Chapter 406: Siana’s True Identity
“Wha…? F-Felisiana-sama…!?”
There had been no chance for Siana to switch places, yet Felisiana-sama stood there before me, and I couldn’t help but cry out in shock.
I thought I had heard Felisiana-sama’s voice coming from Siana, but now, with her hair simply let down, Felisiana-sama herself was standing there…
“W-why are you here, Felisiana-sama…? And more importantly, where did Siana go?”
Even in this situation, where nothing made sense, one fact was certain.
The Siana who had been here just moments ago was gone, and when I pointed that out, Felisiana-sama spoke after a brief pause.
“Your maid, Siana… is actually… me.”
“…Huh?”
Siana… is Felisiana-sama?
Was that supposed to be some kind of metaphor? But in this situation…
I understood the words, yet at the same time couldn’t process them, and my thoughts came to a halt.
But even if my thinking stopped, time did not.
The King, visibly shaken, spoke.
“H-his maid is F-Felisiana? W-what in the world is going on!? No… I see! You! You placed Felisiana at your side as a maid to deceive this King!! You insolent…! A mere count’s son daring to make a royal like Felisiana serve as a maid, even temporarily, is absolutely unforgivable…!”
“Could you stop jumping to conclusions and running with them? Lux-kun had no idea that I was Felisiana.”
“W-what…!? Th-then why are you acting as this boy’s maid!?”
“Well… there are various reasons, but if I had to answer in line with what you just said… it’s because Lux-kun is the first boy I’ve ever felt I wanted to support, even if it meant devoting myself completely.”
“…!”
Hearing those words, my frozen thoughts began to move again, trying to process what Felisiana-sama had just said.
I still couldn’t fully grasp that Siana was Felisiana-sama, but…
Thinking back on everything Siana had done until now, I knew without a doubt that there was no falsehood in Felisiana-sama’s words.
“Th-this mere count’s son… a boy like him is someone you would devote yourself to support? Don’t be ridicu—”
“Now that I think about it, since I remained silent without revealing my identity earlier, you certainly said quite a lot to belittle Lux-kun… that someone from a count’s family shouldn’t be allowed to achieve outstanding results, that Ashwell was heartbroken after losing to Lux-kun, that it’s unforgivable for someone of a count’s family to seduce royalty, that Lux-kun would cause this country to fall… every one of those claims is completely off the mark.”
“W-what!?”
Felisiana-sama spoke coldly, then continued.
“To begin with, academic exams and swordsmanship tournaments exist to evaluate people by standards other than rank. If rank alone determined superiority, there would be no need for such events, would there? This is the most basic of basics.”
“B-but…”
“Next, the claim that Ashwell was heartbroken after losing to Lux-kun. You likely tried to stir up Lux-kun’s guilt and make him accept your argument, but perhaps because you came up with it on the spot, you overlooked something easily confirmed, that Ashwell actually holds a favorable view of Lux-kun. That’s why when Lux-kun refuted you with facts, you had nothing left to say… how disgraceful.”
“S-sil—”
“Then, the idea that it’s unforgivable for someone of a count’s family to seduce royalty. To begin with, Lux-kun isn’t the kind of person who would do something as crude as deliberately seducing someone. More importantly, you deny our wish, as members of the royal family, to be with a man from a count’s house, which means rejecting the will of royalty… in other words, stripping away one of the rights of royal family members. You claim that status and rank are absolute, yet you still haven’t realized how contradictory your own words and actions are?”
“Guh… I said be qui—”
“Lastly, the claim that Lux-kun would cause this country to fall… to say such a thing to someone who has done nothing wrong. I have no intention of letting the country Lux-kun lives in fall, but if it ever were to happen, it would obviously be because of you, who created a civil conflict based on ignorance and contradictions like the ones I just listed.”
And then, she continued.
“I will never forgive you for using your position as King to belittle Lux-kun and hurl abuse at him… so let’s end this now.”
As Felisiana-sama finished speaking in a cold tone,
Everyone around us, including the soldiers and the King, froze in place as if they had been turned to ice.