At the palace entrance.

 

“Ciel, I have to thank you this time. Without your actions, I wouldn’t have known what to do.”

After Ciel had descended from the carriage with the rest of his group, he immediately noticed that Dominic’s attitude towards him had become strange.

‘What did they say to him?’

He quickly threw a glance at Verdalite and Azar. They had been in a carriage along with Cedric’s parents, Cedric, and Dominic. 

…Although they probably hadn’t been that crowded since their carriage had been a six-person carriage.

His thoughts were interrupted by Jadiel’s slightly odd voice. “Verdalite, Azar?”

Ciel glanced at the three adults. 

‘They knew each other?’

Verdalite gave a friendly wave. “If it isn’t little Jade and the rest of your small gang! I have to say, the kids you took in get in much more trouble than you did!”

The one eyed cheetah eve visibly stiffened up at these words, shooting a glance at Dominic. 

“We’ll talk later. Didn’t the crown prince want to talk about something?”

Though they’d only known each other for a short time, Dominic could clearly perceive the signal for help.

“That’s right. I mainly want to talk to Ciel.”

Ciel had expected this and nodded.

“Then we’ll take our leave now.” Cedric’s father carried an unconscious Cedric and bowed to Dominic, who nodded slightly. 

“Stay safe on your way back. I apologize for all the trouble I’ve caused your son.”

“Our family and your maternal family have always been allies. This won’t change during your generation. Well then, I’ll see you later.”

The archduke gave a formal salute before he walked his wife back to the carriage.

Ciel acutely noticed how he emphasized Dominic’s mother’s family. 

‘Did the archduke not like the emperor?’ 

“Thank you, and see you later.” Dominic smiled with relief before turning back to Ciel and the others.

“Let’s talk in the drawing room, shall we?”

***

 

Once everything was in order, Ciel became the center of attention.

“Ciel. How did you know about the bombs?”

Ciel sighed, he knew this was coming.

“First, Kierra, please activate your affinity.”

Kierra silently complied, and her eyes became infused with mana. In everyone else’s eyes, her irises had started to glow an eerie lime green.

“Ok then. First of all, I mean no harm against the Anatol kingdom, the White Night organization, nor Fatalite. All my actions are the result of my own will.” Ciel vowed, before glancing at Kierra. 

“His words are truthful.”

Ciel smiled, “Second, I knew about the bombs because I have my own sources. Even if I tell you what they are, you all have a low possibility of believing me. That’s all.” He shrugged.

“Does it have something to do with those eyes you like to hide so much?” Mason interjected. Ciel had almost forgotten his existence.

“Nope. I just have bad light resistance.” Ciel shrugged. 

Before the others could continue questioning, Erin stopped them. His clear eyes, which looked so much like pure rubies, gave off a calm air that made everyone feel like they should be silent.

“I believe that everyone wants to protect themselves, and to do that, sometimes they must hide some things.”

Ciel looked at him in shock. In his past life, someone had once said the same thing, word by word. With Erin’s simple sentence, the seed of doubt in Ciel’s heart that had been planted when he saw Erin’s appearance quietly sprouted.

Was he really the only one reincarnated here?

Shelving those thoughts in his mind, Ciel sighed. There was an even bigger reason to visit the church now.

Meanwhile, Jadiel was agreeing with Erin. “That’s right. No one here knows all the secrets the others in the room own. It’s enough to know that Ciel means no harm. My crown prince, surely you didn’t have us stay just for this?”

“Of course not. First of all, I owe you and these gentlemen a lot of lives and a large favor. If not for the three of you, dozens of citizens would have died during the bombs.”

Dominic hadn’t seen Erin in Ciel’s sleeve in the chaos.

 Ciel looked at Azar, whose expression was unreadable under his dark blue veil, so he directly asked the question that had been bugging him, “Was he the one behind the temperature change?”

Azar looked away, and beside him, Verdalite laughed, “Was it that obvious?”

Ciel scoffed. “Were you even trying to hide it? In the middle of summer, I could see my breath. Besides, there’s no way a newly awakened mage’s attribute could block the force of three Maura bombs—even if they were weakened a bit by some other mages beforehand. Only an archmage or someone stronger could’ve frozen the entire explosion.”

Although he wasn’t sure if Azar was an archmage, his mana was the one with the best quality nearby. After Ciel eliminated the other choices, he was the only answer.

“Well, our purpose for staying is done. We’ll be leaving now.” Verdalite gave a meaningful look at Ciel, who pretended not to see it.

“Wait a moment. Is your memory that bad?” Realizing the two men really were going to leave, Ciel stopped them. “The day isn’t over yet.”

