[I intend to blur out your face. It might look a bit unnatural, but you can just say it's due to some artifact or something.]
'Hmm? That sounds a little... Wait, can you swap my face out for my mask instead?'
[Mask?] Amith raised an eyebrow at her, prompting Eleanor to quickly explain.
'The one I wear when visiting my editor. If anything's going to be blurred, then let it be where the Crafiel symbol is on my clothes.'
[Oh, that mask. Yes, that's doable.]
Using Eleanor's body, Amith pressed a hand to the ground. A mixture of soul power and Eleanor's magic was poured into the land, and she edited the records of the world.
Roughly forty seconds later, she stopped. Amith's soul power then flowed outward and reformed her spiritual body, now standing.
[I've modified the memory of the land,] she said. [So if anyone uses memory magic here, what they'll see will still be authentic, but your face will be masked and any mention of your name will be muted.]
In other words, the footage acquired through Memory Magic would appear entirely intact, free from any signs of tampering.
Because the recording wasn't what had been altered, but the memory of the land itself.
Eleanor muttered a small thanks, and then she turned to Helga and said, "You should still get the mage to view the memories of the land. I'll be fine."
Helga naturally did not understand the source of Eleanor's confidence, but before she could voice her questions, Eleanor spoke up again.
"When the mage comes and views the memories of the land, you'll understand why I say I'll be fine."
Then, looking back at the corpses littered in front of them, she added, "This matter could spark war between the two families."
Hearing the mention of war, Helga frowned lightly. She understood all too well that it could indeed cause a war between the two families.
Her frown wasn't because of doubt, but because even if they came out victorious in that war, they would still suffer losses, and the Crafiels weren't the only family eyeing them, waiting for a moment of weakness to take them down.
The Grand Dukes and Duchesses of the Grevania Empire were powerful, far more powerful than the kings and presidents of other nations, and the Imperial family had been searching for ways to reduce their influence.
If Laurent and Crafiel went to war, both families would lose a lot of their forces and resources, and there was no way the Imperial family wouldn't take advantage of that.
"…This is something I'll need to properly discuss with my mothers.
First, this rift would have to be sealed to prevent anyone from entering and changing the locations of anything inside.
All the other monsters would be cleared out so nothing touches the corpses until we've decided how best to handle the issue."
After hearing Helga's words, Eleanor nodded and said, "Yeah, ideally we'd avoid the war entirely, but the Crafiels are still going to owe a massive amount of compensation for that. And the relationship between the two families would become even more irreparable."
She shrugged slightly. "Oh well… that doesn't bother me since I'm not affiliated with the Crafiels anymore."
When she said that, Helga turned to her and asked, "And how are you going to handle that? If you plan to work for me, you're going to have to hide your identity."
"Yeah, you guys should have recognition inhibition artifacts, right?" Eleanor asked in return. "I'll just use one of those. Or maybe I'll go with a mask."
She reached out and grabbed her hair. "And my hair… well, since half of it's already white, I might as well just turn the other half white too."
"Then there's also the issue of making them think I'm dead. I highly doubt Razel would believe I'm actually dead without seeing a corpse.
But my entry into this rift probably wasn't documented, since whoever wants me dead wouldn't leave such a loose end lying around."
Eleanor groaned, pressing her fingers to her temple as she spoke. "This whole thing is just getting more and more complicated."
Helga watched her silently for a moment, then looked away and said, "That's why I said I'd talk to my mothers first, so we can figure out how to handle the situation."
Hearing that, Eleanor nodded, pulling her knees up a little and resting her arms on them.
"I'll leave managing the whole situation to you and your family. Your mothers probably know best how to navigate this mess."
After a short pause, she added, "Actually… let's put all that aside for now and focus on ourselves. First, let's try getting to know each other beyond what our families taught us."
The sudden change in topic earned Eleanor a long look from Helga.
"…getting to know each other, you say?"
Eleanor nodded in affirmation.
