Revenge (8)
Revenge (8)
"Father......"
Mia Crowfield murmured weakly.
"Your mother...... the Countess may have planted the desire for revenge within you. She may have told you that you must take revenge upon me, upon Alice, or upon the Imperial Family."
"......."
I continued speaking to her as she kept her head deeply bowed.
"But, don't you already understand? Your mother does as well. If she were to attempt revenge, that alone would be the end of House Crowfield."
"That's......"
"And if that is the case, then your mother should have sought revenge immediately at the beginning, not long after the Count's death. When she still had just cause. If she knew something, wouldn't that have been the perfect moment to expose it? Every surrounding noble house would have welcomed it. Even if she couldn't kill the Emperor, it would have been a tremendous political blow. But House Crowfield could not begin its revenge right away. Why do you suppose that was?"
"......."
"It was because a conversation took place between the Imperial Family and House Crowfield."
Mia Crowfield remained bowed forward, limp, unable to utter a word.
"It meant that 'at that moment,' had your mother done such a thing, the Emperor possessed a card he could play. A terrible piece of evidence that anyone might suspect but no one could openly reveal. To pursue her revenge, your mother would have had to erase every trace of that evidence."
"And that man."
Alice, who had been listening quietly, picked up the thread.
"He must have used that. Used the fact that House Crowfield was erasing the evidence, and was probably able to buy a house like this. Since nothing harms a righteous cause more than letting someone who knows even a little of the past open their mouth."
A pained expression flickered across Alice's face as she spoke. They were friends who had spent a semester together. They had even risked their lives fighting side by side, in their own way.
One might think there was the option of simply killing the man.
But a man like that would never have threatened the Countess without preparing for such a situation. At the very least, he would have put up a bluff.
And, the man himself had exploitable value. This could not have been the only place he did business. If the man was the one who 'bought the drugs,' he must have sold them to other territories as well. Later, when building a 'just cause,' they might use that as leverage to compel others to join. Though it would be an act of extreme 'discourtesy.'
Now that the man had been captured like this, though, he would simply open his mouth.
"......."
Mia Crowfield slowly raised her hands and clutched her head.
"...... You killed my father."
"......."
For a brief moment, I debated whether I should answer that.
It was a strange thing. Back at the start of the semester, on that very first day I had a proper conversation with Mia Crowfield, I had said those words outright.
I had told her that I killed her father, and that her father was a drug-addicted pedophile.
Yet, strangely, it was immensely difficult to bring myself to say the exact same words now. They refused to come out, as if the words had turned into a physical object caught in my throat.
I supposed this was the weight of time. I couldn't say that Mia Crowfield and I had become...... complete friends, but still, the time we had known each other was pressing down, blocking me from uttering those words.
"Yes."
And so, that single word was all I could manage.
What happened next lasted only an instant.
"Mia!"
Alice screamed.
It was hard to breathe.
Mia Crowfield, who was shorter than me, had her hands wrapped tightly around my throat, squeezing with all her strength. Her hands were small, but they had more than enough power to strangle a person.
But it truly was only an instant.
Even before Alice could rush over and tear Mia Crowfield away, the strength drained from Mia Crowfield's hands.
Her hands slipped off my body. Down, down.
Mia Crowfield sank to her knees on the floor. No, she collapsed onto her face.
Prostrate on the floor, she clawed at her hair with both hands.
"Mia......."
Alice knelt down beside her, but she couldn't bring herself to place a hand on Mia Crowfield's body.
"You...... you too."
In the faintest, trembling voice, Mia Crowfield asked.
"You knew as well."
"Yes. I knew."
Even before I came to this place.
"...... Was it here?"
"It was here."
"The children who were here, the ones who stayed until the end, where did all of them......?"
"I don't know either."
Whether the Imperial Family took them in, or the Count's house disposed of them. I don't know. I never returned here afterward.
"...... How many......?"
"It's impossible to know."
