A Fortune-telling Princess

As if the sight of the two of them like that was already familiar, Juella quietly chewed on the snack Laila had brought.

Do they seriously think this is fun?

She couldn’t understand why they got so fired up over something like that when they practically glued themselves to Camilla’s side every single day.

Hmm. That one came out well.

She should ask them to print that one for her, too.

Before she knew it, Juella had ended up drifting over to their side as well, looking through the pictures with them.

“This one... Arsian would like it.”

“Huh? Who? Why would you give that to that guy?”

“Arsian collects Camilla recordings too.”

“No way! Why would he? This is for my brother.”

“...Petro?”

Laila’s brow tightened slightly.

“Why would Petro take it?”

“Don’t Camilla and my brother look good together?”

“Not at all.”

Laila’s answer was so firm—nothing like her usual gentle self—that Elisha couldn’t help freezing for a moment.

Stumbling over her words, she tried to argue her point.

“W-Why not? Camilla said before that my brother was fine.”

“That was when she didn’t know him well.”

“What’s wrong with my brother?”

“Petro is absolutely not okay. Why would you stick someone who grins at every woman he meets onto our Camilla? What are you trusting there?”

“G-Grins? When has my brother ever done that? If anything, Arsian Sephra—that guy is the one who’s absolutely not okay! That bastard—anyway, no! I’m against it! Absolutely against it!”

“He’s kinder to Camilla than anyone.”

“My brother is really good to Camilla too!”

“That’s the problem. Not just to Camilla—he’s nice to everyone. That kind of grinny... anyway, absolutely not.”

“Ugh! That’s so mean!”

“Hey.”

Juella, who had been quietly listening, tossed in a comment.

Besides the two men they kept bringing up, there was someone else who’d been circling Camilla with an absurd amount of enthusiasm lately.

“What about Crown Prince Edsen?”

“That guy is absolutely not okay!”

“That guy is absolutely not okay!”

...My eardrums are going to tear.

As if they hadn’t been bickering a second ago, the two of them shrieked in perfect unison.

Then, like the Crown Prince wasn’t even worth mentioning, they immediately went back to shouting about Arsian and Petro.

Watching an argument that showed no signs of ending, Juella quietly cut in again.

“But does Camilla have to date someone at all?”

“.......”

“.......”

“Isn’t it a waste, no matter who you stick her with?”

At that, both of them paused at the same time.

Laila and Elisha looked at each other in silence for a beat, and then—like they’d just reached some massive revelation—their eyes sparkled.

“You’re right. There’s no need to attach our Camilla to some bastard—someone like that.”

“Exactly. No need to attach her to someone who grins at anyone, either.”

“Should we keep looking?”

“Yes.”

SMACK!

Laila and Elisha lightly clapped their hands together, and as if they’d never fought at all, they went right back to evaluating the Video Stone prints.

“Oh my god! Isn’t she so cute?”

“She is! Want to see this one too? This is the one I treasure the most...”

Listening to the two of them squeal, Juella just quietly chewed the snack in her mouth.

Well... it wasn’t like this had only happened once or twice. She was used to it by now.

“.......”

“.......”

Meanwhile, there were others off to the side, quietly listening to the three women’s conversation.

“...Should I kill them?”

“They’re my little sisters. And they’re faces we both know.”

“That’s why they call you grinny.”

“Shut your mouth, you bastard.”

It was Arsian and Petro.

The two of them had come to see Camilla, but they couldn’t even get close to her.

They had no choice but to stand there blankly for a long while.

*****

“Hey. What’s wrong with you?”

“Camilla?”

A tea table where the family had gathered together for once.

As they waited to drink the tea Camilla had brewed herself, Ludville’s and Ravi’s eyes—and the Duke of Sorpel’s as well—grew wider and wider.

“......!”

“Hey!”

It had felt shaky for a while, and then it finally happened.

Tea overflowed past the rim of the cup and streamed down toward Camilla, who was still pouring with a blank look on her face.

“Ah!”

Only then did she snap back and hurry to stand, but Ludville—right beside her—moved faster.

“Are you okay?”

“Brother! Your arm!”

Ludville had blocked the spilling tea with his forearm.

Not cold water—hot tea.

Camilla grabbed his arm and checked it frantically.

“What a stupid thing to do.”

Ravi clicked his tongue once and immediately cast magic to cool Ludville’s arm.

“Even romance novels don’t do this anymore. People call it cheesy.”

What if a swordsman injures his arm like that—what then?

Thankfully, once they confirmed he hadn’t been burned, Ludville let out a breath and lightly shook his head.

Why was he usually so cold, yet the moment Camilla got involved, he always charged in first without thinking?

“This one’s got better reflexes than you think. She would’ve dodged on her own. Don’t baby her too much. You’ll spoil her.”

“You too...”

“Huh?”

“You... shouldn’t you get a little spoiled too?”

