CHAPTER 90…………………………….
Kyle’s expression was grave and resolute.
“I’ll discuss everything with you from now on, and I’ll follow your lead.”
In that moment, Everett wanted to ask—
Did he somehow know that she had gained Anishu’s foresight?
“My lord Kyle, why have you suddenly made such a decision?”
She asked, though she already knew what his answer would be.
The night before, she had read through Arcana that another change was about to happen.
But that wasn’t the only reason.
From the moment they met in the underground prison, she had sensed something strangely different about him.
‘Is he trying to become more like the original version of himself?’
Kyle’s words to Angelus suddenly came back to her.
Angelus, I will become Emperor.
His gaze, deeper and more piercing than before, burned as if to devour her whole.
His strong Adam’s apple bobbed heavily.
“Everett, I will become Emperor.”
Everett let out the breath she had been holding.
Where had things first gone differently?
Was it because she had struggled to resist the fate of being the first villainess doomed to vanish?
Or because she had used tarot cards identical to Arcana’s before anyone else could?
Lost in thought, she lowered her gaze.
Kyle did not press her; he simply waited in silence.
As Ruber’s memories resurfaced, Kyle resolved to take the throne.
It wasn’t because he longed for past glory.
It was because he needed strong power to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
He had lost Anishu through his own arrogance.
In this life, he would never lose someone precious again.
That was his only reason.
Kyle’s eyes shone with unyielding determination as he looked at Everett.
“My lord Kyle….”
Everett had asked Arcana countless questions and heard many prophecies.
But, as always, the choice had been hers to make.
“I don’t believe the future is fixed. Everything changes depending on each person’s choices in every moment.”
Her answer sounded almost like a riddle.
“I don’t regret the first choice I made here. And I won’t regret the choice I make now.”
Everett reached out her right hand toward him.
“I… will make you Emperor, my lord Kyle.”
A bright smile spread across Kyle’s face.
“But Everett, why are you holding out your hand…?”
“Take it like this, the way I’m doing.”
Kyle looked baffled, never having known what a handshake was.
Everett clasped his hand and shook it up and down.
“What does this mean?”
“It means a contract has been made.”
Kyle tilted his head in puzzlement but soon followed her lead, shaking her hand and laughing heartily.
“Everett, what do you plan to do about your fortune-telling work from now on?”
He asked while watching her steep fresh tea in newly boiled water.
“I’m still thinking it over. Since I don’t have a building anymore, I’ll either need to rent one or build one….”
“Everett, I’d like you to reveal to Alp and Lady Charlet that you are Naz.”
“Why?”
“I don’t believe the explosion at the tarot shop was just coincidence.”
Kyle spoke carefully.
“Worse dangers may come. I understand you don’t want your identity exposed, but your safety must come first.”
“……”
“I think it might be best for you to do consultations under Lady Charlet’s patronage.”
“In the Glass Garden?”
“Yes. You’ve attended gatherings there, haven’t you?”
“Yes, a few times, at gatherings Lady Charlet hosted.”
She had been wondering how best to meet nobles from here on.
“Since I’ve decided to join forces with you, I should tell them as well.”
“Right? Then perhaps we could all have dinner together?”
In the middle of their conversation, Kyle suddenly stood and held out his hand to her.
“The weather’s nice. Why don’t we walk there slowly? By the time we arrive, it should be just about dinner.”
Everett blinked wide-eyed.
“Right now? You mean, to Lord Kiyor’s house?”
Kyle nodded innocently. Clearly, he had planned this all along.
“My lord Kyle, what if I had refused your proposal, or said I didn’t want to go to dinner?”
Kyle smirked and lifted one corner of his mouth.
“I knew Everett would never say that.”
His voice brimmed with certainty.
For some reason, Everett felt heat rise to her cheeks.
Pulling their hoods low, Kyle and Everett headed toward the alleys skirting the square they had once walked together.
The western sky was slowly dyed crimson.
“My hair color stands out too much. I’ll have to use magic to change it or something.”
Kyle grumbled, pushing back the hood that kept falling into his eyes.
