In the moon-draped garden, crisp applause rang out, bright as chimes in cool bamboo.
“Well, well... I wondered who could move my little lion. Turns out it’s you. Then everything clicks.”
Menglan clapped and laughed, her words a playful breeze. She muttered that she’d give the girl a lesson when she came back. Adelaide only smiled and shook her head, like a willow in night wind.
“You shouldn’t blame her too much. The one who pressed a favor on her was me. The Nacha Tribe carves honor into our bones; we don’t leave debts unpaid,” she said with a shrug, the gesture light as drifting petals. “Besides, she didn’t know the meaning behind it. She thought I had a grudge with that human general, and this was just a chance to vent my anger.”
“Pfft—true. That little head would never imagine anyone scheming her like this,” Menglan said, a spark of humor flickering like fireflies. “On paper, she was told to give the human city wall a single punch. In truth, they used her power—so unlike a human’s—to forge evidence. Without noticing, she stepped in as my stand-in, a shadow wearing my mask.”
Her fingertip traced the rim of the cup, a ring of moonlight on porcelain. Her smile ebbed like a tide slipping off stone.
“Ignorance isn’t a crime. And she did it to repay the Nacha Tribe’s debt to you. But the stone’s already hit the pond. The ripples have gone wide. Human heavy troops will bristle at the border, spears like a forest. That gums up my plans. So yes—when she returns, I’ll need to teach her.”
She sighed, turned to Adelaide, and her gaze cooled like frost on glass.
“As for you... you didn’t come here to ask. You laid your net days ago. You never meant to seek my opinion. You came to deliver an ultimatum.”
Adelaide waved lightly and laughed, the sound a silver bell. “Unfair, Your Majesty. My proposal still needs your strong hand.”
I only hope you understand: I want the fewest deaths, no innocents entangled, and only the guilty to be punished—her tone was soft, like balm over a blade. Menglan only lifted a brow.
“Pretty words,” she said, eyes on Adelaide’s unadorned collar, plain as a blank scroll. “If I’m not wrong, you gave the medal I sent you to Kabos. It boosts his credibility while he spreads rumors in the Empire, doesn’t it?”
“Ah, nothing gets past you, Your Majesty.”
“Flattery won’t help now,” she went on. “That young man isn’t the glib-in-public type. You really trust him with this? Aren’t you afraid he’ll trip onstage?”
Adelaide took a small sip, the wine catching moonlight like liquid amber, and then answered.
“Your eye is as sharp as ever. He isn’t much for public speaking. But don’t worry. Before he set out, I… mm… how to put it? I gave him a little blessing.”
“You hypnotized him?”
“Ah, nothing gets past you, Your Majesty.”
“Heh.”
Menglan didn’t call out the cloying refrain. She only rolled her eyes, a ripple across still water.
“Enough. You two-faced thing. You’ll use any means, even on your own friends. Tell me—how am I supposed to trust you?”
“Things for their uses, people for their strengths. For my people’s safety, a little harmless guidance,” she said, steady as a hand on a rudder. “You can understand that.”
“I do understand,” Menglan said, nodding as if to a settled truth, the motion slow as a falling leaf. “I understand your goal isn’t to save human civilians.”
“Ah, nothing gets past you, Your Majesty.”
“Fine, I won’t spar words with you. I yield. We’ll curb the human regent’s ambition your way. I’ll send people to the border to raise some dust.”
Adelaide’s smile bloomed again. She stood, bowed, and spoke with light grace. “Since you’ve said so, I won’t disturb your moon-viewing. You must be very displeased with me right now.”
“Oh, absolutely. Looking at you irks me,” Menglan said, laughter bubbling like a spring. “Tell me, how did I take two losses in a row to this pretty face?”
She waved her off, the motion a fan closing, and told her to hurry back to Mira.
Adelaide obeyed, bowed once more, and turned to leave, her steps soft as dew on stone.
Menglan lifted her cup to end this strange moonlit talk, the cup a small round moon in her hand. Then, in the blink when Adelaide turned her head, the polite smile vanished like paint washed from a mask. Warmth drained from her face in an instant, frost replacing lacquer.
Menglan frowned and called her back.
“Hmm? Do you still need me for something, Your Majesty?” Adelaide didn’t turn. Her voice was even as still water.
“Nothing important. I just remembered a tidbit you might enjoy.” Menglan set down her cup, the sound a soft note in the night. “Tell me—Emperor Belior held the Sacred Heart, a divine gift said to cleanse and heal all, to share heaven’s years. Aren’t you curious why she died?”
Silence rolled in like a cloudbank.
For once, Adelaide didn’t turn and didn’t put the social mask back on. She stood still, a falcon paused mid-dive, and only her halted steps said she’d heard every word.
Seeing this, Menglan sighed, the breath a breeze through pines.
“Don’t repeat the same mistake, my old friend.”
Adelaide gave no answer. She stepped forward after a few beats, and left the courtyard without a word, her figure thinning into moonlight like ink fading on silk.
