CHAPTER 6     Cecilia Is Rescued By…?

When she came to, she was in a horse-drawn carriage. She could tell from the clip-clopping of hooves and the jolting of her transportation. The inside of the carriage was dark, as was the view outside. Its wooden door was shut tight, preventing escape. Her wrists and feet had been bound, and she was gagged so that she couldn’t cry out.

From her prone position, she managed to struggle upright. Her body felt a little numb from the punch she’d taken to the gut, but it gradually faded.

They took the Sacred Artifact, too.

She wasn’t sure if they knew what it was when they’d stolen it, but the bracelet she always wore was missing. Her wig was gone, too.

Is someone going to come rescue me? she thought, but she didn’t have much hope of that. If Lean had gone to alert people after her escape, most of them wouldn’t have realized her abductors were from Dante’s organization. He and Gilbert probably would, but Gilbert had to act very carefully as a duke’s son, and Dante more than likely didn’t feel close enough to Cecil to bother with her of his own accord.

I’m a little bit jealous of Lean right now.

She was the heroine, designed to be the object of everyone’s affections.

In contrast, Cecilia was designed to be reviled and eliminated.

The future had shifted a little due to her actions, but the basic outline most likely hadn’t changed at all. She didn’t doubt for a minute that if she and Lean had both been abducted, Oscar and Gilbert alike would work harder to save Lean.

Well, no point in moping about it. I’ve gotta find a way to escape!

If she couldn’t rely on anyone else, she had no choice but to be her own rescuer. She’d known that for twelve years now. Everything she’d done had been to prepare for this moment.

Just as she gave a deep, determined nod to herself, the carriage ground to a halt. The wooden door creaked open, and a man peered inside.

 

“Boss, this is her.”

They pushed Cecilia before the organization leader. She looked up to find a woman with bright red-and-pink hair and a distinctive scar tightening the skin of her cheek.

Their hideout appeared to be an old stone castle, and this lady sat atop its throne. Her name was Marlin Sweeney—the leader of Heimat and Dante’s foster mother.

Legs haughtily crossed, she regarded Cecilia. “Hmmm.”

Her gaze made it clear she was appraising a price, and her voice was an alcoholic’s rasp when she asked, “And this is really Cecilia Sylvie?”

“We’re looking into it now, but her features should match all descriptions,” answered a man behind Cecilia. He looked much stronger than the woman on the throne in terms of physical strength, but she still kept all these men in line. Not one to be underestimated.

“I’d only wanted to get revenge on Dante, and yet here an even bigger fish jumps right into the net all on her own? Because of friendship? Isn’t that touching,” sneered Marlin, stepping down before Cecilia and tilting her head up to get a good, long look at her. “Pretty face. I bet you could bring in some good coin from the menfolk.”

The scar on her face stretched taut as she smiled, which sent a shiver down Cecilia’s spine. It was shocking that Marlin could suggest that when they were both women.

“But if you really are the duke’s daughter, that’ll never work in this country… Don’t worry. I’ll give you back safe and sound as long as your parents pony up the cash. That’s just business sense,” she reassured, her features unnervingly kind. She released Cecilia’s chin.

“Lock her up until we can verify some things. She’s a very important hostage. Treat her with care,” Marlin ordered, jerking her chin.

“Yes, boss,” grunted the man behind Cecilia, giving her back another shove. Its force was so powerful that she pitched forward onto the ground. All the men around her, who’d been eating dinner and holding cups of booze, burst out laughing. Apparently, they enjoyed the pain of others.

Yeah, go on and chuckle!

She’d only pretended to fall forward in order to get close to something shiny she spotted lying on the ground. It was a dinner knife. She lifted her heel and managed to conceal it between her shoe and her foot. It might come in handy somewhere.

“Hey, what are you doing?! Get up!” the man shouted, impatiently yanking her to her feet and escorting her to the dungeon.

 

The dungeon was underground. Two guards were stationed in front of the door leading down to it, though no one was posted in front of the cell they threw her into. They must have thought she’d be secure enough tied up and locked away, or they assumed that a frail duke’s daughter would be too weak to resist. She didn’t know which.

For now, Cecilia soothed herself with the knowledge that they were underestimating her.

The men would likely come back in several hours to bring her food. So she probably had a fair amount of time to spare, but if she was going to do something, the faster the better. Although Heimat’s leader was a woman, the organization otherwise appeared to consist exclusively of men. Plus, there was the fact that Marlin had said she could “bring in some good coin from the menfolk.” If Cecilia stayed trapped here, who knew what indignities she might suffer?

In these situations, the best course of action is to take advantage of the enemy’s negligence to escape, she thought, recalling what Hans, the soldier who’d taught her everything about fighting, always told her.

Pulling the knife out from under her heel, she quickly cut through the cords on her wrists. She removed the gag as well. Now that she was free, she inspected her surroundings.

