[Current investigations point toward a minority demon race: the Parasite Demon.]
Her pulse quickened. She could almost hear her father’s cold, commanding voice echoing in her mind.
If the Faceless Imposter truly belonged to that race... then his very existence wasn’t just a nuisance to her pride. It was a threat.
And yet—Julies’s face flashed unbidden in her mind. His sly smile, the way he teased her with sharp words.
Her nails pressed into the parchment.
’No... please, let it not be him.’
Taking a deep breath, she flip o the final page of documents.
[Information on Parasite Demon:
A rare sub-species known for their ability to merge with human hosts .
They sustain themselves by siphoning vitality from the body they inhabit while masking their own mana signature.
Once fully synchronized, even seasoned demon hunters often fail to distinguish host from parasite.
Complete extraction of the demon is... nearly impossible.]
Alice’s breath caught.
Her fingers trembled against the page, the crisp parchment whispering against her skin.
Nearly impossible.
The words bled into her mind like ink sinking through paper.
Julies’s face—his easy grin, the way he always seemed one step ahead—flashed again.
The memory tasted suddenly bitter.
No.
Her jaw tightened until it ached.
Julies was clever, irritating, infuriatingly smug—
but human.
He had to be human.
Alice’s thoughts spun in quiet turbulence as she steadied her breathing and lowered her gaze back to the report. The parchment crackled faintly between her gloved fingers.
[According to our investigation, this parasite demon first took the body of an unknown boy in the western desert. From there, it joined forces with the Phantom Thief and infiltrated the North.]
[Furthermore, it was confirmed that the vampire Velra was also a demon expelled from the power structure of the Drazroth Empire.]
[From this, a hypothesis can be formed: the parasite’s true goal in the North was to assassinate the vampire.]
[The intense battle marks discovered in the cave where the demon attack occurred support this claim.]
’Intense battle marks, huh...’
Alice’s eyes narrowed slightly. That night, she hadn’t even been able to unleash her full strength. The wounds in that cave weren’t hers.
If the evidence pointed to a fierce clash, then the premise itself was different.
And there was something else—something undeniable.
The report stated that the parasite had possessed a boy somewhere in the western desert.
But at that time, Julies Evans had been right here in the North... trying to become her attendant.
She knew this because she herself had challenged him—disguised as Aleck, a knight of House Draken.
There could be no mistake.
Which meant, naturally, Julies Evans was excluded from the suspect list.
A noble with a confirmed lineage.
A man whose identity was too well documented to hide anything as foul as a parasite.
And more than that—hadn’t he risked his life for her, again and again?
’It was an unnecessary worry... a failure as a master.’
Alice exhaled softly, a flicker of guilt pricking at her chest.
Her expression, which had briefly softened, hardened again as memories surfaced—
how many hours Julies had poured into the preparations for her birthday celebration.
Even she, merely observing from the sidelines, knew how relentless he had been.
To doubt him—worse, to suspect him—because of a few ambiguous words?
Unforgivable.
"I should apologize," she murmured under her breath.
Not only for the cold way she had dismissed him earlier...
but for far too many reasons left unspoken.
"L–Lady Alice!"
The sudden cry sliced through the quiet like a blade.
Alice turned sharply, displeasure flickering across her face.
A young man—a page from the Benifer baronial family—was rushing toward her, breathless and pale.
He was hardly fit to be called a servant, still lingering at the lowest rank because of repeated lapses in conduct.
And now, to approach her in the middle of a gathering, without being summoned, without proper decorum—
intolerable.
The privilege of anticipating a master’s will belonged only to a personal page.
Only Julies Evans could act so freely.
But the urgency in the boy’s trembling voice made Alice forget her irritation in an instant.
"J–Julies!" he blurted, his words tumbling over each other. "Julies has been arrested—by the Lady of the Voss ducal family!"
The room tilted for a heartbeat.
"...What?"
Alice’s eyes sharpened like drawn steel. All thoughts of etiquette, of apologies, of reason itself, were burned away in a single flash of cold fury.
Julies.
Arrested.
By Emma Voss .
The parchment slipped from her hand, falling silently to the polished floor as the first crack of icy killing intent filled the air.
Amelia, who was also besides her hardend her expressions.
The air turned brittle, like frost spreading across glass.
"Repeat that," Alice said, her voice as soft as falling snow—and twice as deadly.
The boy swallowed hard, throat bobbing. "L–Lady Voss... she—she took him into custody! They said he was... suspicious."
Suspicious.
The word scraped against Alice’s nerves like a dull blade. Julies, arrested, and by Emma Voss of all people.
Across the room, Amelia’s eyes darkened to a stormy silver. The cold elegance she wore like armor cracked just enough to reveal the sharpened steel beneath. "Voss..." she muttered, her tone a low growl. "That viper moves fast."
Alice’s hand twitched at her side. She forced it still, though her nails bit crescents into her palm. Emma’s smiling face surfaced in her mind—bright, calculating, infuriatingly smug. The memory of their recent handshake burned like acid.
This is deliberate.
There was no other explanation. Emma Voss had waited until Alice was distracted—until preparations for the celebration consumed her attention—and then struck.
Amelia stepped closer, her presence steady but brimming with restrained energy. "What do you want to do?"
Alice’s eyes gleamed, a glacial blue sharpened to a lethal point. "We retrieve him."
The page opened his mouth, perhaps to stammer some warning about the risks of confronting another ducal heir, but the weight of Alice’s killing intent slammed into him like an invisible wall. His knees buckled.
"Lead me to that place immediately."
To dare challenge the authority of the North while being a guest was unacceptable.
Her gaze, colder than the chill she had shown to Julies and her followers earlier