Ledger
"Some ropes save you. Some just pull you closer to the edge."
Neril was waiting when Medea stepped out of the prison gates.
"You seem in good spirits, Your Highness."
Medea blinked at her."Why do you think so?"
"Your face is brighter than usual."
Under the pale moonlight, Medea’s white face did indeed seem faintly luminous. Beneath the exhaustion there was something else—an almost overwhelming sense of quiet triumph.
"Yes. We had an unexpected harvest today."
"You were impressive last night, Neril. Thanks to you."
"Not at all. I merely followed Your Highness's orders."
Flustered by the praise, Neril’s hand drifted to the sheath at her hip, fingers briefly tightening around the hilt.
Medea exhaled, a thin mist in the cold air.
The leash the Minister tried to fasten on me to keep himself alive... ended up being the key to my own fate.
'No wonder it was so hard to coax out of him.'
For men who dare to write their names on a plan for rebellion, failure leaves only one ending: death.
If I were in my uncle’s position, I would have wanted to cut away those “grey elements” to keep the core intact.
But he never imagined that evidence would become my leash on him.
"I think I can bring down the Prince Regent with this."
Evidence of betrayal did not come clearer than a signed agreement to overturn the crown.
"Once the verdict is out, it will be difficult for public opinion to side with the Duke."
If she wished to uproot Claudio's influence entirely, there could be no more complete, irrefutable proof than this.
Neril slipped her sword fully back into its sheath with a soft clink.
"Your Highness, allow me to retrieve it."
The Minister had confessed that he’d hidden the document somewhere inside Count Etienne’s estate.
"There is a magic circle in my office that links to the place where the report is hidden. But there are risks..."
His earlier warning surfaced in Medea’s memory.
"No. I’m going as well."
Neril’s brows knit.
"That’s not possible. The timing and the location are too dangerous for you, Your Highness."
Neril’s expression hardened, her usual gentleness replaced with a soldier’s resolve.
"We have to move before the Count’s estate is sealed off. There’s no time to waste."
The interior of the Minister’s mansion—once a proud Valdina family residence—had been remodeled several times. It was a maze, deliberately inhospitable to intruders.
That was precisely why they had agreed to keep the “receipt” hidden there.
"The same danger applies to you, Your Highness."
"No. I know how to get in and out."
"I’m familiar with the inside."
"Familiar...? How?"
Neril frowned, but Medea only gave a small, bitter smile.
In my last life, after I stole the Philosopher’s Stone, I slipped out of the palace to reunite with Jason.
We hid in the Minister’s mansion, evaded Peleus’s pursuit, then fled together to the Empire.
The one who suggested that hiding place was Uncle Claudio.
I truly believed he was helping me escape.
I never realized I was moving according to their script from the very beginning.
"Are we leaving tonight?"
"Yes. My uncle will know the report is there. We have to get to it before he can move."
Neril nodded once, decisively.
"I’ll take you to the mansion."
"Be properly armed, Neril."
Medea’s eyes dropped to the sword at her maid’s waist.
"We may have to use that tonight."
Close to midnight, a small carriage slipped quietly away from a side gate near the royal palace.
Rose-White Mansion, Second District
Inside the high walls of the Rose-White Mansion, a brutal scene unfolded beneath the training grounds’ lantern light.
Two men clashed swords, steel ringing against steel in rapid, punishing succession.
"Haa... haa..."
Heavy breaths mingled with the shrill, grating scrape of blades.
Alpha did everything he could to avoid being driven backwards across the slick, rain-damp ground by Cesare’s relentless assault.
Gallo stepped out from the inner corridor, pausing to watch the fight.
If the curse weren’t eating away at Cesare’s body...
Alpha wouldn’t even have room to catch his breath.
The moment he picked up a sword, the match would already be over.
At last, Alpha’s blade flew from his grasp with a sharp clang, skidding across the floor.
"My lord... I yield."
Cesare nodded once and jerked his chin toward the fallen weapon, signaling him to pick it up.
"News from the palace."
