I just updated another chapter earlier!
I stepped into the audience chamber, and the eyes of everyone inside turned toward me.
The first two to look my way were a girl roughly Ermes's age and a young man a few years his senior.
Judging from their appearances—and from Liliana's reaction—these two had to be the First Prince and the Second Princess.
The one who spotted us first and stepped forward was—the girl.
She walked toward us without a hint of hesitation and stopped a few paces away. That allowed me to take in her full appearance.
Long golden hair, and ruby eyes that burned with a vivid radiance. Beyond her breathtakingly refined beauty, her sharp, narrow eyes conveyed a fierce strength of will.
"…Lyra. Big sister."
With the girl standing before her, Liliana called out the name just as I had guessed.
Hearing herself addressed, the girl—Princess Lyra, the Second Princess—wore a surprisingly warm smile.
"It's been a few months, hasn't it, Lili? It's been too long."
And then—
"So. What are you here for?"
She delivered—a devastatingly preemptive strike with her words.
There was no way she hadn't been told what would take place here and who would be involved. Not after coming this far.
In other words, the fact that she said this despite knowing all of that meant precisely what it sounded like.
"Hey, Lili. Surely you don't—surely you're not going to stand there and tell me you're participating in the succession war too? You can't be that out of it, can you?"
"A-Ah, well, that…"
"If that's the case… I'd be in trouble. Serious trouble."
Lyra kept railing on, a cruel smile playing across her lips before the bewildered Liriana.
"To think...
that there would come a day
when I could no longer guarantee
the life
of my sweet
little sister...
that such a thing
could come to pass."
It was.
A declaration. An oath to show absolutely no mercy whatsoever, a severing statement that from this point on she would no longer regard her as family.
A clear, unequivocal rejection — she had no intention of speaking any further. To Liriana, who had in a sense been rebuffed right from the start, Lyra nonetheless tried to heap even more words upon her.
"..."
"Oh my."
At that moment, Ermes stepped forward. ...Since even she hadn't expected Lyra to be this merciless right out of the gate, she could hardly harbor any friendly feelings.
Lyra studied Ermes with a suspicious look for a while, but soon, as though she had figured something out, she spoke.
"You are — ah yes, the girl with the strange magic I've heard about. And your companion is... only Duke Traukia, I take it? What a shame. The girl with Dual aptitude didn't come."
"? Why would you mention Lady Sarah—"
The unexpected name caught Ermes off guard, and she tilted her head. In response, the corners of Lyra's perfectly shaped lips curled upward in a ghastly sneer.
"But really—she's the one they're calling the 'Saintess,' even with someone like me standing right here, isn't she?"
"—"
"To ignore someone recognized by the Church and yet allow such a title to be used like that... I was half-hoping I could at least slap her across the face if we ever met in person. What a shame."
...I see.
Apparently, she had no intention of making a proper first impression either.
With that, Lyra continued, turning her words toward Ermes.
"Oh, and you—yes, you with the strange magic. Consider this a well-meaning piece of advice."
"What is it?"
"You—well, the Church already has their eye on you, you know?"
Her voice was sweet and song-like, yet the tone was merciless.
"From what I've heard, you're quite powerful—but the moment the Church catches wind of you, it's over. Every last secret behind your strength, every trick, will be dragged out into the open and judged. You could have just stayed under the radar, having grown strong as you did, but no—you just had to play the hero and show your face. My condolences!"
She delivered those words with a cheerful grin, dripping with mockery.
At that point, Liliana—who had finally recovered from her shock—called out from the side.
"S-Sister...!"
"Oh my, Lilii. Is there still something?"
"W-Well—bad people have infiltrated your camp, so...!"
In a way, she had said what she most wanted to say—straight from the heart.
It may have been the wrong move, but it was the fullest measure of sincerity she could muster.
Yet—Lyra received those words without so much as batting an eye, and then:
"—
—So what
?"
She said it just like that.
"Wh—"
"Isn't that obvious? Our faction is bigger than yours, unlike you. It's only natural that one or two spies have slipped in. But you see—"
Declaring firmly, as if to announce she would not be swayed by the gossip of other factions.
"There's no problem at all. The truly important parts cannot be betrayed."
"Ah, ah..."
"Oh my—did you perhaps come all this way just to tell me that? What a tearful effort that must have been. I'm so moved that—would you mind packing up your things and leaving right now?"
She had anticipated that her words would not be listened to.
But she hadn't expected to be refused so harshly, so coldly—or perhaps she had expected it, yet couldn't bear to face it with her own eyes.
Liliana, unable to utter another word. And at the same time—from the other side, the sound of approaching footsteps.
"Heh heh. To think she'd snap like that at a faction as insignificant as Liliana's—as usual, it's no different from saying she's got no composure left."
A dark, cold voice rang out.
Approaching with sharp, ringing footsteps was the other young man who had been in the audience hall.
He had deep navy hair and pale blue eyes, along with dark circles carved beneath his lower lids. His refined features, combined with an overall cool color palette, lent him an air of decadent menace.
"...Brother Helck."
Liliana uttered the name—also as expected.
Helck, the first prince who had been addressed, cast a brief glance at Liliana and immediately looked away. Though the approach was the opposite of Lyra's, it was no less eloquent—a refusal of dialogue.
Lyra, for her part, remained wary of Helck but didn't change her mocking tone.
