Since the capital’s branch had been dismantled due to the incident at Duke Kaien’s household, they would remain quiet for a while. In the meantime, she had to somehow push out their remaining forces in the capital. The captured Michelle and Abram were being subjected to alternating persuasion and threats, but they absolutely refused to speak about the organization they belonged to. The only fortunate thing was that since Duke Kaien’s household was an iron fortress, the assassins trying to kill them and silence them couldn’t get in.
As she was thinking about various things simultaneously, she emerged from her thoughts at Ken’s voice and raised her head.
“What are you thinking about so deeply? I brought Helen here.”
Helen, who came with Ken, had completely changed from when she last saw her. Her green eyes had regained their light and her skin had a healthy glow. It seemed she had eaten and rested well after being told to recover her strength. Lea rose from the sofa and extended her hand to her, saying:
“We never properly introduced ourselves, did we? My name is Leas Rotse Kaien. Please call me Lea.”
“…I’m Helen de Roman. Just call me Helen.”
Helen hesitated for a moment, then extended her hand and grasped Lea’s. Unlike Lea’s hand, which had calluses from using a sword, Helen’s hand was soft and delicate.
“Please sit down, Helen. You too, Ken.”
As Lea sat on the sofa and offered, both Helen and Ken sat down facing her. As soon as she sat on the sofa, it was Helen who spoke first.
“I believed your words, Lea, and endured until today. So please help me. I want to find the count’s household somehow and take revenge on those demons who killed my father.”
Her beautiful green eyes had darkened and were shining with anger. Looking at her, Lea opened her mouth.
“Helen. I will help you as promised. But you’ll have to promise me one thing.”
“What is it? If it’s something I can promise, I’ll promise anything.”
At Helen’s attitude that seemed willing to give even her soul, Lea looked straight at her and said:
“At the end of this path we’re starting now, there must be your happiness, Helen. There will be revenge in the process, but the primary and secondary shouldn’t be reversed. Can you promise that?”
At Lea’s question, Helen’s eyes widened. She had never thought about it. She had been so wronged and bitter about being in this situation that she had only thought of revenge. But Lea was telling her to think of revenge only as a process toward becoming happy. Helen felt her heart swell and her eyes reddened. Since her father passed away, there had been no one who genuinely worried about her. That’s why Lea’s words touched her heart even more deeply.
“…I will.”
When Helen readily accepted her condition, Lea thought it was fortunate and immediately got to the point. She carefully asked about Count Roman’s death, wondering if she might remember something, but Helen remembered almost nothing. This was because as soon as Count Roman died, she had been confined to her room by her stepmother and half-brother. And then she was immediately dragged to the Second Prince, so it was natural that she hadn’t even seen her dead father’s face. Thinking that she had no choice but to wait for the Intelligence Department to bring something, she suddenly thought she should ask Berchel too and stood up.
“I’m sorry… I want to do something too, but I really don’t know anything.”
Looking at Helen, who seemed about to cry, Lea shook her head. And she said gently:
“Just enduring this situation is really admirable, Helen. We’ll find something if we look. Don’t worry.”
Helen inwardly stamped her feet as she looked at Lea saying it was okay. It was too frustrating that she couldn’t do anything when it was her own fight. That’s when it happened. A memory from long before her father died flashed through her mind.
“…Come to think of it, this was something that happened a month or two before Father passed away, so I had forgotten…”
At Helen’s words, Lea listened attentively. Even trivial things were important now.
“He came to my room with a hardened expression, as if something bad had happened. He asked to have tea for a moment, so I was about to pour tea for him when he said in a voice only I could hear, ‘If something happens, check that place.’ I asked ‘What?’ because I didn’t understand, but he didn’t say anything more. So I thought it wasn’t a big deal.”
As she spoke, Helen’s face gradually turned pale. The weight of her father’s words and the self-reproach for why she had just let those words pass pressed down on her simultaneously.
“Hmm… The count might have hidden something.”
At Ken’s words, Lea nodded and asked Helen again.
“Do you know where that place is?”
Helen nodded.
“It’s probably my father’s and my secret space. When I was depressed after Mother passed away, Father would sometimes leave surprise gifts there.”
“Can you describe it?”
“That’s possible, but… that place is deep inside the mansion, so even if we want to go in, we won’t be able to.”
“Hmm~ Then… Ian.”
At Helen’s words, Lea thought for a moment, then called Ian, who was guarding her from an unseen location.
“You called for me.”
Helen was startled by Ian’s appearance, emerging smoothly as if appearing from thin air and showing courtesy. But Ken had a calm expression as if he knew.
“You knew after all?”
At Lea’s words, Ken just shrugged and smiled. Smiling briefly at him, she looked up at Ian and asked:
“We need to bring something from Count Roman’s household, and it seems to be deep inside the mansion. Is it possible?”
“There are already unit members who have infiltrated under His Grace’s orders. If you tell me what you want, I’ll have them bring it.”
