After escorting Charlotte to her room, since she had fallen asleep on their way back to the palace, Vivian was just about to return to his own room.

When Sir Robwin, the emperor's personal butler, approached him.

He informed Vivian that His Majesty had called for him urgently.

Vivian felt a wave of tiredness wash over him.

His shoulders sank a little.

Even so, he turned around and began walking towards the room he had attended meetings before.

Each step felt heavier than the last, but he kept moving.

[Hey softie, do you have that stuff you drank with your girlfriend?]

Bloody Mary's voice suddenly echoed in his head.

Hearing him, Vivian showed a shocked expression.

The blabbermouth spirit had been completely silent until now.

He hadn't spoken a single word the whole time Vivian was with Charlotte.

Not even a teasing remark.

He asked, "What happened to you? Were you asleep?"

[Someone as powerful as me doesn't need sleep,]

Bloody Mary said proudly, as if admitting such a thing would be beneath him.

"Then why were you silent?" Vivian asked, still walking down the long hallway.

The cold palace floor made soft tapping sounds under his boots.

[....]

He didn't say anything.

Vivian raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

The silence from Bloody Mary only deepened, almost like he was pretending not to hear.

Vivian sighed softly and continued walking, feeling both tired and amused at the same time.

Originally, when Vivian was with Charlotte, Bloody Mary felt something mysterious from them.

It wasn't anything loud or dramatic.

It was a quiet, gentle feeling that made even him pause.

For a moment, he sensed the faint traces of pain, of old wounds that still echoed between the two of them.

And for all his noisy mouth, Bloody Mary wasn't stupid.

From the tiny fragments he heard, and from the way Charlotte clung to Vivian, he could tell something was wrong.

The way Vivian responded without saying much only confirmed it.

He could guess that these two must have gone through some difficulty.

Something that still hurt.

Something they had suffered through together or apart.

He didn't want to walk all over that moment.

Even he had enough sense to leave them alone.

Not because he was kind, of course, at least that's what he would say, but because interrupting something that fragile felt wrong, even for him.

But he could never say that out loud to Vivian.

That would be way too embarrassing.

So instead he snorted in his usual annoying tone, trying to sound proud and careless.

[Hamh, what do you think I am? A cruel person like you? I know how to give lovers time. But you clearly don't, since you haven't gotten me acquainted with my dear Eve.]

"Eve?…" Vivian blinked in confusion as he walked.

"Didn't you say you wanted to meet the Queen?"

[Evelyn! Eve! Do you understand now, dickhead!?]

Vivian blinked, then nodded slowly.

So that was it.

Apparently the queen's name was Evelyn von Indrath, and this perverted sword spirit had simply shortened her name to "Eve." Just because he felt like it.

Clearing away those thoughts before they distracted him further, Vivian asked,

"Today you said you have other forms besides being a sword. What are they? Are you something like a chicken or a dog?"

Vivian kept a straight face, his tone serious, but the small spark of mischief in his eyes gave him away.

The idea of Bloody Mary turning into a chicken or a dog was too funny to resist.

[How pitiful…] Bloody Mary clicked his tongue, his voice full of fake sadness.

[A frog in a well doesn't know that there is a world far beyond the walls of its little hole… tsk tsk.]

Vivian almost stumbled. "Did you just call me a frog?"

[What else do you expect from me] Bloody Mary let out another cold snort, his voice dripping with disdain as he continued,

[Ohh foolish human, my true form is that of a Basilisk.]

"Basilisk?" Vivian blinked.

He had never heard of this animal in his life.

The name sounded dangerous, but he wasn't sure.

"Is it something like a chicken? Or a rat?" he asked honestly.

[You…] Bloody Mary hissed, his voice shaking with pure insult.

[You dare compare me to a chicken!? Or a rat!? I—]

Vivian didn't give him the chance to finish.

He mentally shoved the spirit's voice aside, the same way someone closes a noisy window, because he had finally reached the room where he was called.

