Chapter 24
While the maids were cleaning the room, Lia was in Kartian’s chamber.
She could not remain in a place where blood was still present.
“Lia, are you okay?”
Kartian carefully watched her as she sat in a chair.
“What is there not to be okay about?”
Lia spoke indifferently.
To be honest, she felt somewhere between okay and not okay.
Seeing a person die right in front of her was more shocking than she had expected.
At the same time, something bothered her.
At Kartian’s words, Freya had acted as if she were taking the maid’s side while insisting she had nothing to do with this matter.
From the beginning, there had been no proof that Freya was related to this incident.
Lina, the only possible witness, died insisting it was entirely her own plan.
Still, something felt off.
No matter what, Lina had been Freya’s maid.
It was hard to believe she had made such a plan completely on her own.
You did not have to openly order something to be a conspirator.
Even giving subtle hints that led to such actions was enough to count as involvement.
It was only a feeling, but Lia somehow thought Freya might have done that.
Perhaps it was because she remembered the later part of the novel, which she had not paid much attention to before.
Her thoughts about Freya had completely changed.
At first, she had focused more on her own ending than on Freya’s ending in the novel.
After that, she had only thought about being deposed and leaving the Imperial Palace, without considering what would happen afterward.
But now that she thought about it, something about Freya troubled her.
Perhaps, even before Lia possessed this body, Freya’s schemes had played a role—along with the Emperor’s attitude—in pushing Liarna into that situation.
Thinking that way made her wonder again:
Then who was the real protagonist of this novel?
No one had received a truly happy ending.
— That’s right. It never reached a proper ending. Everything became tangled.
At the sudden voice that interrupted, Lia frowned slightly.
It had entered so naturally that for a moment she wondered if she had misheard.
She was sure she heard it, yet she could not tell whose voice it was or who had spoken.
Right now, only she and Kartian were in this room.
It was not as if she suddenly had the ability to read someone else’s thoughts from somewhere far away.
No— even if she had such an ability, the way that voice had interrupted was strange.
It was as if it knew her thoughts, as if it understood the question she was asking, and agreed with her.
What in the world is this now…?
Lia’s expression grew more confused at the thought.
