The information was swiftly compiled and placed into Ricador’s hands.
“Here you go — everything you asked for.”
Riersha’s gaze fixed on a single point.
The table was covered edge to edge with photographs documenting an entire week of Macton Willias’s movements.
“He owns pieces that were sold as premium lots at my auction house?”
Riscal’s eyes narrowed as he flipped through the photographs.
For over ten years, he had sent invitations to Duke Willias’s household without pause — and not once had Macton Willias accepted a single one.
So how, exactly, had the man come to possess items from an auction house that Riscal himself operated?
Just as I thought.
Riersha’s eyes lit up the moment she heard Riscal speak.
It was exactly as she had expected.
“But what do you plan to use this for?”
Ricador asked, his expression openly curious.
What possible connection was there between the playwright of the Kadimo Theater Company being sued and getting leverage on Duke Willias?
“Mm. I want him to understand who he’s messing with.”
And she wanted him to know that whatever he stirred up would come back to him twice over.
So that in the future, he would never again be careless enough to raise a hand against them.
Ricador and Riscal exchanged a glance after hearing Riersha’s answer.
Their expressions still held a trace of confusion.
But a moment later, both of them broke into wide, deeply satisfied grins.
Riscal tilted his chin up with characteristic arrogance.
“Right. That’s reason enough. What else would we need?”
Daring to interfere with something the Arachrene family was doing.
That alone was sufficient justification.
“Can I keep these and use them how I like?”
“Of course. They’re yours now.”
Riersha pointed to the photographs, and Ricador replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. To do her a favor like this immediately, and ask for nothing in return — Riersha felt a swell of gratitude rise in her chest.
“Pink you for helping me. Oppa’s are the best. The handsomest ever.”
Ricador and Riscal both blinked at that, eyes going wide.
Then Ricador let out a quiet laugh, as though he’d just heard something delightful.
“Riersha, something like this doesn’t even count as a favor. Any of the family would have helped without question if you’d asked them. So from now on — for the rest of your life — don’t ever hesitate to ask.”
⁂
The Willias Ducal Estate.
Macton Willias had been in remarkably high spirits lately.
Not long ago, Duke Kineart had come to pay him a visit — and had actually come seeking his help.
“Please lend your strength to ensure the Kadimo Theater Company can never rise again.”
It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to place Duke Kineart firmly in his debt.
He had wondered what could possibly bring such a perpetually haughty man to come to him in person.
It seemed that, facing a confrontation with the Arachrene family, Kineart wanted to be absolutely certain of victory — and that had brought him here.
Even Kineart, in the end, had no choice but to come before Willias’s scales.
Yet at the same time, a question nagged at him.
He came all the way to me just to crush a single theater company?
It was strange, how obsessively Duke Kineart seemed to be fixated on this particular matter.
No matter how he turned it over in his mind, something felt off.
He had sensed it before, but he hadn’t yet been able to gather anything concrete.
But now, his instincts — honed sharp over forty years of dealing with nobles — were telling him that Duke Kineart’s request concealed something beneath it.
Something enormous lay hidden within this affair.
After all, it made no sense that years of investigating the Empress’s background had turned up not a single thread worth pulling.
And then there was the other matter.
“You’re certain of this?”
“Yes, Your Grace. It appears that a handmaid who served the Empress for twenty years — beginning from when she resided with House Kineart — has vanished without a trace. We are currently searching for her, but her whereabouts remain unknown.”
And even the one lead they’d managed to grasp amounted to nothing more than this.
“Her whereabouts are unknown? She isn’t dead?”
Duke Willias pressed his steward with a skeptical frown.
An ordinary handmaid could not possibly conceal herself so completely — so the suspicion was natural enough.
But the steward shook his head, implying otherwise.
“She left the imperial palace through proper official procedure, Your Grace. It does not appear that anything went wrong.”
At those words, Duke Willias’s eyes flashed.
That could only mean one thing — someone was looking after that handmaid from the shadows.
