Watching Charlotte closely, Dorothea sipped from her mug and scribbled down notes on her notepad. “Lemme see, the hapless heroine starts takin’ her own steps forward... Brilliant! I’m gonna use that arc!”
“All I did was put ice cream in a mug of hot chocolate—it’s just a little thing.” Charlotte smiled shyly.
“Compared to what you were like in the very beginning, you’ve made great strides,” Allen said with a grin. “At this rate, I’ll have to work hard to keep up too... I’ll widen my horizons and look for more naughty pleasures to teach you.”
“D-Don’t get so serious about something like that.” Charlotte was flustered at Allen’s intense resolve.
Meanwhile, Dorothea downed the hot chocolate, her grin stretching even more. “By the by, Master Allen. If you want somethin’ naughty to teach Miss Charlotte...I’ve got an idea that’s better than anythin’. How about makin’ a big splash here?”
“An idea? From you? It’s not even worth listening to. I’ll pass.”
“Come on, don’t be shy. There’s only one thing that’s on the horizon now that the heroine has grown, y’know.” Dorothea snapped up her pen like an index finger. “And that, my friends, is sortin’ out the problem at the bottom of it all. How ’bout challengin’ the enemy in Neils Kingdom?”
A hush fell over the whole group as they stared at Dorothea. Only the crackling of the logs and the creaking of the window panes as the wind blew against them could be heard in the silence.
Allen heaved a great sigh. “Didn’t expect you’d know what was going on... You’re pretty well informed for a hermit elf.”
“Well, you were talkin’ about the Evans family the other day, weren’t cha? I just did a little diggin’, that’s all,” Dorothea said casually, then pointed her pen at Charlotte. “So, how ’bout it, Miss Charlotte? How do you feel?”
“I...” Charlotte swallowed hard. But there was no hint of sorrow on her face. “Um, I do feel angry, and I think they were cruel to me.” She uttered each word slowly like someone treading cautiously through a mountain path shrouded in mist. “I do want to prove my innocence too. But...”
“But?”
“At the same time, I feel...it’s only because I had to flee that I met Allen...so I’m also glad that it happened,” Charlotte said, her cheeks turning pink as she looked down a little. But she looked up right away and clenched her fists. “Oh, but I really am mad at them! If I came face-to-face with the prince now...I think I’d be able to scold him, ‘Bad boy!’”
“‘Bad boy’...? Don’t you have anythin’ stronger to say? He was plottin’ your murder, y’know.” Dorothea laughed dryly, scratching her cheek. “Oh well, perhaps that’s just like you, Miss Charlotte—uh, what’s up, Master Allen?”
“Charlotte...” Allen staggered forward and slowly approached Charlotte. Grasping her shoulders, he shouted, “You’ve come so far, Charlotte—now you’re properly angry at them! I’m proud of you for transforming so much...!”
“U-Um, are you okay, Allen?” Charlotte handed a handkerchief to the weeping Allen.
Dorothea shook her head at the spectacle, murmuring, “More like an overbearing parent than a lover...”
Out of context, Allen might have appeared melodramatic. But because he knew what Charlotte was like before, when she couldn’t come to terms with her own feelings, this growth moved him to no end.
Allen roughly wiped his eyes and said with a small sigh, “To tell you the truth...I asked Eluka to investigate a while ago.”
“You mean, look into the prince...? Did she find out anything?” Charlotte asked anxiously.
“I haven’t heard the details yet,” he replied, shaking his head. “I’m too impatient to hear a bit at a time, so she was probably waiting till she could tell me the whole story.” A sickening tale was better heard all in one go to get it over with. That was why he hadn’t pressed Eluka for intel before it was time—but finally, Eluka seemed to be ready to reveal everything. “Eluka told me she’s going to explain it all here. She must be wrapping up her research now. As for what’s to come next, let’s think about that once we’ve heard everything. Like I said before...” Allen paused and looked straight into Charlotte’s eyes. “I’ll respect your wishes, Charlotte. Anything you decide to do...I’ll support you no matter what.”
“Yes please!” Charlotte nodded with a big smile. Her face looked clear—there was no trace of fear for moving forward or hesitation for dragging Allen into her troubles. Instead, her eyes showed firm determination.