The jail cell contained a wooden desk and chair. Neither looked like they’d been repaired in a long time and were too unsteady to be of any use. She removed a leg from the chair and detached a nail sticking out of it. Then, using the chair leg as a wooden mallet, she began drilling holes into the blade of the knife.

She was absorbed in that task for close to two hours.

“Done!” she whispered. Her knife had been converted into a simple saw.

Cecilia stuck the knife in a gap in the cell door and sawed at it. Wood shavings rained down. Though the bars on the door were metal, the hinges were made of wood. They’d probably been metal originally but had rusted and been swapped out for wooden replacements to cut costs.

The saw worked well, so the latch split in two after only a few minutes.

“Yay! Next, I need clothes for a disguise.”

She tapped the knife against the prison bars. Alerted by the sudden clanging, a man stationed at the top of the stairs stomped down to investigate. Finding Cecilia sprawled out on the floor of her cell, he called out, “Hey! You all right?”

He was panicked, likely afraid that their precious hostage had fainted. The moment before he opened the door, he noticed that the latch had split apart. “What the—?”

“Hah!”

While he was distracted by the broken latch, Cecilia seized the opportunity and slammed him against the door. The iron portal swung open with enough force to pummel the man’s forehead. As he stumbled, Cecilia kicked him right in the jewels.

“Guh!”

He squatted down as he clutched his crotch, unable to speak. For the finishing blow, Cecilia brought the wooden chair that now had three legs down on the back of his head.

“Not too bad for my first time,” she said, heaving a long sigh and eyeing the guard lying prone on the ground. Quick as a flash, she stripped him of his clothes, then exchanged her pajamas for his uniform.

The idea of an assassins’ organization had filled her with trepidation, but this fallen ruffian was no master hit man like Dante. He was more like a wannabe tough guy bandit.

Oh, right—doesn’t the game treat Dante like an elite member?

A child born to kill—that’s how he describes himself. In the game, his combat prowess is a cut above the rest. That knowledge felt worlds apart from the boy she knew now.

Clad in the miscreant’s uniform, Cecilia ascended the stairs. In an area along the way, she found her missing Sacred Artifact, plus a wig that had been carelessly tossed aside.

“Yay!”

With practiced movements, she tucked her long hair up under the wig. With that, she’d transformed into a dashing young man. She still had a bit of a high-class aura, but regardless, her getup should prevent her from getting immediately recognized as an outsider.

Next, she donned the Sacred Artifact, touching it lightly before feeling a cushy barrier envelop her.

“There, that’s a relief.”

She was grateful to no longer need to worry about sustaining injuries. But the Artifact’s power didn’t make her invincible. Its effect would wear off in thirty minutes if she didn’t touch it in that time, and it would also shut down if she lost consciousness. She had to keep touching it regularly.

Cecilia picked up a sweeper brush for cleaning on the ground nearby and spun it. The tool would make for a perfect impromptu weapon.

She continued up the staircase. When she reached the door, she sensed someone on the other side—probably the partner of the guard she’d knocked out earlier.

Violently, she kicked open the door. The man leaped back and pulled some small daggers from his vest. His reflexes were as quick as she would have expected from someone of his ilk. But the blades he threw didn’t hit home; they bounced off the mysterious barrier and stuck fast into the walls on either side.

“Hey—”

As he attempted to shout out, Cecilia used her sweeper to deliver an uppercut to the man’s chin. His jaw quivered as he passed out.

“That would’ve been close without the Artifact…” She sighed, taking a breath. She tied him up, gagged him, and threw him down the stairs before locking the door.

Now no one should find her out for a while.

Everything’s gone pretty well, but I’m not gonna be able to make a clean getaway if I don’t know where I am.

All she could make out through the window were trees. The architecture of the building made it clear that this was an ancient castle, but she had no idea where it was located.

Wish I had a map, but the next best thing would be a proper weapon.

The sweeper had broken. That one strike was as far as it could go.

Although no one could injure her, she still had to stay completely vigilant. Her Artifact might have some sort of weakness she wasn’t aware of. And besides, its specialty was defense. If she wound up surrounded, she’d get captured without a doubt.

I’ll start by heading to the armory and looking for a weapon I can use.

Checking that the coast was clear in all directions, she rushed out into the corridor.

“Gilbert, wait!” called Mordred, reining him in as he tried to run off. Behind him were Oscar and Jade, as well as Lean, who looked guilty and miserable. She’d just run to the boys’ dorm for help and had told them that Cecil was abducted.

Eyeing Gilbert as he attempted to leave, Mordred insisted calmly, “You are the legitimate heir to House Sylvie. I cannot sanction any rash courses of action. While I do understand that you and Cecil are close, you must leave this to the proper channels of authority.”

He went on, addressing Gilbert’s back. “Additionally, Cecil is a baron’s son. Risking your life for him is unseemly in the first place. Surely, you understand the value of your life. As the prospective successor to the prime minister, you can’t follow your whims alone.”

