Chapter 2: Fate Closes In

In the end, it took a week for my temperature to go back to normal.

Of course, in this world, a week was the typical recovery time for a cold. That meant I’d gotten off with the equivalent of getting sick and being stuck in bed for a bit.

While I was down for the count, Évrard’s position had changed pretty drastically.

Now that many of the soldiers and residents of the branch estates near Salekhard had fled and joined up with us, we were able to gain more and more information regarding Salekhard’s betrayal.

I bore some of the responsibility for the information not getting to us sooner.

During the fight on the hills to drive back the Llewynian army, I had scared off their soldiers with my golem—which robbed us of the chance to take any commander-level prisoners of war, who could have served as useful informants.

Who could have known that crossing swords was so vital to collecting intelligence?

In any case, the trouble in Salekhard boiled down to a succession crisis between two brothers.

The end result was that the younger one had joined forces with Llewyne and imprisoned his older brother. The younger prince had then taken control of the Salekhardian army himself, and he was now in the process of marching on the royal capital with the Llewynians.

In the RPG, Salekhard wasn’t aligned with Évrard or Llewyne. Possibly just because the game developers hadn’t planned that far... but either way, they hadn’t been involved.

During the events of the game, Llewyne had a spellcaster in their ranks; plus, they’d been able to invade Évrard the easy way by simply crossing the border. There had been no need for them to cut a deal with Salekhard.

This time, Évrard was on its guard, so they had to find a different invasion route. That was what led them to solicit Salekhard, I surmised.

When I heard the news, I thought, Great. So one single mid-boss change, and now the enemy’s numbers have multiplied.

Plus, giving up one spellcaster in exchange for another country’s entire army? We had to be playing on hard mode.

Now that circumstances had deviated from those in the RPG, there was nothing to do but rely on the smarts of Reggie and Lord Évrard.

I, on the other hand, was not very bright, so the best I could come up with was praying to Master Horace. If I remembered right, these clay figurines were an object of worship in prehistoric Japan.

“Please! May fist-sized hail rain from above, and a heavy rain flood all the rivers, and... and lightning suddenly strike down the enemy general, scattering the Llewynian and Salekhardian troops!”

“Begging someone else to fix your problems? What, did the fever make you weak? Eeeheehee.” After hearing out my supplication with an unimpressed air, Master Horace finally went for the throat. “If I had to guess, you’re acting like this because something else’s bothering you. Why don’t you think a little harder about what you can do for yourself? Heheheh.”

Master Horace’s attack dealt me some serious mental damage. “The truth hurts,” as they say.

The thing on my mind was the time someone had touched my lips while I was asleep.

But seriously! Now that the dust of the battle has settled and there’s actually time to think about things, who wouldn’t get hung up on that?!

Not to mention that the culprit was Cain—no doubt about it. If it weren’t him, why would he have chosen that moment to reach out and deliberately brush his fingers against my lips?

What I didn’t understand was why he’d do it in the first place.

I wasn’t a total idiot. I knew that normally, you wouldn’t do that to someone you weren’t interested in.

And at the same time, I knew it was possible to come on to someone you didn’t have affection for so long as you had an ulterior motive. I just didn’t think Cain was that type of person.

But still...

“Cain liking me? That’s just silly.”

What was there to like? Ever since we’d first met, I’d acted like an absolute weirdo. What’s more, I kept babbling about a past life like some kind of nutcase. On the list of people to avoid, I should’ve been right up there with the person going “God came to me in a dream!”

Besides, I had been living in Évrard for two years now, and he had never shown an interest in me before. The only thing that had changed was that I’d become a spellcaster... but I couldn’t imagine him cozying up to me for that reason.

Was he just teasing me? At the moment, that was the leading theory.

Unfortunately, no matter how badly I wanted to clear things up, it wasn’t something I could just go and interrogate him about. If I asked him point-blank and he told me he was just messing with me, I might cry from the shock. I’d probably start screaming at him to give me back all the time I wasted worrying over it.

And then there was Reggie.

He’d stared at Cain as though he were searching for answers. I’d sensed a chill in his expression back then.

Maybe he was taking a stern stance... you know, as my guardian.

As for me? The fact that Reggie had seen it happen had me wracked with anxiety. I just had to know what he’d thought about it.

Maybe Cain had wanted to get a word in with Reggie about something or other... but since Reggie didn’t seem willing to listen, he’d used me to egg him on? That seemed like a possibility.

But on the surface, neither Reggie nor Cain was acting any differently. Besides, I didn’t believe Cain would use me like that.

There was no way for me to know the truth, so I decided to pretend it never happened and focus on the war.

Back to the Llewynians!

By the time I had fully recovered and completed my covert burial of the enemies outside the castle, about two weeks had passed since our return.

We’d received word that the baron of the western territory Delphion had accepted Llewynian forces into his domain while the province of Trisphede had fallen. Moreover, some smaller territories bordering Salekhard had also been occupied, establishing a supply route from the neighboring country.

It was already bad enough that the nobility of our own country was cooperating with the enemy; at this rate, the Llewynian army would arrive at the royal capital unhindered. Unfortunately, while the king of Farzia had issued a call to arms to crush the Llewynian army, the man himself was nowhere to be seen.

