The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

Tension—it’s the kind of thing that comes as an optional feature depending on the time and place. But once you move past that moment and that place, it often feels like nothing at all.

Being subjected to all sorts of inspections and surveillance just to visit the Crown Princess and the Imperial Princess could make someone nervous. But when you finally pass through the grand doors of the audience chamber, only to come face-to-face with a very familiar face—the tension instantly melts away.

That was exactly how Claire felt.

“Un—”

Claire almost said unnie, but she quickly looked around. There were no knights or soldiers present. For an “audience chamber,” it felt strangely empty. Almost like if a foreign envoy were received here, they might wonder, Is the Empire secretly poor?

“This is the private audience chamber the Emperor uses,” Alice explained. “It’s for official meetings with important people, but the discussions themselves have to remain unofficial. No one other than the Emperor and the person they’re meeting has any reason to be here, so there’s no need for decorations.”

“Is that so?”

Claire asked instinctively, but the truth was, this was her first time here. If Alice, the future Empress, said so, then there was no reason to doubt it.

And technically, Sylvia was standing next to Alice in the role of a bodyguard. She was fully armed. But judging from the complete lack of any threatening aura around her, it seemed she was only literally armed. If anything, Sylvia was the one who should be receiving protection now—after all, as the only remaining Imperial Princess, she held the second-highest claim to the throne after Alice.

“What about the Gryphon?”

“Outside.”

The moment the Gryphon was mentioned, a wrinkle formed between Sylvia’s brows.

News about how the Gryphon was doing outside the palace was hard to come by. It was both the “symbol of the Empire” and the only Gryphon known to have ever followed a human. Just the sight of it made the nobles uneasy.

Some whispered that it was nothing more than a luxurious pet. Others gossiped about the myths. Since the Gryphon wasn’t just seen as an animal but as a near-divine beast, some even speculated: Did the Gryphon choose the Imperial Family?

Alice chose to let all those rumors spread as they pleased.

“...It ate a knight’s horse yesterday, so I’ve banned it from entering the palace for now.”

Sylvia’s reaction must have irritated Alice, because she frowned just the same.

“It causes that much trouble?”

“More like it eats too much. Purely carnivorous, at that.”

Alice sighed heavily.

“If we don’t provide it with enough cows or pigs every day, it doesn’t bother holding back its hunger—it just hunts whatever animal is nearby. It’s never attacked a person so far, but the knights’ horses are pretty much the perfect target. ...I’m seriously considering building a pig farm in the palace.”

Alice threw a glance toward Sylvia as she said that, and Sylvia subtly averted her gaze.

“...Isn’t it just a burden?”

“What do you want me to do? It refuses to leave. Besides, expensive animals are always a burden. Past Emperors kept elephants and rhinos as pets, you know? This is just another one of those. ...Oh, and don’t call it a pet in front of it. It gets mad.”

“...”

Claire was at a loss for words.

“Well, it did save our lives.”

Leo said with some sympathy, and Alice simply shrugged.

She talked like it was nothing but a burden, but there wasn’t any real resentment on her face.

Providing livestock to sustain the Gryphon wasn’t even that much of a challenge by the Empire’s standards. It wasn’t like the Gryphon was making unreasonable demands. If anything, given the symbolic power of the Gryphon, the benefits outweighed the costs.

Not that it really mattered, since the Gryphon had no intention of leaving anyway.

“Well, let’s put the Gryphon talk aside for now.”

Alice let some of the tension leave her shoulders. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

She sat confidently in the Emperor’s seat, but since the chair was originally made to fit the actual Emperor, it was far too large for her. If she rested her arms on the armrests, her shoulders would rise unnaturally, making her look stiff and tense.

In the end, the only way for either Alice—or Sylvia—to sit comfortably in that chair was to place their hands neatly on their laps.

“I assume you came here because you had something to deliver.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Claire pulled a letter from inside her coat.

It was a high-quality envelope—the kind she had seen once before.

And the moment Sylvia saw it, her shoulders flinched.

Everyone in the room knew why. With three pairs of eyes on her, Sylvia’s gaze darted around. It was an expression she never would have shown before she lost her abilities.

And now, everyone knew exactly how many times she must have rewound time just to avoid letting that expression show in the past.

“A letter from our parents. Inviting their ‘other daughter’ home.”

Claire extended the letter toward Sylvia, not Alice. It was the correct thing to do. Someone in Alice’s position wouldn’t be receiving letters personally in the first place. Of course, that wasn’t the real reason Claire was handing it to Sylvia instead.

“For some reason, every time a letter was sent to you, unnie, you were conveniently out—so this time, we decided to bring it in person. I hope you won’t refuse it again.”

Sylvia let out a quiet sigh.

Claire was telling the truth. The Grace baron and his wife had sent Sylvia many letters. But each time, Sylvia had been conveniently out hunting with the Gryphon. As a result, the letters had always been returned. Even though there were plenty of ways to store the letters instead of returning them.

And strangely, every time a letter was sent, Sylvia disappeared before it even arrived.

Since she no longer had the ability to rewind time, the only logical conclusion was that she had someone informing her. She had gone out of her way to avoid receiving those letters.

“...”

Sylvia silently stepped forward and took the envelope from Claire’s hand.

“Since you’ve received it, read it here.”

“Huh?”

Sylvia had just begun tucking the letter away, but Claire immediately cut in.

“Mother told me to make sure you read it in front of us.”

“...”

Sylvia squeezed her eyes shut. Then she inhaled deeply before exhaling in a slow, controlled breath.

After repeating this process a few times, her expression returned to its usual blankness.

“...Understood.”

As if she had finally accepted there was no way out, Sylvia carefully opened the envelope.

The envelope hadn’t been sealed. It was written with the assumption that Sylvia would read it. And now, since Claire had explicitly told her to read it in front of them, there was no point in pretending otherwise. Not that Claire or Leo would have made a fuss if they had read it themselves.

Sylvia silently unfolded the creamy high-quality paper and began to read.

Her eyes moved from left to right, top to bottom, slowly absorbing the words.

Her expression didn’t change the entire time.

But Claire could clearly see the tension building in her clenched jaw.

“What does it say?”

Claire asked quietly once Sylvia finished reading.

“It says... they would like me to visit for tea sometime.”

“Anything else?”

“Nothing.”

Sylvia folded the letter, tucked it back into the envelope, and slipped it inside her coat.

“And?”

Claire asked again.

“Are you coming home, unnie?”

She asked with a bright, innocent smile.

Sylvia stared at her for a long moment.

Then she turned toward Alice.

“Well, I am an outsider here, so I won’t interfere. Feel free to go.”

Alice raised her hands, waving them in the air like fluttering pieces of paper, teasing Sylvia.

“What [N O V E L I G H T] are you talking about?”

But Sylvia immediately rejected the idea.

“The letter explicitly invites Her Highness the Crown Princess as well.”

“...What?”

Claire turned toward Alice.

“She’s right. You did say you consider unnie a ‘sister,’ didn’t you? Whether or not we know who’s the real unnie, that would make us practically family, wouldn’t it?”

“...Huh?”

Alice’s flustered voice sounded far more out of place than Sylvia’s earlier discomfort.