Is She A Devil, Or Perhaps…

~A short while before Leticia and Tanya’s secret meeting~

Having returned to my family home for the first time in quite a while, I strode quickly toward the head of the family’s room, irritation simmering inside me.

Rowen tried to stop me on my way in, but since I was also the family head’s elder brother, I more or less forced my way through.

I did feel bad about arriving without warning, but I had heard something far too serious to worry about such niceties.

I knocked hard on the door and entered the room the instant I heard a response.

Seated at the desk in the back of the room was my younger brother Travis, who was also the head of House Fols.

“Brother Lilac, what brings you here at this hour?”

He was pretending to be calm, but exhaustion showed on his face, and he seemed thinner than the last time I had seen him.

“Don’t ask me what brings me here. I heard… that the head of House Ark Gate has brought a marriage proposal.”

“…That matter.”

“What in the world is going on? Why has House Ark Gate suddenly started approaching us?”

“I wish I knew myself…”

Apparently, even Travis could not fathom the intentions of House Ark Gate’s head.

Knowing him, there was no doubt he had sent people out to gather information, but it seemed they had produced little in the way of results.

Perhaps he had been spending sleepless nights tormented by anxiety and worry, because there were dark circles beneath his eyes.

“Has she come to destroy our family, her longtime enemy…?”

When I muttered that, Travis gave a weary nod.

“It is entirely possible.”

His voice sounded as though he had already given up on everything, and my blood boiled.

Part of my anger was directed at Travis.

But more than that, I hated that useless failure.

“That is why I told you so strongly when Celia-sama died! I told you to send a worthless failure who cannot even use Aura away to some other house! I always thought that someday he would become the seed of disaster for House Fols!”

“Calm down, Brother. Nothing has happened yet that proves he is the source of some disaster—”

“It already has!”

Realizing that I had shouted at my younger brother, I came to my senses and lowered my head.

I had gotten too worked up. Travis was the one suffering most of all.

“Forgive me. I lost my temper. But it is still the truth. Zeroad already has his fiancée, Cecilia-sama, and Kairas already has his wife, Rose-sama. If that failure had not existed, House Ark Gate would never have found an opening to exploit.”

“…I know. But there is no point thinking about that now.”

Travis was always like this.

Perhaps he still harbored feelings for the late Celia-sama, because he stubbornly refused to drive Nova out of House Fols.

No, perhaps he had continued protecting Nova all this time because it had been Celia-sama’s dying wish.

He did seem to acknowledge that Nova was a failure, after all.

“Besides, even if we cast Nova out now, it is already too late. What would we tell the head of House Ark Gate? She would only think we severed ties with Nova because we did not want to form a relationship with her family.”

“…That would still be better. If the alternative is forming ties with House Ark Gate, we should cast that failure out even if it means war.”

“Calm yourself, Brother. You do not know how terrifying she is… You simply do not.”

Seeing Travis’s expression darken even further unsettled me.

In House Fols, the strength of one’s Aura was everything.

That was why, despite my being the elder brother, Travis had become the family head because he was more skilled at using Haki.

It would be a lie to say I had never resented that, but I had accepted it.

Because I believed Travis would be capable of rebuilding House Fols.

And my younger brother had actually managed to do it.

He had somehow put the declining House Fols back on track.

We were still in decline, but even so, things were better than they had been under the previous head.

Was the head of House Ark Gate truly such a monster that even Travis, who had accomplished all that, had been reduced to this?

“…Is the head of House Ark Gate… really that terrifying?”

“Yes. She is. That thing is not human. She is a devil.”

A devil.

It hardly seemed like a word one should use for a human being, but that only showed how deeply he feared her.

Leticia Ark Gate.

A prodigy who had risen to the position of family head at only eighteen and ended the war in less than a year.

I had heard the rumors, but was she truly that extraordinary?

“Brother, I am handling this matter. I intend to proceed carefully and think through every action. So I would like you not to interfere too much. And please refrain from insulting Nova as well. There is a high possibility that doing so would offend the head of House Ark Gate.”

“…Understood.”

That was all I could say aloud, but inwardly my guts were boiling with rage.

The anger that had ignited when I realized that the opening our longtime enemy House Ark Gate had exploited was that worthless failure did not seem likely to fade anytime soon.

“…I will take my leave for tonight. Let me know if anything else happens.”

“…All right.”

With my younger brother’s weak voice following me to the end, I left the family head’s office.

I walked away just as quickly as I had arrived—perhaps even a little faster.

Having returned to my family home for the first time in a long while, I hurried toward the family head’s room.

No, perhaps I should call it the place that had once been my family home.

Almost nothing I remembered remained anymore.

The family head’s room was located deep on the second floor.

I reached the place where my elder sister had once wielded absolute authority, steadied my breathing, and knocked.

