“The room prepared for you until the wedding is on the second floor. Do you have a preference for a different level?”

“……No, anywhere is fine.”

At the unremarkable answer, Killian gave a light nod.

The second floor of Rupert’s main castle was the space for guests. In her past life too, she had stayed there for the week before the wedding was held.

The place she missed most in the castle at this moment was the marital bedroom she had only been able to use for a few months, but Ines had no intention of coveting even that after the marriage. She had no right to.

Thud, thud.

For a while, only the sound of footsteps echoed in the silence. She wanted to hear his voice more, but she could not think of what to say.

‘If only I had been a little more quick-witted……’

If she had been good with words, or had a more playful nature, would she have been able to speak to him without difficulty?

While Ines kept parting and pressing her lips together without managing a word, their destination drew near. With only one floor to climb, they arrived quickly.

“This is your room.”

Killian indicated the large door on the right side of the corridor.

Fortunately for Ines, he did not simply point out the room and leave.

“May I come in for a moment? Of course, if that is uncomfortable, you may refuse. It is something that could just as easily be conveyed through Marisa later.”

“It’s fine.”

Unlike her hesitation up until now, she nodded quickly at that question. He must have expected her to refuse, because his eyebrows rose for just an instant.

In truth, his expectation had been correct. In the past, Ines had been unable to hide her flustered reaction to that question, and Killian, reading her expression easily, had withdrawn without asking twice.

She already knew what he wanted to discuss, though. She remembered what Marisa had asked immediately after he left.

Click.

She slipped past Killian and entered the room, and he followed, closing the door behind him.

He stayed close enough to the door that his voice would not carry outside, and did not venture further in.

Ines watched Killian for a moment, then quickly dropped her gaze just before their eyes could meet.

She desperately wanted to look into the eyes she loved so dearly, but she was afraid that if she did, she would lose her grip on the emotions surging inside her.

To keep herself from running to him and sobbing into his arms right then and there, Ines pressed her nails into her clenched palm.

Killian spoke first.

“Thank you for indulging an impertinent request, Your Highness.”

A form of address that was pleasant but not warm enough to make her chest flutter.

She knew that honorific was only natural from him right now, yet the ache in one corner of her heart came from already knowing how soft his voice could be when he said her name.

Ines bit her lip lightly, then shook her head.

“It isn’t impertinent.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Killian answered easily and did not let the silence drag.

“If it is agreeable to you, I would like to inspect the party and luggage that accompanied you.”

What he raised was exactly what she had anticipated. In her past life, it had been the head maid, Marisa, who had asked.

“I apologize if that is offensive.”

“I don’t mind. Do as you see fit, Grand Duke.”

Unlike in her past life, when she had given a reluctant nod, Ines gave a clearer answer.

He seemed not to have expected her to agree so readily, and Killian looked mildly surprised.

But Ines did not stop at simple agreement. There was more she needed to say to him in this moment.

“Grand Duke, I also have something to tell you. ……Are there any listening ears nearby?”

“Listening ears, you say……”

“Your own people are fine. What matters is whether anyone who came with me is within earshot.”

At Ines’s words, Killian looked at her with an unreadable expression. The implication was unmistakable.

He shook his head.

“Even if Your Highness were to shout, no one but myself would hear you.”

Depending on how one took it, the words could have sounded threatening, but Killian was not someone Ines found threatening.

Ines bit her dry lips once, then opened her mouth.

“You need to watch the imperial soldiers who came with me very carefully.”

“The imperial soldiers.”

“I know you would be on guard against them even without my saying so. But that alone won’t be enough.”

Ines had spent the last six months of her life in the Emperor’s grip.

Drunk on the joy of being so close to gaining eternal life now that Rupert had been brought down, the Emperor had let slip quite a few things to Ines. He was a man of deep suspicion and caution, but he must have considered Ines safe, locked away in the inner palace with nothing to do but wait for death.

At the time, every word the Emperor had babbled was agony. But now that she had been given another chance, she was deeply grateful. Because he had not been guarded around her and had talked freely, she could now prevent his schemes before they took root.

“Among them, there is someone who can use sorcery.”

Ines spoke through gritted teeth and clenched her fist without realizing it.

“Is that true?”

Killian, who understood the gravity of sorcery better than anyone, turned serious at once.

Ines pressed her lips together and nodded.

“……It’s true.”

In the very distant past, thousands of years ago, the ancient civilization had been incomparably more brilliant than the present.

Islands floating through the sky, transit gates that crossed from continent to continent in an instant, ancient people who possessed lifespans close to immortality.

What had made all of that possible was the concept of magic.

But as though to prove that all things have an end, magic departed from humanity at some point. People could no longer wield that power.

Mages vanished, and the brilliant civilization fell into rapid decline.

Now, only transit gates, ruins, and relics remained to attest to that age.

The mana tools that made people’s lives easier were nothing more than pale imitations of the past, using mana stones as their resource.

Sorcery, too, was an imitation of the ancient world. More precisely, it was a wicked power that mimicked the arts of the dark mages who had been despised even in ancient times.

Sorcery was a power that used mana stones corrupted through blood, resentment, and despair as its medium, and through them harmed life and sowed chaos in the world.

“I don’t know exactly who it is. But I’m certain of two things: the sorcery is the kind that summons demonic beasts, and the target is the imperial soldiers themselves.”

“The imperial soldiers…… so you’re saying that someone among them will use that sorcery against their own people.”

“That’s right.”

“Do you know the reason as well?”

Ines knew he was not asking because he genuinely did not know.

Killian would have been running through every possibility from the moment he heard there was a sorcerer among the imperial soldiers.

Ines steadied her pounding heart and answered slowly, but clearly.

“……If imperial soldiers were to die on Rupert’s grounds, the imperial house would hold Rupert responsible by some means or another. And if it happened to be an accident caused by demonic beasts, they might try to station imperial troops here, claiming Rupert’s capabilities were in question.”

“Even if imperial soldiers died, that would be overstepping.”

“I know. ……But there’s no need to give His Majesty the Emperor a pretext to reprimand Rupert. Don’t you agree?”

The Emperor’s true purpose in this scheme was to tarnish Rupert’s reputation.

In the past, public sentiment had gradually shifted from the time of the marriage onward. This incident was nothing less than the opening move in that war of opinion.

Killian was quiet for a moment, seeming to organize his thoughts. Ines fidgeted with her clasped hands, uneasy.

Then Killian raised his eyes and met her gaze.

Ines opened her mouth before she could stop herself.

“……I understand if you can’t trust me, Grand Duke. I know you may dislike me. I know what lies between the imperial house and Rupert, and how this marriage came to be.”

“Your Highness.”

“But I want you to believe this one thing. ……I want Rupert to suffer no harm of any kind.”

That wish came before even her desire for revenge against the Emperor.

Killian looked at her for a moment. It seemed like he was gauging whether she was telling the truth, or perhaps simply reading her face.

After holding her gaze for a while, he let out a laugh that was unexpectedly bright for the mood.

“Ha ha.”

Eyes curved softly, the corner of his mouth lifted just right, and the sound of his laughter curling pleasantly around her ears.

Ines stared at him blankly. The surprise of seeing his smile was greater than any bewilderment. Before long, he spoke with the warmth still lingering in his eyes.

“You are quite different from what I expected, Your Highness.”

Was his voice sounding softer than before, or was that just her wishful imagination?

“Very well. I will raise our guard and assign those who can detect sorcery to watch the imperial soldiers.”

Ines’s eyes went wide at the unexpected agreement.

“You…… believe me?”

She had thought it could not be helped if he did not.