In the corridor outside the stone door, the faint sound of footsteps had completely vanished.
The argument inside the secret chamber, however, only grew louder.
“Three thousand years!” Grant smashed the edge of a third stone table, sending stone fragments flying and clattering against the walls. “You're a human who’s lived for barely twenty years. What right do you have to question the history we witnessed with our own eyes?”
Elizabeth crouched on the floor, picking up her stuffed bear and dusting it off while she cursed.
“Are you out of your mind? Leila collected the previous King's ashes herself, Altan sealed the sarcophagus personally, and all ten ancestors of the Blood Race were present. You run four sets of permutation and combination experiments that even an elementary schooler could do, and you think you can overturn three thousand years of established fact?”
She stood up, clutching the bear to her chest, her chin tilted high.
“I admit you’re clever. But the mistake smart people make most often is mistaking coincidence for causality.”
Bell did not argue.
He stood by the inheritance stone pillar and took a half-step back, yielding the center to Lilian.
The focus of the argument shouldn't be him. He was an outsider; this was a matter for the Blood Race.
But his mind did not stop working.
Elizabeth had a point. The sample size of the four experimental data sets was indeed too small. To derive the conclusion that the previous King was not dead required jumping across at least three unverified points in the logical chain.
But Leila’s reaction was wrong.
It wasn't the reaction one should have after hearing an absurd theory. If the deduction were truly ridiculous, Leila should have been as dismissive as Elizabeth, perhaps even refuting it on the spot.
She chose silence.
And after that silence, she immediately left.
That was avoidance.
A First Ancestor who had lived for thousands of years and possessed a World-class skill had chosen to avoid a question involving the truth of three thousand years ago.
Avoidance itself was the answer.
“Bell.”
Bell pulled himself from his thoughts and looked at her.
Lilian stood on the stone steps, her scepter held upright at her side. The tips of the Crown of Thorns cast fine shadows in the dark red light.
Her stance was steady.
“I have heard your deduction.”
Lilian spoke each word deliberately, her pace slow and measured.
“The anomaly of the inheritance stone pillar certainly requires an explanation. But until there is more evidence, any conclusion is merely speculation.”
She scanned the ancestors present.
“Including my own.”
The ancestors quieted down. It wasn't because they were convinced, but because as Lilian spoke, the base of her scepter gave a soft thud against the floor.
The sound of metal hitting stone was light. But in the secret chamber, it was enough to make everyone shut their mouths.
Bell looked at Lilian’s profile.
This woman was learning.
The former slave who had knelt and wept before him a few months ago was now absorbing the instincts of a ruler at an incredible speed.
Slowing her speech was meant to create a sense of pressure. Restraining her wording was to avoid exposing her stance to the ancestors. And that final sentence, “including my own,” was to distance herself and avoid being tied to any one side.
Not bad.
Bell gave a slight nod and retreated to the edge of the secret chamber.
Grant withdrew his fist from mid-air. With three stone tables broken, he had finally settled down.
Elizabeth leaned back into her corner with her bear, still muttering, but she had lost the aggressiveness from before.
Altan remained in the furthest corner.
His two-meter-tall shadow was cast against the wall, motionless.
Bell’s peripheral vision swept over the back of Altan’s hand.
The bite mark was still there.
It had been three thousand years. The regenerative abilities of an ancestor could regrow entire limbs, yet that bite mark remained.
This meant the power that left that wound exceeded the ancestor’s limit of self-healing.
How many beings in this world could leave a permanent scar on the Third Ancestor?
Bell did not press the issue.
Not now.
“Your Majesty.”
Bell spoke, using her formal title.
Lilian turned her head.
“There is one thing that needs to be confirmed.”
Bell pointed toward the exit of the secret chamber.
“Ancestor Leila has left, and I need to find her. But before that, there is another ancestor—Ed.”
He scanned the faces in the room.
Of the ten ancestors' seats, two were empty.
Leila’s seat and Ed’s seat.
“Where is Ancestor Ed right now?”
Silence fell over the chamber for two seconds.
The Eighth Ancestor, Victor, stood up from the back row.
He was lean, wearing a well-tailored dark gray robe with a silver bat brooch pinned to his collar. He looked more like a butler than an ancestor.
“Ed went out this morning before dawn.”
Victor’s wording was formal. He bowed slightly toward Lilian before continuing.
“He told me he was going outside the city to handle some private business. He didn't specify where he was going or when he would return.”
Bell stared at Victor’s face, reading it for two seconds.
Victor’s answer showed no sign of evasion. This was a simple relay of information, involving no deception.
Ed had left before dawn.
Margaret was in the city.
Bell had heard a bit from Tia about the entanglements between Ed and Margaret that spanned centuries. But at this particular moment, Ed’s choice to leave the palace was uncomfortably coincidental.
“What about Ancestor Leila?”
Bell threw the question back to the group.
This time, no one answered.
Because everyone had seen Leila push open the stone door and walk out with their own eyes. Just a few minutes ago.
Elizabeth poked half her head out from the corner.
“Didn't Leila just leave on her own? You can just chase after her and ask.”
