In the spacious room, dozens of memory stones placed upon the table were playing back the recorded scenes at double speed. Several magi were maintaining the magic required for the projection of the memory stones.
Three chief examiners sat to the side of the room, impartially scrutinizing it all.
“Re-Report!”
A loud, ill-timed shout abruptly burst into the room. A soldier, panting heavily, ran in and gave Angus a military salute.
“What is it?” Angus frowned deeply, glancing back at the soldier, who could barely catch his breath.
“Hah… There’s a private residence on fire in the West District, cause unknown! The flames have already spread to several surrounding places! We’re searching and rescuing as quickly as possible, hah…”
“Lord Angus, you really insist on handling everything personally. Should we pause this sleep-inducing scoring and let you deal with your business first?” Dorothy waved her hand, and all the projections from the memory stones froze simultaneously.
Angus’s brow furrowed further. Dealing with fires was not something he needed to handle himself, nor should it be so urgent as to reach his ears at this moment.
Even though the West District’s defense officer had died, he had already ordered a replacement. Someone else was responsible for it now.
But seeing the sweat-soaked soldier, Angus suspected there was something more to the situation.
Either the fire was not ordinary, or the new defense officer had run into trouble.
“Lady Dorothy, please wait a moment.” Angus greeted Dorothy first, then lowered his voice to question, “Is that all?”
The soldier finally caught his breath and continued, “Not only that, but we also saw a dream demon fleeing the fire at the scene and escaping into the sky!”
As he spoke, the soldier began to pant again. Dorothy snorted coldly, her arrogant gaze sweeping over Cecilia and Angus.
Dorothy had always acted arrogantly, looking down on everything, but today she was speaking even more than usual, and her tone seemed more combative and pointed.
“A dream demon? Wasn’t the dream demon that infiltrated Solus City already killed by Rita? Why has another appeared? To set fires in broad daylight—how bold.”
Picking up Dorothy’s words, the soldier, still panting, tried to answer, his words gradually becoming more coherent.
“That’s right. Lady Rita originally intended to give chase, but the dream demon was too fast and got away first. None of us could catch up, but the people nearby have already started searching!”
At this, Dorothy’s expression darkened, and for the first time, she didn’t speak after the soldier finished.
Angus’s attention was entirely on the soldier and did not notice Dorothy’s odd reaction. Instead, he was quite dissatisfied with the soldier’s disheveled appearance, but could not lose his temper in front of the other two examiners and some servants.
“Catch your breath before you speak!”
“No, nothing else!” The soldier straightened up. “Lady Rita said she’d help with the firefighting first and told me to report to Her Highness the Princess. She also said she has something extremely urgent to report to Her Highness!”
Throughout, Cecilia hadn’t uttered a word. Even upon hearing Rita’s name, she only frowned slightly. Now, hearing the soldier’s words, she realized she couldn’t stay on the sidelines any longer.
“What does Rita want to report to me?”
“I don’t know. Lady Rita didn’t say anything else, only told me to hurry and inform you, and to warn you to be very careful.”
Very careful?
The only thing—or person—she needed to be careful of here was clear.
This vague way of speaking was just like Rita’s style. It seemed Rita had encountered some trouble.
But this hardly counted as a report.
While Cecilia was lost in thought, Angus suddenly jerked his head up, staring intently into the distance. The hand, callused and worn, twitched as if preparing to grasp a weapon.
But his hand quickly relaxed, and at the same time, Cecilia saw the one who had aroused Angus’s vigilance.
The person had already arrived in front of them.
Dressed in the daily outfit Rita had given her a few days before, Rita leapt down from above, kneeling on one knee before Cecilia.
“Lady Cecilia, I’m back! There’s something I want to tell you!”
Both her clothes, her hair, and her skin bore traces of soot and singeing from the flames. She looked rather battered. As soon as Rita landed, Cecilia caught the smell of burning from her, as if there were still embers smoldering on her body.
Cecilia did not answer immediately. From the start, her attention had been focused on Dorothy. The usually nose-in-the-air magus was actually staring at Rita.
From the start, Cecilia had noticed Dorothy’s abnormal behavior, and now her reaction made it certain: what Rita wanted to report was inseparable from Dorothy.
“Are you planning to say it here, or would you rather report to me alone?” Cecilia tossed the question to Rita, but, unexpectedly, Rita tossed it right back.
“With the three chief examiners here, if the other two don’t mind listening in, I don’t mind speaking here. Lady Dorothy, what do you think?”
“Your master-servant secrets don’t interest me.” Dorothy snorted.
“Since Lady Dorothy doesn’t wish to listen, I won’t insist.” By now, Angus also sensed the subtle tension in the air.
It looked calm, but an invisible clash had already taken place in an instant.
And it was Dorothy who stepped back in the end.
“Let’s go, Rita. We’ll find somewhere quieter.” Cecilia gave the order and reached out to help Rita to her feet.
Rita rose and followed Cecilia out of the room.
No sooner had they stepped outside than Cecilia urged her on in an even tone.
“Start talking now. Tell me as we walk.”
Rita didn’t hesitate, quickly telling Cecilia all her discoveries, with only the barest conclusions.
Dorothy admitted the magic array was hers; the insect swarm was building a massive Stone Gate, with something similar beneath it; the Dorothy in the room was just a puppet…
Everything Rita should and shouldn’t know, she blurted out to Cecilia in one go.
“She’s confessed everything to me now, but I’m worried she might harm you if you’re alone with her, so I had to find you as soon as possible to tell you all this!”
Rita was speaking so anxiously, she even forgot to address Cecilia as ‘my lady.’
“Then, Rita, why did you go there?”
Deliberately mixing known and unknown clues, this was the method Cecilia used to test Dorothy—and now Rita had fallen straight into the trap.
But Rita had no better options. The only person who could restrain Dorothy was Cecilia.
Actually, she could have left without reporting to Cecilia at all; with her current status, leaving the city would just be a word.
But Rita didn’t consider it, subconsciously feeling it was more proper to inform Cecilia first.
“Um…” Rita was momentarily at a loss for words.
Cecilia kept walking, staying half a step ahead, a short distance that nonetheless made it impossible for Rita to see her expression.
There were plenty of loopholes and incomprehensible points in Rita’s words, all of which Cecilia immediately picked up on.
Though there were secrets about Rita that Cecilia didn’t know, both Rita and Cecilia had always carefully avoided them.
As long as Rita meant no harm, there was no need to be petty; if possible, someday Rita would tell her everything.
Of course, this was only a self-deceiving excuse.
But Rita was acting especially strange today.
It was as if something was pushing her forward. One could sense Rita’s sincere feelings—her concern for Cecilia was genuine—but she was more chaotic now, more at a loss than she appeared.
Cecilia had always kept an eye on Rita and could easily spot it.
Rita was flustered, maybe not as panicked as that night in Valphys, but nearly so.
Yet, even so, she came, wounded and full of holes in her story, standing before Cecilia.
“Enough.”
While Rita was hesitating, Cecilia lightly let out a few words, stopping in her tracks and turning to face Rita.
She rose slightly onto her tiptoes, reached out both hands, and cupped Rita’s face, making her lower her head and meet Cecilia’s golden gaze with her own panicked red eyes.
“In the future, you must find a chance to tell me everything about today, in detail. Understand?”
Rita nodded, just like a big white-furred dog.
“Now, we have more urgent things to do, don’t we?”
Rita shut her mouth and nodded again.
“Good. Now, let’s go back, and use the sword I gave you to pierce Dorothy’s throat, all right?”
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