Idnan and Carmelo sat solemnly by Diana’s bed.
The head maid effectively treated Diana’s wound. As one of the few individuals who knew about Diana and her double, she said nothing during this time and left the room silently upon receiving the family head’s consent. Like what Lazer had said, Hassad’s method could not cut open Diana’s throat; it was merely able to inflict a relatively mild injury. However, Diana still needed some time to fully recover; before that, Diana’s neck would have a scar that would be difficult to conceal.
The family head and everyone fell silent as they stared at Diana—who was now asleep—and contemplated new future plans.
No. 3 and Lazer stayed on the side on pins and needles.
“When did Hassad notice this?” Idnan asked sharply.
“My guess would be the last couple of months. Maybe meeting the real Diana made him suspicious.”
“Diana always came out to eat right after class… It was inevitable that she ran into Hassad during this time,” Carmelo looked disturbed, “The problem is that with the banquet scheduled to take place in a few days and two assassination attempts occurring successively before the banquet, this news is sure to get out.”
“Hold it. The focus should not be whether or not he ran into Diana,” Idnan interjected unkindly, “but that we did a poor job impersonating Diana… that made people suspicious, right?”
“Well…”
“Tell me that I am mistaken!” she screamed.
“You are absolutely right, my wife,” Carmelo sighed. “Lazer, you said Hassad was gathering intelligence about the body double?”
“Yes, after becoming suspicious about No. 3’s true identity, he began to pay attention to her movements and various things. Given that the intelligence of any family is extremely valuable at this point, maybe Hassad let his greed get the better of him.”
“Rather than heading for the hall to escape, he went for her bedroom and caught her. It is inconceivable that all he wanted to do was gather intelligence,” Idnan shook his head in disagreement
“You were in the hall with many mercenaries at that time. He probably wanted to find the side door or other exits but ended up at the bedrooms by accident…”
“By accident? This is your excuse? Can you be certain that there were no servants helping him? Not many servants know about the locations of the bedrooms,” said Carmelo as he took a deep breath and gritted his teeth, interrupting Lazer.
“Okay, Carmelo, don’t be mad. These servants will be fired sooner or later, so even if some of them did leak out such information, it will not be long before they cannot hurt the Juan family anymore,” Idnan patted the back of Carmelo’s hand and spoke in a soft tone, calming him down.
“Hmph… then the time of their firing will be sooner than later.”
“Calm down. Let’s wait for the banquet to be over before making any changes. The next couple of days is important.”
Lazer listened to their casual conversation quietly. Fired. Right. They meant kill. The couple must have planned this as early as when they began preparing for the throne war. It was amazing how much money they were willing to sacrifice to carry this through.
“That concludes this matter,” Carmelo said sullenly and impatiently, barely able to contain his emotions. “One thing, No. 3, you will be attending the banquet. Do you copy?”
“Yes,” she dared not to procrastinate with her response and quickly stood up and answered.
“That is not enough,” Idnan shook her head again, sounding slightly hysterical. “No. 3, you will be called ‘Diana’ from now on.”
No. 3 hesitated for a moment. She looked at Lazer and then Carmelo, not understanding the difference.
“From today onwards, No. 3 no longer exists in the Juan family. There is only Diana—and Diana,” Carmelo closed his eyes and explained Idnan’s instruction. “If you want to play Diana completely, you will have to do this. You have to abandon yourself and become a complete imposter.”
