My head was spinning. So what this meant was...

    “Don’t tell me... I’m the Tower Lord’s granddaughter?”

    The Tower Lord had clearly known everything.

    From that very day I became Minister, during our conversation—

    [Creating new scrolls... People outside the Magic Tower might not understand magic, but this is something only adults can do! Normally it takes five years inside the Tower to refine pure mana! But you said you made one when you were eight! Without ever coming to the Tower! You didn’t lie, did you?! Even you have to admit that’s weird!]

    Back then, I hadn’t had the energy to reflect deeply on how strange I was. At the time, I still hadn’t fully recovered from my chronic exhaustion.

    [Any other special abilities? Even if you do, just say you don’t when you’re around others. And that thing about creating scrolls since you were a kid—don’t mention it unless you absolutely have to.]

    The Tower Lord had emphasized it over and over:

    Don’t let ? Nоvеl????ght ? (Exclusive on Nоvеl????ght) people know you’re special.

    “He must’ve suspected I was an experiment subject.”

    I couldn’t fully grasp what my mother had gone through—why she’d been chased by loan sharks, why she abandoned us.

    But I could piece together a rough hypothesis about myself.

    “Mom underwent an experiment by the Reformists—while she was pregnant with me, to gain magical ability.”

    But that power didn’t go to her. It went to me, the fetus. That had to be why I was so ridiculously good at scrolls from a young age.

    “And recently... Mom must’ve undergone another experiment.”

    The kind that let you perceive the future in the form of a novel...

    Based on what Kiaros had learned through captured monsters, even if she underwent the experiment, the effects could appear in me.

    “That’s how I came to know the original story. No—not the original...”

    I swallowed hard.

    “The future changed by the Reformists’ assassination attempt.”

    The Reformists had read the future once and predicted Kiaros’s second blackout. They built their assassination plan around that.

    The future they altered... that was the one I came to know, through a second experiment.

    “...Minister? Minister?”

    I was still staring blankly, trying to sort out my thoughts, when I suddenly snapped out of it and looked up.

    Kibon was close, a worried expression on his face. I quickly recoiled.

    “Are you all right?”

    “Ah...”

    “You’ve been completely unresponsive for a while...”

    “Ah, s-sorry.”

    I bowed my head immediately.

    I didn’t have the courage to meet Kibon’s eyes.

    “Sorry. I was... honestly just in shock.”

    Kibon, surprisingly, nodded slowly.

    “I understand.”

    “Huh? Understand what?”

    “About His Highness the Crown Prince.”

    “Huh? What about him?”

    “Even after spending so much time together, to learn he didn’t trust you—it’s outrageous. Even if you said it’s fine, it’s still shocking.”

    That wasn’t at all what I was thinking, but I couldn’t bring myself to correct him.

    I nodded vaguely, face blank.

    “Ah, yeah... right. That.”

    Then Kibon gave a faint, slightly sorrowful smile.

    “There’s more to say, but... His Highness will tell you that himself.”

    “Ah, okay.”

    “You’re not curious?”

    “Ah... yeah.”

    I wasn’t a curious person to begin with, but right now I had zero energy left to be curious.

    Kibon chuckled softly at my reaction.

    “Well, that’s very you, Minister.”

    I nodded again. After that, we exchanged a few more words, but I honestly couldn’t remember what they were.

    All I remembered was repeating stuff like “Ah, yeah.”

    After that pointless exchange, Kibon finally spoke up.

    “By the way... why did you call me in the first place...?”

    Ah. Right. I’d originally called Kibon here for something.

    But right now, that wasn’t important anymore.

    This new truth I’d stumbled on was just too much—I needed time to process.

    “Ah... now that I think about it, it’s nothing. You can go.”

    I waved my hand and forced a smile.

    “You sure? You don’t look well...”

    Ugh. Why did he have to be so perceptive? If I said “I’m fine” now, it’d just look even more suspicious.

    I scrambled to say something—anything.

    “It’s because of the Crown Prince. Yeah, um, that’s it. I was just really shocked.”

    “...I see. So it’s all because of the Crown Prince.”

    “Exactly.”

    And then, as soon as Kibon left with a glum face and quietly shut the door behind him—

    “Ah... what do I even do...” S~ea??h the Novёl?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    I collapsed into a crouch and buried my face in my hands.

    “I’m a Reformist experiment subject...”

    The magical ability I thought I was born with—it wasn’t mine. It was a product of an experiment.

    The miraculous knowledge of the future that I’d believed made me special—it wasn’t mine either. That too was tied to the Reformists.

    Whatever my mother was doing with them, I was still being experimented on—without my consent.

    “Ah...”

    I pressed my face deeper into my hands.

    Now I understood why the Tower Lord—my grandfather—hadn’t told me the truth.

    The shock was just too immense.

    The fact that my body could display the results of some experiment at any time, regardless of my will... that was horrifying.

    He’d known it all, and still, because I was his granddaughter, he’d sent me letters and scrolls, worried for me.

    [Don’t think of it only as a curse. There are those who would’ve killed for this power. Dangerous as it is, maybe... just maybe... it’s okay for you to have it.]

    Tears welled in my eyes as I muttered,

    “How am I not supposed to think of it as a curse...”

    This was beyond my control.

    And if Kiaros ever found out—

    Cold sweat trickled down my back.

    I already knew how Kiaros viewed the experiment subjects.

    [So what happened to those monsters?]

    [I killed them. They’re unnatural abominations. Too dangerous to let live.]

    He would kill me.

    ***

    After leaving Namia’s room and returning to his own, Kiaros immediately questioned his aide.

    “Victor Arwin and Anastasia Kayen?”

    “Victor Arwin is going about his normal routine. No signs of external contact. Anastasia Kayen is currently reported as unconscious following an attack.”

    He had left all palace affairs in the hands of the Emperor.

    But chasing the Reformists—that was still entirely his own job. The interrogation of the Education Minister was one thing he’d reluctantly handed over to the Emperor.

    Which meant... he was still busy.

    “So... that thing about A and B. Did it go well?”

    “Hard to say.”

    Kiaros lowered his gaze.

    He’d deliberately tried to blur the lines between Kibon and Kiaros in his words.

    At this point, no matter how Namia interpreted it, all he had to do was say, “Kibon is Kiaros.”

    But... her reaction earlier hadn’t been good. His heart felt heavy.

    And yet, one thing was clear.

    He wanted to be honest with her.

    “The Kiaros assassination plan is off the table.”

    With that, he gave up on living forever as Kibon. This was the right path.

    “Once we take care of the High Chancellor tomorrow, I’ll tell her everything.”

    That also meant revealing his special ability.

    Truthfully, he was scared. She’d probably respond with that soul-dead stare, saying:

    “I see. I understand. Understood.”

    Just like earlier.

    The idea of receiving not even blame was terrifying.

    But still—

    That chair.

    The one Namia had mentioned to Kibon. The one she said they should definitely sit on before leaving the palace.

    That old, worn-down, forgettable bench—he hadn’t even known it existed in the palace.

    That’s where he’d confess.

    That he was Kibon. And also Kiaros.

    And that the reason he was telling her all of this...

    Was because he liked her. So, so much.

    If he said it honestly, pouring his heart out—

    “I’ll probably get rejected, right?”

    Well, according to the romance master... that’s how it usually goes.