As one would expect, silence descended over the underground room as the tears streamed down Teresa’s face. Well, only Gabriel and Alice were silent because of the tears, the little child in Alice’s hands was probably holding her breath because she had no idea what was going on or what would be happening to her now.

“…”

Gabriel and Alice locked eyes for a moment, wordlessly conveying their thoughts. It would be an understatement to say that Teresa was just one of their friends, if they could make her happy then they were willing to do just about anything. But the request she was making now…

“Teresa… It’s not that we don’t want to fulfill your request, we really do want to do whatever we can to ensure your happiness. But this…”

Alice rolled the answer across the tip of her tongue, unsure how she could best word it. They had enemies. Just the enemies she knew about were already numerous enough and influential enough to give her a massive migraine. If they included the enemies they would make, and those she didn’t currently know of, it would be enough to make anyone want to just sleep and forget it all.

“I’m not naive, Alice.”

Teresa wiped her tears with the back of her hand as she spoke. Once her face was somewhat dry, she took the little Mara from Alice’s hands so that she could take off the dress, its skirt now covered in vomit.

“I’ve trained with Gabriel, and I’ve seen enough of the world to know a few things.”

Teresa’s hand stroke the young child’s back, her mana moving as she muttered a quiet spell. A dull green light flashed between her fingers and then sank into Maraya, who quickly lost consciousness as she fell asleep.

“We… Are trying to turn an illegitimate child into a Duchess, perhaps even Empress depending on what you decide in the future. There is no world in which we can do that without bloodshed.”

Tears still marred Teresa’s face, but her voice had regained most of the strength and calmness that Gabriel and Alice were used to. An abandoned illegitimate child, the shame of the Vritara family. How many would be against such a person becoming the head of the family? Or even the empire if Alice was ambitious enough? They would have enemies, they would always have enemies, that was the nature of being in a position of power.

“But being forced to shed blood doesn’t mean having to shed pointless blood, it doesn’t mean shedding innocent blood.”

That was where Teresa drew the line. She would shed blood for Alice, she had already shed plenty of blood for Alice. But it had all been necessary, they had all been actual enemies that they needed to get rid of.

“I don’t want you to stop killing, I know that even hoping for something like that is foolish. Just please… Don’t drag in the innocent like you just did. Don’t murder those who have nothing to do with our goals, don’t torch families just because it would be the fastest way. Plan and kill properly. Only then can I follow you until the end.”

Teresa looked straight at them as she made the request, as she drew the line in the sand for all to see. Of course, she did not miss the underlying truth that rose to the surface when she spoke.

She said that Gabriel and Alice were broken, and that by being together they hadn’t fixed each other but just broken each other in different ways. But wasn’t the same true for her?

Once upon a time, she only thought about protecting her brothers after their parents were killed. She ran and ran so that she could protect them, shying away from every confrontation because it would be dangerous. She was… Peaceful. Or perhaps naive and harmless were better descriptors, she couldn’t even think about killing others.

But now, even while drawing a line, she only spoke of killing properly. How many lives were included in that one word, ‘properly’? Teresa did not know, but she knew that it would rise higher than she could ever expect. And yet she accepted it.

She had attached herself to the broken people that could protect her family, and thus she too had broken alongside them. In the end, they were all just broken in their own ways. In the end, they could only take pieces with similar edges and stick them together until they had something resembling a human.

“…”

Alice and Gabriel locked eyes again. Teresa was pleading with them so earnestly, so sincerely, that it was hard to give an answer straight away. Well, at least for Gabriel it was. Efficiency… If there was one thing he had learned recently, it was that old habits really died hard. Alice helped him become more of a person, but that didn’t mean that the person he used to be just vanished.

It was still there, lurking within him, swimming around in his stomach and heart like a shark waiting to strike. A momentary loss of focus, a slight bit of agitation, a few moments where no one was keeping an eye on him, that was all it took for those things to resurface.

But looking at the light in Alice’s eyes, he knew that she had already made up her mind. The beast within, he forced it down again. He’d met up with Alice again so the unconsciously anxious part it turned out that even someone as broken as he had was calming down again, making space for his usual cold rationality.

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Alice had made up her mind, so he, as her companion, would have to move in accordance with it. He struck for her, and he moved for her, so it wouldn’t make sense to go against her desires just because of his nasty old habits.

“Alright then.”

He exhaled a long breath as he spoke, his legs a bit unsteady as he rose, almost tumbling. He was able to maintain his expression and complexion, but that didn’t mean that the repercussions that came with over-drafting his magic had disappeared. His stomach was roiling and the taste of vomit and blood still stung the tip of his tongue as the inside of his head rang with a low pipe-like sound. But if the plan was going to change then it had to be done properly, and if things were going to be done properly then he had to set up for the changes immediately.