"We're going to be working together for a while, aren't we?" she said, her tone casual.
"The least we can do is know who we're actually working with, without the family names or whatever anyone else has told us."
Silence followed her words as Helga studied her, eyes narrowed slightly. But after a few seconds, she nodded lightly.
"…Fair enough."
Eleanor smiled. "Great. Then let me start."
She propped her chin on her arms as she jumped straight into the first question.
"Alright. Simple one. Favourite colour?"
Helga raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"
"Dead serious."
"…Red."
"Of course it is," Eleanor said with a faint chuckle.
Pointing to herself, she added, "Mine also happens to be the colour of my eyes. Grey. Not quite black, not quite white. I like the ambiguity."
Helga didn't respond to that, but Eleanor went on.
"Next… Actually, I said we should get to know each other without the bias of what we've been told, but now that I think about it, I don't even know what you've been told about me."
She fixed her gaze on Helga's face and asked,
"So, what were you told about me? By your mothers, or anyone else."
Helga shifted her gaze from her phone to Eleanor, meeting her eyes before answering, "That you were a potential danger, and could be twisted.
I was also told that, contrary to popular belief, you're not particularly liked by most of the Crafiels, and there's a possibility you might have been abused or mistreated behind the scenes, yet you must hold some kind of usefulness that stopped the Grand Duke from discarding you once he had his son.
Someone who grew up in that kind of environment, yet still managed to appear as normal as you did on the outside, would surely have more layers to them than anyone sees."
And that if I ever encountered you, I should assume you had an agenda."
Eleanor whistled lightly. "Ouch. How cold."
"But not wrong," Helga immediately added, making Eleanor flinch slightly.
"Yeah, not wrong," She finally admitted after a moment.
Before the mood had a chance to darken, Eleanor quickly continued with a bubbly tone that greatly contrasted the words she spoke.
"I'll have you know, I was taught that you were the 'Perfect Vampire Heir'. Ruthless, arrogant, indifferent to others' opinions, liked killing humans just for fun, and that I should always aim to surpass you in everything I did."
"What kind of messed-up image do the Crafiels have of me?"
Helga's expression was incredulous, prompting a laugh from Eleanor as she replied,
"I assure you, yours is mild compared to what they think of the Grand Duchess."
That piqued Helga's curiosity, but Eleanor changed the subject before she could ask about it.
"Anyway! Let's share secret hobbies!"
"We're already sharing secrets?"
"Yes, we are! I'll go first."
Sitting up and puffing out her chest with a proud look, Eleanor announced,
"I'm a bestselling sci-fi author!"
"Author?"
"Yep! Ever heard of 'Lillie Hound'?"
"Can't say I have."
The way Helga answered made it obvious she wasn't much of a reader. Eleanor already knew that, courtesy of the game, but she pretended not to.
"You don't? Aw, bummer…"
Her disappointed expression somehow made Helga feel like she was guilty of something just by not knowing, and for a moment, she even considered pulling out her phone to look it up.
'Right… no signal.'
Sighing softly, she said, "…I like baking."
Eleanor immediately turned to her, blinking in surprise. "Wait. Really?"
"Yes, really.
I like sweet things, so I decided to learn how to make them for myself. Turns out, the process is just as enjoyable as eating them."
Eleanor stared at her quietly for a moment, then smiled faintly.
"Unexpected, but nice to hear."
"What were you expecting?" Helga asked.
"…Thinking about it, I wasn't expecting anything specific. So I guess whatever you said would've been 'unexpected', I guess."
Helga rolled her eyes silently at the answer, while Eleanor moved on to the next question.
"Next up! What's your…"
The two continued this small exchange of personal titbits for a while, with Helga gradually warming up to Eleanor, more than she thought she would, as she found herself wondering why she was even going along with it, much less sharing so much about herself.
Still, she couldn't deny she was enjoying it, and judging by Eleanor's ever-present smile, the feeling was clearly mutual.
But as with all things, their little session eventually came to an end.