***

Tracking down where Sir Borba lived wasn’t difficult.

He had personally left his address with several actors, including Chester, asking them to contact him if they happened to see Leticia.

However.

“There’s no one here.”

Leticia murmured quietly as she looked around the empty ‘Sir Borba’s mansion.’

The furniture and necessities remained intact, but there was no one around.

That day, the people Sir Borba sent in response to Chester’s contact were promptly submerged in water and fainted.

After Leticia briefly interrogated them, she found out they were mercenaries hired by Sir Borba, and that was truly all there was to it.

“Our, our employer told us to capture an escaped prisoner…”

Leticia simply released the mercenaries who seemed to know even less than Sir Chester.

After all, they hadn’t even seen Leticia’s face.

Of course, those mercenaries must have hurriedly fled and reported the situation to their employer…

“It seems he fled just today,” said Aina, who had followed behind Leticia.

“Judging from the traces left behind, everything was used normally until yesterday.”

“You can see such traces?”

“Of course. Young Master, look. The brush marks from last night’s cleaning are still there.”

Aina tapped the floor with her shoe and carefully added,  “Perhaps ‘Sir Borba’ might be a fake identity. He used that name too casually, I should say.”

“….”

“From what you’ve told me, he freely used his name with that actor and those mercenaries. Usually, someone with something to hide would never do that under their real name.”

“Then what was his real name?”

Leticia thought she had spoken indifferently, but Aina looked at her cautiously before answering.

“Do you want to meet him?”

“Yes. I have many questions to ask him. Why he called me the culprit of the great fire that day, whether he truly considered me as his child…”

Perhaps on that day 10 years ago.

“Whether he was the one who set fire to the troupe. Things like that.”

Whether it was a planned crime, if so, who planned it, for what purpose, and if he felt any guilt while k*lling all those older brothers and sisters of the troupe who called him father.

In Leticia’s mind, Sir Borba was already the true culprit behind the Borba Troupe’s great fire.

Although she should consider the slight possibility that he wasn’t…

Leticia Borba was identified as the culprit solely because she was the only survivor of the Borba Troupe’s great fire.

But if there were two survivors, and Leticia, one of them, wasn’t the culprit, wouldn’t the other one be the perpetrator?

“Are you going to take revenge?”

“That’s something I’ll decide after hearing Sir Borba’s answer. And as you said, if Sir Borba was using a fake identity, he might have just been a tool.”

Leticia added quite calmly.

“In that case, the master who gave the orders would be the true culprit.”

Aina realized that Leticia’s calm attitude, which had continued for a while now, wasn’t a pretense but genuine indifference.

“Don’t you feel betrayed by that person? He was family, wasn’t he? It’s also why you couldn’t fully open your heart to Basilinte for the past 10 years, so how can you be so…”

“Sir Borba was a very busy person. Although he told me to call him father, I actually didn’t see him that often.”

The 10-year-old Leticia, who had craved affection, didn’t know.

But growing up under Basilinte’s affection and protection, she vaguely guessed that what Sir Borba had given her was merely the kindness of an adult doing charity work.

Nevertheless, Sir Borba had given her a home and family in the Borba Troupe, providing care and protection.

There are many biological parents who are worse than that, so he was a sufficiently excellent father.

That’s why Leticia loved the Borba Troupe, the family that Sir Borba had created for her.

Because she desperately hated being alone.

But the current Leticia was no longer the little street beggar from the past, and she was no longer alone.

“When I first thought that person might be the true culprit, I was shocked. But that shock wasn’t resentment toward him, but about being abandoned again.”

Leticia’s beauty had been exceptional since childhood.

Her distinct features were fully formed even back then, even when covered in dirt, and because of this, she was quite frequently picked up no matter where she was.

And the endings were always the same: either being abandoned or running away.

“I wondered if there was something wrong with me that I kept getting abandoned. Even though I thought they were my real family… Yet again this time.”

“That’s not your fault, Young Master.”

Aina firmly cut off Leticia’s words.

Leticia nodded readily.

“I know.”

Leticia knew intellectually that the abandoned party bears no responsibility.

But if one could think so rationally, there would be nothing to worry about in this world.

“I’m just afraid of being abandoned again next time. Even though I know it’s an unfounded fear.”

“Really, that’s truly a needless worry. Basilinte will never abandon you, Young Master. Even if you wanted to be abandoned, they absolutely wouldn’t.”

“But I’m hiding so much? I didn’t even properly tell Basilinte my name. Even my gender is fake.”

At first, it was because of the deal with the Emperor, but later it became a habit to hide her identity.

She thought nothing would change if she revealed it, but she was afraid of the slightest possibility.

“I’m sorry, Young Master, but Basilinte doesn’t see you as a man anyway.”

Aina answered honestly, though it might be somewhat disappointing for Leticia who had been diligently cross-dressing.

“They see you more as a hybrid between an angel and a fairy.”

“…What?”

“Actually, even if your true identity turned out to be a winged female elephant, Basilinte would accept it. Nothing would change.”

“…?”

“Ah, if you had wings, they might tie you down to prevent you from flying away.”

Aina looked at Leticia with a pitying gaze, as if she were worrying about something completely unnecessary, and advised, “So stop worrying needlessly about Basilinte, who would never leave you no matter what you do. After all, your cross-dressing is just the last line of defense to avoid waking up one day and finding yourself dragged into a marriage you didn’t even know about…”

Aina’s fading words at the end were filled with sincerity.

She hoped that Leticia wouldn’t think, ‘I should honestly reveal everything now.’

It was already this bad when they thought she was the same gender; if they knew she was the opposite s*x…

“Of course, even if you were a man, Master Chamuka would find a way to marry you somehow, but at least you could buy time until then.”

“There’s nothing between Chamuka and me. Why are you suddenly talking about marriage?”

“Such things are of no importance.”

“It seems important to me.”

“Anyway, Young Master, you’re weak when it comes to Master Chamuka. I can see a future where you’ll end up nodding like a pushover and before you know it, you’ll be sitting on Master Chamuka’s lap.”

That was the result of the intuition she had developed after living in Basilinte for about 10 years.

In that future, Leticia would obviously be wearing the same questioning expression as she was now.

***

Astrid arrived at the capital, passed by Colin, who was trembling with foreboding, and finally reached Colin’s two-story house, where her beloved disciple was supposedly staying.

Astrid, who had been dreaming of a refreshing reunion with her disciple after dumping all her family members on Colin, discovered that there was no one in this house except for Chamuka, who was sleeping as if he had passed out on the bed.

Splash.

Water poured down on Chamuka.

After waking her son with a cold water baptism, Astrid manipulated the water to grab Chamuka by the collar and asked.

“Where have you hidden Leti?”

“…Mother?”

“Where is Leti? Did you hide Leti? Leti’s supposed to be here. Where did you take Leti?”

If Colin had seen this, he would have shuddered at the remarkably similar mother-son conversation.