“It is noticeable, yes… but it’s beautiful.”
Everett spoke as she looked up at the sky.
“Just as we think of the reddening sky at sunset when we speak of twilight, when people think of Bartman, they think of red hair first. Red is vibrant and captivating. Just like you, my lord Kyle.”
Her calm words.
But Kyle’s face, though fixed straight ahead, turned as red as the sunset.
Worried she might notice, he tugged the hood he had just pushed back even lower over his face.
“You’ve traveled a lot as a knight of the enemy, haven’t you?”
“If it wasn’t a forbidden place, I’ve been there at least once.”
“Then you must have gone to the eastern region too.”
Kyle nodded.
“They say the east is the continent’s breadbasket. Is it truly that rich?”
“Hmm… I never went to the grain fields themselves, but compared to other regions, it’s more abundant, yes.”
“You once said your mother was from the east, when you sang me that lullaby.”
“That’s right. She came from an old noble family of the east.”
“Then your maternal family must still be there?”
Instead of answering, Kyle let out a short sigh.
“They were, once.”
“Once…?”
Though his face was hidden beneath his hood, she sensed his mood had turned dark.
“My mother passed away early. I don’t remember clearly, but I must have been four or five.”
“Oh… I’m sorry.”
“No, I meant to tell you someday.”
“Was she ill?”
“That’s what I believed until a few years ago—that she died of illness.”
“Was there another reason?”
“I believe… she was killed.”
Everett looked at him with wide, startled eyes, not knowing what to say.
“I have almost no memory of her, so I don’t feel sorrow. I’m fine.”
“Still….”
“I wasn’t sad, but when I heard the truth, I was enraged. To think the one who dared kill an Empress still lives comfortably.”
Though his voice was calm, his eyes trembled with unrest, belying his claim of not feeling sorrow.
“What angers me even more is that they didn’t just kill my mother, but massacred her whole family.”
“What? Massacred…? You mean everyone was killed?”
“Yes. Every last one of them.”
It was a tale that made one’s chest ache just to hear.
Even if he claimed no memories, Everett couldn’t help but pity the way Kyle spoke so indifferently of such a tragedy.
“Did they think it would make you stronger someday?”
How long had he carried such pain, buried so deep?
How many days had he suffered from a wound that festered and hardened, only to reopen again?
His detached gaze pierced Everett’s heart.
“Perhaps. My mother’s family was one of the oldest noble houses representing the east.”
“How could such a great house be wiped out? Wasn’t there really a single survivor?”
“They struck on the day of a family gathering. In an instant, they slaughtered not just my mother’s kin but even the servants.”
Everett had been planning to investigate whether the famine had its roots in the east.
She had thought Kyle, with his network of informants across the continent, might know something.
Now she felt as though she had asked a question she should not have.
“You know I receive regular reports from the informants I’ve planted everywhere, yes?”
“Yes, you’ve mentioned it.”
“A few years ago, I heard something new.”
At first, it had been a vague hope.
That perhaps, just perhaps, at least one person had survived.
And if not, then at least someone who remembered the family’s last moments.
After much searching, Kyle had found someone—an old woman who had occasionally worked at his mother’s household.
“But she was far too old.”
“Does that matter?”
“She remembered almost nothing. She couldn’t even recall the family name. But she did remember one thing.”
“What was it?”
“She said she saw the youngest master escape.”
“The youngest… uncle?”
“My mother had several brothers. The youngest of them.”
At the time, he had been in his mid-teens.
No one knew how he had escaped the massacre, but the old woman had spoken with certainty.
She had seen him, looked him in the eye, and deliberately kept silent so he could flee.
Kyle let out a dry, bitter laugh.
“But I couldn’t bring myself to believe it.”
“Why not? Didn’t she say she was sure?”
“When she finished her story, she held out her hand.”
Kyle mimicked the old woman, extending a trembling hand.
“‘I’ve told you what you wanted to hear. Give me a gold coin, so I can at least buy myself a drink.’”
“Ha….”
Having listened with such tension, Everett let out a weary sigh.
