“Then, this concludes the report on the situation in the southern region!”

Veronia, who had been lost in thought, snapped back to attention at Onyx’s voice.

“You’re leaving for the south in the morning?”

“That’s right.”

“Please be careful. It’s fine if you get injured in one place or two.”

“So this is the extent of the friendship we’ve built over time.”

“Friendship? Was what we built friendship?”

“Ah… Was it animosity instead of friendship?”

Are they children? Veronia was dumbfounded by Killian and Onyx exchanging jokes.

One was the empire’s highest-ranking noble minister, and the other was the vice guild master of the empire’s top intelligence guild, yet when put together, they always acted like ten-year-old kids.

As Veronia was shaking her head and swallowing a sigh, Killian spoke to her.

“Actually, there’s one more appointment. Would you like to come along?”

“Where to?”

When Veronia nodded readily, the three headed towards the mansion where the late emperor had died in a fire accident.

“As expected, all the magical tools you developed are excellent, Nia!”

“Oh, how fascinating!”

In the side room connected to the bedroom where the fire accident occurred, Killian and Onyx praised Veronia in unison upon seeing the faintly glowing traces of magic circles.

They couldn’t help but be surprised! They thought the traces of the magic circles had completely disappeared, but they were still here!

Rather than feeling pleased by the compliment, Veronia found it amusing that the two had the same expression and spoke in the same voice.

“They probably tried to erase the traces with magic several times, but it’s impossible to completely erase it as if nothing ever happened. Even for an omnipotent archmage.”

Veronia said, shrugging her shoulders. She felt elated. She truly enjoyed planning the development of magical tools.

“With just these traces, finding the scroll maker will be a piece of cake!”

Haha, Onyx laughed cheerfully as he captured the traces of the magic circle in a visual orb. Watching him, Veronia asked.

“So… There’s a high possibility that the person who killed the late emperor wasn’t Madame Brienne. There’s still a third person hidden behind the veil, right?”

“Yes, that’s correct. I’ve commissioned Onyx to investigate that.”

“Just trust me!”

Onyx grinned broadly, thumping his chest. Just then, the sound of hooves came from outside.

“Huh? What’s that?”

Late at night, a visitor to the burned-down mansion! The three looked out the window in surprise to see a carriage just passing through the main gate and entering.

“At this hour, in a place like this… Who could it be?”

To Veronia’s question, Killian and Onyx shook their heads simultaneously. Since only the two of them were conducting this reinvestigation of the incident, there was no reason for Killian’s aide or Onyx’s subordinate to come here.

While all three were in a daze, the carriage came to a stop and someone got out. It was too far and too dark to see who it was, but they could clearly see that the person was wearing a skirt under their robe.

“It’s a woman.”

At Veronia’s words, Killian and Onyx nodded, their gaze fixed outside the window. The woman who got out of the carriage was entering the mansion alone.

“What should we do now?”

“We need to find out who that woman is. For now, how about we hide here and observe her movements?”

“What if she comes right in here?”

Onyx frowned, asking as if he didn’t trust Killian’s plan. To his question, Killian replied with an indifferent attitude.

“If she deliberately came into this side room attached to the bedroom, there’s no other excuse. It would mean she came to check on the traces of the magic circle she erased. If so, the likelihood of her being the real culprit becomes very high. After all, criminals tend to return to the scene of the crime.”

“Hmm…”

Onyx let out a shallow sigh and closed his mouth. It meant he agreed with Killian’s words.

So the three held their breath and hid in the side room next to the bedroom, waiting for the robed woman to enter the bedroom. They were preparing to go look for her if she didn’t come to the bedroom within five minutes.

Creeeak-

Finally, the sound of the old door moving was heard.

“Well, at least we’re spared the trouble of having to search for her directly.”

“Shh!”

Killian shot a sharp glance at Onyx, who was letting out a sigh of relief.

“You wait here.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Sandra left the maid who came with her in the carriage and got out alone. The first time she came here, she brought not only a maid but also a guard knight, but now that she was more familiar, it was more comfortable to go alone.

The mansion, still bearing the inerasable traces of the fire, was gloomy tonight as well. The smell of ashes and abandoned buildings wafted through the night air.

