In the past, the tower would’ve taken this job politically and attacked the royal family, and here sat Iris. Iris, who didn’t know anything about the ways of the world. Elaine stroked her soft blonde hair again and he thought about what he’d just read.

“Teacher, I don’t want to go! I don’t want to leave the Magic Tower for good!”

Iris’s popularity was at a high level now. He recalled when she was young, she’d often scream and faint when she saw people. After those experiences, she’d used magic to avoid meeting people again. When she had to meet someone, she’d send a doll that looked just like her instead.

He’d thought it was an inevitable choice to let Iris go into the world if she was to be saved and remembered all too clearly the rainy day when he’d sent her on her way. Iris had begged and pleaded to stay, clinging to his legs and crying bitterly. Elaine was told not to kick her out. But he’d stood firm in his decision and forced her to go.  And now, she’d become a cold dead body and the soul had barely survived. I am responsible for her death, he regretted. Elaine grabbed Iris’s blonde hair. This would never have happened if she’d been protected by the Magic Tower.

“Teacher?”

“I’ll find out about this. I also wondered who told the Queen all about you, and it turned out to be a stupid monk.” He was one of Elaine’s disciples. Jealous of Elaine and Iris’s relationship, he’d informed the nuisance Queen about her existence.

“And, what else do you want to ask?” He said, dreading her next question.

“Ways to hide magic. I don’t know how to do it since I’ve never tried hiding magic before, teacher.”

“It’s simple.” Elaine gently patted his pupil on the shoulder. “Squeeze the formula and install the magic.”

Thinking there might be another way, Iris realized that it was magic that she had to use, so she asked carefully, “Can I think of it as a camouflage system?”

“Yes, you put the magic on top of the magic, so that your opponent can’t feel the magic that’s in your body. Did you understand what I mean?”

“I think I know now,” nodded Iris.

“So, are you ready then?” The third one was a simple question and Elaine breathed a sigh of relief. But then he saw Iris shaking her head.

“Not quite, the fourth question is the biggest problem, teacher.”

Elaine frowned, saying that she couldn’t have any bigger issues to deal with.

Iris shouted with a face that looked as if she was about to burst into tears, “The ball is in three days!”

***

A bolt of lightning struck the ground nearby as the servant watched a man and woman through a telescope. They sat on a bed, talking affectionately, reading letters, whispering, crying, hugging, and dancing. It was most certainly an affair and he had the evidence to prove it. A look of disbelief spread across his face.

“Who’s having an affair?” Sidrain asked with more absurdity than hearing that the world had fallen.

“Sir Elaine and the Queen!” The chief replied, sounding shocked.

They say Rosemary is a crazy person. Is it contagious? Did our chief catch her craziness too? Sidrain thought, a deep frown marring his forehead.

There were many different kinds of affairs in the world and Sidrain had seen them all. For now, that was the case in the court society. Everyone was married, but everyone was sweet toward others and they all hated their spouse. Of course, there were rare cases like the Duchess of Sethang. Sidrain had also created several governments without flaws and Rosemary slept with all the men he liked, whether they had flaws or not. The fact that the current chief had an issue with this affair was a first. They committed an affair in the Queen’s room and second, the opponent was the natural enemy of the royal family, which was, of course, the Magic Tower, and Elaine was the owner of the tower. In this case, it was called an affair, but he should note that there might be a possibility of spying going on as well.

Many kinds of affairs shouldn’t happen. Like kinship, enemy relationships (that’s where Rosemary’s affair was related to), and other interspecies. There was a lot. There were many accidents and accusations, and it was the court society that was dirtier than the sewer. Sidrain, as king, was obliged to manage and coordinate all of that. So, he knew most of the time what was going on. But Elaine and Rosemary?

Although monkeys and dogs could sleep together, Elaine and Rosemary sleeping together would be impossible. The two hated each with all of their heart! From a man’s point of view, Elaine shouldn’t have been able to stand Rosemary, no matter how much effort she put into it, and from Rosemary’s spouse’s point of view, no matter what Elaine did, Rosemary would’ve screamed and tried killing Elaine by using drugs, if his fingertips even came close to her.

“Are you sure?” The chief wasn’t a person who would talk nonsense. So far, he had never brought anything unclear to Sidrain. His work was reliable. If you remove the fact that he said that Elaine and Rosemary were having an affair.

As if he fully understood why Sidrain was suspicious, the chief replied politely, “Of course, I saw a scene where my eyes couldn’t help but be suspicious.”

“Something suspicious about what?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “Are you saying that Elaine was able to get excited by Rosemary?”

Sidrain was puzzled whenever he engaged with Rosemary. No matter how curvaceous and beautiful her body was, he still felt repulsed by her every day of the month, but a man needed at least a little bit of intimacy now and then. Although it was twenty times larger and made out of bronze, he honestly thought that it would be much easier to get excited by the statue of the goddess of the temple which he found more fascinating than Rosemary.

“They hugged, cried, laughed, handed over the letters, and danced. There wasn’t a very clear scene of intimacy, but this is…”

Sidrain cut him off, “That’s enough evidence. I’ve got it.” He couldn’t digest this information and thought that Elaine’s stomach must be a lot stronger than his. Was she that good?

Elaine’s stomach was just fine. He was a character who lived his life as he wanted and he had enough magic and ability to enjoy his journey.