Gilbert was the genuine heir to House Sylvie, the highest-ranked family in the nobility. On top of that, he’d been endorsed as the next prime minister, hence why Mordred had reminded him he shouldn’t put his life on the line for a noble of lower standing. He knew that.

It made perfect sense. All straight facts.

In aristocratic society, rank determined the value of someone’s life, despite the fact that they were all equally human.

Instead of nodding, Gilbert whipped around. “I’m going to save Cecil, no matter what anyone says. Feel free to try and stop me, but I doubt you’ll be able to.”

“Do you know where he is?”

“I have a lead.”

That would be Dante. Gilbert knew that his event was happening right now. In other words, he only needed to wring that information out of Dante, even if it meant getting a little rough with him. That was Gilbert’s plan.

He turned to go, as if to say the conversation was over.

“Gilbert!”

“Gilbert,” Oscar cried, his voice overlapping with Mordred’s. He blocked Gilbert’s path, his expression grim.

“…Your Highness.”

“Dr. Mordred is right. At this rate, your parents are going to end up receiving unpleasant news. When people at the top give special attention to a lower-ranked noble, it complicates things down the line. You need to calm down for the time being.”

“How am I supposed to be cool and collected right now?! I’m sure you don’t know this, but Cecil is my s—”

If he revealed that Cecil was his foster sister Cecilia, they would all be forced to respond. Cecilia was a duke’s daughter and the crown prince’s fiancée. She far outranked her peers.

Gilbert knew that revealing her identity was the safest, most surefire method to getting what he wanted. But it would be tantamount to undoing the entire foundation she’d laid.

When he thought of her reaction after their reunion, he couldn’t quite find the words.

Intercepting Gilbert’s moment of hesitation, Oscar ventured, “New soldiers started working at the palace this April.”

“What does that have to do with—?”

“Oh, just you listen. Anyway, the palace has recently been floating around the idea of them practicing a surprise attack. They’ve planned a large-scale drill that will also involve veteran soldiers with two to three years’ experience.”

Catching Oscar’s drift, Gilbert fell silent.

“So I was thinking of having that get underway now. What do you think?”

“…An astute judgment, Your Highness.”

Their stilted, unnatural conversation left everyone else in the room astonished.

“However, the location for the practice maneuver has yet to be decided. Do you have any ideas about that? You did say you had a lead.”

“I’ll go look into that immediately.”

“As a bit of a warm-up, I was planning on participating in the attack myself. What about you?”

“Yes, if I’m allowed to…”

“Got it. I’ll send a letter to your parents and to the palace informing them of that, then. The series of events that are about to transpire are all part of a practice maneuver, and I will be responsible for everything.”

Gilbert inclined his head.

Mordred interjected, his tone betraying exasperated disbelief. “That was quite the little skit you two just put on… But if you’re going to go to such lengths, well, I won’t stop you. Do as you please. I’ll file the overnight stay permission slips.”

“Thank you,” Gilbert answered with a bow.

Lean, who’d been silent the entire time, suddenly chimed in. “May I also attend this practice maneuver?”

“Lean?!” yelped Jade from next to her. It was clear he would have never expected that from her.

“It’s all my fault that this happened, so I want to do something to make up for it. I also know where Lord Cecil has been taken,” she declared confidently.

Oscar shook his head. “Sorry, but I don’t want to take any impediments along. Are you saying you won’t tell us where Cecil’s been taken unless we bring you with us?”

“All right, then. In that case…,” Lean replied, then turned to Jade. She held out a hand. “Jade, give me your Sacred Artifact.”

“Huh?”

“I mean, you didn’t plan on giving it to anyone else anyway, so it’s fine, right? Won’t it be better to have multiple people who can camouflage themselves?”

“I guess…,” he answered, shocked by her erratic request. But since it was coming from a friend, he handed over his bracelet to her.

“I don’t want to become the Holy Maiden or anything, so I wasn’t planning on collecting these,” Lean noted as she slipped Jade’s Artifact onto her right wrist. The ordinary silver bangle glowed faintly. “I just have to save him. I can’t let him get killed because of me again.”

Her eyes burned with a determination and intent that hadn’t been there before. She waved the bracelet in Oscar’s face. “Now I won’t be an impediment to you, Prince Oscar.”

“True enough… Do your best to keep yourself safe on your own.”

“I understand.”

The four of them, Jade included, then launched into a strategy meeting.

As he observed their discussion, Mordred spoke to himself, as if it had nothing to do with him. “The future king and the future prime minister. The son of a firm that controls the country from the shadows and the future Holy Maiden apparent… Just how important is this Cecil Admina?”

Right as those four were talking strategy, Cecilia was making her way down the corridor. She passed by a few people occasionally, but to her surprise, she was avoiding any and all attention by keeping quiet and walking purposefully. The organization must have been so massive that interpersonal connections didn’t run very deep.

Armory, armory…

She wound her way along, subtly checking left and right.