As Sandra stepped into the mansion, she hummed a tune. At first, it was something she did deliberately to calm her fears, but now it had become a habit.

Click, click-

Only the sound of Sandra’s heels and her humming filled the quiet mansion. Sandra enjoyed the feeling that the entire vast mansion seemed to be focusing solely on her one person.

Without any lighting and relying only on the faint moonlight, the inside of the mansion was very dark, but Sandra took step after step towards her destination without hesitation.

She had been here several times before, and her destination was always the same, so there was no chance of getting lost.

Creeeak-

The place Sandra entered after opening the old door was the bedroom where her husband, the late emperor, had burned to death.

“I’m here, honey.”

Sandra muttered to herself and chuckled softly, “Hoo hoo.” It was the word ‘honey’ that she rarely got to say when the late emperor was alive.

Before being a husband, he was the emperor, so she always had to treat him respectfully as an emperor rather than comfortably as a husband. Only after his death did she feel a strange elation in being able to casually call him ‘honey’.

Sandra lay down on the bed, which was only half remaining. It was a comfortable movement, as if she didn’t care at all about her clothes getting dirty with soot.

“If you were alive… our Caspian wouldn’t have gone so futilely, right?”

After muttering to herself, Sandra let out a long sigh, “Hoo.”

“This is all because of you. You killed our son.”

As her previously calm emotions began to boil, her voice became agitated and her breathing rough. Recently, she had been experiencing frequent emotional excesses, and this was exactly one of those times.

“If you were alive… Jonathan wouldn’t be playing above my head, and Tate wouldn’t be ignoring my words. So this is all because of you!”

Finally, Sandra even started shouting. The beginning of her voice was sharp, but it became more cracked towards the end.

“My child… my beloved child… died because of you! Hic… hick!”

Tears burst forth. Once they started, they poured out uncontrollably.

“You took both my children away! I lost everything because of you! I only trusted you! I trusted you so much that I gave away the child born from my womb! I loved you so much!”

Sandra screamed loud enough to resonate throughout the entire bedroom. Her cries, wrung out from her whole body, shook the fire-scorched bed and walls.

“I lost everything because of you! I lost all my sons! You’re the worst!”

Waaah! Hic… Ah…! Sandra, who alternated between screaming, sobbing, and groaning in pain, seemed like a madwoman.

“So why did you keep a mistress? So why did you do something worthy of death? So why did you die?”

The end of her empty cries was ultimately tears. And so, Sandra lay on the fire-scorched bed and wept loudly for a long time.

Because Sandra was shouting so loudly, the three people hiding in the side room could hear everything she was saying very clearly. Thanks to this, they learned several new facts about her.

First, Sandra believed that the late emperor, who had played around with a mistress, deserved to die. Perhaps Sandra might be the real culprit who killed the late emperor.

Second, Sandra had given birth to a son before marrying the late emperor but had abandoned him. This was a fact Veronia already knew, but it was shockingly new information for Killian and Onyx.

For Veronia, who even knew that the son was Onyx, she couldn’t help but feel nervous about making eye contact with Onyx in the narrow side room, fearing that he might read all her thoughts.

Third, it seemed that Sandra’s emotional excess was getting worse. When in a state of emotional excess, she would find it difficult to make even minimal rational judgments and would wield power recklessly as her emotions dictated.

And eventually, it was feared that it would bring about a calamity that would have a negative impact not only on her but also on those around her.

A little while later, after a maid came in and supported the still sobbing Sandra out of the bedroom, the three people hiding in the side room were finally able to speak.

“That was the empress dowager, right? Seems like she comes here often. Isn’t she scared to come alone?”

“Indeed. She’s quite remarkable in many ways.”

“…”

While Killian and Onyx exchanged their thoughts about encountering Sandra in the middle of the night, Veronia just nodded silently.

But then her eyes met directly with Onyx’s. For a moment, Veronia’s heart sank, but she turned her gaze away as naturally as possible. She prided herself on being quite natural.

But Onyx seemed to feel a bit differently. Judging by how long his gaze lingered on Veronia.

‘That look! That look that appears occasionally has always been strange. As if seeing through everything…’

The thought that had once strongly shaken Onyx’s mind resurfaced.