Mecha Devourer System-Chapter 222: The Weird Princess Ellianor (I)

Searching a space of a 30-meter radius.

It sounded easy enough, a task that shouldn't have taken someone like him one hour.

Yet, though the sun was directly overhead when he started, a half-curved moon now hung in the sky, and he still had not found it.

He had searched through an entire 25 kilometers incredibly carefully, with the aid of a magnifying glass, and still there was nothing.

Rising back to his feet.

CREAAAK!

The sound of his bone creaking echoed out as he looked around him.

Though he was still within the garden, he had moved quite far from the castle.

"Doing more than thirty was me trying to truly make sure it's truly not present here in the garden. But now, I think that's pretty clear enough."

Everlearn mused quietly to himself.

'I guess it never slipped off her ear then. Maybe she took it off inside?'

He thought, but kept away the magnifying glass and returned.

He was surprised when he arrived at the castle, finding her there, waiting.

"You searched quite far. I don't normally go that deep myself."

She said when he arrived.

"I just wanted to confirm it is truly absent."

"It's late, and your knees are dirty. Care for a bath and maybe tea later?"

She asked.

"That'll be nice. But first, I have a question."

He said, and she paused.

"Ever since you've lost the earring, have you moved out of this... place?"

He asked.

"No, I don't go out. I haven't done so in two years now."

She said, and Everlearn hummed.

"If you don't go that far into the garden, and also never move out of here, then I guess it's in the castle, then?"

He mused, turning to look at the castle.

It was tall, ginormous even.

Without wasting any more time, Everlearn moved towards it.

"You're going to start the search now!?"

She asked in disbelief, and he found her looking up at the dark sky.

"The darkness doesn't bother me. I can still see perfectly."

He said, but then she folded her hands into each other, turning her face to the side.

"Still... it's... It's a lady's house. I might need some... uh, preparations before you search."

She said coyly, and Everlearn's face quietly turned red.

'Dumb me. I was so focused on the search, I forgot about that.'

He thought, though he still responded coolly.

"Then, I'll start the search by morning..."

"That's great! So, you'll go for a bath then?"

She asked, and he nodded, disappearing into the castle.

________________

SPLASH!

[You're acting like this isn't weird.]

The system panel flashed as water poured down Everlearn's head, slipping down his shoulders.

'I know it's weird...'

He replied in his thoughts.

In the few hours that he had remained here, Everlearn had quickly noticed:

Princess Ellianor was weird...everything about her.

Firstly, she didn't live in the manor.

She lived in a completely different place from the manor.

An area accessible by a teleporter.

That sounded at first like a good way to provide defense, but that was where the next anomaly came, and that was Everlearn's existence.

He, a Corer from X Base on a mission, was allowed to freely interact with the princess.

As a princess of one of the top three royal houses in a Grade C city, he had expected a crazy amount of security around, yet there was nothing at all.

There were no guards around, no cameras, nothing.

If he wanted to harm her right now, doing so would probably be as easy as breathing.

Besides, she had mentioned never having left this place for two years.

That was hard to believe for obvious reasons.

How would a princess of an important family be stuck in some fantasy-looking castle, reading some fairy adventure grimoires for two years?

I mean, royalty likes to indulge, right? But two years indulging is just unreasonable.

These were the things he had found weird, though he had also purposefully ignored them because he wanted to just find what he came here to find and leave immediately.

Unnecessary curiosity might just drag him into something that would only slow him down from his goal.

'Wherever that earring is hiding, I'll be finding it tomorrow, and put an end to all of this,'

He mused quietly to himself, turning off the shower and dressing up.

He came down after his bath, donning new clothes.

A blue-colored hoodie shirt and trousers.

When he got down, he found her on one of the hanging rope seats, swinging here and there, and turning to the table, there were two steaming hot cups of tea.

She sat upright, hearing his footsteps.

"Help pass mine, please..."

She said, and Everlearn picked up one of the cups.

He pointed both at her, and she picked the one in his right hand.

"The other is for you."

"Thank you."

He said, turning to the other hanging rope seat, but he didn't sit on it; instead, he sat on the ground.

It was filled with flowers and greenery, so the dirt wasn't a bother, though Princess Ellianor still noticed this.

"Why not take the second seat? It's empty, right?"

She asked with interest, as Everlearn looked around the garden once more.

"I just think it's reserved for someone special."

He said, and she paused, her eyes quivering a bit in their sockets before she replied.

"And what made you come to that realization?"

"Everything is in twos," Everlearn replied, quietly pointing.

"The chairs are in twos. The swings have two seats. The bed has two pillows."

"Not one, not three, but two."

He said, lowering his fingers after,

"It's pretty obvious that the design is intentional, and if the seat was made to be two instead of three or four, then it doesn't seem to be just vacant for anybody."

He said, and she looked at him in quiet disbelief for a while before smiling.

"You're quite observant."

"Thank you, Princess Ellianor."

"Just call me Ellianor."

She said with an uncaring shrug.

"Ellianor..."

He pronounced under his breath, before asking.

"So, is there someone living here with you?"

He asked.

"You said everything looks intentional, don't you? Then would you believe me if I said no one stays here apart from me?"

She asked, smirking lightly, but Everlearn nodded his head.

"I will actually."

"Really?"

"Yes. The third reason I didn't sit was that the seats looked too fresh."

He said.

"Your perfume lingers on everything."

"The seat you are on, the swing, the bed. I can easily perceive it, but I smell no other perfume, especially on the other seats."

"One of the pillows has your perfume, the other had no scent, as if it had never been touched before."

"It shows you don't just use any seat. You purposefully avoided the left seats, for some reason, showing it is truly reserved and important."

He said quietly.

THUMP!

SLAP!

Ellianor's tea suddenly slipped from her fingers, yet before it hit the ground, it landed in Everlearn's palm, who moved his hand swiftly, taking back every drop of tea that poured back into the cup.

"You almost dropped it..." He said to her with a smile that quickly receded when he noticed the pink blush slowly crawling up her cheeks.

'For real?'

"Ellianor?"

No answer.

"Princess Ellianor?"

He called once more, and she snapped out of it.

"Oh... I..."

She tried, so lost for words, but seeing the cup offered to her, she took it back, whispering a,

"Thank you."

Silence reigned between them both as Everlearn quietly sipped his tea.

'Now that I remember, when was the last time I had time to look up at the sky?'

He thought quietly to himself, looking at the silhouette of the smooth, curved moon with stars dotted all around.

What was more, there wasn't just one, but three of the curved moons.

Nvidia had three moons, making for an even more beautiful sight.

He took another sip of the tea before exhaling quietly in relief.

The sound of faint shuffling echoed by his side, and he turned to find Ellianor standing up from the seat, then sitting down on the grass too, by his side.

"You're right."

She said, her fingers tapping rapidly on the cup.

"There's no one here save for me..."

She said, and he smiled, saying,

"I kinda knew it. But..."

"But what?"

"But why are you here alone?"

"No one comes in here as you said, and you mentioned the last time you've been outside was two years ago."

"It doesn't really sound like the life that a princess from such a reputable family as yourself would be living."

"It's too... I don't know..."

"Boring?"

She said with a giggle.

"Hmm. I think lonely is the magic word."

He said, and her smile receded.

She downed her cup in a single gulp before falling on her back, looking at the sky quietly.

Everlearn also quietly finished his tea, and right after he did, the question came.

"What do you think of Magic?"