“I know that he secretly buys me a lot of peaches every year to make me happy, even though the tree in the garden doesn’t bear fruit. But you know, he was always so thrilled about it, so I just pretended not to know, which really did make me happy.” Remilena’s eyes slowly began to fill with tears. She clearly understood how much her father loved her and didn’t want him to worry about her.
“I see...” Westalia was unable to come up with any meaningful words of comfort. Then they heard the sound of running footsteps from the hallway.
“Please wait!”
“You can’t go in there without permission!”
Westalia could hear the sound of her ladies’ maids in the hallway. Then the doorway to the drawing room flew open.
“Remilena!” Daniel came stumbling in, sweating and out of breath. Westalia could tell he’d run out of his house the minute he’d read the letter. He’d managed to misbutton his shirt, either from being in a hurry or from being upset. Westalia’s ladies’ maids came in after Daniel, but Westalia held up her hand and silently told them they didn’t have to do anything.
“Daddy?”
Daniel looked frantically around the room and was left speechless when he finally caught sight of his daughter. He dropped the peaches he’d been carrying and rushed over to cradle his daughter in his arms.
“Oh, Remilena!”
“Daddy...”
“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!”
“I can’t...breathe.” Remilena coughed as she was hugged tightly, and Daniel hurriedly loosened his arms. He put his hands on Remilena’s cheeks and stroked them as if to confirm she was real. Tears were flowing freely down his face. Remilena’s eyes were also wet from being with her father again for the first time in years.
“Remilena, your skin...”
“I know. It got like this while I worked in the dye factory. It’s Elizabeth Pink poisoning. Girls who were there before me were even worse, and it likely killed them. I don’t know what kind of poison it was, do you, daddy?”
“Elizabeth Pink...” Daniel was having a hard time processing that his own daughter was affected by the poison, so Westalia spoke up.
“The dye used to make Elizabeth Pink is extracted from the petals of agisakuragi. Those petals are easy to use for dyes because you don’t need to use a mordant and they are sensitive to heat. Plus, they have a very bright orange color that you can’t get from anything else.”
“But those seeds are poisonous and used for assassinations and executions. If you eat it, you’ll suffer horribly and then die,” Remilena said.
“You’re quite smart. It’s an agonizing death,” Westalia said.
Remilena tilted her head, unaware that the woman in front of her had drunk agisakuragi poison and lived to tell the tale.
Westalia explained Remilena’s story to Daniel, mentioning the other girls who’d been kidnapped and forced to work in the factory as well.
“That’s absurd...”
“Daddy...will my skin ever return to normal?”
“Yes, I’ll do everything I can to fix it. You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
“Okay.”
“Oh, and I brought these for you,” Daniel said suddenly, placing a peach into her blistered hand. “Your tree is producing a good crop again this year, dear.”
“It’s all because you take such good care of it, daddy!” Remilena smiled as she sniffed the peach, even though she knew he’d bought it from a store.
Is this what familial love looks like? Westalia wondered. Her relationship with her parents had always been tenuous, and she’d cut them off completely after her execution. She’d never known a father’s love. Westalia felt a little envious, somewhere deep inside, as she watched Daniel and Remilena.
Then Daniel noticed the stack of canvases on the table. They were painfully realistic drawings that Westalia had done of the girls as they currently were. At the top of the pile was a drawing of Remilena.
“Westalia, what are you going to do with this picture of my daughter?”
“I’m going to use it to inform other people about the dangers of Elizabeth Pink,” Westalia answered.
“No. I don’t want to expose my daughter in such a way. Please don’t use her picture.”
The girls had already given their approval—including Remilena. Westalia had found other people suffering from the poisoning in addition to the girls and Elizabeth and had been drawing them incessantly.
Remilena shook her head slowly. “No, it’s okay,” she said, in a tone that almost sounded like a rebuke. “If there are people like me who are suffering from Elizabeth Pink poisoning and don’t know the cause, I feel sorry for them. If I can help, I want to.”
“Remilena... If you’re okay with it, then I won’t object. But are you sure?”
“Yes.” Remilena reached out a probing hand and rested it on her father’s arm. Then she looked up into his face. “Please help Lady Westalia. She’s trying to spread the truth about Elizabeth Pink to the world. That’s why I want you to release the poison analysis too.”
Daniel turned to look at Westalia with a puzzled look on his face.
“Just so you know, I didn’t force her to say that. Remilena, how do you know about the analysis?” Westalia asked.
“I overheard you talking about it to someone.”
She probably meant either Paige or Leonardo, who had free access to Westalia’s rooms at the palace. After a few moments of hesitation, Daniel shrugged in response to his daughter’s plea.
“All right,” he said, having made up his mind. “That was the deal. I’ll leave this with you. I don’t care what you do with it, but I hope you will protect me and my daughter from being crushed by the powers that be.”
Daniel took out an envelope from his breast pocket and held it out to Westalia. Paige handed her a knife, and she carefully broke the seal. She looked at the contents, finding it was an explanation of the composition of Elizabeth Pink. She clutched the analysis to her chest and bowed to Daniel and Remilena.
“Thank you both for your cooperation. Tiberio will never be able to touch you. He’ll soon fade from society completely,” Westalia said. The corners of her mouth slowly curled up into a smile—the sheer power radiating off her practically knocked Daniel over.
✦ ✦ ✦
Shortly after the seizure of the Elizabeth Pink dye factory, Tiberio paid a visit to Le Chantier Palace.
Westalia was heading into the main hall of the palace when she heard servants gossiping that Tiberio was on his way to the dungeon.
He’s probably here to make sure the guards from the factory don’t say anything incriminating, she thought. Leonardo was leading the interrogation of the two guards. They’d readily talked under pressure and had already admitted they were being forced into the work, and other information was coming out slowly. They also let on to the fact that the Rias Corporation had been conducting their businesses with full knowledge that the Elizabeth Pink dye contained toxins and would poison people.
Westalia made her way to the area of Le Chantier Palace where political affairs were conducted and stopped in front of a particular door. Before knocking, she deliberately removed the blue earring from her right ear. Looking down at the coat of arms, the sigil of the next emperor, she slowly smiled.
“I’m going to take advantage of this, Leo,” she said, entering the room.
The door swung shut and the sign on it, reading “Office of the Royal Chronicler,” glinted in the hallway light.