act18d0

I have to leave sooner or later, Heidi.

Try not to make the Count suspicious. Let's head back to the party.

Dear God, what happened?! How are you injured so?!

Get a doctor! Hurry!

(Uncle Richard...)

I saw something just now...! There were two fierce beasts! What was that? Were you attacked by the beasts?!

Oh, my. I heard that the Catastrophes a few years ago infected some of those fierce wild beasts...

I'm okay, ladies and gentlemen. It is just some simple flesh wounds. Heidi has already tended to my injuries.

(Are you sure you can stand? I'm not sure I would've called it 'simple.')

How could something like this happen at one of my dinner parties?! Those useless guards!

Please, lie down and get some rest. Someone, head to garden at once! I want to know what happened there!

No, Count Vincent, please let me go. You know my swordsmanship.

Richard, you are my guest... but very well. This is just the time for us to rely on your gallantry.

Come, Lady Kal'tsit. My personal physician will tend to your injuries. He will be here soon.

My apologies, Count Vincent. I did not mean to disrupt your party.

No, my lady. I am responsible for this mistake. I allowed an assassin to waltz right into my manor!

Please don't look too much into this affair.

Oh... Right, I understand, though I am surprised you don't seem at all shaken by this.

Could you at least tell me who it was? I can't well sit here when these villains...

Very well... If this assassin managed to deceive all those present here today, then indeed it isn't a matter that a mere noble should pry into.

Lady Kal'tsit, please promise me this.

Go ahead.

Please keep Thomson safe from these schemes. He is my dearest friend.

He is no major player. He can't protect the entire country, but he can protect our own little Victoria.

He can do what we nobles cannot. Therefore all I can do is to let him do what he must.

You don't know the details of our plan, yet you harbor everyone nonetheless. I thank you for that.

Haha. Do I need to know? All I have to do is to play my role well... A fat fowlbeast awaiting his slaughter.

But this is how he has always been ever since we were in school.

Lady Kal'tsit...

Please accept my gratitude.

You don't need to thank me when I have been deceiving you all along.

As long as my family and the masses get to live another peaceful day—Let the whole world ridicule my foolishness.

Both you and I know it in our hearts.

Are you leaving so soon? You are still injured.

These are just flesh wounds, fortunately.

Count Vincent, about the damage 'those two beasts' have done...

Right, I understand.

Kal'tsit...

Looks like I should just leave the farewells to the youngsters.

I will head back now. Everyone was shaken by the presence of the beasts.

Please take care, Cleric Kal'tsit.

The Count is right. The weight of the future is for the younger generation to bear, whether they are ready for it or not.

Is Uncle Vincent actually...?

The Victoria he protects may just be a remote corner of the countryside, but there is not an ounce of falsity to the peace he upholds.

Protecting your home—This is a truth that generations after generations of Victorian have worshipped.

Your father is trying his best, but...

Winter is here.

Are you ready?

Will you be ready?

Yes.

Now go ask your father. He knows how to find me.

Perhaps we'll one day meet each other again somewhere.