That looks like it.

In the deepest part of the first floor of the old castle lurked a room—though it was more like a storehouse. It was the only place where the decorations had been noticeably pared down.

She edged closer apprehensively but found it unlocked. She slipped inside and lit a hanging lantern, illuminating the interior.

“Bingo!”

The chamber was filled with weapons. Innumerable swords hung on the wall with an equal number of shields below. Daggers, crossbows, and other small firearms were also in abundance.

The armor, helmets, cannons, and artillery didn’t have an assassin vibe, so they must have been remnants from when the building was a true castle. So expansive was the oblong room that she couldn’t see all the way to its end.

The farthest section of the chamber appeared to be unused. Toward the front stood a row of armaments that looked easy to carry. Cecilia picked out a dagger.

“I haven’t used a real one much. I wonder if I’ll be okay.”

In her lessons, she’d always used fake swords made of metal. While the dagger’s size and weight felt close to what she was comfortable with, using it in real combat would probably feel strange. Of course, that didn’t mean she was going to settle for a fake sword…

Just as she belted the knife in its scabbard to her waist, the door suddenly opened behind her to reveal a familiar face.

With no opportunity to hide, Cecilia came face-to-face with the intruder.

“It’s you…”

In stepped Marlin, living up to her position as the leader. Her eyes grew wide when she realized it was Cecilia; perhaps she’d memorized all her subordinates’ features.

Cecilia instantly took a huge step back. She had no idea what to do. When she started by creeping her hand down to the blade she’d just equipped herself with, Marlin shut the door behind her without calling for anyone else.

Stunned, she noted, “I didn’t expect you to break yourself out of our dungeon.”

Although Cecilia remained wary of Marlin’s lack of hostility, she removed her hand from the dagger.

“I thought you’d be a bit more refined since you’re a young lady of nobility,” Marlin commented, sitting atop an empty box nearby.

“Um…so you’re not going to capture me?” Cecilia replied, voicing the question in her heart.

“What good would that do? I was originally planning to let you go tomorrow morning anyway.”

“What?”

“How would it benefit me to tick off the duke and his clan? I still prize my life, you know,” Marlin remarked carelessly, jiggling her legs.

“But earlier…”

“That was just some posturing. This group’s gotten kinda big, and I’ve got a lot of annoying guys who love to prattle on about how they’ll take revenge if they quit or that we need to get our coin by any means necessary. Now there are even a few here who wanna take it upon themselves to act like common bandits. I just had to grill the hell out of those three.” Marlin sighed with a grimace, cracking her shoulders.

She was an entirely different person from the woman Cecilia had met before.

“It’s not good to let the scope get so out of hand. At first, I was just trying to make a band of chivalrous assassins who only killed the bad guys. Now it’s devolved into a bunch of cutthroats who’ll kill anyone if they’re paid to do it.”

Keeping quiet, Cecilia listened to Marlin’s monologue. While her hands weren’t clean, she didn’t seem like a bad person at her core.

“So when Dante defected, I thought that would be the perfect excuse to make some changes, since he was our biggest earner. If I care about his happiness, I shouldn’t keep him tied to this place.”

She looked like an older sister worrying about her baby brother—maybe that was their actual relationship. The game doesn’t go into it in detail, but it does seem strange that someone of Dante’s caliber would labor under another’s heel for no reason.

“And just when I was going to take this chance to dissolve the organization, you showed up.”

“Me?”

“Yep. My stupid leading members have been making noise for some time now about abducting an aristocrat to get ransom money. So they pulled that stunt just now, looking to get revenge on Dante at the same time. Though I bet it also was supposed to be some sort of rebellion against me, since I’ve always been opposed to the kidnapping business.”

Apparently, Heimat wasn’t a monolith. Marlin’s story implied that there were people hostile to her in the organization.

She got off the empty box. As she brushed dust off the seat of her pants, she faced Cecilia. “Well, anyway. That was a long-winded way of saying that I meant to let you go from the start. I never thought you’d bust yourself out on your own. I actually just came to the armory to pick out a weapon to give you tomorrow, since I thought you’d have trouble if I sent you off on your merry way unarmed.”

“I…see,” Cecilia answered with a nervous nod. She didn’t trust this woman completely, but Marlin had no reason to lie to her.

Marlin’s gaze shifted to the dagger at Cecilia’s waist. “But I guess if you’ve already made your choice, that’s that… Follow me. Now’s our chance. I’ll send you back to your school.”

“Oh, okay.”

Leading the way, Marlin reached for the door. But…

“Hmm?”

“What’s wrong?”

“The door won’t open,” Marlin answered, rattling the knob over and over again. While she was doing that, gray smoke slowly crept in from the crack under the door. Upon placing a hand to the wood, she felt the slightest bit of warmth.

“Damn. I screwed up,” she cursed tensely. Cecilia broke into a cold sweat.

Biting her lip and looking cornered, Marlin turned to Cecilia and shouted at her, “Get out of the way!”