Getting teary again, Allen turned to glare at the other side of the room, where two girls and two beasts were huddled together around a sheet of paper with words like “murder” and “destruction” scrawled on it. There was also a stick figure with his head chopped off. They were obviously bloodthirsty.
“So...Natalia, Lydie, Roo, Gosetsu,” he said with a sigh. “Don’t go making plans for extermination without Charlotte’s consent. This is her fight, you know.”
“Ack...but, Dark Overlord! I want to pummel that prince to the ground right now!” Natalia spat, gripping the pen. “And not just the prince. I want to round up everyone in the Evans family who abused my sister and show them hell...!”
“I’m on Maman’s side too!” Lydie yelled. “No mercy for evil!”
“Me too! Anyone who hurts Mommy is my snack!” Roo barked.
“After patiently biding my time these past several months...the moment to strike has finally come...” Gosetsu chuckled ominously.
“All right, all right, we know how you feel,” Allen said. “Charlotte, you try. Can you calm them down?”
“Y-Yes. How about we enjoy some cookies together, everyone? See, they’re yummy.” She held out a tray of cookies to soothe them.
At first glance, the four of them looked like a cute bunch, but in reality, they were as vicious as a pack of rabid dogs.
Allen pressed a hand to his forehead and groaned. “I bet it’s going to be more of a headache to keep them under control than it will be to scheme the actual revenge...”
“Well well, those fellows in Neils Kingdom are up against quite a formidable pack.” Dorothea cackled. But soon she knitted her brows and lowered her voice. “But it’s an odd story, isn’t it? Ever since she was taken in by the Evans family, Miss Charlotte was treated cruelly by her stepmother—isn’t that right?”
“You did a lot of research... Where did you hear all that?” Allen asked.
“Oh, it’s simple. Tracked down some peddlers who’d frequent their estate, and former servants of theirs—made them honest with a little bit of magic and asked them to spill it,” Dorothea explained nonchalantly. Her methods sounded barely legal. Allen decided not to comment on it. She went on, “I can imagine a handful of reasons for the prince scrappin’ the engagement...but I just don’t get what the Evans family wanted to do at all. Would they abuse someone just because she’s an illegitimate child? I mean, she’s engaged to a prince, after all. It’s plain as day what would have happened if the story got out in the open.”
“That’s the thing...” Allen cocked his head.
What Dorothea pointed out was something he had been thinking about for a long time now. He could see how the prince might have scorned an illegitimate daughter and plotted to nullify their engagement—that much was understandable. But he didn’t get why the Evans family had kept abusing Charlotte all those years and didn’t try to protect her reputation even for their own sake. If they’d been found out, it could tarnish the whole clan’s position among the nobility. In fact, they were already so cornered that they’d had to send off Natalia to a distant boarding school.
It’s as if they want the family to be destroyed... he thought. It wasn’t impossible—nevertheless, he just couldn’t see their motive. He mulled it over, but eventually shook his head with a sigh. “Either way, we’ll find out soon enough. It’s no use speculating when we have so little to go on—hm?”
A soft knocking came from the door of the cottage. When he opened the door, Eluka tumbled in with the frosty wind.
“Hey, how’s it going? Sorry to keep y’all waiting.”
“Hi, Eluka—oh!” Charlotte’s face stiffened when she saw Eluka by the door. She immediately grabbed a blanket nearby, dashed across the room, and wrapped her up. The sight of Eluka in her typical scanty outfit seemed to have given her a shock. “Are you okay, Eluka?! You must be freezing!”
“What, me? Nah, I’m good. This outfit is enchanted, actually—it’s a lot warmer than it looks.”
“Why take so much trouble to expose yourself...?” Allen cast a withering look at his sister, who thought fit to turn up at a snowy mountain in a crop top and a mini skirt. Even knowing it was enchanted, it still made him shiver just to look at her. Setting that aside, Allen cleared his throat. “You came right in time, Eluka. We were just talking about that investigation you were doing.”
“Oh yeah? Perfect, we can get right down to it, then.” Eluka looked around at the group gathered around her. They waited in taut anticipation for her next words, but to their surprise, she pointed to the dark night outside the window and said with a smile, “Let’s get going. Y’all up for a super fun walk?”
“Huh...?” Allen stared at her, completely nonplussed.