— “There must be evidence of an accomplice. We need to find it.”

“But Mateo. Would it not be better to continue the additional investigation in the capital? The heads of the imperial consorts’ families are already gathered there, so if you just bring the evidence……”

— “There are parts of the evidence that do not sit right with me.”

Will listened to Mateo’s voice coming through the communication device and was silent for a moment before speaking.

“Is it not that you cannot put a period on things in your own heart?”

— “……”

“Mateo, the reason I sent you there……”

— “Have I ever been someone who cannot distinguish between official duties and personal matters?”

“……That is not what I meant.”

— “That is how it sounds to me.”

“Lieutenant Mateo Fezel, you have already found the evidence you were ordered to find. Bring it to the capital and the mission is over.”

— “If we go on like this!”

Mateo finally could not hold back and burst out.

— “If we go on like this, that person will be hurt too. For someone already living such a difficult life, this matter is…… is it not too cruel a thing to do?”

Mateo had been the one saying there could be another side to things and that surveillance should not be relaxed, but in truth he already knew.

He knew what Leila’s daily life was like.

That was why he had tried to give her even a brief moment of rest within that difficult life.

If things were wrapped up like this, a situation would come where Leila would also be held responsible.

“Mateo Fezel, how much time do you need?”

Zenus, who had been quietly listening to the communication from beside him, asked.

— “I would like to continue the investigation at least until solid evidence emerges that Lady Anderson had no part in this matter.”

“That will be too late. They intend to strike without waiting for us. Once they know evidence has been found, they will not stay still. If anything, a situation may come where you and your men in the Anderson territory are the ones in danger.”

— “However, Your Majesty, if things continue like this, will there not be far too many wronged people in this territory? The territory’s people under them are still suffering without a single proper remedy.”

Zenus nodded.

“True, we will need to step forward for those wronged people.”

While Zenus thought over the options for a moment, Mateo quietly clenched his fist and waited.

He intended to do everything he could for Leila before leaving.

If they were unjustly implicated in this matter, the first names on the execution list would be Eric and Leila.

— “One week. Within that time, bring evidence that the fourth imperial consort’s family, Eric, and Leila have no connection to this matter.”

At Zenus’s decision, Mateo shouted his thanks and ended the communication.

One week. He was prepared to do anything if he could save Leila from this crisis within that time.

❀❀❀

“Who…… the fourth imperial consort, you say?”

Leila shot to her feet from her chair without thinking and asked again.

“Th, that cannot be. The fourth imperial consort has a…… a daughter. If she thought of her daughter, she would never do something so dangerous……”

Flashes of the fourth imperial consort’s behavior over the past three years passed through Leila’s mind.

“His Highness’s eyes look particularly lively today. Does it not seem like he might speak today?”

“I truly cannot stand wondering how much longer I must endure living like this.”

Leila took a moment to steady her breath, then shook her head and said, “If what Lieutenant Fezel says is correct, this is something that was prepared even before the civil war broke out. Then how could the fourth imperial consort’s family, with no son to carry on the imperial line, scheme something like this?”

“That was also what made the surveillance lax. There was no child to carry on the line. But this evidence came from none other than the fourth imperial consort’s family’s residence.”

While Mateo’s subordinates were summoning the former Emperor’s imperial consorts’ families to the Anderson residence and listening to them, they had been secretly searching those families’ residences.

The servants of the residences could not stop them, not when told it was a mission ordered by His Majesty the Emperor.

The evidence they managed to find was nothing more than a few sheets of paper, crumpled after being written incorrectly.

Count Collet, the fourth imperial consort’s father, was a greedy man.

He had written letters to his co-conspirators, instructing them to spread the nursery rhyme through the capital.

In the process, the evidence Mateo had obtained came to exist.

“Is it not precisely because she has a daughter that she had more lingering attachment?”

Leila stared at Mateo with an expression of incomprehension.

“Think carefully about why you could not have known about this matter.”

“No, our family……”

“Lady Anderson, no matter how much your mother has been staying at the temple, she cannot be unaware of how you are living right now.”

The former Marchioness Anderson lost her husband, returned to the territory, and chose to seclude herself at the temple.

The Anderson comital residence housed the Anderson family, Lady Anderson’s family, the former Empress, and the former Crown Prince.

“It may be something her feelings for her daughter set in motion.”

Count Collet had mentioned Marchioness Anderson in his correspondence.

This was irrefutable evidence.

“It is something that would come out under investigation. Temples exist throughout the entire Empire, so giving instructions to the capital would not have been difficult. The former marchioness…… your mother must have wanted to free you from this kind of life.”

“But my mother suffered a great wound to her heart after losing Father and went to the temple……”

“Even from the temple, she could not bear to watch you living like this. On the surface, it would have looked like a smooth withdrawal. Living in the same residence as the former Empress and former Crown Prince would have made daily life uncomfortable for everyone, so it would have appeared to be a graceful stepping back.”

