Chapter 179
Among all the guest rooms at Duke Ibroiel’s residence, the largest and finest one.
That room now belonged to Chesha, the guest who had arrived so suddenly.
Because Chesha had left for the banquet hall today, the chamber stood empty and perfectly still.
Only moonlight stole in quietly. On the bed.
There, atop the soft, fluffy bedding, the rabbit doll sat neatly propped against the pillow.
With its button eyes, the rabbit doll was as well-behaved as any doll ought to be.
Dolls did not move, after all—so it was only natural.
“…….”
At some point, the tip of one drooping ear twitched.
A spark of life that should not have existed glinted above the button eyes.
Light swirled, and tiny flowers bloomed in soft puffs all around the rabbit doll.
As though waking from a long sleep, the rabbit doll stretched its limbs fully and let out a silent yawn.
It hopped down from its place and bounced a few times on the spot.
Once it confirmed that its doll body moved without trouble, the rabbit doll gazed into the distance.
Toward the direction where Chesha, who had left it behind, now was.
It had slept for far too long.
The rabbit doll was the crown of the queen who ruled over all fairies, and therefore deeply tied to their condition.
Ever since Kierne Basilian and Hailon had captured every fairy and bound them as holy relics, the rabbit doll had lost nearly all its power.
It could not even speak with the queen; simply holding its shape as a doll had been the best it could manage.
Just as it had been in the past, when it was sealed away as a holy relic…
The moment it sensed the presence of the new queen who had arrived in the Holy Empire.
The crown had overflowed with joy then, but all it could do was sing.
Still, it had been happy that the queen had heard the song and come looking for it.
The doll looked down at its blunt cotton feet and murmured.
“The only thing I could do was wait.”
Even when the previous queen was miserably torn apart piece by piece in the laboratory, it had only been able to sleep while sealed.
“But now it is different.”
Now it could offer at least small pieces of advice at the new queen’s side.
Having grown up among humans, she had come to think more like a human than a fairy.
At first it had feared she might stray completely from the path.
Yet she had walked the queen’s road steadily all the same.
She had even finally accepted the growth of the body she had once rejected.
Chesha Basilian—Lichesia—had grown.
All of it had happened because she had ‘wanted’ it.
Fairies were beings made of spirit, so their bodies were shaped by that spirit as well.
When she had first become Chesha Basilian.
She had instinctively followed her bloodline, and her unconscious wish to remain in Basilian had kept her in the body of a baby.
Later, after many trials and with the help of the fairy tree to glimpse fragments of the past, she had grown that body.
She should have become an adult then.
But the fear of growth had lingered deep in her subconscious, preventing her from maturing fully and leaving her as a child.
The longing to be loved as a child had held the queen back.
The crown taking the form of a doll meant for a child to play with.
Her illusory realm being filled with nothing but broken toys.
All of it was connected to her incomplete inner world.
And at last, the queen’s body had grown.
It was not yet the perfect form of an adult.
But it meant her spirit had matured that much, and she had drawn that much closer to becoming a true queen.
This was enough for the doll to regain at least a portion of its power.
Of course, once the fairies were freed it would recover everything, but for now this much was sufficient.
“The time has come.”
In the past, the previous queen had made her choice as well.
To end human greed, she had offered her own body in place of the fairies being slaughtered without mercy.
It had been a choice made from a fairy’s viewpoint, unaware of how vast and endless human greed truly was.
The result of that naive decision had been a catastrophic failure.
The price of the wrong choice had been truly miserable, and it continued even now, hundreds of years later.
Within the tangled currents of time, tormenting those who still carried her traces.
What choice would the new queen make?
The doll could not know.
Even if the outcome brought happiness, the process would surely be filled with sorrow.
Kierne Basilian wished to revive the dead queen, but two queens could not coexist in one generation.
To gain one, an equal one had to be offered as the price.
Yet no matter what the new queen chose…
At the very least this time.
“I will stay by her side.”
I will not leave her alone and lonely.
“I’m sorry.”
I will make sure the last farewell does not become a mere apology.
The rabbit doll resolutely lifted its cotton feet into the air.
Sparkling light and tiny flower petals scattered.
The doll that had set out to find its master vanished from the bed.
In a quiet corner of the banquet hall where the commotion had only just settled, Belzeon sipped fruit juice.
Because of his coldly aloof expression, no one suspected that the drink in his hand was fruit juice.
Wearing the perfect face of someone savoring fine wine, Belzeon thought back to Kierne, who had earlier sprinted diagonally across the hall and vanished like a madman.
‘I think we let them meet too quickly.’
Compared to all the suffering he had caused, their reunion had been far too peaceful.
Belzeon narrowed his eyes and scanned the banquet hall.
After Kierne had rushed out, Duke Ibroiel and Marquess Nemea had disappeared as well.
With the empire’s key figures missing, the atmosphere in the hall remained uneasy.
On the surface the banquet appeared to continue in peace, but beneath it everyone was busy whispering.
Thanks to Kierne’s madness, one clear advantage had emerged: every gaze that had been fixed on the three Basilian brothers had completely shifted away.
They had attended under foreign noble identities with Serea’s help.
They had known their strikingly noticeable appearances would draw attention and complicate things.
But because of Kierne’s outrageous behavior, everyone’s focus had swung entirely in his direction.
‘So the count can be useful sometimes…’
Thinking of Karha and Ishuel, who were surely moving busily right now, and of Hailon, Belzeon offered his habitual smile to the person approaching him.
“Will you perhaps remain in Palen for a little while longer after the birthday banquet?”
“Well…”
He gave a suitably vague reply to the flirtation that came as naturally as breathing, while glancing toward the emperor’s seat.
“Then, a few days later at the coffee house…”
“…….”
“Excuse me, are you all right?”
“…Ah, I’m sorry.”
Belzeon gripped the glass he had nearly dropped.
His fingertips turned white as he clutched it tightly, unable to tear his eyes from the entrance of the banquet hall.
The young lady who had been speaking to him fluttered her fan with a slightly offended air, then parted her lips in surprise.
“Oh my.”
She was not the only one who let out a heartfelt gasp.
Other nobles throughout the hall successively released small exclamations.
It was an involuntary admiration that escaped without conscious thought.
The small ripple began quietly and gradually spread, naturally drawing every gaze in one direction.
There stood Count Basilian and Duke Ibroiel—the man who had earlier vanished like a madman—escorting a woman with perfect courtesy.
In their midst was a woman of dreamlike beauty.
Belzeon’s eyes twisted as he confirmed the flowing golden hair and the radiant pink eyes of the woman in the voluminous dress.
Chesha had entered the banquet.
In her fully grown form.
