“…So, let me get this straight.”
After hearing my story, Alice pressed her fingers into her temples thoughtfully before speaking up.
“Your father was… spreading royal blood here and there, and ended up picking a sprouting seed to raise as his own child, right?”
“If we assume everything the Emperor said is true, yes.”
“But he confused you with Claire and ended up bringing you instead of her?”
“Correct.”
“Wait, that doesn’t make any sense.”
Alice said this with her eyes still tightly shut.
“If they were so diligent about their ‘bloodline,’ at the very least, they should remember the appearance of their kid! I mean, frankly, you have black hair—”
She pointed her finger at Claire, still pressed to her temple.
“—while she has blue hair! And your father’s hair is golden! If you know the other person’s hair color, you should at least know if your own child has black hair or blue hair!”
By the way, Claire, who had been suddenly accused by Alice, just stood there with a blank expression, not knowing how to respond.
Actually, her face showed she didn’t know what kind of reaction she should have. It shifted from serious to shocked to serious again, only to end up biting her tongue repeatedly, unable to say anything. Even I, who knew the original story, was flustered, so Claire, who had lived without ever suspecting that up until now, must have been completely shocked.
“Maybe it’s a recessive trait.”
I said with a serious expression.
Honestly, considering everyone in this world has hair colors of all sorts, pondering ‘genetics’ seriously seems a bit ridiculous. The most unusual hair colors that can come out naturally back in my reality were close to silver or red. There’s no way I can know how blue or purple hair is passed down.
“Or maybe they just didn’t care much about the other person. They might have just focused on bringing in a host and seeding their blood.”
I thought this explanation was more plausible. People who love their children in their own ways may, at the same time, consider those children as tools. Such a person could easily plant seeds in a mechanical fashion without a second thought.
So, if the Emperor had ‘many’ illegitimate children, and the ones who could become the Emperor’s children were ‘a very few,’
AND if the Emperor was confident enough to believe that he could recognize an ‘able child’ as one he fathered—
“…”
Alice bit her lips, looking like she was about to hurl.
She seemed to feel that ‘somehow, the Emperor might be capable of that.’
“And the one who brought me to the palace was Lucas. At least between Claire and me, it could be said that the Emperor’s judgment had less influence than Lucas’s.”
Of course, aside from this, the Emperor must have believed in Lucas. He probably didn’t tell him everything, though. I don’t think he shared much about the true lineage of the Emperor’s children.
And this entire situation snowballed into the massive problem we have now.
“I can’t say how the host was selected… but if we trace the history of the royal family, it wouldn’t be unimaginable. There are countless people who have lost their status, becoming lower nobles due to power struggles.”
Though I had burned any way of knowing what Claire’s mother was, I could imagine a little.
Not everyone with royal blood is treated as royalty. Just as there are nobles without lands and titles, there are also those within the royal family who could very well fit that description. Furthermore, some individuals must have fallen even further than ‘Fanggriffon’ to be out of mention.
Of course, if you were to ask if the blood of these individuals is as potent as genuine royal blood, the answer would be no.
“…My mother was assassinated by a political rival.”
Alice suddenly muttered while listening to my story.
“It’s from a time so young I can’t even barely recall. Even back then, there were claims that it was not my mother but me that was meant to be assassinated. The name ‘Fanggriffon’ is at the highest point in history now, but back then, it wasn’t so impenetrable. Even with talk of absolute power and absolute monarchy, the majority of the empire is still occupied by the nobility.”
With her chin resting on her hand, Alice tilted her head slightly as her gaze turned to me.
“Those who were the first to be wiped out were ‘other royals.’ Many of the royals who held succession rights outside of age were executed and fell from grace.”
Furthermore, the Emperor’s power became that firm.
“At first, I thought… maybe the Emperor assassinated my mother. Creating a pretext and wiping out all the involved powers to establish royal authority and power?”
But if that’s not the case…
If the Emperor had no desire to kill his Empress and they were merely an ordinary couple, only to lose his wife during the power struggle— and if he had only his daughter remaining as the heir, that’s alarming. There are countless reasons a child could die. They don’t necessarily need to be shot or poisoned; numerous diseases during this period could easily take a child—magic can only do so much.
Then, there may have been those who wanted to provide the Emperor with a secondary consort to bear him an heir. Whether they were nobility with diluted royal blood or distant collateral relatives.
If this heir was a ‘son,’ it would provide legitimacy to inherit the kingdom.
If that was the reason for the Empress’s death—
Then the ‘pretext’ would be the collateral royals at the very start.
And among the powerful noble families, the ‘noble faction.’
This power struggle has even continued since my youth. I had received orders from the Emperor to assassinate the Count. That was Count Crowfield.
“…If your father, who trusts no one but himself, was trying to create the ‘Fanggriffon’ that only he believes in—”
“…”
That’s all just speculation.
In reality, he might just be a lecher who doesn’t even care about women’s faces, enjoying his pleasures and randomly picking children to gather after partying.
Or—it could even be that the assassination of the Empress was all part of the Emperor’s plan, and he crafted a pretext for ‘weeding out’ the undesirables.
To learn the real story, I would need to meet the Emperor directly.
“So, this is…”
Alice seemed to have made it that far in her thoughts, halting her speculation and turning back to the zibo.
“Correct. For whatever reason, zibo is clearly reacting to ‘Fanggriffon.’ It’s not responding to me but to Claire, so there’s no doubt about it.”
For a name like ‘zibo,’ it was a strange occurrence. Shouldn’t a divine object typically react more properly to those in the Papal State?
In fact, aside from the zibo’s responses, the original settings and stories also served as my basis for judgment, but the complexity of the story with just the ability to turn back time alone is already immense. Explaining that this world has been influenced by fiction would take forever. I’d have to start from video games to explain it all.
“So, I…”
Claire, who looked confused listening to our discussion, opened her mouth.
“…”
I just stared at Claire silently before saying.
“Claire.”
“Uh, uh?”
“What kind of being do you want to become?”
“What kind of being…?”
“Whether it be the Fanggriffon with royal blood or the Grace you’ve relied on since childhood. The choice is yours.”
The original Claire had no such choice.
She was just swept away, sold off, suffering a terrible past, transitioning from one master to another against her will—
The last choice she could make was to sacrifice herself for someone she thought was her sister at the very last moment.
But the Claire before me now is different.
Claire Fanggriffon?
Or Claire Grace?
She has the power to choose.
There’s no master over her right now.
“I…”
Claire placed her hand on her chest, her grip tightening.
“I want to stay myself as I am.”
Then that’s all that matters.
After all, there’s no need for Claire to sacrifice herself here.
That’s exactly why I’m here to prevent that.
“Understood.”
I answered that way and reached out towards the zibo.
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