She held the bear up to her face, hiding half of it, leaving only her eyes visible above the bear's ears.
“Aren't you two on great terms? You stay locked in the side hall every day for 'academic exchange,' not even opening the door when we knock. And now you can't find her?”
There was a thorn in her words.
Bell did not take the bait.
He walked to the stone door and placed his palm flat against the panel. The stone was cold, with no residual mana fluctuations.
Leila hadn't used any spatial skills when she left. She had walked out normally.
But with her speed, a few minutes were enough to leave the sensory range of the entire palace.
Bell withdrew his hand and turned to Lilian.
“Your Majesty, can we deploy the palace patrol to confirm Ancestor Leila’s current location?”
Lilian did not respond immediately.
She stood on the stone steps, her fingers slowly sliding over the rose reliefs at the top of the scepter.
Two seconds later, she spoke.
“There is no need to deploy the guards.”
She lifted her scepter and tapped the base lightly against the floor.
A ripple of dark red light spread outward from the point of contact. The ripple passed through the stone walls, through the corridors, and through every inch of the Night Rose Palace.
This was an additional function of the Bloodline Aria. The scepter was connected to the palace’s core magic array, allowing the holder to sense the location of every living being within the palace grounds.
Lilian closed her eyes.
Three seconds later, she opened them.
“Leila is not in the palace.”
The temperature in the secret chamber dropped another notch.
Grant stood up straight.
“Not here?”
“The entire palace, including the three underground levels and the tower areas—there is no sign of Leila’s presence.”
Lilian’s answer was blunt.
Elizabeth’s hand reached out from behind her bear to brush back her hair.
“In other words, after your human said those things, Leila walked out of the secret chamber and immediately left the palace?”
She tilted her head.
“Without even saying goodbye to anyone.”
The secret chamber fell silent.
This silence was different from before. Earlier, it was a lull after an argument. Now, everyone was digesting the same fact.
The First Ancestor, Leila, had not refuted, explained, or shown anger after Bell proposed the theory that the previous King was not dead.
She had chosen to leave.
Not to return to her room, not to clear her head in the garden.
She had left the entire palace directly.
In any analytical framework, this behavior pattern had only one interpretation.
She was fleeing from questioning.
Grant slowly sat back in his chair. He didn't pound the table again.
He picked up the silver fork and placed it on the table, aligning it perfectly.
“...Well, damn it.”
He cursed under his breath.
Elizabeth hugged her bear even tighter.
Bell stood by the stone door, leaning his back against the cold wall.
The logical chain in his mind continued to extend.
Leila and Ed, two ancestors, had disappeared from the palace on the same day. One had left before dawn, and the other had departed at a critical moment.
A coincidence?
Or—
She had contacted Ed in advance.
The moment Leila sensed the abnormal inheritance fluctuations in the secret chamber, she had already made a judgment. The first thing she did after leaving the chamber wasn't returning to the side hall or going to any other ancestor’s territory.
She left the palace.
And Ed happened to have been away even earlier.
If there was a connection between these two events, it meant Leila had anticipated what might happen today.
She had arranged her retreat before the inheritance ritual even began.
This deduction made Bell feel the coldness of the stone wall against his back.
Leila had been teaching him blood source magic in the side hall these past few days, her attitude toward him bordering on devout. Her fanatical pursuit of knowledge and her obsession with her 'partner' had seemed completely transparent.
But if a being who had lived for thousands of years was truly hiding something—
Then every bit of frankness she had shown deserved to be re-examined.
Lilian turned around to face all the ancestors present.
The scepter was held upright before her, and the Crown of Thorns outlined a sharp silhouette in the dim light.
“From now on, no ancestor is permitted to leave Moon Phase City without authorization.”
Her voice was low and heavy.
“I will personally investigate the whereabouts of Ancestor Leila and Ancestor Ed. Until then, the inheritance ritual is suspended.”
Grant did not object.
Elizabeth did not object.
Even the perpetually silent Altan gave a slight nod.
This was the first time since Lilian’s coronation that she had issued an order to the group of ancestors that left no room for negotiation.
No one questioned her authority.
Because if the theory from just now were true—even if there were only a ten percent chance—it wouldn't just shake Lilian’s throne.
It would undermine the very foundation of the Blood Race’s power for the last three thousand years.
Bell stood up straight by the wall.
Tia was still in the city. Margaret and Leon were too.
Leila’s whereabouts were unknown, and Ed’s trail was equally mysterious. He needed to regroup with Tia as soon as possible and re-evaluate the current situation.
His purpose in coming to Moon Phase City was to help Lilian complete the inheritance and use her power to keep Cecilia in check.
Now the inheritance was stuck, and Leila had vanished.
The pieces on this board were slipping from his control.
Bell pushed open the stone door; the corridor was empty.
The sound of Leila’s footsteps had long since dissipated.
He walked quickly down the hallway, his fingertips stroking the surface of his storage ring. One image replayed in his mind over and over.
The speed with which Leila had pushed open the door.
She had looked back at him once.
In that glance, there was no apology, no guilt.
It was something much deeper.
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