21.
* * *
Ding-dong.
The temple bell signaled the evening hour.
There was no time. She had to move. She couldn’t know when a warrant would be issued for her arrest, and the divine power within the ring was finite.
If only the Emperor would overlook her escape, moved by the affection built over the years.
“……That’s asking for too much, isn’t it?”
“Why would it be too much! My shop’s discounts have no limits!”
I was startled by the answer to my own mutterings.
“Pretty miss! Come in and take a look. If you find a hat that suits you, I’ll give you a big discount!”
The hat shop clerk was busy with his solicitations.
*Pretty? Did he recognize my face?*
My hand flew to the ring before I could think.
Philomel was currently using one of its magical functions: the “presence erasure” spell. To others, her features remained blurred, making it impossible for them to recall her face clearly even if they tried.
“Hey, beautiful lady over there, come check us out too!”
At the clerk’s outgoing nature, a middle-aged woman passing by laughed and entered the shop.
He was saying the same thing to every woman nearby. It was a relief; the magic was holding.
“……A hat shop, huh.”
Inside the display case sat hats decorated with colorful feathers and artificial flowers.
She didn’t have the luxury of shopping. She needed to secure transport to Angelium and find a room for the night.
However…….
“I do need a hat to cover my face. A headscarf looks a bit tacky.”
Philomel made an excuse to herself and stepped inside.
She couldn’t hide her excitement. For the first time in her life, she was experiencing a profound sense of liberation.
* * *
“Count Polan.”
“……Ah, Young Duke Abridon.”
Nasar called out to Polan, who was walking with brisk, harried strides.
“Have you received any new information?”
When Polan shook his head, Nasar’s expression darkened.
It had been a week since Princess Philomel disappeared. Her whereabouts remained a mystery. They had managed to convince the Emperor to leave Utina and return to the capital, but there had been no significant progress there, either.
Three days ago, they had ceased the secret search and made the Princess’s disappearance public across the entire empire.
The news that the only Princess had gone missing had turned the country upside down. Yet, despite distributing her physical description and offering a massive reward, not a single trace of her had been found.
Every lead they rushed toward proved to be either a case of mistaken identity or a false report from an informant.
“Where on earth could she be? We must find her soon…….”
Nasar spoke with visible worry. The shadows under his eyes were deep. As the Princess’s fiancé, he must have been suffering immensely.
I couldn’t forget the desperation in his eyes when he first asked me to share intelligence—a frantic energy I never expected from a Young Duke who was usually so composed.
Lately, he had been living in a state of perpetual motion, traveling between the capital and the sites of reported sightings, leading his family’s knights personally.
“I understand your feelings, Young Duke, but you must take care of yourself. If you were to collapse……”
“Is there someone who has collapsed?”
I had let slip something I shouldn’t have.
“I—I meant that I feel like I’m on the verge of collapsing. I’ve had so much work lately.”
“Ah, I see. You must have a great deal on your plate as well, Count.”
Fortunately, Nasar didn’t dwell on the excuse.
“I will take my leave now. Please, if you get any information, no matter how small, let me know.”
“Are you heading to a new location again?”
“Yes. I’m thinking of going to Sangen.”
“Why Sangen?”
“They say the Solar Flare Ring only transports the user to places they have visited personally. I visited Sangen with the Princess a while ago. It’s just a guess, but…… she might have gone there.”
Nasar moved away quickly.
“I must be exhausted. To make such a slip of the tongue…….”
Polan sighed as he walked toward the Emperor’s office.
The search was one thing, but other issues were brewing. Rumors were spreading rapidly that the girl in the annex who resembled the Empress was the real Princess, and that Philomel was a fraud.
Every person Polan met subtly probed him about the gossip. Even when he dismissed it as a baseless, groundless story, they all seemed convinced.
Something was wrong.
The speed at which the rumors spread was unnatural. Now, even commoners were whispering that the Princess had run away because she had been exposed as a fake. He had tried to silence the talk, but the portraits of Philomel posted on the streets now felt like wanted posters.
Honestly, even Polan didn’t know if the rumors were true. However, he was certain that the Emperor hadn’t ordered her found so that he could punish her.
What monarch would collapse from the sheer exertion of hunting down a criminal?
Just thinking about that moment made his heart sink. Eustis had been found lying on the office floor.
“Your Majesty! Are you unwell?”
“……Quiet.”
He had regained his senses shortly after Polan’s shout, but it had been a dizzying moment. The cause was the reckless overuse of divine power.
