Volume 7, Chapter 39 – The Cat Ring with a Different Meaning

“Ring?”

Anastasia’s vibrant eyes first showed confusion, then realization.

“Do you mean that silver ring with the cat pattern?”

“Exactly, that one.”

Fia hadn’t explained the origin of the ring to Anastasia yet—or rather, she had forgotten to.

“I took it off. At first, I thought it was a magical tool, so I didn’t touch it. But later I found it was just an ordinary decoration. As a warrior, I shouldn’t wear too many ornaments. While a ring doesn’t affect combat, reflective things can easily expose one’s position. Moreover, wearing it on the right ring finger represents already having someone one likes among elves. I didn’t want to interfere with the other version of me’s life, and I wanted to avoid unnecessary trouble, so I took it off.”

After speaking, Anastasia looked down at Fia in confusion.

“It’s just that a fair amount of time has passed since I arrived here, yet I’ve never seen the person who gave the ring to the other me. Could it be just a common decoration? But the only difference between me and her is that you were resurrected. By time, less than a year has passed from the Battle of the Holy Kingdom of Milcandis until now. To find a sweetheart in less than a year… frankly, I’m surprised.”

In truth, regarding the removal of the ring, Anastasia had another unspeakable thought. She despised the other version of herself. The existence named Anastasia had long ago sworn in her heart to dedicate her entire life to one person, so falling for someone else was an unacceptable taboo that would distract her mind.

Furthermore, Anastasia couldn’t understand why the other self would change her affections. Since the two were identical in every way, their feelings for Dofilia should be the same. She couldn’t imagine a picture of herself being enchanted by someone else; it was impossible. Only she knew how much she admired Dofilia and how much she wanted to draw one step closer.

So she had taken off the ring as a form of contempt and disdain for the other self. Changing affections was revolting.

“I… I see, so it was for that reason…”

Answering haltingly, Fia grew embarrassed. The one who had given Anastasia the cat ring was herself, and she had personally put it on Anastasia’s right ring finger. At that time, she thought Anastasia didn’t know or didn’t care which finger the ring was worn on. Now it seemed Anastasia actually knew and cared about it being on the ring finger; she just hadn’t said anything.

It was actually very consistent with Anastasia’s personality.

The downside was that the one feeling awkward was now herself.

Fia didn’t know how to explain it to the current Anastasia for a moment. She suppressed the stiffness about to surface on her face and turned toward the courtyard.

“In any case, let’s head back first. It’s good that you didn’t lose that ring.”

“It’s good… that I didn’t lose it…?”

Anastasia followed Fia, a stiffness appearing on her beautiful face. She was worried that this world’s Anastasia’s romance with someone else was supported by Fia, which gave her a feeling of being discarded by Fia, as if she wasn’t important to her.

“What does Your Highness mean…?”

“I mean exactly what I said. If you had thrown that ring away as some worthless common item, I would be very troubled. Er, although it is an ordinary item, the meaning it represents is different. If the Anastasia of this world comes back and finds you threw it away, things would definitely become very troublesome between you.”

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“That is only natural. Since I’m occupying the other me’s body, I must take good care of her personal belongings. Your Highness seems to know who gave the ring. If it would trouble you, could that person be your friend? Although the men pursuing you could fill the entire King’s Avenue, I don’t recall you being on good terms with any man. No, let me be blunt—I’m curious who the person is that enchanted the other me? Can Your Highness tell me?”

“Ugh.”

Since her back was toward Anastasia, Fia could finally show the embarrassment on her face. Her naturally hanging hands gripped and released repeatedly as she wondered how to answer. It wasn’t until the two left the courtyard with light footsteps and the moonlight was blocked by the surrounding high walls that Fia, fading into the darkness, finally thought of an answer.

She chose a strategy of leading the conversation, folding her arms across her chest while surrounding herself with an aura of having everything under control.

“Besides the ring, has Anastasia noticed any other differences about herself?”

“My skin and hair have become more lustrous, and my clothes are a bit tight. It’s the body of a young woman; the other version of me has maintained it very well.”

“I didn’t mean that, I meant other things.”

Black lines appeared on Fia’s head. She naturally knew that the Anastasia here lived better than the one there. The Anastasia over there had lost hope for a beautiful life due to the Eldest Princess’s death, so she naturally wouldn’t think of taking good care of herself to become beautiful.

Furthermore, Fia heard a hint of contempt in Anastasia’s tone when she mentioned “maintained it very well.”

“Other things?”

