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3:00 AM. Normally, this would be the time I'd be fast asleep, but not anymore. I let out a sigh, pressing down hard on my eyes, which felt stiff and strained.
"Haa."
Damned scraps of paper.
My head felt like it was about to explode from spending two straight days scrutinizing nothing but blueprints. Comparing blueprints was a far more tedious and cumbersome chore than Duchess Illyn's explanation had made it seem.
Many buildings didn't have basements consisting of a single floor, and even those that did often had such large sites that they were split across several pages. Seventy pages in name, but in reality, I had to examine 160.
However, the fact that the workload had doubled was merely tiring; it wasn't the real problem. The real issue lay elsewhere.
'As I thought, it's not here.'
Something was wrong.
According to Duchess Illyn's explanation, at least three and at most six out of a hundred pages should have been candidates. Yet, among the 160 pages I checked, not a single one had a layout identical to Libertan's stronghold.
Not a single one.
Had I been too arrogant?
"Aigoo, are you finished for the day? Well done."
Chenko burst through the door without knocking and gave a half-hearted round of applause while slouching in a chair. Unlike me, who had grown haggard over the last two days, Chenko's face was glowing with vitality. Finding his appearance irritating for no reason, I answered with my face buried in my hands.
"I finished yesterday. I was just checking one more time."
"Haha. Truly impressive! Not only did you verify everything in a single morning, but you even skimmed through them again? As expected, Her Imperial Highness is different from us commoners. A fool like me wouldn't even finish half of it even if I stared at them all day. Haha."
The exaggerated praise, delivered as if to a child, no longer registered in my ears. Just looking at Chenko's incredibly lighthearted attitude, I could tell he didn't trust my memory.
'A child...'
I recalled the warm gaze Duchess Illyn had cast upon me.
In her eyes, I was nothing more than a fragile, unfortunate, and immature seventeen-year-old woman, no different from Oksana. Someone to be protected and watched over—which was why, even if the family's secrets were revealed, she intended to soothe me with a few words...
'Ah.'
Oh, so that was it.
"It was a fake."
My eyes closed instinctively.
I didn't sigh, but a throbbing pain began in my head, so I pressed the bridge of my nose firmly with my fingertip.
'Right, it was a fake. It was a fake... Why didn't I think it could be a fake? There's no way I'm wrong.'
There was no way 160 blueprints were all fakes. Only one—the layout of Libertan's stronghold—must have been a fake. That very structure I had carved into my mind for two days, to the point where it felt like my own home and bedroom...
"What are you thinking about so deeply?"
"...I was thinking it might be easier if I just became the bait to lure Libertan out."
"Ho. That's a decent move. Though the day the Boss allows it will never come."
I crumpled the false blueprint into a ball and threw it at Chenko.
"Describe what the real layout looks like, other than this fake one."
Chenko unfolded the paper, checked the fake blueprint, and looked back at me. Look at the positioning of those subtle features. My intuition, honed as Valentin, told me he had definitely noticed something.
"I'm not sure what you mean."
"Didn't you say you couldn't even keep up with half of my progress even if you looked all day? Just tell me honestly."
"Uh, that was obviously a joke, right? I don't get involved in brain-work. You told me it was the worst efficiency and wouldn't even show it to me."
I didn't have enough time to despair over Chenko's uselessness.
Although Valentin hadn't given me a direct hint, the fact that he sent Chenko to me meant that the day for the final showdown with Libertan was fast approaching. He had increased my chances of survival by giving me one more move to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
I paced around the office, calmly organizing the situation.
'First... I have to persuade the Duchess to give me the real blueprints.'
I closed my eyes and let my mind race for a few minutes.
I swallowed another sigh.
'Can I even persuade her?'
Sure, if I took a long time, I probably could. But as I said, time was not on my side.
Duchess Illyn had protected Oksana for seventeen years, and she looked at me with eyes similar to how she viewed Oksana. It would be difficult to break through a wall hardened by so many years.
Furthermore, she was a complete stranger, making it hard to gain the understanding and empathy of a family member, as I had with my siblings. Recently, I had even forced myself to attend public prayer meetings and suffered a gunshot wound, so her trust in me had hit rock bottom.
'Still, I have to persuade her.'
This way, that way, like this, or like that.
I drew several scenarios, but none of them were completed properly. It was only natural, having stayed up for two nights.
I stopped pondering and left the office. Chenko, who had been following me silently, asked:
"Where are you going?"
"To the Duchess's office."
"Uh, she's probably asleep by now. Shall I wake her?"
"Don't. She must be exhausted."
Duchess Illyn had likely stayed up longer than I had.
Before entering the Duchess's office, I went to find Oksana.
"I'm glad you're awake, Oksana. I'm going to sneak into the Duchess's office now. Will you come with me?"
As always, she had been deeply immersed in a novel and sat up with startled eyes.
"Do... do you need something? I'll wake Mother."
"No, it's better not to wake her."
If I woke her, I'd eventually have to persuade her. And I found the process of persuasion incredibly tedious. Perhaps reading a level of determination in me that couldn't be stopped, Oksana's voice became even more cautious.
"May I ask what this is regarding?"
"I received the wrong blueprints. Thanks to that, two days of effort became an illusion."
Oksana, who had been assisting Duchess Illyn and me in place of a maid for the past few days, seemed to understand roughly what I meant by the blueprints.
"But if the blueprints disappear, Mother will notice... It might be better to just wake her..."
"They won't disappear. I'm going to memorize them all before I leave."
Though she hesitated, Oksana couldn't refuse my request. Naturally, there was no one in this castle higher in rank than me.
The Duchess's office was dark.
Chenko, who had moved the 160 blueprints for me, began sweeping up the new blueprints around the desk. He had a look of excitement on his face, as if he were enjoying doing something wicked.
"Should I take them all?"
"No, about 160 of them. I'll memorize the rest."
"Haha, this many? You truly are impressive."
He still spoke to me as if I were a child, but it didn't matter. After scanning various parts of the office, I found the item I was looking for the moment I reached the desk.
No, I couldn't help but find it.
'This is it.'
It was crumpled to the point of looking like a rag, showing just how much it had been handled.
'It's not vastly different, but it's definitely different.'
The number and position of the rooms. The number of doors.
I examined the structure of Libertan's stronghold in detail. If my eyes didn't deceive me, it was definitely a familiar structure.
"Your Highness, sh-should I help him move all the blueprints over here?"
"...No, that's enough."
The last two days really were a waste of time.
Still, looking on the bright side, I could say it was a relief that I didn't waste even more time on something like persuasion. If I didn't have a final trump card that rendered persuasion and trust meaningless, this moment would never have come.
That card was authority.
"Chenko, could you bring the Duchess here? Something important has come up."
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