No matter how one looked at it, it didn’t seem like Kairi was saying this because he himself was sick.
Watching him closely, Liselotte could now roughly predict Kairi’s behavior.
He was frightened, but it didn’t seem like there was actually anything wrong with his body.
‘To be scared just from hearing Diana’s name…’
Since his speech was still clumsy, his words shouldn’t be taken at face value.
Liselotte slowly soothed him, calming him down as she asked,
“Kairi, do you know Diana?”
“No.”
“What is Diana like?”
“No!”
Seeing how he shook his head much more violently than before, it seemed that Diana had done something to him.
Had Diana hurt him directly? Or did it mean something else?
‘If I teach him a bit more language, the outline will become clearer.’
This was thanks to the time they had bought through evidence preservation on the eastern side.
Liselotte casually asked Hedmilton,
“The Central Court still hasn’t set a hearing date, right?”
“Yes. If we do not submit a separate rebuttal brief, it should be set within one or two weeks?”
“Patch together what I wrote before and send it. Let us drag things out a bit longer.”
“Yes. That sort of thing is exactly my specialty.”
Hedmilton saluted smartly, like a knight.
At a glance he didn’t look particularly valiant, being a civil official rather than a military one, but at least when it came to handling work, there was nothing to worry about.
While dragging things out, it seemed good to teach Kairi a little more.
Just a little longer.
It was, after all, a battle against time.
Of course, she had no intention of just teaching Kairi in the meantime.
‘Could there be something in Gelloa village connected to Diana?’
No matter how much she thought about it, there had been nothing to find in that village except ashes.
Not only Liselotte, but even Valen had failed to gain any meaningful results.
Then suddenly, Liselotte recalled the metal pellets she had accidentally stepped on among the ashes.
“You know, Eren. What did you say metal beads are usually used for?”
“Places where items or people need to be counted. Merchant groups, or… something like that.”
At the time she hadn’t realized it, but thinking back now, the countless human-shaped piles of ash looked like experimental subjects burned to death.
Judging by what she had seen so far, there was almost no chance they had been people capable of proper thought or speech.
They wouldn’t have been able to ask for help, and since it was a secluded place, locking them up and burning them would leave no trace at all.
Liselotte gently stroked Kairi’s back and quietly asked,
“Then… what about a place where there are many people, but suspicion would not easily arise?”
At her riddle-like question, Eren seemed to ponder.
“…A shop, or a restaurant.”
“Me, me! Me too! I want to do it too!”
Hedmilton, who had been watching the situation with only his eyes darting around, suddenly raised his hand and jumped in.
“An academy or an educational institute too!”
“Even in the East, would an academy not be a bit excessive for a small, secluded village?”
As soon as the contradiction was pointed out, Hedmilton shook his head.
True to someone from the East, he seemed to know a great deal about the matter.
“Why do you think people say the East is such a good place to live? With just a little work, food is plentiful, so there are plenty of spare hands among the children.”
“Normally, academies are established by the Temple with Imperial approval.”
“Rather than a formal academy… It would be more like the wisest elder in the neighborhood teaching basic things. That is why people from the East often attend academies even if they are not nobles. If they show promise, the village sends them.”
Liselotte lightly snapped her fingers, cutting him off.
“That is a very good guess. Then one more. A place where people could disappear in large numbers without being noticed?”
“Uh, then an educational center would not work…”
“Right. They would have parents, relatives, even friends connected to them.”
Apparently thinking he had the right answer, Hedmilton awkwardly smacked his lips.
At the same time, as if something had occurred to him, Eren’s voice turned cold.
He spoke a single place, low and firm.
“Poorhouse.”
Faced with the difficult word, Kairi showed no reaction.
But Eren explained with certainty.
“It would not be strange for children and people to gather there, and it can be established without Imperial approval.”
“That is true. More than anything, even if one or two people disappear, no one would know.”
Only then realizing it, Hedmilton rubbed his chin and nodded.
“Indeed… the East generally receives plenty of food aid, so there are many poorhouses. At least the chances of children going hungry are low in those places.”
