

"What happened? Why are someone else's guards in my Royal Palace?" Everything stiffened again, until another voice finally broke the deadlock. A man in magnificent robes arrived surrounded by guards. Wrinkles crept around his golden eyes, whose color was somewhat clouded. "Mise? And... Lelia."

"Your Majesty." The nobles all bowed to him. Even though the situation had gone far beyond their usual experiences, they still maintained the proper etiquette.

The king waved at them, then looked once more at the farce by the door. "What happened? Will someone explain to this useless old man what happened?"

The king's self-deprecation did nothing to lower Lelia's guard. She said coldly, "This commoner is impersonating my niece. My niece, Fatenai Wisdom, is nowhere to be found, yet she is trying to absolve herself of any involvement. Prince Mise has been preventing me from uncovering the truth."

"Lady Gabrielle, I think your methods of seeking the truth are far too reckless." Mise had been the one to tell Lelia about this matter in the first place, but after seeing Lelia's merciless handling of things and Fatenai's pitiful appearance, he couldn't help losing what little favor he had for her.

Seeing that the two were about to argue again, the king waved his hand. "It is truly regrettable that such a thing has happened, but Mise is right. You won't find the truth this way. Lelia, you're still as reckless as before."

As he spoke, the king gave the butler a look. The butler immediately stepped forward. "Ladies and young ladies, please accept our apologies for disturbing your enjoyment. Please proceed to the sitting room. We will provide you with the finest food and wine, as well as a satisfactory explanation."

Since the king was willing to show them respect, they naturally couldn't object. The nobles filed out of the Banquet Hall, and the spacious hall immediately became empty.

"Now then, little girl, tell me. What happened?" The king looked at Fatenai. His tone was almost grandfatherly, but it couldn't conceal a trace of authority, making Fatenai shrink further inward.

"Commoner, you'd better understand your place!" Lelia continued pressing Fatenai, but all it earned her was the girl's tears.

"Ah, what a pitiful commoner." The king seemed quite helpless about it. "She's only a useless commoner, anyway. Once we're done questioning her, just send her to an estate."

Lelia frowned. "She's an accomplice! And we still don't even know where the real Fatenai is!"

"What does that matter, Lelia?" The king patted Lelia's shoulder. "Relax. You are Lady Gabrielle now... A girl unable to use Mana, even if she truly married into the Arrenieu Family, would still make both factions uneasy. If her disappearance is related to the Arrenieu Family..."

"Why would the Arrenieu Family do that? There isn't any reason at all..." Lelia said, then suddenly understood something. "You mean?"

Lelia seemed to calm down at once and turned to look at Fatenai. Under her gaze, the girl shrank her neck, looking timid as a mouse.

"Who ordered you to do this?" Lelia asked again. Seeing her hesitation, she added, "If you tell me, I can swear not to kill you and arrange a suitable place for you."

"R-Really?" Fatenai froze, then asked anxiously.

"Then hurry up and tell us!" Lelia was growing impatient again.

"It... it was someone with gray hair! When I woke up, he told me to pretend to be a young lady of the Wisdom Family!" Fatenai said.

Lelia nodded and said to her, "Very good. Then do you know where the original Miss Wisdom is?"

"N-No... I don't know... I don't know anything. I don't even know who I am..." Fatenai said, trembling all over.

Seeing that she looked ready to faint at any moment, Mise patted her back. "It's all right. Lady Gabrielle has always kept her word."

"Oh? Little girl, you only need to remember that person belonged to the Arrenieu Family." The king said, "Isn't this a fine ending? Sand, take this little girl to the next room. Give her a glass of milk and let her rest well for the night."

The butler named Sand bowed to Fatenai before opening the door. Though his movements were perfectly polite, the situation carried an undeniable forcefulness. The girl was still uneasy, hesitating over whether to follow him out.

Lelia snorted coldly, apparently deeply dissatisfied with people of this temperament—or perhaps she had always held commoners in contempt.

"It's all right. Go on." Mise smiled at her.

Fatenai blinked and nodded, her face slightly flushed. She followed the butler out of the Banquet Hall. With her head lowered, she seemed too frightened to notice her surroundings, but beneath the cover of her platinum-blond hair, her brown eyes "casually" swept over the Banquet Hall behind her. The figures of the king and the others there were growing increasingly indistinct.

