Chapter 1: Fourteen Years Old

Good day, everybody. I, Serephione Granzeus, made it to the age of fourteen!

I met Lou the holy beast when I was three years old, and at that moment, I remembered that I had been a woman of around thirty from Japan in my past life. I also realized that I had been reborn in a world just like a fantasy book I’d read called I Love You, My Wild Rose—Wild Rose for short—and I was in the role of the villainess!

For some reason, in addition to my memories from my past life, I also remembered the life that the Serephione from the book had gone through. Far from being a villainess, the original Serephione had lived a sincere and earnest life in a world that was far more stifling than Japan. But when the heroine, Maribelle, came around, Serephione’s entire beloved family, including her fiancé, turned against her. All that was left for her was a bottomless pit of loneliness and despair...

I decided I definitely didn’t want to become the villainess, so with the help of Lou and my family, in order to not encounter the heroine, I avoided going into the magic academy, I trained hard, and I enrolled in knight school last year. Since then, Lou and I had been completing guild commissions, playing hard, and studying hard. I was going into my second year this spring.

During my break before the new school year, my father, an earl and the Minister of Finance for the Kingdom of Judore, called our family to the Granzeus mansion for a long-awaited get-together. Besides my father and I, there was my brother Larouza, who was strong, kind, righteous, and shared my facial features. He was still a civil servant at the library, but he spent all of his paid time off going around ruins and remote areas all across the world, collecting rare materials and books. There was also Erza Trundle, the master of the renowned Trundle family. She was a doting grandmother to me and Larouza and a passionate servant to Lou.

Following a relaxed meal, we gathered around the fireplace in the lounge. The three adults enjoyed a fine whiskey made in Granzeus territory, and Lou and I munched on cakes made by our master chef Matsuki.

“So, you snuck into the Dysetzu Commonwealth in the north recently to survey the glaciers, right?” I asked my brother.

“Yeah. There was something I was looking for there, plus I wanted to test if I could make ice as cold as the permafrost there with magic. The minus-two-hundred degree barrier is hard to break through.”

“You always do such reckless things...” My grandmother furrowed her brows in concern—but a faint smile played at her lips.

“Well, as a bonus, I dug up a few things from the glaciers and icebergs. Take a look. Should I put the whole mammoth on display in the territory?”

“Good idea. The children will be happy. More than anything, I’m just glad you’re doing well, Larouza,” my father answered with a smile.

He and my brother looked more like brothers than father and son. At twenty years old, my brother was all grown up now. His hair had grown down to his shoulders, and in contrast to my courtly clean-cut father, he sported a five-o’clock shadow. Despite his exhausted appearance, however, his expression softened when he visited home.

Indeed, these two different types of handsome, black-haired, green-eyed men were drinking together. I wished someone would praise me for not swooning and spurting blood from my nose.

My brother took the spoils from his trip to the glaciers (apart from the mammoth) out of his Magic Room, so I looked over them one by one with Lou.

These perfectly round brown balls... Aren’t these dinosaur eggs? If I hatched one, maybe I could start a completely new story in the “dinosaurs come back to life in the modern era” genre? That would totally throw the plot of Wild Rose off the rails!

I pressed one to my heart and silently prayed, Hatch, hatch! I had cheat powers, after all!

“Sere, I hate to burst your bubble, but that’s fossilized elephant poop,” Lou informed me.

“...”

“Father, grandmother, Serephione, can I talk to you about something?” My brother set his glass on the table and put his hands together. “The reason I went to the far north this last time is because I found a document about one of the holy beasts.”

Lou stopped eating his cake and looked up.

“It was a detailed description of one of the holy beasts. I believe it was probably written by a former contractor. The document was detailed enough that I could identify where it lives.”

“Larouza, you went to look for a holy beast? In the north?” my grandmother asked.

The holy beast of the north...according to my past life knowledge, that would be the Black Tortoise.

“It’s true that he tends not to move from one place, but humans aren’t meant to seek out holy beasts. Holy beasts choose humans. Looking for one is disrespectful, Larouza,” said Lou sternly. I nervously interpreted for him.

