Other seasonal goods that the entire Gracia Empire will have to use!
If a single person alone comes to hold the exclusive right to supply, in bulk, the goods that will have to be purchased across the whole empire?
I’ll be doing one big act of filial piety for Father.
Gracia Empire, Fable Empire—everyone who has any interest in this matter will be knocking eagerly on the doors of House Sorpel.
“You’re really going to make this kind of deal?”
Even Edsen, who had kept silent until now, put in a word as if he were completely taken aback. But Camilla’s answer was unchanged.
“Yes. How about it? Will you make the deal?”
Camilla asked Duke Escra one last time.
“...It’s a condition that can only be good for us.”
This was a gamble.
If, even after she told Isla the contents of the diary, this winter still did not end?
Then I’d just end up handing over the Mana Stones cheaply for nothing.
If that happened, then she too would, together with Isla, that Spirit King of Winter, go on cursing this damned Gracia Empire and Empress Mariana for the rest of her life.
At least she wouldn’t be alone, so she wouldn’t be lonely.
“Then the deal is concluded, right?”
Without thinking, Camilla held out her hand out of habit. It was the reflex that had come from shaking hands when signing contracts with advertisers in her previous life.
But in this world, handshakes were not yet a common form of greeting, so Camilla tried to quietly lower the hand she had extended.
WHOOSH!
But Duke Escra quickly snatched up Camilla’s hand.
Wondering what was going on, she looked at him and saw that Duke Escra could not tear his gaze away from her hand.
“Where did you get this ring?”
What the heck? Is he still suspecting me of being a thief?
There was a ruby ring on her finger. She had put it on because she thought it would go well with her red outfit.
“It’s a keepsake from my mother.”
It was that ring from before. The ruby ring the servants had hidden in the rose garden.
“A keepsake?”
“Yes, it belonged to my mother.”
Emphasizing it once more, Camilla pulled her hand back with a slightly prim expression. But his gaze was still nailed to the ring.
What is with him? Does he still not believe me?
“It really is my ring, you know? Father said he gave it to Mother.”
“Your father? You’re saying the Duke of Sorpel gave it to her?”
“That’s not... Why are you acting like this?”
Camilla was starting to get annoyed. There was a limit to how far suspicion should go. Did she really have to lay out every little detail of her family affairs?
“We can go now, right?”
Camilla rose to her feet on the spot.
Duke Escra looked like he still had more to say, but she simply turned her back and left. Crown Prince Edsen quietly followed after her.
SMACK.
“What troubles you?”
The moment the door closed, Count Alton carefully studied Duke Escra’s complexion. His expression, so unlike his usual self, was deeply confused.
“What is that ring...?”
It was obvious that the cause lay in the ring Camilla had been wearing.
“That ring.”
Only after quite some time did a low voice finally slip from his lips.
“The ring I lost.”
“Surely... you’re not talking about Escra’s Red Ring, are you?”
Escra’s Red Ring.
A ring that only the head of House Escra could possess, and at the same time, the very ring Kais had lost long ago in an accident.
“Maybe you saw wrong?”
To Count Alton’s eyes, it had looked like nothing more than an ordinary ruby ring.
“Look into that girl in more detail.”
“Understood.”
But at Duke Escra’s next command, he added no further objection. His liege was not someone who ever spoke nonsense.
He said her father gave it to her?
Even after that, Duke Escra continued to silently stare at the space where Camilla had disappeared.
Chapter. Spring Found Again
“Young Lady, did you not sleep last night?”
Coming into the room, Dorman tilted his head again and again at the sight of Camilla’s sunken eyes.
“It’s like my energy got sucked dry by a trashy drama.”
“A trashy drama?”
“There’s such a thing.”
Camilla looked at Empress Mariana’s diary, which she had tossed onto the table, and slowly shook her head.
“I’ve got a feeling I bet my money wrong.”
She knew it—she shouldn’t have gambled. What was she going to do now? She had already signed the contract.
“No, seriously, why did I do that...?”
She should have at least checked the entire diary before signing anything. What had been so urgent that she signed right away?
And just ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) because she told Isla what was in the diary, was Isla’s anger really going to subside? If it were her, she’d just get even angrier.
“Ugh, I don’t know.”
Sitting here like this wasn’t going to magically produce some brilliant idea anyway.
Either way, I have to at least meet her, right?
Camilla stared out the window, where the wind was still howling fiercely, then rose from her seat.
“Where are you going?”
“The greenhouse.”
Camilla headed straight for the greenhouse where the three Spirit Kings were.
[Oh? She’s here.]
[How did it go?]
They, too, seemed to have been waiting for her; the moment she stepped into the greenhouse, they came trundling over.
[Do you think Isla is in her right mind... no, I mean, do you think Isla’s anger can be calmed down?]
So you do know your sibling isn’t in her right mind.
“Who knows.”
[What? Did that woman lie?]
[She said once Isla saw what she had, Isla’s rage would disappear!]
[We never should’ve trusted that woman!]
