Chapter 86

‘He’s arrogant.’

A faint smile touched Ines’s lips.

He always aimed higher, reaching for whatever lay beyond his grasp.

That ambition had earned him her father’s praise and his current position as Captain of the circus troupe.

But now, he had grown bolder still. He wanted to pierce the iron wall surrounding the Eisenhart Grand Duchy ruled by the famed Grand Duke Seres von Eisenhart.

As expected, the Captain had seized the opportunity to expand his business northward after Asellion’s disappearance left the Eisenhart territory weakened by repeated monster appearances. He began infiltrating the outer regions little by little until his influence reached even the heart of the domain.

Her father had called it a reckless gamble and disapproved of it, but Ines disagreed.

‘Not bad at all.’

Her lips curved slightly as she admired her freshly filed nails.

Of course, she would have to feign sympathy for those harmed by addicts and the chaos they caused. But for her, this was an opening worth exploiting.

Even though monsters had become more active, the Grand Duke’s decades of leadership had kept the north remarkably stable.

So stable, in fact, that the authorities had nearly caught the circus once and recently arrested a few of the drug users.

However.

“Still not enough.”

Her faint smile twisted into something colder.

According to her informants within her father’s circle, they had yet to uncover even a single identity from the core members of the circus troupe, let alone the Captain himself.

“How useless.”

Beneath her serene expression, her pale blue eyes hardened.

Demius von Eisenhart.

Younger brother of Asellion by seven years. Was he still nothing more than that immature boy she remembered?

People called him the cold-blooded noble or the blade-obsessed prodigy, some even revered him, others feared him. But to her, he was still that rude child who used to glare up at her with defiant eyes.

A child four years younger.

“Now then.”

Raising her hand, Ines spread her fingers and tilted her head lazily.

“Where should I begin?”

The more information she possessed, the more pieces she could move.

Her thoughts flicked through countless figurative cards until her mind stopped at one.

Melissa.

The young woman with curly orange hair and green eyes.

Likely in her late teens or early twenties.

Brought directly by Demius as his wife. Her background was unknown, but her lightly tanned skin and faint freckles suggested she wasn’t of noble birth. Judging by her physique, she hadn’t grown up in comfort either.

Her arms had been faintly muscular, hinting at physical labor.

She had worn gloves, but Ines remembered spotting small scars around her wrists. That alone spoke volumes.

Ines reviewed her observations carefully, every detail neatly stored in her mind.

The most remarkable thing about Melissa wasn’t her appearance.

It was her composure.

Even when tea had been spilled on her in front of everyone, she hadn’t flinched or cowered.

Those green eyes had shown no fear of offending a high noble, no humiliation or resentment, only simple surprise.

Ines’s gaze sharpened.

‘An unusual type.’

After their private conversation, she became certain. Melissa was unlike any person she had categorized before. She was someone who didn’t fit any existing pattern.

Some guests at the tea party had called her naive, even foolish. But Ines knew better.

Melissa wasn’t stupid.

A person’s behavior toward others reveals how they see the world.

Melissa’s behavior showed that she believed others were as honest as she was.

Her sincerity was pure to the point of absurdity, almost an overdeveloped kind of goodwill.

“Well.”

“Can that even be called goodness?”

Her smile tilted as she examined her polished fingertips.

Before entering the Academy, Ines hadn’t believed in goodness at all.

Good and evil.

People used those words only when it benefited them.

If something worked in their favor, they called it good. If it didn’t, it became evil.

And morality? That was nothing more than a human point of view.

In the northern mountains, monsters were hunted mercilessly, yet spirits were worshipped as gods. No one dared step into their domains.

But what truly separated spirits from monsters?

Monsters harmed humans, spirits did not?

That was an awfully human-centered belief.

Her lips curved faintly.

Even that assumption wasn’t true.

Spirits simply didn’t harm humans because humans stayed away. But if one were to trespass into a spirit’s realm, they would not leave unharmed.

There was even an old legend to prove it.

The changeling.

A child who stepped into the spirit’s domain and returned changed.

Yet despite that, the Empire and many other nations revered spirits and even built temples dedicated to the Great Spirit said to have created the world.

“How foolish.”

Ines blew gently across her freshly filed nails.

A wry smile touched her lips.

“Ridiculous.”

Good and evil were human inventions. What humans called good was often just a lie.

And the idea that humans themselves could be good, nothing could be further from the truth.

That was the conclusion she had reached while growing up in the Valenstein mansion.

But after entering the Academy…

Blink.

Her eyes closed briefly, then opened again.

She cut the thought short, her expression cooling once more as she examined a still uneven edge on her nail.

Melissa.

How could she use that card?

The dull light of the sun slipping through the curtains gleamed along the metal nail file.

‘She looked ordinary. Not dangerous, and not very bright.’

Half true.

Half false.

That had been her way of concealing the truth from her father, to keep the Melissa card hidden from him.

If she hadn’t done that.

“Melissa would already be dead.”

Her father’s men would have taken care of her quietly, disguising it as an accident.

The gentle rasp of the file filled the air again.

On the day of the tea party, Ines had ordered all servants at the villa to remain silent about what happened.

Especially about the fact that Demius had broken down doors from the first floor to her own chambers, frantically searching for Melissa.

Officially, she had done it to preserve her reputation. But the truth was, Demius’s reaction had been fascinating.

‘I’d never seen that expression before.’

That panicked look on his face.

A soft hum escaped her as she recalled it.

If memory served, he’d arrived covered in blood, his usually neat clothes a mess. He must have fought with that volatile butler of his, Linburton.

‘More than I expected.’

Later, she had sent a few more invitations to test how far his concern for Melissa went.

Every time, the rejection came immediately.

Her letters must have been intercepted and torn apart by Demius himself.

If they had reached Melissa, that girl’s nature would have driven her to accept.

“Interesting.”

Truly, astonishingly interesting.

That Demius, who once seemed devoted only to his brother Asellion, now obsessed over another person.

And that person didn’t even seem aware of his feelings.

Exhaling softly, Ines inspected her nails again.

“Fascinating.”

Melissa.

A perfect reason to delay her marriage negotiations and a perfect card to influence the Eisenhart heir.

Something like that had to be hidden deeply, far from her father’s reach.

Her smile curved into a smooth, cunning line.

Perhaps Melissa’s worth far exceeded her initial assumptions.

Narrowing her eyes, Ines murmured,

“I’ll have to keep an eye on her.”

She would plant one of her most trusted agents close to Melissa.

Even if her father’s attention had been diverted, he didn’t trust her completely.

“Hmm.”

Satisfied, Ines admired her perfectly shaped nails and smiled faintly.

* * *

…What?

Roro blinked up at the ceiling.

For a long moment, he stared blankly, eyes wide and unfocused.

Then he reached up and pinched his cheek.

“Ouch.”

That hurt. It really hurt.

So this wasn’t a dream.

Roro rubbed his sore cheek and glanced around in confusion.

Where was he?

When he came to his senses, he found himself staring at an impossibly ornate ceiling, lying on a bed so soft it felt like clouds gathered into sheets.

This really wasn’t a dream, was it?