The Villain is Being Suspiciously Kind

Chapter 49

By the end of the party, it was time for the daughters of barons to greet the princess, which included Citrina. Among these ladies from baronies, the dignity of their families was low and they were barely in a state to carry on the title.
Most of the gifts in their hands were simple.
Citrina swept a hand elegantly through her wavy hair once and headed towards the princess.
The princess looked absolutely tired now. If it wasn’t for the party prepared in her honor, she looked tired enough to leave immediately.

“I’m tired. Are these ladies the last ones?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“I see… okay.”

The princess appeared to want to leave her seat quickly. Indeed, it didn’t seem like the princess needed more ladies-in-waiting. She was very tired, but it was only natural to continue greeting the baronial ladies even though she was on the verge of collapsing.

“Please greet Her Highness quickly and then leave.”

Perhaps conscious of the princess’s fatigue, the lady-in-waiting next to her spoke sternly.

Most of the low-ranking aristocratic ladies were desperately hoping for the chance to become one of the princess’s ladies-in-waiting. Despair bloomed on the faces of those ladies.
Only Citrina stood still with a perfect poker face. A faint curiosity arose on the face of the lady-in-waiting next to Citrina.

“Lady, greet Her Highness.”
“Your Highness, Imperial Princess, I am Citrina Foluin of the Foluin Barony. Congratulations on your return.”

The princess nodded her head. The fatigue was visible on her face.
Citrina was not extraordinarily beautiful, nor did she have a prestigious background.
The princess must have received many simple greetings like this.
Citrina opened her mouth cautiously. This moment was like a real sword fight.

“The gift I want to present to you is a blue diamond.”

Citrina slowly opened the case.

“A blue diamond? This is my first time seeing one, but it’s unusual. Isn’t there a myth that they can make love come true?”

Her eyes sparkled for a moment.
Citrina looked at the velvet case in the hands of the princess.

“Yes. It’s not through magic, but through the power of spirits.”

The princess gave a short response.

“The power of spirits?”
“Yes. It’s spirit art.”

Iana’s bloodshot eyes began to flash. Citrina realized the gleam in her eyes was a bit overly enthusiastic.

‘What’s this?’

Citrina wondered a bit.

-Can I go out now?
Gemma started to prod her.

Citrina answered Gemma’s request lightly.
-Yeah, Gemma.
-Oh? Right now is good?
-Yes. Please materialize Gemma.

“Then instead of showing you gems that make love come true, I’ll show you the spirit that brings good luck.”

Gemma flew off vigorously from the pendant. The materialized spirit hovered in front of the princess’s face.
Gemma soared about the beautiful festival’s stage as if it had been prepared just for her. The lights on the ornate chandelier went out and then came back glittering like jewels.

-Citrina, I’ve become an intermediate spirit!

Citrina didn’t actually know this until now. After straining over the Silmaril for the past few days, she must have constantly trained and developed into an intermediate spirit.
Citrina looked in awe at the materialized Gemma.

-I’ll show you. I’ve completely changed!

Soon after, sparkling jewel-like powder scattered down from the spirit’s transparent wings.
The princess’s eyes went wide in surprise looking at the spirit. No, it wasn’t just that the princess was surprised. Everyone who stood beneath the sparkling powder cast by the spirit looked up with surprised faces.
The jewel powder contained spirit power that caused the heart of anyone who touched it to be filled with calm and joy.
As the materialized Gemma flew through the hall, the people’s hearts became softer and softer.

“Oh, oh my god….”

It was easy to confirm that it was Citrina that was the spiritist who had created this magical environment.
The person who was most surprised now was certainly Princess Iana. She jumped up, pointing a finger at the spirit and shouting.

“Th, that’s Gemma de Ikadael Wyroche, the Spirit of Freya, the mining city that loves Silmaril, and the spirit of the finest jewels!”
…what the, did you memorize all of that?

The princess was in an awfully excited state. Her eyes were already bloodshot.

“Yes. That’s correct, Your Highness.”

Even Citrina, the spirit’s contractor, did not know Gemma’s full name.

‘Anyway, why does the princess who trained as a knight know so much about spirits?’

