No one knew of Lucia's suffering.
But those who had engineered this chaos could surely guess.
And certain onlookers who knew exactly what was going on were enjoying the spectacle.
Even Gaia herself could infer a little... although she still had no idea how much of her scheming had been exposed, she at least understood that Lucia was bound to be a prime target of the Undead's pursuit.
But she could not abandon this one usable avatar unless she could create another son under all those watchful, predatory eyes.
Yet right now, she could not even leave Ismail's enormous manor.
The better-informed great nobles in Damboro Capital knew something of the situation... after all, some time ago, Grand Sage Ismael's famous three-dimensional aerial garden had been shrouded in endless white mist, vanishing without a trace.
Not all the servants had been thrown out of the manor, but of its masters, only that long-renowned lady remained inside.
Yet the women of the Ismail Family showed no concern whatsoever for the trusted servants they had left behind. When someone occasionally asked them about it in person, a flicker of unrestrained hatred would cross their faces.
The nobles, who knew perfectly well what family infighting could entail, understood at once... those servants, even some of the ladies' personal maids, had secretly changed masters long ago.
Although the Damboro Royal Family remained silent, they still went through the motions of issuing a warning to the capital's residents, expressly forbidding them from approaching the mist-shrouded manor. Anyone who violated the order would bear the consequences themselves.
It plainly informed the curious that even if Grand Sage Ismael returned, he would not release any eager souls who dared enter the manor.
Whether they truly harbored a sense of justice or merely an irrepressible curiosity, there would