“Is the gentleman astrologer actually Count Laurel?”

Evie’s small voice tore Zion’s heart to shreds.

A massive emotion, felt only as pain, indiscriminately clawed and tore at his heart.

Struck by this vivid pain, Zion unwittingly opened his mouth to speak to Evie.

But a familiar sensation suppressed him.

‘Why?’

His mouth would not open. His voice did not come out. He could not change his expression even slightly.

The curse of concealment laid upon Zion had bound him once again.

‘Why can’t I speak?’

Zion was bewildered. But even such an expression could not be revealed.

Therefore, in Evie’s dark eyes, his appearance remained as cold as ever.

“Ah, is it not…?”

Watching Zion’s reaction, Evie mumbled in a cowering voice.

Zion wanted to speak to her, to convey even a small bit of the truth.

But the living curse stubbornly blocked everything.

In the end, all Zion could do was question her in a dry voice, without revealing any truth or emotion.

“……Why do you think that?”

“Because you met the Count. You can enter the eastern border and the Tartarus hall, know the secrets of the Duke’s family, and yet there are few in the world who would take the Count’s side over the Duke’s.”

At Evie’s response, Zion realized what had gone wrong.

But even that could not be revealed, and Evie, thinking she had completely misstepped, added apologetically.

“And I remember a sound from when I was little, when you came to find me. The sound of thunder falling nearby. That sound was almost similar to the sound of the Count dropping thunder. So I thought you might be the previous Count Laurel, but…….”

Previous Count Laurel.

Zion felt a sense of futility at this subtle mistake. But even that could not be revealed, and Evie eventually thought she was wrong.

“I guess it’s not.”

Evie glanced at Zion, looking disheartened.

If only he could reply to her that it was, it wasn’t, it was similar, it was unfortunate, any answer at all.

The curse that controlled Zion cleverly concealed his secret like a demon, keeping him isolated without leaking a single clue.

It was a familiar and yet tedious sensation to Zion.

So he would normally have felt disillusioned by all this, but today was a little different.

The shock had his alwaysmonotonous heart beating violently.

He felt as if another’s heart had entered his chest and sat down.

Zion wanted to pull Evie’s hand and place it over this heartbeat, feeling that she would then understand everything.

But even that was impossible. The curse never released Zion.

Thus, the silence unintentionally created allowed Evie to overlook the truth.

“If you’re not saying anything, I guess it’s not. Um, are you my father then? The age is a bit ambiguous, but it’s still possible.”

Embarrassed, Evie started talking.

“Are you my father? Brother? Uncle? Cousin? ……Surprisingly, mother? You are a noble, right? When we lived together, you seemed to be pretending to be something else but were rather snobbish. Ah, this is a stereotype. Or a spy? Oh, maybe someone who tells fortunes in the hall?”

“……Do you think the twenty questions game will work?”

“No, it obviously won’t. I’m sorry.”

Babbling nonsense, Evie finally closed her mouth and covered her cheeks with her hands.

At that moment, Evie’s cheeks were unusually flushed. She was quite embarrassed.

Always acting shamelessly, but now she was embarrassed about this.

Zion unknowingly let out a snicker.

But because of the cold attitude the Count had shown earlier, Evie heard that sound as a sigh of disappointment.

“I’ve always thought about what the Count’s secret might be. So I came up with a few ideas, but if I don’t have any certainty about it, listing them out is useless.”

Evie, growing uneasy, said as if making an excuse.
“So I tried to match your story first. I’m the only person both the Count and I know, and I have quite a longstanding relationship.”

“That was a good approach.”

Zion responded calmly to Evie’s words. She meant it, but Evie somehow looked around. Then she spoke in a smaller voice.

“Can I look at your hand for a moment?”

At Evie’s request, Zion extended his hand over the table.

Evie hesitated as she looked at the large hand, palm up, then turned it over.

Then the back of the hand, filled with scars, was revealed. Scars that looked hard to deliberately make, as if accumulated over a long time.

“Did these scars happen when you were blocking Amaneser at the border?”

“Yes.”

Evie looked at Zion’s wound for a while without daring to touch it.

And Zion watched as Evie stared at his hand, biting her lip.

Evie looked perplexed, the Count and the astrologer’s wounds even resembling, wondering why her guess was wrong.

“……You’re not pretending to be wrong, are you?”

Evie glanced at Zion and muttered in a regretful voice.

Zion laughed incredulously but wiped his smile when he saw the seriousness in Evie’s eyes.

Zion thought that Evie had stumbled a little. It was unfortunate, but it seemed like a trivial thing that could happen.

However, Evie’s mind was much more complicated.