"It's been a hard day's work for all of you, and I'll give you all appropriate rewards."
"... Honestly, there's not much heart to be happy about."
In the face of the Lord of the Heavens' appreciation, Jared smiled bitterly and helplessly. Caroline was silent, Wendy was as unobtrusive as ever, and Serenity was tired, after all, it was no small task to calm the panicked nobles. Jared wasn't in the mood for it, so he left it to her. Even Serenity couldn't be happy with the Lord of the Heavens' appreciation of her work until now.
It should have been a great victory, as they were able to defeat Vidocq just before he made his move. But there was no joy in the victory, or in the fact that it didn't end there. It wasn't Jared's job to worry about the political situation in the Empire, but the most serious problem of all was Kylie.
Even Caroline had never faced such a terrible crisis.
So Jared and Caroline couldn't offer any advice or comfort to Carrie now. She was locked in her room, cowering in the corner like a dead person, not responding to anyone's calls. Under these circumstances, it was not a complete victory. In fact, half the blame lay with Jared; if he hadn't let Carrie know the truth, she would have hated them at best, and not been as depressed as she was.
"... Maybe I'm doing it wrong?"
Since the encouragement was useless, the Lord of Cthulhu didn't say anything more, she just gave a few helpless words of comfort, and after stating that someone would take over and take care of everything there, the illusion disappeared once again, while Jared stared intently at the jewel in front of him as if he were talking to himself, saying.
(... Perhaps, but the truth is, we can't imagine Vito hating his daughter so deeply either. It was more than a mere shock to Ms. Kelly.)
Caroline twirled the umbrella in her hands and looked at Jared uneasily. Putting herself in Caroline's shoes, if she had been in the same crisis, she might have turned out to be just like Carrie.
(Go see Kelly. Maybe, we can figure out how to cheer her up.)
"Do you have any good ideas?"
(Of course ...)
Caroline walked up to Jared and gently took his left hand in hers.
(Now that Ms. Kelly has lost her purpose for continuing to live, you must give her a new purpose. For example, ... hug her.)
Caroline's offer startled Jared.
"Are you kidding me?"
（I'm not kidding. I just went to see Ms. Kelly. She's scared, she's in pain, she's not even as confident as she used to be. She seems to be afraid that she'll be dumped at any moment, and ...)
Though Caroline didn't go on, Jared knew that something must have happened while she was visiting Kelly to make Caroline suggest this to herself.
"... And?"
(The other is ...)
Caroline's slender fingers skipped nimbly over and rested on Jared's right arm.
(Kill her, end her suffering.)
Jared let out a long breath in the face of Caroline's suggestion, then he casually found a chair and sat down, shaking his head helplessly. Caroline's suggestion was realistic and harsh, and it was. Kylie had been working hard to get her father's recognition and appreciation, but when it all came to nothing, she had lost her basic motivation to live, so now, if she wasn't able to give the bait called "desire", then if she continued to do so, Kylie's entire spirit would completely break down.
"Is there no other way?"
(Using my power, I can erase her memories.) But I can't do it precisely, so if I have to erase it, then Ms. Kylie will become no different from a dead person. ... If that's considered living, it's just a self-deception.)
Is it possible to be a real person when you've lost all your memories and are just living for the sake of living?
Jared bowed his head and looked up after a long moment of silence.
"You know, one or the other is not my favorite way."
(I know...)
The corners of Caroline's mouth turned up, and she was sure Jared had a better idea.
"Everyone is selfish, and so are we, and instead of letting one person we know die because of pain, how about letting countless people we don't know pay for it, what do you think of that approach?" Jared stood up and walked out of the room. Caroline, meanwhile, watched him, then nodded slightly and followed close behind. But when they knocked on the door of Kelly's room, they were surprised and speechless by the unusual sight.
"... Kula, what are you doing here?"
