"Then allow me to ask as an information broker."
"............Yes, whatever you wish."
After a fleeting look of surprise, the old man pressed his forehead against the floor once more as he answered.
The tears that had glistened at the corners of his eyes just moments before—were they tears of joy, or perhaps of apology...? No, I thought, it was probably all of the above.
Anne continued.
"What is happening to my father right now?"
"He is bedridden with illness."
"Is that also... because of my aunt?"
"It is."
"Could Mother's case have been the same?"
"We lack conclusive proof regarding the former madam. However, his symptoms are identical to hers."
"Does that mean there is proof regarding Father?"
"Take this."
With those words, the old man skillfully drew a small box from within his robes while remaining prostrated on the floor.
Anne accepted it and opened the lid.
Inside were more than a dozen sheets of paper. Anne took them out and scanned through what was written.
"This is—"
"Every conceivable piece of evidence regarding the current madam. Proof of her procuring poison, proof of her adultery with a young man, proof of her bribing physicians to turn a blind eye. Everything."
"Evidence...!"
Anne's eyes widened, scanning further with a gaze burning with anger.
"Let me see."
"Huh?"
"I believe it would be wise to obey his words. This gentleman is a remarkable individual once hailed as the strictest enforcer of the law in the history of the Empire. He is none other than the former Royal Minister of Justice, Lord Noah Ararat."
"Strict with the law..."
Gasping at the old man's words, Anne handed the bundle of evidence to me.
Taking it, I reviewed each document one by one.
"Mm."
I nodded.
"How is it?"
"With this much assembled, her head could roll ten times over."
"—!"
"The rest is up to your own feelings."
Saying that, I handed the bundle of evidence back to Anne.
Anne took it, looking at me with a blank, bewildered expression.
"My... feelings?"
"Yeah."
"Why ask something like that? I mean, that woman killed my mother, and now she's doing the same to Father! And she did this to me, too—!"
As she spoke, the emotions Anne had held back began to overflow.
Biting her lower lip, she roughly wiped away her spilling tears with her sleeve.
Then, glaring sharply almost as if directing her fury at me, she continued.
"Of course I want her sentenced to death!"
"Mm. If she is judged based on this, it's undeniably the death penalty."
"Then—"
"However, that is merely a death sentence. Even if she receives the heaviest sentence for what she did, it simply ends with her head being cut off. That would be all."
"Her head...?"
Anne looked confused, not entirely grasping what I meant.
"If you're thinking of revenge, doing it yourself might offer a far more satisfying method."
"What do you mean...?"
"As an information broker."
To Anne, who still didn't understand, the old man lifted only his face while maintaining his prostrated posture and spoke.
His face was filled with fury.
"We sometimes proactively offer information and expertise."
"Huh? Yes..."
"In this case, for instance, we can provide a method that would make the target beg from the bottom of their heart, 'Please, just kill me quickly!'"
"They say 'set a thief to catch a thief.' We on the side that oversees punishment know a fair amount, but we can't match your field, can we?"
I played along with the old man's proposal.
"I am humbled. For example... the madam seems quite proud of her own beauty. If so, what if we were to bind her, place a mirror before her eyes, and administer a drug that causes her face to slowly rot away?"
The old man spoke.
His tone was detached, but the wrath he no longer even tried to hide poured out.
It was an anger welling up from the depths of his gut.
A man who could not intervene when his master was on the verge of being murdered, solely because he had been strictly disciplined by that very master.
The fury that finally leaked out now that the topic had turned to 'methods.'
Because of that, the wrath seemed immense.
"I see..."
Anne finally understood what the old man and I were getting at.
In short, whether to sever the head in one stroke according to the law, or to exact a cruel vengeance through extrajudicial punishment.
"Furthermore," the old man added, "Though it may be something Lord Noah cannot publicly state given his position, Imperial Law renders the confirmation of a corpse in some form absolutely essential to establish the crime of murder."
"...!"
Anne snapped her gaze toward me.
I feigned ignorance.
"I have no idea what your intention is in saying that, but under Imperial Law, that is indeed the case."
