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“Impossible, I’ve seen Lady Erica’s face. Although it was a fleeting glimpse, I’m sure she isn’t Princess Estelle,” Brady retorted sternly.

“Are you certain that was her real face?” Ness took two steps forward, his gaze fixed on Brady’s. “There are countless ways to alter one’s appearance in this world. What if she deliberately allowed you to see her face to engineer a deception?”

“That’s a valid point. Perhaps she intended for you to see her face. Otherwise, there would have been no need for her to wear a mask when the three of us approached,” Balmer interjected, aligning his thoughts with Ness’.

“But that doesn’t prove Lady Erica is Estelle,” Brady insisted defiantly, but Ness had grown impatient with his skepticism.

Ignoring Brady, Ness seated himself opposite Balmer. “Moving on from speculation, let’s talk about why we must act now.”

Balmer nodded attentively. “Go ahead.”

Ness picked up a twig and drew a ‘1’ on the ground, followed by two crude figures. “First, consider this scenario: Lady Erica has indeed eliminated Princess Estelle. This suggests she is either stronger than Estelle or has employed tactics Estelle couldn’t withstand.”

Ness marked one figure with a cross and the other with a question mark, symbolizing Princess Estelle and Lady Erica respectively.

“Yes, our primary concern is that there’s still too much we don’t know about Lady Erica,” Ballmer agreed.

“But even if Erica managed to eliminate Estelle, was she able to do it without sustaining any injuries?”

Ness prodded the figure with a question mark above it with his twig. “Let’s assume she resorted to underhanded tactics. That implies her strength is inferior to Estelle’s. If Estelle retaliated fiercely, would Erica survive unharmed?”

“Most certainly… not,” Balmer replied, shaking his head somberly. He was starting to grasp the implications of Ness’ argument.

“Indeed. And if Lady Erica has a way to eliminate Estelle swiftly…”

“That’s inconceivable. If she’s capable of that, why would we bother forming an Anti-Princess Alliance in the first place?” Ballmer laughed self-deprecatingly.

“So even if Lady Erica eliminated Princess Estelle, she must have fought fiercely with her. It’s highly likely this battle would have left her…”

“Severely wounded…” Ballmer concluded, recalling the unmoving figure by the campfire.

He took a deep breath and continued, “You’re right. If Lady Erica did manage to eliminate Princess Estelle, regardless of her method, she wouldn’t escape without serious injury.”

Ness snapped his fingers and drew a small cross over the other figure with a question mark.

“That makes sense, but…”

As Ballmer’s wounds healed, his clarity returned, and he promptly pointed out the inconsistency.

“Why then would Lady Erica continue to exert influence while severely injured? She could have easily hidden and recuperated. Besides, we had no knowledge of her existence among the participants until now.”

“Indeed, her actions defy logic, which leads me to lean toward the second possibility…”

Ness drew a large cross over the two small figures, then sketched out a new pair of figures. This time, he marked a cross over one and a question mark over the other, reversing their previous positions.

“Let’s restart. Same story, but different characters,” Ness said, pointing toward the figure marked with a question mark.

“This is Princess Estelle, who encountered a formidable adversary unknown to us,” he began.

Pointing to the figure marked with a cross, he continued, “Let’s call this adversary ‘Strong Enemy X’. Princess Estelle fought fiercely with Strong Enemy X, managed to defeat them, but sustained serious injuries in the process.”

“In both scenarios, the common thread is the victorious party suffering severe injury. However, from this point onward, the second speculation diverges.”

Ness circled the figure representing Estelle and tapped it. “Do you know what sets Princess Estelle apart from the others?”

Ballmer furrowed his brow. “Strength? Beauty?”

“No, it’s her aura,” Ness explained, sketching dotted lines outside the circle, representing sunlight radiating from the figure.

“She’s a princess, a disciple of the Holy Dragon Empire’s Guardian. Her strength and status make her shine as brightly as the sun. The moment she appears, she commands attention, even without doing anything.”

“So, what do you think will happen if our ‘little sun,’ who is now badly injured, is discovered by us?”

“We would take her down!” Ballmer replied, his eyes gleaming.

Ness paused, then looked at Ballmer seriously. “Just making sure—you’re not cracking a dirty joke, right?”

“I’m being very serious here.”

“Good.” Ness nodded solemnly, drawing another small cross over the sun. “You’re right, we would try to take her down, forcing her to hide. But she’s like a dazzling sun—where could she hide?”

“On the first day in the small world, everyone was focused on adapting and strategizing. By the time we started exploring, she would have had nowhere to escape. So, the sun’s solution was to disguise itself as the moon,” Ness explained, drawing a two-way arrow between the two figures.

“There’s no Lady Erica; that’s merely a moon fabricated by Princess Estelle to conceal her true identity,” he concluded.

“But if she was hiding her identity, why would she intentionally draw attention to herself and provoke us?” Ballmer questioned incredulously.

“Don’t be mistaken. The one who provoked us wasn’t Princess Estelle, the ‘Sun’. It was Lady Erica, the ‘Moon’. Think about it, after Lady Erica made those statements and led a few of us to confront her, only two outcomes could unfold.”

Ness paused for emphasis. “First, people believe her claims that she defeated Princess Estelle, viewing her as an even greater threat and strategizing accordingly. As for Princess Estelle, she becomes irrelevant.”