Chapter 25

"If it's at all possible, I'd like you to give His Majesty what he wants. I'm not asking this as a member of the imperial family—the man's just relentless. He won't stop at anything to get what he's after."

The empress said it while looking at Ether and Yel laughing a short distance away, her expression heavy with pity.

But only for a moment—she snapped back into something cool and turned to Iberin.

"Mind you, I'm not exactly different."

"…Is this a threat?"

"If that's how it sounds, then I suppose it is. The takeaway is, reconsider the trial."

"It's been less impressive than I expected so far. I'd be curious to see what won't stop at anything actually looks like."

"…What? Hahaha! This generation's Lecashe really did land himself an incredible wife!"

The empress laughed for a long stretch, genuinely amused, then gave Iberin a look brimming with approval.

At the sound of her laughter, Iberin felt the children—Yel especially—shoot a thoroughly startled glance their way, but the moment passed.

The empress didn't pay them any mind either.

"I'd like for us to get along. Of course, we'd need to clear up the matter tangling us up first."

"Same goes for me, Your Majesty."

The empress's gaze slid to Ether, and Iberin caught the meaning.

If she refused to bend, the arrow might eventually point at Ether.

---

Turning the conversation with the empress over and over and getting more worked up about it, Iberin didn't leave the palace—she went straight to find the emperor. The empress hadn't said any of that for nothing, and there was every chance she'd been parroting whatever the emperor wanted to deliver.

Petty as that was.

Ether probably shouldn't be in the room for this conversation, but leaving him alone in the palace wasn't an option either.

So she kept his hand firmly in hers and went to request an audience with the emperor.

The emperor clearly hadn't expected her back so soon either—the way he looked at her, eyes lit with interest, almost made her swear out loud.

"Did you have a pleasant time with the empress?"

"Yes, I did."

"And what brings you here?"

"Are you still hoping we'll drop the suit?"

"For now, yes."

"For now, meaning…?"

"My patience isn't all that long, you see."

A clear warning.

Iberin scoffed openly.

A faint crack ran through the emperor's composed expression at her reaction.

"What's that laugh for?"

"Threats, persuasion—those are things the strong do to the weak."

"……."

"And the one who gets pushed around is the one with weak spots."

"And?"

"What happens if Lecashe gives up the Forest of the World Tree?"

The imperial family could never get rid of Lecashe.

Because they needed them too desperately.

The emperor acted like he held every card, but he didn't.

That was the whole reason they'd resorted to hypnosis and conditioning—to keep Lecashe in their grip.

The emperor let out a hollow laugh.

"Bold of you—talking like you can move Lecashe yourself…"

"You think I can't?"

The emperor's clenched fist had gone bone-white.

He glanced sideways at Ether.

Every Lecashe, generation after generation, was said to have the dull, hollow eyes of someone who'd given up on life.

And Lyssel—the only Lecashe he'd actually seen before becoming emperor—had been exactly that.

But the Ether standing next to Iberin was almost startlingly alive.

He knew Elvin was dead, but he didn't yet know how it had happened.

The letter Elvin had sent before dying had said Iberin was likely the variable, that the conditioning wasn't going to be easy.

He'd suspected the imperial family's old game had been figured out, but did Iberin actually know something, talking like that? Had even Lyssel changed?

And when he'd seen Lyssel walk into the palace alongside Iberin, the shock—he hadn't said a word, but it had hit hard.

Lyssel was subtly different from the Lyssel he remembered.

Something venomous had definitely gone out of him.

The thought hit, and the emperor couldn't quite hide a flash of unease, and Iberin caught it—her eyes lit up sharp and dangerous.

She might've swallowed anything else, but using Ether as a lever to push her around? That she wouldn't take.

"Don't touch him. This is how you issue a warning."

---

The second Iberin cleared the palace gates, she dropped to the ground.

"My lady!"

"…!"

Lyssel and Pons, who'd come to fetch her, hurried over in alarm.

The two of them had gone into the palace that morning, and when they hadn't come back, the others had come looking in case something had happened.

"Mommy… what's wrong?"

Ether's eyes rolled around in panic, completely at a loss.

"Did something happen?"

Lyssel's eyes were sharp and lethal as he asked.

He'd reached a hand toward Iberin where she'd dropped to the ground—and let it hover awkwardly, never quite touching.

Iberin was too frazzled to make any sense.

"The emperor, I met the empress, and…"

"My lady, calm down—let's get to the carriage first."

Pons soothed her and got her on her feet.

"I think I screwed up."

Iberin was the type who acted first and regretted it later.

Hot-headed enough to snap easily.

She'd just torn into the emperor not ten minutes ago, and now the worry was setting in—had she made it worse for no reason?

She'd snapped at Lyssel like that once, and she'd felt exactly this anxious then too.

Once she was in the carriage, Iberin pulled in a few deep breaths and laid out honestly what had happened.

"That's all?"

"Yes? Yes…"

Lyssel sighed.

Iberin flinched and snuck a careful look at his face.

And at the sight of it, Lyssel actually broke into a small laugh.

But why—why, watching Lyssel laugh, did Tami's words come rushing back?

"If he smiles twice, what else could it be but love!"

Iberin's head jerked side to side in a quick reflexive no before she managed to ask,

"Why are you laughing…?"

"Did I laugh?"

He reflexively touched the corner of his mouth with a baffled look, which made it pretty clear Lyssel hadn't even realized he'd laughed.

