Epilogue

Before Cecilia knew it, almost five months had passed since the start of the Selection Ceremony. August was nearly over, and the sun’s rays were gradually shifting into something milder and gentler.

It’s certainly felt like it’s gone by in a flash, though…

First there was her screwup at the Selection Ceremony because she forgot how to play the tutorial, then the school trip, her big fight with Gilbert, getting abducted, and coming home in one piece only to go through a chaotic summer vacation. Then the Killer appeared, another person who transmigrated popped up, they rounded up Bernard, and here she was at present.

As she thought back over all those past events, Cecilia sighed. While five months was a considerable amount of time, it was still the most action-packed five months of her life to date. In retrospect, so much had happened that it was all a blur.

She’d met so many new people and experienced so many things…

“So what are you going to end up doing? You wanted to make someone else be Holy Maiden, but haven’t they all said no?” Gilbert asked as they walked along together.

“Stop! I’m trying to indulge in escapism right now!” she protested, almost on the verge of tears.

It was the morning after Grace had refused the position of Holy Maiden. Still unable to accept reality, Cecilia was attempting to take her mind off things by reviewing past events.

There was no one else around, since it was still too early for most students to be heading to class.

Gilbert heartlessly cut down his sister from doing her best to pretend the truth didn’t exist. “That’s not going to change the facts. You should adjust your way of thinking already.”

“You make it sound so easy! If I could do that, I wouldn’t be struggling so much!” she cried, burying her face in her hands.

She wished he’d put himself in her shoes. Her last-ditch plan to foist everything off onto the third potential Holy Maiden had evaporated into nothing, so she was out of options.

Since she counted as a prince now, she couldn’t very well return Gilbert’s Sacred Artifact. Lean had zero motivation to do anything, so if nothing changed, Cecilia would end up being named Holy Maiden for real. And if that happened, a bad ending awaited her—a literal dead end.

“But I don’t care about the position! I just wanna live a normal, carefree life!” she wailed. She wanted to live the life Hiyono had wanted for herself, as Cecilia. That was her only wish.

But reality just had to keep getting in the way.

After a tactful pause, Gilbert looked over at her, watching her expression carefully. “You won’t consider becoming Holy Maiden and picking me as your knight?”

“No way. I couldn’t also ruin your life by dragging you into this mess.”

“You could, though.”

“W-well, let’s save that as a last resort. Like, if I really can’t figure anything out and end up getting selected…”

Even as a last resort, Cecilia wasn’t too keen on taking that route. She couldn’t destroy her adorable little brother’s life just because he’d wound up with a failure of a big sister.

“But you’ll do it if we exhaust all our other options?” he pressed.

“It almost sounds like you want me to pick you to be my knight.”

“And what if I do?”

“Awww, come on! This is why Oscar is always saying you’re obsessed with your sister.” She grinned at him, sure he was just joking.

“Sister? I think the lines are blurred there.”

“What does that mean?”

“In terms of how I see you.”

Cecilia frowned. Sometimes Gilbert used these odd turns of phrase that she really couldn’t wrap her head around. The workings of smart peoples’ minds were an enigma.

In a voice too low for her to hear, he murmured, “Interesting. It sounds like she might pick me if she does become Holy Maiden.”

He pasted a faint smile on his lips. Up until now, he’d played along with whatever she said, but now he was ready to revolt for the first time.

Entirely unaware of this Trojan horse, Cecilia pursed her lips. “Hey! Have you forgotten that the moment I become Holy Maiden, I might as well just go tomb shopping? It’s way too dangerous a path for me to go down.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I mean, all I can really do in a situation like this is cut the evil off at the source.”

“What evil?”

“The Obstructions.”

Gilbert frowned. “You could do that?”

“I don’t think it’s a matter of whether I could or couldn’t! It’s about whether I will—”

“Cecil!” shouted someone as they crashed into her from behind. Cecilia almost pitched forward and fell, but Gilbert steadied her.

“Look! Look!” cried Jade, shoving something at her. While Cecilia and Gilbert had been deep in conversation, the morning had worn on, and students on their way to school had started to pop up behind them.

Jade was more excited than she’d ever seen him as he thrust some sort of book in her face. “We did it! It’s ready! Lean’s debut novel!”

Evidently, her BL novel publishing enterprise had successfully gotten off the ground.

While Cecilia honestly didn’t care too much about it, she had to admit to being a little curious as to what was inside, since she’d modeled for the illustrations.

“Thank you for always helping out with material, seriously! Here’s your free copy,” he announced.

“I never intended to assist you with that, though…but thanks,” she replied, accepting the book gratefully. Discounting for the part where she’d forced Cecilia to model for the art, Lean’s stories were really interesting. Yeah, except for that part where she’d forced Cecilia to model…

“You helped out with that foreign dress picture, too, right?” asked Jade.

“What? She used that?”

“Lean said that even though she only saw it for a moment, the sight was burned into her eyes.”

“……”

Cecilia felt a headache coming on. The whole country was going to see her wearing a qipao. It hurt just to consider.

And besides, didn’t she say she planned on using it in her second or third book anyway?

Was this also part of Lean’s revenge plan?

When she rubbed at her eyes, her fingers came away wet. This was too painful for words.

“Morning, Cecil and Gil. Oh, and Jade, too,” drawled Dante.

“All three of you are here early,” Oscar chimed in next.

Gilbert frowned at Dante’s casual, friendly attitude with him. But he didn’t seem to mind as much as his expression would indicate, because when Dante slung an arm around his shoulders, he merely huffed before allowing it.

Oscar caught Cecilia’s eyes, blushed faintly, and coughed.

And what am I gonna do about this situation? I need to get things sorted out…

But while she was aware of that, she really did feel comfortable in Cecil’s friendship with Oscar, so she couldn’t bring herself to say anything that might ruin it. And he hadn’t asked her for an answer or anything, so she had no excuse to drag the topic back up again.

“Hey! I told you to stop doing that when we’re in public!”

“Awww, my little Huey is so shy!”

“That’s not the issue here!”

“Okay, then why don’t we just continue once we’re alone?”

“You’re not listening to me!”

Turning to look back at the sound of two familiar voices, Cecilia saw Lean cuddled up close to Huey. They were holding hands, though Huey shooed his girlfriend’s hand away roughly. Even then, she looked extremely pleased.

She really does put on one hell of a persona.

The Lean who interacted with the rest of them and the Lean who interacted with Huey were like two completely different people. Although really it was just her manner of speaking that changed; her freewheeling personality remained basically intact.

Lean caught Cecilia’s eye and gave her a little wave. When Cecilia waved back, Huey glared at her. Though he didn’t like showing things publicly, he still got jealous over Lean.

“The world is at peace,” Cecilia murmured as she gazed up at the blue sky.

What trials and tribulations awaited her next?

Only the gods knew.