“Just how—!”
That was something only Ersh himself could possibly know.
The only person who knew that truth was no longer a person of this world.
He wanted to tear that mouth apart and stop it, but Ersh couldn’t do anything. Countless eyes were watching every twitch of his face.
And as he watched her hand draw yet another card, he barely managed to swallow the scream that was about to burst out of him.
“The place where the secret ledger is—”
“Shut up! Say one more word and I won’t let you off!”
In the end, a shout exploded out of his mouth.
“It’s a frame-up, Brother! How would I ever dare...!”
He cried out desperately toward Duke Kais Escra, but what came back was a gaze gone cold.
Unlike everyone else, who looked like they were thinking No way...?, he didn’t seem to doubt Camilla’s words even a little.
“Then we can just check whether it’s a frame-up or not.”
“B-Brother!”
As if there was no need to waste another second, Duke Kais Escra rose from his seat at once.
“Where did you say the ledger is?”
“Brother! You’re really going to believe that nonsense?!”
“Yeah.”
“So you’re going to listen to me— Huh?”
“If I don’t believe my child, whose words am I supposed to believe?”
“M-My words, at least—!”
“Here.”
Camilla, cutting into their exchange, handed Duke Kais Escra a small piece of paper. It was the location of the secret ledger.
Duke Kais Escra took the paper and immediately left the meeting hall.
“Brother! Brother! W-Wait, just a moment!”
Ersh chased after him in a panic. Some of the people in the hall also hurriedly rose and followed Duke Kais Escra out.
They’d realized this wasn’t something that could be brushed off.
If what Camilla said was true, then Ersh had embezzled the family’s money.
That was something that could never be forgiven—no matter how direct a blood relative of House Escra you were.
Those who still remained in the meeting hall stared at Camilla with eyes mixed with fear and shock.
The sound of people swallowing hard came from all around. They looked terrified that some secret they wanted to keep hidden might spill from her mouth next.
“The tea tastes really good.”
Even under all those stares, Camilla lifted the teacup in front of her again, as if nothing had happened.
So why would you go and poke someone who was minding her own business?
Her expression as she drank tea looked downright refreshed.
“Kk.”
Only Jainer laughed, like he found her genuinely entertaining.
******
“I really wasn’t planning to take it this far.”
“Really?”
...No, if you ask that straight out, it kind of stings.
Camilla and Jainer had taken some time alone. He’d followed her all the way to her quarters with a face that clearly had a million questions.
“At first, I really did just want to see his face.”
But that bastard was the one who started it.
If some obnoxious piece of trash comes at you with an obnoxious tone saying obnoxious things, why would you bother holding back?
“So is it really precognition?”
Jainer looked genuinely curious.
Well, of course he would be. From Ersh’s affair to the embezzlement, she’d dragged out things even Ersh’s closest people didn’t know—how could he not wonder how she knew?
“Well, something like that.”
She still hadn’t told him she could see ghosts, so Camilla brushed it off with a vague answer.
This time, she’d gotten a bit of help from Zeno. She’d asked him to find where Ersh was and linger nearby to dig up information about him.
No matter what it was, it seemed useful to have at least one weakness on the other side.
And then I reeled in a big one.
By luck, she’d run into a ghost that had been hanging around Ersh with a grudge. Zeno brought that ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) ghost straight to her.
[For a long time, I helped Ersh—that man—with his embezzlement.]
“And?”
[I was killed.]
“Why?”
[Because I knew too much. He got furious and suspicious every time I met an outsider, and then...]
He’d dug his own grave.
Camilla was able to get a lot of information out of that ghost. From the amount he’d siphoned off to where the double books were hidden.
On top of that, she’d learned that Ersh was having an affair with his most cherished subordinate’s wife.
She’d also heard then that the woman was carrying Ersh’s child, and that she was using it to blackmail him.
That woman’s going to be in trouble, too.
The moment a red-eyed child was born, she wouldn’t be able to claim it was her husband’s.
Just earlier—when Ersh was sweating cold and scrambling after Duke Kais Escra—Camilla had been able to see the ghost grinning with deep satisfaction.
He’d even climbed onto Ersh’s shoulder, thanking Camilla.
It seemed more satisfying to him to watch Ersh get completely ruined than to simply reveal that Ersh was the one who killed him.
“So... do you see anything about me?”
Jainer asked, still smiling. The eyes looking at her were, as always, full of amusement.
Looking at that gaze made a pointless impulse flare up—an urge to smash that expression to pieces, just once.
“I do.”
“Yeah?”
