“To be precise……”

“You said it should be a story with a hopeful ending, not an unhappy one.”

Lumiere repeated his words without missing a single letter.

Luka nodded in agreement.

Lumiere straightened her back and took a deep breath.

‘……Karl, when did you start preparing this story.’

The owner of the largest opera theater in Levania.

The only person who could spread this shocking story without any restrictions.

She thought that perhaps he had been preparing for this moment since the moment he survived.

To show the truth of that day in the most splendid and unforgettable way!

She felt so sorry for him who had walked this arduous path alone.

He must have been lonely and tired.

It must have been overwhelming just to survive and suffer……

‘But now you’re not alone.’

Lumiere looked at Luka with a determined face.

“There was one more person who survived that fire on that day.”

“What? What do you mean?”

Elina, who had been lying loosely on the sofa listening to her story, sat up in surprise.

Luka Raus also leaned toward Lumiere and said.

“Could you explain in detail?”

“Duke and Duchess Buchanan had two children. Their son Rudels and his younger sister Philia Buchanan. People think they all died, but one of them, Philia Buchanan, is still alive.”

“……My goodness, that’s impossible!”

Elina touched her forehead in shock at Lumiere’s words.

Philia Buchanan is alive.

The meaning of this statement was clear.

A new witness!

Another survivor of that tragic fire.

‘If that child is alive, it could certainly turn the play around.’

Many people died in the Buchanan family fire, and because of it, many things in Levania changed.

Elina also vividly remembered the day she heard the news of the fire.

No, to be precise, she remembered the ripples that occurred in Levania’s noble society after that tragedy.

More than 90 nobles died.

It was something that couldn’t happen except in war.

The capital was so grief-stricken that it designated an entire month as a period of mourning.

During that period, no one, commoner or noble, dared to wear colored clothes.

Elina was no exception.

No one would believe it if she said she didn’t take out her favorite green dress for nearly two months.

More than half of the noble families in the capital held funerals.

Even if the title holder didn’t die, their spouse, siblings, or children died.

Everyone was plunged into grief.

The same was true for the royal family.

The King naturally lost his reliable heir who would succeed him.

He also lost his daughter-in-law with a Berhe background, though he might not have liked her much.

Moreover, since that background was due to the fire that his son caused in a fit of rage after having an affair with a loyal subject’s wife, the King couldn’t help but go mad.

Dozens of nobles presented petitions to him, shedding tears of blood because of what his son had done.

No matter how firmly established the royal authority was, since the Crown Prince was the one who caused this tragedy, he couldn’t help but express his condolences to the nobles.

After this incident, half of the King’s hair turned white.

Naturally, he had no time to care for his grandson who barely survived the fire.

No one saved him, and a humble Viscount from a rural territory who followed the Crown Prince rescued him.

In fact, it was only a week after the fire that it became known that the prince was alive.

The prince, whose body was terribly burned, was taken by his maternal family in Berhe.

It was partly because medicine was more advanced in Berhe, but mostly because the King of Levania would go into a rage whenever he saw his grandson.

‘The son of that madman! I hate the sight of him! Remove that horrible thing from my sight!’

The incident where the King threw a one-meter porcelain vase at the prince who couldn’t even stand properly due to his injuries was famous even among commoners.

‘Poor thing.’

‘Poor prince.’

‘But I understand His Majesty’s feelings too……’

‘Would you want to keep the son of a Crown Prince who did such a thing by your side?’

Thus, Prince Laedro spent more time in Berhe than in Karien.

Fortunately, his maternal family paid much attention to Prince Laedro.

In this situation, the landscape of social circles and noble political society completely changed.

The Crown Prince’s faction, which was thought to be powerful, largely disappeared, and Prince Geril Stings and Marquis Schultz Tartien took their place.

In fact, the only two people who survived that fire.

Geril became famous for rescuing the Crown Princess from the raging Crown Prince and escaping.

He desperately rescued the dying Crown Princess and came out, suffering burns on his back.

People marveled at the Third Prince’s righteous and brave story.

Geril and Schultz were said to have rushed about trying to save others from the fire, and thanks to that, they saved the lives of at least a few people.

Bolstered by that story, Geril quickly secured the position of Crown Prince.

When Lorota III stepped down from the throne due to madness and responsibility, Geril ascended to the throne in just one year.

People cheered for him.

Since the truth is only conveyed through the mouths of survivors, people blindly believed and praised the story Geril told.

How heartbroken must the survivor who had to watch that scene have been?

‘A survivor who knows the truth would have sleepless nights.’

Elina glanced at Luka’s script collection placed on the table.

After reading that script, Elina was quite shocked.

At first, even after reading the entire script, she couldn’t believe it.

That all that tragedy was actually fabricated by the late King Geril Stings to seize the throne!

Moreover, the innocent lives sacrificed for him had to bear dirty and shameful stigma.

‘When you think about it that way, he’s really a pitiful king.’

Not only did he lose his parents in the tragedy, but he also had to live in a world where everyone hated and pointed fingers at him.

Just experiencing that incident was actually a terrible thing, but in this country, it seems no one comforted the ‘boy’.

Not even his own bloodline.

At that time, he was only 14 years old.

‘……No, the more I think about it, the more pitiful he is, isn’t he?’

It was fortunate that his maternal family took him in.

She cautiously speculated that perhaps it was because of them that the King didn’t go completely mad.

‘Karl Winger…… is Prince Laedro behind him?’

According to Luka, the one who explained the situations in detail for writing the script was Karl Winger.

‘Come to think of it, Karl Winger and the current king are cousins. They’re quite close.’

They became close when Laedro Stings stayed in Berhe, and they might have discussed this countless times.

If so, the whole situation makes sense.

Why Karl Winger is so passionate about this matter.

But even so, this was too dangerous.

‘There will be people who don’t want this truth to be revealed.’

While nothing could be done about Geril Stings who was already dead, the story was different for the Tartien family currently enjoying powerful authority.

In any case, when this shocking story spreads outside, noble society will receive quite a shock.

Tartien was a family that had done many bad things after seizing power.

People even said that if you fell out of favor with Tartien, you would die more miserably than a sewer rat.

In other words, this meant that there were that many people who held grudges against Tartien.

‘No, this isn’t just a matter for noble society.’

……She thought that perhaps a fire of unimaginable size might break out.

After organizing her thoughts, Elina looked at Lumiere who was waiting for her and Luka to calm down.

This script must have been a very shocking story for her too, but she was more composed than expected.

Elina asked worriedly.

“If that’s true…… How did she survive? No, more than that, Lumiere. How did you know that Philia Buchanan is alive?”

“Her brother, Rudels Buchanan, managed to help her escape with difficulty. And if you ask how I knew that……”

Lumiere took a deep breath.

She would never forget it again.

The memory of Buchanan.

Lumiere spoke slowly and in a firm voice.

“Because I am that survivor, Philia Buchanan.”

“……Whaaaat?!”

Elina, who had been in a daze, covered her mouth and stood up abruptly.

She looked like she was about to faint.