“I want to do that too. I want to, but I can’t use the doctor I brought now, so I’m doing this. The queen sent 10 royal doctors. I can’t make them all on my side.”

“That’s why I told you, didn’t I? There is a way… Huh. Huh. Huh. You can’t make the royal doctors take your side, but you can keep their mouths shut.”

“H-How…?”

“Feed them an aphrodisiac.”

“Aphrodisiac? Will that work?”

“Of course. It’s a very powerful aphrodisiac made from the blood of magical beasts.”

Retrochika explained that even a single drop of that aphrodisiac would make one completely detached from reality and see very lewd hallucinations.

“One drop in their drink is enough. They will be too busy struggling with lewd hallucinations in the Crown Princess’s delivery room to do anything or witness anything, so they won’t be able to report to the Crown Prince. No one will want to speak of what they saw there. Huhuhu. Huh. Shame will keep their mouths tightly sealed.”

“So while they’re struggling with hallucinations, I can sneak my child away!”

Elise’s expression noticeably brightened as she found a solution.

Retrochika promised to send the aphrodisiac to Lanian’s side as soon as it was completed and left. Elise, who had been unable to think of anything else due to the thought of protecting her child, only remembered Roxiana after he left.

‘I should have asked him to kill Roxiana too. Retrochika might be able to do it.’

It was regrettable, but protecting the child was the priority now. The Roxiana issue could be resolved after protecting the child.

Elise fell asleep peacefully for the first time in a long while, and the next day Madam Histine came to visit in secret, disguised as a palace maid. Elise was very touched that she had disguised herself as a maid for her sake, and Madam Histine expressed her condolences about the queen’s attempt to poison her, adding:

“If you report it to the Grand Temple, there will be a temple trial. Even the queen cannot escape the judgment of the temple court. She may not receive a severe punishment since she’s royalty, but it would make her think twice about messing with the Crown Princess, wouldn’t it?”

+++

Today, like yesterday, Aiwis, dressed as an intellectual man, did not visit Floyd’s mansion alone. He was with Balde Erton.

Balde Erton, who had been severely punished by Floyd after kidnapping Roxiana, had greatly reduced his arrogant attitude.

“I brought this fellow because he said he wanted to apologize.”

Aiwis said, putting his arm around Balde’s shoulder.

“You should apologize, Balde.”

Balde, who seemed to have been forcibly brought along, glared at Floyd with eyes full of discontent and said:

“Your Grace, I apologize for what happened that day.”

“Shouldn’t you be apologizing to the Duchess, not me?”

His stiffly frozen face turned towards Roxiana. Roxiana didn’t particularly want to receive an apology, but Balde forced an awkward smile and said:

“I didn’t mean to harm you. But if you were offended, I’m sorry.”

It was an apology that didn’t seem like an apology at all, but Roxiana didn’t want to drag this issue out any longer, so she nodded.

“Alright.”

But Arsen didn’t seem to think so, as he glared at Balde and said:

“Is that what you call an apology? It doesn’t sound like an apology to my ears.”

“What more do you want me to do?”

“Prostrate yourself and beg until the Duchess forgives you.”

“What kind of joke is this…?”

“It’s not a joke.”

Neither Arsen nor the other knights were smiling. Floyd was also standing with his arms crossed, glaring at Balde.

When Balde turned to look at Aiwis as if asking what to do, Aiwis shrugged.

“Didn’t you hear Sir Chetek?”

Realizing that even his captain had no intention of helping him, Balde gritted his teeth, then knelt down and looked up at Roxiana.

“I’m sorry, Your Grace.”

His expression didn’t look sorry at all, but Roxiana wanted this atmosphere to end quickly, so she quickly replied.

“Yes, I forgive you. Please stand up. And why don’t we all relax and sit down comfortably?”

Although they sat around the long table, they didn’t relax their eyes. Everyone was glaring at each other, while only Roxiana and Aiwis remained calm.

Aiwis picked up the white teacup in front of him and examined it from various angles.

“This is a nice teacup.”

“You seem to have a great interest in teacups.”

“I’m always traveling to different regions, so the happiest time for me is when I return home and quietly sit down to enjoy a cup of tea. That’s how I became interested in teacups. How about you, Your Grace?”

“Me, well…”

Roxiana looked down at the white teacup with gold trim.

Her eldest son, Ekion, collected paintings, and her second son, Ian, liked swords. Idis, who was the Crown Princess, liked small and cute ornaments, and Ian’s wife, Elizabeth, was very interested in shoes and hats. But Roxiana didn’t have anything she was particularly passionate about.

