“...Of course?”

“I don’t even know what I’d have to give you in return.”

That really was the part that made her hesitate.

With other people, if you got help, you could usually just throw money at it and call it even. But with family... she honestly didn’t know how you were supposed to “pay them back.”

Ravi at least was easy. If she shoved a mana stone into his hand, he’d be happy, so up until now she’d been able to ask him for this and that without much trouble.

What about everyone else?

Well. Could you really solve that kind of high-end manpower with money?

Fuck! What do I even get out of raising a thing like that!

Hey! Pay me back for raising you! Earn your keep! What, you think you can just freeload forever?!

A favor? You’re calling that a favor right now? Ha! Then what are you going to do for me?!

Right. Even if they were family, nothing in this world was free.

“The only thing I can give you is... at best...”

Huh?

Wait. Is this not it either?

Their expressions looked worse than before.

“Hey!”

In the end, Ravi’s voice exploded. At the same time, groan-like sighs kept spilling out of the others.

“You seriously just said payment? Why would that come out of your mouth right now, here?”

“No, I mean—every matter has its proper—”

“You want to get really yelled at?”

Ravi shot to his feet.

“So that’s why you’ve been giving me mana stones all this time? Every time I did something for you, you’d toss me a mana stone—so that was payment?”

“Well...”

That was... definitely part of it, but...

“Because you like them.”

Because Ravi smiled so brightly when he got one. That was why she’d given them to him.

“...”

Huh?

Ravi’s face, which had been burning with anger—teeth clenched—melted loose in an instant.

What was that? Was he just happy the moment mana stones came up? Was this his way of asking for more?

TAP TAP.

Right then, a hand gently patted her head. Ludville, sitting beside her, stroked her hair with an expression that looked... relieved.

No, why is the mood like this all of a sudden?

Camilla kept tilting her head as she felt the heavy air from earlier soften in a blink.

The Duke of Sorpel let out a short sigh, too, and didn’t bring up what had happened again.

“I don’t need any payment.”

“Huh?”

A voice cut in at that moment.

“I don’t need anything like that. Just ask me for help comfortably.”

Arsian. With his arms crossed, he threw the words out with firm finality—and the air in the room shifted again.

“Hey, this isn’t a situation you get to butt into.”

Ravi shot Arsian a look like he couldn’t believe him.

“Why is that bastard even here in the first place?!”

“Unlike someone’s son, he ran straight here to save Camilla and that child.”

“Petro, you bastard! What the hell are you doing!”

“He’s probably grinning somewhere again, isn’t he?”

“...Why are you so obnoxious today?”

The Duke of Jevillan clicked his tongue over and over like he didn’t like Arsian at all, while the Duke of Sephra—unusually—took Arsian’s side.

What now? What is this mood?

Anyway, with the room feeling noticeably lighter, Camilla finally asked what she’d been wondering for a while.

“Then how did the three of you end up there?”

She still couldn’t understand their sudden appearance earlier.

At Camilla’s question, the three dukes’ gazes turned to her at the same time.

And then, what the Duke of Sorpel said next was more than enough to make her go blank.

“Eva Faith.”

“...What?”

“We were investigating Eva Faith.”

Because the words Eva Faith had come out of his mouth.

Chapter. The Emperor’s Death

“You don’t have anything to say?”

“Thanks. You were looking for me, right? Were you that worried about me?”

“That’s not what you should be saying right now.”

Camilla stared Jainer down.

“There won’t be a commission fee this time.”

“Yes, my client.”

Annoying bastard.

“Your body?”

“As you can see, I’m fine.”

Camilla let out a short sigh.

If he’d died because of this... how disgusting would that have been? Bluntly speaking, it would’ve meant he died because of the job I commissioned!

“Why didn’t you tell me? If you found something out, you should’ve told me right away. Why did you dig deeper on your own and turn it into this mess?”

“Yeah. Why would I?”

...Is asking me back becoming a trend lately? Is it some trend only I don’t know?

They say if you hate someone enough, you start to resemble them.

Are you seriously going to turn into a carbon copy of Dorman? Do you need to get smacked with a horseshoe to come to your senses? Huh?

“Anyway, it’s surprising the dukes already knew.”

Jainer hurriedly changed the subject when he saw Camilla’s expression turning colder by the second.

“I guess they really are worthy of being families that protect the Fable Empire.”

Another short sigh slipped out of Camilla.

She’d been agonizing over how to bring up Eva Faith to anyone else, to the point of clutching her head—and it was ridiculous. The three dukes already knew a lot.

“Since when...?”

“Since the hunting tournament, right?”

“That’s right.”

“When we investigated the ones who attacked His Highness the Crown Prince, there were too many strange things.”

The hunting tournament. Since then.

All three ducal houses had been quietly investigating the group that attacked Crown Prince Edsen.

So that’s why they said there were no results.

To the outside world, it had ended with everyone saying they’d ultimately lost every trace of the culprit.

But none of the three dukes let that go.

