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“P-P-P-Prince Ivan, by any chance, do you... r-r-r-remember me...?”
“It has been a long time, Miss Oksana. It is good to see you again.”
Seeing Oksana’s face brighten with a beaming smile should have made me feel a bit better, but I don't know. Looking at the state of those leaflets scattered across the table, it was hard to smile.
Leaning my shoulder against Valentin, I swallowed a groan of pain and gestured with my chin toward the leaflets.
“Did you come here to show me those?”
“There were other matters as well. Well... a bit of both. Ah, Miss Oksana. Let me pour.”
Ivan took the teapot, which was trembling precariously in her hands, and poured black tea into our cups. Then, he spoke as if in passing.
“Father collapsed, Lara.”
“...”
“He has regained consciousness, but his health is not good. For the time being, my elder brother and Tanya will handle the state affairs on Father's behalf.”
It must be because of the propaganda. I recalled my mother mentioning that Father had been under severe emotional distress lately. My heart felt heavy, feeling that I had also contributed to his peak mental and physical instability.
“How is Makhachkala?”
“It's chaos.”
After taking a light sip of tea, Ivan left a compliment for Oksana, saying, “The taste is wonderful,” and then remained silent for a long while.
Oksana, her eyes darting around in the strangely quiet atmosphere, finally blushed after a long moment.
“T-Then... I shall take my leave, so please call me if you need any help... Your Highness Ivan.”
“Of course. Thank you, Miss Oksana.”
At Ivan's response, Oksana smiled with a look of sheer joy and left the bedroom.
'With a reaction like that, there's no way Ivan doesn't know how Oksana feels about him.'
However, as a member of Horgan, Ivan would know that Oksana was his half-sibling. Yet, he didn't let that fact show in the slightest, and as if he had been waiting for the door to close, he spoke.
“The chaos is only momentary. We've suffered through hell all this time for a day like today. Right, Valentin?”
I looked at Valentin, who was focusing on the disinfection. He gave a small smile and spoke in a somewhat exhausted voice.
“The Holy See will soon issue a statement. Following that, the information collected and recorded by Horgan will be released—including the terrorism led by Libertan and the casualties, testimonies on the damage and side effects of the Messiah illegally distributed within Makhachkala, and evidence of trafficking children from the orphanage and commissioning the assassination of several of the government's own children.”
Human trafficking... and fratricide?
I reflexively looked at Ivan, who shrugged as if it were nothing. Was it not Ivan? It was highly likely. According to Valentin's memories, Libertan's initial plan was to put Ivan forward as the next Emperor.
Then what about Oksana? Since he said 'several'... Libertan's illegitimate children might not have been just those two.
Furthermore, what was this about human trafficking? The thought that Fedora might have been sold to Libertan sent shivers down my spine.
“Rumors will swell slightly in social circles, but they won't last long. Starting with Nikitin, the houses of Tolstoy, Pushkin, Dmitriev, and Illin will send out invitations to balls so luxurious they'll make people's heads spin. As they get drunk on wine, music, and conversation, they will naturally realize: there is no one left in the heart of Ohala to aid Libertan.”
“...Are they just rumors?”
“Yes, rumors. They must be rumors.”
Yes, they certainly must be. Because the justification for treason must not be legitimate.
Suddenly, the conversation I had with Ivan at the Imperial Ball came to mind.
[You might not have known... but some nobles have been complicit in his treason until now. Their own justifications are quite plausible. At first, they questioned Father's origins, and later, they doubted the qualities of the heirs.]
Now, every sentence of those words made sense.
A father who ascended the throne with a half-blood origin.
And Libertan, who harbored a grudge against such a father.
He gathered chess pieces who were willing to give their lives using social reform as bait, slowly destroyed everything around Vasily to mold him into a tyrant, and sought to wipe out all his biological children except Ivan to achieve moral flawlessness.
'Horrific and persistent.'
How long had he spent meticulously preparing this?
If Valentin hadn't been here, could we have ever escaped this trap? That, too, was an achievement reached through repeated frustration and death. Yet, Valentin himself had not been able to fully escape the cycle of repeating lives.
'I wish I could be of help.'
Hadn't my exceptional memory been useful during the public prayer service? If this ability was no longer useful, I could utilize myself in other ways. For instance, by exploiting Libertan's particular obsession with Princess Larisa.
“What. Are you worried they'll point to you as his biological child?”
Seeing me lost in thought, Ivan suddenly said something out of left field. Uh, well, I hadn't been worrying about that, but it was true that the moment I heard it, I started worrying, so I nodded.
“Yeah.”
“The possibility is quite high, but I guarantee it would be a moronic move. It would only prove that he is the worst piece of trash, abandoned even by his own child. Oh, and this.”
He handed me a pristine book without a single crease.
“The translation of the 《diary of Roo》 I received from Igor. If there is anything you want to tell him, write it and leave it by this evening. No later, because he has to head back as soon as the sun rises.”
I opened the translation and looked inside. However, no matter how much I searched, I couldn't find a single common note.
“There was no letter?”
There was no way he wouldn't send one. Igor and I were just beginning to get to know each other. Considering his usual nature, there was no way he wouldn't reply to my letter.
At my puzzled question, Ivan shrugged while staring at the distant wall.
“Uh... well... probably?”
Was there one or not?
Ivan's reaction was a bit ambiguous, but the reality was that I hadn't received a reply from Igor. I was a little—no, quite—disappointed.
'Is this a signal that he doesn't want to be any closer to me? But Igor was the one who carried out the translation... if he was delivering a book like this, he surely would have left a brief greeting.'
The atmosphere between us had certainly not been bad. Or had I made a mistake without realizing it?
While I was reflecting on my time with Igor, Valentin snatched the translation from me and tossed it into a drawer. Then, as he finished the treatment, he spoke.
“There is likely no one who understands and has delved deeper into Roo than I have. If you are interested, I will give you a brief lesson whenever you have some free time.”
“...Really? I'd appreciate that. When would that be possible?”
“Anytime after you return to the Imperial Palace.”
In the first place, the reason I tried to look into that holy relic was because of Valentin. Because there might be an important clue regarding his repeated regressions.
'If Makhachkala is in turmoil, Igor must be overwhelmed as well. I should contact him again once I return to the Imperial Palace.'
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