Suddenly, she realized that recalling her family no longer caused the tearing pain it used to. There was a small, throbbing pain, but not the suffocating, lung-bursting agony she used to feel.

She had thought she would be in pain for the rest of her life whenever she thought of her family, that she would feel like she was falling into hell every day.

She remembered what Floyd had said to her when she constantly wanted to die.

− “You must want to die. Life must seem meaningless. I know. I know very well, but still, try to live. Even if breathing itself is difficult and disgusting, if you stubbornly keep living, once in a while something decent will happen, and once in a while something good will happen, and you’ll have something to laugh about, and then you might think, ‘I’m glad I stayed alive after all.'”

It seemed like that happened a very long time ago, and also like it was just yesterday. At the time, she thought it was nonsense. She firmly believed that things would never be okay, that nothing good would ever happen, that she would want to die for the rest of her life.

But as she lived on, truly, sometimes decent things happened, and sometimes good things and things to laugh about happened too.

There were many nights when she couldn’t sleep because she couldn’t find Lanian, but even in the midst of that, sometimes she thought, ‘This is a pretty good day.’

“Roxiana?”

At Aiwis’s call, she realized she had been lost in thought for too long.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I couldn’t think of anything I particularly like.”

“I see. That’s fine too. You can create things you like one by one from now on. In that sense, I’ll send you a tea set as a gift later. It’s made in a workshop at the foot of Mount Begnen in the north of the Loren Kingdom, and it’s truly breathtakingly beautiful.”

“Wow, Begnen Mountain teacups, those are extremely expensive.”

Adrian jumped into the conversation.

“Sir Tellis knows about them too. They say all the dishes in the Imperial Palace of the Empire are from Begnen Mountain.”

“Enough talk about dishes.”

Floyd, who had been quietly observing, cut off the conversation.

“Why did you come to Gania?”

“Well, you see. I heard that Lucas Pelur was in league with a black magician, so I came to investigate. But as I investigated, I found similar traces in the disappearances of Engis Braisa and Edic Mihor from King Terren City.”

“Traces of black magic? You can read such things?”

“Of course, Your Grace. Holy Knights basically…”

“Captain.”

Apparently, the abilities of Holy Knights were a secret, as Balde tried to stop Aiwis from speaking. But Aiwis slightly raised his hand, waving it as if annoyed, and continued speaking.

“…can read traces of magic. We can roughly tell when and how it was used.”

“Even if it’s not contaminated?”

“Yes, we don’t need to use this ability for cracks or monsters as they blatantly reveal their presence, but it’s useful for finding traces of black magic.”

“And traces of black magic were found in the disappearances of this Engis Braisa and Edic Mihor?”

“That’s right. So, as soon as we find evidence of some kind of relationship between the black magician and Lucas Pelur, we plan to report to the Grand Priest and request appropriate punishment. It would be even better if we can find and capture the black magician in the process.”

Cain glanced at Floyd. When Floyd nodded, Cain said:

“In fact, we suspect that a black magician was also involved in the fall of the Kanta Kingdom.”

“Ah, Lucas Pelur was able to easily attack Kanta because of the cracks. The damage caused by suddenly appearing cracks and magical beasts.”

“Yes, but the cracks that were said to have newly appeared were created much later than when the terrible events occurred in Kanta. However, there were definitely several magical beasts in Kanta before that incident happened.”

“Black magicians can control magical beasts. I should visit Kanta as well.”

The conversation about black magicians and magical beasts continued for a while. As the conversation was wrapping up, Roxiana asked:

“If it’s revealed that Lucas Pelur is in league with a black magician, what punishment will Lucas Pelur receive?”

This time, Balde answered:

“Without question or trial, execution.”

“I see.”

Roxiana smiled.

“I hope you find the evidence.”

+++

After Aiwis and Balde left, Floyd explained the future plans to the knights once more.

From now on, Arsen, Cain, and Adrian were scheduled to secretly leave the capital to meet with local nobles of Gania. Floyd will also be away from the mansion frequently starting tomorrow, traveling to various places.

Hexten will be in charge of Roxiana’s protection along with Robert.

To Adrian, who said he wanted to guard the Duchess too, Hexten said with a grin:

“That’s why, like me, you should have quickly made the knight’s…”

“Ah, that damned knight’s oath! How quick could it have been?”

“In a competition between knights, even a second makes a difference. Stop grumbling and prepare your disguise. I’m going to dress appropriately as our Duchess’s guard knight.”