“Alice. For the moment, you can’t leave this mansion. In fact, you can’t show yourself at all. Neither can that child, everything that can be connected with the Kasarias kingdom must remain hidden, it’ll make it easier to combat their upcoming allegations. Teresa, within the next few hours you need to show your face outside the mansion, bring along Edith and Bellona, make it look like you’ve been teaching them recently.”

Gabriel’s mind moved fast. The fuse had already been lit, the fire was starting to burn Kasarias. The number of things he could do were limited, but since Alice and Teresa had made up their minds it meant that he had to do whatever he could to ensure that his targets, and as few as possible others, died in the chaos that was to come.

He removed the Kasarias kingdom armor that he had been wearing and switched into some clothes that were kept on hand in the underground room. He rubbed his eyes for a few moments as he had his back turned to Alice and the others, a wave of exhaustion was starting to wash over him. But he had to ignore it. Time was precious, and if he wanted to set up things properly then he was the only person on their side that could move. Forget could, he had to be the one to move.

He finished changing and put away everything that he had been wearing. He would love to toss it into the darkness with magic, but he really couldn’t cast any more spells right now. It wasn’t even a matter of wanting or not, he really couldn’t. He had not an ounce of mana left in his body, and if he used his Unique Magic to burn the world around him into mana then he wouldn’t be so lucky that he’d get away with just throwing up some blood.

He spoke a bit more with Alice and Teresa, but they were both luckily very clever so they were already focusing on what needed to be done from now on. As such, he could get away with not having to say too much, they were already somewhat piecing together his plan.

Still, his feet stopped as he was about to leave the underground room. His mind was clearer now, more focused since Alice had returned to his side and the collar had fastened itself around his neck again. Hypocritical as it may be for him to say now, there was something he wanted to say.

“Teresa. Don’t leave Edith and Bellona behind like that again, they’ll get scared on their own. And introduce that child to them when she wakes up, having others in a similar situation around will make it easier for her.”

Two little kids, left all alone in the mansion, still reeling from having taken their first life. They should not have been left alone, it was bad for their mental health. Of course, the hypocrisy spewing from him at the moment was not lost on him. He’d been the one who left them behind to begin with so he didn’t have the right to say a damn thing. But he still did.

He rubbed the corners of his eyes once more after turning around and then left, making his way through the mansion with a casual yet slightly rushed gait. He made a small snack in the kitchen and then left the mansion with swift steps, quickly chewing on the food.

His eyes were slightly sunken in due to over-drafting his magic, and because he had rubbed them so much they had turned rather red. One could tell just by looking at him that he was weary and exhausted. And looking at his casual yet rushed gait, one could tell that he was trying to hide his panic and unease by acting normal.

It was exactly the image he wanted to portray to those that were undoubtedly keeping an eye on him. After all, he was currently someone whose fiancee hadn’t been seen for quite a few days.

While maintaining this image, he mounted a horse and quickly made his way into the city. He stopped at a few shops to pick up what some would consider gifts, and others bribes. Then, while maintaining his casual hurry, he made his way to the Crown Princess palace, ‘stealthily’ sucking in a few breaths before he whispered a few words to the gatekeepers. He quietly handed over some of the things he had bought along the way to the gatekeepers, as well as just plain gold to some others.

And then the gates to the palace opened. At a glance, how could outsiders not know exactly what had gone down at that moment?

Gabriel allowed them to have their own little ideas as he entered the mansion, a butler swiftly guiding him to where the Crown Princess was.

“You’ve kicked up a right mess.”

The Crown Princess, Abigail, rubbed her forehead slightly after Gabriel sat down and everyone else was sent away. She naturally had little proof, but how could she not know that it was Gabriel who had killed the Third Imperial Prince and been active in the Kasarias kingdom these last few days? The timing was just too perfect.

And she knew Gabriel. They were separated early in their previous life, but she had still been with him for quite some time. She knew how her brother thought. And worse yet, she knew how those who trained him thought. Gabriel had acted, and both the empire and the kingdom were starting to boil over as a result.

And now he had come to find her, meaning that it was likely that his plan was entering its next stage. But his answer ran slightly contrary to her expectations.

“I’ve already been scolded for it. That’s why I’m here, I need your help.”

Scolded? Someone had actually scolded Gabriel for what he had done? Would it be Alice, or would it be one of the people working for him? Whatever the case was, Abigail was happy that there was someone out there who could have Gabriel change his mind and plans due to their scolding.

“Your father, he often puts on banquets to foster unity between all the nobles, doesn’t he? I need you to make him put on such a banquet as soon as possible. If you use the death of the Third Prince as an excuse then it shouldn’t be too hard.”

Yes, that was what Gabriel needed if he wanted to alter his plans on such short notice. Gather up the nobles of the Earhart Empire, put them all in one room for the world to see. After that they could proceed a bit more freely with the killing, keeping it strictly necessary this time.