Cecilia stepped to the side as ordered. Then Marlin hurled herself against the entryway. With a loud crash, the door—hinges and all—fell outward.

“Looks like we’ve been set up.”

Fire and smoke filled the corridor. Bright flames licked at the curtains and wood.

A cold chill ran down Cecilia’s spine. “What’s going on?!”

“A fire—one someone set on purpose. They must be trying to get rid of everyone they can’t handle all at once.”

“Which…means?”

Marlin pointlessly nodded and held Cecilia’s nose shut. “They went with the flow of the situation and kidnapped you even though they aren’t actually bold or prepared enough to defy the house of the duke. Now they’ve gotten cold feet. Abducting the duke’s daughter is a serious crime, no two ways about it. The country will devote everything it has to shutting down the organization, so they’re going to push all the blame onto me and kill us off together.”

“What?!” Cecilia screeched.

“If I die here along with you, they can say it was all my fault. Plus, if it works, they can take over the whole group. Seems like something those idiots would cook up.”

“Boss!” shouted a man who looked like one of her underlings from the other side of the flames. He wanted to come to their aid, but the blaze and smoke were blocking him.

Marlin pointed to the exit. “You guys escape first! I’ll follow later!”

“But—”

“Go now!”

“…Okay! Stay safe!”

“You too!”

Marlin must have been a good boss. The men wore looks of regret as they passed by.

“All right, what do we do? They’ve set this fire to roast you and me to death. They’ve even set the weapons alight,” said Marlin. Ordinarily so self-possessed, now even she sounded panicky.

The inferno had engulfed both the corridor before them and the stairway to the second floor. To make matters worse, the deepest part of the blaze was located near the windows, so escaping through them was also out of the question.

Going deeper into the armory would allow them to temporarily escape the flames, but then they’d be trapped. It would only delay their fate, at most.

“You okay? You’re white as a sheet,” Marlin noted. Cecilia realized for the first time that she was shaking like a leaf. She was scared about losing her life, of course, but she could sense that her terror originated from somewhere else.

Her teeth ground together as her whole body tensed up. She was so frightened that cold sweat beaded over almost every inch of her skin. Finally, she forced herself to nod. “I’m fine.”

“You don’t look it. Seems like we can still head that way, so let’s go.”

“Okay.”

Marlin set off and Cecilia attempted to follow, but then there was a sickening crunch and a post above her head came crashing down.

“AHHH!”

It all happened too suddenly for her to move. Her entire body had frozen stiff.

It had been longer than thirty minutes since she’d touched the Artifact, so she couldn’t expect any automatic defense from it.

Bracing for impact, she squeezed her eyes shut. Just then, someone sent her flying.

“Aaahhh!”

She plunged into the wall, her back colliding against it with such force she was briefly winded.

Cautiously, Cecilia opened her eyes, only to find Marlin squashed beneath the thick timber. The other woman had protected her.

“Are you okay?!” Cecilia cried, flying over in a panic. The beam lying on top of Marlin was heavy but not so heavy that someone couldn’t manage to lift it up. Cecilia moved the pillar aside and placed a hand under Marlin’s back, pulling her up. Her palm cradling the back of the other woman’s head came away bloody. Noticing how Marlin couldn’t move even if Cecilia supported her, she wondered if Marlin had broken bones somewhere.

“Why would you…?”

“Because you can’t get hurt.”

“Because I’m the daughter of a duke?” she blurted out, deliberating about why that should be the reason.

Marlin shook her head weakly. “There’s that, too, of course. But I did it because you’re Dante’s friend. If you got hurt, he’d be furious with me.”

“Friend?”

“I’m not sure why, but the last time he came back, he seemed overjoyed as he told stories about you. He mentioned that there was a very interesting girl who was dressing as a boy to go to school…”

Marlin laughed, adding that right after that, he’d announced he was leaving the organization.

“Cecilia, was it? Leave me here. I can’t run anymore.” She winced, her head lolling from side to side as she began to lose consciousness from blood loss.

Cecilia raised her voice, trying to keep her conscious. “I can’t do that!”

“What do you think you’re saying? I’m the head of the organization that abducted you.”

“But you still saved me.”

“Don’t…waste your breath on that… Hurry…” Marlin wheezed before passing out in Cecilia’s arms.

She looked all around her. “What do I do now…?”

The path they were about to take was now engulfed in flames.

For now, I’ve gotta think of something.

Cecilia hoisted Marlin onto her back. She was only safe now because of her; she couldn’t leave her behind.

“Ngh!”

Pain shot through her right ankle as she took on Marlin’s weight. When she turned to examine it, she saw that it was swollen and red. She must have twisted it when she’d been thrust away earlier. But it was a light scratch compared to Marlin’s condition.

She touched the Sacred Artifact again. The barrier went up, enveloping Marlin who was slung over her back as well.

