A Measure of Punishment
Lefonya walked toward the conference room, dutifully holding each brother by the hand so neither felt left out.
Naturally, the two bickered back and forth the entire way, but their squabbles never escalated beyond mild verbal jabs. Whenever an argument threatened to turn truly heated, Lefonya would give their hands a firm tug and let out a sharp, reproving hiss. Wonderfully enough, the moment she did, both brothers instantly fell in line.
...How fascinating.
It was downright bizarre that the notoriously cold eldest son and the notoriously wild second son could be tamed by a single sound from a toddler. In the end, Lefonya had no choice but to keep a tight grip on both their hands until they reached the conference room doors.
Stepping inside, she was greeted by the sight of the assembled vassals bowing their heads in anxious deference, and the Duke of Craitan resting his chin on his hand with a rigid, icy scowl.
Lefonya recognized that look.
Back before she had shrunk to this size, when she was still carrying out the Pope's sinister missions in her original form, she had seen that very expression whenever the Guardian of the Empire pursued her. She had been so terrified back then that she had suffered nightmare after nightmare of the Duke hunting her down without mercy.
The memory sent a sudden shiver through her, and she took an instinctive step backward.
Immediately, the hands holding hers tightened their grip.
"What's wrong, Fluffball? Are you scared? Did something startle you?"
"We're right here. There is nothing to fear."
"Father! You're terrifying the Fluffball! Smooth out that face of yours," Pelens snapped. "What's the point of calling her here if you're just going to glare like a demon?"
"Father, Ponya is only five years old," Habelian chimed in with a frown. "Young children are acutely sensitive to their surroundings. I would hope you exercise greater care."
Perhaps chastened by his sons' tandem scolding, the Duke's hardened demeanor vanished in the blink of an eye, the oppressive drumming of his fingers against the polished table halting instantly.
"Ponya."
Rising to his feet, the Duke of Craitan strode eagerly toward her. Grounded by the warmth lingering in her hands, Lefonya gave a small nod. The Duke reached down, scooped her effortlessly into his arms, and returned to his seat, settling her comfortably onto his lap. The moment he took his place, the vassals bowed their heads even lower.
This feels familiar.
It reminded her of the day she had first met the vassals. Shortly after her adoption, they had marched in as a group to voice their disapproval, and on that day, too, she had sat on the Duke's lap to greet them. The only difference was that back then, they had glared at her with sneers of undisguised contempt, whereas now, they were trembling in abject terror.
"Are these misters getting punished?" Lefonya asked with the wide-eyed innocence expected of a five-year-old.
Though her behavior was unusually inquisitive, the Duke did not find it strange in the slightest and indulged her with gentle patience.
"These men dared to defy my orders and brought hardship and pain upon you, Ponya. Of course they must be punished."
"Aha." Lefonya nodded as if she understood perfectly. "Then what kind of punishment will they get?"
"Their fortunes will be confiscated, and all of their children will be barred from marriage."
The moment the words left his mouth, the vassals turned deathly pale. Losing their wealth was devastating enough, but a marriage ban on all their descendants was an absolute catastrophe. It meant the permanent extinction of their bloodlines. Even if their children met someone they loved, they could never wed, and any offspring born to them could never be registered under the family name.
"Y-Your Grace!"
"I believe I warned you at the very beginning." Resting his chin sideways against his knuckles, the Duke leveled a piercing, merciless gaze upon them. "I made it abundantly clear that anyone who wagged their tongue against the young lady would pay the price. And that if anyone dared overstep their bounds and lay a hand on my daughter, I would stake my honor on making them regret it for the rest of their days."
The vassals shook like leaves in an autumn gale.
"There will be no reconsideration. Since your loyalty has curdled, I have no choice but to hand down a sentence befitting your treachery."
"We have sinned, Your Grace! Please, we beg of you, reconsider...!"
"Mercy! Have mercy, Your Grace! It was all our fault!"
"We truly believed it was the only way to safeguard House Craitan! My loyalty has never wavered! So please, I beg you, could you not show mercy toward my son and daughter?!"
