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n

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nDalia spoke to Hikan, and Adrisha went to speak to the Emperor separately.

nHikan hurried to the Imperial Palace at the behest of the Emperor. There will probably be a long meeting. In the meantime, Dalia could not be left alone, so the Emperor sent Cedric.

nSoon Cedric arrived at the Pesteros mansion in an imperial carriage.

nHe got off the carriage and kissed the back of Dalia’s hand briefly as she came to meet him.

n“Are you okay, Dalia?”

n“Yes.”

n“…… Well done. I’m glad he didn’t touch you.”

nHe said as he fiddled with Dalia’s hand as if it were complicated.

n“I asked my mother just in case, but she said she couldn’t remember.”

nDalia didn’t understand what he meant until a while later.

n“……Oh, that, her favorite book?”

n“Yeah, that.”

nShe was so in shock that she completely forgot about that.

n‘Come to think of it…… I was tasked in reconciling Her Majesty with Lady Beolde…….’

nNow that Aceras has come to the capital, it has become a trivial matter.

nHowever, she thought that it would be better not to say that, considering Cedric who had been thinking about it.

nDalia glanced up at his face.

nSomehow his expression looked dark. Was it such a shocking incident that Dalia ran into Aceras?

nShe asked cautiously.

n“Did something happen?”

n“…… Nope. I have a lot on my mind. We can’t stay here forever, so let’s go inside.”

nDalia nodded.

n

nCedric sat opposite of Dalia in the drawing room. And he briefly apologized.

n“I’m sorry for delaying my promise, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean to put it off.”

n“It’s okay. What made you to hold it off?”

nDalia asked without thinking. Cedric hesitated for a moment, then he said.

n“I was concerned about your matters and my mother’s mood is getting worse these days.”

n“Is that so?”

n“Yeah, she doesn’t come out of the room at all, and she often cries…….”

n‘Isn’t that a big deal?’

nBut she couldn’t say anything about other people’s parents carelessly. Dalia just looked at Cedric with a look of helplessness.

n“I’m thinking about several possibilities. There’s no reason for her to behave like that all of a sudden.….”

n“…… several possibilities…… ?”

n“There are many people who aim to be the Empress of the Empire. Poison, mind magic, hypnosis……. There are many ways. My father is paying attention too. Besides, Aceras is also in this Empire…….”

nCedric looked into the air with a look that felt somehow frightening.

n“As expected, everything is pointing to one.”

nIt was only in recent weeks that Siord’s depression worsened.

nThe progress was too fast. Other external pressures were involved in her mind.

nWho is it?

nThe imperial family seemed to have just found the answer.

n“…… Then why don’t you tell Her Majesty the Empress?”

n“Well, my father had already tried it once…… People usually get angry when you say that their own feelings are because of external reasons. Especially when their mind is as weak as my mother right now. Besides, she doesn’t even try to listen to us.”

nThe situation was more serious than expected.

nDalia was silent. She instinctively thought of Aiden’s reaction.

nObviously, he initially referred Aceras as ‘someone who helped him’. But then he changed his words and said, ‘I don’t know’.

n‘If he could do something similar to Her Majesty the Empress…….’

nDalia’s mind became confused.

nHowever, it was too early to raise this hypothesis. She needs a little more information.

n“I’m sure she will be fine soon.”

n“Yeah, it should be.”

nCedric spoke briefly, in a tone with many implications.

nAnd he showed Dalia a portrait. He was a cold-looking young man with unusually long green hair.

nWhen he was asked who he was, Cedric answered.

n“If it was really the Holy Empire that touched my mother, he was presumed to have entered this Empire with Aceras. His name is Kelsion.”

nDalia stared intently at the portrait.

nGreen hair, plus long hair wasn’t common. So, as soon as she heard the name, Dalia remembered him.

nKelsion was a character who occasionally appeared as a supporting character in the original Aceras route. His role was to dig into Adrisha’s trauma under Aceras’s order.

nDalia, who looked at the face silently, said in a heavy tone.

n“Do you think it’s this person?”

n“With high probability.”

nDalia raised her head.

n“If that’s the case, I think I can help.”

n* * *

nCedric suddenly had an absurd expression when Dalia proposed to go to the third annex of the Imperial Library.

nBut he agreed without asking anything.

n“Because I trust you.”

nHe said that.

nThe third annex of the Imperial Palace Library. It was where Beolde’s letter was hidden.

nAt this point, there was a reason why she suddenly resumed looking for the letter.

nDalia recalled in the original that Adrisha did not succumb to Kelsion’s brainwashing at the end.

nHer trauma was in the past.

nHowever, in the Aceras route, Meldon dies because of the war that Aceras has caused, and just before he dies, he tells Adrisha to accept the past.

nBecause Adrisha overcame the trauma with those words, she didn’t fall for the brainwashing.

n‘Rather, it was Kelsion who failed to brainwash, suffered a severe blow to his mind.’

nKelsion’s power redirects to himself if the other person does not listen.

nIt was a very risky power.

nIt seemed that Dalia would never understand, either now or later, the fanaticism of using it solely for one person.

nAnyway, Kelsion’s brainwashing is essentially in a way that provokes people’s trauma. So, what is the Empress’s trauma?

n

n“I think everyone is telling me that it’s my fault.”

n

nBeolde does not resent the Empress. She continued to care for her sister in her own way.

nLooking back now, the reason why Beolde brought up the letter to the Empress just before her death is probably because she wanted to let the Empress know about it.

nAs Dalia appeared in the original, the original content was twisted.

nBut the past has not changed.

nDalia wanted to convey that fact to the Empress a little earlier.

n‘If things go well, it may help the relationship between Her Majesty and Sir Cedric.’

nThe Empress was ill and lying down, but fortunately, it wasn’t that she didn’t have any hints at all.

nHer Majesty’s favorite book is a history book. And it’s also the imperial family one.

nUsing that as a hint, Dalia decided to move.

nHer heart was pounding with excitement until she entered the third annex of the Imperial Palace Library with Cedric.

n“…… There are a lot of books here too.”

n“…… It is a little too much.”

nShe ran into an unexpected difficulty.

nSince it was an annex, there were at least thousands of books, although there were fewer books than the main building. Among them, there are more than 200 books dealing with the history of the imperial family.

nThinking of going through all this made her think that it was not something to do now that she was in a hurry.

n‘Should I ask Lady Beolde?’

nBut it was doubtful that Beolde would remember the book now.

nMoreover, it didn’t seem right to go looking for Beolde again now.

nDalia wanted to give up in an instant after imagining herself taking a ladder and looking through all of the libraries from the top one by one.

nShe murmured, drooping her shoulders.

n“I thought I could be of help…… I must have made a wrong plan”

n“……What were you going to do?”

n“Finding a letter stuck between books…….”

nDalia pouted.

nCedric stared at her and suddenly tapped her protruding lips with the back of his hand.

nDalia covered her mouth with her hands, surprised by the unexpected touch.

n“That, that surprised me! What are you doing?”

n“…… Sorry. Because you’re cute.”

nThat’s an excuse that doesn’t make sense at all.

nNo matter how serious the situation was, it couldn’t be let go.

nDalia put her hand on her waist and said, with a stern look on her face.

n“Then since Sir Cedric is cute, I can slap your lips too?”

nCedric’s reaction was not what she expected until he spoke. And he said exactly that.

n“I like it. I want you to hit me.”

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