‘If it’s the spine of the blade.’

There was a high chance Nia wouldn’t be seriously injured when she stopped him.

Then their eyes met—the duke’s and hers.

Golden eyes like Cardel’s. Evolaine was reflected in them.

From the start, the duke had been watching Evolaine, not the guild master.

To see how she would act.

Realizing this, Evolaine stomped down on the guild master’s head from behind—thwack!

Thud—!

Shocked by the blow from behind, the guild master dropped the dagger and collapsed to the floor with Nia.

Heron quickly picked up the dagger, and the duke pulled Nia’s arm to separate her from the guild master.

“……”

At the extremely rough suppression method, Cardel seemed at a loss for words, his mouth hanging open as he looked back and forth between her and the guild master.

It must have been a rather shocking method for a noble young master like him.

“Well done, Evolaine.”

“Not at all.”

The duke praised her with a bright smile, like he’d known all along she’d handle it well.

“Dame, your situational judgment seems to have improved from before. You must have trained hard.”

“Thank you……”

Heron chiming in from the side about her growth was a bonus.

“……”

Look at those two big men getting all excited, praising her like ‘good job, my child.’

And what about Evolaine, scratching her cheek all embarrassed?

“This is a dream. It has to be.”

Cardel absolutely did not want to relate to this situation.

While Cardel shook his head, the guild master sprawled on the floor spewed various curses he’d never heard before in his life.

Unable to contain his anger, he huffed and puffed but unfortunately couldn’t push off the duke’s foot and stand up.

Even though the duke was merely resting his foot on his back, his body wouldn’t obey.

It felt like a massive boulder was placed on his back.

With his body refusing to budge, the guild master tried various ways until veins bulged in his neck, then gave up.

“I tried to give you a chance, but you don’t seem to appreciate it.”

Sneering with one leg crossed and chin resting on his hand, the duke truly looked like an outlaw who had the world beneath him.

At the same time, he overlapped with the image of the strongest who possessed the ability to never read the room.

At his magnificent aura, Evolaine’s eyes sparkled.

Bothered by that look of admiration, Cardel pulled Evolaine back.

While Heron stopped the two from bickering, the guild master finally opened his mouth.

“……Destroy them all.”

“What?”

“You can destroy them all. I’ll tell you everything.”

His attitude was resigned. Well then, there was no reason not to.

At the duke’s gesture, Heron smashed all the remaining magical devices.

Seeing the false wall panels disguised as walls and the glass shards of magical devices scattered like powder in one corner of the room, it felt like all those hellish years had turned to nothing.

Complex emotions flooded in. At the same time, the marchioness came to mind.

She must have already noticed.

Reaching that conclusion, tears burst forth like a dam breaking.

When the guild master suddenly cried, Evolaine and Cardel, who had been making a fuss behind him, quietly stopped moving.

Heron offered him a handkerchief, and Nia looked at the guild master before bursting into tears as well.

Silent weeping was the only sound heard in the stillness.

Like they would bare everything, cruelly and desperately.

“Now tell me. Who did it?”

“…The Marchioness of La Voletta.”

Hearing the name from the guild master, Evolaine felt the blood drain from her head.

Anger. That emotion she’d been trying to suppress was raising its head, looking for an opening.

“Four years ago, she first visited our Naoremi Guild and commissioned us. To find someone.”

Someone she’d been desperately searching for since four years ago. Who else would the marchioness be looking for?

They said the mistress died shortly after giving birth. Then there was only one person she needed to find.

The bastard who manifested Kelic—Evolaine. It could only be her.

“…So, did you find them?”

“……Yes.”

The guild master’s gaze reached Evolaine. The assumption became certainty.

“What happened next?”

“…She asked us to find a mage. The requirements were unusual, so it took quite a while, and in the meantime, we lost track of the person the client was looking for.”

Cardel recalled the day he’d asked Evolaine to be his escort.

Nervous at the unfamiliar meeting, Evolaine couldn’t even look at him properly.

But when he brought up the escort job, her eyes changed and she spoke clearly.

“Kelic can’t be controlled simply by being skilled.”

