Turning

He had never heard anything suggesting that his mother and Empress Dowager Inella knew each other. If Langretsi Dilejian had been influential enough to receive a ring from the Empress Dowager, then people wouldn’t have ridiculed her all this time, and they certainly wouldn’t mock Kiole as little better than a bastard.

Then what was this?

‘...Maybe it just looks similar, and I’m mistaken.’

Even as he tried to reassure himself, Kiole couldn’t shake the strange unease that clung to him.

He moved on and opened the fifth pillar. Inside, a neatly stacked pile of papers greeted him. Cautiously picking up the top sheet, Kiole’s eyes nearly popped from his skull when he read it.

It was a detailed report on his eldest brother, Kiorne—where he had been, who he’d met, and exactly what he’d said. There wasn’t a single piece of favorable information; it was all negative. Especially “subversive” actions and “deeply shameful” statements were highlighted in red.

Subversive and shameful? No. These were just Kiorne la Diarca’s secrets—his weaknesses.

The Duke of Diarca hadn’t even trusted his own eldest son, and had been gathering ammunition to strike him down at any moment.

At the bottom of the paper, under the most recent entry, Kiole found his own name. According to the Duke’s investigation, Kiorne had met with people from the private soldier administration and seemed to be plotting Kiole’s death.

‘Ah...’

He’d already suspected his brother of such things. But realizing that his father had investigated it too—and never told him—was still a shock.

‘If this document got out... he’d be finished.’

The list of Kiorne’s misdeeds was long, filthy, and far worse than anything Kiole had imagined of his brother. The very man who had always seemed dignified and patient in public had, in private, frequented underground clubs where he delighted in watching people die. Reading that made Kiole sick to his stomach.

He folded the paper and slipped it into his chest. Then he looked through the rest beneath it. And he soon reached a conclusion.

‘These are all... someone’s weaknesses.’

Loyal nobles, political enemies, members of the royal family... it didn’t matter whose side they were on. All their information had been compiled here, evenly and without bias. Some of the names even belonged to foreign royals and nobles. Anyone who had committed illegal acts for the Duke's benefit had their offenses documented—ready to be used against them at any time.

Some of the names were crossed out in red. Kiole realized those were all people who were now dead. He didn’t want to think too deeply about why his father had kept their records.

He hadn’t found his own name, but... it was probably in here somewhere too.

Kiole opened the final, sixth pillar. He thought nothing could surprise him anymore—but what he found was the most chilling yet.

‘What the... These are military maps!’

Top-secret military maps, accessible only to a tiny elite among knights and soldiers—only during wartime, and never in full. Yet here they all were, compiled together.

Kiole stared at the pins stuck across the maps in stunned silence, then picked up one of the papers lying beneath.

— The key point of the private soldier reorganization and gradual troop increase plan is to allow for even faster mobilization to the Capital in case of emergency, regardless of overall troop size...

Thud. This time, he truly couldn’t withstand the shock. The paper slipped from his hands and fell limply to the floor.

Staring wide-eyed at the fallen page, Kiole began rifling through the rest like a madman.

— Seventh contingency script for “Capital Wall 1 Emergency Scenario”...

— It has been determined that key 16 of the Orr Military Tunnel is necessary to move private troops from the East to the Capital at maximum speed...

He wasn’t the brightest when it came to academics.

So maybe—maybe—he was just misunderstanding all this...

— Royal family protection shelters in emergency scenarios...

— Current state of Capital prison facilities and processing of unclaimed bodies...

To anyone’s eyes—

— Proposal for using private soldiers to repair neglected outer roads and create shortcuts around the Capital...

‘This is... it’s like preparation for a rebellion or civil war...!’

If someone other than the Duke of Diarca had compiled this information, Kiole wouldn’t have hesitated for a second—he would’ve immediately reported them for plotting treason. That’s how serious this was.

If this really had been gathered with treasonous intent, then forget Kiorne or the Duke’s title—House Diarca as a whole could be sentenced to complete destruction if the truth came out.

Kiole remembered how his father, ever since the Cavalry had gained prominence, had started actively recruiting Awakeners into their private soldiers. Kiole had once felt proud, believing his father was a magnanimous man who supported talent regardless of class.

But now...

Come to think of it, was there any reason for House Diarca to keep expanding their private army like that?

What had been the official reason Kiole had to visit the private soldier administration instead of Kiorne last time? Oh right—because the surge of new Awakener soldiers had caused conflicts with the existing ones.

Suddenly, a voice from that visit resurfaced in his memory.

“We need to instill loyalty to House Diarca in the new soldiers, but it’s proving difficult. Lately, they’ve been complaining about being overworked...”

“Overworked? Why would Father be assigning them extra tasks?”

“You don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“...No, it’s nothing.”

Cold sweat trickled down his back. His head spun. His chest felt like it was caving in.

What kind of work would require training powerful Awakeners to be loyal to House Diarca?

Something no one on the outside could know.

‘What on earth... was Father planning to do?’

With Crown Prince Kachian in the picture, House Diarca was set to become royalty eventually, whether they liked it or not.

Then why this?

Why gather all this?

Kiole looked dazedly at the military map sitting on top. Then, he noticed a small date scrawled on the edge.

‘Is this... the date it was removed from storage?’

It was older than he expected. Counting back, it dated to before Emperor Keillusa’s ascension.

Blinking, Kiole checked the dates on the other documents. Not all had timestamps, but some contained references that allowed him to estimate their era.

‘These reports... they go back ages!’

The sixth pillar hadn’t been filled overnight. It was a gradual accumulation, dating from the previous Emperor’s reign all the way to the present.

‘Wait—so when did these plans start?’

Kiole had made many discoveries he wished he hadn’t today—but this one was the worst of all.

Recoiling as if burned, he stumbled backward. Then, like a madman, he slammed the sixth pillar shut.

He had thought he was ready to face his family's hidden side.

He’d believed that no matter what he found, if it could help fix this country and their house, he could take it to the Emperor.

But this—

He hadn’t imagined such a deep, pitch-black darkness.

“What’s wrong? Did you find something dangerous?”

Yuder Aile called out from afar. Startled, Kiole whipped his head around. Yuder, Kishiar, and Nathan still looked exactly the same as before.

“N-No! It’s nothing!”

Kiole quickly shook his head and fought back the urge to cry.

‘What do I do now?’

He didn’t know. The shock had left his mind completely blank.

But more than wondering what to do, one question now filled him with an even greater dread.

‘Why... did Father do all this?’

There’s always a reason behind actions.

If he had poured this much money and time into such a massive undertaking—then he must have had a reason.

Frantically, Kiole reopened the third pillar. The books he’d dismissed earlier as simple history texts—he began tearing through them.

And finally, he realized something new.

They weren’t ordinary history books at all.

‘These... they’re about our Diarca house!’

Thinking back, there was no way his father would have placed random history books in a secret vault like this. There had to be a clue in here. But in his rush to tear through them all, Kiole accidentally caused the stack to collapse and scatter chaotically.

‘Ah—!’

With a soundless cry of frustration, Kiole watched as one sheet of old paper fluttered up from between the fallen books—and smacked him in the face.

“Urk!”

He grabbed the sheet roughly.

And then—his gaze froze on one particular sentence written there.

“The grace of the gods has completely vanished from our Diarca. We must now accept that we have reached a point of no return.”