“I understand why you would scold me. But, as we know from Prince Gillain and Asu, we can’t hide Serephione and Lou from people who are in a contractor or master-servant relationship with a holy beast—and I know she would like to complete her pilgrimage without standing out too much. I wanted to take some kind of countermeasure in case there really was a holy beast there. I can’t deny that I considered taking it as a servant myself since that might keep someone with bad intentions from targeting Serephione with it.”

So that’s been his goal this whole time he was reading secret books, ever since his days in the academy... It was all to protect me and Lou, including the information-gathering and strength training...

Lou calmed down. “You have a point.”

“So, did you see him?” I asked.

“Things didn’t go quite as planned. He wasn’t in the sacred area that I looked in. I’m sure that I had the right place, though. There was a sense of purity in the air, just like our mansion where Lou lives.”

Larouza didn’t see the holy beast... Too bad.

“However...I saw footprints in its territory that looked like someone had been there recently. I believe someone else reached the same area I did within the last year or so.”

“Huh?”

“So, someone beat you to it, Larouza?” my grandmother asked.

My brother nodded, eliciting bloodlust from my grandmother. A chill of dread ran through my body as well.

“Does that mean somebody else found the holy beast of the north recently and took it as their servant?” my father asked.

“It’s a possibility. Prince Gillain is a good example. Please tell me what you think, Lou.”

“Like I said before, he doesn’t move around for the most part,” replied Lou. “If he’s not there...then that must be what happened.”

“To take a holy beast as one’s servant requires at least as much magical power as Serephi, if not more. Who else in this world could have that kind of power?” My father knit his eyebrows.

It could be Maribelle, the heroine of Wild Rose... The Black Tortoise didn’t appear in the original story, but Maribelle had an unusually strong inclination toward holy beasts. Lou and I had distanced ourselves from her after a near miss with her frightening charm ability.

But it could actually be scarier if it weren’t Maribelle. Who could have done that, and why? I couldn’t even begin to imagine. Were they an enemy? Or on my side?

I rested my elbows on my lap and put my hands over my face. As I closed my eyes and tried to push the worst-case scenarios out of my mind, I felt myself suddenly lifted into the air and surrounded by warmth.

“What’s wrong, Serephione? You have me,” my brother reassured me. “Don’t worry. I promise I’ll look after you and Lou as long as I live, okay?”

I lifted my face, and my brother kissed my forehead, then gently rocked me in his lap as if soothing a child. The lapis lazuli necklace at his chest glimmered. His stubble brushed against my cheek. I put my hand up to it as if to make sure it was really there.

This is different from Wild Rose, right?

My brother had never grown facial hair in the book. When he went to the academy then, we had fewer and fewer chances to see each other. On the day I was convicted, he had stood next to Maribelle, and when Cecil was bullying me, he acted as a barrier to keep Maribelle from seeing me in that unsightly state. He cared only for Maribelle, never sparing me so much as a glance...

His eyes were the same emerald green. I had once thought they would grow cold, but right now, they were like a warm, refreshing breeze.

“Is something wrong? You’re staring into my eyes so intently, Serephione.”

“I was just thinking that your eyes are really pretty, like jewels... I’ve always wished I had eyes that match yours and father’s.”

A Serephione without black eyes would hardly be Serephione at all. If I hadn’t been born with black eyes...my life would have been a bit easier.

“I like your eyes,” my brother replied. “People need the darkness of night to rest. Your gentle black eyes are my comfort.”

“Your brother is right, Serephi,” my grandmother agreed. “The Trundle black that you inherited from your mother is a symbol of strength. And strength, my dear, is underpinned by love.”

“The darkness of your eyes holds the stars that light my way and keep me from straying from my path, my beloved Serephi,” my father reassured me.

Lou got onto my shoulder, licked my eyelid, and nuzzled my cheek.

Surrounded by my beloved family and my fluffball, I felt just how warm my home was.