Anyway, what mattered wasn't whether he'd laughed.

What mattered was whether the emperor was about to retaliate over being annoyed.

Lyssel said not to worry, but Iberin saw it differently.

"Lecashe might be fine, but I might not be."

"Pardon?"

"It's not like guarding the Forest of the World Tree falls apart if I'm gone."

She'd put up a front in front of the emperor, but the second he figured out she didn't actually have a damn thing backing it up, she might just get wiped out.

And Ether still needed her.

"No."

Lyssel's reaction was stronger than expected, his answer cutting clean.

"What?"

{"…It wouldn't be without consequence."}(#zrsjkmksvg05)

Today, and the time before when she'd teased him about playing coy.

The man really had shifted in some strange way.

Iberin's lips parted with something she wanted to ask, but she decided not to poke the wound and stayed quiet.

---

After that, on the off chance something might happen, Iberin doubled the guards around her and Ether.

The lawyer was hired and she figured they could lay low at home for a while, so she stopped going out.

Nais didn't have anywhere to stay, so they gave him a room at the estate.

Whether it was adaptability or something else, he got friendly with everyone in no time, wandering around with an easy laugh and approaching Iberin without the slightest hesitation.

He'd seemed seriously rattled by the Lecashe name at first, but once it became clear that name had the thugs who'd been harassing him completely cowed, he apparently stopped caring.

"My lady! Good morning!"

"Morning."

"Oh, right—I did some digging into the case."

"Already, in the morning?"

"Yes. Just thinking about working again after so long got me so excited I woke up early."

"Oh."

He was also chatty. Very chatty.

He'd mentioned being lonely with everyone around him dropping away, but he was chatty far beyond what loneliness could account for.

"So in my opinion, our chance of winning is a clean 100%!"

"Right. Keep at it."

"Heading to breakfast?"

"Yeah."

"Let me come along. The head chef's cooking was so good last time, I can't wait to see what's on the table today."

"Mm."

"What's your favorite food, my lady? The mains are great too, but I really loved the tomato caprese. Hope it shows up again today. Oh, and the other day I—"

She let it all go in one ear and out the other, and by the time they reached the dining room, Lyssel was already there.

Ever since they'd come up to the capital, they'd been eating every meal together.

"Mommy!"

Ether came toddling up and reached both hands toward her, and Iberin scooped him up with practiced ease and settled him on her lap.

"Young master, good morning."

"Mhm, good mornin', Nais."

In any case, even the talkative Nais went quiet whenever Lyssel was nearby.

Just now, he'd been running his mouth nonstop until the second he spotted Lyssel in the dining room, at which point he'd dropped into his seat and clamped his mouth shut.

She'd thought it was fear, but the more she watched, the more it looked like he was reading the room.

"Good morning, Your Highness."

"Yes."

"Did you rest well last night?"

"Yes."

"Have anything to do later?"

"Yes."

So much for any sense he'd changed—Lyssel snapped back every one of Iberin's questions with single-word answers.

She gave up after a few more tries and turned her attention to Ether instead.

After the meal, Nais trailed Iberin and Ether for a long stretch, chattering away—then suddenly glanced behind him and rushed off claiming something had come up.

Whatever he'd seen had turned him sheet-white, so Iberin looked back too, and there was Lyssel standing there.

What?

Iberin tilted her head.

When they were at the Forest of the World Tree, she'd practically had to hunt him down at the east wing to even see him—but lately she seemed to be running into him a fair bit.

"Your Highness, what are you up to?"

"…A walk."

"Really? Want to take one together?"

"That would be good."

Today she'd bumped into Lyssel during a walk, too.

Yesterday she'd run into him right outside her own room—he'd said he was looking around the estate.

{The day before, he'd shown up in the room where she and Ether were doing imperial language study, said he had something to tell her, sat there for ages, drank tea, and left.}(#vroa372k6a2n)

"Hmm."

"Your Highness, do you not care for Nais?"

"No, I don't."

"Then why does he seem so scared of you? Did you do something to him while I wasn't around?"

Lyssel went quiet for a moment as if thinking it through, then shook his head as if to say he hadn't really done anything.

"I don't know."

"And one more thing."

"What."

"From tomorrow on, take your walks with me."

"Yes."

There wasn't a trace of hesitation in his answer.

Like a man who'd been waiting for the question.

It struck Iberin that all her effort was finally paying off.

If she could get him close to Ether next, that would be the cherry on top.

Even if she wasn't around, father and son would be able to lean on each other and keep going.

---

It was a day no different from any other.

Iberin had been holed up at home for the better part of a week, and the staff had settled into the rhythm of the Lecashe family.

Even Nais's misreading of things had been cleared up, so there was no more of that earlier wariness around him.

Iberin was thinking it had all turned out perfectly.

When—

"Hk—"

Iberin clutched at her chest and dropped to the floor, her face draining bone-white.

Lyssel's face went just as pale.

"Hng… ah…"

She looked like she wanted to say something, but her mouth wouldn't move. Iberin shook violently with the pain.

Lyssel gathered her into his arms and shouted.

"The physician!"

"H-aah."

Rotte had said.

When the pain came after a stretch of feeling fine, it would come back even worse.

This was probably that moment.

"Khrgh."

Iberin's head snapped back with the pain as she dragged in ragged breaths, and finally her eyes slid shut.