Is he saying the bastard who aimed for the successor seat, did every kind of vile thing to the duke, and even drove him into memory loss is still alive and well?

And if he was attending the family council too, that meant he was still active in society.

“How interesting.”

“What is?”

“That you kept him alive, with that personality.”

Duke Kais Escra was famous for being merciless to his enemies, wasn’t he? Was he going easy on him because he was a biological younger brother, because they shared blood?

“There wasn’t any evidence. Evidence that Uncle attacked Father. The moment Father regained his memories and returned, he erased everything he’d done up until then—cleanly.”

Watching him continue with a faint smile, Camilla was newly dumbfounded.

She’d heard it was that guy—the duke’s “younger brother,” whatever—that killed Jainer’s biological father too, hadn’t she?

“You’re impressive, calling someone like that ‘uncle.’”

“Call it the result of considering a child’s emotional development. I have to watch what I say in front of Dive. And in the first place, it’s a title that means nothing to me, so it doesn’t matter....”

Whatever the reason, he was calling the person who killed his own biological father “uncle” like it was nothing.

“I’ve tried everything.”

“What?”

As if he’d read her eyes, he continued blandly.

“I killed him countless times.”

“Who? That ‘younger brother’?”

“Ersh. That’s Uncle’s name.”

He let out a short, habitual laugh.

“You can assume I used every method you can think of.”

...And what would that be? I’m not thinking anything! How many ways to kill someone would I even know!

“Was it the fifth run? I starved him to death without a single drop of water. I think that time he looked the most miserable. He bawled, begging for just one drop of water.”

“.......”

“Heh.”

Had she made a strange expression? Jainer paused, then burst into a small fit of laughter.

“After killing him that way more than twenty times, even killing got stale. Looking at him didn’t make me angry anymore. I even laughed when I heard him say things about my late father.”

Camilla swallowed hard without meaning to. Wow. This is really....

“Well, maybe I’ll want to kill him again later, but they said this life ends here too, so I should refrain from killing him openly, right?”

He was insane. This one was insane too.

Who said this bastard was nice?!

Only now did she remember.

Why she’d felt so uneasy when she first saw him, why the look in his eyes when he smiled at her had bothered her so much.

It looked endlessly kind and gentle, yet there was a strange enjoyment inside it.

In the world she used to live in, Camilla had seen eyes exactly like Jainer’s.

A serial killer. When the man who had killed more than twenty people was finally caught and stood in front of the public, he’d had that exact look.

A face that didn’t know guilt at all. A pleased gaze that treated people like toys he played with for a moment.

That man’s eyes were exactly like that.

Camilla let out a long sigh. Was he insane from the beginning? Or did the repeated lives make him that way?

“Anyway, that Ersh guy is coming this time?”

“Yeah.”

Ersh Escra. The one who made her mother give birth to her alone.

If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have been born at all. So what—was she supposed to be grateful?

Are you kidding me?

She knew exactly what kind of life the Camilla of the past had lived here. What was there to be grateful for?

Should she kneel and thank him for letting her live a life like that?

Ever since meeting Duke Kais Escra and learning the secret of her birth, her anger had been piling up with nowhere to go.

Because she couldn’t take it out on Duke Kais Escra, who said he couldn’t help it because he’d lost his memories.

...No. Whatever.

And taking it out on someone she’d never met before would be kind of ridiculous too, wouldn’t it?

“Still. I want to see his face at least once.”

Ersh Escra. What does that bastard even look like?

*****

The day the family council was held.

In the meeting hall, where more people than ever had attended, a quiet silence flowed. All their gazes were aimed at one place.

The one sitting there, calmly sipping tea despite all those eyes, was Camilla.

“That child....”

“Red eyes.”

“So the rumor really....”

“I heard she had the head’s ring.”

Soon, people began murmuring. It seemed they already knew quite a lot about Camilla.

“Ha....”

Count Alton, who was there with her, let out a short sigh. He looked at Camilla with worry-filled eyes.

What on earth are you thinking?

He couldn’t guess her intent at all, when she’d suddenly said she wanted to attend.

She had to know she’d become a spectacle in front of people like this. So why, on purpose?

CLICK.

A moment later, the murmuring died down at once, because one person opened the door and entered.

Duke Kais Escra.

At his appearance, tension instantly spread through the meeting room. Only Camilla and Jainer still sat as if nothing was happening.

And....

“It’s been a while, Brother.”

Ersh Escra.

