They had spent such a long time in Noirelle's lair, but only a few hours had passed in the outside world.
During those short hours, Hestia had gotten a home and had her wish come true.
And, naturally, she was able to figure out why Swanhaden hadn't been by Shuraina's side when she had been out looking for her. Hestia had asked to toss anybody who would come between Shuraina and herself, and her wish had been granted at that point in time.
She had been told that there was only a limited number of times when her wish could be granted, but Hestia was satisfied with monopolizing Shuraina for even a moment.
"Anyway, we can't report your dragon lair home as your home to the empire. We need to create a temporary residence–where should we do it?"
Shuraina asked, frowning as she thumbed her chin. Thankfully, Hestia's basic needs were now taken care of, but she had been given such a massive amount of wealth that it might cause issues down the line for her financial life.
If, for example, Hestia had no money to her name in the empire and she spent a large sum of money, she might be investigated for her finances. They might even take away her riches claiming she had gotten it illegally...
"I want to live near you, Shuraina."
Shuraina, who had thought about meeting with Yves later on to discuss the situation, blinked as Hestia responded immediately and faced her.
"If you're talking about where I live, then….the knights' dorm in the royal palace?"
"Oh….. Right. Shuraina, your official residence is the dormitory in the palace..."
They couldn't even buy a space in the palace dorms if they wanted, so they couldn't do anything. Hestia's shoulders slumped in despair, but Shuraina clapped her hands as an idea popped up in her head.
"Do you want to live with me for now, at least until the riches you got from Noirelle gets officially recognized by the government?"
"In the dorms?"
"Uh-huh."
"I'm not registered in the royal palace, so I won't even be able to pass through the gates, though? And there's no way I'd be registered within the palace dorms that are specifically made for employees."
"We just have to fix it a little."
Shuraina smiled deviously as she dragged Hestia to her workshop.
Hestia was suddenly given the job of organizing and writing out all the happenings within the palace and sending it to the newspaper companies. When amazing things kept happening one after another, Hestia couldn't do anything else but just watch with her mouth agape. She hadn't even had an interview of any kind, nor had anybody vouched for her–but here she was, working in the royal palace. Moreover…..
"Royal Press Manager...?"
Hestia tilted her head at the title. She had never heard of anything like this before.
"It's your temporary role within the palace."
Shuraina was currently entering Hestia's name within layers of royal entrance circles and anti-tracking circles. She had even brought in a heap of magic circles with information about employees of the palace and was adding in Hestia's name within all of the lists.
"How is all of this possible? Is it usually so easy to bring over magic circles that the royal palace uses?"
Hestia couldn't hide her surprise as she touched the royal palace entrance pass with her photo and name on it.
"No, it's usually impossible. But I'm the exception."
"Why?"
"All of the magic used within the palace is used by the DuBois family, and the marquis gave me a coin before, right? The coin allows me to see all of the magic circles owned by the DuBois. That's how it's possible for me to bring over the circles and falsify them."
Hestia gripped Shuraina's shoulders with shaking hands.
"What….. What happens if we're caught?"
Shuraina was calm as Hestia's pupils shook in panic.
"….mm, so what? No matter what, the person in charge of all this is Hylli. And you're his first love. Wouldn't he try to cover it up in the name of love or something?"
Hestia scowled and stuck out her tongue as soon as she heard Shuraina's statement.
"Blegh."
"Blurgh."
Shuraina and Hestia both cringed and clicked their tongues as they thought about Hylli's passionate love.
Once Hestia moved her residence to Shuraina's dorms, she stayed in the room to rewrite the manuscripts that the count had burned. She was scared of being found out. But once she became used to life in the palace, Hestia was able to shake off her fear and walk around proudly.
Living in the palace under a fake identity wasn't as bad as she thought. Her job didn't even exist, but if she countered anyone with, 'Do you even know who I am to suspect me like this? You'll regret it,' it usually frightened them into submission. A few suspicious people checked her identity, but her name was right there in the magic circles so they soon lost their suspicion.
But they couldn't avoid the eyes of the future emperor, Hylli Orde Ianess.
".....do what you want."
Hylli sighed, seeing how easily the palace's security system was abused.
"But it was still wrong of you guys to falsify papers illegally like this. It would've been much easier if you just told me before."
Hylli couldn't just let this slide as the future leader of the empire, so he made Shuraina create a stronger magic circle for the security system of the palace, and for Hestia to organize the reactions of his decisions by societal class, and for her to organize the opinions of newspapers and various medias and to submit them to his office.
And, just like that, Hestia was officially employed in the royal palace. Hylli wasn't officially the emperor just yet so she was writing a lot of articles that she was passionate about, but she was going to be working in the palace after the coronation.
With that, every problem that Hestia had was solved. She had a legitimate source of income now, and she now had a luxurious residence to work on her writing from. To be honest, everything had been solved so easily that she was nervous.
She thought that things couldn't be so easy, but that thought didn't last too long. Her life wasn't complete smooth sailing now that things had been taken care of, after all. Hestia was overwhelmingly busy as she tried to work on everything she was now in charge of. Thankfully, she wasn't being chased by due dates no matter what she did. If it was nearing her deadline, then she could just go back to the home that Noirelle had given her and work on her tasks leisurely.
She was satisfied with everything, but Hestia was feeling a bit lost these days. She was doing what she loved to do, but now that her hobby had become work, she was becoming more and more tired of it. Maybe it was because she was writing in secret that she had been so attached to it, but she was being paid to write, now. And just thinking about how many people were reading her works made her anxious and scared to write. The more overwhelmed she felt, the more her passion dimmed.
It would be so nice to stay passionate forever. She felt as if she was becoming too lax.
Whenever that happened, she went to Shuraina, who lived right next door, and talked to her about her worries.
"Chocolate always tastes the sweetest if you're eating it without permission. Now, you're basically being force-fed chocolate on a spoon. You're having trouble digesting it all, right? I feel the same these days. At least you have a goal in life–I do the same thing every day, like a hamster in a wheel, so I'm more sick of it all."
The two of them promised to go on a 'Finding Life's Purpose' trip together soon. That they would life their lives to the fullest and take a break at the same time to go backpacking somewhere foreign.
Living life to the fullest wasn't hard, and Hestia and Shuraina soon signed up for a long-term break and headed out to a deserted island outside of the empire.
"…..Stop it, you've already drawn teleportation circles countless times. The answer's clear. A dragon's preventing our escape, so how are we going to get out?"
"Yves hyung is already resigned. Give up, Swan. We're trapped."
"That piece of shit dragon. I'm going to deep fry it as soon as I get out of here."
And, in their travels, Shuraina and Hestia were able to find three people trapped on said island.
As soon as Hestia and Shuraina found the three people on the beach, Hestia attempted to go back to the empire with Shuraina. Things didn't work out that way, though. After that, Hestia was able to lose the feeling of boredom and find joy in her life once more.
"Goddamn it!"
End