A fortune-telling princess Chapter 116

Am I about to get hit? Just wait, I’ll file a complaint! I’m here as part of a diplomatic delegation—how dare someone lay hands on me!

‘Huh?’

Camilla’s internal tirade of curses abruptly stopped as she opened her eyes. Duke Escra had reached out to gently grip her chin, tilting her face side to side.

“…What are you doing?”

“Are you injured?”

Injured?

“You seem fine.”

Camilla blinked in confusion. Wait, isn’t he angry with me?

Her brief relief was short-lived, however, as the Duke’s expression hardened.

“Do you often live under this kind of threat?”

“This kind of threat?”

“Attacks like this,” he clarified coldly.

“Oh, I think that’s more likely to happen here than back home,” Camilla replied.

“This is Gracia, after all.”

It made sense. Who would send assassins all the way from the Fable Empire just to kill her? It seemed more likely that someone in Gracia had targeted her.

But who?

She’d done nothing here to provoke anyone’s hatred—or so she thought.

“Kan.”

“…Kan?”

The name made no sense to Camilla, and she tilted her head in confusion.

Duke Escra clicked his tongue and raised the arm of one of the fallen assassins, revealing a tattoo of two black snakes coiled together.

“They’re an assassin group active in the Fable Empire. Known for their cruelty.”

Camilla’s eyes widened. So, they followed me from the Empire?

Not just to kidnap her, but to kill her outright. Who could possibly hate her enough to hire assassins?

Too many people.

Several names popped into her mind immediately. Elisha, the younger sister of Petron, who still gnashed her teeth whenever they crossed paths. Marquis Gaviel and his daughter Merise, both of whom she had thoroughly humiliated.

Not to mention that suspicious organization.

There was also the group behind the fake Rania, who might still have an axe to grind with her.

“…Ugh.”

Camilla let out a heavy sigh, nodding as if to herself. Escra’s gaze darkened further as he ran a hand through his hair in exasperation.

“This can’t go on.”

“What can’t?”

“I can’t send you back.”

“…Excuse me?”

“You’ll stay here.”

“…What?”

“Live here. In Gracia.”

What is he talking about?

Camilla could only gape, her mind blank with shock.

SIDE STORY: The Man Who Lost His Memory

“Wow!”
“This child is a genius.”
“They’re already writing letters?”
“A prodigy!”

When I was young, I thought so too. That I was a genius.

By the age of three, I could read and write the continental common language, and I never forgot anything I saw or heard. I believed it when the adults fawned over me.

But as I grew older, I learned the truth—I was just a big fish in a small pond.

At the Tower of Magic and beyond, the world was filled with people far more talented than I could imagine.

“Ravi!”

It happened shortly before my fourth birthday. My mother brought home what I thought was a corpse—an unconscious man, bleeding profusely.

“Fetch the healing supplies!”

My mother was skilled in healing arts, a talent passed down from my late grandfather, who was known as a skilled healer. Having grown up watching him, she had learned quite a bit herself.

“Mom, who is he?”

The man survived, thankfully.

“I found him collapsed in an alley.”

But he remained unconscious for a long time, and we couldn’t afford to hire a proper healer.

Eventually, after about a week, he woke up.

“Who… am I?”

He remembered nothing. Not even his name.

My mother, however, didn’t send him away. He turned out to be surprisingly helpful.

“Let me go!”
“Tia, stop playing hard to get. It’s tough raising a child alone, isn’t it?”

My mother was beautiful. Not just as her child—I could see objectively that her looks were exceptional.

Because of that, she constantly attracted unwanted attention. To these men, a woman raising a child alone seemed an easy target.

“Why don’t you just marry me alrea—Agh! My arm! My arm!”

The man was strong. Terrifyingly so.

He easily dealt with anyone harassing my mother and scared them off with a single glare.

“Thank you.”

He was also strikingly handsome.

Even as a child, I could tell my mother had begun to develop feelings for him. The man seemed fond of her as well.

Eventually, after some time, he became part of our family.

“This is all I have to give you.”

“Bill….”

My mother gave him a new name: Bill.

He offered her a red  Ruby ring—the only possession he had—as a token of their marriage. My mother was overjoyed.

But that happiness didn’t last long.

“Why… why hasn’t he come back?”

About a year later, Bill disappeared. He had gone to a neighboring city to look for work and never returned.

My mother waited for him, searched for him, even traveled to the city to ask about him. But no one had seen him.

The man who had appeared so suddenly disappeared just as abruptly.

Eventually, after three months, my mother gave up waiting and moved to a new village to find work.

And then…

“This is your little sister, Ravi.”

“Aaah! Waaah!”

“…Sigh.”

When I saw the baby, I could tell my mother’s heart wasn’t in it.

She scowled whenever she looked at the child, unable to hide her resentment. I, too, struggled to feel any affection. The baby didn’t feel like family.

Years passed, and my mother remarried. By then, I had tried to forget about Bill entirely.

I would have succeeded, too, if not for Camilla’s question.

“Brother, what kind of man was my father?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mean my real father.”

“…Your real father?”

I barely kept my expression neutral.

How could I explain? That her father had lived with us for a year and then vanished?

“…I don’t remember much.”

“You don’t?”

“Yeah.”

But then I saw the ring on her finger and decided to tell her one thing.

“That ring—it was a gift from your father to our mother.”

I didn’t say anything else.

If I told her more, I would have to tell her another truth.

That we had different fathers.

And for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to say it.

I don’t want to be alone again.

Perhaps I was afraid. Afraid that Camilla, the only family I had, might leave me if she knew.

“Brother? What are you thinking?”

“…Nothing.”

I prayed she would never find out the truth.

Chapter: The Mastermind

“Failed?”

Crash!

Items fell from the desk with a clatter as Marquis Gaviel slammed his hand down.

“I-I’m sorry, sir!”

His aide cowered.

“Do you have any idea how much I paid them?”

“Sir, we’re still investigating the situation. None of them returned alive, so….”

“Idiots!”

When Gaviel learned that Camilla Sorpel would be part of the delegation, he immediately took action.

He hired the best assassin group in the empire, knowing full well that a scandal involving the delegation could cause political chaos—and derail the magic stone deal.

But the assassination had failed.

“What do you mean one of them was captured?”

“It gets worse, sir. The one interrogating him is… Duke Escra.”

“…What?!”

Panic twisted Gaviel’s face. If the Duke uncovered his involvement, the consequences would be disastrous.

“Send someone to monitor the Sorpel family discreetly. Now!”

“Yes, sir!”

Clenching his trembling fists, Gaviel cursed under his breath.