She Is a Daughter Raised As the Son of a Duke

After finishing my bath, I hesitated in front of Jed’s room. His room was right next to mine.

Feeling nervous, I swallowed hard and was about to knock when the door swung wide open before my hand could reach it.

“Ah-you startled me…”

Jed greeted me. It seemed like he was alone in the room.

“Come in.”

“I apologize for intruding.”

As I entered the room, Jed closed the door and gestured for me to go towards the table.

“Where are the others?”

“They’re all in the main room. The princess is there too.”

He motioned for me to sit in a chair.

“Have a seat.”

“Okay.”

I sat down and faced Jed.

“What did you want to talk about?”

“But before that, do you have any questions for me?”

“Well… yes. How did you know that the prince and I were in the bathroom together?”

“When Diego said he was going to shower, the princess mentioned that you would be showering too.”

“Oh, right. After dinner, I said I would go shower with the princess.”

In truth, I had a separate question that I was most curious about.

“The prince mentioned that you said I was a girl… is it true?”

“It’s true.”

Jed didn’t hesitate to answer, as if he had planned to reveal that I was a girl from the beginning.

“So, you went to the bathroom to send Diego away because I’m a girl? How did you know I was a girl?”

“I knew since we met on Fashion Street.”

Jed had predicted from our first meeting that I was a girl, and he confirmed it at Iris’s birthday party.

“That’s strange… Even if it’s impossible for mental magic to fail.”

“You’ve made it impossible to recognize your real gender with mental magic, right?”

“Yes, but it’s strange that it doesn’t work for you. It might not work if you have stronger mana than Floa, but you don’t have mana.”

Suddenly, I opened my eyes wide and asked.

“Could it be… do you have magical power?”

Jed nodded.

“I do.”

“You do? But you’re not a guardian knight yet.”

In the original story, he didn’t have magical power until he became a guardian knight. Even if I changed the original story, it shouldn’t have affected Jed.

However, even a butterfly’s small flapping wings can change the world.

“I may not be a guardian knight, but there are many ways to obtain magical power.”

“Well, it’s difficult to obtain magical power stronger than Floa’s…”

The reason they are called guardian deities is not without reason. They are guardian deities because they are powerful enough to protect their targets under any circumstances.

But Jed possesses magical power that may be stronger than Floa’s, maybe even similar to Iris and Cassius. It was hard to believe.

“I don’t think I have magical power stronger than your guardian deity.”

“Oh? Then why didn’t mental magic work on you?”

“It’s because of the special ability of the magical power I possess.”

“Special ability…?”

The term “special ability” is only used for S-class demons…?

I was curious and wanted to know more, but before I could ask anything else, he changed the subject.

“I said there was something I wanted to talk about. We are looking for a spy.”

We? A spy?

“The name of the spy is…”

And from his mouth, a name I knew came out.

“Milo.”

Milo… He was mentioned as Heint’s lost son in the original work, right?

Or is he a namesake?

“The characteristic of an S-class demon is that unlike other demons, they each have unique abilities and can communicate with humans. This is well known, so you must be aware of it too.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“In addition to that, there are lesser-known characteristics.”

“What are they?”

“That they can bestow magical power upon humans.”

Demons can bestow magical power upon humans?

According to his explanation, S-class demons can bestow magical power upon humans. The reason it’s not well known is that the demons didn’t need to bestow their power upon their human enemies.

So it is difficult to find cases where humans have received magical power from demons.

“Milo’s case is one of the rare instances. Milo received magical power from an S-class demon.”

“How did you find out about Milo?”

“Two years ago, during the sinking of the Kalesha battleship.”

Two years ago, a major battleship sinking accident occurred in the neighboring country, the Kalesha Empire.

The battleship was the result of a shipbuilding project planned by the former Crown Prince of Kalesha, and more than ten wealthy families invested heavily in the project.

However, as soon as the battleship was launched into the sea on the day of its completion, it sank.

Fortunately, no one was on board the battleship, so there were no casualties. However, many of the families who had invested a large amount of money in the battleship project went bankrupt overnight.

I learned about that incident during Lady Yudif’s class.

“I know about that incident. It was concluded that the cause of the sinking was poor construction.”

“That was the work of a rival company. They infiltrated the battleship and set off an explosion spell.”

