“Ah, I-I’m sorry, Your Majesty.”
Startled, Aisha hurriedly lowered her head. He burst out laughing. She really hadn’t changed at all.
Since she had been a candidate for Empress, he had often seen her even before she came of age.
And every time they met, she never tried to hide her feelings. Her honesty had never struck him as unpleasant.
“I was only joking. Come, sit down. I believe the princess used to like sour fruit tea. It’s been three years since we last had tea together, so my memory is a little hazy. Am I right?”
“……Yes.”
Her pretty lips moved slightly, as though she were pleased that he remembered. It was then that Terrius let out a small, involuntary chuckle.
Aisha asked,
“By the way, what happened at the palace, Your Majesty? The maids were acting strangely too, and the atmosphere in the Imperial Palace seemed rather unsettled.”
“Ah, that.”
A deep smile spread across Terrius’s face.
“It’s fine. Thanks to a very clever young lady, everything worked out well.”
“……A young lady?”
“Yes. Rachel Ingrave. Have you heard of her, Princess?”
Aisha hesitated as she picked up her teacup, then murmured softly,
“I’ve heard of her. They say she’s called the Jewel of Olsher……”
“Hmm? Ah, now that you mention it.”
Emperor Terrius suddenly remembered something he had forgotten.
If the Aisha Labelin before him was called the Flower of Olsher, then before her engagement to that fake, Rachel Ingrave had once been called the Jewel of Olsher.
“So that’s why her name sounded familiar.”
“……”
While he nodded in realization, Aisha simply stared quietly at the Emperor. Then, her head tilted ever so slightly.
Her orange eyes flashed with an unusual light.
And for a moment, the corners of her lips twisted strangely.
Terrius, who had been talking about another subject, suddenly turned his gaze toward her.
“Princess?”
“Yes? Ah, I’m sorry. I was distracted for a moment……!”
Waving his hand, he repeated his question.
“It’s all right. I was simply curious about how life at the Magic Tower was for you.”
“Ah…….”
Aisha’s face brightened as she searched through her memories.
The Emperor thought for a moment before smiling.
She still sometimes made those strange expressions, he thought.
That day, Aisha Labelin spent quite some time conversing with the Emperor before returning to the Labelin ducal estate.
The return of Olsher Empire’s Flower, which should have shaken the capital to its core, had been reduced to little more than a brief mention because of the incident involving the fake Valencia heir.
No one knew it yet.
But it was the prelude to changes that would truly begin to unfold.
***
At present, the Imperial Court and high society were both boiling over with rumors about the fake heir incident.
The annulment of the marriage requested by Duke Valencia had been approved.
The atrocities committed by Cae Savanio, who had once been Duchess Valencia, had been exposed in full, along with irrefutable evidence.
Rumors were also spreading that House Savanio was desperately searching for a way to lessen its punishment, as the family faced not only an enormous compensation payment and demotion in rank, but also confiscation of its territory.
On top of that, there were even rumors that the Mercenary King Nathan, the Duke’s true biological son, had sentenced Cae Savanio, the knight Wayne who was supposedly her lover, and Paris Valencia to death with the Emperor’s permission.
The only place that remained peaceful was Rachel’s room.
Even the Marquess and Marchioness Ingrave, whose family had risen gloriously from the disgrace of being the fake heir’s fiancée’s family to becoming Valencia’s benefactors, were busy taking advantage of the situation to embellish their own achievements and Rachel’s accomplishments.
“My lady.”
Still, all things eventually came to an end.
Rachel looked down at the letter Becky, her personal maid, had brought her.
The Valencia family crest was stamped into the red wax.
There had been rumors that the criminals had finally been sentenced, and apparently, they were true. After breaking the seal and reading the contents, she instructed Becky,
“Prepare for me to go out.”
“You’re going to the Valencia estate?”
“Yes. I’m leaving right now.”
It was a moment when everyone’s attention was focused on the matter.
But this was something she needed to do.
It was a form of revenge, a regret over the past she had experienced before her regression, and also part of the process of settling everything before beginning her new life.
