Lionel's Point of View

Gwenore had gotten permission from the king to kill us? Don't mess around. Had that maid 9 years ago in Salender Mansion been an actual assassin then everything would have turned out quite differently.

Furthermore, she would have been far harder to kill than what I could have mustered as a child.

"That doesn't make sense, Princess. If the king had truly accepted such a demand then Gwenore should not have had to act herself to poison us."

Emilia probably misunderstood something-

"It's not that strange,"

Unexpectedly Lily is the one that interrupts me.

"I assume that Prince Azure's location wasn't worth enough to risk Normand's hostility in case he found out, so they probably provided Gwenore with everything she needed and used her as a disposable tool? Finding out where she got the poison, still doesn't leave proof back to the crown."

Her voice is cold as she looks to Emilia for confirmation... and gets it.

I feel my stomach sink and twist into a pit of bitterness.

Why is it like this?

Weren't we the only ones that the crown liked?

Weren't we the exception?

Had Alstair known about all of this? Even back then?

No. Alstair never pushed me away and he never really seemed interested in Bertram... but he could have been acting. He could've known about all of it.

"However, we digressed from the main topic. Lady Tepet, would you please continue?"

I jolt at Lily's words as she tries to direct the conversation back to Ellie's story. As much as I want to hear the ending of that too, there is something I need to know before that.

"Wait. Princess Emilia, what happened to the Headal Prince?"

We are visiting Headal for peace negotiations. If we have any hints of the prince's location then we might be able to use this to extend a minimum time for the peace treaty.

Emilia, that had been watching us curiously now stares quietly instead, without giving any answer... at least her gaze moves around a bit in the room here and there, but she leaves us with a painful silence.

Bertram lets out a deep sigh, like his heart is about to break. While on the other side of Reynold, I can still see him slumped over with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, like part of his world just crashed together.

We... never knew much about Gwenore. We never really knew why father picked her up either since she had no family or contacts here. When Bertram had gotten old and brave enough to ask none of us really had any answers for him. While he is our beloved brother, he's still the bastard son to the people looking in. He never had anything about his family from Gwenore's side. This is probably the most that we've ever known about Gwenore, and there's even a hint of where he would find more.

Wait, if Gwenore was a nursemaid to Prince Jacques, then that should make her a noble rather than a commoner as we had thought. I never actually saw her use magic, so we had mostly just concluded that she was just a commoner.

If that is the case, then it might actually be quite possible for Bertram to find family of his mother in Headal if they escaped King Philippe's wrath back then.

"We don't know."

The thoughts are ended by Emilia's rather belated answer.

"Gwenore gave Prince Azure to a merchant couple moving away from the Tepet lands, they say. The royal spies lost track of the baby, and Gwenore died without becoming a ghost so it couldn't be confirmed by her."

...lost...?

They were so interested in that child, how in the world did they lose him?

"They said that the spies got killed by powerful mist ghosts when the couple traveled next to the Plymfell swamplands to get to the harbor city. Both scouts and Headal ghosts lost track of him during that."

...so in the middle of fighting they all forgot the most important thing? No, the monsters that haunt the Plymfell swamplands so often have the ability to sense or even kill ghosts. That place is a hazard, and back then it was horrid. We've spent a good deal of resources recently on making that path even somewhat safe against monsters so that we could receive even some of our resources by boat.

"...by 'merchant' do you perhaps mean 'baker', Princess Emilia?"

Lily's question comes out with palpable irritation as she sips her tea. Still, a baker? What about all of this made her think that the couple would be a baker?

They're far from rich, and wouldn't make for good people to communicate with via letter either.

"How did you know that, Lady Lily?"

Emilia's voice rises in wonder and her eyes widen like little teacups in amazement.

Wait, is this a part of the game?

I look to Lily, but she's now forcing a polite smile at us.

"A gut feeling. But, with this Azure would have the last name 'Baker'. To think Prince Azure would become Azure Baker instead. Ah, but I guess they would have changed the given name."

...her voice is dripping with insincerity as she says this. It sounds an awful lot like she's mocking someone.

Her artificial polite smile fades as she reaches her now empty tea cup back up towards Asher.

"Refill it."

Asher on the other hand stares blankly at the sudden attention, but rather calmly lets Lily order him around and fills it up without complaints.

"Um, Lady Lily, I am afraid I do not quite understand," Emilia admits as Lily gets her tea back.

"I was merely mocking the coincidence that my guess would be right. More importantly, if you have information from Headal's side on this, then you've already received a request from Prince Jacques, yes? If he has Princess Catarina, then why has he not found his brother himself?"

