Chapter 591

While Ludger was cutting across the north to chase training that had no business existing outside old stories, Viola was riding home with Luna at her side.

The roads were familiar, too familiar. Lionfang’s stone-leveled routes made travel smoother than it had any right to be this close to the frontier, and that only made the knot in Viola’s stomach tighter. Every time the carriage glided over a bump that

should

have existed, she thought of the Regent’s letter and how quickly “innovation” turned into “imperial interest.”

She hadn’t planned to come back in a hurry. She’d planned to come back with answers.

It had started with overhearing Arslan talking with Torvares, low voices, careful words, the kind of conversation adults thought the younger ones wouldn’t understand just because they used fewer syllables. Viola had heard enough.

Offer. Title. Loyalty. Rails. Regent.

The word alone had made her jaw tighten.

And then Torvares had said something, something she couldn’t fully catch, but the tone had been enough. Calculating. Viola had stood there, hidden in the corridor shadow, and felt her temper sharpen into a point.

So she’d decided to go talk to Ludger directly. No intermediaries. No “we’ll handle it.” No being treated like a naive young woman who was allowed opinions as long as they didn’t change outcomes.

Luna hadn’t questioned it. She rarely did. She just moved when Viola moved, quiet as a blade being drawn.

By the time they reached Lionfang’s inner streets, the day had already started to fade, workshops still loud, trainees still running drills, merchants still trying to pretend they weren’t watching the guildhall like it might spit out money.

Viola marched in with purpose. And immediately ran into the most infuriating thing about Ludger. He wasn’t there. Not in the workshop. Not in the training yard. Not at the guildhall table where important people gathered to pretend they were in control.

Viola asked Yvar once. Then twice. The answer didn’t change.

“He left.”

“North.”

“For training.”

At a time like this. At the exact moment the Empire was sniffing around their throat like a dog that had caught blood. Viola just stood there for a heartbeat, processing the absurdity. Then she let out a long, exasperated sigh that sounded like it was trying to escape her ribs.

“You have got to be kidding me,” she muttered.

Luna’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes flicked sideways in that quiet way that meant

I told you he was like this.

Viola pinched the bridge of her nose, felt her pulse thudding behind her eyes, and forced herself not to scream.

The entire trip, planning, riding, coming back fast because she’d thought it mattered… A waste of time. Of course it was. Because Ludger didn’t wait for the world’s schedule to line up with his. He just moved. He always moved. Viola lowered her hand slowly and stared at the doorway like Ludger might walk through it out of spite.

“He’s as unnerving as he can be,” she said, voice tight.

They should return before it gets too late.

Viola knew that the moment she realized Ludger was gone. The decision hit her with the cold clarity of consequences: they’d left without informing her grandfather, and they weren’t exactly doing an official “visit.” They’d been sniffing around where they shouldn’t, asking questions most didn’t like being asked.

If word got back that she’d been poking at Arslan and Torvares’ negotiations like a curious knife…

It would bring trouble. For her. For Luna.

Viola clicked her tongue under her breath and started to turn away… and Luna spoke, quiet and smooth, like she was placing a chess piece on the board.

“Your father isn’t around,” Luna said. “We can go to Ludger’s home.”

Viola paused mid-step.

Luna’s eyes stayed calm. “Ask his mother. Elaine will know something. If anyone does.”

Viola stared at the street for a second, weighing it.

Return home empty-handed, face Torvares’ questions with nothing but frustration?

Or risk one more stop, one more thread pulled, before retreating?

She hated that it was a good idea. She hated that she was curious enough to take it.

“Fine,” Viola muttered. “We’ll check with Elaine. Then we go home.”

Luna nodded once, as if the plan had already been decided.

The house was quiet from the outside. Too quiet. The kind of quiet that made you forget there were twins inside until they reminded you violently.

Viola knocked. Once. Twice. Footsteps, small, fast.

The door opened… and something short and determined slammed into her legs.

Then something else.

Viola looked down in startled confusion just as the twins collided with her like tiny, enthusiastic battering rams. Little arms wrapped around her legs, trying to lift her as if she were a chair they could steal.

They failed, obviously. They also didn’t stop trying.

Viola blinked, totally thrown off balance, and stared down at the pair of small, furious gremlins clinging to her like she’d been labeled

important object.

“…Is this how people in the north greet visitors?” she asked, voice half incredulous, half offended, as the twins attempted to hoist her again and nearly fell over each other.

From behind them, Elaine appeared, already moving, already reading the scene with that sharp mother’s calm. Her eyes widened a fraction when she realized who was at the door. Then she sighed.

“I’m sorry,” Elaine said, stepping forward and scooping one twin up with practiced ease while the other stubbornly tried to keep attacking Viola’s leg. “They thought it was Ludger.”

Viola looked from the twin still clinging to her to Elaine, stunned. Elaine’s mouth tightened in that faint, apologetic line that meant she was embarrassed but not surprised.

“That’s how they welcome him back,” Elaine explained, as if this was normal and not a hostile takeover attempt. “They hear the door and… decide it’s time.”

