Chapter 17 (2/2)

“Oh dear. Everyone was so worried because you were sick. Even Miss Serena visited you and took care of your fever.”

“Miss Serena?”

“Yes, she did. It was surprising to hear that the healer’s spells were not……effective on you.”

Luana nodded as Celestia’s eyes grew wider.

“You can’t believe it either, do you? Anyway, to be honest, I was moved by their meticulous behavior into healing you. I never thought they’d care so much about you.”

“I see…… Do you know how this bed came into existence?”

Luana’s eyes glistened.

“Wait, is this a wooden bed?”

Celestia nodded, smiling at her sparkly eyes admiring the bed’s structure.

“Oh my, where did this come from? It’s so much more comfortable than it was before.”

Luana grinned, covering her mouth with her palm as if Celestia was making a funny joke.

She wanted to laugh along with her, but she couldn’t.

“Just how much are you earning? It must be—”

“…..Do I even have the authority to buy such a bed in the imperial palace?”

Luana burst out laughing again.

‘If Luana doesn’t know it……is it the…..Emperor?’

However, the question was not resolved, and from what Luana had said, she recovered with herbal tonics.

As time passed, she was attending the academy again. Whenever she was alone, she kept thinking about this phenomenon. She wanted to ask the Emperor, but he did not call her even though she heard he had already returned to the Imperial city.

‘Come to think of it, I’ve never asked about the law of the Emperor.’

She felt frustrated when she did not get a single call from him for a few days. She even thought of asking for him to meet her, but it seemed a little strange to do so.

‘Hah! Why would he meet me? I’m not yet his secretary, and to put it simply, I’m just a level 1 servant, aren’t I ?’

‘He’d call me anyway. I guess he’s just busy.’

Meanwhile, time flowed like an arrow. Surprisingly, the call from the Emperor was not yet made.

Luana stopped by her room to chat with her covered in a light, fluffy and warm blanket.

“Did you get the test results yet? You’ve studied really hard.”

“I guess they’re still checking the papers. It takes a long time for the instructors to grade according to the results. But I think it’d be out sometime later this week.”

“Oh, really?”

“Huh?”

“Did you not hear about the coalition with a distant country? I heard the Emperor has scouted some of the magic officers from that country. Didn’t your instructors inform you?”

Celestia tilted her head.

‘Scouting a magic officer…….?’

“He is bringing in magic officers from that country?”

“Yes. I heard one of them used to be a commoner. He’s already popular among the ladies because of his handsome face.”

Celestia wasn’t very interested in this matter, but Luana’s shining eyes forced her to be.

“Is he that handsome?”

“Well, I don’t know. I’ve only heard the rumors. I heard they’ll be appearing in the banquet that will be held in the celebration of the coalition. I hope I can at least see Mr. Serangueban’s divine face.”

Her eyes rose at the name that escaped from Luana’s lips.

‘There’s another magic officer with the….same name, right?’

“Which…..country was it again?”

“Oh, it was, Gole….no, Go….uh, I don’t remember. Oh, but it was a magical kingdom.”

“Was it………Goldina?”

“Ah, yes! That’s right! It was Goldina!”

Serangueban, a magic officer from Goldina.

Her head was all hazy.

‘Is it because of my bad luck? Why is it him again?’

After bidding Luana goodbye, she paced in her small room several times before lying down on her bed.

‘Serangueban? Serek? That jerk?’

She had once decided to give him a good slap if she ever had the opportunity to meet him again. Moreover, she could make him feel jealous by becoming a person of a higher rank than him, but she never expected to hear his name again.

A lot seemed to have happened since she had started joining the Academy. It was now clear that the Empire’s coalition was a success, and it’s target included her home country, Goldina.

If she had asked the Emperor about his journey, she wouldn’t have been so clueless. But even if she knew, she couldn’t have done anything about it.

Goldina was now the suzerain of the Burg Empire. However, the Goldinian Queen, who was recently in debt due to a riot caused by the discrimination in the country and a series of bad harvests, seemed to have finally given up her sovereignty.

It might now be possible to prevent the selling of the poor into slavery. The financial crisis seemed to have finally opened her eyes.

Well, the problem was that she was so proud of herself for ruling a magical kingdom that she spent all her riches in debt. Since the Burg Empire had lost its hegemony in the recent years, the wars between small countries had been slow and the demands of magic had continued to rise. However, the biggest source of revenue had disappeared.

‘Perhaps, that was the biggest reason.’