Ch#126
The Imperial Palace was quiet in the summer.
With the heat, meetings had been greatly reduced from usual, and many ministers were staying home with various excuses.
On top of that, the emperor was absent for the first time in several years.
Just that alone made the Imperial Palace far quieter than usual.
In the meantime, Duke Kailun, Marquis Ragselb, and even their youngest sons were gathered in the lobby of the Main Palace.
"It's been a while. Your sons are with you today."
Since the children had permission for free entry to the Imperial Palace from the emperor, passersby could immediately tell who the two boys were.
"That's how it turned out. We've brought a change of clothes and the books you requested."
"Good sons. My son wouldn't even think of his father working from morning like this while he's off playing far away."
While appropriately responding to the ministers' words half envious and half grumbling, the four headed out of the Main Palace toward the rear garden.
Along the way to the rear garden, others they occasionally passed could overhear their conversation.
"No, Arsel tells me to study more, but I'm already at my limit!"
"But Ruska, your foreign language scores do need more study."
"Hey! You're supposed to be on my side!"
It was a childish argument that would make anyone chuckle.
But once the four reached a remote spot with no one else around, the conversation shifted in an instant.
"The child named Eve never takes off her gloves in front of others no matter what. And when I approached at Madam Crevel's Shop, she said she came to buy clothes for her nursemaid. She emphasized several times that the nursemaid is a very important person..."
A chill settled on Arsel's face.
"She said she'll meet His Majesty at this Seasonal Festival. That's why she's preparing a very pretty dress."
Ruska let out a scoff at those words.
"She said something else too. That if you want, she can arrange for you to meet His Majesty the Emperor. As if I were someone important. Ridiculous."
At Ruska's words, Duke Kailun and Marquis Ragselb's faces darkened further.
The more they heard, the clearer it became that the child was trying to impersonate Princess Evebien.
Moreover, the child seemed to firmly believe she really was that princess.
"There haven't been any daring to claim to be the princess in recent years, but it happened quite often in the past."
Fake princesses paraded before Clois shortly after his ascension.
Those ignorant of the Imperial Mark stammered when questioned about it and were dragged away.
Some who learned of it appeared with fake marks carved on children's hands.
Shameless ones who left fresh wounds unhealed, claiming they had smuggled the princess out during the war with great difficulty.
"And Count Aradman witnessed all those scenes."
No one would be foolish enough now to fall for a fake princess, arrogant as they might be.
Especially not someone who had personally seen the heads of those who brought fake princesses rolling inside the Main Palace.
So he wouldn't easily fall for a fake even if presented... yet.
Marquis Ragselb, who had been listening silently, spoke up.
"As you requested, we attached one of our people to Count Aradman. As you said, he's been meeting other nobles frequently lately. He hardly went out after the Genius Academy incident, but outings increased after that child arrived. And he always dismissed others and spoke secretly. After he left, everyone seemed deeply lost in thought."
"He wouldn't have said she was the princess outright from the start. He must have approached it indirectly."
"Anyway, with solid evidence, he'd go around saying that. Good. Now, how's the investigation on Evi going?"
At that, Duke Kailun ran a hand over his face.
"Well... Riden, who went down to Elam City, is struggling quite a bit. When it first became known that the emperor was her guardian, some nobles sent people and made things quite bothersome. They asked to sign adoption papers for their child in exchange for large sums without the child's consent? So the Orphanage Director is very defensive toward strangers."
Because of that, Riden had to gather information on Evi from others besides the director.
[As expected, candy works best on children. Half my monthly salary this month flew to candy for the kids.]
After the whining letter came the main point.
Among the older children at the Poorhouse who remembered when Evi arrived, some recalled.
"The Orphanage Director went really far away and brought her. She walked so much to get here that she threw up a ton and her feet hurt..."
"There was a mean kid who took Evi's book and yelled that the innkeeper was coming. Then Evi would run and hide under the bed or flee to the wood shed..."
Anyway, Evi was a child the director had brought from very far away, and since there were no papers at the time, they went back and forth to Elam City Hall often to register her.
"Seems like a good director. Though not helpful to us now. Anyway, this means it'll take quite a while to find the inn where Evi was..."
"Uh, about that..."
As the duke muttered, Ruska hesitantly interjected.
"I did something wrong—will you forgive me? Well, precisely, it wasn't just me but Arsel too..."
Suddenly confessing a crime in the middle of discussing Evi.
The duke and marquis stared blankly at each other for a moment.
"Is it related to Evi?"
When Duke Kailun asked, Ruska quickly nodded.
"We roughly narrowed down where Evi's inn might be."
"You two? How?"
