It was just past midnight.

The outskirts of the estate were engulfed in darkness, save for the brightly lit Baron Schumael’s mansion, where lights had been on since a while ago.

After dismissing all his servants, the Baron secretly welcomed the Northern Duke, who had entered cutting through the cold air. The Duke was accompanied by a ragged old man with his eyes covered by a bandage.

“Your Grace, what brings you here so suddenly…?”

“Bring me the woman named Cecilia.”

The Duke’s single sentence, laden with a dangerous aura, startled the Baron.

“She’s already retired to her chambers. She might become the princess today, how can we disturb her at this hour…?”

“Duke Schumael.”

Sion Belphast’s voice heavily sank.

“She is not a princess. She’s deluded into thinking she’s a princess due to the Southern Duke’s hypnosis. If you don’t want the rest of your life to end with the morning at the palace, wake her up and bring her here.”

“What? What?”

Schumael was frozen in place, unable to move.

What does this mean…?

Surely, the Emperor had said it himself. Cecilia knew memories that only he and the deceased Crown Prince shared, which nobody else knew.

Finally, he might have found his granddaughter.

“It can’t be, Your Grace. Are you sure you’re not mistaken? Why would the Southern Duke hypnotize Cecilia?”

“What if the Southern Duke left her unconscious at your doorstep?”

“!”

“Do you know what she’s been through before losing consciousness? What will you do? Will you devise a plan right here, or will you continue to trust Cecilia and end up accused of treason in front of the Emperor?”

Baron’s face turned pale.

He recalled what Arcadia Nugent had warned him earlier.

[If you value your life, follow what the Duke you’re about to meet says.]

“I’ll wake her and bring her here.”

Early dawn.

I almost fell off the bed as I opened my eyes. Startled, I turned to the window, only to find Arcadia sitting outside.

His face unusually gentle.

“I thought it rude to enter a lady’s room, so I waited outside for you to wake up.”

I leapt out of bed in shock, pulling my nightgown up to my neck.

“This is even scarier, you know? I thought you were a ghost! What if you fall?”

“Don’t worry. I have a good sense of balance.”

“Why are you doing this?”

I was suddenly scared that something bad had happened.

“Hurry up. The Duke will be late today. We need to get ahead and assess the situation.”

Ah… right.

I then remembered falling asleep last night without discussing the crucial information I had brought.

‘You idiot!’

I couldn’t bring myself to slap my own cheek in front of Arcadia.

“Where has His Grace gone?”

“He was with Baron Schumael, and then went somewhere else.”

“Where?”

“He didn’t tell me. Just said he hopes to return before Ruchela makes her appearance.”

“Is he alright?”

“Him?”

“No, His Grace.”

“I don’t know, ask him when he returns. Hurry up!”

Arcadia urged me loudly and then leapt down from the window.

Time was of the essence.

I quickly washed my face with cold water and donned the Northern uniform.

‘I shouldn’t have fallen asleep like that last night. Why didn’t he wake me up?’

I was furious with myself.

‘Hall of Silver Ruchela’ was bustling with nobles despite the early hour.

Everyone probably wanted to witness the possible birth of a new royal.

‘But that woman is a fake.’

[Who am I?] [I was brought here to the Estate, supported by the invisible Northern Duke who stands by me.] The image of Cecilia, hypnotized and referring to the ‘Northern Duke,’ remained vivid in my mind.

My heart sank with dread.

If Cecilia, proven to be a fake today, accidentally utters those words…

“Don’t worry too much.”

At that moment, Arcadia, who was standing right beside me, whispered.

“I saw the old man who sold you the scrying stone remove the hypnosis from that woman. When she woke up, she realized that everything she heard while under hypnosis was a lie.”

Much had happened while I was asleep.

Arcadia explained that the Duke had brought the blind fortune-teller to Baron Schumael’s mansion.

The old man had lifted the hypnosis on Cecilia, who, upon waking, was initially terrified, not understanding why she was there.

“She was abandoned in front of the Baron’s mansion while still under hypnosis.”

Arcadia continued.

After a while, Cecilia began to recall most of what she had seen and heard while hypnotized. She realized that she had been manipulated into impersonating a fake princess and deceiving the Emperor.

She was trembling with fear.

“But fleeing would only make things worse.”

The Duke, it seemed, had hypnotized her again. He erased only the memories of the ‘Northern’ mentioned by the Crimson Worm, and also secretly hypnotized the Baron and his wife.

Erasing their memories of the Duke and Arcadia’s visit, and of lifting Cecilia’s hypnosis.

And the same was done to Cecilia.

It was a necessary action, Arcadia said.