“Father….”
Mia Crowfield muttered weakly.
“Your mother… the Baroness might have instilled a sense of vengeance in you. She could have told me, Alice, or even urged you to seek revenge against the Imperial family.”
“…”
I continued speaking to her, who had bowed her head deeply.
“But you know, don’t you? Your mother does too. If she attempts revenge, that alone will spell the end for Crowfield.”
“That’s…”
“And if that’s the case, your mother should have sought revenge right after the Count’s death when there was still justification. Isn’t that the best moment to expose something if she knew anything? The surrounding nobles would have all welcomed it. Even if they couldn’t kill the Emperor, it would have dealt a significant political blow. But Crowfield didn’t start revenge right away. Why do you think that is?”
“…”
“It’s because some story passed between the Imperial family and Crowfield.”
Mia Crowfield remained silent, her head still bowed.
“At that time, ‘for now’ there was a card the Emperor could have played if such actions were taken. It may be known to everyone but cannot be openly revealed – a dreadful reason. Your mother must have needed to erase proof of that reason for her revenge.”
“And that man…”
Alice, who had been quietly listening, picked up the thread.
“He likely used that. By using the information that Crowfield was erasing proof, he probably was able to buy a house like this. There’s nothing that would damage justification more than someone who knows even a little about the past opening their mouth.”
A faint look of discomfort passed over Alice’s face as she spoke. After spending a semester together, they had even fought side by side at times, risking their lives.
One might think about ways to just kill that man without further ado.
But there’s no way a man like that would threaten the Baroness without preparation. At the very least, he would have put on a show of bravado.
And that man had his own value of use. He wouldn’t have only dealt in this location. If he were the one who ‘bought drugs’, he might have sold them in other territories too. Later, when establishing ‘justification’, he might be able to use that as leverage to bring others into alignment. It would be extreme behavior that’s ‘rude’, but…
Since he’d been caught like this, he would probably just spill the beans anyway.
“…”
Mia Crowfield slowly raised her hands to clutch her head.
“…You killed my father.”
“…”
For just a moment, I debated whether to respond to those words.
It was strange. At the start of the semester, I had openly said that on the first day of properly talking to Mia Crowfield.
I killed your father, and that father was a drug-addicted pedophile.
Yet, oddly enough, it was incredibly hard to bring up those same words again. It felt as if the words had turned into objects stuck in my throat.
This must be the weight of time. Even though I wouldn’t say I had completely become friends with Mia Crowfield, still, the time spent knowing each other was pressing down on me, preventing me from speaking those words.
“Yes.”
So I could only muster that one word.
The next moment was but an instant.
“Mia!”
Alice screamed.
I could barely breathe.
The shorter Mia Crowfield was squeezing my neck tightly with both hands. With all her strength. Though her hands were small, they had enough power to choke someone.
But it was just that—an instant.
Before Alice could rush in and pull Mia Crowfield away, Mia’s grip loosened.
Her hands fell away from my body. Down and down.
Mia Crowfield sank to her knees on the floor. No, she collapsed.
While lying face down on the ground, she clawed at her hair with both hands.
“Mia…”
Alice also knelt beside her but couldn’t bring herself to touch Mia Crowfield.
“You… you too.”
With a very slight, trembling voice, Mia Crowfield asked.
“You knew, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I knew.”
From before I even came here.
“…Was it here?”
“It was here.”
“The children that were here, the last children… where did they all go?”
“I don’t know.”
Whether the Imperial family took them or if the Count’s family disposed of them, I have no idea. I hadn’t returned here since then.
“…How many…?”
“I don’t know.”
The evidence must have already been burned to ashes. The children that were here, they probably just disappeared. Without anyone even knowing their names.
“Ah…”
The moan Mia Crowfield let out turned into a wail that was hard to express in words.
A few knights who had been outside instinctively barged through the door and froze stiff.
*
Returning to the Count’s mansion, Mia Crowfield staggered past the Baroness without a greeting or embrace.
Without even making eye contact, she brushed past, and the Baroness shot a look filled with hatred at us before quickly turning away and following behind.
Leaving the mansion behind, we boarded the steam car that had been prepared ahead of time.
Alice and I sat side by side in the back seat, but for a long time, we didn’t speak. With the driver present, we had to choose our words carefully, and above all… we weren’t in the mood for any cheerful laughter.
“…Was it the right thing to do?”
After a long silence, Alice finally opened her mouth with that.
And I already had an answer prepared.
“You did well.”
It was a sincere statement without any ulterior motive. Initially, I had been lost for words at the idea of forging the Emperor’s orders… but eventually, it was something that would happen someday.
At least it would be better for Mia Crowfield than if it happened during the semester. She would have time to gather her thoughts.
“But…”
Alice bit her lip.
“If what the Imperial family is doing is the same as the bad deeds of other nobles….”
The confident Alice before entering that building was nowhere to be found. The Alice sitting next to me was merely speaking with a pitiful voice.
“Do I really have the right to punish those sorts of things?”
“…”
I gazed quietly out the window for a while.
There was no authority to grant such a right to me either. Though I used to be a child in that orphanage, now I was just a pawn of the Emperor.
But it wasn’t Alice’s fault either. Just like the Count’s deeds were not Mia Crowfield’s fault.
“At the very least,”
I cautiously opened my mouth.
“At the very least, the fact that the Crown Princess thought to take such actions means she is different from His Majesty the Emperor.”
With my words, Alice was silent for a while.
“…Thank you.”
That was the response that came from Alice after a long deliberation.
*
“Your identity.”
After taking Alice to her room, I immediately went to meet the Emperor. I was glad that Alice had a lot to think about. If not, I would probably now be sitting here beside Alice, unable to ask such questions.
“Why are you asking me that?”
Seeing the Emperor casually turn the question back to me, my insides churned, but I endured and asked again.
“If you brought me here, there must have been a reason. What was the reason for placing Lucas in that orphanage?”
“I find it curious that you’re asking about that now.”
The Emperor gazed down at me, placing his hand on his well-groomed golden beard.
“I won’t ask you to guess. That could be entertaining too.”
“I didn’t come here to play riddle games.”
I glared at the Emperor, but he continued to regard me with a look of amusement.
“Don’t you already know your identity well?”
In that instant, my heart sank.
Could it be that the Emperor has already noticed? Is there some other truth that I couldn’t read in the book? Does he already know I come from another world?
“You are my daughter.”
But my anxiety quickly vanished. The moment I didn’t exhale a sigh of relief was due to how much I was annoyed. I was grateful for that fact.
“So, other than that answer—”
“Hmm? I’m telling you the truth. That’s the answer you wanted.”
The Emperor said with a smile.
“You are my daughter. You definitely inherited my talents. Perhaps, you may have also inherited your mother’s talents. Of course, I don’t remember what kind of person your mother was.”
So simply.
As if asking his own biological daughter if she’s “a child found under a bridge?”
“…Huh?”
“You are.”
The Emperor leaned slightly toward me with the same smiling face.
“You said you are my daughter.”
…And that there were probably stories about Claire.
And that there’s a tale about the ‘Emperor’s children’ too.
The reason the Emperor was able to think of his ‘children’… as ‘children’.
“…”
Since coming to this world, it was the first time I had an astonished expression before the Emperor.
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