Camilla met his eyes and continued quietly.
“It’s you.”
“Hm?”
“It’s you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The assassins who tried to kill me this time.”
For the first time, Camilla could say it clearly.
“The one who sent them to me—it was you.”
And she watched the easy smile and the light in Jainer’s eyes shatter into pieces.
Chapter. The Master of Khan
Ersh was thrown into House Escra’s prison that very day.
Because everything Camilla said was true.
After finding the ledger hidden in Ersh’s secret vault, Duke Kais Escra ordered that Ersh be imprisoned. No one objected to the decision.
Long ago, Ersh had held power not much less than Duke Kais Escra’s—but once Duke Kais Escra had taken the seat as head of the house, there was no way he would’ve let that stand.
Most of Ersh’s faction had already been cut down.
He’d been scraping by, leaning on the family name while nibbling money out of the cracks—and now even that last thread had been severed by this incident.
With his own wife abandoning him after he’d cheated, Ersh had no one left to rub himself against—no one to shield him.
“I have one question.”
After handling everything and returning, Duke Kais Escra called Camilla aside.
“That ability you have.”
His gaze was razor-sharp, like he would never tolerate a lie. Camilla swallowed hard without meaning to.
Don’t tell me he caught me lying. Did he realize I don’t have any damn precognition?
“Does it harm your body?”
But his next words left Camilla blinking.
“I’ve heard that using divine power puts strain on the body. Are you the same?”
“....”
In the end, she let out a small laugh. How could his reaction be exactly the same?
Back then, Duke of Sorpel had said something similar, too.
After her ability became known, the first question he’d asked had also been about her well-being—whether it was bad for her body.
“Not at all.”
Only then did Duke Kais Escra withdraw the sharpness from his eyes.
“What’s going to happen to Ersh?”
“He’ll pay for his crimes.”
With the amount embezzled being so large, he wouldn’t escape punishment.
“Setting that aside...”
Duke Kais Escra kept furrowing his brow, trailing off.
The way he hesitated—so unlike him—looked awkward.
After letting out a short sigh, he looked at Camilla steadily.
“Don’t let it get to you.”
“Huh?”
It was out of nowhere. Don’t let what get to her? Ersh’s punishment?
She hadn’t cared in the first place. She’d only asked out of simple curiosity.
“Ersh—that bastard has always liked to run his mouth with nonsense.”
Ersh? Nonsense? What...
“Ah.”
Only then did Camilla understand what Duke Kais Escra meant.
And you still mean to acknowledge that as the blood of this family?
You don’t even know what kind of woman its mother was—how can you accept that as our family’s blood...!
He must have been worrying that she’d been hurt by those words. Did he think she’d been wounded over something like that?
I did get pissed off.
That was why she’d ripped his secrets open and spilled them.
“My standards are high.”
What was he suddenly saying?
“I don’t give my heart to just anyone.”
“....”
“Even if I lost my memories.”
At his words—like he was defending her mother—Camilla ended up laughing again.
Still... hearing him insist that her mother wasn’t “just anyone” made her feel a little lighter.
Just a little. Really, just a little.
“I’ll get going.”
“Yeah.”
Camilla smiled softly as she watched Duke Kais Escra avoid her gaze like the whole conversation felt awkward, then headed out of the office.
CLICK.
“Huh?”
But when she opened the office door, someone was waiting for her.
“Want to talk?”
It was Jainer.
*****
“When did you figure out I’m the master of Khan?”
The place they went was the garden. After confirming there was no one around, Jainer immediately asked.
“From the start.”
“From the start?”
“Yeah.”
How did she know? Call it luck, maybe.
She remembered the day she met him for the first time. Back then, in the garden, while he was helping Dive up after Dive fell playing with King, something approached his side.
An assassin.
No—more accurately, the ghost of an assassin.
It seemed the assassin who’d tried to kill her, who’d been caught by Duke Kais Escra and interrogated, had died right around then.
He appeared in front of Jainer, dropped to one knee, bowed his head low, then slowly disappeared.
He must have been deeply loyal even in life—like the last person he wanted to see was Jainer.
Of course, she hadn’t suspected him from that alone. The odds were slim, but the assassin and Jainer could have simply recognized each other from somewhere else.
But someone had driven that suspicion into certainty.
[That guy’s footsteps disappear sometimes.]
It was Zeno. Zeno had sensed how Jainer unconsciously reduced the sound of his steps and hid his presence.
Only after hearing that did Camilla know for sure.
That the one leading the assassins who tried to kill her—was Jainer.