It was only around noon. Verdalite still had to follow his orders for around 12 hours. Where did this guy think he was going?

Verdalite froze in place, but he sat back down.

Azar gave a visible sigh, “I’m going back.”

Verdalite looked shocked. “Wait! Weren’t you going to prevent me from getting into trouble?”

Azar smacked the top of Verdalite’s head. “What could be more troublesome than stealing bombs? I came to the capital for a vacation, not to watch you get into trouble.” 

Then, Azar left the room without hesitation.

Looking at Verdalite’s expression, Ciel was reminded of the time when he had seen his past life’s boss being shut out of the bedroom by his angry wife—It was the same expression of disbelief.

He quickly hid his snicker before Verdalite noticed as Dominic cleared his throat, moving the attention back to himself.

“Now that this matter is cleared, I want to discuss this dagger.”

He raised up a dagger as he spoke, Ciel immediately recognized it as the one thrown at the old terrorist in the name of protecting the crown prince. It was a very eye-catching dagger decorated with red jewels.

“My eldest brother informed me that it had been a small civilian girl in pigtails. However, a small girl wouldn't have had that husky voice, nor the strength and skill to throw a dagger so neatly.”

Ciel raised his hand, interrupting whatever Dominic was going to say next. 

“I saw it too.”

At that moment, he could feel everyone taking quick glances at his blindfold before pretending nothing had happened. 

Ciel continued talking, “But the girl’s mana was strange. Its shape was normal, however, I had felt another type of mana that didn’t belong to the girl mixed in. Crown prince, remember that kidnapper who wanted to turn us into puppets? He and the terrorist today wore the same symbol.”

“A hollow sun?”

Ciel nodded. The room fell silent—they were silently realizing the seriousness of the situation.

In the beginning, it wasn’t Dominic’s side that had attacked first. It was planned by the terrorists, which Ciel knew as Novus Vita.

They were the terrorist, the instigator, and the unintentional loyalist.

He now understood Beelzebub’s words. 

“Ahahaha!” Ciel suddenly broke the silence with his laughter. 

This was fun, very fun. This life was so much more interesting than his last one. Novus Vita barely had any presence in the parts of the novel he had read. It was really eye-opening to see how much they did behind the scenes.

Feeling the dubious stares, he waved his hand, “Continue, continue, pfft—hahaha! Don’t mind me.”

Ignoring the child who obviously wasn’t in his right mind, Dominic continued, “...Cedric will be joining Fatalite along with the other trainees.”

Jadiel was obviously against that idea. “Isn’t he following you to Ouroborus later? It’s very dangerous for a newly awakened mage to travel outside the kingdom. Fatalite doesn’t take in loafers either. Even if it’s a loafer inserted by your highness.”

Recovering from his laughing fit, Ciel joined the conversation again. 

“Really? But I agree with his highness. In the citizen’s views, in addition to the crown prince, Cedric played a major role in blocking the bombs. His highness hasn’t completely solidified his position yet. What do you think the other nobles will do when the crown prince’s closest aide becomes a hero?” 

‘In the original novel, Cedric had died protecting Dominic in the first demon invasion. If he stays in Fatalite, it’ll be easier for me to keep him alive. If I can follow Cedric around and have him survive, I wonder how Dominic can still fall in love with the protagonist.’

Behind the blindfold, Ciel’s blue eyes held bad intentions.

‘The story’s already screwed up anyway. Might as well screw it up even more. The result might be even more interesting than the original.’

Lanae agreed with him, “To the archduke’s heir, it’s much safer to be in a hidden organization founded by his highness.”

Her voice was followed by more assenting voices from Mason, and Kierra, who had been silent earlier. Even Ivan had joined in.

Ciel poked Erin’s side.

-They were so vigilant against Dominic earlier. Now, aren’t they acting like actual allies?-

Erin nodded in agreement. 

Facing his group member’s pleading eyes, Jadiel had to give in. 

“We won’t give him any special treatment.”

Dominic gave a radiant smile, “This was also what Cedric wanted. He’ll come over later after the awarding ceremony. I’ll send you the details later.”

The conversation was over, and the entire group was sent back in a large but inconspicuous carriage.

“By the way, I have another point to bring up.” Ciel’s words gave Jadiel a bad premonition.

“Say it.”

“I want to visit the church.” Ciel declared. If there was a reason why he had kept his past life’s memories, the most likely one would be a god. He may even get answers about if there were others like him.

“Haaah.” Jadiel rubbed his forehead.

“Stop giving me headaches for five minutes. Please.”

Ciel laughed, “There is a solution.”

“Which is?”

“Don’t think about it.”