Viola stared down at the remaining twin, who was now pushing against her shin with all the confidence of someone who had never lost a war in their life.

“…Right,” Viola said slowly.

And, despite herself, she felt the first flicker of regret. She’d come for information. Instead, she’d walked into an ambush. By toddlers.

They ended up around the dining table like it was the most normal thing in the world to be interrogated by toddlers while plotting against imperial politics.

Luna sat perfectly still, posture straight, expression unreadable.

Across from her, Elle sat in her little seat and stared back with the intensity of someone trying to win a war by eye contact alone. It was a staring contest with uneven participants, and somehow Luna still looked like she was taking it seriously.

Viola tried to sit like a noble. Tried.

Arash had decided her shoulder was his new throne. He perched there with a triumphant little grin and grabbed a fistful of her hair with both hands, holding it like a prized trophy while simultaneously yanking hard enough to make her eye twitch. Viola didn’t move. She held her smile like it was armor.

“…Cute,” she managed, through clenched teeth.

Elaine sat opposite them, calm and sharp, hands moving efficiently, fixing Elle’s bib, nudging a cup out of reach, keeping the household stable with the same quiet competence she used to keep grown men from doing stupid things.

Then she looked up and asked, very casually, a question that hit like a knife slid under the ribs.

“Why did you come at this weird time?” Elaine asked. “When Ludger and Arslan aren’t around.”

She paused, eyes narrowing slightly.

“Or is it because they

aren’t

around that you came?”

Viola forced her smile wider. Elaine was too perceptive. It was almost unfair. Luna didn’t react. Elle didn’t blink. Arash yanked.

Viola cleared her throat. “We came to talk with Ludger,” she said. “We… overheard Father speaking with my grandfather about the Regent’s offer. But we didn’t get the details. And—”

She hesitated, then decided honesty was safer than dancing.

“And I’m tired,” Viola admitted, “of not knowing why Ludger and my grandfather aren’t on good terms.”

Elaine’s expression didn’t change, but her eyes sharpened as if she’d been waiting for someone to say that part out loud. She leaned back slightly, thinking. Then her gaze flicked to Luna.

“Do you know?” Elaine asked.

Luna nodded once.

“Yes,” she said quietly.

Viola glanced at her, annoyed all over again. Of course Luna knew. Luna always knew things people weren’t supposed to know.

Elaine held Luna’s gaze. “And?”

Luna’s face stayed calm. “I can’t tell you why.”

Elaine accepted that without surprise, which somehow made it worse. She looked back at Viola, then slowly shook her head.

“I don’t know the reason either,” Elaine said. “Not the full reason.”

Viola’s eyebrows rose. “You don’t?”

Elaine’s mouth tightened. “Ludger doesn’t share everything. Not when he thinks it’ll cause problems.”

She thought for another moment, then added, carefully, “But… I believe he started speaking about Torvares with suspicion after your grandfather sent the last three recruits.”

Viola stilled.

“The last three recruits,” she repeated. “Sent to Lionsguard?”

Elaine nodded once.

“Yes,” she said. “After that, Ludger’s tone changed. Not openly. He didn’t accuse.” Her eyes narrowed faintly. “But he started

watching

your grandfather actions the way he watches a problem he hasn’t named yet.”

Arash tugged Viola’s hair again, and this time she couldn’t hide the flinch.

Elle won the staring contest by default when Luna blinked, once, slow and deliberate, as if to remind everyone she could have kept it going forever. Viola barely noticed. Because Elaine’s words had just handed her a new thread. And threads, in this house, tended to lead somewhere dangerous.

Elaine’s words looped in her head,

the last three recruits.

Suspicion. A tone change. Watching.

Viola stared at the tabletop for a long moment, thinking hard enough that even Arash’s tugging barely registered. The room felt strangely quiet despite the twins’ presence, like everyone could sense that something sharp was approaching.

Eventually, Viola let out a slow, exasperated sigh. Then she turned her head toward Luna.

“Isn’t it about time you tell the truth?” Viola asked, voice tight. “Or are you going to keep making me waste time like this?”

Luna looked at her with that blank, calm expression, no guilt, no defensiveness. Just the quiet face of someone who had trained herself to be a lock.

Then Luna’s eyes shifted to Elaine. She held the older woman’s gaze for a second longer than necessary. You could almost see the calculation behind the stillness.

Her job. Her orders. Her boundaries. Luna had always done what she was told. That was what made her reliable. That was what made her dangerous.

But she was also standing in a house with a mother who didn’t blink at danger, and a girl who was tired of being treated like a moron. And… those two deserved to know the truth instead of wandering in the dark.

Luna inhaled once, shallow. Then she spoke, voice perfectly matter-of-fact, like she was stating the weather.

“One of those three recruits,” Luna said, “is the daughter of the late Emperor.”

The words hit the room and everything froze.

For a full second, there was no sound but the faint scrape of Arash’s fingers in Viola’s hair.

Then Viola’s mouth slowly fell open. Elaine’s did too. Both of them were staring at Luna like she’d just dropped a live bomb onto the table and called it a paperweight.

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