Even so, the Évrard army couldn’t spring right back into action.

This wasn’t an RPG, so everyone didn’t recover their HP as soon as we left the battlefield. Most cuts would close up in about a day, but fractures, infections, and deep gashes would take more time to heal.

The injured couldn’t come along on military expeditions, so we would only be able to bring along those who had recovered by the time we set out.

Then there was the matter of the reinforcements Reggie had borrowed from the two branch estates. They had returned to their territories for the time being.

Since they had rushed to comply with the request on such short notice, they had only made preparations for a short-term trip. Currently, the plan was for them to meet up with Reggie during his march toward the royal capital at a later date.

However, if we intended to oppose the Llewynian army, whose ranks were growing thanks to the aid of nobles like Lord Patriciél, our forces were still far too small in number.

Therefore, Reggie and Lord Évrard decided that we should send envoys to the nearby territories one by one, asking for their help.

As things stood, there wasn’t much else we could do.

We would wait to hear back from each territory. If the prospects looked good for assembling and organizing enough soldiers, the Évrard army planned to seize control of the territories that had double-crossed us, with Reggie as our emblem.

Everyone was moving forward with preparations for a long expedition—all to defeat Llewyne and keep our country from falling into their clutches.

In the midst of all that, the aftereffects of our changing circumstances caught up to us.

“More news from Cassia.”

Another knight of Évrard, Lyle, briefed Lord Évrard and Reggie.

I was listening in as well, seated on the sofa with Lady Évrard. Reggie and Lord Évrard occupied the sofa across from us.

At the moment, Évrard was receiving a steady flow of knights and soldiers from Llewyne-occupied areas who wished to join under our banner. According to Lord and Lady Évrard, they had heard that we’d successfully driven back the Llewynian army and were about to head to the front to finish the fight.

“As of now, most of them are coming from Cassia. The Llewynians didn’t want to cause a food shortage immediately upon their conquest and invite a grudge, so they’ve avoided razing the fields to the best of their ability... but we’ve still received more farmers applying to our ranks than expected,” Lady Évrard stated.

“Those who most often respond to our calls to arms are those who most strongly perceive Llewyne as an enemy. I’ve heard that in some areas, if the Llewynians resort to violence or engage in pillaging, the townspeople will rise up with hoes and spades,” Reggie responded, reaching for the tea a servant lady had brought for him earlier.

“I suspect we’re seeing fewer people from Sorwen because they perfected their defenses early on,” Lord Évrard suggested.

I nibbled on some baked goods as I listened. I was useless when it came to these in-depth discussions, so the most helpful thing I could do was keep quiet.

After all, I had never learned about the politics or military affairs of this world. I only had up to a middle school education in my previous life, but considering everything I had learned from reading books or watching TV, my knowledge of that world probably served me better.

None of it would help me add to this discussion, though. My best option was to listen carefully and get a better understanding of the situation, sipping tea and eating snacks while I was at it.

“Furthermore, these were addressed to you, Your Grace.” Lyle held out two rolled-up letters tied neatly with ribbons.

“You don’t suppose we could send them back?” Reggie quipped with a wry smile as he took them.

“My, they certainly are making light of the circumstances. Which provinces were so insolent as to send you these, Your Highness?” Lady Évrard looked on with a dour expression. Her anger was apparently directed at the authors of the letters, not Reggie.

“One is from Bertrand, it seems. Honestly, how brazen. No doubt they’re out to take advantage of our situation, pushing their daughter onto me in exchange for sending us more troops.”

“Very perceptive, Your Grace. That is almost exactly what it says, when summarized. This one even included a heartfelt letter from the lady herself.”

Reggie’s response finally clued me in to what the letters were.

They were marriage proposals.

Since one of them included a love letter from the would-be bride, there was a chance it wasn’t just a political move; the nobleman’s daughter might have had real feelings for Reggie.

I mean, I could see why. Reggie was handsome, kind, and the perfect picture of a prince. Though sometimes he was just my incredibly terrifying guardian.

Plus, it guaranteed a successor to the throne, so there had to be many daughters of nobility whose affections were influenced by their parents, urging them to attract Reggie’s attention.

All the talk of Reggie getting married struck me with a realization.

After evading his preordained death during the siege, Reggie had obtained a life beyond that point. If we went on to defeat Llewyne like in the RPG, he would one day ascend the throne.

Once peace reigned, he would no doubt continue to garner respect, and even more girls would have their hearts set on him. Praised as a heroic king, the nobility’s loyalty to him would grow stronger than ever.

If he officially acceded to the throne, he would have to protect our war-torn country by marrying an influential noblewoman... and his life would continue on down that path.

Maybe Cain would continue to serve at Alan’s side. Since he hadn’t lost his parents, would Alan spend his days at the royal palace, aiding his good friend Reggie?

If that happened, what would I do?

Lord and Lady Évrard would let me remain here, for sure.

I may have become a spellcaster, but so long as I didn’t get myself killed, I could live out the rest of my days in peace—just what I’d been dreaming of almost two years ago.

