Lord Victureo asked, raising his brow while observing the prideful royal magician.

”…of… of course…”

Lord Lazaram flinched and nodded – although for a split second it looked as if he was about to say that there will be no need to look anywhere else because the modern artifact is indeed in the mansion.

|…now should be a good moment…|

Zoemi thought to himself, and a hair-like shadow slithered down the wall and alongside the floor before it reached the royal magician where it climbed up and attached itself to the man’s bag.

With that, Zoemi gained the access to everything that was inside.

Still, it wasn’t as if the black-haired boy was there to take things – on the contrary, he was going to add to the cluster of various devices instead.

Using the fact that Lord Lazaram was distracted, Zoemi simply pushed the device into the bag, making sure that it will end up at the very bottom or at least under as many other artifacts and devices as possible.

…while looking through all the royal magician’s belongings while he was at it…

It took a little while just because the black-haired boy was careful not to move things around too violently to minimalize the chances of Lazaram noticing anything, and luckily he was done before the conversation between the five men moved along in any significant way.

”|My lord, it is done.|”

Zoemi pulled back his shadow and hurriedly messaged the red-haired man wh instantly straightened his back and smiled – making it seem like he was happy about the introduction of the localization device.

”Why won’t you use it now? It would really save us a lot of time.”

Lord Espine asked clapping his hands together and his enthusiasm seemed to be amusing enough for the royal magician to make him barely able to hold back a smile.

”I’m sorry my lord, but there is still the thing about the range that this device has – we still have to get inside a room to make sure that everything will work properly. I hope you understand, the walls and all are quite troublesome for that little thing.”

Lazaram hurriedly shook his head to get rid of the smirk and spoke in an apologetic voice.

It wasn’t that obvious but for a split second his eyes darted over towards the door leading to lord Espines office where the locked cabinet with sweets was.

…which further revealed with whom he was aligned – although that wasn’t even a real mystery once someone had all the facts, to begin with…

|You are in for such a surprise… what a shame, I actually thought he was a decent guy.|

Zoemi – who certainly did not miss any detail regarding the royal magician’s behavior – sighed internally while observing the situation from multiple shadows thanks to his sentinels hidden in various locations throughout the entire mansion.

He is decent in his own mind, I can tell you that much.

Ludier’s shadow pointed out while physically manifesting in the darkness right by the black-haired boy’s side – well, as physical as a shadow could be, that is.

”Let’s get it over with already. Shall we?”

Back in the corporeal world lord Espine reached out his arm, inviting the others to follow his lead to the closest of the private rooms of the castle.

The pale-blue-haired Mizoe moved first, walking towards the door and opening it without ever having the cold, disdainful look disappear from his eyes.

”…ekhem… while we are at it, my lord, did you hear that lord Victureo finally decided to consider letting his daughter be married?”

Seemingly just to break the awkward silence that the glare of the ice attribute wielding knight who still had his enchantments active, the royal magician cleared his throat and asked lord Espine as they all moved towards the open door.

”Lord Lazaram, you make it sound as if I was sheltering my daughter. Ehmi has a mind of her own and I never intended on forcing her to do anything.”

The variant lightning attribute-wielding general of the Bellcephora kingdom frowned while grumpily commenting on the remark.

”But of course, of course… still… Did you not pitch up an idea of an open duel tournament in which the winner would have the right to have your daughter’s hand in marriage?”

”…?”

”…”

Lord Lazaram laughed it off, waving his hand dismissively before his eyes turned sharp and he pointed out, making the other two men look at lord Victureo, curious about his reaction.

”It is just that in the light of a current situation… That is, after thorough consideration, and talking things over with Ehmi herself and all the others members of our family, it has been deemed an appropriate solution. You all surely know how special my daughter is – we have received countless marriage proposals already but we were hesitant to pick one up, as because of my position, no matter who was chosen, it might have been read as playing favorites and scorned. To cut all of such harming gossip from ever being created the idea of the tournament in which all are welcome to participate, and the result would be based on the ability alone sounds like a fitting solution.”

Telorius Graxul Victureo explained with a face that could hardly be described as anything other than the word bitter, all while not making eye contact with anyone as if the entire thing was actually the most infuriating for him.

|He is talking about it on purpose to make Victureo agitated – the queen really does not like the idea of Victureo and Espine walking together, so they want to make sure that lord Telorius’s reaction will be as explosive as possible once the modern artifact will be found. Still, a tournament, huh…|

What, are you interested?

|…can’t say I’m not – at least in the duel part, not so much about the reward…|

Zoemi thought coldly while glaring down at the unaware royal magician, before Ludier’s shadow asked curiously, causing him to tilt his head in consideration.