Soana concluded flatly.
“The knights who have already found their rest, and those who soon will, have their own wills. My counsel is unnecessary to them.”
“I kept you by my side because the other Dullahans relied on you.”
“What they need now is not me, Captain.”
*Crrrrack.*
A fissure sound, slightly louder than before, rang out.
“You know better, Captain.”
“I...”
“I apologize, I am somewhat weary. Please consider the circumstances of this aged knight.”
What Soana desired was clear.
I, who had been standing dumbstruck and speechless, glanced down at my hand. In the darkness, the green glow of my power shimmered with an unusually bright, undulating light.
The power writhed as if it had a will of its own.
I slowly raised my arm and extended it toward Soana.
Even without direct contact, the squirming light of the power gradually stretched out tendrils. As if knowing exactly where to go, its direction was unwavering.
“You are kind. Unlike the Captain of the past.”
Soana, watching the power stretch toward her, added in a low voice.
“I am glad that kindness is not for everyone.”
The power touched Soana’s fingertips. The slowly moving energy rapidly accelerated, draining away, and the tendril formed of green light coiled around Soana’s body.
Soana, unstartled, entrusted herself to the tendril and closed her eyes with a peaceful expression.
The tendril swiftly enveloped Soana’s neck, chin, mouth, and finally, the crown of her head.
*CRRRACK!*
With a fissure sound too large to ignore, the massive stained glass shattered with a *zing*.
A vivid crack running across its center branched out in all directions like tree limbs.
“Soana...”
Tiny, multicolored shards of glass plummeted downward. Whether due to the moonlight, the colorful glass fragments looked like a shower of starlight.
Where the green power had vanished, only a small, neat pile of stained glass shards remained.
* * *
Unable to believe the sight before her eyes, the Duchess of Roam let out a dazed voice without realizing it.
“...Lilia?”
At the call, the figure before her slowly raised its head. No trace of spirit could be found in the other’s hollow eyes.
Lilia blinked at the Duchess with a vacant expression. Then, perhaps belatedly recognizing the person before her, her complexion changed drastically and she lunged forward.
“Mother!”
The Duchess of Roam, frozen in shock, reflexively stepped back.
Since Lilia was inside the cell anyway, she was stopped by the bars and couldn’t reach her. Yet, feeling somehow uneasy, the Duchess put a little more distance between them.
It was because Lilia’s appearance was so wretched. She didn’t seem to have been specifically tortured, but having been imprisoned for days without proper washing or care, she was dirty and smelled.
Her once-fair skin had become rough and flaky, and her bloodless lips were swollen.
Moreover, her sunken cheeks made her look exactly like a roadside beggar.
The Duchess of Roam subtly covered below her nose with her index finger.
Despite her clearly disgusted demeanor, Lilia clung to the bars with a desperate face.
“Mother, I believed you would come!”
Seeing Lilia’s tearful, shouting figure, the Duchess frowned and looked around.
Lilia was imprisoned in the imperial dungeon as a criminal, and she had secretly come to meet her now. Making a fuss would do no good at all.
“Lower your voice, for now.”
“Moth...!”
“Did I not tell you not to be noisy?”
Scolded in a low, rapid voice, Lilia flinched and hunched her shoulders. Yet, undeterred, she looked up at the Duchess with desperate earnestness.
“Mother, please help me. I must have fallen into a trap!”
“A trap?”
“It’s my older sister’s doing.”
The Duchess’s face, which had briefly shown interest, turned cold.
However, Lilia, failing to notice the change in her mother’s complexion, urgently continued.
“We must kill my older sister. My older sister ruined everything.”
“Lilia.”
“Mother, if this continues, both I and Roam are finished. You must make a decision. I...”
“Your foresight?”
Lilia, who had been babbling frantically, faltered. The blazing in her eyes shook so violently that even the Duchess could see it.
“Lilia, have you lost your foresight ability again?”
“That’s not it...”
Lilia’s face contorted. She was shaking her head, but her voice lacked conviction.
The Duchess of Roam, who had come here on a faint hope, clicked her tongue briefly.
She had thought something might be helpful, but in this state, it was clear Lilia would only be a hindrance.
Lilia, realizing how the Duchess was looking at her, hastily opened her mouth.
“I-it was taken! More pages are being torn out day by day!”
“Taken, you say.”
“It’s because of my older sister. To regain my ability, I must...”
“If what you say is true, Lilia.”
The Duchess of Roam, irritably cutting off Lilia’s words, spoke in a cold tone.
“Then the one I must negotiate with now is not you, but Anelli.”
Lilia’s complexion turned pale. The Duchess, who had been gazing at her coldly, turned her body away mercilessly.
She wanted to leave this dirty, smelly dungeon quickly. She would have done so immediately if not for the words that came from behind her.
