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chapter 09
“…Are you secretly in league with Alix? Come to think of it, you were carrying that bastard’s emblem last time too.”
He was so close that she could feel his breath. Kaiel’s cold, distinctive scent overwhelmed all of Elisia’s senses. The hand gripping her chin exerted enough force to make her feel as though her jaw might be crushed.
“Answer me. Did Alix send you?”
“There’s no way I could possibly have any connection to someone like that.”
Elisia twisted the corner of her mouth as if mocking him.
“As you can see, I’m merely a maid who does laundry.”
“You certainly have a lively mouth.”
“Your Majesty, you must lock this vile woman in prison at once and nip this rebellion in the bud!”
One of the knights shouted as he drew his sword halfway.
“That’s right, Your Majesty! We mustn’t let a rat like this maid live!”
The knights around him chimed in as well.
How loyal.
Elisia sneered inwardly.
Until just a year ago, these men had wagged their tails like dogs before the former Emperor and Crown Prince. And now, they were putting on an act as Kaiel’s most loyal hunting hounds.
Their change in attitude was utterly disgusting.
“I see.”
The corners of Kaiel’s lips rose cruelly.
“There’s no need to take her to prison. If she’s truly a traitor, I’ll have her executed on the spot.”
The moment Kaiel finished speaking, the knights drew their swords in unison. Cold blades surrounded Elisia’s neck and shoulders.
Stay calm. Things can’t get any worse from here.
The moment she became frightened, it would all be over.
Elisia quietly steadied her breathing. Then, with her eyes closed, she focused on the dozens of breaths and heartbeats mingling throughout the room.
Thump. Thump-thump. Thump.
Amid the rapidly beating hearts, one particularly unstable heartbeat caught her attention.
When pushed to the extreme, humans instinctively let their emotions spill out.
Fear.
Anxiety.
Guilt.
And even the terror of someone who had committed a crime.
Elisia’s greatest talent was reading those emotions and making the person see them as hallucinations.
Ah…?
Elisia’s eyes suddenly flew open.
She had finally found it.
The mind of one of the knights standing in the corner was swirling like mad. And the visions tormenting him were horrifying.
A house drenched in crimson blood.
An elderly father and mother with their heads severed.
A young little sister impaled on a sharp spear.
His blood-soaked family members were staring at him with their eyes wide open.
Someone wouldn’t feel that kind of terror and fear for no reason.
There’s someone behind this.
If someone had hidden the Blood Ruby in order to frame her, they wouldn’t have acted personally.
They would have bribed some low-ranking soldier to get his hands dirty for them.
And that pawn was now trembling like a guilty little sewer rat.
Interesting.
The corner of Elisia’s lips lifted ever so slightly.
“You’re smiling?”
Seeing Elisia smiling despite being on the verge of losing her head, Kaiel narrowed his eyes.
“You’re about to die, yet you still look so relaxed. Or are you simply insane?”
“No. It’s just… funny.”
“What’s funny?”
Instead of answering, Elisia slowly turned her gaze.
“You said you were going to execute the traitor, Your Majesty.”
“So?”
“Then shouldn’t you kill the real traitor?”
In an instant, the air in the basement turned icy.
Roberto raised his sword.
“Are you mocking His Majesty?!”
The tip of his sword moved closer, as if it could pierce Elisia’s neck at any moment, but Kaiel stopped him with a gesture.
“What do you mean?”
Elisia slowly turned her head and looked at the knight in question.
“You’ll understand if you look at him.”
“M-Me?”
The knight she had pointed out instantly turned deathly pale.
“N-No! I didn’t do anything…!”
He shook his head frantically, his face turning even paler. Then he began backing away while staring into empty space.
“N-No…!”
The others couldn’t see it, but the dead members of his family were standing before his eyes. Crushed beneath the weight of his fear, the knight clutched his head and screamed.
“Please, spare me! Please, don’t appear!”
The knights’ expressions hardened.
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Has he gone mad?”
“Grab that bastard!”
But the knight had already been completely consumed by the hallucinations. Crawling across the floor with tears and snot covering his face, he eventually dropped something that had been hidden inside his clothes.
—Clink!
A pouch of gold coins rolled across the marble floor before coming to a stop at Kaiel’s feet.
It was made of exactly the same material as the pouch that had concealed the Blood Ruby.
The room instantly fell silent.
Kaiel’s gaze turned cold. He nudged the pouch of gold coins with the tip of his foot and asked,
“What is this?”
“Y-Your Majesty… I was wrong…!”
The knight slammed his head against the floor and wailed.
“They said they’d give me enough gold to live on for the rest of my life if I just hid this in that maid’s room! Please, spare me!”
“Who ordered you to do it?”
Kaiel’s voice dropped coldly. The knight trembled violently, his lips quivering.
“Th-That…”
In the end, the knight spat out the truth as if screaming.
“It was a servant from some noble family! I don’t know his name! He suddenly came to me and told me to choose between taking the gold or losing my family, so I… Please, spare my life!”
After the knight’s confession, silence descended.
The men who had been pointing their swords at Elisia began exchanging uneasy glances.
“As you can see.”
Elisia slowly pushed away the tip of the sword that had been pointed at her neck with one finger.
“The rat wasn’t hiding among my people. It was hiding among Your Majesty’s own people.”
“…I see.”
Kaiel nodded, though his expression suggested that he was hardly pleased to admit it.
At once, the knights lowered the swords they had been pointing at Elisia.
“Take him away.”
“Y-Your Majesty! That really is everything I know! I swear!”
“A swear?”
Kaiel let out a mocking chuckle.
“Do you really expect me to believe the oath of someone who dared insult me?”
As he took a step forward, the knight crawled backward.
“P-Please, spare me…! I had to save my family…!”
“So you insulted me for that?”
Kaiel’s eyes grew cold.
“Your family’s lives were precious, but I suppose you thought I was a fool.”
“That’s not what I meant…!”
At Kaiel’s gesture, two knights immediately grabbed the man by both arms and dragged him out.
Now only Kaiel, Elisia, and the remaining knights were left.
“You have an interesting talent.”
Kaiel continued to look down at Elisia.
There was a different kind of interest in his gaze now.
“How did you figure it out?”
Elisia casually shrugged.
“People who are frightened tend to show it.”
“That’s all?”
“I’m rather sensitive to these things. Didn’t Your Majesty notice?”
Elisia deliberately curved her eyes into a smile.
“That man looked like he was about to faint from the moment I saw him.”
There was no need for her to reveal her hand to Kaiel.
Thanks to how carefully the Lothner family had concealed their abilities, no one outside the family knew about them.
So Elisia gave him a sweet smile, doing her best to look like an innocent, harmless maid.
“In any case… what will happen to me now?”
“You cleared yourself of the false accusation and even caught the worm hiding within my ranks…”
His gaze settled on Elisia.
“I suppose you deserve a reward.”
The knights’ expressions subtly stiffened.
It was not common for an emperor to personally reward a mere maid.
But Kaiel paid no attention to the atmosphere and continued looking down at Elisia.
“Tell me what you want.”
“What I want…”
Elisia’s heart beat a little faster for just a moment.
Right now, she could even ask for a position as a personal maid directly serving the Emperor.
A position close to his bedchamber.
Or perhaps somewhere near his office.
It was an opportunity to dig into the deepest secrets of Kaiel himself.