"...I could say the same about you, Brother. Your dark circles have only gotten darker since last time. Isn't that rather a eloquent display of having no composure to spare?"
"I'm busy, you know. Unlike you, little princess, who can leave everything to the church and do nothing but sit there looking pretty, I have plenty to do."
He met her provocation with an equal measure of his own. Then, in a tone that brooked no argument:
"—'Everything stays the same' isn't going to cut it."
A slightly unexpected declaration.
"This country has already reached the point where that won't hold it together anymore. I'm the first prince—I've thought about this nation's future more than anyone. The church lot, with nothing but conservatism rattling around in their heads, can no longer be trusted. That's why I have to act. That's why—"
Helck turned his gaze toward Liliana.
"—I will not tolerate interference from some upstart faction."
"B-Brother..."
"You seem to have some warning or scheme in mind, but—allow me to say it. It's all useless, and it's all in the way. So... go home. Now. Or I'll crush you."
He hurled the same conclusion at her that Lyra had.
Liliana could do nothing now but stare blankly at her brother and sister.
...I see.
Liliana's reaction was only natural. He hadn't expected things to go this far. There were probably all sorts of circumstances at play, but in a sense, the resolve on their side was already set in stone.
And then—
Even a girl he had only known for a few days, yet had forged a bond with, being told all of this—
Even Ermes, who had been through so much and learned a thing or two about how the world worked—
—was not so mellowed that he could simply stay silent.
He glanced at Yurugen one last time, but she showed no sign of stopping him.
Then there was nothing holding him back. With that conviction, he took a step forward, shielding Liliana.
"......"
"What might this be?"
Herk and Lyril turned their gazes toward her. Without flinching in the slightest at the pressure of their stares, Ermes smiled sweetly—a smile of distinctly different quality, one that anyone perceptive enough would recognize.
"How do you do, Your Highnesses. My name is Ermes. I was deeply moved by your noble ideals and your speeches. However—"
She declared, clearly and without hesitation.
"——That.
After all,
you are
nothing more than
the sort who would lose
to His Highness
Aster—
aren't you
?"
A sharp sound, as if the air itself had been torn, rang out.
As expected, those words must have struck a nerve with the two royals.
Indeed, no matter what either of them might say.
——They had allowed Aster's rise to power all this time. That alone was proof of their limits, and Ermes drove that searing irony home.
Lyril stared with fixed, unblinking eyes, while Herk ground his teeth, both fixing their gazes on Ermes.
Meeting their stares head-on without the slightest flinch, Ermes surveyed the royals with even colder eyes. She had never been the kind to tremble before status.
"Given that premise, if you still won't so much as lend an ear to Lady Lyril's words — then what you're showing isn't conviction. It should be called narrow-mindedness."
Standing firm on principle is all well and good.
But not even feigning willingness to listen — not bothering to reflect, even for a moment, on what she believes and how deeply she feels about being here?
No matter the circumstances, there was no way Ermes could hold her tongue.
"Especially you, Prince Herk."
With that, Ermes turned her gaze toward the first prince.
"If you understand that 'the way things have always been' isn't good enough, then why do you dismiss Lady Lyril as 'some upstart faction'?"
"—!"
"That very mindset is nothing more than proof that you're still trapped in 'the way things have always been.' I've seen plenty of people like that before."
Whether it was the pressure of her words or the weight of the atmosphere —
With Herk reduced to nothing but gritting his teeth, Ermes was about to deliver another blow — but then.
Right at that moment.
He heard something that stunned him.
"— Now, now. Mind going a little easy on our prince?"
"...Eh?"
Even Ermes found herself cutting off mid-word.
It wasn't the content of the words that stopped her. It was the voice itself — a tone she could never have imagined hearing in a place like this.
Disbelief written across her face, she turned toward the source of the voice.
Striding toward them was — exactly as she might have expected, yet utterly unexpected: a man.
His age was impossible to read. His bearing, impossible to discern.
Muted gray hair, blue eyes.
An exceptionally refined appearance that gave off a wild and dangerous impression.
Their encounter had been brief, but impossible to forget.
He had instigated Clyde during the incident that struck the academy, and Ermes had confronted him in the end—
—an executive of the organization that threatened the kingdom.
The question of "Why is he here?" was answered—and sealed—by the voice of First Prince Herc.
"……Lord Laplace."
With the name came a tone that carried unmistakable trust, and she grasped everything at once.
The intelligence that someone from that organization had infiltrated both candidate factions.
The First Prince's faction, which had dramatically expanded its influence at a certain turning point.
The unknown mastermind behind it all—one whose identity even Yurugen could not uncover.
Everything connected—it all fell into place.
Near the core of the faction… no, not merely near.
He had already been granted full access—right into the most fatally critical positions.
Before the stunned Ermes, the man in question gave a courteous bow and—
"—
It's a pleasure to meet you.
. Your Highnesses, the Second and Third Princesses, and the hero of that academy incident everyone's been talking about."
Wearing the same unfathomable smile he had back then, the man declared:
"I've been serving as an advisor to the First Prince for some time now."
My name is Laplace. I look forward to our continued acquaintance until the time of reckoning."
Finally, I was able to put out the names of the First Prince, the Second Princess, and the person from that organization!
The cast of the third chapter is steadily falling into place. Next time the King will appear and the story will really start moving along, so I'd be happy if you look forward to it...!