Two guards were standing on each side of the tall wooden door.

Their armor gleamed faintly under the lantern light.

Seeing Vivian approach, they straightened, bowed, and pushed the door open.

Creak.

The door moved slowly, and Vivian stepped inside.

The room was large and quiet, lit by a single chandelier above a long wooden table.

At the table sat the commander of the royal army, Vikram von Indrath.

His face was fixed in a serious expression, as if carved from stone.

Vivian had seen that exact face earlier during the parliament meeting.

Serious. Cold. Unshaken.

But once the conference had ended, the man had flipped like a coin, changing into someone completely different, talkative, loud, maybe even a little too relaxed.

Vivian wasn't sure if the serious version was real or if the relaxed version was.

Maybe both.

Maybe neither.

Either way, seeing him like this again made Vivian wonder if the commander only pretended to be serious whenever he sat near a big table.

The atmosphere in the room tightened slightly, like something important was about to begin.

Beside the commander sat Vivian's father, and next to him his maternal grandfather.

At the very front, in the main seat, the emperor Gray von Indrath sat with a calm posture.

When Vivian entered, the emperor looked up and smiled.

"You are here? We were waiting for you."

"My apologies for being late," Vivian said as he bowed slightly.

"No, no, you don't have to apologise," the emperor replied.

His voice was relaxed and gentle, but his eyes… his eyes carried a tiny spark of jealousy as he leaned forward and continued,

"So, how was your date with my daughter?"

"It was good," Vivian answered simply, walking forward and taking a seat beside his grandfather.

He tried to stay calm, but something kept poking at the back of his mind.

Vikram's stare.

The commander's eyes had not left him since he entered.

They were sharp, filled with warning, almost like two arrows pointed straight at Vivian's forehead.

After a long while of glaring, long enough for Vivian to feel a headache building, Vikram finally spoke in a flat voice,

"Although you are the son of my friend, don't get the wrong idea. If you don't treat my niece well, I will beat the crap out of you."

Hearing that, the emperor nodded firmly beside him, agreeing without hesitation.

But then, realizing how he looked, he quickly shifted his expression back to a kind face, pretending nothing happened.

Vivian saw it all.

The warning, the threat, the sudden change.

He kept his expression polite and said, "I will keep that in mind."

His grandfather snorted quietly beside him, as if amused, and even Vivian's father tried to hide a small cough that sounded suspiciously like laughter.

Though his father was trying hard to keep his laughter in check, he still defended his son.

"Don't worry, we father and son are quite alike…" he said, dragging the last words slowly, as if he didn't want to reveal the full truth in front of his father-in-law.

And except for his father-in-law, everyone in the room understood exactly what those dragged words meant.

They all nodded in quiet agreement.

Apparently everyone here, except his father in law, knew that Vivian's father often got beaten up by his wife.

It wasn't because she was violent, it was because he couldn't control his mouth.

Half of his beatings were related to something he said about their sons.

Ahh, thinking of his wife, Vivian's father suddenly remembered something.

He turned toward Vivian and said, "Your mother will be here tomorrow."

Vivian blinked. He hadn't been told anything about that.

.

"Why is she coming here?"

"Obviously to meet you," his father said, shrugging lightly.

"And tomorrow is a bit special."

He didn't explain any further, leaving the meaning hanging in the air like a half-spoken secret.

They continued talking for a while, some light, some serious.

The room's warmth slowly shifted into something heavier.

Then the emperor spoke.

His voice, which was gentle earlier, turned firm and serious.

"Now… the reason we have gathered here today is to discuss how to approach the war."

Vivian straightened in his seat, knowing the atmosphere of the night had completely changed.

The warm teasing, the warnings, the small laughs, they all faded like they had never existed.

His father's smile disappeared.

His grandfather's posture stiffened.

Commander Vikram's expression sharpened as if someone had drawn a blade along the edge of his jaw.

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