Duke Kaien indeed. Lea looked at Helen and Ken, thinking how wonderful her father was, even though he was her father.
“Helen. Pack your things. You too, Ken.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
Looking at the two who didn’t understand, Lea stood up from the sofa and said:
“Both of you will move to the ducal residence right now. We need to start the counterattack now, and we can’t risk exposure.”
As Ken and Helen went to pack their things, agreeing with her words, Lea said to Ian:
“I have a place to go while those two pack. Ian, please protect them here with the others.”
“Are you going by spatial movement again?”
“…Ian, you have a good memory.”
Seeing him immediately bring up spatial movement when she said she’d go alone, Lea broke into a slight cold sweat. She thought that Ian might be quite one to hold grudges, and that perhaps Ian might be the most difficult person to handle in the ducal household. Avoiding Ian’s piercing gaze, she thought of the sofa in the basement of the old bookstore. And when she turned Abel’s ring twice, she had already moved there.
Confirming she had arrived properly, Lea sat comfortably on the sofa as if it were her own home and waited for Berchel to come down. After letting out a bit of energy so he would sense she had come. As expected, the summons worked properly, and Berchel, who came down quickly, approached with a smile.
“It’s been a while since you’ve come. Your atmosphere has changed so much I almost didn’t recognize you. You look tired – shall I make you a cup of tea?”
“That would be nice.”
Berchel seemed pleased that she had come and began brewing tea while humming. A moment later, he placed a teacup in front of her, then sat down facing her holding his own teacup.
“I just got some new tea and was wondering who to drink it with, and here you are, Lady Lea.”
“New tea? Mm… this really has a wonderful aroma.”
At the fragrance flowing gently from the tea, Lea smiled, feeling her mind clear.
“Shall I give you some? It’s tea that’s hard to obtain in the Empire.”
“I’ll enjoy it if you give me some. But… you have new shadows following you. Did you hire them, Berchel?”
Looking at Lea speaking casually while taking a sip of tea, Berchel gave an awkward smile.
“Of course not. Where would I, working for a salary, have that kind of money?”
“Then what are they? There are even three of them. Now that I see it, Berchel, you must be quite an important figure.”
At Lea’s joke, Berchel laughed “haha” awkwardly again, then suddenly wiped the smile from his face, leaned forward, and whispered:
“Thanks to you, Lady Lea, pushing away their capital branch, the leadership who were affected in various ways are looking for someone to vent their anger on. I can’t tell you the detailed internal circumstances, but it seems they’ve targeted Lord Luciel. In other words, they’re trying to find any fault. You can think of them attaching these people to me for surveillance as an extension of that.”
In fact, he was thinking it was fortunate that Lea had come to him. Since he heard the capital branch had been swept clean, he had things to convey and was going to visit, but this time shadows had been attached to him, making it impossible to move. Of course, they were shadows from the organization Berchel belonged to, not their shadows. The fact that they had openly attached shadows even knowing he was Luciel’s right hand meant the situation was that bad, but his lord had told him not to speak deeply about it to her.
“I think you might need this, so I prepared it.”
Berchel wanted to pour out curses about the leadership to Lea, but held back, recalling his lord’s words. Sighing invisibly, he brought out from the safe the documents he had intended to convey, thinking to divert Lea’s attention elsewhere. And when she received those documents, she looked at Berchel with surprised eyes.
“How did you know I needed this? I was actually going to ask you for this… Berchel, are you perhaps a genius?”
At Lea’s question, Berchel waved both hands and answered:
“When I said it seemed like you were planning to save Count Roman’s daughter, Lord Luciel ordered it. Lord Luciel is the genius.”
Feeling that Berchel’s appearance of being proud of Luciel was really nice to see, Lea used her ring to open space and put the documents Berchel gave her inside. By now, those two would have finished packing. She stood up and said:
“I’ll make good use of the information. Thank you, Berchel. Please tell Luciel thank you too.”
“Understood. Oh, please take this.”
Berchel held out a pouch of tea leaves, seemingly prepared beforehand.
“I’ll enjoy it.”
At the fragrance of tea leaves flowing from the pouch, Lea smiled, thinking it would be nice to drink it with her father. She opened space again to store the tea pouch she received, and instead took out something else from it. It was a small piece of paper the size of a palm, with a silver circle drawn on it and filled with unknown characters and patterns. She held it out to Berchel.
“What is this?”
As Berchel received it with a puzzled look, she answered with a grin:
“A good luck charm. Keep it on you, and if an urgent situation arises, tear it. Then something surprising will happen.”
“What do you—”
The moment Berchel frowned slightly and was about to ask what she meant, Lea disappeared from that spot. Looking at the spot where she had disappeared for a moment, he turned his gaze to the paper in his hand.
“…A good luck charm…”
While smirking as if he didn’t believe it, he had already folded the paper twice and stored it inside his clothes.