Chapter 7 --7.
The Eldest Princess’s fingers clenched tighter in her skirt. "She... lost her strength, Your Majesty," she answered. "When this daughter arrived, Fourth Sister was already—"
The Emperor’s gaze slid once to the empty space by the doors where her knights used to stand, then to the red uniforms of the beastmen just visible in the courtyard outside. He did not look for long. The path of his eyes was enough.
"Already," he repeated. "After my knights disappeared from their posts, and my collared guards were moved into their place."
The room seemed to close around those words. The knights did not move, but Elara could feel the tiny shock tightening their shoulders.
She had not known exactly what the glom showed, but she had counted on this: in any world, rulers with enemies invested in good eyes and fast messages.[1] A girl on the ground and the favored princess above her—that would have flown faster than any bird.
"Fourth Sister has been... different, since she woke," the Eldest tried again. "She dismissed loyal men I placed for her safety. She spoke of beasts as if they were—" She cut herself off.
"As if they were more useful than those who question their mistress," the Emperor finished for her.
He let the sentence drop, then returned his attention to the figure on the floor.
"Elara," he said.
The sound of her name in his mouth was strange. In this world, it was *Yue Lian* who belonged to him. But the weight was the same as any CEO saying a project code he owned: cool, distant, expecting results.