Leila tried to recall her mother’s face, the last time she had seen her before she went to the temple and never once visited the residence again.

She blamed herself for having privately felt relieved that her mother at least did not have to see how she was living.

“At first, she must have thought it was unavoidable. The marriage between her daughter and the former Crown Prince was not a proper ceremony, but it could not be undone now.”

Unable to stop Marquis Anderson, she had ultimately had no choice but to watch her very young daughter live a life of tending to a patient.

“Then one day, someone came to the temple. A former imperial consort who said she worried about her daughter with the same heart of a mother.”

Persuading the marchioness would not have been difficult for the fourth imperial consort.

A single word asking whether she never thought of her daughter’s future, and she would have easily promised her cooperation.

“If any evidence of cooperating with them in any way comes to light, punishment will be difficult to avoid.”

“My mother, I need to go see my mother.”

“There is no time, Lady Anderson. I was given exactly one week. Within that time, I must prove that you have no connection to this matter.”

Leila wiped her tears roughly and asked sharply, “Why go so far? You are on the winning side of the civil war regardless, are you not? I already accepted this kind of life when I entered the former imperial family. Why on earth are you doing this for me……”

“Please stop lying in front of someone you cannot properly deceive, Lady Anderson.”

Mateo closed the distance and stepped forward.

Now fully grown, he seemed a little taller than when Leila had last seen him.

Leila kept her head down, as though trying not to look at his face as he approached.

“Even if you do not know why I am going this far, or even if you pretend not to know until the very end, it does not matter. I will not give up.”

“Then why, why on earth!”

Leila cried out and raised her head, and Mateo’s expression came into view.

She could not continue speaking.

“Because I cannot stand watching you cry like this.”

Mateo raised his hand and wiped her tears.

Forgetting even to pull away from his touch, Leila stared at him blankly.

“I know better than anyone that you are a strong person.”

Mateo stepped back again and continued.

“I know well that no matter what comes your way, you are someone who keeps trying to the very end. But no matter how strong a person is, they cannot keep from breaking under continued hardship. Without somewhere to lean, they will break even faster.”

“Lieu…… Mateo.”

“Think of me in those moments.”

Mateo’s face held a great many emotions.

Leila looked at him without even blinking properly, as though time had stopped at the expression he wore.

“You have me.”

❀❀❀

“Priest.”

“Yes, my lady.”

Though she had called out softly, the priest heard immediately and hurried to the Marchioness.

“Is there something you need?”

From the very beginning, when she first became part of the Anderson family, she had always shown a respectful attitude toward the temple within the territory.

With dragon’s power exerting great influence over the Empire and the temple in steady decline, the lord’s wife had been a great source of strength.

That was why, when she said she had lost her place and come to the temple, they had cared for her devotedly out of gratitude.

For three years, she had never made unreasonable demands.

She lived quietly, without disrupting the priests’ daily lives.

“I believe today is the day.”

“What do you mean?”

“The day I must leave this temple.”

A flicker of surprise crossed the priest’s face, but he spoke calmly.

“If something troubling has happened, I could……”

“No, no, it is not that, Priest. I cannot stay like this any longer. That is why I am going.”

The face of the Marchioness as she said it was impossibly serene.

“My lady, is there nothing you can tell me about what is happening?”

“I cannot put this temple in danger too. It is a place I truly love.”

“My lady……”

“To be more honest, I think it would be too cruel to make that child report her mother after already reporting her father.”

Her daughter had not wanted to marry the Crown Prince.

Receiving the finest education and hearing over and over that she would marry the Crown Prince, almost like a form of conditioning, she had never once smiled brightly.

Not once had she taken it for granted that she would become the Crown Princess.

She had never used the power of the marquisate family or the imperial family she held in her hands to hurt anyone.

That was why she could not stand watching her daughter live as though receiving an unjust punishment.

It had been a hope, a faint one.

Perhaps, just perhaps, if this succeeded, her daughter might live a life where people called her Empress.

It did not matter who the other person was. Was she not originally meant to be the Crown Princess?

“Even if returning to that position is too much to ask, I wanted her to at least not live bound to a husband like that. That is why I did it, but……”

Two days ago, Mateo Fezel had come to the temple alone.

Leila had not shown her face to the end.

He had advised the marchioness directly to gather the evidence of the rebellion herself and submit it to His Majesty.

“I cannot guarantee your life, my lady. But I can save Lady Anderson.”

A faint smile settled on the marchioness’s face.

“To think there is still someone left in this world who thinks of that child. What a relief.”

“My lady……”

“Priest, if someone comes to investigate this temple, please say you only delivered a few letters to the capital at my request and that you know nothing else. That is the truth, after all.”

“My lady.”

“I will follow Lieutenant Mateo Fezel to the capital.”

❀❀❀

Mateo Fezel’s party loaded the former Marchioness Anderson, who had joined them at the temple for the return to the capital, onto a supply wagon.

