After barely calming Enfer and Azier, I entered the mansion.
I asked a servant and looked for Malia. And I found her without difficulty.
Malia was sitting at the living room table.
The very place where the Roach family gathered and sat together for meals.
Malia was there as if it were that time now.
"Yes. You calmed them down."
Malia picked up the coffee cup in front of her and brought it to her nose to smell the aroma.
Unable to read her intentions, I slowly approached her.
And then a light sip.
"It wouldn't be enough even if I tore them all to shreds."
Such harsh words coming from such an elegant figure.
Looking at it now, there are no servants in this living room either. Perhaps Malia's aura was as unusual as the two outside. So much so that no one dared to approach.
"Frondier. You know why your father didn't become a Zodiac, right?"
"...Yes. Because it can't always be right to just follow the orders of the Imperial Palace,"
"That's a well-organized answer, just like you."
Malia puts down the cup.
"Because he didn't want to be a dog."
"Enfer was one of the people invited to the Zodiac right after the Monster War ended. After refusing that request, he decided to stop the monsters pouring in from the north. Saying it was the most suitable job for him."
Enfer was one of the people who experienced the war and felt the danger of monsters most keenly. His going to the north may have been a natural choice.
That's how Enfer became the lord who guards the most dangerous place.
And that's how he became the Iron Wall.
"It was something that no Zodiac could do. After the war ended, the reality of having to repeat the same thing as the war indefinitely. That became everyday life. Can you imagine? He was already at the level of a Zodiac when the war ended, how many monsters he must have killed and how much he must have grown to earn the name of the Iron Wall."
It is no exaggeration to say that people in the world say Enfer has surpassed the Zodiac by far.
It was just a very natural thing to say.
None of the Zodiacs had lived a more arduous life than him. None had achieved such a feat.
"Our family originally didn't have a good relationship with the Imperial Palace. We know we need each other for the Empire, but we can't share our hearts."
The Imperial Palace that tried to bring Enfer into the Zodiac, and Enfer who refused it.
The higher Enfer and the Roach family's name rose, the more the Roach family became an unpleasant existence to the Imperial Palace. With a beast they couldn't control standing tall in the north.
"And when you were born and we took you to the Imperial Palace, that conflict exploded."
When Enfer and Malia took the newborn Frondier, Emperor Bartello said.
'The child of the devil'.
"We couldn't just sit still and listen to that absurd story. After that, we completely banned any contact with the Imperial Palace, and Enfer becoming a Zodiac was completely off the table."
Perhaps if it had been another family, they wouldn't have had that choice. A family that rebels against the Imperial Palace and stands firm in the Empire. It was literally only possible because it was the Roach.
"And recently, with the way the Emperor showed himself in the Imperial Palace, I thought we were resolving the long misunderstanding and finding our place again."
The Emperor said he had cast out the devil after seeing me, and I heard that he had a conversation with Enfer and resolved their resentment.
However, the current situation makes that seem artificial.
Malia's voice is cold.
The baby who was called the child of the devil by the Emperor when he was young grew up to literally become a devil.
There would be nothing more infuriating for Malia, Enfer, or Azier.
"Frondier. I resent you. I resent you for being too mature."
Malia said so and sighed.
"If you had come home crying, no, even if you had been angry, if you had expressed even a line of injustice."
Malia said, tapping the innocent coffee cup.
"The Roach would have burned down the Imperial Palace."
"The Roach have the power to bring down the Imperial Palace, and yet they have the foundation to receive the support of the people. Frondier, that's power."
I've never seen Malia speak so radically.
Malia is not only my mother but also the health teacher at Constel. Malia, who usually shows only her elegant and neat side.
Even now, that appearance is maintained, but that's only because Malia's appearance wasn't a lie or an exaggeration.
In other words, Malia is now more purely angry than anyone else.
"But you don't want that."
"You're thinking of leaving."
The answer came out with difficulty.