Vassals tripped over one another in a frantic scramble to plead for their lives and lineages. It was not merely parental affection driving their desperation; the very survival of their noble houses was on the line.
Watching the chaos unfold, Lefonya cleared her throat with an exaggerated little cough and hoisted her short arm high into the air. Seeing her hand shoot up like an eager student in a classroom, the Duke let out a soft chuckle.
"What is it, Ponya?"
"Well... these misters didn't decide everything all by themselves, did they?" Lefonya's gaze drifted toward Habelian, who stood stiffly behind them. "Eldest Brother was in on the plan, wasn't he?"
Every time the subject was broached, Habelian shriveled up like a parched blossom long deprived of water, looking as brittle as though a single tap might crumble him to dust.
...This is fun.
Ah, no, bad Lefonya. Just because his reaction is entertaining doesn't mean I should tease him about something this serious. She gave her head a tiny shake to shake off the mischief.
"Eldest Brother is the heir to House Craitan... If they were only following his lead and agreeing with him, is it really fair to say their loyalty has curdled?"
At her words, Habelian turned white as a sheet and hastily interjected.
"I..." He parted his lips, struggling for words. "While it is true that I went along with it, I was not the ringleader. I am not trying to excuse my own conduct, but those who sought me out with the proposal and drove the plan forward must be held—"
"Uh-huh. But even if they suggested it, you agreed, right?" Lefonya countered mildly.
Caught completely off guard, Habelian clamped his mouth shut, utterly defeated.
"Ponya," the Duke said, stroking her soft hair as he listened. "I showed them more than enough leniency after the incident with the fire. If you are asking me to overlook this matter just as we did back then—"
"No, no. Not that. They definitely need to be punished," she corrected him briskly. "I just think the severity of the punishments should be different."
"The severity should differ?"
Lefonya nodded firmly. Every vassal in the room instantly fixed their eyes on her. By now, they were all painfully aware that their fates hung entirely upon the whim of this five-year-old child.
Lefonya held up a single finger.
"For the misters who only voiced an opinion about sending me to an orphanage, or merely nodded along, confiscate their fortunes only."
She raised a second finger.
"For the misters who actively took part, drew up the scheme to rope Eldest Brother in so they could claim mitigating circumstances, and actually carried it out—confiscate their fortunes and bar their children from marriage."
Then, she raised a third finger.
"And..."
And? There's more? The vassals and the Duke alike stared at her with rapt curiosity.
Lefonya's voice dropped to a chilling, quiet tone.
"For the mister who switched the carriage halfway so no one could ever find me, sending me to a completely different orphanage instead of the one they agreed on... the one who said he didn't care whether I lived or died."
Her sharp gaze swept over the kneeling vassals. Which one among them was it? She had not seen his face back then, so she could not identify him by sight alone.
"For that mister, confiscating his wealth and barring his children from marriage goes without saying. On top of that, strip his family of every right, rank, and privilege they held as a vassal house of House Craitan. Cast them out completely, so they may never again dwell beneath House Craitan's protection."
The conference room plunged into a breathless silence.
Every adult in the hall swallowed hard, stunned by the sheer ruthlessness emanating from a girl who, just moments ago, had innocently asked if the misters were getting punished. Having thoroughly cowed the room, Lefonya shifted back into her cheerful persona in the blink of an eye, kicking her little feet back and forth.
"That's just what I was thinking, anyway! Of course, the final choice belongs to the Duke!"
Grading punishments according to the severity of the offense was the most effective way to deter future conspiracies. If people knew that active instigation carried a far harsher penalty than passive complicity, no one would dare step to the front lines when an opportunity arose. Conversely, if minor accomplices received the exact same brutal sentence as the ringleader, they would have every reason to go all out and commit the deed to the fullest, knowing they were damned either way.
The Pope was foolish enough to enforce collective punishment all the time.
No matter who made a mistake, everyone was beaten together. Did that make the children fear him more? No. Knowing they would suffer the same fate regardless of who broke the rules only emboldened them to act together in secret. Lefonya had been among them, after all. She had learned long ago that to shatter solidarity among conspirators, one had to sow division through disparity. She simply hadn't expected to put that lesson to use in a place like this.
