Chapter 236 - No Choice but to Put Him to the Test

'What on earth is this man...?'

Only moments ago, he had been acting insolently toward her, more like her superior than a slave. Yet before Maia, Limon poured out flowery compliments as though his tongue were coated in honey. Arbella could not hide her astonishment.

Neither Limon nor Maia paid any attention to her reaction. They simply continued their conversation calmly.

“You have learned quite the antiquated greeting. Even our clan's elders no longer use it these days.”

“Your merciful praise for what any slave serving so noble a mistress ought rightly to know leaves this lowly slave overwhelmed with gratitude...”

“Enough. That will do.”

Maia raised a hand, then continued with a frown, as though even listening to another word would irritate her.

“There is no need for empty formalities that contain no sincerity anyway. Just speak comfortably.”

“How could I presume to do so as a slave?”

“That is an order.”

“Well, if you insist, mistress.”

Arbella stared incredulously at Limon, who smiled as though he had expected precisely that response. She realized that his oppressively deferential manner and extravagant flourishes had all been a ploy to draw those very words out of Maia.

If Arbella had realized it, there was no chance Maia had failed to notice. A cold sneer therefore settled on Maia's lips.

“Seeing how deftly you use your tongue and your wits, I can imagine what a promising talent you must have been even among the ‘Black Dragon Clan.’”

“You give me too much credit.”

Limon brushed the remark aside with a smile. Despite the nonchalance of his expression, however, his eyes had grown deeply still.

'She found out, just as I thought.'

'So he anticipated it.'

Her pointed remark convinced Limon that she had already discovered he was not a member of the Black Dragon Clan. In turn, his lack of agitation told Maia that he had anticipated even her discovery.

For a moment, the two regarded each other in silence—one kneeling, the other seated on a jade throne.

As though trying to see through each other's intentions, or like predators searching for a weakness in their prey, they studied one another without blinking. Arbella's sharp voice interrupted them.

“A mere slave, staring straight at Her Highness? What is the meaning of this insolence?”

“Ah, my apologies. My mistress's extraordinary beauty quite robbed me of my senses.”

Limon's blithe reply, delivered with a broad smile, swept away the peculiar atmosphere. Maia looked at Arbella with an expression that might have been irritation or disdain, then gave a cold snort.

“To think someone who served as the Black Dragon Princess's attendant would be swayed by mere beauty. That tells me just how poorly Li Qingyu has managed her clan.”

“The Black Dragon Clan hasn't been doing very well lately.”

“You openly disparage your own clan?”

“As you know, mistress, what the Black Dragon Clan considers shameful is being too ignorant and incompetent to gain anything. What one says is irrelevant.”

“Spoken like a true member of the Black Dragon Clan.”

Both already knew that he was no such thing. Nevertheless, Limon shamelessly continued his act, and Maia made no attempt to expose the lie. He still needed to conceal his identity to secure Hermann's treatment, while she did not want to squander her chance to uncover his secret through clumsy questioning.

Thus, a tacit agreement formed between them: they would keep up this transparent farce and maintain their existing arrangement, under which he would act as her slave in payment for the treatment. That was also why Maia proceeded without hesitation.

“Arbella, give this man what you prepared.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“... Why are you suddenly giving me a violin?”

“Why do you think?”

Maia's sneer suggested that anyone with a brain ought to know. Limon gave a little chuckle and accepted the violin.

“Is there a piece you would like to hear?”

“Anything you are confident in will do.”

It was a remarkably casual instruction, considering she had gone to the trouble of providing an Amati, counted among the three great names in violins. But Maia was not finished.

“However, if your performance is mediocre, your punishment will not end with a mere whipping.”

“I'll keep that in mind.”

If he wanted to avoid suffering, he had better perform well while she was still willing to treat him as a higher-grade slave who could at least play an instrument. Maia's somber eyes held not a trace of humor as she conveyed that warning, and Limon readily nodded.

He briefly checked the Amati's tone and the condition of its bow. Only after confirming that everything was perfectly prepared did he settle the violin on his shoulder. Then, the moment the bow glided across the strings—

VEEEEN

A warm melody rang out, and another garden, this one made of sound, blossomed over the flowers already in full bloom.

* * *

“...!”

Arbella involuntarily caught her breath. Until Limon took up the violin, she had held no interest whatsoever in his musical skill. All her attention had been devoted to uncovering his secret through his performance.

But the instant he began to play, she could not help forgetting his secret entirely.

VEEEEN

It was a garden of sound. Just as countless flowers came together to form a magnificent garden, countless notes joined to create a fantastical melody.

It was only sound, and yet merely hearing it exerted such a powerful pull, as though it could swallow everything, that all stray thoughts vanished and the listener was drawn into the performance.

That was why Arbella could only gaze at him in a trance until he finally finished playing and lowered the violin. It was also why the mocking voice that followed left her stunned.

“Is that paltry effort the best you can do?”

She had just heard such an entrancing performance, yet Maia showed neither emotion, awe, nor appreciation. She merely looked down at Limon with dark, somber eyes, as though observing a laboratory animal. Her gaze was so cold that even Arbella, standing beside her, involuntarily shuddered.