“And if children disappear or die, there is no aftermath.”
The pale light in Liselotte’s eyes settled calmly.
Diana had been adopted as well.
If she had come from a collateral line, it would certainly have been marked as registration, but adoption meant that at the very least, she was a commoner.
She wasn’t even an illegitimate child.
If she had been an illegitimate child to begin with, there was no way people who loved spreading rumors wouldn’t have known.
‘Even Valen, who had been her fiance for quite some time, seemed to have had no idea at all.’
To adopt someone while avoiding others’ eyes, there was no better means than a poorhouse.
With near certainty, Liselotte asked again.
“Hedmilton. How many poorhouses are there in the East? Do they keep any records, by chance?”
“Well… if it is a poorhouse run directly by the Temple, there would be records, but most of them are private, so it would be difficult to track down even the ones that have closed.”
“It would be hard to operate it as openly and officially as the Temple does. Is there no other way?”
After finishing his assessment of the situation, Eren quietly gave her a heads-up.
“The Imperial Family would know.”
“My father?”
Perhaps because he was a tricky opponent, Liselotte’s eyebrow twitched instinctively.
Eren nodded.
“Every year during the Founding Festival, the Imperial Family sends gifts to the poorhouses.”
Ah, her father was a bit of a burden…
Especially since he also served as ruler, there were more than one or two uncomfortable points.
If the Perida Emperor was burdensome, there was only one way.
Grinning, Liselotte asked Hedmilton in a low voice,
“Other than the documents from the Central Court, did anything else come specifically to me?”
“Ah, there is!”
After rummaging through his belongings, Hedmilton handed over a letter from the Imperial Palace.
Valen’s name was written on it in plain sight.
When she opened the letter, contents that looked as though they had been written in great haste caught her eye.
[Liselotte, it is me.
Hose Gloria’s family register. Have you seen it? Diana is listed as adopted. Not registered, but adopted! I am telling you as soon as I heard. You do not have to thank me. You have not heard anything else additional, right?
-Your one and only elder brother.]
There was no catching up later than this.
If he knew, it wasn’t news Liselotte wouldn’t have already heard.
Still, she smiled brightly.
“That kind of initiative. Not bad.”
Unfolding a fresh sheet of letter paper, she wrote the contents with unusual care.
Compared to before, when she had nearly omitted even names, it was so meticulous that she almost looked like she was writing to a friendly acquaintance.
After folding it neatly with sharp creases, Liselotte handed the letter to Hedmilton.
“Send it to my brother. As quickly as possible.”
“Yes!”
Hedmilton answered briskly and accepted the letter with due respect.
***
These days, Valen’s mind was wavering.
At times, the sense of betrayal he felt toward Diana made him suddenly clutch at his own head, while at other times, he felt relieved that he had at least managed to stop himself partway.
“Haah… thirty years’ worth of poorhouse aid records that we provide every year during the Founding Festival? Is she out of her mind?”
Reading the letter Liselotte had sent, complete with a heart drawn on it, he grabbed his head inside his office.
“Ah, she seems to have better judgment than I do. That stings my pride.”
He felt proud of his younger sibling, yet at the same time, he thought himself pathetic.
When she had been throwing tantrums indiscriminately, his heart had burned, but his head had at least been a little more at ease.
He let out a deep sigh.
“She must be looking because of Diana, right?”
The problem was that information on private poorhouses wasn’t very accurate.
Even the Imperial Family had merely sent support in accordance with the requests submitted by each region.
If House Gloria had been determined to hide Diana, would they have applied to the Imperial Family in the first place?
He too had found the East unsettling and had been conducting his own investigation.
Valen flipped through the piles of poorhouse aid documents from the past thirty years stacked high on his desk.
“Is it really going to come out of here… huh?”
As he skimmed through them absentmindedly, his gaze stopped in one place.
Straightening his posture, Valen began turning the pages more quickly.
Staring at a particular entry, he muttered to himself,
“What is this place, requesting support and then suddenly disappearing?”
