"???"
Bernadette was, unusually, at a genuine loss. "You know... what, exactly?"
"Hmph! Still won't admit it? You have some nerve — daring to seduce and deceive a princess of the royal family! Should I have someone deal with you right now?!"
"???"
This time it was Vincent who was completely blindsided. What is happening?
Bernadette narrowed her eyes and worked it out. "I apologise, Your Highness. I'm not quite sure what you're referring to."
"Oh? Then tell me — why are you living where you are? Where is the female detective who used to live there? What is your relationship with her? Why did Ophelia come to you first, and then you turn up as a public prosecutor, suddenly her colleague? Did you have designs on her from the very beginning?"
Bernadette answered each accusation in an even tone. "That detective was a friend of mine. When she left Backlund, the flat stood empty — so I moved in."
"Is that right?"
Edessak stared at her coldly for several seconds, apparently calculating something. Then, without warning, he dropped the subject and glanced at his butler. "Bring Ophelia out."
"As you wish."
Shortly after, the butler appeared with Ellie — dressed now in an elaborate gown, her appearance every bit as refined as her station demanded. She kept her gaze down the entire time, unable to bring herself to look at Bernadette.
"Bang!"
Edessak struck the table again. "Ophelia! This is the man you've set your heart on?!"
Vincent: "What the—"
When did this happen?
Ellie shot Bernadette an imploring glance and murmured, "I'm sorry, brother."
"If word gets out — that a princess of the royal family invented some story about working as a lawyer and then a prosecutor just to spend time with a man — do you have any idea what that would do to the Augustus name?"
"...I'm sorry. It's all my fault."
"Apologising fixes nothing! If this reaches Father's ears, do you think he'll accept an apology?"
Ellie looked up meekly. "Then... what should I do?"
"How should I know?! Ask him!"
Edessak pointed at Bernadette.
"Then... may I speak with him first?"
"..."
Edessak was visibly trembling with rage. He seized the coffee cup and hurled it at the floor. "Get out!"
"Come on."
Ellie grabbed Bernadette's wrist and all but dragged her from the room.
The moment they were gone, the fury on Edessak's face dissolved as abruptly as it had appeared. He pressed his hands together and leaned back on the sofa without a word.
His butler spoke quietly. "Your Highness — the story should be circulating by tonight."
"Mm."
Edessak closed his eyes. "Every person needs to believe that whatever Ophelia was investigating last week was entirely incidental — a pretence she invented to spend time with that man. That she found nothing. Knows nothing."
"Understood."
Edessak rubbed his temple wearily and stood. "Where is Trissy?"
"Taking a walk in the garden."
Bernadette and Ellie walked side by side across the estate lawn. Ellie kept her eyes on the ground, silent.
It was only when they reached the edge of a glassy, mirror-still lake that Bernadette prompted her. "Ellie — is there something you want to say to me?"
Ellie hunched her shoulders. "I'm sorry, Charles. I didn't mean to hide it from you."
"I'm not talking about your identity. I mean what your brother said..."
Ellie's face flushed scarlet. She stumbled over her words. "It's... Edessak assumed I left to work as a lawyer and then a prosecutor just as a cover story for spending time with you. As in... going on dates."
"And you went along with it?"
"I — naturally I denied it at first! We just worked some cases together. But then Edessak threatened to have you thrown in prison, and I had to... change my story."
"I'm so sorry. I've made trouble for you."
Ellie stared across the lake. "I thought I could do something meaningful for Loen. But in the end I accomplished nothing." She smoothed her hair. "Edessak's forbidden me from going out and getting involved in any more cases — he wants me to be like the other noblewomen, just attend balls and salons."
Then she lifted her chin, just slightly. "But I'm not giving up. Father actually praised me when he found out what I'd been doing."
"..."
Vincent said quietly within her mind, "I think this is probably the real reason Edessak 'kidnapped' Ellie. He was afraid that if his sister kept digging, she'd end up touching things she shouldn't know about."
"Mm."
They said nothing more on the subject. They walked a slow circuit around the lake, and then Ellie said apologetically, "One way or another, this whole mess is my fault. Once my house arrest is lifted, dinner is on me — I owe you."
"All right."
Bernadette nodded, then added: "Stay away from that other woman."
"Hmm?"
Before Ellie could make sense of it, Bernadette had already turned and was following a steward named Walter toward the manor gates.
"That woman back there..."
Vincent was thinking through how to frame what he wanted to say. He strongly suspected that Trissy's sudden strange behaviour had been a partial descent — or at least a channelling — of the Primordial Demoness through her.
Otherwise — Trissy at this point in the story was at most Sequence 6. How could she have broken free of the Chessboard of Ages and grabbed Bernadette's wrist before Bernadette even had time to react?