The Duke let out a breath of genuine awe, stroking her hair with boundless admiration.
"My daughter is a genius."
"Father, to merely call her a genius is an insult!" Habelian chimed in, having bounced back from his wilted state in an instant, his face glowing with animated pride. "Genius is far too mundane a term! In my eyes, she possesses a divine intellect granted by the heavens once in several millennia! Didn't I tell you we needed to hire a private tutor immediately? I shall conduct the interviews myself. Anyone with mediocre credentials won't be permitted anywhere near Ponya!"
The Duke gave a perfunctory nod to his son's rambling before turning his icy gaze back to the vassals.
"We will alter the terms. As the young lady decrees, the severity of the punishments shall be divided. Those who merely voiced an opinion to send her away shall face the confiscation of their estates."
A few vassals immediately breathed a sigh of immense relief, clasping each other's trembling hands and whispering frantic praises of their own past hesitation. Thank the heavens! I knew it was right to drag my feet back then!
"Those who actively participated and dragged Habel into the plot shall receive the original sentence: confiscation of property and a ban on their children's marriages. And..." A menacing shadow swept across the Duke's features. "The scoundrel who switched the carriages to erase my daughter's whereabouts entirely, casting her into a different orphanage, shall have his fortune seized, his children barred from marriage, and every privilege and right granted to his house by House Craitan revoked."
He repeated Lefonya's words verbatim, deliberately cementing her authority before the entire assembly.
"He and his kin shall never again stand beneath the shield of House Craitan."
A profound silence settled over the room as the Duke concluded his decree. No one dared utter a peep, their eyes darting nervously about. To speak up now was practically an admission of guilt, so they all seemed intent on playing dumb.
Not a chance.
"Duke, it got so quiet all of a sudden," Lefonya remarked with a bright, sunny smile. "How strange. It feels like everyone who wanted to send me to an orphanage suddenly vanished into thin air."
"I-It was not me, Young Lady! I swear it! I merely nodded in agreement—"
"Eldest Brother." Ignoring the vassal's desperate plea, Lefonya turned her head back toward Habelian. "You helped plan it with them, so you know exactly who raised their voices, who dragged you in, and who gagged me, pinned me down, and forced me into that carriage. You know all of them, don't you?"
Habelian flinched violently.
Though he had been manipulated by the vassals' malice, he was still accountable for his own choices.
"So tell us, Brother. Point out who did it."
Lefonya smiled warmly, demanding that Habelian weed out and condemn his fellow conspirators with his own two hands.
"..."
For the future head of House Craitan, being forced to abandon those who had aligned with him and personally strike them down before the entire court was a humiliating ordeal. It was a brutal punishment for an heir.
A leader who cannot make sound judgments must learn the bitter truth: he will never possess the strength to protect his people.
The Duke made no move to stop her. If Habelian was to lead this great house in the future, he had to learn to shoulder the weight of his own decisions. Lowering his eyes, Habelian stood in quiet agony for a long moment before slowly raising a hand, calling out names and pointing toward several vassals one by one. With a flick of the Duke's wrist, the surrounding knights stepped forward to seize them.
"P-Please reconsider, Your Grace!"
"Young Master! You must exercise wisdom and embrace us with magnanimity!"
Lefonya watched in silence as the condemned men were dragged out of the hall, their cries echoing down the corridor. Reaching out, she gave the back of Habelian's trembling hand a gentle, reassuring pat—a quiet reminder never to let himself be swayed by others again.
Habelian stared down at his hand with glistening, tear-rimmed eyes, then hardened his expression with solemn resolve.
"I, too, shall bear the burden of my actions beside Ponya from this day forth. So you, as well, must answer for the crimes you have committed."
Several more men were dragged away, wailing in despair. The remaining vassals who were allowed to stay seated let out long, breathless sighs of relief, thanking their lucky stars that the worst had passed them by.
"B-But... how are we to discover who switched the carriage and sent the young lady to that other orphanage?" someone murmured timidly from the back.
A quiet rumble of curiosity rippled through the survivors, and Lefonya's ears perked up with sharp interest.