Tale of Discovery

Chapter 153: Trip ; Laura

As the two teenagers are gawking at me, I casually walk inside and take a seat on a stool.

"Did I interrupt something?" I ask.

As if just realizing how close they are, the two move away from each other as Guiche says,

"No. Not at all."

At the end of his words, he began forcing a chuckle.

"That's good," I say nonchalantly, "As I'm pretty sure you know the reason I'm here."

Upon hearing my words, Guiche's expression turns serene as he nods his head once before turning his head to face Montmorency.

"Forgive me, Montmorency. I must guide His Highness to my family's house."

Huh? He seems to be much more respectful compared to before. Could it be, he respects me more now that I brought him closer to Montmorency?

It seems like I'm a good wingman after all.

"It's fine," the girl responds, "This is something that can't be delayed."

Having gotten her confirmation, Guiche gets up and says to me,

"It should take us a relatively short time to get there if we were to go by carriage. Should I send a letter to my family, requesting one?"

I wave my hand in front of me and say dismissively,

"Do whatever you deem necessary."

---

"Your Highness, the carriage has arrived," Guiche's voice resounds within my ears,

Finally. I was beginning to get impatient to the point that flying over while dragging Guiche with a rope became a plausible idea in my mind.

Shaking my head to clear such thoughts, I get up from the chair I had created and destroy it before walking to where Guiche is waiting for me.

Upon reaching his side, a luxurious looking carriage enters my sight, with a butler as the coachman.

"Let's get going," I say before walking toward the carriage.

Seeing us, the butler gets off his seat and proceeds to open the carriage door for us.

Not sparing him a glance, I simply get inside the carriage after running a quick scan for anything suspicious.

As I take a seat, Guiche sits opposite to me and says in a tone that has a hint of pride,

"It's a good carriage isn't it?"

Shrugging my shoulders, I say,

"Not bad."

Well, it isn't that bad of carriage. See, this is the first time I'm riding a carriage, but I suppose this one is better compared to other ones.

"So, Guiche," I say as soon as the carriage begins moving, "Have you told your family about the matter with the Grimoire?"

"Ah, yes," he replies, "But, with all due respect Your Highness, I can't speak for my family regarding this."

"That's understandable," I say, "What I need to know is if they will accept the fact you were using the Grimoire in a bet."

Guiche gets visibly uncomfortable as he struggles to come up with a response, so I relieve him of his worries by saying,

"Forget it. We'll find out once we arrive."

---

We've finally arrived at our destination.

The house of the Gramont family falls on the westernmost part of Tristan, so it took us some time to get here.

The carriage door is opened by the coachman as he moves to the side.

I get off the carriage first as Guiche follows suit.

As soon as I set my foot on the ground, a wondrous sight attracts my attention.

It seems like I had underestimated how prominent Guiche's family is.

This mansion before me simply says a lot about how rich they are.

It makes me wonder if the interior will be as beautiful as the exterior.

"This way," Guiche says respectfully as he begins to guide the way.

Of course, I can't just follow someone to a place I've never been to without checking for anything suspicious.

And so, I begin to make use of my Clairvoyance to check out the interior of the mansion as well as the inhabitants.

The first thought that crosses my mind once I'm done is that they have a lot of maids for a mansion of this size.

Their mansion is not small by any means, but having fifteen maids is going overboard.

I mean, why would they need such an amount anyway? Five is more than enough.

"You sure have a lot of maids," I directly say to Guiche.

"Huh?" a confused voice escapes Guiche's lips as he turns to look at me with a strange expression on his face.

"What? Did I say something wrong?" I casually ask.

"No, but... How did you know?" he asks doubtfully.

"Oh, right. I just sensed their presence."

"Sensed their presence?" he repeats.

"Well, yes. I sensed the presence of several females around, so I assumed they were maids that worked here," I respond dismissively.

"He can sense the presence of females" Guiche mutters to himself as he begins walking again.

Soon, the two of us reach a rather big door comparable to the doors in Albion's castle.

Guiche opens the door, revealing an empty living room that seems to be the objectification of 'luxury'.

"My father is currently away at the moment," Guiche explains as we head inside, "So, I hope Your Highness can wait for his return."

Hearing his words, I beam a smile and say,

"I have no problems with that."

Guiche releases a relieved sigh before he straightens his posture and says,

"Your Highness, I would like to meet my mother."