“A mage who can handle Kelic must have magic power compatible with Kelic.”

In other words, the reason Cardel could suppress Evolaine was because he possessed special magic power compatible with Kelic.

‘So that’s what she meant.’

He hadn’t given it much significance at the time, but now he understood why Evolaine had spoken so carefully.

If a mage with special magic power like his appeared, anyone could steal Kelic from Evolaine, who hadn’t fully awakened it yet.

“……”

Evolaine clenched her fists hard. So hard her skin looked white from lack of blood flow.

She knew the marchioness had been searching for her for a long time, but hearing it directly from someone involved was a different dimension.

She couldn’t control the negative emotions swelling fiercely like incoming waves.

Her mother was already dead, and the marquis’s whereabouts were unknown.

At a young age, she had no adults to protect her.

And so, in the end, she had her Kelic stolen and died.

What was so special about that d*mn Kelic anyway?

Just as her breathing grew rough, another hand wrapped around Evolaine’s fist.

“……”

“……”

Cardel was looking at her.

In his golden eyes, only the person named Evolaine was reflected.

Right, she wasn’t alone anymore.

She didn’t need to endure everything alone.

She had a prickly but occasionally kind master, and the people of the Duchy of Radelica who cheered and encouraged her.

Looking at Cardel seemed to calm her down a bit.

After confirming Evolaine’s breathing had stabilized, the duke continued questioning the guild master.

“Why did you install those magical devices?”

“I don’t know the reason. The marchioness seemed to have something she wanted to find, but couldn’t quite see a way, so I heard it was a method chosen after much deliberation.”

It cost a lot of money to install expensive magical devices throughout the entire wall, you know.

The guild master added with a bitter face.

“Can you contact the marchioness?”

“No, for some reason, we haven’t been able to reach her by any means for several months now.”

“…I see.”

Suddenly disappearing—was she plotting something?

But then again, wasn’t Hesion La Voletta attending the academy normally?

‘This feels off.’

It seemed like he was missing an important point.

But he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“You’ve violated Article 13, Section 6 of information trading. As someone who operates an information guild, you know well what that means.”

“……Yes.”

The Vesasium Empire’s punishment for violating information trading laws was by no means light.

The guild master bowed his head deeply, looking ashamed.

“However, since I have something to gain from you, I’ll make you a proposal.”

“A proposal…?”

“Whether you accept this or not is entirely your choice.”

You’d better choose an option you won’t regret.

The guild master, well aware of what awaited him if he chose wrong, gulped.

“……Yes.”

Only one chance. No taking it back.

* * *

Aaaaah—!

A tearing scream was heard along with the sound of porcelain dishes breaking.

The servants sweeping dust in the corridor all frowned in unison.

Every single day the lady of the house threw tantrums and hurled decorations and furniture, so the household never had a quiet day.

Pretend you didn’t hear even if you did. Pretend you didn’t see even if you did. That was how servants survived in noble households, but wasn’t this going too far?

‘Those wretches I could tear apart and it still wouldn’t be enough……!’

Thinking of the wasted time spent in bed, even the time spent throwing things now felt precious.

But she couldn’t contain her anger.

Haina had been poking around the marquis’s household, restricting her actions, and the detoxification still wasn’t complete, so her stamina had hit rock bottom.

‘She deliberately poisoned me.’

It must have been the empress. She was the only one who would do this to her.

The reason Haina came to the marquis’s household wasn’t just about Verit either.

She’d come to warn her.

That she could kill her anytime, discard her anytime.

“Mother.”

“……My child.”

Verit, watching with a frightened face at the doorway, called the marchioness in a delicate voice.

She sighed involuntarily. How would Verit view her when she’d lost enough self-control to show such a pathetic sight to her daughter?

“Mother, please hold me.”

“……Yes, come here.”

As Verit approached, the marchioness silently embraced her.

The scent of roses came from Verit in her arms.

Of all the flowers, it had to be roses. The marchioness, whose spine went cold, flinched without realizing it, but as Verit burrowed into her embrace, she steadied her heart again and patted her back.