Chapter 60

Interference with Ilvareno's Sleep

In a dark room with all the lights turned off, Cain was lying on the bed, which had its curtains drawn from the canopy, breathing quietly in his sleep. The day's work was done, so Ilvareno had already retired to the adjacent servant's room.

"Ah! I get it now!!"

Suddenly, Cain sat up with a loud exclamation. The discomfort he felt during the conversation between His Majesty the King and Her Highness the Queen. While half-asleep, he had been ruminating over the day's events and realized something incredibly unsettling.

As he tried to hold his head, the large curtains of the canopy bed were suddenly pulled open. There stood Ilvareno, still with bedhead.

"…Are you sleep-talking?"

Seeing Cain sitting up on the bed, Ilvareno made a rather unpleasant face. He must have rushed out of the servant's room in response to Cain's loud outburst. His pajama pants were rolled up to his knee on one leg, and the hem of his jacket was tucked into his pants on only one side.

"I want to talk about something."

"Can't it wait until tomorrow? I'm already sleepy."

Cain wanted to sort out his thoughts by discussing them with someone, but Ilvareno didn't seem interested in joining him. His brain, once awakened, was now sending signals to close his eyes and return to sleep. He yawned and rubbed his eyes lightly.

"Then, come and lie down here. Talking to the air is pointless, so just stay here."

Saying this, Cain pulled back the covers and patted the mattress next to him. Ilvareno, who was already half-asleep, mumbled "Mm" and climbed onto the bed, settling next to Cain. He pulled the covers over himself, covering his head.

"At least keep your face uncovered. You're heartless."

"Mmm—"

Ilvareno shifted his body and poked his head out, closing his eyes. Seeing this, Cain chuckled and propped his chin on his right hand, supporting his elbow with his left hand, and adopted a thoughtful expression.

"Neither His Majesty the King nor Her Highness the Queen have ever attended the sword training sessions that Prince Al and the Royal Guard Knights participate in."

"They also never joined us for lunch after the training. It was always just the two of us."

"Yet, they spoke as if they had been there and seen everything. They described the training and the lunch as if the three of us had spent the time together as a family."

"They knew not only the content of the training but also the details of injuries that had been healed by the healing mages, which weren't even worth reporting. They even knew about the conversations during meals, the overcoming of dislikes, and trivial things like 'bumping heads while trying to pick up dropped forks.'"

Cain and Alundirano had whispered secrets to each other, but Ilvareno said, "You two seemed so close, whispering secrets. What were you talking about? Tell me in secret?" He knew they were whispering secrets.

Even if they were eating together as a family, it would be impossible to hear whispered secrets.

"If they were there, they must have seen it, right?"

Cain was surprised to hear a voice from Ilvareno, whom he thought was already asleep. Looking over, he saw that Ilvareno's head, which had been half-covered, was now fully out of the covers, though his eyes were still closed.

"The sword training sessions had many Royal Guard Knights around, so they might have gathered information from them. But for lunch, it was just the two of us. No one else was in the dining room, right?"

"What about the maids? The serving staff? Were there no guards outside the door?"

Ilvareno's question made Cain realize something.

"There were. Two maids were standing behind us. The serving staff only came in at the beginning and the end. I don't think there were any guards… The king said that there are generally no personal guards inside the palace."

Now that he thought about it, the maids seemed to have been whispering and moving closer. Were they spies for the king or the queen?

"High nobles often treat servants standing by the wall as if they were part of the wall. Be careful."

"Like 'the walls have ears, and I'm Mary.'"

"Is the maid's name Mary?"

"I don't know, but…"

However, the maids assigned to them changed daily. The Royal Guard Knights were usually led by the deputy commander, but other knights often supervised due to work schedules. The maids sometimes left the room to prepare tea, yet information still leaked.

"If that's the case, everyone in the castle is a spy. They submit reports like 'Observation Reports on the Prince.' Even if they just passed in the hallway, they write a one-line report."

Thinking of the butler's words from the other day, Cain frowned. Ilvareno's master was Cain, but the other servants' masters were Dismaya and Elise.

"What can you do with just one-line reports?"

"If you collect 12 one-line reports every 5 minutes from other servants, you can determine the prince's route and movements over an hour. If some reports mention 'with Cain' and others don't, you can figure out where and when he joined or parted ways with you."

Cain stared at Ilvareno, who was still lying next to him with his eyes closed but a frown on his face.

"That would be an enormous amount of reports… His Majesty and Her Highness are so busy; they wouldn't have time to read all that."

"There are people who compile and summarize the reports. Twelve reports can be condensed into a map with arrows, which can be checked in 5 seconds. As the king, he would delegate such tasks to others."

"Maybe the king likes to do everything himself…"

Cain thought this was unlikely but still argued.

If what Ilvareno said was true, then the reports detailing Cain and Alundirano's actions and conversations, their daily routines, and every move they made, were read by the king and queen, making them feel as if they were present and watching over them. Alundirano rarely saw his parents and didn't know how they talked about him.

"That's a lot of work."

"Information is about quantity. It takes skill to filter and summarize, but anyone can collect it. …That's why children are used…"

"Ilvareno."

"Is that enough? Let's go to sleep."

Ilvareno's words were more casual than usual, as if he was really sleepy. He had been careful to maintain his formal tone even in private since being reprimanded by the butler.

Cain thought in silence for a while but eventually sighed when he heard Ilvareno's steady breathing. He slipped under the covers and closed his eyes.

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