He had thinned his power and spread it like a spiderweb to detect the unique aura of the Solar Flare Ring. How far did he think the Princess was to resort to such a dangerous method?
Ever since his wife’s death, this was the first time Polan had seen Eustis driven to such a breaking point. It was understandable, given his daughter had vanished right after the shock of encountering a girl who looked exactly like his late wife.
On top of that, there was the devastating rumor that the girl he believed to be his daughter was a fake.
Lost in these thoughts, he arrived at the office.
He heard conversation from inside—a light, youthful voice. Could it be Ellensia?
They had brought her with them because they couldn’t leave behind a girl who might be the true Princess. The Emperor had met with her several times to confirm her identity, but he did not seem entirely convinced.
“Your Majesty, it is Polan. May I enter?”
“……Enter.”
In the office were Eustis, Ellensia, and an elderly woman—the woman who had served as the Princess’s nanny long ago before being dismissed.
“Oh my! Your Majesty, this child is definitely Isabella’s daughter! She looks exactly like her in her youth!”
The nanny teared up and hugged Ellensia tightly.
They had called the nanny to verify if Ellensia was truly Empress Isabella’s daughter. With the Empress’s parents long deceased and her only sibling’s whereabouts unknown, the nanny was the only one left who remembered the Empress’s childhood.
Ellensia blinked.
“Am I really the daughter of the Emperor and the Empress?”
“Of course! Who else could be their daughter if not you, my lady?”
“I’m so happy! To think I found the father I missed so much!”
Ellensia and the nanny hugged, smiling brightly.
In contrast, Eustis, sitting a distance away, spoke with a complex expression.
“Was it the year Philomel turned nine when you stopped working here?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
The nanny answered coldly, as if the topic of Philomel were uncomfortable.
“You took care of her since she was an infant. A total of nine years. That is how long you looked after that child.”
“That is so.”
Eustis chuckled, though his face remained grim.
“And yet, you accept this so quickly. I still…… cannot believe that my daughter is not my daughter.”
The atmosphere grew heavy.
As the others gauged the Emperor’s mood, the knights burst in.
“Your Majesty. We have caught the woman you spoke of. She was discovered by an inspector while trying to cross the border gate near Utina.”
A brown-haired woman, her arms bound with rope, was thrown to the floor.
“Mom!”
Ellensia, recognizing the woman, rushed over.
“Mom, are you okay?”
Polan finally remembered her identity.
“Katherine Hownz.”
Eustis stood and approached the woman.
“So it was you after all.”
The killing intent radiating from him made everyone in the room tense.
“Ugh…….”
The woman’s face turned deathly pale.
“Dad! Please calm down. Mom is…….”
Eustis snatched a sword from a nearby knight and pointed it at the woman’s throat.
“Dad!”
“Now, tell me. Did you truly swap my daughter with yours?”
Terrified by his ferocious aura, Katherine finally spoke.
“Y-yes. Ellensia is your daughter. Princess Philomel is…… my daughter.”
*Slash.* The sound of tearing flesh and a chilling scream echoed through the room.
“Aaaaah!”
The tip of the sword had been driven into the hand Katherine had placed on the floor.
“Eek! M-Mom!”
Polan grabbed the arm of the screaming Ellensia and pulled her away.
Given Eustis’s temperament, Katherine would likely die on the spot. Even if she were a kidnapper, she was the mother who had raised Ellensia. Witnessing such a death was cruel.
“Answer me. Why did you do it?”
“Urgh…….”
There was no way a person writhing in such agony could answer.
“Why did you return evil for the grace Isabella bestowed upon you? Have you forgotten how well Isabella treated you?”
“Ugh. You…….”
The face distorted with pain managed to gasp out.
“……You! If you hadn’t…… ignored me! If Isabella hadn’t…… gone down to my hometown! None of this would have happened!”
As if the physical pain had eclipsed her fear, the woman shrieked. It was hard to find any trace of the cheerful young lady from the past in her current, demonic appearance.
The Emperor silently pointed the blade back at her throat.
“Dad! Please! I beg you, don’t kill my mom!”
Even the daughter’s tearful plea did not stop the raised blade.
Polan covered the eyes of the struggling girl so that Ellensia would not see the horrific scene.
However.
*Clatter!*
Instead of the expected death cry, there was the sound of steel hitting the floor.
Eustis had dropped the sword.
“……You do resemble her.”
He muttered despondently, looking down at the trembling Katherine.
“Why didn’t I know until now? That the child looked like you.”
He turned and walked toward the door.
“Throw her in the dungeon.”
That was the only word for Katherine.