The difference between knights and spirits was like night and day.
Citrina was slightly puzzled but soon came to an understanding. As an imperial princess, she had naturally learned about all of the races.

“Then, then, are you a spiritist?”
“Yes. As you can see, I am the contractor of the gem spirit, Gemma.”
“Astounding! It’s so astounding!”

The princess began to applaud enthusiastically.

-I danced! Didn’t I do well?
-Yeah, you did well, so come next to me.

Citrina raised one hand, palm up. Gemma sat triumphantly on Citrina’s palm. The jewel powder sank to the floor and disappeared like it was all a fantasy.
As if waking up from a midsummer’s dream, the crowd looked around at each other and burst into exclamations.
Citrina asked the princess softly.

“Do you want me to cast a love spell, Your Highness?”

However, Princess Iana didn’t seem interested in the art of love. She just came up to Citrina as if she had forgotten everyone else around them and gripped her shoulders.

“No, no love tricks. Thank you for showing us a wonderful presentation.”
“It’s an honor, Your Highness.”

-I’m done now, so I’m going to rest. I’m tired.
-Yeah, get into the pendant.
-By the way, she’s showing too much interest in you.
-It’s a good thing though.
– Why is she interested in you and not me? It’s weird.

Gemma glanced at the princess and shook her head.
Citrina was slightly taken aback by her honest spirit’s attitude. However, the princess did not seem to care at all about such things.
Citrina had absolutely no reason to worry.
Princess Iana was not even looking at the spirit properly as she calmed her fluttering heart.
Iana clasped her hands, eyes sparkling as she thought.

‘Oh my gosh! I could feel it was lucky the minute we started talking. Is, is she really a spiritist?’

Iana remembered her pocketbook tucked away in her dress pocket.
Princess Iana knew she would have a political marriage someday. Therefore, her dreams were mainly kept to romance novels.
This was a fact several quick-witted ladies, including Phantemang, knew.
But there was one fact that no one knew.
This one thing was that Princess Iana’s favorite novel was <Diary of a Spiritist>.
Romance novels were trendy these days, but this was Princess Iana’s number one pick.
The story of a beautiful spiritist forming a reverse harem!

‘This reminds me of the spiritist’s diary! I want to read the next sequel soon!’

Actually, the ladies’ guesses earlier had been wrong. The reason Princess Iana’s eyes were read was that she had been reading <Diary of a Spiritist> all night.
Her eyes flashed with irresistible desire.

“It’s fate that we met like this, so shall we go to the garden?”
“It’s a great honor, Your Highness.”
“I have so many questions! I’m curious about how you became a spiritist, whether you have a fiance, things like that!”
“A fiance… Well, I’ll answer them all honestly.”
“I’ll instruct them to open the way to the garden, Your Highness.”

It was Princess Iana, a lady-in-waiting close to her, and Citrina. Leaving all the other ladies behind, the three of them made their way to the garden.
The ladies remaining inside the hall ate finger food and gossiped about the exciting events that had just taken place.

“They say she’s the dwarf’s disciple, so she must also be a spiritist.”
“No wonder. That must be why Lady Estelle was so protective of her!”
“Ah, whatever. I should have found a way to talk to her!”
“…Th, then are the rumors of being associated with ‘him’ true?”
“You mean ‘him’?”

The atmosphere suddenly became chilly as if water had been poured on them.
There was only one person here with a sour face.
Lady Phantemang, who was not even able to use the magic of luck, frowned.
Her anger was directed at the jeweler, Feinmann, who had coaxed her into buying the blue topaz.

‘You dared to tell me the pathetic lie that the blue diamond was stolen. The nerve.’

How dare some merchant of the gentry class make fun of one with precious aristocratic blood?
Phantemang’s face turned red. Up until now, the ladies surrounding Phantemang had made fun of Citrina together, but they were now changing their tune.

“Lady Phantemang, are you leaving?”
“Yes.”

With a blunt face, Phantemang turned her head around.
There was a saying, “It is the way it is”. There was also a saying, “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”.
The merchant who had so gracefully insulted Citrina was about to be beaten once more by Phantemang.
Anyway, it was then that Fiona Hall became noisy with talk of Citrina.
Citrina Foluin arrived in the garden with the princess.