“Really? If it was a rival company…”

“There’s a prominent family that comes to mind when it comes to shipbuilding projects in Starcia, right?”

“You mean… the Clovin family?”

“That’s right. Lord Penso said so. To be in the top three of the shipbuilding industry.”

“Why didn’t they do anything about it?”

At that moment, the sound of the door opening suddenly rang out. Reflexively, I turned my head and saw Diego standing there.

Fortunately, this time he was properly dressed.

Diego answered my question on behalf of me.

“Clovin made a big mistake. If someone else had heard it, it could have led to a war between Starcia and Kalesha.”

Revealing sensitive and confidential information because of alcohol was a mistake that should never have been made.

Diego approached us and spoke.

“It was a bit strange for you to send me out of the bathroom. I thought you might be planning to tell May Flotina about this, so I came to check, and it turned out to be the right answer.”

Thanks to that, I sobered up a bit. He raised one corner of his mouth calmly.

Diego looked at me again.

“But there’s no need to pity them. The former Crown Prince who planned the large battleship project was a person who exploited labor without pay, exploited children, and even committed murder if necessary, working them for 18 hours a day.”

“But what about the investors…?”

“The investors were the same. They were all part of the Prince’s faction of nobles. They knew everything and invested accordingly.”

Whether it was exploiting workers without pay, exploiting children in their prime, working them for 18 hours a day, or committing murder.

“They didn’t care about anything else. It all ended as long as they made money.”

It wouldn’t be inappropriate to say that they deserved their punishment.

“Of course, it doesn’t mean we support Penso. In fact, we want Penso to fall.”

“Why is that?”

“Because they are the same. They’re doing the same despicable acts as the rival company.”

I didn’t think poorly of Penso just because of the original work; I didn’t know that Fensoga had fallen so far.

“If our goal is to make them fall, why don’t we expose Penso’s misdeeds to the public?”

If we do that, their downfall is just a matter of time.

Diego nodded as if he knew, but he said he had no intention of exposing them to the public.

“If Penso’s misdeeds are exposed to the public, it could lead to a war in Kalesha.”

Diego didn’t want a war. More precisely, he didn’t want innocent lives to be sacrificed because of a war.

“If we don’t want a war, let’s not give them a pretext for war from our side.”

Diego glanced at Jed.

“Jed, did you explain about Milo to May?”

“I’m about to explain it now.”

Jed stood up from his seat and took out two photos from the drawer.

Two photos of a person named Milo. He returned to his seat and handed them to me.

“This person is Milo.”

“Uh…?”

As soon as I saw the photos, I recognized him.

I remembered this face. He was the boy I met when I went on a train trip to Floa and Lelat Beach in the past.

When I asked if he was Milo, he denied it.

When we met at Lelat Beach, I described Milo like this.

A handsome boy with curly hair and cherry-colored eyes.

The Milo in the photo had grown up so much that he could be described as a young man now.

Diego explained about Milo.

“He’s eighteen years old, just like me and Jed. He’s a spy sent by Hestia to keep an eye on Penso.”

“Hestia…?”

“She’s not an official knight yet. Considering that Hestia trusts Milo, she’ll probably include him in her knight order in the upcoming selection.”

Jed spoke up.

“Earlier, you mentioned that Penso installed explosive magic in the Kalesha shipbuilding company and caused it to go bankrupt. But explosive magic…”

I continued his sentence.

“Hestia is skilled in using magic, just like Floa is skilled in mental magic. It was Hestia who installed explosive magic in the pigling at Iris’s birthday party.”

Diego crossed his legs and folded his arms.

“Hestia likes handsome men with exceptional looks. That’s why all the members of her knight order are renowned beauties from different regions.”

However, Hestia wasn’t satisfied with just her knight order. She wanted even more handsome men.

Penso, who saw through this, proposed a deal to acquire handsome men as slaves in exchange for destroying a competing business.

Considering Penso’s reputation for acquiring numerous slaves, it wasn’t a difficult decision to offer up handsome men as slaves.

“Hestia accepted Penso’s deal and, as promised, caused the sinking of the rival company’s flagship.”

The mention of Penso’s slaves reminds me of the original work. The pitiful May who met her demise at the hands of Count Penso.

Just thinking about how countless slaves became playthings of Penso’s makes my heart ache.