...A guess? If she's refering to the creator of this world, then she isn't she basing that guess on the game?

From what I know about the game, this Prince wasn't mentioned. The only thing I know is that Headal was planned to fall.

That and... Something about Claire flirting with men. That said, it's not like there's any men Claire have been near with purple eyes. Alstair would have been quite displeased about it.

He wasn't happy about Asher being Claire's childhood friend either...

...

"...Princess Catarina is unaware of Prince Azure's existence... Any information of Prince Azure has been drawn out of her already."

....wait, what? His existence even? That's not normal. If he's important enough for the king to let Gwenore kill us over and for Prince Jacques to remember and look for even now, then how can the creator of that work not know of his existence?!

"I see. Then, let's move back to the original topic."

Mother perks up from being in deep thought.

"Yes... uhm... where were we? Ah, yes, Gwenore's arrival... as you know, the next year Lionel and Alstair were born. The next year Elizabeth was born. She was kinder than Alstair, and generally more light hearted. We always thought of her as less intelligent than Alstair... she always seemed gullible. I didn't expect her to end up like that..."

Mother brushes her own arm as if to comfort herself.

"At the time I was staying back here in Castle Tepet while Normand was in the capital. What I know is only what Normand told me back then when he came back... shaking."

Mother looks straight at Emilia, studying the young girl thoroughly as she continues the story.

"It started a little past midnight. The king and queen were visiting the mansion and were sleeping over as they had done many times before. According to Normand they'd spent the day playing and talking with Elizabeth, fearing that she was lonely since Alstair moved out. While Elizabeth and Alstair has two even younger siblings at the time, they were still babies.

As an extra playmate they'd brought Gilbert along...

Gilbert was the first one to notice Elizabeth walking around the mansion in the middle of the night. The living room fireplace was turned on, and apparently they'd just talked a while before Elizabeth stabbed him with the fire poker.

There was no scream. She made her way to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and tricked the guard that found her and... stabbed his throat. Then made her way to the king and queen's bedroom. Normand woke up to the sound of the Queen's scream of pain. By the time he made it to them Elizabeth had sunk the knife into the King's thigh before he held her down. The queen was panting desperately while clutching her stomach too."

Mother pauses to shake her head.

"Little Gilbert tried to protect Elizabeth near the end, but Normand had to cut her down as she started up the ghost field. Gwenore's poisoning started shortly after that."

Mother finishes the story... but I- I cannot imagine Ellie like that. She was far too innocent to go around and suddenly begin to murder people.

"...it was an alibi," Emilia says quietly.

"The one that killed the guard in the kitchen was Gilbert. The guard found Ellie trying to get to the knives. She swung the knife at the guy, and Gilbert took down the guard to defend Ellie. Gilbert was stabbed by Ellie to make an alibi for him, both in case it went well, or if it went badly. Gilbert woke up too fast and saw Ellie die by Normand's hand."

Gil did?

"Why? Gil was only six at the time, something like that is unreasonable..." I reply carefully to Emilia's story.

"Gilbert's parents brought him to the torture chambers the first time when he was only a few weeks old. They had him kill someone the first time when he was two. Someone incapacitated, of course, but it escalated quickly. From the time Gilbert turned five he was being used as a political tool and as a murder delivery tool. They tried to get him used to the life as heir of House Salender, so that he would never hesitate, since House Salender does a lot of these things. If it was something he grew up with then it would hurt less. Something like that. Of course they succeeded. His betrothal to Ellie was the only pure thing in all of that, so he clung to it."

Gil... he went through something like that? He never really showed or spoke of anything like that. No. Of course he hasn't. Who would ever tell anyone about that. Emilia pauses and then looks directly at mother.

"Ellie was special. Ellie was the first child blessed by faeries of darkness to ever attack first. They had defended themselves many times, but they had never attacked first. It became what fully convinced Normand that he was doing the right thing... And Gilbert was the one who had taught her to fight back as they grew up, so that they'd always stay together."

Emilia is... like a bundle of knowledge you didn't know that you didn't want to hear. Her words are so plain, that she may as well be repeating the words from a book. It is unsettling to hear her speak so casually about things that have ruined someone's life.

I feel like I've heard too much within so little time that I simply don't know how to process it all.

I vaguely remember that Gil started changing around the time Ellie died, but it's hard to know how he truly felt about everything. Even more so now than ever...

"Thank you for explaining. Princess Emilia, Lady Tepet."

Lily stands up quietly.

"If you'll have me excused, I need some time to think."

Our eyes meet for a moment, and Lily looks quite tired. Yet... she quickly looks away.

...Then leaves.

[AN: with this, a little side track is completed! More or less!]