Fia’s question put Anastasia in a difficult position. She thought Fia meant that the Anastasia here had specifically dressed up to please her sweetheart, which was why she answered from a physical perspective. Now it seemed that wasn’t the case.

She pondered for a moment, even knitting her brows. If she had to say what else was different between her current self and her past self, the only thing was the style of clothing chosen to distinguish the two Anastasias, which was clearly not the answer Fia wanted.

The old Dofi wouldn’t be like this… Is this another “benefit” of losing her memory? Becoming more likable and having much more intimacy.

While thinking of an answer, Anastasia quietly scrutinized the petite back in front of her. With the black dress and the long black hair tied into twin ponytails cascading down her back, Fia would have blended into the night if not for the pure white stockings on her well-proportioned legs.

Yet such a small body always gave off a sense of calmness and reliability. Just walking behind this girl made her feel exceptionally peaceful and a faint joy. Although the girl’s steps were lighter now, the inner essence was unchanged. Even the orchid fragrance from her hair was exactly the same. The snowy white back occasionally exposed to her eyes made it impossible to look away, to the point that Anastasia unknowingly became entranced and forgot that the most important thing right now was to answer Fia.

“Haven’t thought of it yet?”

Anastasia was suddenly startled and hurriedly looked down.

“Ah, p-please forgive my ignorance. Aside from those things, I haven’t found any other differences.”

“It’s the weapon! The weapon! Before, Anastasia always used the standard-issue weapon from the Imperial Guard, but now it’s a mithril-grade thin-sword. Could it be that Anastasia switched to a mithril-grade thin-sword in that world? I thought you would have found it strange long ago.”

“Er, you are right. My weapon has indeed changed from a standard-issue weapon to a mithril sword. I am very sorry for not grasping your meaning immediately. I stayed over there for too long and forgot even what weapon I was carrying…”

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“It’s fine, this isn’t something to apologize for.” It was just a bit embarrassing to have to say it herself. Fia waved her hand. “This sword is a weapon I gave to Anastasia. Isn’t it strange for the guard of the Imperial Eldest Princess to only use an ordinary weapon?”

“But that’s because if I used a magic weapon, other people would criticize me. They would say I lacked ability and thus needed a magic weapon; they would love nothing more than for me to leave your side.”

“Those people have already been shut up forever. Don’t worry about their opinions. You are protecting the most important person in the Kingdom; it’s too ridiculous to use an ordinary weapon just because you’re afraid of other people’s gossip.”

“What I want to say is that the Anastasia here doesn’t have the sweetheart you imagined. Both that ring and the current mithril sword are gifts I gave to Anastasia. Speaking of which, I need to replace the mithril sword with a better weapon. Initially, we hadn’t reached Silvar and Anastasia was reluctant to pick an expensive weapon, so we settled for this one. Now that even Father has come to terms with Anastasia, it’s about time to switch to orichalcum or scarlet gold-grade weapons—no, I’ll just make one myself.”

“Eh?”

A cute sound escaped Anastasia’s mouth. Her brain momentarily lost the ability to think due to the excessive shock. Her mouth gradually opened, and her expression was full of disbelief and regret.

“You… You mean, that ring was a gift from you?”

Suppressing her embarrassment, Fia crossed her arms and nodded solemnly.

“Exactly. And I personally put it on Anastasia. As for the reason… well, Anastasia just needs to know that I gave it to you.”

Initially, she had given the cat ring to Anastasia as an apology. The reason for the apology was that Fia had been flirtatious and jokingly said it wouldn’t be bad if Anastasia became her second royal concubine, which made Anastasia happy for nothing—how could she repeat the story of making a lewd joke to Anastasia?

“How could… I took the ring… off… ugh…”

Anastasia stared blankly at her right hand. Her expression was like that of a woman who had suffered a major blow and couldn’t accept reality, to the point that she didn’t even notice she had drifted some distance away from Fia.

Noticing Anastasia’s abnormality, Fia stopped and turned around with a look of helplessness.

“That’s why I said it’s good that you didn’t lose the ring,” Fia put her left hand on her hip and held up her right hand for Anastasia to see as if showing it off. “Look, Anastasia’s ring and the one on my hand are a pair.”

Seeing the silver-glinting ring on Fia’s right ring finger, Anastasia’s expression became even more bitter. For a moment, Fia even thought she saw a mist forming in the corners of Anastasia’s eyes, and her lips were tightly pressed together in grievance.

Was Anastasia someone who cried so easily?

“I am very sorry! I… because of my ignorance, I actually failed Your Highness’s kind intentions. I beg for your forgiveness!”