Not a single person said a word about how they could put the former marchioness in a supply wagon.

Everyone kept quiet about what she had done and why she was heading to the capital, but they all understood.

Mateo’s party had not even put the fourth imperial consort’s family in a carriage, binding them with rope and making them walk behind the procession, so everyone understood that the former marchioness was at least being treated with some consideration.

The marchioness did not look at Leila’s face until the very end.

No one said they absolutely had to see their mother’s face, even if it might be the last time.

Both Count Anderson and Leila knew that keeping this distance was the only way to keep the remaining people safe.

Mateo had glanced briefly at Leila and was about to give the order for the party to depart.

“Le, Leila! Leila!”

An urgent voice calling for Leila rang out from the residence.

“Is that not Lady Cherny’s voice?”

Everyone turned to look at the residence door with startled eyes.

The former Empress threw the door open and came out gasping for breath, speaking to Leila.

“Leila, quickly, quickly go to Eric, hurry!”

“Your Majesty the Empress, what on earth is……. Are you Mateo Fezel?”

A figure could be seen staggering out from behind the former Empress.

“Eric, our Eric!”

The Empress shed tears of joy and touched Eric’s face.

“Your Majesty, what is this in front of everyone…… please maintain some dignity. People are watching. I am not a child!”

Leila nearly crumpled to the ground at the sight of Eric standing upright and raising his voice at the former Empress.

Mateo caught her from behind.

“Pardon me.”

He stepped back immediately, but Eric’s expression shifted strangely, as though he had seen that moment.

“Young Marquis Fezel, where did you learn the etiquette of touching a member of the imperial family so casually?”

The former Empress was moved to tears again at the sight of Eric showing such an imperious attitude toward Mateo without a trace of fear.

“Eric Constantinus Gable, you are no longer the Crown Prince.”

“What? You little, what did you just call me! Sam! Sam!”

No one answered his call.

“Eric, Sam is……”

The former Empress tried to tell him the truth, and Eric suddenly clutched his head in pain.

“Eric! Eric!”

“That witch…… the witch……. Ugh!”

“Eric, Eric! Someone help! Leila!”

Leila collected herself and hurried to call for a doctor.

Eric had been clutching his head and rolling on the ground, but he spotted Mateo and lunged at him violently, shouting, “It was you! You spread something and hurt Ingrid!”

Mateo had not left the military since the age of fifteen. There was no chance Eric could grab him.

Sidestepping him easily, Mateo said with a cold expression, “Eric, you should be grateful you are still considered a patient. Once you come to understand the truth, we can talk then.”

The servants of the Anderson residence barely managed to restrain Eric as he kept trying to charge at Mateo.

“The doctor, the doctor has arrived!”

Someone announced the doctor’s arrival.

“Eric, please. Do not cause any more of a scene in front of the residence. Come inside with me, come inside and let us talk!”

At the former Empress’s earnest plea, Eric shoved the servants restraining him away roughly, let out a shout, and went back into the residence.

Mateo mounted his horse after watching him slam the residence door shut.

“L, Lieutenant.”

“We will meet again soon. Move out!”

Mateo gave the signal to depart and spurred his horse forward with a light kick of the stirrups.

Leila watched the procession grow distant in no time, then turned and walked back into the Anderson residence.

Eric’s mind had returned after three years of turning away from the truth.

And on the very day his mother turned herself in for joining the rebel forces that sought to put him on the throne as Emperor.

It was a coincidence even a fourteen-year-old Leila would not have believed.

Leila clenched her teeth.

She thought that in this situation, she was the only one who could save her mother.

When Leila arrived at the door to Eric’s room, the doctor who had just finished the examination was coming out.

“What is his condition?”

“He appears to have no memory of the past three years whatsoever. Beyond that, he has been without proper exercise for a long time and his muscles have weakened considerably, so that will need to be managed.”

“Thank you. I need not say this separately, but……”

Leila brought her index finger to her lips, requesting silence.

The doctor nodded.

He was the Anderson family’s dedicated physician.

Though they had been demoted to a comital family, they had not been stripped of what they had enjoyed as a marquisate family.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

Eric’s voice through the door sounded strange, and she hesitated for a moment, but Leila went inside.

Eric and the former Empress were sitting at the table.

“Leila, is this not truly a miracle? How did our Eric……”

“Your Majesty the Empress, I have something to say to the Crown Princess alone. Would you please step out?”

The former Empress nodded, overcome with emotion at seeing Eric expressing himself.

“Right, a husband and wife would have things to say to each other. I will be in my room. Come find me whenever you like.”

The former Empress patted Leila on the shoulder and left Eric’s room.

Listening to her footsteps fade away, Eric gave a small laugh and said, “Why are you standing so far away? Come over here and sit down, Crown Princess.”

“I am no longer the Crown Princess. Your memory stopped three years ago. The world has changed. You can no longer sit on the imperial throne.”

“What are you talking about?”

Eric’s eyes gleamed coldly.