Chapter 59. A Setting Not Given

Several more days passed. Iella spent quite peaceful days during that time. Almost boringly so.

‘I wonder if he found Ailexia.’

Nix, who had said he would come within a few days, was still nowhere to be seen. She guessed that he might have immediately started tracking with the brief information she had sent. If the information had been insufficient, he should have contacted her with additional questions.

Anyway, there wasn’t much to do while waiting for news from Nix. It was especially so because she didn’t even dream of going out.

But being cooped up in the bedroom doing embroidery had become unbearable by now. Her eyes felt like they would pop out. Iella put down the embroidery frame.

‘The Emperor is quiet too.’

Honestly, that was the most unexpected thing.

When she heard that Helios had guarded the bedroom every day since she collapsed, she thought she wouldn’t get a day of rest after returning, but it was quite the opposite.

It was too quiet.

‘This makes me more anxious though….’

Hmm. After pondering, Iella quickly shook off her worries. She didn’t want to think ahead about things that hadn’t happened yet. Perhaps the Emperor’s interest would drop completely, just like in the novel.

Iella tried to change the subject, not wanting to think about it anymore. Just then, Vanessa came in.

Since being with someone was less boring than being alone, Iella stood up with a brightened face to welcome Vanessa. But she stopped when she saw the maid following behind.

When Iella recognized the maid who raised her head, her expression became indescribable.

“……What, Nix?”

“Hello, Miss.”

Nix, dressed in a black maid uniform with white frills, winked playfully as he removed his wig. Even in this absurd situation, the thought that it somehow suited him quite well crossed her mind, making it a bit funny.

With a strange expression, Iella awkwardly returned his greeting as Vanessa approached her side and whispered.

“He says he has to change his sneaking-in method each time.”

The thought that it didn’t necessarily have to be this particular method almost rose up her throat.

* * *

Nix, who explained his cross-dressing with the incomprehensible reason that giving a new and fresh shock would prevent her from thinking about anything else, showed his usual attitude.

Thanks to this, Iella was able to calm her visual surprise. When she saw his posture, with his legs demurely closed to match his outfit, she was more impressed by his attention to detail and thoroughness than surprised.

“I hitched quite a few rides on merchants’ wagons. But I met the merchant who had given Ailexia a ride and found out where she got off. Even if they said it was in the west, the forest is too vast to track immediately. However, as you know, since that forest is so dark, complex, and difficult to distinguish traces, it might take some time. I’ve already sent a few staff members.”

“Any trace of the old woman?”

“We looked for that too, but it’s even more difficult. She seems skilled at erasing her tracks.”

“I guess that’s because she’s a sorceress. With her years of experience, she must be skilled.”

“Did you contact the village?”

“No success.”

The village they were referring to was the sorceress’s village. Watching Vanessa shake her head, Iella recalled the conversation they had a few days ago.

Unlike the old woman, Vanessa hadn’t completely cut ties with the village. So she had told Iella that she had originally planned to go to the sorceress’s forest. Come to think of it, when they discovered each other’s identities, Vanessa had been so surprised by the fact that Iella had returned to her body and back that they hadn’t continued the conversation.

When Vanessa heard this, she was startled that she hadn’t thought of it, but then deflated again. She remembered that while she could easily come and go outside the secondary palace under the pretext of errands, Iella in Ailexia’s body could not. It would be very difficult for them to go there together when she had never even succeeded in escaping, let alone going out.

Moreover, since the village was far from the imperial city, Vanessa, as a maid belonging to the secondary palace, couldn’t be absent for that long.

When asked if there was a way to go there using sorcery, she was told that while it was possible for objects, it was impossible for people.

But since they could send a message, they had decided to send a letter to inquire about the old woman who had left the village, and they had done so.

The result was the same as Vanessa’s reaction.

“No one remembers the old woman. They might be avoiding the topic, but… anyway. There is one person we could ask, but they’re not in the village right now. They don’t know when they’ll return either. They would know about the soul exchange too.”

“Who is it?”

“Among ourselves, we call them the Village Leader. Nix arbitrarily calls them the Grand Sorceress.”

“Why, that sounds good.”

“It sounds like we’re copying those mage guys! There’s already a proper title, ‘Mother of sorcerers’!”