“I’ll go to the back of the armory for now…”

She knew doing that would only slow things down. But it was the only way to escape the fire. Gilbert’s Artifact could only reflect physical blows—it could do little in the face of smoke and flame.

Cecilia hobbled to the rear of the armory on her sprained ankle. A small part of her had hoped there might be a window there. But…

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

There was indeed a window. It was inlaid with a square pane of decorative stained glass to let light in. Breaking that glass would turn it into a perfectly serviceable escape route.

“There’s no way…”

But the opening was placed absurdly high on the wall. It was so far up that Cecilia couldn’t have reached it even if she had two of herself.

And with her ankle twisted and Marlin on her back, it was hopelessly out of reach.

“No, no, no…”

Smoke started to permeate the space. Blood trickled down the shoulder that Marlin’s head rested on. If she didn’t receive treatment soon, she might die.

“CECIL!”

Just as she heard that voice, the stained-glass window shattered before her eyes. Then someone plunged down in a natural fall.

“Wha—? Dante?!”

There stood Dante, rope in hand. He wore a determined expression, his usually flippant grin hidden below the surface. Noticing Cecilia, he dashed over. “Are you okay?! I heard our guys had done something stupid and came running!”

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine, but…”

Dante’s gaze moved from Cecilia to the woman slumped over her back. The sight obviously rattled him. To Dante, Marlin was like a mother, father, and older sister all in one. Seeing her bleeding and unconscious had to be unnerving.

After going very still for several seconds, he immediately turned back to Cecilia. “Cecil, we’re going to bust out of here.”

“Okay.”

“So first, leave Marlin.”

“What?”

“I can only carry up one person at a time.”

His words turned her insides to jelly. He looked completely serious, not joking in the slightest.

“Cecil, you can’t climb up the rope with your ankle, can you? I can carry one person but not two.”

“But—”

“Unlike you, Marlin brought this on herself.” He sighed, sadness and regret evident in his gaze. He evidently longed to save Marlin, too.

The flames had almost reached them. If he took Cecil up first, Marlin’s body might be set alight by the time he came back down. Dante had decided to let her die.

“Isn’t Marlin important to you, Dante?”

“People like us don’t get to die peacefully anyway.”

“But still—”

“Hurry! The blaze is coming this way,” he snapped, cutting her off. He pulled her close to him, but Cecilia shook his hand away.

No! I refuse!

“Cecil!” he gasped reproachfully.

She bit her lower lip. Life was precious. That was why Cecilia had begun working away at her scheme ever since she’d learned of her own fate. While it wasn’t as though she’d toiled endlessly, Cecilia had spent twelve years doing everything in her power to avert her demise.

It was all for a chance to live out the rest of her days without a care in the world.

But Cecilia didn’t intend to save her own life at the expense of someone else’s. If she was destined to succumb, then leaving Marlin to die instead meant foisting Cecilia’s fate onto the other woman.

And that was the one thing she absolutely could not do.

And besides…

She could understand why Dante adored Marlin so much. She was his one and only family in the world. If he made the call to let her die, he would bear that weight for the rest of his life.

Cecilia summoned a smile to her face. “Dante, take Marlin up first.”

“But—”

“I have this, so I’ll be all right,” she lied, showing him her Sacred Artifact. “With this one activated, no attacks can harm me. That goes for fire and smoke, too.”

She’d mixed some lies into the truth. Not for nothing, she was a former theater kid; Dante shouldn’t have suspected a thing. “If you get me out of here first, you’ll never be able to save her. But if you rescue her first, then you can save both of us.”

She took his hand. “I’m fine, so please help Marlin first! I’ll use this to keep myself safe while waiting for you to get back.”

“Really?”

“Want to punch me to try it out? But it’s got a pretty nasty recoil, so it might do more than just hurt.”

After some consideration, Dante finally gave a slow nod. “All right. Once I’ve brought Marlin out, I’ll come right back to rescue you.”

“Okay. I’ll be waiting right here.”

Dante transferred Marlin from Cecilia’s back to his. Then he scrambled nimbly up the rope. Cecilia leaned against the wall, watching until they went out of sight.

“I really put on a performance just now…”

She had no regrets. But she was definitely scared.

Would Dante make it back in time? In her estimation, he probably wouldn’t. She couldn’t count on aid arriving from any other avenue, either. Even if someone showed up, they wouldn’t expect her to be trapped in the middle of a blazing armory.

Had she given up? No, but at the moment she couldn’t do a thing.

Upon closing her eyes, she beheld a confusing scene that seemed both familiar and alien.

A movie theater on fire.

In front of her she saw her best friend, the one she’d meant to rescue, collapsed next to the woman her friend had attempted to save.

Her sleeve then caught fire…

“Aaaahhh!” she shrieked, batting at her sleeve in the real world without thinking. That one wasn’t burning yet, of course.

After a moment of bewilderment and confusion, she wrapped her arms around herself to calm down.