After a few moments, Jared finally reacted and spoke helplessly, while at the same time, Kura, who was sleeping next to Kelly, who was basically the same as a dead person, let out an odd "ooh-ooh" sound, and then opened her eyes and stood up.
"Kula asleep again yo ..."
"..."
(...)
Jared and Caroline looked at each other in disbelief as they tried to figure out how to cheer Kelly up. But then Kura showed up and completely messed up their plans, this little girl who didn't look anything like an aria had always been a pain in the ass, most of all because it was impossible to figure out what she was trying to do or what she wanted to do. Why she did what she did was never on their minds, they were good at solving problems but never liked to find out what they were.
After all, sometimes the truth hurts even more, as it does now for Kelly, who gets the answers she's always wanted, but at a cost she can't afford at all.
"Kula?"
"Oooooh??"
After Jared's helpless cry, Kura finally patted her head as if she was reacting again, and then, as usual, hugged the doll in her arms, squinting her eyes and resuming her original half-asleep appearance.
"Sister Caroline, brother Jared, this time hard work for you guys, yo? Woo... Euphonia every time to Kura to run errands, Kura has been very angry!"
"..."
(...)
The two of them didn't seem to have much to say to Kura's self-complaining, but no matter what, since Kura was here, it meant that she had something important to say.
"oooh meow ... gossip here, in fact, just now Euphoria found something strange, this incident seems to have a black hand behind the scenes, yo?"
Kura said it as if it were nothing, but it startled both of them.
"Really?"
Jared asked rhetorically in disbelief, while subconsciously glancing at Caroline, who was also deeply surprised.
"That's right yo ..."
Kula nodded slowly, then continued.
"According to Euphonia's inference, this matter seems to be related to the Marco Kingdom yo..."
According to Kura's statement, Euphemia ordered a thorough sweep and attack on the Vito family after that, which also turned up a lot of secret information. Among them, there were some information that attracted the attention of the Lord of Heaven, which showed that Vito used to frequently have close dealings with certain high-ranking officials in the Marco Kingdom, which was a very strange thing. Although Marco Kingdom and San Marino Empire are not mortal enemies, due to Marco Kingdom's extreme hatred towards the empire's policy on gifted warriors, the two countries do not have diplomatic exchanges. Therefore, for Vito to have secret contact with someone from Marco Kingdom in his capacity as the Minister of Magic Affairs is really a very suspicious thing.
"So what you're saying is ..."
Before he said that, Jared deliberately glanced at Kelly, who was huddled in the corner, still as good as dead.
"Are they involved in Vito's rebellious behavior?"
"Not to say that there is no relationship, but it is very distressing, we also do not have sufficient evidence to prove that there is a relationship yo ..."
Kura's voice was still lazy, and even with the country in crisis it seemed she couldn't break her habit.
"Well, what about orders?"
"Woo meow?"
Kura cocked her head curiously at Jared's rhetorical question.
"You must have something for us to do if you're giving us all this shit. I don't think you're a gossipy kid Kula ..."
Jared reached out a hand and stroked Kura's head, while Kura squinted in comfort like a cat being scratched on the chin.
"That's right yo, Euphemia wants you to infiltrate the Marco Kingdom and gather favorable evidence to prove it yo, and since the Marco Kingdom is bullying us so much we're naturally going to be pissed off yo. If ..."
Kura didn't finish her next sentence, or Jared would have understood the hidden meaning of her words.
The Lord of Heaven must have grasped something and confirmed that Marco Kingdom is behind this conflict between San Marino Empire and the Federation. Considering that the Kingdom of Marco and the San Marino Empire have been in enmity for many years, this possibility is not impossible.
On the other hand.
It doesn't matter if you can't find any real evidence, as long as you can produce it.
"Is this ... really ...?"
A hoarse voice came from the corner, and Kelly looked up as if she were returning from the dead, her eyes full of despair and hope and pleading that could not be ignored.
"Is it really ... that country that made father-sama like this ...?"