Chapter 32

"Don't tell me—when I was sick…"

"No! He brought up stripping your position to threaten me, but the rest was just in case…! Since it's an open-ended favor, I was worried about what outrageous demand he might make…!"

Lyssel hung his head, looking devastated even as the words came out of his own mouth.

Iberin, who had no idea the emperor had demanded her position be stripped, ground her teeth.

Lyssel had probably left that part out on purpose.

"Anything else you didn't tell me?"

"…No."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"If anything else comes out later, I'm not letting it slide."

"…There's really nothing else."

"All right."

Given Lyssel's personality, he might leave things unsaid if she didn't ask, but he wouldn't lie when she did.

Anyway, the emperor wanted Lyssel out of the capital immediately, even if Iberin stayed.

"I'm leaving tomorrow."

"…It would've been nice to go together."

She felt the regret of it.

When they'd first come up to the capital, Lyssel had kept some distance from her.

Going through everything in the capital had brought them noticeably closer.

The emperor was a piece of work, but if it had given her an opening to close the gap with Lyssel, then maybe it wasn't all bad.

If they were heading back to the territory together, the trip down would've been a much happier one than the trip up.

"Iberin."

"Yes?"

Lyssel drew the scroll she'd given him when he'd first decided on the trip from his coat and held it out.

"If you're ever in danger, tear it without hesitation."

"Even if I'm just sick?"

It wasn't that she hadn't thought of using the teleportation scroll to go back, but the physician had been adamantly against it.

In her current condition, the scroll would make things worse.

She was already sick—how much worse could it get?

But teleporting all at once could place severe strain on someone unwell, and he didn't recommend it.

Iberin had thought she'd rather endure a little longer in bed, and with not just the physician but everyone against it, she'd given up on the scroll.

"If I'm really in danger, of course I'll use it. Though I hope I won't have to."

"All right."

It seemed like a measure for worst-case scenarios.

"Oh, and you'd better take good care of Ether while I'm gone."

"I will."

"And kiss him every morning when you ask how he slept."

"…What?"

"Why are you surprised?"

"…Really?"

It had been a joke, but Lyssel was taking it seriously, so Iberin broke into a grin.

"When you get back, I'm going to ask Ether about it!"

---

"Whaaaaaa, can't Mommy come too?"

The next morning, Ether was in tears from the moment he woke up.

He'd only found out that morning that Iberin wasn't coming.

"Mommy's sick, Ether has to be next to you, hic, has to feed you, has to make sure you sleep okay. Has to be there when you're hurtin'…wahhhhh!"

"Ether, Mommy's sorry I can't go with you."

"Hng… then can't Ether stay here too?"

"…I'm sorry."

Watching Ether cry his heart out made Iberin's chest ache.

She wanted nothing more than to tell him to stay, but the emperor hadn't allowed Ether to remain either.

And Iberin herself wanted Ether and Lyssel to grow closer through this chance.

"Wahhh."

"Are you going to keep crying and make Mommy's heart hurt?"

"The tears just keep comin'… hng…"

His chubby cheeks were completely soaked.

Iberin stroked them and pulled him into a tight hug.

"If you go smiling, it'll hurt Mommy less."

"…Does it hurt when Ether cries?"

"We won't see each other for a while. If all I see is you crying, it's going to make me sad, isn't it?"

"……Hgh."

Only then did Ether brave up, wipe his tears, and force the corners of his mouth upward.

"As soon as Mommy gets a little better, I'll come right away."

"Uh huh…"

"Until then, you stay close with your father."

"Yes…"

Since the kiss incident, Ether had been stealing the occasional glance at Lyssel.

But Iberin didn't think it was a bad sign.

Before, things had been awkward and uncomfortable between them, but now Ether seemed to sense Lyssel trying to get a little closer—he'd be doing something and find himself looking over at him.

"It's time to get in the carriage."

"…Okay."

Even now, when Lyssel called him and held out a hand, Ether reached up and took it.

After Iberin spent some time in the capital and went back to the territory, she hoped to find the two of them startlingly close.

---

The boisterous estate went quiet once the Lecashe father and son left.

Ever since Iberin had taken over this body, her days had been loud, and Ether had always been at her side.

But now, with them gone, it felt strangely lonely.

"Cough."

But standing outside for the goodbye for just a moment had pulled a cough out of her like clockwork—her body really wasn't in good shape.

The weather wasn't even cold, and she had a blanket wrapped around her, but she felt chilled through.

