Now that she had bought herself a little time, Riersha felt the tension ease from her shoulders.
“Perfect.”
She’d already set things in motion, which meant failing the exam simply wasn’t an option.
But she did have one thing she could rely on — her brothers, who had all gone through it before her.
Her plan was to gather their firsthand accounts and collect as much information as she could.
Riersha rose to her feet with a look of fierce determination, notebook and pen in hand.
“Where are you off to, my lady?”
Oberon, who had stopped by with something to report, asked with a puzzled expression.
He was holding a thick stack of documents — a summary of recent developments within the Declair Empire that he had intended to brief her on.
“To see my brothers!”
“…The young lords? Have you perhaps forgotten that it’s snack time right now?”
Oberon checked the hour and asked again, his tone genuinely baffled.
No matter what was happening, Riersha had never once missed her snacks. And yet here she was, willingly skipping that most sacred of daily rituals.
Oberon let his expression settle into something unusually grave.
“Is something the matter, my lady?”
“Nuh-uh. Nuffing’s wrong. I just figured the brothers would have free time in the morning, that’s all.”
“Then when shall I give my report?”
For the record, the morning briefing was one of Oberon’s most anticipated parts of the day.
“Today… I don’t think there’ll be time.”
“…”
“Is there something important?”
Riersha paused at the doorway and looked back.
Oberon briefly ran through the contents of the report in his mind. A few new developments had come up recently, but…
None of them seemed more important than what Riersha was about to do.
He shook his head.
“Nothing urgent.”
“Got it. Then just leave it on my desk!”
If it wasn’t urgent, there was no reason to call Oberon back when he was already so busy.
Riersha beamed and marched out of the room with a confident spring in her step.
Clack.
The door shut, and Sona, who had been watching from nearby, clicked her tongue and shook her head slowly.
“After all this time, you still don’t know Lady Riersha? She is a person of extraordinary consideration, you know.”
“…”
“Here, give that to me. I’ll put it on her desk.”
Sona smiled pleasantly and held out her hand.
Oberon stared at the firmly closed door with a stiff expression and asked, “Do you know why the lady has gone to see the young lords?”
“She didn’t tell me directly, but given that she has her official advancement exam coming up, I imagine she’s gone to ask about that.”
It was, after all, the most significant thing happening in Riersha’s life at the moment.
“…I see.”
Sona waved her hand again, urging him to hand over the report.
Oberon drew the documents behind his back and said, “Now that I think about it, I believe I left out a few things.”
“…”
“Important things.”
Sona let out a quiet laugh.
“I’m sure you did.”
⁂
Sona’s guess had been exactly right.
The first person Riersha sought out was Risideon.
Since he had recently begun learning house management directly under Pernoa, Risideon had been on his way out when Riersha caught him and pulled him back down onto the sofa.
“My official advancement exam? You want to know what it was like?”
“Mm-hm! And if you remember anything, I want to hear it in as much detail as possible!”
“I’d love to tell you in detail, but it was so long ago that I can barely remember.”
Risideon thought back to the day of the exam for a moment, then gave her an apologetic look.
“Not even tiny little details?”
“If we’re talking tiny details…”
But it wasn’t as if the memory had vanished completely.
After all, the official advancement exam had been one of the most memorable events of Risideon’s life — for better or worse.
“…Oh, right. Actually, there was something.”
“What was it?!”
Riersha asked quickly.
She had noticed Risideon’s expression turning strangely cold, as though a shadow had passed over it.
For someone as consistently positive and rational as Risideon to react this way — this was a rare sight indeed.
“Remember this, Riersha. Not a single one of the elders who wrote that exam thinks like a normal human being.”
“…”
“I know I shouldn’t feel this way, but I have every one of their names memorized. A few of the five have already retired, but…”
Risideon swallowed the rest of the sentence.
But Riersha could guess at it well enough.
Something along the lines of — I’ll be the one to personally retire the rest of them.
Riersha quietly gulped.
Risideon, of all people, harboring a quiet vow of revenge…
She tightened her grip on the notebook and pen instinctively.
“W-why are you making that face? Did something scare you? A ghost? A monster?”
“Ha. You do say the most adorable things. Ghosts? Monsters?”
Risideon gave her a gentle smile.
“There was nothing like that, Riersha.”
Then he swept his hair back with barely concealed irritation.
“But it was a very rare opportunity to come face to face with another version of myself. I learned exactly what I’m made of, down to the very bottom.”
“…”
“You’ll understand what I mean soon enough, Riersha. Now, may I go meet Father?”
Risideon stood from the sofa.
He didn’t seem to want to dwell on that day any longer.
It made her wonder — had he truly forgotten out of the passage of time, or had he simply chosen to erase it?
“…Okay.”
Riersha rose from the sofa alongside him and tilted her head thoughtfully.
There had been no ghosts, no monsters…
So what on earth had forced Risideon to stare into the depths of himself?
Secret Intelligence: Official Advancement Exam
She began scratching notes into her notebook in tidy little strokes.
One. Brother Risideon — came face to face with his own depths.
Risideon glanced down at what she was writing and smiled with genuine, unguarded fondness.
“Who are you going to see next?”
“Brother Riscal.”
“Why not Ricador?”
Risideon had expected her to go in order. He looked at her curiously.
Riersha tucked the notebook into her bag and gave a small shrug.
“Well, because…”
She wasn’t quite sure when this impression had formed, but…
“Brother Riscal seems like he’ll have more time than Brother Ricador.”
“…”
“Don’t tell Brother Ricador. It’s a secret.”
Riersha glanced around furtively and held out her pinky finger, eyes wide with the gravity of the request.
If Ricador ever found out she had ranked him second in availability, he would sulk for days. That was a certainty.
Risideon stifled a laugh and hooked his pinky around hers.
“I’ll keep it, Riersha. I hope you find exactly the information you’re looking for.”
“Mm-hm, thank you.”
Riersha left Risideon behind and set off for her next destination.
“…The heir advancement exam?”
“Mm-hm.”
As expected.
Riersha had run into Riscal himself just as she arrived at the entrance to his quarters.
If she’d been even a little later, she would have missed him entirely.
She felt genuinely sorry to Ricador, but she was relieved she’d come here first.
Standing beside Riscal was a face Riersha recognized — the auction house manager she had met before.
“…You want to know what the practical exam was like? Why are you asking about that? I’d finally managed to forget it…”
“Was it that bad for you too, Brother Riscal?”
“Obviously. But ‘too’ — who did you see before coming here?”
Riscal had been nodding along when he stopped and asked.
Riersha held up her small, prettily decorated notebook.
Riscal read through its contents slowly, then let out a short, wry laugh.
“Very Risideon of him to say. …Listen carefully, Riersha. The practical exam is, without question, the day I most want to erase from my personal history. If I could, I’d leave instructions in my will to have every record of that day destroyed.”
“…It was really that bad?”
“Every single one of those elders is out of their minds. The kind, agreeable faces they showed you before… forget all of that. Wipe it clean. Understood?”
Riscal told her this with complete and utter seriousness.
Riersha dropped her notebook.
Risideon and Riscal both, giving her essentially the same answer in the same tone.
The worst.
Not just bad — the absolute worst.
Did I make a terrible mistake?
Had submitting her nameplate to Arcmund been an error in judgment?
Riscal smiled lightly and bent down to pick up the fallen notebook.
He patted her on the shoulder and shook his head slowly.
“Don’t be too frightened, Riersha.”
“…”
“Things like that just happen in life. You hit rock bottom, you collect a few entries for your hall of shame. I’m curious what Ricador’s going to say.”
And with that, Riscal walked away.