“There were more incidents after that, too.”

“Adopted children disappearing.”

“Our Rio was kidnapped back then as well.”

“And what recently invaded our house were all the same bastards.”

When they traced every incident back one by one, it apparently didn’t take long to figure out that the presence at the end of it all was Eva Faith.

“Rania... that child’s case too.”

When Camilla saw the flood of emotion on the Duke of Sorpel’s face as he said Rania’s name, she couldn’t bring herself to say anything.

Do you already know?

That Rania’s mother—the former Duchess of Sorpel—had belonged to Eva Faith.

Maybe they’d uncovered the former duchess’s true nature while investigating Fake Rania.

If you still don’t know... I have to tell you now.

But the Duke of Sorpel looked like he was in too much pain even mentioning Rania, and Camilla’s lips wouldn’t move.

She couldn’t pour salt into someone already covered in wounds.

Still... now that it had come to this, she had to tell them properly this time, didn’t she?

“But, Camilla.”

“Yes.”

“Why is that?”

“...?”

“In all of those incidents... you were there.”

The three dukes’ eyes turned to Camilla again.

In the end, Camilla told them everything she knew.

Of course, she smoothed over the parts where ghosts had shown up and dragged her into it.

And finally, she revealed the single most important fact.

“...What did you just say?”

“Who is what? Eva Faith?”

“The Emperor... is the core of Eva Faith?”

As ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) if they hadn’t known that much, all three dukes’ expressions hardened rapidly. Even the Duke of Sephra—who hadn’t shown much change all this time—kept knitting his brow.

Of course. That would be hard to believe.

How was she supposed to prove it?

As Camilla watched the three of them sit in silence for a long moment, she had no choice but to sink into worry.

But then...

“If the Emperor is an adherent of Eva Faith, this becomes troublesome.”

“We’ll have to move troops quietly.”

“We should start by rooting out the adherents who’ve slipped into the Imperial Palace.”

The three dukes accepted it immediately—the Emperor being part of Eva Faith. Easily enough to make everything she’d agonized over feel ridiculous.

“You believe me?”

When she looked at them with eyes full of shock, the three of them spoke the same words at once.

“It’s your word.”

They even gave faint smiles, like she’d asked something obvious.

“I should trust my daughter. Whose words would I trust?”

“Someone chosen by the Guardian’s Sword doesn’t babble nonsense.”

“A daughter-in-law is always right.”

“...What did you just say?”

“Daughter-in-law? Daughter-in-law! You bastard—who are you calling daughter-in-law?!”

“This tea tastes good.”

“Don’t change the subject!”

“You raccoon-like bastard!”

Anyway, once she’d told them everything, her heart did feel lighter...

“Will you be all right?”

All three of them left to move their own forces quietly.

That meant there would really be a full-scale battle with Eva Faith now, didn’t it?

“I’m telling you again—those houses aren’t called the Guardian Houses for nothing.”

As if he understood Camilla’s worried heart, Jainer spoke lightly.

“Why do you think the Emperor kept his head down and stayed quiet all this time?”

If Camilla’s words were true, then the one presumed to be Eva Faith’s Master of the Order had reigned as Emperor for hundreds of years.

Even so, why had he thoroughly concealed Eva Faith’s existence and stayed hidden all this time?

“Because he was scared.”

Because the Guardian Houses that controlled Guardians scared him.

“He couldn’t even think about twitching.”

He had to have feared the three ducal houses that much.

“So don’t worry too much. Even in the Gracia Empire, we’ve been more wary of—and more focused on keeping the three ducal houses in check—than the Emperor this whole time.”

Camilla agreed.

Right. It wasn’t just anyone—it was those three.

And our King has grown now, too.

A smile naturally rose to Camilla’s lips as she pictured King, probably clinging to the Duke of Sorpel and whining right about now.

He still hadn’t fully matured, but just having King around made her feel steady.

BANG!

“My lady!”

The door flew open hard, and Butler Rube rushed inside. He looked nothing like his usual calm self.

“What is it?”

“Something terrible has happened!”

“What terrible thing now?”

At this point, it felt like nothing she heard would surprise her much.

“It seems something has happened at the Imperial Palace.”

“At the Imperial Palace? Why?”

Don’t tell me the Emperor of Fable noticed the three dukes moving?

At the words Imperial Palace, Camilla’s face hardened immediately as well.

But then Rube’s next words shocked her even more.

“His Majesty has passed away.”

“...What?”

“It seems His Majesty the Emperor has died.”

*****

“What did you just say?”

“His Majesty has drawn his last breath.”

Crown Prince Edsen doubted his own ears. The man had been perfectly fine as recently as last evening—he died overnight?

“What are you talking about?”

“You must hurry and go. And...”

When the attendant, Bill, couldn’t easily continue, Edsen pressed him.

“What?”

“He passed the throne to His Highness Prince Abihel.”

“...What?”

Edsen’s face hardened on the spot, in the middle of hurriedly preparing to leave.