“Oh, so I died in a fire…”

The fire had paralyzed her with horror because it had activated memories from her past life, stoking unconscious fear. That was also why she was trembling too much to move right now.

At last, the inferno began to spread inside the armory.

She shook with fear. Her knees stopped obeying her; she could hardly stay upright.

This may very well have been her fate. She was destined to die amid the flames.

Even though Gil and Oscar finally started getting along and everything…

Smoke clogged the air as a harbinger of the blaze to come. She began to feel faint and crumpled to the floor.

“I wanted to live this time…,” she managed to say before losing consciousness.

 

“CECIL!”

“SISTER!”

By the time she heard those voices calling her, only a short amount of time had passed.

She opened her eyes to find an ashen-faced Gilbert peering in at her, the moonlight on his back.

“Gil…?”

“Are you okay?!”

I can see the moon, so that means I’m…outside…?

Sluggishly, she attempted to comprehend the situation.

She wasn’t outside; she was still in the armory. But the wall that had just been there was now somehow rubble. It looked like a sword had sliced apart the wreckage on the ground.

“Gilbert, you carry Cecil! We’re going to force our way out of here!”

She turned to see who’d shouted that. It was Oscar, his Sacred Artifact sword in hand while he faced in another direction.

Helpless, Cecilia let Gilbert pick her up.

“Cecil! Hang in there!” yelled Jade, running up beside them. They would be undetectable thanks to his Sacred Artifact’s conceal abilities.

“Prince Oscar! There’s fewer enemies this way!” a girl called out.

“Got it.”

That exchange told her that Lean was here, too.

“You don’t need to worry about a thing. Just sleep,” Gilbert reassured her with a smile, very close to her.

For some reason, his voice soothed her anxiety so much that she wanted to cry.

Taking him at his word, she closed her eyes. Once she did, she slowly drifted off and lost consciousness but in a completely different context than she had before.

“Cecil, do you have anything to say to me?”

“I’m very sorry for running off on my own…,” Cecilia apologized with her head bowed, propped up on a bed at the Vleugel Academy nurse’s office.

A fearsome smile adorned Gilbert’s features as he stood next to the bed imposingly, arms akimbo.

Dr. Mordred was absent from the office, having gone to the headmaster to discuss the circumstances. The room’s current occupants were Cecilia, Gilbert, Oscar, and an unusually docile-looking Lean.

“Come on—don’t get so upset with him. He’s all right in the end, isn’t he?” piped up Oscar from behind Gilbert, throwing Cecilia a lifeline.

Gilbert whirled to face him. “You’re too soft on him, Your Highness! What Cecil deserves is a serious talking-to!”

“You’re too agitated right now. When we went to go rescue him, you even got so carried away that you called Cecil ‘Sister’…”

“Er, that was…” Gilbert trailed off, his face freezing as he stood petrified. It was unusual for him to mess up that way. He hadn’t once slipped up like that before.

I know that just shows how worried he was about me…, she thought, feeling immensely guilty.

As she sat there with her head hung low, Oscar patted her head. “I suppose Gilbert does have a point, though. You can’t put yourself in danger like that. I was scared to death.”

“I know.”

“You still haven’t arranged for me to meet Cecilia. I can’t have you going off and dying just yet.”

“Excuse me?” snapped Gilbert.

Cecilia smiled at Oscar’s jab, and it made his face soften, too. He reached out to stroke a self-reassuring finger down her cheek, and the warmth of it made her tense up a little. “Oscar?”

“Mmm. You’re definitely alive.”

“O-of course I am!”

“Raaaaaghhh!” Gilbert cried, splitting them apart by force. Then he marched right up to Oscar. “This is exactly what I’m talking about! This is why you’re so shameless even though you’re not trying to be!”

“What are you so wound up about?”

“What is going on inside your head for you to not be able to do it if you’re aware of it but totally capable of it if you’re not?!”

“Uh…I have no idea what you’re saying, but I can tell you’re insulting me.”

They were back at it again. Cecilia lay back on the bed, a pained smile on her lips.

 

When she’d woken up in the nurse’s office earlier, everything was already over.

Gilbert explained what had happened in the interim:

Immediately after the shadowy figures had abducted Cecilia, Gilbert and the others had rushed to go rescue her under the guise of a training exercise for new soldiers. By the time they’d arrived, however, the old castle was already on fire.

Leaving the fleeing Heimat assassins for the soldiers to take care of, the four students went to go save Cecilia but had no idea where she could be. That was when they ran into Dante, carrying a woman on his back. He told them where Cecilia was and what had happened in the armory. Dante himself had revealed his true identity to Oscar at that point.

Cecilia shot her eyes to the floor as it all came back to her. “Oh yeah, Oscar, about Dante…um…”

“Why do you look so concerned?”

“I mean, you know…”

In the game, discovering Dante’s identity makes Oscar really depressed. She was worried because surely this Oscar must have been feeling the same way now, too.