Determination appeared in her eyes. As she spoke, Anastasia was about to kneel down aggressively. Fia hurriedly supported her.

The significance of the ring to Anastasia was far stronger than she had imagined.

“Get up. This isn’t a matter of forgiveness or not. Since you didn’t lose it, just put it back on.”

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Quite clearly, Fia felt Anastasia’s shoulders grow even stiffer. The words just now hadn’t comforted her but had instead added insult to injury.

How mysterious…

While Fia was puzzled, it suddenly occurred to her that maybe what Anastasia cared about was the act of “personally putting it on.” Perhaps in Anastasia’s consciousness, taking off the ring without permission was an offense to the original owner of the body. She smiled and patted Anastasia’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep the secret for you and won’t tell the Anastasia of this world.”

“Yes…”

Her voice was still listless. Anastasia stood up limply as if she had suddenly grown much thinner.

Truly strange.

“Is Anastasia’s body unwell?”

“No.”

“Then why do you look so haggard?”

If it weren’t for the fact that Anastasia was definitely not injured, Fia would have wondered if she should support her while walking, lest she accidentally trip over some debris on the road.

“I just didn’t expect that ring was given to the other me by you…”

How nice it would be if it were given to me.

Anastasia thought extravagantly.

Even if it wasn’t given to her, just the thought that the ring was personally put on by Dofi would have satisfied her. She even wondered if kissing the ring would be equivalent to kissing Dofi’s hand. Yet she had taken it off on her own, making the ring lose that sanctity. If the real Anastasia returned, she would surely strangle her to death. Yes, if she were that Anastasia, she would also go up and strangle the other party.

Unfortunately, Fia was not aware of Anastasia’s inner thoughts at this moment.

“The ring was indeed a gift from me, but actually Nola bought it—”

Wait, thinking about it like this, the biggest victim of this whole thing was actually that stupid fire cat far away in Cold Night?

Her thoughts drifted to Nola, then recalled her own ambiguous relationship with Nola. Fia suddenly felt as if a broken string in her mind had been reconnected.

Anastasia might have misunderstood that she and the other Anastasia had an ambiguous relationship. The right ring finger represented being taken, and combined with personally putting it on, it was simply impossible to explain.

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Fia immediately coughed with a serious face.

“Ahem, Anastasia, don’t misunderstand. The ring doesn’t represent an ambiguous relationship between me and this world’s Anastasia. If Anastasia wants me to help put it on, when we return to Blossom and get the ring, I can put it on Anastasia again. Wearing the ring here has no special meaning.”

In fact, there was, but she didn’t dare say it. When she had put the ring on Anastasia, she also had a heart-pounding feeling.

“Eh? You can put it on me again? No need to go back to Blossom, the ring… the ring is on me!”

As the words fell, Anastasia instantly came back to life as if injected with an energy potion. She happily searched herself up and down and soon pulled that cat ring from her chest pocket and handed it to Fia.

It still carried Anastasia’s body temperature.

Fia wanted to sniff what it smelled like, but that was too perverted, so she only thought about it in her head. Then she skillfully supported Anastasia’s palm and slid the simple cat ring onto Anastasia’s ring finger.

“There, that’s better.”

“Ahhh…”

Anastasia, who was dejected just a moment ago, was now filled only with joy. She stared intently at the ring on her ring finger and raised her hand like a child, spreading her five fingers to examine it against the moonlight.

“It’s so nice… Dofi put it on me… you’re lucky…”

The last sentence was unnecessary, wasn’t it?

Fia gave a wry smile.

“I’m glad Anastasia is happy. Speaking of which, once I make the new body for you, I’ll have to prepare an identical ring. I can’t play favorites. I’ll have to step up my studies of [Sacred Relic Analysis] after we get back.”

“Ah,”

Catching the keyword, Anastasia suddenly snapped back to her senses. Her mind, previously filled only with joy, felt like her mouth was out of control. As if by magic, she spoke words she could never normally say—perhaps because she was so happy she lost herself, thus forgetting her shame and many other things.

“Lady Claire said faith can be strengthened through touch. You successfully used faith magic on me in the basement before… wouldn’t it be even more effective to touch me directly? If it’s Your Highness, I don’t feel any repulsion at all. I h… hope you won’t find me loathsome.”

As she spoke, Anastasia used one hand to cradle beneath her chest, deliberately highlighting her soft and elastic full bust. Her bouncy chest, swaying like jelly, almost pushed into Fia’s face. Yet her expression held no bashfulness, only a serious eagerness to help solve the problem.