“Does my older sister know... that Mother condoned it?”
The Duchess glanced at Lilia. Lilia was glaring at the Duchess with a venomous gaze.
“I know everything. That you knew the terminal diagnosis for my older sister was actually a misdiagnosis, and you turned a blind eye.”
“You...”
“Do you think I would have done such a thing without any certainty?”
Lilia’s lips twisted.
“Did you really think you would never appear even once in my foresight?”
At that moment, the Duchess narrowed her eyes.
“Hold your tongue.”
“I knew you would choose me. I already knew you would drop hints to my Phrygian sister and be the one to persuade Father!”
“You cunning girl!”
“You cannot side with my older sister anyway. You may not want to admit it, but Roam’s value has plummeted that much.”
Had there not been bars between the two of them now, the Duchess would have immediately slapped Lilia’s cheek.
Clenching her fist, trembling, and barely swallowing the shout that threatened to burst out, the Duchess gritted her teeth.
Anelli’s terminal diagnosis... Yes, she knew it was a misdiagnosis.
She hadn’t known from the beginning. She learned of the fact around the time Anelli began to have her position usurped by Lilia.
The second daughter, who had lost Maxel’s favor and repeatedly showed disappointing, irritable behavior. And the gentle young lady who smiled, promising to repay Roam’s grace by leveraging her foresight ability.
An ordinary mother would have naturally looked after her own daughter, but the Duchess of Roam was a little different from ‘ordinary mothers.’
“If she had obediently gone down to the countryside to recuperate, she would have recovered her health safely and returned to the capital. I didn’t condone it; I merely intended to give her a different life.”
Even though Anelli stubbornly held on, let things escalate, and ultimately met a bad end on the executioner’s block...
If only Anelli hadn’t been obstinate, insisting she loved Maxel, it wouldn’t have come to this. What was so difficult about it?
The position of Empress might have been a slight pity, but with the name of Roam, even bearing the stigma of a broken engagement, she could have obtained a match envied by all anywhere.
She just needed to endure for a very short while. If only she had obediently followed her parents’ wishes, with that attitude that had never strayed from their teachings until then.
“Moreover, thanks to that incident, she gained the lofty title of the Resurrected One. So, in a way, I helped elevate her life even higher.”
At the Duchess’s words, Lilia let out a hollow laugh.
“Mother is truly remarkable.”
“Since it seems you won’t be seeing Anelli again anyway, you’d best keep that delusion to yourself.”
“Ha, do you think you can escape?”
“Who are you calling ‘Mother’? It’s unpleasant to hear.”
The Duchess sternly pointed out the address, but Lilia did not bother to change it. Perhaps she thought it was all meaningless.
“More pages are being torn out day by day, Mother. I once saw a vision of Roam achieving a brilliant victory, but not anymore.”
In the end, the Duchess turned her back as if she didn’t want to hear any more. As she strode briskly outward, Lilia’s curse-like words clung to her retreating back.
“Roam will be trampled, crumble, burn, and only ashes will remain! Do you hear? It’s all over!”
Because it was a dungeon where she had bribed the surroundings to be cleared, as the distance between the Duchess and Lilia grew, only the chill of enmity lingered.
Only when she finally reached a place where Lilia’s voice could no longer reach did the Duchess of Roam manage to collect herself.
Taking a deep breath, she pulled the hood she wore deeply over her head. She had come all the way here for nothing and only heard ominous words.
Sleeping during this time would have been a more productive activity.
‘I was too hasty.’
She must meet with Phrygian again. Phrygian seemed more reasonable than Lilia.
However, the Duchess of Roam, hurrying to escape the dungeon, did not get her wish.
It was because of the long spear that suddenly sprang out from the side, blocking her path.
“Halt!”
Bewilderment flashed across the Duchess’s face. She had clearly arranged for the entire passage to be cleared?
“Attempting to help a prisoner escape!”
“What? What nonsense...”
“Caught in the act! Arrest her immediately!”
Before the Duchess could even respond, soldiers sprang out from all sides. There were more than she had anticipated.
Only then did she intuit that this was someone’s trap, but there was no hole to slip through anywhere.
“Let go of me! How dare you, do you know who I am!”
She had to make an excuse—that she had come to say a final goodbye since they were once family.
While thinking of a response to give them and fiercely shaking off a soldier’s hand, someone came into the Duchess’s view.
A man with handsome features stood with his hands behind his back, smiling at her.
“My apologies. Duchess of Roam.”
“First Prince...”
A groan escaped through the Duchess’s tightly clenched teeth.
Gazing at Heinri with trembling eyes, she asked in a suppressed voice.
“Do you think the imperial throne you gain by making an enemy of Roam will be secure?”
At that question, Heinri nodded with a brilliant smile.
“Why, of course.”