Episode 38
“Hmm?”
“Wait a moment, Mom. Why are you bringing up something that’s already over?”
“I… I’m not entirely sure what a truth serum is, though.”
I rolled my eyes to the left and pursed my lips.
Cici is just a pure, innocent child; she wouldn’t even know what that is.
“Yuria.”
Harzen’s father, who had been quietly reading beside me the whole time, chimed in, seemingly puzzled.
“You put truth serum in the cookies? Where on earth did Cici even get something like that?”
“I agree logically. But otherwise, there’s no way the culprit would confess so easily—”
Mom paused for a moment, then added in a subtly mysterious tone:
“You should have seen Cici’s expression at the Empress’s palace earlier.”
My expression?
Why her expression?
“Well, um…”
Mom made an awkward face and continued.
“It was exactly like the expression she makes when she’s lying to cover up a mistake.”
“Oh.”
At the same time, Harzen’s father nodded knowingly, as if he fully understood.
So that was why he had been staring at my face earlier… not because he sees it often, but because he’d figured it out.
“So, are you saying that Cici deliberately put truth serum in the cookies and made the maids eat them?”
Father tilted his head slightly and added:
“That’s quite a perfect summary.”
“But I still don’t understand what Cici could have known to do something like that.”
“That’s true, but…”
Mom looked at me quietly for a moment, then carefully placed her hands on my shoulders and spoke gently.
“Cici, if you’re hiding something, will you tell me?”
“Hmm?”
If the situation allows it, I am ready to tell Mom everything.
‘The situation won’t allow it, though.’
The terrifying scroll screen I had just seen flashed through my mind.
“…I don’t understand what you’re saying, Mom.”
I muttered softly. Mom’s face darkened slightly, and she spoke firmly:
“Cici, you mustn’t lie to me. Why did you put truth serum in the cookies? What were you thinking? What could you possibly know?”
I instinctively shrugged my shoulders at her insistent tone.
“I think I can explain that.”
Suddenly, a deep voice came from behind Mom. I slowly lifted my head and looked at the person who had approached us.
“Grandfather…”
“The one who put truth serum in the cookies wasn’t anyone else—it was me.”
He lightly patted my head with his palm as he spoke.
“Then I entrusted the cookies to the child, instructing her never to eat them, only to share them with the maids in the Empress’s palace.”
I stared at him in surprise. He had given me the Verbeum, but surely he didn’t know what I did with it. Yet somehow, he seemed to have understood everything.
“Your Majesty.”
Mom quickly stood and bowed in greeting. Grandfather waved his hand in acknowledgment and continued:
“Didn’t you say that someone may have deliberately injected malice into the Empress? You were trying to identify the culprit, weren’t you?”
“……”
“This child only distributed the cookies as instructed. She did nothing wrong.”
“But her expression seemed like she was hiding something…”
“She must have realized halfway what I had done with the cookies. She is a remarkably clever child, isn’t she?”
Grandfather glanced at me as he finished speaking. I looked back at him with genuine gratitude. Even knowing I had put truth serum in the cookies, he protected me by lying directly for my sake.
Truly a king of hearts…
“Then, Cici, if you noticed it, what gave you the confidence to eat the cookies? How did you know the truth serum wouldn’t work?”
“W-Well—”
I darted my eyes around, trying to think of the best answer.
“I had eaten cookies before and still lied. I said Grandfather told me to eat them when I was hungry…”
“……”
“So you actually ate them after all.”
Grandfather dismissed my lie once again, playing it off casually. To become an emperor, must everyone be so adept at lying? Now, even I began to feel that what he said might indeed be true.
“I had prepared the antidote, but it seems she didn’t need it at all.”
“……”
“Anyway, since she ate the cookies, there’s no need to suspect her further. Yet, judging by how much you were pressing her…”
His distinctive blue eyes scanned Mom and me in turn.
“You already knew the truth serum wouldn’t work on Cici”
I was surprised and glanced at Mom.
Could it be she already knew I have her abilities too?
But if that were the case, she would have trained me properly.
“This must be related to her biological father.”
Grandfather’s gaze briefly met Harzen’s father’s, then shifted away, signaling disinterest.
“I understand, Your Majesty. But—”
Mom spoke calmly.
“It might be presumptuous, but in the future, please tell me first. Especially when Cici is involved.”
“……”
“I will. I apologize for this time.”
Grandfather then deliberately turned his gaze to Harzen’s father.
“My apologies to you as well.”
“It’s fine. Please stop.”
Father frowned and replied sharply, muttering repeatedly before finally sighing in exasperation.
I raised my eyebrows at the bickering duo. I wonder how long this will go on.
“…Let’s leave that story here.”
After a short pause, Grandfather changed the subject:
“The culprit’s last words were said to be rather unusual.”
“Oh, yes.”
Mom nodded once.
“The last statement was interrupted, so we couldn’t fully understand it, but the earlier words were strange as well.”
I suddenly recalled the culprit’s words. It had slipped my mind amidst the confusion.
“It’s all for the world.”
Combining this statement with the scroll and the incomplete follow-up,
‘The culprit was speaking for the sake of the original story, or rather, the world itself.’
Since this is a fictional world, the original story is essentially the world. The culprit’s phrase “for the world” likely meant “for the sake of the story’s flow.” Injecting malice into the Empress was part of that plan.
‘Then, was the Empress originally destined to die, a fate even Mom couldn’t prevent?’
Perhaps that fate was twisted just enough to make Mom momentarily harbor murderous intent?
‘But the side story wasn’t completely blocked, so she waited quietly?’
Was there really no direct connection between the deaths of the Empress and Mom? Or perhaps…
<You will soon—>
The last words the culprit uttered before collapsing flashed through my mind. The censorship that followed indicated that they were probably about to reveal Mom’s death.
‘But how did they know that?’
Could there be others, like me, who can see the scroll screen?