"Then, what are you waiting for? Go," I coolly reply before leaning back and closing my eyes.

Now then, time to see if there is anything interesting worth looking into.

Making use of Clairvoyance once again, I begin to search the mansion's rooms.

After a short while, I manage to find something worthy of suspicion.

In a room that seems to be made for inscriptions and such, I found a letter addressed to the Count of Gramont.

In the letter, there was an invitation to a "noble alliance" against the Kingdom of Tristain.

Naturally, this matter makes me suspicious of the Gramont family, and it would've been much worse if there was not another letter next to that one.

This letter seems to be addressed to the party that had sent the earlier later, with a response to their invitation written in it.

Simply put, the letter is one being rejection, with a hint of malice in it, giving the impression that the Count of Gramont is extremely loyal to Tristain.

What I find interesting is the fact that the letter is incomplete and seems to be written in a rush toward the end.

Did something important happen for the count to go away so hurriedly and leave the letter unfinished?

As these thoughts cross my mind, I feel a sudden movement in the room I'm in.

I subconsciously activate a reflective barrier using Vector Manipulation, which results in a rather stunning outcome.

A small water-ball that was coming my way reflects to where it came from.

This ultimately leads to a young blonde-haired girl that seems to be nine years old to get soaked.

Observing the little girl, I see that tears are beginning to well up in her eyes as she looks at me with reddened eyes.

Who is this little girl, and why did she just attempt to hit me with that magic earlier? Could it be, she wanted to 'prank' me?

With such a notion in my mind, I telekinetically lift the girl and pull her toward myself.

This doesn't go as expected, with the girl beginning to flail around as an anxious expression appears on her face.

Shaking my head, I hold her soaked body and say,

"What was that for?"

The little girl is still anxious as she nervously looks for a way to 'escape' from my clutches.

"Are you Guiche's little sister?" I say, "I'm his friend."

This time, my words seem to calm her down a little as she looks me in the eyes before nodding her head.

"Well then, let's introduce ourselves," I say while grinning, "My name is Wales Tudor, Crown Prince of Albion."

The moment the words "Crown Prince" escape my lips, the little girl's eyes widen as an excited voice resounds within my ears,

"Uncle is a prince?"

Hearing her call me uncle, I cough twice and say with a wry smile,

"Uncle? What uncle? Just call me brother."

"Brother?" she says, "Brother Wales!"

"That's it," I say while patting her small head, "What about you? Are you not going to introduce yourself?"

The girl proceeds to get off my lap and move away from me a little before turning to face me.

Then, she grabs the hem of her wet once-piece dress and bows a little before saying,

"I'm the first daughter of Count Gramont, Laura de Gramont."

Her introduction over, she raises her head and beams me a smile.

"Laura, huh?" I say while pulling her toward myself again, "Nice to meet you, Laura."

"I am glad to meet you too," she cheerfully responds.

Seeing her still soaked, an idea appears in my head.

Lifting my arm, I press my hand against her chest and use Elemental Magic to 'move' the water particles off.

This results in Laura's clothes and hair to completely dry.

Sensing this, Laura examines herself a little before looking me in the eye and exclaiming,

"Wow! How did you do that?!"

Chuckling, I pinch her soft cheek and say,

"How about you tell me why you can cast magic despite being so young?"

"I learned by myself!" she directly replies.

Self-taught?! If she's saying the truth, then this little girl is a genius.

"That's amazing and all," I say, "But why did you try to hit me with that water-ball earlier?"

Laura immediately looks away and says,

"Brother Guiche said so."

Hearing her words, I am a little surprised as I say,

"Guiche told you to cast a spell at me?"

"Not you," Laura explains, "He said that if his friends come over, do this to them"

The heck was going through Guiche's mind when he instructed her to do this?

"Brother Wales, I'm feeling cold," Laura says after a few seconds.

"Here," I say while pulling her closer and enveloping her in an embrace.

As I continue to hug her small body, I run my fingers through her long and soft hair.

All of a sudden, the door leading to this room opens as Guiche enters the room alongside a man that seems to be in his late thirties.

Alarmed, Laura raises her head to examine them before getting off me and silently walking out of the room while ignoring the middle-aged man's glare.

I don't know why, but for some reason, I feel like chopping this guy's head off...