This Reincarnation Requires a Subscription Fee

I heard that Kirke offered his father an imperial villa near the border, but the former emperor refused it.  

‘Duke Kreutz was the former emperor’s closest confidant.’  

It seemed like there might be a connection, but it wasn’t clear yet.  

As I groaned in frustration and grabbed my head, Axel lightly tapped my forehead.  

“We should share this with Kirke first.”  

“Are you planning to go into the palace?”  

Axel had been close friends with Kirke even before he became emperor. Since Kirke had learned the sword from the Duke of Elpinard, they had naturally grown close from childhood.  

Later, the two of them became heroes together after defeating the Mad Dragon, and Axel was granted a special privilege to enter the palace freely, as if it were his own home, without any special permission.  

‘In my previous life, I also received that privilege.’  

The same was true for Bael and Servian.  

However, I had never visited the palace, concerned that the negative image of a dark mage might burden Kirke.  

Bael stayed in Kydsha, so the distance was an issue, and Servian was always wandering around strange places in search of materials…  

‘So in the end, Axel was the only one who freely came and went.’  

Thanks to that, when I was reincarnated and needed to discuss issues like the Mad Dragon or his followers, it didn’t attract any special attention.  

Everyone just thought, ‘Oh, the Elpinard heir is visiting again.’  

‘In fact, they seemed so close that there were even rumors at one point questioning whether the two had a forbidden relationship…’  

“Ouch!”  

Axel, sensing I was having unnecessary thoughts, gave me a light tap on the head.  

‘It’s not my fault that such rumors spread!’  

Feeling wronged, I looked at Axel, who leaned back comfortably in his chair and arrogantly tilted his chin.  

“This time, you’ll be the one to deliver the message. You’ll be going to the palace soon, after all.”  

“Me?”  

“Don’t you know anything? Kirke mentioned that he’d brought it up to you.”  

At Axel’s words, I recalled the brief comment Kirke made in the palace.  

⟨We’ll arrange something official soon.⟩  

That was all I had heard.  

I tilted my head in confusion, and Axel shrugged as if he was just as puzzled.  

“The official reason is that Her Majesty the Empress is pregnant and needs someone to talk to, so they’re looking for a noble young lady to come to the palace occasionally for tea.”  

If they really needed someone to talk to, it would make more sense to find a noble young lady of similar age.  

I was much younger than the Empress, so I didn’t quite fit that role.  

The real reason they were assigning me that role was obvious.  

“They’re giving me the right to come and go from the palace freely.”  

Instead of feeling grateful, a sense of unease washed over me.  

‘Just how much work are they planning to make me do now…?’

I couldn’t help but recall memories from my past life.

* * *

‘Another letter from that Kirke!’  

I grabbed my head as I spotted an envelope sealed with the emperor’s insignia among the pile of letters.  

The content was obvious, even without reading it.  

He had already sent me the same message several times.  

‘Well, maybe this time it’s something different.’  

With a bit of hope, I opened the envelope, but the letter was exactly the same as always.  

He wanted me to come to the capital to help him with his work.  

‘What does he want to do with someone like me, a dark mage?’  

If he needed a mage, there was already Axel in the capital.  

Not only was Axel a young lord from the esteemed Elpinard family, but he was also the perfect ally.  

‘Why would he want to associate with a dark mage like me and risk inviting strange rumors?’  

Before we defeated the Mad Dragon, the expedition faced a lot of slander simply because it included a dark mage.  

I had seen the entire expedition be denounced multiple times because of me.  

I couldn’t bring myself to throw dirt on Kirke now that he was newly crowned and starting to gather his people.  

‘Even when I ask him what he wants me to do, he never gives a clear answer. How can he expect me to go just because he says so?’  

I stared blankly at the letter from Kirke.  

Some people would treasure a handwritten letter from the emperor as a family heirloom to be passed down for generations.  

But if I had kept all the letters Kirke sent me with that intention,  

my small house in the northern countryside would be so full of his letters that there wouldn’t be room to step.  

Without hesitation, I tossed the envelope with the emperor’s insignia straight into the fireplace.  

‘Hmm. It burns well.’  

Does the emperor use good paper?  

It made for excellent firewood.

* * *

‘Even right up until the moment I was caught up in that strange power and nearly died in the heat of battle, those tiresome letters kept coming every week…’  

I shuddered and kept walking.  

When I first met Kirke in the palace, I was just happy to see him, but thinking he might have ulterior motives now made me shiver.  

‘You really can’t trust an emperor…’  

Kirke might be my friend, but the emperor isn’t.  

That’s a very different matter.  

I was leaving Axel’s room and heading toward the Ivory Tower.  

I had only been delayed because I sensed something suspicious in Axel’s room, but my original destination was the Ivory Tower.  

More precisely, Eugene Kreutz in the Ivory Tower.  

‘What if my intuition really tells me he’s dangerous?’  

If he is a threat, I’ll have to alert the rest of the expedition and take action immediately.  

But Leonid, who realized something was wrong with Eugene before I did, still couldn’t bring himself to tell Servian.  

Servian might be a good friend to me and a reliable father to Leonid, but…

‘In any case, they’re cold, calculating adults.’  

No matter what Leonid and I suggest, they’ll likely choose the most certain way to deal with Eugene.  

And I couldn’t be sure that method would guarantee Eugene’s safety.  

But for the past seven years, Leonid and I had been inseparable with Eugene, like the Three Musketeers.  

Unlike the other members of the expedition who had no emotional connection with Eugene, his safety was an important consideration for me.  

‘Besides, I still have the Star’s Orbit that Eugene gave me as a birthday present.’  

With these complicated thoughts, I arrived at the Ivory Tower and saw Leonid pacing at the entrance.  

It looked as though he was waiting for someone.  

‘There’s no way he could have known I was coming.’  

With a strange sense of foreboding, I quickened my pace.  

“Leo!”  

At the sound of my voice, Leonid, who had been pacing with his head down, suddenly looked up.  

His face, usually full of confidence, was now slightly pale.  

“What’s going on?”  

“Well…”  

Leonid glanced around cautiously before approaching me.  

“Eugene didn’t show up for class.”  

“That’s… unusual.”  

I blinked in surprise.  

For an ordinary teenage boy, skipping class wouldn’t be a big deal, but Eugene had never missed a single lecture since enrolling at the Ivory Tower.  

Other students at the Ivory Tower, jealous of Eugene, would even sneer that his secret to being the top student was his relentless attendance, calling him a hard-nosed kid.  

‘Even on days when he had a high fever, he still came to the lecture hall for class.’  

In that sense, Eugene Kreutz really was a tough one.  

I see that as a strength, though others don’t.  

“This isn’t the time to be so calm.”  

Leonid clutched his chest in frustration.  

“I thought for sure he was just resting in his room, but when I went to check after class, he wasn’t there.”  

“Maybe he went for a walk?”  

“I checked the garden, the dining hall, the professors’ labs… I searched the entire Ivory Tower, but there wasn’t a trace of him.”  

That was even stranger than Eugene missing a class.  

“…Eugene doesn’t have anywhere to go if he leaves the tower.”  

Leonid hesitated slightly as he spoke.