"Well, Evi occasionally mentioned the inn. That the innkeeper sent her to the forest in winter to fetch hot water. So..."
Ruska squeezed his eyes shut.
"We looked at the military map marked with hot springs and guessed around there!"
"Military map? How did you...?"
Marquis Ragselb's eyes widened.
One of the few permitted to keep it at home. Naturally, military maps were stored separately under strict security. And he saw it?
"You must have seen wrong. The locks there aren't easy to pick..."
Then Ruska subtly pointed at Arsel with a finger.
"I tricked the servants and got us close, and Arsel picked the locks."
"...And Ruska took it out."
"Hey, then it sounds like I did more wrong!"
Marquis Ragselb groaned watching the two boys confess to raiding the family archive.
Ruska was his son, so the guards might have slacked, but picking those locks?
Rubbing his face with both hands, he asked the boys.
"So. Any guesses?"
"Well...!"
At the marquis not punishing them immediately, Arsel and Ruska excitedly pulled paper from their bag.
"These kids even copied the map?"
"Hehe."
Evidence of major crimes popped out, but something else was more urgent now.
"We casually talked to Evi as if asking various things. About mountains, hills, nearby village names, checking if anything rang a bell..."
Arsel and Ruska unfolded their copied map.
"If what Evi said matches, the inn should be near one of these four spots. We centered it on the small hot spring she mentioned."
"Heh..."
Stealing the map unasked and narrowing it down this far.
The two fathers weren't sure whether to praise or scold their sons' actions.
"Good. We'll prioritize inns around here first. It might be gone by now, so it'll take time, but narrowing from hundreds to four isn't hard."
Duke Kailun looked satisfied.
This wouldn't take too long.
"Good. We'll track the inn this way... Let's go back to what Arsel found earlier for a moment. The child named Eve said her nursemaid is coming, that she's very important?"
"Yes."
"Then she's someone in a position to make even His Majesty believe... "
Smuggling the child out back then wasn't easy.
To do so, they would have received her from Lilian while she was still alive.
"Someone like that would be..."
Duke Kailun and Marquis Ragselb recalled those around Lilian in the past.
With so many dead, dozens of names came and went.
But one name stood out particularly.
The former emperor's army that came to kill Lilian didn't return intact.
Pretending to withdraw, when the gates opened to retrieve Lilian's body, they raided, dragging out and killing Lilian's remaining aides and Clois's people inside.
Among them, someone who could have received the child from Lilian...
"Savina?"
* * *
Late at night, a carriage quietly stopped at Count Aradman's residence.
Now accustomed to nighttime guests, the servants silently welcomed them.
The one stepping out was an elderly-looking woman.
Her hair fully white, deep wrinkles as if enduring pain, hands and feet scarred from hard labor.
But few knew her real age was barely late thirties.
"Hurry. They're waiting."
Noma, descending with the woman, urged her on.
The woman muttered in a trembling voice.
"Yes... My small, precious baby. Finally... finally..."
Her voice trembled with emotion.
The woman's eyes flashed with madness.
But the next moment, as if never so, they filled with utmost sorrow and longing, tears streaming down.
Noma led the woman to the second floor, Eve's room.
Opening the door, Eve, as if roused from sleep, sat on the sofa rubbing her eyes.
The woman rushed to Eve upon seeing her, pulling her into an embrace.
"Ah, Princess! My princess!"
"Ugh... Can't breathe..."
Eve pushed the woman away irritably with her hand.
But the woman ignored it, clinging to Eve and weeping.
"You're safe. Thank goodness. No, of course. As Lady Lilian's child, the forest protected you."
"Forest...?"
At that, Noma smiled at Eve.
"Remember it well, Princess Evebien. You are the child the forest protects."
"Ugh."
Eve nodded tensely.
When Noma said so, it was something the princess must memorize.
Meanwhile, Savina kept muttering.
"How could I not protect when Lady Lilian entrusted you so. Yes, Lady Lilian. Are you watching? Princess Evebien is safe. I didn't lose the princess... I... Savina... protected the princess."
The woman muttered while hugging Eve as if most precious.
"Our princess. I'll take you to your father. I'll tell His Majesty of Lady Lilian's final moments. How precious, how lovable our princess is..."
Savina gazed at the child in her arms with teary eyes.
The empire's sole princess she had lost long ago.
Lilian and Clois's only child.
The child she had let slip away while fleeing, but who had grown well and returned to where she belonged.
This child surely was.
She had to be. Otherwise, she had no face to meet Lilian who entrusted the child to her unto death.
"...His Majesty will love you. For that was Lady Lilian's final wish."
Savina hugged the returned child preciously once more.
