Soon after, to their surprise, a voice was heard vividly in the wind.

~"Found it."

~"...Annabelle? Did you say you found it now?"

~"Yes."

"...Annabelle?"

Marilyn and Oscar, who were in the crowd, looked at each other and murmured.

Of course, Annabelle's opponent was undoubtedly Robert.

Because Robert usually spoke to the common people, few people didn't know his voice.

While everyone was stunned, the wind continued to carry their voice.

~"Oh!"

~"If you want to save Robert, tell me what it is."

The Emperor muttered blankly.

"...Carlon?"

It was a moment when the mouths of the people who had been chattering were shut all at once.

Then the Empress, who was blinking her eyes, abruptly stood up.

"Something is strange!"

She was the only one who could rectify this situation. The Empress hurriedly shouted.

"Carlon was acknowledging Miss Annabelle's skills enough to have a friendly duel! There is no way the two of them can fight!"

Then the wind blew again, and Carlon's voice echoed throughout the capital.

~"It seems like something has happened since you were recognized for using a sword on a vulgar and stupid commoner's subject."

Everyone exchanged glances at Carlon's cynical voice.

"Whoah."

There was one person in the crowd who could never stand the situation.

It was Maiena, the chairman of the commoners' council.

She jumped up and shouted loudly.

"Somehow, Prince Carlon seems to have the same opinion as the Empress."

Most of the commoners filling the streets began to murmur.

"Anyway, according to the information I got, the Empress..."

"Silence!"

The Empress forcibly stopped Maiena from speaking.

Anyway, Maiena was in the audience and the Empress was in the special seat.

Naturally, she had no choice but to draw more attention to the Empress.

"Hey, isn't this black magic? I wonder if this black magic is manipulating lies and spreading it in the capital city!"

The Empress eagerly spoke. To get around this situation, she had to somehow divert the attention.

"Even so, a lot of strange things are happening in the capital these days!"

Right now, it was buried because of the swordsmanship competition, but there was something that everyone in the capital knew.

It was the case of the disappearance of the High Priest, Bellinock.

"The night the High Priest went missing, I heard that there were witnesses who had seen a Saintess with him. However, Robert is swayed by his personal feelings just because the Saintess is related to Miss Annabelle, and did not properly investigate..."

The Empress's words could not be continued.

~"...You killed High Priest Bellinok at once, who had been using black magic on the same side for a long time. But wouldn't it be more foolish to believe that you would save us, who are on the other side?"

~"Then, shall I risk something else in place of Robert's life?"

Everyone gasped and took a breath.

According to the windswept words, it was none other than Carlon who killed Bellinok and used black magic.

No matter how much the Empress tried to deny it, the aftermath of the voice heard in real time was huge.

Carlon didn't even deny Annabelle's words.

~"How is the life of your parents in the capital? Don't think you'll be able to hide like a rat under the Wades for the rest of your life."

At those words, the Duke and Duchess of Wade, as well as Oscar and Marilyn, opened their mouths.

The situation was too detailed to be tampered with.

Aaron, who was on the podium, blinked and said.

"Well, maybe... It seems appropriate to postpone the award a little bit, right? Even I am not interested in my awards right now."

He raised his voice in a smirk, then tilted his head and added.

"Shall we hear a little more about whether it's a wonderfully crafted black magic effect, as the Empress said, or we are listening to the story in the Smaho forest in real time?"

"Smaho Forest?"

The Emperor immediately inquired about the word "Smaho Forest", and Aaron sighed and answered.

"I have to tell you what happened. My sister and Prince Robert went to the Smaho Forest to find the origin of the last black magic."

"Well, then..."

"Yes. It is a place that only one person accompanying the Imperial Family can enter."

Everyone knew about the bizarre story of the Smaho forest, so the atmosphere subsided even more.

A place full of monsters, and even the first emperor declared that he would not go.

At that moment, Robert's voice was heard again in the wind.

~"Slavery and human trafficking... The origins of the two dark magics were causing the world to chaos, were you still behind the scenes? And you came after us to find the origin of the last black magic, right?"

~"I haven't liked you since you were born."

At Robert's voice, the Empress even had difficulty breathing and shouted.