Gallo approached, expression uncharacteristically serious, a folded newspaper tucked under his arm.
Sensing the shift, Alpha quietly withdrew from the training grounds.
"Speak."
"The Queen Mother had Etienne moved to a special prison," Gallo reported."The Duke found out too late. He tried to intervene, but not only was he blocked—he’s now barred from entering the palace at all."
On the front page, a caricature of the Prince Regent being turned away at the palace gates spread across half the paper.
"The Princess brought the Queen Mother in and cut off the Regent’s plea entirely. She’s isolated Etienne completely."
"It seems she never intended to listen to him in the first place."
Terence approached them, carrying a teacup filled with bitter-smelling medicine.
"There was also an attack on the Minister in the special prison," Terence said quietly."I suspect the Princess is behind the entire sequence of events."
Cesare tilted his head slightly.
"And?"
Terence massaged his brow, as if weighing his words.
"I'll be blunt. You’ve spoken well of her, Cesare. You rarely do that."
"But you know what I am prepared to do. If she ever stands in your way—I will remove her without hesitation, no matter how generous you’ve been with her."
Cesare had precedent. When the old gods who’d raised him turned on him and tried to depose him, he had cut them down without a flicker of hesitation.
"What are you trying to say, Terence?"
"Only that the Princess should not be an exception."
Terence started to say more, then shut his mouth again.
Does he realize? That he’s already showing a side of himself to the Princess that he’s never shown to anyone else?
Unexpected variables are always dangerous.
"Forgive me. That’s all."
The heated training hall seemed to cool by a few degrees.
"My interest in the Princess is because of Valdina’s Venus," Cesare said flatly."Nothing more, nothing less."
Terence opened his mouth, then closed it again.
Cesare turned away.
"Gallo. What of the Book of the Sage?"
Gallo, who had been glancing nervously between the two men, straightened quickly.
"I investigated. The Prince Regent doesn’t have it. He passed it to the Minister to bury what happened at the last banquet."
"So it’s at the Count’s estate now?"
Gallo nodded.
Cesare rose to his feet.
"You’re not thinking of going yourself, are you, Boss? Alpha and Zeta are already set to retrieve it."
"I agree," Terence added."You had a seizure not long ago."
None of it slowed Cesare.
"Leave my life in someone else’s hands? No."
"I’m going."
"It’s dangerous. The Queen Mother’s shadows slipped into Valdina recently."
"They’ve been tracking us persistently. It looks like they’ve finally pinpointed where you are."
Cesare laughed under his breath, low and sharp.
"Then I suppose I’ll get to see some very happy faces tonight."
A faint, reckless composure touched his features as he started toward the exit.
"Really? You want to walk straight into their arms? You know how tenacious they are. They know you're here—why do you think they haven’t stormed the façade yet?"
"They’re waiting for you to come out!"
But Cesare was already walking away.
"Damn it, he never listens. Let’s go with him!"
Count Etienne’s Mansion, Late Night
Behind the high stone walls of the Rose-White manor in the Second District, the night was anything but quiet.
Lanterns burned along the walls. Groups of armed guards patrolled in tight formation, boots crunching in near-perfect rhythm.
Security was heavy, even at this hour.
[Your Highness, I’ll draw their attention.]
They had waited a long time, watching from the shadows, but the guards showed no signs of thinning out. At last, Neril broke the silence.
Medea gave a short nod.
Neril moved like wind. In a heartbeat, she scaled an opposite balcony, using the window frames and carved stone as footholds, and disappeared up toward the roof.
Rustle.
"Did you hear that?"
"Sounded like it came from over there."
While Neril led the patrol away along the outer eaves, the knot of guards peeled off to investigate the noise.
In the fleeting gap they left behind, Medea slipped through a side entrance like a shadow and vanished into the depths of the mansion.
Her destination: the safe room where Etienne’s most damning secret—and her uncle’s leash—waited in the dark.
The Hunt for the Report Begins ## The Shadows Converge
Two paths cross in the dark. One seeks destruction. The other—salvation.
But only one can claim the prize.
[ To Be Continued ]
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