She was then taken to a room not far away.

It looked like a servant's room, though it was much better than an ordinary one.

The maid brought her milk and quickly left. As Fatenai stared at the steaming cup, the fear in her eyes gradually changed after everyone had gone.

The nights grew colder by the day, a sign that Rose Month was approaching. Such nights reminded people to travel less, yet the girl standing by the window of a room in the Royal Palace seemed to love this darkness. The milk in her hand had turned cold, but she stubbornly remained by the window.

Even though she wore only a thin, plain white dress.

Her brown eyes were an ordinary color, but as the temperature dropped, they began to shine with a gaze no twelve-year-old should possess.

"They really don't take you seriously, huh? They never suspected you at all?" At that moment, a boy only she could see appeared behind her, grinning as he spoke.

"These nobles would never take commoners seriously." Fatenai's face was expressionless, without the slightest trace of her earlier fear.

It seemed she truly was the real Fatenai. She had turned herself into a commoner and misled her aunt and the royal family. Soon, she would mislead her own family, perhaps even the entire kingdom.

"Eh? So you don't take commoners seriously either? Then why do this?" Hermes asked curiously.

"I think I'm better suited to being a commoner. I'm only thankful this world is peaceful enough," Fatenai said. "Your Magic Potion worked quite well."

Hermes replied matter-of-factly, "Of course it did. But how did you know those nobles wouldn't see through you? Your aunt looks pretty formidable."

"She is formidable, but she's arrogant too. Once she's decided something, she won't doubt it." Fatenai explained calmly. "See? Isn't she convinced I'm the fake Fatenai now?"

"That does seem to be the case. So what are you going to do now, miss?" Hermes decided not to dwell on the reasons and asked instead.

Fatenai fell silent for a moment, then took a deep breath. "Of course, I'm escaping."

"Eh? Didn't that king say he'd settle you somewhere suitable?" Hermes asked in surprise.

"Although they've determined that I'm a fake Fatenai, this 'actress' has no identity. They can't determine whose tenant she is or which family's daughter she might be. Drifters are the hardest to settle, and I may be connected to other matters. The best option would be to get rid of me on the way to settle me," Fatenai said. "Anyone who can serve as a Royal Palace guard has at least some Mana. If they keep their eyes on me, escape will be even harder."

Fatenai didn't think deceiving those nobles was particularly difficult. The hardest part was figuring out how to slip away now, and... that was something for later.

Hermes found it strange. "Can such meager Mana affect the Master?"

"This world is covered in Mana. Though thin, it still exists. Perhaps that's why I can summon you despite having no Mana myself," Fatenai said, recalling the matter with a headache. "It reduces the quality of the game skills I can use, and your abilities will weaken as well. Though your combat ability wasn't very high to begin with."

Having his nature exposed, Hermes scratched his head. "Hey, I was always a support type... All right, how do we escape?"

"Dryden, as the seat of the Royal Palace, is rich in Mana," Fatenai said.

"Right, right! It also became much easier to make you a potion that changes your eye color!" Hermes said. "Unfortunately, it's nowhere near enough to establish a magical workshop."

Fatenai said nothing. She stretched out her hand, and the marks on the back of it gradually appeared. They seemed to separate into several parts. One part floated up, and Fatenai "pushed" it toward Hermes. The floating mark imprinted itself between Hermes's brows, while a dim trace remained where the original mark had been on her hand.

Fatenai then ignited another mark. This one was neither pushed away nor vanished. Once it lit up, the elegantly decorated guest room was no longer the most eye-catching sight before her. Instead, she saw clearly visible streams of blue flowing through the air like little brooks, gradually pouring from the mark between Hermes's brows into his body.

"The Gathering Mark gathers nearby Mana to strengthen a summon, while the Eye of Connection lets me see the distribution of Mana clearly," Fatenai said softly. "The Mana in this world is not only thin, but its recovery rate is weak. If it is gathered and used, the surrounding Mana will become a vacuum, and it will take at least two days to replenish."

She glanced at Hermes again. The boy's eyes were very bright, proof that he was brimming with power.

Gods could not become summons, yet Hermes had been summoned by her. Fatenai couldn't use the summoning panel, so she could only guess that this was perhaps the so-called "prototype"—the root of mythology.

Hermes, hailed as the first alchemist.