With a light cough, she spoke earnestly. Marquis Raeven’s eyes widened and had light of surprise in them. However, those eyes returned to normal once he calmed down again.
“My wisdom. If it’s a problem that you cannot solve… I’m not sure if I can be of any help.”
“I don’t believe so, Marquis Raeven. After all, concerning matters within the palace, there is no one more talented than you.”
Marquis Raeven and the Prince shared a glance.
Renner almost never participated in the power struggles. However, what did she mean by “matters within the palace”? Marquis Raeven chuckled. When you are lacking in information, it is better to gather more rather than guess and come to a wrong conclusion.
“So how may I help you?”
“I wish for you, the hidden leader of the Royalty Faction, no, the one who controls the Royalty Faction from the shadows, to lend me your household troops.”
"...What?”
Marquis Raeven made an expression as if there had been a magical explosion right in front of him. Anybody would have been surprised if they were here. After all, Marquis Raeven was not a man who easily changed his expression. However, he could only react like this. If it was any other noble, he would have laughed it over. But this was a long concealed truth.
Marquis Raeven had for a long time been considered a rat who would go between the two factions as it suited him, but in reality he commanded the Royalty Faction and prevented civil war from breaking out. If the man called Marquis Raeven had not existed, the Kingdom would probably have already collapsed. On the side, Zanack held his breath.
He already knew Renner was incredibly smart, a monster with the shape of human. But without anyone to act as her hands and feet, she was in a way imprisoned in the palace. How did she come to that conclusion? In the entire Kingdom, Zanack had been the only one to deduce that. Both people immediately thought that she might be bluffing, but abandoned the thought immediately. From Renner’s tone, nobody could imagine that she is lying. Both were constantly dealing with people who were full of lies, and they were still unable to determine if she was lying or not. Renner ignored the flabbergasted Marquis and continued her story leisurely.
"...Perhaps I need to confirm it with the other great nobles in the Royalty Faction, but Marquis Volumlashu is leaking information to the Empire. If so…”
“Wha, what?”
“Wait a second!”
Even louder than Zanack’s cracked voice, Marquis Raeven raised his voice.
“Marquis Volumlashu…”
“You know, don’t you? That’s why you were making sure that the Marquise didn’t get access to too much information.”
Both men looked at Renner with their mouth gaping open.
Renner had murmured this with the same unchanging expression, daring them to prove her wrong.
“You, what…”
Forgetting even her title as princess, Marquis Raeven was in state of panic.
Marquis Volumlashu was one of the six Great Nobles and only Raeven and Zanack knew that he was an informant. The only reason Marquis Raeven had tolerated that traitor was to maintain the power balance between the factions.
Thus, he concealed this fact to the Noble Faction and made sure that not too much information flowed towards the Empire. He had accomplished this in complete secrecy thus far. Zanack only knew of this because the Marquis had told him. Then how did this little bird in a cage manage to deduce this answer. Just the mere thought of how she had achieved that gave Zanack goosebumps.
“How did you learn all that…”
“It gets mentioned here and there. Maids also speak of it sometimes.”
How trustworthy would the maids’ stories be, Marquis Raeven still could not believe it. Especially if his past memories served him right, he could understand what she meant by deducing it from what maids were talking about. In a way, this woman in front of him had sifted through piles of garbage to piece together a jewel.
“—a monster.”
A comparison truly worthy of women such as Renner flowed out his lips. Despite hearing a rude comment, Renner simply smiled. Marquis Raeven abandoned all thoughts he previously harbored.
She was worthy of being treated as an equal. His memory had indeed been true.
"...Very well, everything I know, I shall be sharing with you. Is this fine with you, my Prince?”
After confirming that Zanack had approved, Marquis Raeven sat straight up, facing Renner head on. His attitude was similar to Gazef facing an opponent.
“However, I would like to speak to the “real” Princess Renner.”
“What do you mean by “real”?”
Renner asked as if question was strange.
“In the past, I saw a girl. A girl with powers of observation that I could not even hope to match, a girl who spoke of things so complex, I could not comprehend. Of course when I had finally figured out the meaning and the value of those words, a long time had already passed.”
Marquis Raeven’s soliloquy continued in silence.
"...A girl who spoke something incomprehensible, that’s how I evaluated her. Even though I only thought of her like that, it felt as if I was facing a dangerous person.”
“A dangerous person?”
Renner asked quietly.
“Yes. Because it had been so brief, I simply thought it had been just my imagination. But I had truly felt that. Empty eyes that were thinking nothing of the world and holding only contempt for other humans.”
Marquis Raeven’s shoulders shuddered in response to the chilly atmosphere that filled the room.
“By the time I saw that girl again, her aura matched that of any other girl of her age. So I thought I was mistaken back then… I truly wish to ask you, Princess. I wish to know if my suspicion that you have deceived us so far is true or not.”
Two pairs of eyes collided with each other. It was as if two snakes were tangled in a fight to the death. Then suddenly, light from Renner’s eyes disappeared. Marquis Raeven made a nostalgic smile as if he had just witnessed a scenery from his distant memory.
“Ah… to think it had been that long…”
Zanack shed cold sweat at the scene of his sister turning into an ugly and dangerous monster that still had a smile on her face. He had already had a clue what kind of hideous true self was lying beneath that beautiful face. His assumption that she wanted to grasp power and destroy the Kingdom had been incorrect, but she was still a cancerous being of a completely different level.