Fate: How About a New Savior?

Unlike the state she was found in that morning—dismembered and horrifying—the Princess of Gold's body had now been fully reassembled. Yet every joint was lined with rune-marked seams.

"Even if preservation and time-concealment Magecraft were applied, once the body is restored and Runes are inscribed on the deceased, it's possible to determine the exact time of death," Caren said, crouched beside the Princess of Gold's remains. "If necessary... we could even make her speak."

"Conversation with the Dead," Lady Inorai murmured. "No wonder you went this far."

She knew the spell. As long as the caster wasn't the one who killed the deceased, the spell could be used to question the dead. The timing and integrity of the corpse would determine how much could be asked.

That was exactly why Caren had helped reconstruct the Princess of Gold's body through Magecraft.

"But since the Princess of Gold was already dead, Byron needed to do more than hide that fact—he needed to drag me, the one sent to verify Iselma's supposed achievements, into it too," Shiomi said. "So he devised a plan to make me the first person to witness her corpse."

"But even that wasn't enough. So you did something even crueler."

He had killed his other daughter—the Princess of Silver—the second half of Iselma's 'achievement.'

"Of course, you didn't kill her right away. You approached her like any other day, caught her off guard, knocked her out, and placed her in the forest's spring. Then you linked her to one of Iselma's Automata using a curse that transferred damage," Shiomi continued, anger flashing in his eyes. "As for when... probably last night, around the time the Princess of Gold came to see me."

His fury wasn't over being framed—it was at Byron, who as a father, was willing to sacrifice his own daughters for personal gain.

If Iselma's falsified results were confirmed by Shiomi and reported to Inorai, their future in Valualeta, and their pursuit of the Root, would be thrown into doubt.

For a research-focused Magus to fabricate results at such a critical stage would be a scandal serious enough to shake the very foundations of Valualeta.

So instead, he destroyed the data from the start and pinned everything on someone guaranteed to interact with both princesses.

As for a motive? That could be pinned on the Aristocratic Faction later, turning the whole thing into a political mess.

"But that still leaves one problem," Reines spoke up. "Who exactly was the Princess of Gold who showed up at the social gathering? You can't fake something like that, can you?"

"Oh, it's possible. After all, isn't there someone here who specializes in transforming the human body?" Shiomi turned to Touko. "Until just recently, I thought you came purely out of interest in Iselma's research."

Touko, for once, looked faintly apologetic.

She hadn't been able to explain the crucial point in time, which was why Shiomi had remained silent when he was framed—waiting for the situation to evolve.

But trust is fragile. It doesn't take much to shake it.

Still, Touko had always planned to talk with Shiomi once everything was over. Seeing him being set up, she had already begun to consider revealing her real reason for coming.

The Thaumaturgical Foundation of the Primordial Runes was a weighty enough revelation to tip the entire balance.

With Touko's confession, Shiomi finally placed the last missing piece in the puzzle.

Iselma had faked their results. And Byron's fury—his calculated calm even after the deaths of his daughters—only solidified Shiomi's conclusion.

The only thing left unanswered had been the mystery of the Princess of Gold who appeared at the gathering.

"So then, what exactly—" Reines pressed on, brimming with curiosity.

Shiomi suddenly raised his hand and pointed to the ceiling.

Everyone instinctively followed his gesture and looked up.

A moment later, a thunderclap roared out—so deafening it seemed to shake even the Twin Towers itself, as if the heavens were collapsing.

Caught completely off guard, even Magi as powerful as Lady Inorai and Touko had to cover their ears to shield themselves from the blast's physical force.

But amid the chaos, one person reacted a beat too late.

"You can feel the tremors... but you can't hear the thunder, can you, Miss Carina?" Shiomi slowly lowered his hand.

Outside, the downpour hadn't let up. His weather-based Magecraft was still in effect, allowing him to influence any part of the lake region at will.

For instance, he could summon thunder—harmless in substance but overwhelming in force, enough to rattle even top-tier Magi.

"You've lost your hearing, just like the Princess of Gold you served," Shiomi said, stepping up to Carina. "And more than that—perhaps from a very young age, you were attuned to her wavelength. Maybe it was a requirement of Iselma's ritual formula, but that attunement also made you the perfect candidate to temporarily take her place."

From there, all it took was a subtle transformation—one no one could detect—some careful adjustments, and the right catalyst. That would be enough to reconstruct the Princess of Gold's appearance, using Carina as the base.

"And no, it wasn't a lie when you came to me last night, asking for help to escape. But after you and your sister returned, you realized the crucial piece—Princess of Silver—was missing. That's when your plan fell apart."

Which explained why Carina, unable to locate Princess of Silver and unwilling to raise suspicion, had been so devastated when she later witnessed her death—so much so that she nearly fainted.

Maybe, at that moment, she even believed it was her desire to run away that had gotten the princess killed.

Shiomi turned his gaze away, fixing it sharply on Byron Valualeta Iselma.

"Because at that very moment, the Princess of Silver, left alone in her room, met with her father—completely unaware of his true intentions."

She had become a sacrifice to protect her father's status and preserve Iselma's prestige.

"Well then, I suppose my task here is done, Lady Inorai," Shiomi said, glancing toward her as she poured herself a glass of champagne. "What happens next is up to Valualeta. Whether you cast them out or handle it according to your own laws—it's your internal affair."

He turned to leave.

"Next time, don't ask me for this kind of job. I'm much better at brawling than I am at digging up secrets."

"But you already stepped down from the Sealing Designation Unit," Inorai quipped.

"Fair point."

Shiomi gave a faint, careless smile, then walked out of the hall, heading back to his room.

...

(90 Chapters Ahead)

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