"And we can also provide the knowledge of methods to ensure a person is never seen by anyone ever again."
In a sense, Anne was being backed into a corner.
Anne hesitated.
Should she take revenge with her own hands and achieve her heart's desire?
She wrestled with the choice.
Her expression shifted dozens of times; one could tell just how violently the storm raged within her heart.
"...Gramps."
"What is it?"
"Do you think... Father would want this for me?"
"............"
The old man's eyes went wide.
He wore a look of shock and surprise.
Then, his face contorted as if he had chewed on a bitter insect.
"...No. I believe the master would wish for the young lady to live happily without staining her hands. I often heard him say that he chose silk as his public business out of a desire for the young lady to remain forever pure and beautiful."
"I understand."
Anne bit her lip once more.
With a sorrowful look—yet one that seemed to swallow everything down—she handed the entire bundle of evidence back to me.
"Are you sure?"
"If that is what Father wishes, I want to remain 'pure' forever."
"Understood."
I nodded and tucked the box into my robes.
"I promise you she will be sentenced according to the law, and the execution will be carried out immediately."
Anne gave a small nod as she wiped away the overflowing tears.
Afterward, I summoned John and Rion and led the soldiers to surround Anne's family home.
Though the two of them had no direct interaction with Anne, they despised Kegna for subjecting prostitutes to terrible fates.
They took action on behalf of Anne, who was one of Kegna's victims.
Backed by the evidence, we arrested Anne's aunt—the younger sister of her biological mother and her father's second wife.
We apprehended the woman who could be called the mastermind behind the entire incident.
In order to follow proper procedures and conduct a "righteous execution" at a later date, I gave strict orders that her life was to be preserved before having her locked in a dungeon.
And so, Anne returned to her family home.
The master had collapsed, and the mistress had been arrested.
Just as the mansion had reached the peak of chaos, the young lady who had been missing for so long returned.
The mansion was thrown into even greater turmoil.
Amid the chaotic estate, Anne caught hold of one of the servants.
"Where is Father?" she pressed.
"In his room!" the flustered servant replied. Leaving them behind, Anne sprinted down the corridor, heading straight for her destination.
Following behind her, we arrived at a bedroom that clearly belonged to the master of the estate.
The moment she threw open the door and stepped inside, Anne froze in her tracks, catching her breath.
I couldn't help but groan internally as well.
The stench of "death" drifted through the air.
It was a smell of death so palpable that even Anne, an ordinary young lady who had likely never set foot on a battlefield, could sense it.
Baffled, or perhaps frightened by it, Anne couldn't enter the room.
I walked in first, entered, stopped, and turned back toward Anne.
With my entry disturbing the air, Anne was finally able to step inside as well.
Then, starting to walk once more, she headed straight toward her father lying in the bed.
"Father!"
The man lying on the bed was emaciated, giving the impression that he had very little time left.
Anne could tell that too, but she couldn't bring herself to accept it.
"Where's the doctor?! What happened to the doctor?!"
Anne turned around and yelled at the servant who had followed a bit late.
The servant replied with a troubled look.
"Well... the master is already..."
"What?!"
"They said these next few days would be the critical moment..."
"Just be quiet and call a doctor!"
Distraught, Anne ordered the servant to fetch a physician.
The servant hastily ran to find a doctor and brought one back.
Several were brought in, but every single one threw up their hands in surrender after just a single glance.
And understandably so.
Anne's father bore the unmistakable shadow of death, plain enough for even a layman to see.
Rather, it was a wonder he was still breathing at all.
Several physicians came and went in shifts, and in the meantime, night fell.
Having finally accepted the reality of the situation, Anne slumped beside her father in despair.
"Father... Why did this happen...?"
Anne muttered the same words over and over.
Suddenly, as if realizing something, she gasped and looked up.
Then, fixing her gaze on me, she clung to me in desperation.
"Can't you—can't you cure my father?!"
"..."
"You could do it! You're the one who cured my illness!"
She must have remembered the rose spots.