Carlon's answer was the negation of Robert's words, so that was what he wanted at this time.

"No, such nonsense! This is a trick to drive Carlon away! The Crown Prince covets his position, so he overshadows Carlon! Carlon figured it out and now..."

But Carlon's words, which were expected to end with an accusation of Robert, continued coldly.

~"Especially like this, when you're retelling the mutually obvious fact that you know everything, I really, really, really wanted to get rid of that."

That sentence stopped the Empress's speech.

~*~

I smiled triumphantly in front of Carlon and Lagian.

Every time we chatted, the wind blew through the bamboo forest.

And our voices hummed along the wind.

Everyone thought it was just an echo, but I knew.

This bamboo forest was the origin of the third black magic.

The barber who cut the king's hair in screamed in the bamboo forest, unable to bear the secret.

'Who would have known that a bamboo forest that was quiet as if it was not there? Wasa forest hiding its true identity in a gloomy way.'

But the bamboo forest had revealed the secrets of man to fifty thousand places.

As a result, the barber was on the verge of being executed by the king.

The king with donkey ears also suddenly found out about his secrets all over the country one day.

So, the bamboo forest was the origin of the third black magic that used human nature to tell secrets to create tragedy.

It had something to do with its stealth ability to hide its presence, as the barber shouted a secret.

'Isn't there a lot of versions of this in each country... Among them, there are stories where the king cuts down bamboo forests, and there are stories where the king just accepts it and ends with it.'

Perhaps this bamboo forest came from the never ending story of a king.

"Besides, the first emperor wrote in the record not to go to that forest. At the very least, after stepping in that forest for the first time, he said it was fortunate that there was no one in the capital yet."

After hearing Robert's words, I immediately became suspicious.

The Smaho forest was quite far from the capital, so why was it fortunate that the capital was a wasteland?

"It was said that there was no human civilization and no animal feet. If you have to go, it says to not shut down and go quickly."

Besides, if there were neither humans nor animals, it meant that they were plants after all.

And when I looked back at the warning to 'shut up', I came to the conclusion that it might be a bamboo forest.

This was because the famous story about plants that should keep your mouth shut was .

'If you think of that warning the other way around, you're saying that as long as you open your mouth, the bamboo forest works.'

In the original story, the way to send Carlon to hell clearly was to show it off in front of a lot of people.

And the bamboo forest was the perfect place to completely uncover everything.

There were only the four of us here, so it was obvious that the cautious Carlon would also think there was no need to hide his inner feelings.

'Since he didn't know the origin of the third black magic, it's natural in a way.'

Apparently, the first emperor sensed something strange in this forest and wrote down that people should never come.

Without thinking that it was precisely because of the bamboo forest.

Perhaps our conversation was spreading all over the capital right now.

'That's why I purposely entered on the day of the awards ceremony for the swordsmanship competition.'

Originally, Carlon would have taken the time to get us into a swordsmanship competition, but it was just the opposite.

Because I was the one who had to give up the swordsmanship contest.

'Ian must be receiving a medal by now.'

I felt a little sorry for ruining Ian's last awards ceremony.

By now, the awards ceremony site wouldn't be a riot because of our conversation.

Still, since he had already been awarded the medal twice, I think it'd be okay for him to get away from people's attention at least once.

There was no event to give those medals to Cessianne like in the original work.

"Come on then."

I slowly drew my sword.

"I have to win to protect my family."

I shouted confidently and raised my chin as if to provoke Lagian.

"I will definitely win this time. There was an accident at the banquet, and it ended in a hurry, didn't it?"

At my words, Laigan gritted his teeth and fixed his sword. It was the very large sword that was once pointed at Robert's neck.

"Subdue that cheeky commoner, Lagian."

Carlon said arrogantly.

"Just don't kill her. We need to find out the third origin of black magic."

He added in a gloomy tone.

"I believe your claim that we can get rid of Annabelle Rainfield is true."

The appearance of menacing the same side was very impressive.

Of course, I have faced Lagian twice so far, but I have never shown my skills properly.

It was a duel with the same penalty in a way because I had to protect Robert and Lagian had to protect Carlon.

We stared at each other for a while with lifeless eyes, and then jumped, not mentioning who came first.