Iella let out a small sigh at the two who started arguing whenever they met. She no longer tried to mediate between them. She knew that even if she intervened now, they would start bickering again at the slightest provocation.

“Oh, by the way, I heard you collapsed?”

Just then, Nix, who had been picking his ear and half-listening to Vanessa, clapped his hands as if he had just remembered. Iella nodded.

Come to think of it, because she had been conveying information briefly, she hadn’t told him about why her body had switched or the previous situation. She thought that Vanessa’s message would have informed him about her collapse, or even if not, with his information network, he would have found out quickly, and indeed he had.

“That’s how I roughly knew Ailexia’s location. I returned to my original body.”

“You got information in that situation? Amazing. As expected of the Shua family.”

After giving a thumbs up in admiration, he suddenly stroked his chin with a serious face.

“But why did you collapse? I know it happened at the Emperor’s tea party.”

“She felt something wrong after eating a financier the Emperor personally handed her. After collapsing and waking up, she had returned to her original body.”

“Hmm……”

Despite Vanessa’s explanation, he fell into deep thought. Wondering why, Iella quietly watched him, and his rarely serious expression showed a sharp light in his ash-gray eyes.

“Miss, what flavor was that financier?”

“What?”

“Perhaps, peanut flavor?”

As Iella searched her memory at the sudden question, her eyes widened. The sweetness that didn’t match the situation and the nutty flavor of peanuts, she had definitely tasted them.

Seeming to understand the answer from Iella’s reaction, Nix muttered “I thought so” and snapped his fingers.

“That’s it. The reason for the collapse.”

“What do you mean?”

Vanessa asked with a puzzled expression. Iella also tilted her head beside her.

“Vanessa, you didn’t know? Ah, right. It’s been prohibited here since long before you entered the secondary palace.”

“Why is it prohibited?”

“Ailexia has a severe peanut allergy. She gets hives even from slight contact. If she eats it, it would naturally be more serious, right?”

“Oh!”

So that’s why. That’s why she felt like she was suffocating as if she would die at any moment. Iella finally realized that the cause of her symptoms wasn’t poison.

“I thought it was poison. Although it seemed inappropriate for use in the imperial palace, I couldn’t think of anything else.”

“For Ailexia, it’s no different from poison, so you’re not wrong. Without timely treatment, the afterlife would just be a matter of time, right?”

“Haha……”

As Iella let out an awkward laugh at Nix, who didn’t hesitate to say cruel things, she suddenly noticed that Vanessa was quiet. Turning her head toward her in concern, she saw her face had turned deathly pale.

“Vanessa?”

“Why……”

As if she hadn’t heard Iella’s call, she was lost in her own thoughts. She muttered incomprehensible words and frowned intensely.

When Iella looked at Nix, not understanding the reason, he shrugged as if he didn’t know either. Iella put her arm around Vanessa’s shoulders and called her again.

Only when Iella’s hand touched her did Vanessa snap back to reality with a start. She stared at Iella, who asked what was wrong, and then moved her lips.

“…Do you remember what you said before?”

“Which part?”

“When you said it felt like reality.”

Iella recalled it without difficulty. It was still an unresolved question, so it wasn’t hard to remember. She must be talking about when she had asked if this was really inside a novel.

“I… still don’t think it’s reality. No, I didn’t. But……”

“But?”

“……”

Vanessa’s lips closed again. After a long silence, she finally opened her mouth again. A precarious voice, as if about to go out, flowed.

“It’s not a setting I created. I didn’t know. The peanut allergy.”

The voice, which would have been inaudible if not listened to properly, sounded too loud in Iella’s ears.

This was somewhat different from the story of settings not specified by the author being filled in according to reality. Until now, such things had mainly occurred in ways that didn’t affect the main plot and the protagonists who drove it.

The Shua family, Aether, the head of Aether, and so on.

There was only one reason. Because they weren’t important to the plot. Even when it was revealed that Nix was the mastermind, there was no punishment, and the story continued because of that.

But this time it was different. There was a setting for the protagonist that the author hadn’t given.

Whether it was the only one or not, they couldn’t know.

“What do you mean by setting? What are you talking about?”

Just then, Nix’s voice flowed between the two who were in shock. When she turned to look at him with effort, his cunning smile contrasted with his sharp gaze that was fixed directly on her.

Iella felt as if a secret that shouldn’t have been revealed had been exposed.