Recalling that and perceiving me as a physician, she clung to me.
It was true that with Apophis's power, I had cured the rose spots afflicting her and the prostitutes at the brothel.
However, that was only possible because their lives were not yet in imminent danger.
The essence of Apophis was not medicine, let alone healing.
Its essence was "poison."
Fighting poison with poison—neutralizing the rose poison was merely one such application.
And to perform that, the patient required a certain amount of physical strength.
Otherwise, they would not be able to withstand the poison administered to them.
On the other hand, it was already too late for her father, Jibu Locke.
He clearly bore the shadow of death for all to see; there was no way he possessed the physical stamina to endure it.
I quietly shook my head.
"I can only tell you the same thing as the other doctors."
"No..."
"However, there is one thing I can do for him."
"Huh?! What is it?!"
"If things stay like this, your father's life will simply run out. But I can temporarily awaken him in his final moments for just a few minutes."
"His final moments..."
"Just as a candle's flame surges brightly right before it burns out, a person does the same right before their life ends. I can amplify that fleeting moment."
"That means..."
"At the very least, you will be able to say your goodbyes."
"Father..."
"I'll be waiting outside. Call me when you've decided."
Leaving Anne behind while she still seemed to want to say something, I stepped outside.
Since I couldn't do anything more for him, staying there would only offer false hope, which would be cruel in itself.
Thinking that, I went out and waited in the corridor.
After waiting for a short while, Anne emerged into the hallway.
"...Please do it," she said, her face pained, yet set with resolve.
I entered the room once more and approached the bed.
Then I summoned Apophis and had it create a poison.
A substance extremely toxic to the body, yet capable of briefly amplifying his physical vitality.
It could be described as a condensation, or perhaps an advance loan, of his remaining lifespan.
I administered it to Anne's father. Opening his mouth, I poured it down the unconscious man's throat.
After a short while, color returned to Anne's father's stark white complexion.
His eyelids opened just like that, and he looked around.
Before long, his eyes caught sight of his daughter, Anne.
"...Anne?"
"Father!"
Anne leaped toward her father.
She threw her arms around him, buried her face in his chest, and sobbed uncontrollably.
"Is this... the afterlife?"
"You're still in this world."
Taking the place of Anne, who was in no state to converse, I answered Jibu's question.
"Who are you...?"
"That doesn't matter. You're in your final moments; I managed to buy you about five minutes."
"Is that so... Thank you."
Jibu said.
He was quick on the uptake.
He had probably understood his own condition from the start; that was why the words "Is this the afterlife?" had come to his lips.
Leaving behind Jibu, who had grasped the situation, and the weeping Anne, I turned on my heel and walked out of the room.
Turning back one last time, what I saw over my shoulder was the father stroking his daughter's head while bowing toward me.
I stepped out into the hallway and waited there once again.
After a few minutes, Anne came out.
Her eyes were swollen from crying, but her tears had stopped.
"Um... Father is..."
"Right."
I stepped inside once more.
Jibu had sat up in the bed.
Though color had returned to his face earlier, perhaps as a rebound, his complexion was now worse than when I first saw him.
His face was so pale that he could practically be called a dead man already.
That same Jibu bowed his head toward me once more.
"Thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to see my daughter one last time before passing."
"I see."
"May I ask one favor of you?"
"Let's hear it."
"In preparation for the worst, I converted the majority of my assets into gold and hid it in a certain place."
"Oho."
"Could you retrieve it and ensure it safely reaches my daughter's hands?"
"...An inheritance, then."
"Yes."
"Very well, I will take on the task. On the name of Noah Ararat."
"...!"
Jibu looked astonished.
As the head of an information brokerage, he surely knew my name well.
He wore an expression that showed he had never imagined the man standing before him was that very person, but that lasted only a moment before relief washed over his face.
"Thank you very much..."
His final words rapidly faded away.
By the end, he no longer had the volume to be heard, and Jibu collapsed onto the bed just like that.
"Father?!"
Anne leaped forward and shook Jibu's body.
However, Jibu never opened his eyes again.