But without taking her feelings into account, he responded bluntly, “I already knew.”

“You what?”

“I knew everything about who Dante was from the beginning. I went along with his act because I already knew.”

“What?!”

“Is something wrong with your brain, Your Highness? He was trying to kill you!” Gilbert burst out, unable to contain himself.

Oscar was nonplussed. “He admitted that he honestly wasn’t up to it.”

Arms folded, he really didn’t seem like he’d been hurt at all.

How did it end up like this…?

The Oscar of the game is the definition of an aloof, solitary prince. He’s calm, cool, and collected at all times but also consistently overbearing. He exudes an aura of hostility and shows no interest in anyone besides the heroine, Lean.

But the real Oscar—while he had his condescending moments—didn’t boss people around at all. In fact, he was downright amicable.

The Oscar of the game would never associate with the likes of barons’ sons at Cecil’s station, but this one made friends with anyone, regardless of their social standing.

Maybe his dating sim counterpart doesn’t care that much about Dante, either, Cecilia thought.

In contrast, this Oscar was interested in the people around him. Perhaps that was why he had noticed something odd about Dante at an early stage and had investigated it on his own.

As she was lost in thought, someone knocked shyly on the door to the nurse’s office. When Cecilia called for them to enter, Jade poked his head in. “Oh, Cecil! You’re awake.”

“Mm-hmm. Sorry for worrying you.”

“Oh no. I was just along for the ride. You should thank the two who did the real work, yeah?” he said. Then he seemed to remember something and looked over at Gilbert and Oscar. “Oh, right. Your Highness and Gil, some higher-ups want to speak to you. Apparently, they want a report on tonight’s training exercise.”

“Got it,” noted Oscar.

“I’ll be right there,” added Gilbert.

They headed for the door and then turned back to look at Cecilia, who was watching them go.

“Please don’t do anything unreasonable.”

“I’ll come back to check on you later.”

“Bye!”

The three men all left parting words in their own particular styles before exiting the room. Now it was just Lean and Cecilia.

Uncharacteristically silent, Lean was curled up in a corner; she must have felt responsible for Cecilia’s kidnapping.

“Lean? You okay? Are you hurt anywhere?” Cecilia asked, and Lean looked up. Her clear eyes bore right into Cecilia.

What is it? Is there something on my—? Oh, crap!

Suddenly recalling that she’d blown her cover in front of Lean, Cecilia broke into a cold sweat. Everyone else had reacted to her the same as usual, so she’d forgotten until just now.

Ugh, what can I do now? Is she going to investigate me now?

If she did, that on its own would be fine. Once everyone discovered her identity, Cecilia would return to her life as a doomed villainess. No, now that she’d deceived everyone on top of everything else, her fate might become even more dire than in the game.

“Uh, um…”

“So Lord Cecil was actually Lady Cecilia…,” she remarked in a dark, foreboding tone.

Cecilia’s entire body went taut as a wire. She gulped, certain that it was all over now. She’d been a fool for believing she could simply prance back to her old life.

“Lord Cecil. You…pff…decei— Pff, ah-ha-ha…”

“Huh? Lean…?” Cecilia started, staring at the other girl, who was acting even more strangely than usual. Lean tilted her head down and started to rock back and forth.

Almost as if she were laughing…

“Ha-ha-ha, I can’t! Hiyono, you’re too good!” Lean cried, bursting out into laughter. She was doubled over, giggling uncontrollably.

“What?! Lean, are you okay? Did something happen when you got kidnapped? Hit your head, perhaps?”

“Nope, I’m completely fine! Thanks to you protecting me, Hiyono.”

“Nuh-uh, don’t say I protected you when I just got caught in the end. That was pathetic.”

“I beg to differ. Back then, Hiyono… You were so cool and brave that it gave me chills!”

“What? Really? You’d go that far to praise… Hmm?” Cecilia trailed off, blinking as she finally hit on what felt off about this.

Wait, huh? Lean just called me Hiyono…

As all the blood drained from her face, she turned over toward Lean only to find her grinning with amusement. Her expression did indeed feel familiar, but not thanks to anyone she’d met in this life. It was something she remembered from her past one.

Cecilia held up a hand. “Um, hold on a second. I’m trying to make sense of things in my mind right now…”

“Hiyono, not in my wildest dreams would I have expected you to transmigrate into Cecilia or that you’d be dressing as a boy! I’m cracking up—it’s hilarious!”

“I said to hold on!” she shouted. But Lean didn’t flinch at all and just kept guffawing. She was certainly in a good mood.

Her friend held up a finger. “Now I have a little quiz for you. Who was I in my past life?”

“You’d have to be Ichika, of course!”

“Ah-ha-ha! Yup, you got it!” Lean giggled, making a peace sign with both hands. That silly part of her hadn’t changed at all.

“Unbelievable…,” Cecilia whispered in a small, terse voice. Across time, space, and multiple universes, she had reunited with her best friend.