Of course, rumors about me wouldn’t justify what Delmir did, but they would inevitably influence the trial. If everyone saw me not as a victim but as an aggressor, a princess of an enemy nation scheming for the empress’s seat of Frianc, the pressure of public opinion would become severe.

‘Ah, so that’s why Heliones pushed the divorce papers through so quickly.’

I finally understood why he had gone out of his way to hand me those papers the moment I regained consciousness. I had thought it was unlike him to be so hasty, but he had his reasons.

It seemed he had done it to protect my reputation ahead of the trial and ensure Delmir faced the punishment she deserved.

So that was it.

“Why are you suddenly smiling? Did something come to you?”

“Hmm? Was I smiling? Me?”

“Yes. Just now, you smiled like you were in a very good mood.”

“Ah, did I?”

Good heavens. Did the wound connect to my facial muscles somehow? I smiled without even noticing?

Even knowing why he had rushed to confirm the divorce, the outcome was the same regardless. He and I were strangers, just as we had always been, and would remain so going forward.

There was no reason to smile. So why did I? How strange.

“Never mind. If House Balthar put out that article, it’s a bit of a shame for them, isn’t it? A completely contradictory exclusive came out the very same day.”

I said the first thing that came to mind to brush it off, and Hanna worked herself up and crumpled the gossip paper in her hands.

“A shame! It serves them right! This is what happens when you publish articles without checking the facts! It was a gossip paper nobody believed to begin with, but who would trust anything printed in it now?”

The gossip paper put out by House Balthar’s collateral branch was a periodical with virtually no credibility, one that carried little more than gossip in the literal sense. But they had always stayed one step removed from disputes over truth by publishing cleverly worded commentary that kept at least some grounding in fact.

They had always relied on question marks and vague phrasing to stoke public opinion, nothing more, and today’s issue was no different, carrying what amounted to nothing but personal grievance dressed up as commentary. But with a clear and definitive exclusive running the opposite story in a reputable daily paper, they had suffered no small embarrassment.

“Serves them right! Absolutely serves them right! Let’s see what they have to say about Delmir’s unhinged behavior now!”

Still fuming, Hanna shook her fists and pulled a fierce expression that didn’t suit her at all.

Right. You were angry, and you were worried. I stroked the hair of my dear girl, who was putting on a tough face on purpose but still had eyes swollen from crying. Hanna sat with her cheeks faintly flushed, a little embarrassed, receiving my touch, then slowly glanced up at me and asked with care.

“Are you all right?”

“Yes. It barely hurts anymore.”

“No, I don’t mean that.”

“Hmm?”

What did she mean? I thought about it for a moment, and the image of Hanna’s face came back to me, the look she had worn earlier while emptying the wastebasket, something bitter in her expression.

“Ah. That.”

I had crumpled it up in a moment of irritation, but how to explain it. I was still searching for something to say when Hanna spoke first.

“It’s all right.”

“?”

“I’m here. You don’t need a piece of paper for it. Lady Lucian is my family.”

Ah, she really is precious. She had brought it up herself and now looked embarrassed about it, her lips pressed into a little pout. I slowly drew her into my arms. A wise and warm girl who always found the best answer on her own, without me having to say a word.

“Me? Really?”

“Yes. Honestly, I’m not that close with my own family. I’m the eldest of six children, so from the time I was eight I went from house to house doing whatever work I could find. And every bit of money I earned, I had to send straight home.”

This was the first I had heard of it. Hanna was a sharp girl and always knew when to speak and when to stay quiet, and when it came to her own story, she had always gone quiet quickly.

I had plenty of things I had never told Hanna either, so even when I sensed it, I never pressed her.

“I know you’ve looked after me, Lady Lucian. I send most of my wages home, so I often don’t have much left over. But you’ve had clothes made for me when the seasons changed, and you’ve bought me cute shoes or hair pins as gifts every now and then. Without ever buying anything for yourself.”

“Ah, did I do that?”

“Of course you did. And also… you taught me to read. Among the maids my age in our neighborhood, I’m probably the only one who can.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. The other girls are so envious of me!”

Well, that’s something. Though I hadn’t done it particularly for Hanna’s sake.

“I appreciate you saying that, but honestly, I did all of it for myself.”

“Pardon?”

“You were just so cute and pretty, so I was playing with a doll. I never had a doll of my own when I was little.”

Well, I had one, technically. But Lewian tore it apart and burned it within a few days of it coming into my hands.

“Same with the reading. I taught you so I could write out long lists of instructions on errand notes. Ha.”

I had even mixed in difficult words on purpose to make Hanna struggle. Whenever she came across a word she didn’t know, she would puff out her cheeks and furrow her brow slightly, and I used to watch that expression for a while before finally telling her what the word meant.

“I did it all for my own benefit. I’m not that selfless a person.”

And that was the truth. No one knew better than I did just how petty and hollow I was inside.

“I don’t mind what’s inside you, Lady Lucian. When we draw together or read the paper like this, I’m truly happy. Can’t I be your family?”

Still nestled in my arms, Hanna looked up at me with wide eyes and declared, quite boldly, that she would simply disregard whatever was inside me. And somehow I didn’t mind it at all.

Family. Family, she said. Have I ever had family?

The day I was beaten with a thorned whip, I ran to my father covered in blood.

Unlike my stepmother and half-siblings, he was my own father, and I had thought he might show at least a shred of sympathy. But he lifted the hem of his robe to avoid my blood and turned away from me, the way someone turns away from something filthy.

That must have been when I was eight.

At nineteen, I gained a husband, but he refused to share a bed, saying he could not love a woman, and the moment our divorce was finalized he took his mistress as his wife and had a child with her right away.

The second husband I gained at twenty-four was not only someone I never shared a bed with, but someone far too distant to call family.

Family. A concept I had shut out entirely, because thinking of Lewian or my stepmother as family felt like something I simply could not survive.

“Should we? Shall we be family?”

I had no idea what I stood to gain from it, but if it was this precious girl, she was welcome anytime.

“Yes! Be family with me! I will always be on Lady Lucian’s side and I will never leave you alone!”

I was already too broken to take someone’s words at face value. I knew well enough that these warm words were something a soft-hearted girl had said out of sympathy.

Even so, thank you. For sending a warm breath of air into that corner of my heart that had felt hollow and torn away since last night.

* * *

“How did this happen?”

Duke Balthar flung the newspaper aside and shouted at the head butler.

“It appears the imperial palace sent out a special bulletin late yesterday evening. Even the publisher seems not to have known the contents until just before printing.”

The head butler, younger than Duke Balthar but experienced, watched his master’s expression carefully and continued his report as calmly as he could.

“It seems His Majesty chose to release it on the same day our article was set to run.”

“Ha? That young fool dares to get ahead of me?”

Duke Balthar had used the word “empress” to provoke public opinion and pressure the composed Heliones. His aim was to frame Lucian not merely as the princess of a fallen nation but as the princess of an enemy nation with designs on the Frianc imperial throne, and in doing so, undermine the victim’s untarnished standing.

But for that young man to move like this. His fury made him tremble, but Duke Balthar was a seasoned figure, and he reined in his anger with a deep breath and began to take stock of the situation.

The corruption at the academic foundation, and now his daughter’s *ssault case on top of it. There was a mountain of matters to resolve. He had hoped to use Lucian as leverage to make the *ssault case easier to get past, but even that was no longer a simple prospect.

Duke Balthar genuinely loved his daughter. But he was also a man who weighed the gravity of things with strict precision.

‘The family has to survive before there’s anything left to clean up.’

Duke Balthar made his decision with the feeling of tearing off one of his own arms, and gave his order to the head butler.