After wrapping up that short exchange with Veronica, I went looking for Myrcella.

I didn’t have to search for long. As it turned out, she was already walking down one of the castle hallways when our paths crossed. The moment her eyes landed on me, there was a clear flicker of surprise in her expression, like she genuinely hadn’t expected me to show up there.

"Leon? I didn’t expect you to be here," she said, her voice carrying that mild surprise. "I thought you were still with the dwarven queen."

"Well, Agneis is currently enjoying herself back at my place," I replied casually.

The last time I saw her, she was stretched out and getting a massage from Anne. Calling it just a massage felt a bit too simple for what it actually was. From the way she reacted, she was clearly having the time of her life. By the time I left, she was already letting out soft, unfiltered moans, completely immersed in it. At that point, interrupting would have been a crime. I had enough self-awareness to leave her to it.

"I see..." Myrcella said, her tone softening a little. "So, who did you come to see?"

There was a teasing smile forming on her lips as she started walking again, like she already had an idea of where this was going. I matched her pace without thinking, falling into step beside her as we moved down the hallway.

"Considering most of the women in this castle are your women now, I doubt I’m the only one you came to see," she added, glancing at me briefly. "Oh, did you meet my mother as well?"

"Well, I just did," I answered. "And yeah, I met Veronica, but the one I actually planned to see was you. After your graduation, you’re going to be coronated, right? So I figured I’d check how you’ve been holding up."

Her expression shifted slightly at that. The teasing didn’t disappear, but it softened into something more thoughtful.

"Well, I don’t think the stress is anywhere near what it was back when the civil war was at its peak," she said. "Fortunately, the ones who were trying to stir it up have already been captured by your Shadows. The magic knights have started rounding up the rest of the people involved. Even the former members of the Silverblades have been taken in."

"That’s good progress," I said. "So what are you planning to do with them?"

The moment I asked that, she slowed down, then stopped completely. Her gaze shifted toward one of the tall windows lining the hallway. Light filtered through it, casting a faint glow across her face, though her expression had grown more serious.

"Unfortunately, they have to be executed," she said. "It’s only natural. They committed a grave sin. Anyone who raises their sword against the Kingdom is considered a criminal. And the punishment for that is elimination."

Hearing it laid out that plainly made it feel heavier, even though it was expected. From a purely logical standpoint, it made sense. People who went that far couldn’t just walk away from it. The law existed for a reason, and this was part of it.

I could understand her reasoning.

Even so, there was always that quiet weight behind decisions like that. It wasn’t something you could just brush off, even if you believed it was the right call.

"However," she continued, her tone shifting just slightly, "as the new Queen, I want to create a different path. I want to give some of them a second chance."

That caught my attention.

"They deserve at least that much," she went on. "Many of them truly believed they were acting for the good of the Kingdom. The reason they even ended up committing those crimes in the first place was because of the lack of accountability from the nobles and my father. That doesn’t excuse what they did, but it explains it."

Her eyes narrowed just a little, her gaze still fixed outside.

"Unfortunately, the nobles and their associates who pushed all of this out of pure greed will be executed without question."

That line was clear.

There was no hesitation in her voice when she said it, no room for interpretation. A second chance for those who were misled or desperate. No mercy for those who stirred everything up just to satisfy their own greed.

It was a clean division.

And honestly, it made sense.

"How about Julius?" I asked after a brief pause. "Would you give him a second chance?"

She turned her head and looked at me directly this time. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

Then she smiled.

"Julius doesn’t deserve it," she said.

The answer came out so quickly, so firmly, that it caught me off guard. There was no hesitation, no visible struggle in that moment. It felt almost too clean, considering who we were talking about.

Her brother.

A small part of me expected at least a trace of doubt, or maybe a pause before she answered. That didn’t happen.

"Are you surprised that I said that so readily?" she asked, reading my reaction almost immediately.

"Yeah," I admitted.

She let out a quiet breath, her gaze drifting away again.

"To be honest, I’ve been thinking about this for a long time," she said. "A really long time. You have no idea how many nights I’ve spent lying awake, unable to sleep, just going over this in my head again and again."

There was a slight tension in her voice now. Not enough to break her composure, but enough to show that this wasn’t something she had decided lightly.

"But last night, I finally met him," she continued.

That made me focus more.

"His mind... it’s completely broken," she said, her tone lowering. "All he could talk about was how much he hated me. How I wasn’t fit to sit on the throne. Honestly, I could accept that. I could endure all of it if that was all there was."

Her expression hardened, just slightly.

"But then he said he wanted to kill me. And our mother."

"I could understand him hating me," she went on. "But hearing him say that about our mother... that’s something I couldn’t forgive."

Her hands tightened just a little at her sides, though she kept her posture steady.

"He went too far. His mind has been corrupted to the point where keeping him alive would only bring more danger to the Kingdom. There’s no reasoning with him anymore."

Her voice softened at the end of that, though it didn’t lose its firmness.

"Sadly... I had no choice but to execute him."

So that was it.

Both her and the Queen had already reached the same conclusion. Julius wasn’t someone who could be saved anymore. There wasn’t a second chance waiting for him.

Only an end.

She stayed quiet for a moment after that, the weight of her words settling between us.

Then she looked back at me.

"Do you think it’s cruel of me to carry out these executions, Leon?" she asked.