A man who looked a little like Duke Kais Escra yet gave off a clearly different atmosphere greeted him with a relaxed smile.

“Yeah.”

Duke Kais Escra answered curtly, sat down, and lightly swept his gaze across the room.

Some flinched under that gaze, and others hurriedly lowered their heads.

Lastly, he looked at Camilla. As if he found her being here displeasing, he faintly frowned.

“Is that Brother’s daughter?”

In that moment, a voice sounded again—Ersh.

Unlike the others, who hesitated and were cautious, he asked openly.

And what did you just say?

That? You just called me “that”?

“Watch your mouth, Ersh.”

At Duke Kais Escra’s cold aura, even Ersh—who had been relaxed the entire time—flinched slightly.

But after coughing a few times, he spoke again without restraint.

“She seems to be a child born around the time of Brother’s accident....”

His gaze turned to Camilla.

“Then she must be a child not even in Brother’s memories.”

At Ersh dredging up that time, the brows of several people—including Count Alton—twitched.

How could he shamelessly put that in his mouth!

“And yet you intend to acknowledge that as the blood of the family?”

Whether it mattered or not, his voice grew louder.

“We don’t even know what sort of woman her mother was—how can you accept that as our family’s bloodline—!”

Ersh couldn’t finish his sentence.

A suffocating pressure slammed in.

Realizing that pressure was Duke Kais Escra’s aura, Ersh hurriedly swallowed his breath.

The others too went pale at Duke Kais Escra’s ominous presence.

“Excuse me—may that speak?”

A clear voice rang out then.

Camilla.

She deliberately put a sharp accent on the word “that,” and smiled at Ersh.

I was going to let it go quietly, but.

I was just going to see his face once and leave, but you’re working so hard to beg me to touch you. Fine. Let’s make it crystal clear.

You touched me first.

“You’re Ersh, right?”

Ersh’s eyes, as he looked at Camilla, filled with displeasure. His expression was like he was looking at a bug.

How dare she step forward. Just sitting here was shameless enough.

Did she already think she’d been recognized as Escra blood?

“Honey.”

A middle-aged woman seated beside him—Ersh’s wife—lightly took his hand, as if telling him to stop. She was watching Duke Kais Escra, whose face was still rigid.

She had never missed a family council either, since she currently ran one of House Escra’s businesses.

“Do you have something to say to me?”

He threw the words out like he was dealing with underlings, still plainly displeased.

“That’s unfortunate....”

But instead of looking at Ersh, Camilla fixed her gaze on the wife beside him and lightly shook her head.

“You’ll be getting divorced soon.”

“...What did you say?”

At her short line, spoken as if humming, the atmosphere in the meeting hall turned cold again.

“What are you babbling—!”

SHFFFRRRT!

Ersh sprang up to shout, but again, he couldn’t finish his sentence.

His face trembled as if cramping, because Camilla ignored him and pulled something out, spreading it across the table.

Cards with bizarre patterns drawn on them stole everyone’s attention.

Under those curiosity-filled gazes, Camilla picked up one card from the fan-shaped spread.

“A subordinate’s wife.”

“......!”

At Camilla’s next words, bewilderment showed plainly on Ersh’s face.

“And the wife of the subordinate you cherish the most.”

“W-What—!”

“The person you’re currently cheating with.”

The flat way Camilla delivered it sent another shockwave through the room. Whether it mattered or not, she drew another card.

“That woman is pregnant with your child too.”

“W-Where are you spewing nonsense—!”

“She’s a subordinate’s wife whose initial starts with L.”

“Th—!”

“And you’re being blackmailed by that woman. To take responsibility.”

Ersh couldn’t even refute anymore, and began to shake for a different reason than before. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

So that rumor was real?

He’d ranted about her being the blood of some woman with an unknown background, but he also knew the rough outline about Camilla.

That she was the Duke of Sorpel’s stepdaughter.

And he’d heard she had an unusual ability too.

Precognition.

But he hadn’t believed it. He’d thought people had simply added exaggerations onto the path of someone who was just lucky.

But now he saw it wasn’t that.

At her words dragging up, exactly, the thing that was currently giving him headaches, a chill ran down his spine.

While that happened, Camilla drew yet another card.

“Oh. I can see money leaking out.”

Ersh clenched his fist without realizing it. Don’t tell me...!

“12,540,000 gold.”

At the number she said, Ersh stopped breathing.

Because the exact amount of the family’s pooled funds he’d siphoned off spilled from Camilla’s mouth.