The evidence must have all been burned away. The children who were here likely vanished into nothing. Without ever letting anyone know even their names.
"Ahh......."
The groan that escaped Mia Crowfield soon became a wail that was difficult to put into words.
A few knights stationed outside the door reflexively kicked it open and burst through, then froze rigid.
*
Returning to the Count's estate, Mia Crowfield walked unsteadily right past the Countess. There was no greeting, no embrace.
Seeing Mia Crowfield pass by without even meeting her eyes, the Countess shot us a look filled with hatred, then spun around and followed her inside.
Leaving that mansion behind, we climbed into the steam car that had been prepared for us.
I sat in the back seat next to Alice, but even after the car started moving, we were silent for a long while. Partly because the driver was present and we had to choose our words carefully, but more than anything...... we were not in the mood for cheerful laughter.
"...... Did I do the right thing?"
After a long silence, those were the first words Alice managed to open her mouth and utter.
And I already had an answer prepared for that question.
"You did the right thing."
It was a sincere statement with no hidden meaning. At first, when she had spoken of forging the Emperor's command, I had been at a loss for words...... but in the end, this was something that would have happened someday.
At least this was better for Mia Crowfield than if it had happened during the semester. She would have time to collect herself.
"But......."
Alice bit her lip.
"If the Imperial Family's actions are no different from the unsavory deeds of other nobles......"
The confident Alice who had existed right up until we entered that building was nowhere to be found. Sitting beside me, Alice was now just speaking in a tormented voice.
"Do I really have the right to punish such deeds?"
"......."
I gazed silently out the window for a while.
I didn't have the authority to grant anyone such a right either. I too had once been a child in that orphanage, but now I was nothing more than the Emperor's pawn.
But that didn't mean it was Alice's fault. Just as the Count's actions were not Mia Crowfield's fault.
"At the very least,"
I opened my mouth carefully.
"At the very least, the fact that Your Highness even considered doing such a thing means that you are a different person from His Majesty."
Alice had no answer to my words for a long moment.
"...... Thank you."
After a long deliberation, that was the answer that came from Alice's lips.
*
"My identity."
After escorting Alice to her room, I went straight to see the Emperor. It was fortunate that Alice had so much to think about. Had it been otherwise, I would be standing beside her now, unable to ask this question.
"Why do you ask me that?"
Watching the Emperor ask back, clearly amused, made my blood boil, but I was patient and asked again.
"If you brought me here, Your Majesty, you must have had a clear reason. What was your purpose in stationing Lucas at that orphanage?"
"I am curious that you are only asking this now."
Resting a hand on his well-groomed golden beard, the Emperor gazed down at me as he spoke.
"But I shall not press the matter. Figuring out the reason yourself will be amusing, I'm sure."
"I did not come here to play guessing games."
I spoke while glaring at the Emperor, but he only looked back at me with that same amused expression and said.
"Do you not already know your own identity quite well?"
For an instant, my heart plummeted.
Had the Emperor already caught on? Could there be some other truth that I hadn't read in the book, something that already made him aware that I came from another world?
"You are my daughter."
But my anxiety quickly vanished. The only reason I didn't heave a sigh of relief was that I was so annoyed. And I was thankful for that fact.
"So, besides that answer—"
"Hm? I am telling you the truth. This is the answer you wanted."
The Emperor spoke with a smile.
"You are my daughter. You have undoubtedly inherited my talent. Perhaps you have even inherited your mother's talent. Though I do not recall who your mother was."
He said it so simply.
As if his own daughter had asked, 'Was I picked up from under a bridge?'
"...... What?"
"You."
Still smiling, the Emperor leaned slightly toward me and said.
"I said, you are my daughter."
...... And that reasoning.......
It must be the same story as Claire's.
And it would also be the story regarding the Emperor's 'children.'
The reason the Emperor could think of his 'children'...... the way one thinks of 'children.'
"......."
For the first time since I came to this world, I stared at the Emperor with a horrified expression.