“I think we’ll have to actually talk first. How do I meet Isla?”
[Follow us.]
[Isla is always in the same place.]
[It’s not that far from here.]
“...You can’t just call her here?”
Did she really have to go out there herself? In the short time it had taken her just to get here, she’d almost frozen to death.
[Hurry! Hurry!]
The three Spirit Kings hurried her along as if Camilla’s words hadn’t even entered their ears.
“Are you sure it’s really close?”
Either way, she had to see this through to the end before she could leave this place—or curse it.
Camilla wrapped her coat even tighter around herself and quickly followed after them.
[Over there!]
They hadn’t lied. The three Spirit Kings, who had brought her to a lakeside not far from the main palace, all pointed to the same spot at once.
In the middle of the completely frozen lake, someone was standing blankly. It was the same woman she had seen at the coronation last time.
[...]
Sensing their presence, the woman slowly turned around.
Seeing that ice-cold gaze turn toward her, Camilla took one careful step closer to the woman.
“I came at the request of someone named Mariana.”
WHOOOOOSH!
She had expected as much, but the moment Mariana’s name came out of her mouth, the woman’s indifferent expression changed completely. The blizzard, too, grew even more violent.
“She says she wasn’t the one who killed him!”
WHOOOOSH!
Camilla hurried to get the rest out, but Isla’s anger only grew.
[Camilla!]
In that moment when it truly felt like she might freeze to death, Zeno rushed in front of her and blocked her, calling her name urgently.
Zeno, just because a ghost stands in front of me doesn’t mean the wind is going to stop.
JOLT!
But surprisingly, the wind stopped. The wind that had kept her from even opening her eyes gradually died down.
When Camilla cautiously lifted her head to check the situation, Isla was looking at Zeno with a slightly dazed gaze.
[Guardian’s Sword.......]
Her mouth opened for the first time.
[You’re the last master of the sword. Why are you here?]
She had recognized the sword Mars had used. She already knew who had last drawn that sword.
“He took his own life.”
[...What?]
Camilla didn’t miss the moment of calm and quickly continued.
“Mars. He took his own life.”
[...]
“Empress Mariana wasn’t the one who moved her hand.”
To Isla, who glared with her eyes wide open, Camilla relayed exactly what she had seen in the diary.
*****
“Ma...riana.”
“I’m sorry, Mars.”
The dagger gripped in Mariana’s hand was pointed at Mars. From the look on his face, the man seemed to be in utter shock at the fact that she was aiming a blade at him.
Mariana took all of that in with her eyes, then continued in a trembling voice.
“It’s His Majesty’s order.”
She bit her lip hard and tears spilled down her cheeks.
“He said he’ll kill Father and Mother... both of them. My entire family...”
With the hand that was not holding the dagger, she wrapped her arm around her belly.
“And this child too.”
As she saw Mars’s eyes fly wide open, more tears streamed down from her own.
“I’m sorry. Really...”
Mars looked at her in silence for a long moment, then a faint smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
“Do as you wish.”
“Ma...rs...”
“I have always been on your side.”
Seeing him with absolutely no intention of defending himself, Empress Mariana’s gaze wavered endlessly.
“Hic.”
In the end, the hand with which she had been pointing the dagger dropped weakly to her side.
“Run away, Mars. Run right now. He... His Majesty will never leave you alone. So hurry...!”
But instead of avoiding her, he strode up to Mariana.
“I will not go anywhere.”
“Mars...”
WHOOSH! STAB!
“...!”
The man who gave her a bright smile one last time swung her hand, the one that held the dagger, just as it was.
Toward his own chest.
[Mar... Mars!]
Sensing that something was wrong with Mars’s energy in that instant, Isla had appeared, and she had found Mars, dying after being pierced by the blade Mariana had swung.
“I...sla, I’m sor...”
[Mars!]
That was the last of them.
*****
[That’s impossible. You’re lying.]
Isla could not accept Camilla’s words right away. Mars had taken his own life?
[Why... Why...! For that kind of woman! Why!]
As the snowstorm rose up again, Camilla rushed to spit out her next words.
“She was carrying Mars’s child!”
[...What did you say?]
The air around them faltered.
“The baby inside Empress Mariana’s belly—it was Mars’s child.”
[...]
It’s absurd, right? Yeah, I know that feeling very well. I spent all last night in that same mood.
[That child... was Mars’s child?]
“Yes.”
It was written exactly like that in Mariana’s diary. The child in her belly was Mars’s child.
And that she would make that child Emperor, no matter what.
[Then...]
“That means all the emperors who have led the Gracia Empire until now are Mars’s bloodline.”
Just as Empress Mariana had wanted, that child became the next Emperor, and that bloodline had continued all the way to the present.
Am I really the only one here who feels the most sorry for the Emperor?
Maybe it was a life-or-death love story for them, but it was just adultery. He’d thought the child was his, handed over the throne, and it turned out to be someone else’s kid.
Maybe that Emperor was so pissed he couldn’t ascend and was just wandering around, too.
