Schultz felt a chill when he thought of the king.

It was the first time this had happened.

Though the king was disfigured like a monster with scars and wounds, Schultz had never felt anything overwhelming from him before.

Laedro Stings had always been ‘weaker’ than himself.

When he was a prince, and even after he became king, that fact had never changed……

But now he felt a bit afraid.

That unfamiliar and uncomfortable fear when you discover that someone you thought you knew is actually a completely different person.

‘……Is he trying to take revenge on me through Maria?’

But how much could a king without power do for something like that?

Maria wasn’t the type to be intimidated if the king oppressed her.

‘She would cry and whine, but that would be it…… I don’t know. I really don’t know.’

Schultz bit his teeth, tightly closing his lips as if hiding his complicated feelings.

It’s okay. The king was still someone he could handle.

But what about the ‘Buchanan family’ survivor they mentioned?

Could it be true?

Schultz narrowed his eyes and asked Chris.

“That’s a lie, right? There are no survivors from the Buchanan family. I confirmed it all.”

“How did you confirm it? Did you kill them yourself?”

“……You bastard!”

“Don’t be angry. If not that, I was asking how you could be so certain, Duke.”

“The eldest son of the Buchanan family died holding the corpse of a girl burned in the fire! I confirmed it with my own eyes. That’s the reason for my certainty.”

“Hmm, I see. In that case……”

Chris smiled cryptically and approached the door.

“How about hearing directly from the person herself?”

When Chris opened the door himself, someone entered the room as if she had been waiting.

Schultz was surprised, his eyes widening and his breath stopping.

His trembling eyes fixed on the flame-red hair.

“You, you are……”

“We meet again, Duke.”

The very painter who had painted Maria’s portrait.

‘Impossible!’

And the very woman Karl Winger cherished so much.

Lumiere Lashantia!

‘……I can’t believe this.’

Schultz’s wrinkled eyes trembled finely.

Even after seeing the opera’s content just now, Schultz hadn’t expected this woman at all.

Could it be that he only thought she was involved in the script, mixing in her story appropriately?

‘……So this woman kept her mouth shut even after taking exius up to a lethal dose? Is such a thing possible?!’

A flower that shows heaven to those who submit to the poison, and hell to those who resist.

This woman had endured that hell to keep the truth secret.

Schultz’s brow contorted in disbelief.

“Don’t lie. You can’t be the Buchanan girl, that’s impossible!”

When he shouted as if struggling, Lumiere smiled smoothly and said:

“Why do you say that? You and I met back then. When you and Geril Stings drew swords against my father and mother, I jumped out from the closet where I was hiding and blocked your way, don’t you remember?”

At that moment, a very old scene flashed through Schultz’s mind.

‘Father, Mother!’

‘Wh-what is this girl! Where did she come from?’

‘Philia! No! Go back!’

‘No! Don’t do this. Please spare my father and mother. Please!’

‘……Poor child. No one among those here today will leave alive. Including you.’

She was a girl about Maria’s age.

At that time, Schultz briefly thought the child was somewhat pitiful.

So he thought he would kill her first, without pain.

Because that was the most merciful treatment he could give.

Only then did Schultz vaguely remember.

The daughter of Buchanan with red hair and green eyes.

“……You were that girl back then? Impossible. Don’t lie! No one escaped from there alive. No one!”

Perhaps at that very moment, if Rudels, sensing something suspicious, hadn’t broken down that door with the mansion guards, Lumiere might have died there too.

That day, her brother saved her life multiple times.

‘The eldest son of the Buchanan family died holding the corpse of a girl burned in the fire! I confirmed it with my own eyes.’

Even until his dying moment.

The boy embraced a corpse and burned, for his sister who might have survived.

Rudels was only fifteen or sixteen years old at the time.

‘Rudels……’

Lumiere clenched her teeth to hold back the tears that were welling up again.

“You seem to remember now, Duke Tartien.”

It’s okay. She just needed to wait a little longer.

We’re almost there, Rudels……

* * *

Meanwhile, at the opera house where the curtain had fallen.

Perhaps because they had already heard rumors from yesterday’s performance and were less shocked, unlike yesterday, people erupted in thunderous applause after the curtain call ended.

After the actors finished their bows, just as excited, the audience members were hurriedly moving to see the burning poster.

—”Are you saying the king also knows about this opera?”

—”Our President confirmed it personally.”

Unfamiliar voices resonated heavily through the sound system into the theater.

People paused and looked around to identify the source of the sound.

Though the speakers were nowhere to be seen, the conversation continued to flow.

—”That’s a lie, right? There are no survivors from the Buchanan family. I confirmed it all.”

—”How did you confirm it? Did you kill them yourself?”

—”……You bastard!”

—”Don’t be angry. If not that, I was asking how you could be so certain, Duke.”

—”The eldest son of the Buchanan family died holding the corpse of a girl burned in the fire! I confirmed it with my own eyes. That’s the reason for my certainty.”

……Duke?

People who had been busily moving to exit suddenly stopped in unison as if they had received a single command.

The murmuring sounds in the theater quieted down, and the voices of the two people coming through the sound equipment grew stronger.

The paused audience focused on their conversation without making even a breath of sound.

It felt like watching a surprise performance prepared by the opera after the main show ended.

—”……You were that girl back then? Impossible. Don’t lie! No one escaped from there alive. No one!”

In the deathly heavy silence, Lumiere’s voice rang out clear and pure like an aria.

—”You seem to remember now, Duke Tartien.”

‘These vile creatures!’

After hearing the situation from Schultz, Landers ground his teeth and rushed straight to the palace.

The truth from 13 years ago, which even Landers didn’t know, pressed down on him.

‘Father was too complacent. If he had told me in advance, I would have investigated once more on my side to see if there were any survivors.’

He jumped roughly off the horse he had ridden, practically throwing the reins to the servant.

Landers rarely ran under normal circumstances.

No, since becoming an adult, he had hardly ever run except during training.

Now his steps were busier than ever before.

‘F*ck.’

His entire life seemed about to be shaken because of something he hadn’t even done.

But Landers couldn’t blame his father either.

He knew that because of that incident 13 years ago, the Tartien family had risen to the top of central noble society.

When he was young, he simply thought it was because his father had “pulled the right strings” with “Geril Stings”……

Little did he know it was because he had participated in treason.

‘……No, actually I did know to some extent.’

One day, by luck, the Crown Prince and his group all burned to death.

The Crown Prince’s son could have become the next Crown Prince after Crown Prince Richard.

But due to Richard’s scandal and the fire he “allegedly started,” Prince Laedro lived like a criminal instead of succeeding his father.

Because of that incident, the previous king went half-mad, and Geril Stings took the throne all too easily.

Knowing his father well, Landers could easily guess there had been some kind of scheme.

But to think it would come back like this!

‘I need to fix this somehow. Somehow!’

Landers sensed that this would be the greatest crisis of his life.

“Move aside, I need to see the king.”

Landers pressured the knight guarding the entrance to the king’s bedroom with a terrifying aura.

The knight, either well-trained or having lost all fear, dared to block his way and said:

“Please wait. You can meet His Majesty when he is ready.”

Even these lowly creatures dare to disrespect me now.

“You dare to block my way?”

Landers pulled out a gun from his br*ast and pressed it against the knight’s forehead.

“……Now, try saying that again.”

“……”

The knight remained silent with his eyes lowered.

Landers smiled cruelly and lowered the gun’s hammer.

At that moment,

—Let him in.

The king’s voice came from behind the closed door.