“What...?”

“I want you to get a little spoiled, too.”

Ravi’s eyes widened slightly as he continued drying Ludville’s clothes with magic.

“I can do things like this for you as much as you want.”

“What are you even saying right now...?”

Did I mishear something?

“Because you’re my little brother too.”

“.......”

At the calm way he said it, Ravi’s gaze shook nonstop.

What is he saying?!

Flushing slightly and looking like he had no idea what to do with himself, Ravi ended up turning his fire on Camilla instead.

“Hey! Where are you losing your mind to!”

“Sorry.”

But at Camilla’s response, Ravi was thrown off again.

This wasn’t it. This absolutely wasn’t how she was supposed to react.

“Are you sick or something?”

“What are you talking about? I apologized and you’re still—”

Camilla swallowed the rest of her complaint when she looked at the Duke of Sorpel.

“Did something happen?”

The Duke of Sorpel asked too, worry in his voice. He’d been watching her closely as well—she’d seemed absentminded for a while now.

“It’s just...”

A short sigh slipped out of Camilla.

Lately, one thought had been consuming her so completely she couldn’t do anything else properly.

She was barely sleeping at night. The moment she closed her eyes, what happened that day came back to her.

‘The Mirror of Truth... my sibling was the Mirror of Truth.’

Ever since she’d heard Dorman say that, her mind had been in complete turmoil. It was an answer she’d never expected.

The fact that the Mirror of Truth was a person in the first place shocked her—and it was even more of a blow to learn that, back when Dorman had been human, his younger sibling had been the Mirror of Truth.

His sibling was the Mirror of Truth?

Yes. They helped Mars from very close by.

Then you knew everything from the start? From Rania, to the people who attacked the Jevillan estate being Eva Faith—no, you must’ve known since the hunting tournament. You were there too. Those people who wouldn’t die no matter how many times you killed them.

Yes. I recognized them right away.

And you didn’t say a single word to me.

T-That’s... if I meddle too deeply in human affairs, additional penalties get added and it becomes harder to be reinstated. I had no choice.

Then what about now? Why are you telling me now?

Haha... who knows.

She’d been a little pissed, hearing that he’d watched her get tangled up with them again and again through all those incidents and still never said anything.

But if it was for reinstatement, she didn’t really have anything to say.

Yeah, reinstatement matters.

Even though she was the one who lost her lifetime job because of someone.

Still... you even smeared me with reaper’s blood, didn’t you?

Remembering how he’d looked out for her in his own way, she decided to let it go.

Even so, him suddenly revealing the truth now was... strange.

He’d been chanting reinstatement, reinstatement, and now he’d suddenly changed his mind?

I did push him hard—told him to spill everything he knew.

But he could’ve kept playing dumb.

Anyway, what came next in Dorman’s story made it even harder to stay angry.

I, too, had my body stolen by Eva Faith.

What?

My sibling was eventually captured and killed by Eva Faith as well. Even their soul was extinguished—so they couldn’t even be guided by a reaper.

After he became a reaper, he learned about his younger sibling—only to discover, too late, that he hadn’t even been able to retrieve their soul.

Eva Faith prevented the Mirror of Truth from ever appearing in the world again—thoroughly.

How?

They possess a holy relic... no, a device that tells them when the Mirror of Truth is born into the world.

A device?

Every time the Mirror of Truth was about to appear, Eva Faith would find the child first and erase them.

Not once had a child managed to be born safely beyond their eyes.

Then... the Mirror of Truth doesn’t exist in the world?

......

When Camilla asked after a long pause, Dorman only gave her a faint smile—he didn’t give a proper answer. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

And looking at him, Camilla couldn’t bring herself to press him for more, or ask anything else.

His eyes were telling me.

That even after all those years, what happened back then was still a wound.

Was it because they were family?

If your sibling couldn’t even be saved... is it only natural that it would scar you?

Camilla lifted her head and, for the first time in a while, really looked at the three people seated in front of her.

Maybe she understood Dorman a little.

“Haa.”

Another long sigh slipped out.

Was it because Dorman’s wound bothered her?

No. We’re not like that.

Then was it because she couldn’t find the Mirror of Truth?

That’s even less true.

Camilla’s eyes went blank again.

This is driving me crazy.

Dorman’s last words—that was the problem.

The Mirror of Truth... my sibling could precisely distinguish those whose bodies had been stolen by Eva Faith.

How?

They read True Names.

True Names?

They could see the True Name of the one who stole the body.

Is that how every Mirror of Truth works?

No. The way the Mirror of Truth identifies Eva Faith varies from person to ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) person. The common thread is... they all could see what others could not.

They could distinguish the body-stolen.

And they could see what others couldn’t see.

No matter how many times she thought about those words, she only came to the same conclusion.

That...

She knew everyone around her would worry, but this time, she couldn’t manage her expression at all.

I think that’s me.