CHAPTER 56…………
Maybe because I finally felt relieved, the pain in my injured arm grew sharper.
It became hard even to keep myself upright, and my body tilted slowly toward Aslan.
“Mom? Mom!”
Aslan nearly collapsed under my weight, but thankfully, Ide caught me.
Startled by my sudden pallor and ragged breathing, Ide quickly lifted me into his arms.
“Your arm has begun to swell. We must treat it at once, Madam.”
“…See to the servants first, not me.”
I only had a fractured arm, but the servants had been poisoned.
I could endure a little longer with painkillers, but they needed antidotes immediately.
Aslan saw my eyelids growing heavy and, misunderstanding the situation, clung to me in tears.
“No! Mom! You can’t die!”
“Madam!”
Even Aila panicked and broke down in tears at my side.
But for some reason, I couldn’t hear their cries just then.
Because I saw Ide’s men dragging the body of the assassins’ leader somewhere.
As my consciousness dimmed, I suddenly recalled the last words that man had spoken.
“We’re the ones who will kill you and return proof to our client.”
At the time, he had lunged at me so suddenly that I’d barely registered the words.
But now I remembered them clearly.
Perhaps they held the key to finding Mars.
“Wait…!”
I shouted hastily after them.
The sight of a dying woman suddenly crying out startled everyone into staring at me.
“There’s something we must learn from him…!”
I forced myself upright, only for a loud crash to erupt through the mansion.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Heavy boots thundered inside again.
My injured servants were bedridden.
Ide’s men were busy hauling bodies and scrubbing bloodstains, leaving no one to block the intruders.
“Mom!”
“Stay back, Madam. You children as well.”
Ide quickly pushed us behind him, sword raised.
“Here!”
Another armed group stormed in through the wide-open hall doors.
But they were strange.
Too disciplined to be assassins, and each wore a badge of the Imperial Knights.
Leading them was a very familiar face.
The moment our eyes met, both of us froze, unable even to scream.
When her gaze dropped to my swollen arms, her face blanched and she cried out.
“Your Highness, the Princess!”
‘Ah, I’m completely ruined.’
She was none other than Sir Theodora, my sword master and the Emperor’s trusted retainer.
At the sight of my arm, Theodora nearly shrieked as she rushed toward me.
“Your Highness, what in the world happened to you!”
“P-Princess, Your Highness?”
Clatter. Ide’s men dropped whatever they were holding in shock, and Aila gaped at me.
“M-Madam?”
“Mom, what? Who are these people? Don’t you dare touch my mom!”
Aslan, not knowing what “princess” meant, darted forward and growled, shielding me.
Theodora, staring between my face and Aslan’s—so alike as to be unmistakable—stammered in disbelief.
“M-Mom? Your Highness, don’t tell me this child…”
Oh, Mars, oh Emperor, no one is of any help.
From the moment Theodora appeared, there was no way Aslan’s existence could be hidden.
And by now, I had truly reached my limit.
Clinging to the last shreds of consciousness, I warned her.
“Theodora… Don’t… lay a hand on my daughter…”
“Your Highness!”
Faces swam toward me in panic, and then I let go of the thin thread of awareness I’d been holding.
Minerva collapsed completely.
As Ide caught her, Theodora all but foamed at the mouth in fury.
“Who are you! What have you done to Her Highness? Release her at once!”
At her command, the knights raised their swords toward Ide.
But quicker than them, Aslan leapt between Ide and the knights, arms spread wide.
“W-Wait! Dangerous!”
Unable to aim blades at a child, the knights faltered, lowering their swords in alarm.
Aslan bared his teeth in the fiercest face he could manage.
“Don’t! Don’t you dare hurt Uncle Ide!”
And since Minerva herself had just ordered that he never be touched, even the Emperor’s knights were helpless.
“Captain, what should we—”
“Ugh…”
Theodora’s head throbbed.
Even if the child truly was Minerva’s daughter, could this suspicious man be trusted?
Her orders were clear: Mars was about to move, so she was to protect Minerva at all costs.
Her priority was Minerva’s safety.
She stepped forward to pull Minerva away—
“No! Stop!”
“…!”
Another child rushed out.
Further than Aslan, the silver-haired one cried with tears streaming down her terrified face.
“F-Father has done nothing wrong! He only tried to save Madam! Please believe us!”
“Don’t bully Uncle, you bad people!”
Now even being cast as villains by children, the knights stood at a loss.
Theodora read the fear in their eyes.
They weren’t afraid of the slaughter around them, but they were afraid the knights might hurt Ide.
She scanned the bloody hall.
‘Even after seeing such carnage, these children trust him.’
The fact that they sided with him so firmly, plus the sight of his men clearing corpses, spoke volumes.
The battle had already passed.
As her hostility eased, Ide spoke quietly.
“As you see, I hold no malice toward Her Highness.”
“…”
But Theodora’s suspicion lingered.
She was certain she had seen his face before.
Her instincts never lied.
She was about to press him when—
“You…”
“Sir Theodora!”
“Luisa?”
It was Luisa, rushing in with only a shirt over her bandaged body.
Thanks to Jayden’s medicine, her color had improved.
“Luisa!”
Aslan’s face lit up in relief at her safety.
Theodora too was glad to see her.
“Luisa, is it true this man helped Her Highness? And—did Her Highness truly bear a daughter?”
Luisa knew Aslan wasn’t Minerva’s blood child but couldn’t say it.
“Yes. He is not our enemy—he is our benefactor. As for the young lady… you must hear it from Her Highness.”
Theodora barely registered Ide’s innocence.
She was reeling from the revelation that Minerva had a daughter.
“No… Is this why she said nothing at the trial…?”
While she muttered in confusion, Aslan snapped irritably.
“Move, lady! It’s your fault Mom collapsed!”