And whoever that someone was, it was almost certainly…
“The Empress is protecting her.”
“That would be the most likely explanation.”
After twenty years of faithful service, it was possible that the Empress had rewarded the woman handsomely as a gesture of gratitude.
It wasn’t common, but it wasn’t unheard of either.
Noble houses, too, occasionally granted substantial rewards to retainers who had served alongside them for many years.
But erasing the handmaid’s whereabouts entirely?
That was not ordinary at all.
Something smelled distinctly wrong.
And it was possible — more than possible, he thought — that the Arachrene family already knew what that something was.
No. They knew. He was certain of it.
Nothing else could explain the incomprehensible moves the Arachrene family had been making.
Was this not precisely the sort of affair that risked souring relations with the imperial family entirely?
Such a gamble was only possible if they had something solid to stand on.
In that case, it would be wiser to side with Duke Kineart this time — and make sure the debt owed to me is a heavy one.
That way, whatever he stood to gain would be doubled.
…He had been thinking exactly that, only moments ago.
Right up until the news arrived.
“Y-Your Grace!”
“…What is it?”
“A man of unknown identity left these at the front gates. But the thing is—”
The servant stepped forward, face drained to a ghostly white, and held out what was in his hands.
It was a stack of photographs — candid shots of Macton Willias, taken without his knowledge.
The servant, clearly worried that something scandalous was about to befall his master, asked tentatively:
“Shall I have someone run after him and bring him in at once?”
“…!”
“Your Grace?”
But Macton Willias could not bring himself to answer.
The color had left his face far more completely than it had the servant’s.
“Th-these are…”
Macton Willias stammered, barely concealing the shock breaking across his features.
Because the photographs the servant had brought were images of him — wearing and displaying every bribe he had ever accepted.
Items he had received in exchange for looking the other way and backing noble houses tangled in unfavorable lawsuits.
He snatched everything from the servant’s hands in a single desperate motion, and found that his own hands were trembling.
His instincts were speaking to him, clear and unmistakable.
This was a warning.
A warning not to accept bribes and involve himself carelessly in this particular matter.
And the only party capable of sending a warning like this, at a moment like this, was…
The Arachrene Ducal Family.
There was no one else.
⁂
Riersha’s castle.
Aska returned from the capital and pulled back his hood with a long, slow exhale.
“You delivered it properly, right?”
“Yes, Lady Riersha.”
Because this was a matter that could not afford to leave any trail, she had entrusted the task to Aska — the swiftest and most nimble of them all.
A Legion Commander was, by standing, someone who only took orders from Pernoa.
But the two of them had quietly come to a private arrangement of their own.
“Since I fulfilled your request, you’ll honor mine in return, yes?”
“…Mm.”
Aska’s face practically glowed, it lit up so brightly.
He promptly settled into his seat, cracked his knuckles with a soft exhale, and — like someone who had been waiting for this exact moment his entire life — reached with trembling, reverent hands for the silver spoon set with a sapphire jewel and…
Lifted a spoonful of pudding.
“Open wide, my lady.”
“Ahh~”
Nom.
The moment the pudding slipped into her mouth, Riersha began to chew contentedly. Her round, still-baby-soft cheeks moved steadily up and down — and Aska’s expression went utterly blank.
A moment later, his hand gave a violent twitch.
The silver spoon bent clean in the opposite direction.
Gulp.
Riersha swallowed her pudding and was opening her mouth for another bite when she noticed the spoon — bent entirely in half, quite beyond saving.
That looked expensive.
Every now and then, someone unable to contain themselves in the face of her cuteness would accidentally reveal their strength. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sight.
Riersha was gazing at Aska with calm, unhurried eyes when he spoke.
“Lady Riersha.”
“Mm?”
“Is there anything else you would like me to do?”
In other words — he wanted to feed her more pudding.
But Riersha Arachrene was four years old.
An age when she very much wanted to manage things on her own, thank you very much.
“Mm. Nofing for a while.”
Riersha answered with complete and utter firmness.