I need to check the record, too.
Although the 「Record」 had been defined as something containing information about the past, present, and future, until now she had merely acted based on her memories of the past.
She needed to properly verify it now.
Rachel took a carriage with its crest concealed and headed toward the Valencia estate. She carefully curled her platinum-blond hair and tucked it beneath her hat, then lowered a thick veil over her face.
Her escort knights and Becky had also concealed their family crests so that their identity could not be guessed.
Soon, the Valencia estate came into view.
The knights of House Valencia, guarding the entrance and walls of the estate more heavily and meticulously than usual, approached the carriage.
“I’m sorry, but—”
“It’s me.”
Rachel lifted her veil and revealed her face.
Even though Sir Hoffman subtly showed them the Ingrave crest, the knights immediately bowed their heads.
“Welcome. We will open the gate immediately.”
Clank—
The firmly closed main gate of the estate opened.
Rachel rested her chin on her hand and gazed at the scene, which had changed slightly.
The garden had been completely torn apart.
Behind the barren ground, where not a single one of the splendid flowers or trees remained, only the main residence and its annexes stood.
She did not know what the interior looked like.
But at least on the outside, every place presumed to have been touched by Lady Savanio had been cleared away.
“……”
When she arrived at the entrance of the main residence and stepped out of the carriage, a butler she had never seen before hurried over to greet her.
“Welcome, Lady Ingrave.”
“……”
“My lady?”
Rachel quietly looked around before slowly opening her mouth.
“Where is he?”
“I will escort you there myself. This way.”
She followed the unfamiliar back before her.
Rachel felt a strange sensation.
Who would have thought that the estate she had once believed would never change could become like this?
Still, there was one thing that had not changed.
The path Rachel was following behind the Valencia butler was one she had walked before.
It was the same path she had walked while her arms were bound, back before her regression.
At the end of it stood the familiar building she had seen in her previous life.
One of the knights standing guard over the entire building approached when he saw her.
The butler politely bowed.
“This is as far as I am permitted to go. I’ll wait here, so please go ahead, my lady.”
“I’ll take over from here, my lady.”
The knight bowed courteously and glanced behind her.
“You will have to leave your maid and escort knights here before entering. Is that all right?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
Rachel gestured to Becky and her escort knights not to follow her.
Then, alone, she followed the Valencia knight into the building.
Torches hanging from the rough walls illuminated the darkness, lighting the path ahead.
For some reason, old memories came flooding back.
Rachel’s breathing gradually became ragged.
Just a little farther, and that room would be there.
The place was underground, where the only window was a palm-sized opening set into the wall just beneath the ceiling, through which rain and wind could enter.
Was this fate playing a cruel joke?
The room where the knight stopped was the very same place where Rachel had been imprisoned before her regression.
After disabling the security magic, the knight took out a ring of keys and unlocked the door.
“There is magic cast over this place, so you may speak without concern.”
Creeeak—
The iron door scraped roughly against the floor.
And inside the familiar room—
Paris, who had been sitting on the bare floor, stiffly rose to his feet.
Thanks to the light coming through the palm-sized window, the room was not particularly dark.
“You—you, what are you doing here……?”
“……”
Perhaps it was fortunate that she had come when the weather was good.
There was no water on the floor, but it was still damp as ever.
Rachel looked down at it for a moment before turning her gaze toward the knight.
“I’ll talk to him alone.”
“……Understood.”
After hesitating briefly, the knight walked away toward the end of the corridor.
Once she confirmed that he was gone, Rachel stepped into the room.
The door was left slightly open.
Magic had also been placed here to restrain the prisoner and prevent him from escaping even if he suddenly went berserk, but one could never be too careful.
Paris gritted his teeth and asked,
“Why did you come here? There’s a limit to how shameless someone can be. I heard you were the one who reported this whole thing?”
“……”
“Wasn’t it enough to reduce someone to this state? Did you come here now just to watch me fall?”
Rachel looked at the magical shackles around his ankles before speaking.
“You’re still wearing magical shackles. I had iron ones.”
“……What?”
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