But Limon, the actual target of that gaze, replied with an utterly unperturbed question.

“Does that matter?”

“...”

As though he had struck a nerve, Maia glared at him in silence for a moment. Finally, she frowned and spoke quietly.

“Arbella, take this man and withdraw.”

“Pardon?”

“I said, withdraw.”

“Ah... yes, Your Highness!”

Arbella had expected her to listen to at least a few more performances and attempt to uncover Limon's secret. Though puzzled as to why Maia was sending him away so soon, she immediately obeyed and led him out of the garden.

For a long while, Maia gazed steadily at the empty place where Limon had stood before departing, smiling cheerfully even as he said farewell. Then she gave a faint snort.

“Insolent fellow.”

What mattered was not whether he had done his best, but whether she felt that it was his best. If his mistress wished to find fault, how could a slave argue? So if she found his performance lacking, she could punish him however she pleased. Maia sneered as she recalled Limon's question, which had packed all those sentiments into a few brief words.

'He dares put my discernment to the test.'

Placing his mistress's wishes above all else was certainly a slave's attitude. Yet it was also the answer of the world's most insolent slave, utterly certain that she could never disparage his performance.

Indeed, though Maia could mock Limon, she could not call his playing poor. His performance had been that flawless. The reason she had nevertheless called it a “paltry effort” was that she had sensed no psionics whatsoever in it.

'Did he deliberately conceal his psionics? Or was this a deception meant to confuse us from the very beginning?'

It was a difficult question to answer, especially with that particular Li Qingyu involved. Black Dragon Princesses had always been inscrutable, but that perpetually smiling girl was exceptionally difficult to read even among them.

In that light, the likeliest possibility was that Limon truly belonged to the Black Dragon Clan, and this entire affair was a trick Li Qingyu had devised to bait her.

'I cannot tell.'

Yet Maia ultimately could not turn her suspicion into certainty. Something about Limon's performance nagged at her too strangely for her to dismiss it as ordinary.

“I might learn something if I could dissect him...”

Wondering whether she should have chosen clinical experiments after all, Maia eventually shook her head. There were limits to what administering drugs and checking his pulse could reveal anyway. Above all, the very fact that he had offered her the option of clinical experiments made it clear that he was confident a few crude experiments would not expose his secret.

That was why Maia had chosen to make him a slave. There was more to learn from a slave she could work as ruthlessly as she pleased than from a test subject she could not freely dissect.

“... If experiments will not work, I have no choice but to put him to the test.”

Maia murmured to herself. After a brief consideration, she contacted Arbella through her communicator.

“Arbella, how is the search for that man Antonio progressing?”

[“We have obtained intelligence that he is hiding at a secret base in Paraisópolis. We can bring him in at any time. Just give the order.”]

“No, that will not be necessary.”

[“...!”]

Arbella caught her breath on the other end of the communicator, perhaps thinking she had been removed from the assignment. But the very next moment, she was shocked for an entirely different reason.

“Instead, prepare for me to go out.”

[“Pardon?”]

“I am saying that I will handle it myself.”

[“Y-Your Highness, you mean to leave headquarters? And all for such mere scum...!”]

Arbella was as bewildered as though she had been told a spirit had fallen out of a clear sky. Unless there was something she absolutely had to attend, such as the Council of Seven Dragons, Maia rarely even left this garden. That she would go out for such a reason was utterly unexpected.

“And have that man ready as well.”

[“... Do you intend to test him?”]

“I do.”

That was why those few additional words were enough for Arbella to discern Maia's purpose—and why she could not help becoming restless with anxiety.

[“Then, your guards and attendants...?”]

“I do not need them.”

[“Your Highness, that is far too dangerous. Please leave it to me instead.”]

At Arbella's alarmed, worried plea, Maia gave an icy sneer.

“Do you believe going alone could place me in danger?”

[“Of course not.”]

“Then, should that man use psionics through some special trick, are you confident you can uncover his secret more reliably than I can?”

[“That...”]

“Then simply do as you are told.”

[“... I will obey your command.”]

After ending the call with Arbella, Maia sank into thought. Given Limon's shameless behavior, he seemed unlikely to reveal his true colors easily. But everyone showed their true colors when cornered.

With that in mind, she intended to use this opportunity to make Limon reveal what lay beneath it all. As the Green Dragon Princess, she was confident that she would discover it if he showed even the slightest opening.

There was only one problem.

'... I am not feeling too poorly today. A brief outing should pose no problem.'

Having examined her own condition and dismissed the last source of concern, Maia leaned against the back of her jade throne and gently closed her eyes. She wanted to stabilize her condition as much as possible before the coming excursion.

But she failed to notice that the garden's flowers, always beautiful yet dark in hue, had at some point become unusually vibrant. Nor did she notice the fragrance that had gently spread amid the muddled scents of all those flowers before fading away.

Forgetting the pain that so often flared up, and the coughs she should have been coughing, she did not even realize how long it had been since she could focus on her thoughts with such tranquility. Alone in the garden, she sank, as always, into a solitary silence.