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After we finished conveying the information to Camellia-san, we decided to visit Lillie-san. It seems that Lillie-san isn’t at this forest though, and is often in the Great Forest near Yggfresis.
However, it wasn’t far from where we were, and after moving to the entrance of the forest, we arrived at our destination after about 15 minutes of walking around the forest, admiring the green scenery.
The path to our destination was well-maintained and easy to walk in, but the place we arrived at was also quite beautiful. In the center of the open space was something that looked like an altar, a mysteriously bright area, where the light of the sun shines through.
[The place is called the Forest Haven. This place is often used for various events, and Lillie-san often spends time here.]
[Heehhh…… This place is beautiful…… However, there are surprisingly not that many people here.]
[This place is basically treated as the place where Lillie-san works, so there’s a tacit agreement that people who don’t directly report to Lillie-san don’t go near this place.]
[I see.]
As I moved along, listening to Alice’s explanation, I saw the back of Lillie-san as she stood in front of that altar. Lillie-san standing in front of the large stone altar illuminated by the light was very picturesque, or rather, the atmosphere around her looked somewhat magical.
[……Hello, Miyama Kaito-san. Also, Shalltear-sama.]
[Hello, Lillie-san.]
[Hello, we’re here today because I have business with you.]
[Shalltear-sama does? Oh my? I wonder how I can be of help?]
After we returned a greeting to Lillie-san, who turned and greeted us as we approached, Alice began conversing with her, but I’m a bit curious about their earlier exchange.
I mean, Lillie-san could read the surface thoughts of others, so questions like “How can I be of help?” wouldn’t be something she would ask…… but I guess it isn’t possible for her to read the surface thoughts of Alice, one of the Six Kings huh?
[No, I’m sure that with Shalltear-sama’s skill, it would have been possible to prevent me from reading her surface thoughts…… but Shalltear-sama is hiding her thoughts with other methods.]
[Other methods?]
From what I’ve heard from Lillie-san, who has read my surface thoughts, Alice apparently hasn’t made it impossible for Lillie-san to read her thoughts…… However, she’s using some other method.
[When Shalltear-sama was around me, she would usually use the method of “creating false surface thoughts”, giving me false information instead.]
[Eh? Is that so, Alice?]
[Well, it’s one of the popular countermeasures against mind-readers. It’s like covering up your thoughts with other thoughts. On the other hand, against someone who reads your thoughts as deeply as Shallow Vernal-sama, if you split your thoughts into tens of thousands of different thoughts…… even if they read through all these thoughts, they wouldn’t know which one is the truth.]
For her to say that she’s able to do such a thing while talking like normal, I guess I should say that it’s to be expected of her…… Especially when it comes to exchanges involving information gathering, Alice is probably on a level that makes her the strongest.
[……Sometimes, as in this case, she’s creating surface thoughts that I immediately know are false, but there would also be times that I get confused by thoughts that don’t seem very false.]
[Unnn? Is she making some kind of gag-like surface thoughts this time?]
[Yes, easy-to-tell jokes like adjustment of the Peerage system, creating a Maid-Rank on top of the Duke-ranks, and raising me to Duke-rank……]
[……No, Lillie-san. Unfortunately, that’s the truth.]
Ahh, I see…… There’s also a pattern where she would pretend what she’s allowing her to read was false surface thoughts, but it was actually the truth huh……
After hearing my words, Lillie-san looked shocked for a moment, before she tilted her head.
[……H- Hmmm? Truth? Huh? No, but from what I could read from Miyama Kaito-san’s thoughts, indeed…… H- Hmmm? I- Is it just that I’m clueless about the society…… and Maid is actually a noble peerage title?]
That was…… a surprisingly straightforward tsukkomi. It’s as she said, right? That’s how you would usually feel, right…… On the other hand, me, who didn’t feel like that title is out of place at all, may have been too infected by that Maid Ideology. Lillie-san’s reaction is the one that’s normal.
[……Well, I can understand why you don’t believe it. I don’t want to accept it either…… but the fact is that we now have a Maid-rank above the Duke-rank.]
[……Errr, Shalltear-sama? I’m sorry for asking a lot of questions…… but why is it Maid-rank?]
[Because that’s the only way I could convince Ein-san.]
[Ein-san? I- Is that so?]
I wonder why? I kinda feel like Lillie-san still doesn’t understand it even when she hears Alice’s words. For me, Alice’s explanation is very easy to understand but…… Arehh? Could it be that Lillie-san……
[……Lillie-san, have you not talked with Ein-san that much?]
[Let alone talk to her, I think the times I’ve met her could be counted by hand. Ein-san rarely appears in public. Since she doesn’t go out in public even during the Festival of Heroes, I don’t get to see her nearly as often. Camellia seems to be close friends with her though……]
Come to think of it, I think Bacchus-san did say something like “I never thought I would meet someone who rarely appears in public~~” when he first encountered Ein-san.
Also, thinking about it again, Ein-san certainly didn’t appear publicly at the Six Kings Festival or the White God Festival, and I don’t know if it’s also something she’s quite particular about, but I think she’s the type that works behind-the-scenes.
[As Kaito-san thinks, people don’t often meet Ein-san. Even if someone visits Kuro-san’s castle, it would basically be Funf-san who handles them…… In the first place, visitors to Kuro-san’s castle are usually those invited by someone who lives there, so the person who invited them will be the one receiving them, so Ein-san rarely appears.]
[I see, so it’s just that I see her frequently, and it isn’t like she would usually appear when there’s a visitor huh……]
[Yes, I mean, the reason why Ein-san, who is the de facto head of Kuro-san’s camp, that is if you were to exclude Kuro-san, comes out frequently and immediately receives you is because it’s Kaito-san.]
I see, Ein-san is widely known by name, but she’s someone that people outside of Kuro’s family and Maid-related people almost never meet huh.
Now that she mentions it, I guess it makes sense…… but because I had the impression that she’s someone I meet frequently, I was a bit surprised.
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