"Let's get you back inside."

The physician, quick to read her condition, ushered her in.

Without Ether and Lyssel making their usual fuss beside her, the air felt strange.

She'd gotten used to them faster than she'd realized.

"I want to go back to the territory too."

She'd muttered it less than a minute after Lecashe had left.

"I'll do my utmost to take care of you, Mistress."

The butler, watching her with a glum expression, dabbed at his eyes with his sleeve.

---

Right before leaving, Lyssel had cleaned out the organizations that had been tormenting Nais from the capital.

It would be more accurate to say he'd ripped them out at the roots so they could never harass anyone again.

With Iberin, he was the soft one, but with others, he had no mercy.

A short while after Lyssel left, Iberin sent for Nais.

She had to decide what to do with him next.

The butler had carefully floated the idea of a retained lawyer, but the response had been thin, so she wasn't expecting much.

She didn't want to drag him into it against his will.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Yes. Congratulations on being completely free."

Nais had been worried right up until he'd accompanied the men to their hideout, but the outcome was a one-sided Lyssel victory.

He'd been so gentle around Iberin that, even knowing the Lecashe name, he'd genuinely seen Lyssel as a soft touch.

But Nais remembered the chilling scene from that day.

Not that it changed his read on the man, mind you.

Lyssel was still a docile lamb in front of Iberin. He'd just learned that surviving meant staying on Iberin's good side.

From everything he'd observed, the real power in Lecashe was Iberin.

"It's all thanks to you."

"The butler must have mentioned this, but I'm not pressuring you, so once you decide…"

"I'm in."

"Sorry?"

She'd expected a refusal, and he was giving her an immediate yes?

Iberin blinked in surprise, and Nais broke into a grin.

"You're asking me to become Lecashe's retained lawyer. The terms aren't bad for me either."

"But people might shy away because of the Lecashe name."

"Mistress, when people are cornered, they'll grab at anything. I've been in that spot myself, so I know better than anyone. There'll be people who come begging for help. People that desperate. I want to help them."

Just thinking about how back-alley thugs had jerked him around even after he'd passed the bar—all because he was a commoner with nothing—made Nais's teeth grind.

If anything, he was grateful she'd come to him first.

Who would dare lay a finger on Lecashe?

"…Well, we won't be demanding much of anything. You just need to do the lawyering well."

"Our interests really do line up."

Iberin offered her hand, and Nais clasped it with a grin.

---

Time moved quickly.

With her health what it was, Iberin rarely left the estate.

If she'd had the strength to go out, she'd have headed back to the territory long ago.

She'd improved a fair bit from the start and could manage some moving around on her own, but not nearly enough to travel.

In the meantime, the six Gelta nobles had their property confiscated and their titles dropped by one rank.

Half of the seized property went to Lecashe.

Baron Elvin Pletanin's offense was grave, given the circumstances of trying to hypnotize the Grand Duke's heir for his own use, but the man was already dead.

It seemed collective punishment still had some life in it here—since he couldn't be punished himself, his parents and family bore it instead.

They'd been stripped of their noble status and reduced to slaves.

Not slaves to be sold, mind you. They'd live the rest of their lives under guard at an imperial mine.

Since none of this had been tried publicly, it had been buried very quietly.

That had been agreed to as part of the deal, so it couldn't be helped, but something else was nagging at her.

"What bothers me more is Roto Civelli, the one who's apparently a marquis now."

"…Same here."

Lyssel's tutor from childhood, now a marquis.

"I thought I'd be able to meet him while I was in the capital."

Once she went back, there was no telling when she'd return to the capital.

She couldn't do anything to him right now, but she was curious what kind of person he was.

Not in a good way, of course.

However notorious Lecashe was as a cursed existence, the man had signed on to hypnotize and brainwash a child to use him for life.

There was no way he was a decent person.

If anything, she was worried there were more victims like Lyssel out there.

"Have you ever met the marquis Civelli yourself?"

"Yes. When he came to teach His Highness. I didn't know he was a son of a bitch then and served him reverently. So did my father."

The butler clenched his fist and let out a strained sound, full of bitter regret.

Ideally, she wanted to meet him once, quietly—but walking in unprepared on a man skilled in hypnosis risked getting played herself, so she had to be careful.

That was when Iberin clapped her hands, eyes lighting up like she'd had a brilliant idea.

"Should we tail him a bit?"

"…What?"

"Meeting him face to face is too risky, so let's poke at the organization His Highness wrecked."