The moment I heard a voice from inside, I desperately fought to suppress the trembling of my body.

“Excuse me.”

Using formal language I was unaccustomed to, I entered the room.

“Good evening, Aunt Tiara. It has been a while.”

Sitting as though she had every right to occupy the seat where my elder sister, once the absolute ruler of this family, had sat was the young woman Leticia Ark Gate, smiling at me with a smile that was obviously artificial.

What did she mean, it has been a while? She was the one who had used her own power to push us away.

Suppressing my anger as best I could, I bowed my head.

I had no other choice.

“What brings you here today? And at such a late hour?”

“…I heard that you proposed a marriage arrangement with House Fols.”

“Yes. And what of it?”

Leticia’s completely casual answer made my blood feel as though it might boil.

Did she even understand what she had done?

“Forgive my impertinence, but House Fols has been House Ark Gate’s longtime enemy. In the past, there were even conflicts between our families in which blood was repaid with blood.”

“…And?”

“So…”

I stopped there and fell silent.

I realized that asking her in this roundabout way would get me nowhere, so I steadied my breathing.

Otherwise, I felt as though I would lose the concentration I needed just to keep my trembling under control.

“…What are you trying to accomplish by proposing marriage to House Fols… and personally, no less?”

“I can continue carrying out my duties as family head, and whenever I need to go there, I can simply open a gate, so there is no problem.”

She knew perfectly well what I was asking, yet Leticia deliberately gave me that sort of answer.

Unable to contain myself any longer, I raised my voice.

“That is not what I mean! Do you understand!? Do you have any idea what forming ties with House Fols would—”

“Tiara Ark Gate.”

I had spoken forcefully.

I had thought my anger would keep the words pouring from my mouth.

But Leticia’s voice, calm yet carrying an absolute authority, brought me to an immediate halt.

Leticia stared directly at me and opened her mouth.

Slowly and distinctly, so that there could be no misunderstanding, she spoke.

“You do not need to know.”

“…………”

It was something I had said countless times in the past, and something I had been told countless times lately.

When those words were turned on me, I could say nothing in response.

She had said I did not need to know. That meant I did not even possess the “right” to know.
Because that was the decision of Leticia Ark Gate.

I clenched my fists and glared at the floor.

That was the only way I could keep the emotions raging inside me under control.

I desperately turned things over in my mind, searching for some other angle.

I thought and thought until I reached a conclusion: perhaps I could not ask about the marriage proposal itself, but what if I asked about the prospective groom?

When I slowly raised my head, Leticia was still wearing exactly the same smile she had worn from the moment I entered the room.

“…Then why did you choose Nova Fols, the third son, as your marriage partner? Someone of your standing could even have chosen the eldest son—”

I had no choice but to stop speaking there.

Leticia was smiling.

Her artificial smile had deepened even further.

It was a horrifying smile.

My back went cold, until I felt as though I might lose all sensation.

“Are you trying to say that it is only natural to choose the best possible partner for a marriage?”

“Th-That is… correct…”

“I did.”

Dense mana began filling the room.

It was the same kind of mana I possessed, yet the amount and density were on an entirely different scale.

The absurd power was so overwhelming that even my elder sister’s mana reserves, once hailed as the greatest in our family’s history, would have seemed laughable by comparison. I felt as though I were being crushed beneath it, and sweat burst from my body.

“To compare them at all is presumptuous. Do you truly think there is anyone in that family… no, in this entire world, superior to Nova Fols? Listen carefully, Tiara Ark Gate. Nova Fols is someone House Ark Gate needs.”

“…Y-Yes…”

I could not understand a single thing Leticia was thinking.

But I understood perfectly well that I had stepped on a land mine.

The crushing pressure suddenly vanished, finally allowing me to breathe properly again.

As I panted heavily, Leticia withdrew that terrifying smile and once again put on the mask of her artificial one.

“It is already late, so please return home. Goodbye, Tiara Ark Gate. I was very happy to speak with my aunt again after so long.”

“…A-As was I.”

She said something she clearly did not mean in the slightest, but all I wanted was to escape this place as quickly as possible.

My instincts warned me that if I displeased her any further, my very life might be in danger.

So I merely said, “Excuse me,” and left the room.

As I hurried down the long corridor, I once again acknowledged the truth.

My elder sister had been called a witch.

She was noble, proud, and overflowing with dignity, yet at the same time she had shown no mercy even to her own relatives.

But Leticia was on an entirely different level.

Some people called her a devil, but having belonged to the same family and watched that thing for so long, I knew better.

Calling her a devil was almost cute.

She was an evil god.

“What in the world did you give birth to, Sister…?”

Muttering those words under my breath, I hurried away from the House Ark Gate estate, which had changed beyond recognition.