"The feeling she gave off was very similar to Bonnivale," Bernadette said, voice serious. "Even more unsettling, actually. And the source of it seemed to be the sapphire ring she was wearing."
Vincent said, genuinely alarmed, "Bonnivale is a Sequence 2 Angel. Something even more unsettling than that — we're talking Sequence 1, or possibly... a deity. And she said she'd 'found us.' Does she mean she's detected the secret we're carrying?"
The Primordial Demoness didn't get much page time in the original, and what little there was focused mainly on the Great Smog and Trissy's revenge that destroyed one of George III's mausoleums.
Bernadette's brow creased. "The Primordial Demoness?"
She glanced down at the cross on her wrist — back to normal now. Right. Even the True Creator had stirred in response to whatever just happened. It very well could be that deity.
Tch.
This man was practically a beacon for evil gods. How many was this now?
Bernadette's knowledge of the Primordial Demoness was limited. What she knew of the Demoness Sect was mostly that they tended to leave disaster and death in their wake — and, more recently, she'd read Father's rather characteristic commentary on the subject in his diary:
"The Demoness's taste is really quite something."
She pulled her thoughts back into order. "If that's the case, that girl may hold a very particular status within the Demoness Sect."
No deity could descend casually. A vessel had to either be born with characteristics naturally suited to that deity's nature, or be deliberately cultivated over time. The Aurora Order's endless dark rituals were essentially attempts to manufacture the right conditions for the True Creator's descent — and even all that careful engineering had been outdone by what Lanevus stumbled into by accident, producing not just a god-child but making himself an ideal vessel in the bargain.
As a rule, once you'd gone to the trouble of cultivating a vessel of this quality, you protected it with everything you had. So why was the Demoness Sect allowing this particular vessel to wander around in the household of a Loen prince?
The only explanation Bernadette could arrive at was a deal between the Demoness Sect and the Loen royal family. More precisely — George III, working toward his Black Emperor ascension, had cut a deal with the Primordial Demoness.
That conclusion settled heavily. The power already concentrated in the Loen royal family was enough to leave her feeling helpless on its own. Adding the Demoness Sect on top was simply overwhelming.
"I think we ought to think about our own situation first," Vincent said, cutting through the spiral. "Having a deity take an interest in us is not a good development."
"It wouldn't be the first time," Bernadette replied calmly. "You already have the True Creator's favour. Perhaps another one will follow."
"That's not the same."
The True Creator was, in a strange sense, something like a fellow traveller — hearing Katyusha had been enough for Him to extend some measure of solidarity. And at His core, the True Creator was a face of the Ancient Sun God, who by all accounts had been a genuinely decent being.
The Primordial Demoness was an entirely different matter. Vincent had no reason to think her attention would bring anything good.
"I think we need to find a new place to stay."
"Agreed."
Bernadette moved to a secluded spot, stepped through the spirit world, and returned to their lodgings. The moment she emerged, she glanced toward the sofa with restrained frost: "Mr. Z — the next time you come to see me, I would appreciate it if you didn't help yourself in."
Mr. Z was dressed the same as last time, but his appearance had deteriorated noticeably — eyes threaded with red. He glanced at the cross on Bernadette's wrist, then pressed his right hand to his chest and bowed with impeccable courtesy. "My apologies, Mr. A. I'll be more careful going forward."
Bernadette looked around. "And the god-child?"
"..."
Mr. Z's expression darkened. "I wasn't able to bring her back."
Vincent thought: Of course. As if Ince Zangwill would allow his story's centrepiece to simply walk away.
"Surprising. A small town like Tingen, and someone managed to stop you? Or did the god-child simply refuse to come?"
Mr. Z said coolly, "It went smoothly at first. With the Lord's blessing, I easily won the trust of the 'vessel.' But then — without any warning, she suddenly chose to flee."
"I attempted to take her by force, but at that point I encountered..." Mr. Z's pupils contracted slightly. "An Angel. No — not quite an ordinary Angel. The presence was more unsettling than any I've felt from a typical Angel."
An Angel in Tingen?
Actually — Tingen was where everything had begun. An Angel being there wasn't strange at all in hindsight. In the original, Klein and the others had simply never had reason to notice.
"So the Angel stopped you?"
Mr. Z hesitated. "She didn't move to stop me outright. But the vessel was standing right beside her, and I couldn't read her intentions. I chose to fall back."
Bernadette asked: "Could you tell what pathway the Angel belonged to?"
Mr. Z shook his head. "She never used any ability."
"And then you came back here?"
"Not immediately. Over the following days I made several more attempts to approach the vessel. But every time, she was right beside that Angel."
His eyes lit up with something feverish. "Until yesterday. I received a message from the Demoness Sect. The Demonesses want to cooperate with us."
To be continued…
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