My life wouldn’t be in any danger, and I wouldn’t be forced to marry. With the kind of power I’d gotten my hands on, I could stay single for the rest of my life, if that was what I wanted.

But still...

Once the briefing had come to an end, I left the room and headed for the stables.

Now that I had become a spellcaster, I didn’t have to do an attendant’s work anymore, but I’d been given a new job instead.

Most of my tasks involved construction work. My specialty was earth magic, so what else could I expect?

Today, the plan was to do some nice and easy work building a wall along the border.

As I left the manor, I started up a conversation with Master Horace, who I was carrying around my waist. “Say... there have been instances of spellcasters being employed by the state, right?”

“Well, it’s not unheard of. But in most cases, it’s just a short-term arrangement.”

“How come?”

Master Horace gave a villainous cackle. “No matter how amazing their military exploits are, plenty of people don’t take kindly to those who’ve made a so-called deal with the devil. Spellcasters are people who weren’t born into their rank, whose skill can’t be measured by the sword, who can do something most people aren’t capable of... An unfathomable existence as fearsome as a ghost. In the best-case scenario, they let the king sweet-talk them into staying at the royal palace, then they find themselves branded a pawn of the devil and extinguished. Ohohoho!”

“What? No way!”

Part of me didn’t want to believe that something like that could happen.

On the other hand, I could see it.

In all likelihood, the support of Reggie and the rest of my friends wouldn’t be enough. If I chose to move into the royal palace as an aide, no doubt I would creep out the vast majority of nobles, ladies-in-waiting, and servants.

In that case, I might have been better off taking up permanent residence in Évrard, where I had plenty of sympathizers, and lending the royals a hand whenever the occasional request was made of me.

Imagining that future for myself... was making me feel a little lonely, somehow.

One day, my friends and I would have to go our separate ways. The moment this occurred to me, a deep anxiety took root in my heart.

When I arrived at the stables, I found Cain waiting for me with his horse.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“There’s no need to apologize. I know that plans have a way of changing.”

Since it wasn’t common practice to walk around with a pocket watch, the people in this world were fairly lax about punctuality. It made things much easier on me.

“Then let me find my—”

Lady Évrard had given me permission to ride a certain one of her horses. I was ready to take it for my first ride in a while, but all of a sudden, Cain wrapped an arm around me from the side.

I nearly toppled backward in surprise, but Cain scooped me up off the ground, one arm under my legs to support my weight.

“Whaaa?!”

I was completely thrown for a loop. The last time he’d snatched me up like this was when he’d needed to carry me around in the heat of battle.

Is the enemy here?! I wondered in a panic, but that was a needless worry.

We were just outside the stables of Évrard Castle. Only the large, round eyes of the horses were fixed on us... or maybe not. An older man working at the stables and a servant girl passing by were stealing glances while they turned their heads and pretended not to see!

Here I was, getting carried like a bride while the people around us turned a blind eye. How embarrassing.

“S-S-Sir Cain! P-P-Put me—”

“This way, it’s easier to take action if something happens.”

Cain shot down my protests, forcing me to sit sidesaddle on his horse. Before I could process what was happening, he swung himself onto the horse behind me.

Cain’s horse had worn a two-seater saddle ever since he first started accompanying me. I usually only felt the hard thud of chain mail whenever my head bumped up against his chest, but today I could feel the warmth of his body seeping through his clothes... which made this position all the more awkward.

I came close to blurting out, Boys and girls should really maintain a safe distance!

Still, Cain was helping me out of the kindness of his heart. I was almost ashamed of my indecent thoughts.

When I started to wonder why I was so hyperaware of our proximity today, it stirred up the memories I’d been trying to forget—about how I suspected him of kissing me.

Urk... Don’t even go there, Kiara!

Undeterred by my inner turmoil, our horse trotted onward.

We arrived at the border about thirty minutes later, during which time I managed to calm down a fraction. My heart rate remained normal even as I took Cain’s hand to help me down from the horse. Together, the two of us looked out at the small stone fort built along the border.

The national border ran along a river that wound around a rocky mountain. Though the border wall was fairly long, nature had provided its own fortress in the form of the riverside cliffs, carved out over the course of many long years, so it hadn’t been built very tall.

Past the gate wall, there was a stone bridge that had been built in ancient times. The problem here was that even if we destroyed the bridge, the wide but shallow river could be forded either by foot or by horse.

The wall was still standing strong, and thornbushes grew rampant over the parts of the cliff top where there was no wall, so it wouldn’t be easy to scale. However, if someone burned away the bramble, it wouldn’t be impossible, either.

That was where I came in.

“Okay, time to get building!”

I pumped my right arm enthusiastically, then placed both hands on a nearby boulder.

I’d gotten pretty used to sculpting dirt, but I’d never moved a boulder before. I decided to use this chance to try my hand at it and get some practice in.

Mana dwelled even within rocks. According to Master Horace, mana was infused in all things.

The boulder began to warp and bend to my will. I felt more resistance than I normally did with the dirt; the density of the material seemed to make it less pliable.

Straining my shoulders forward, I finally managed to transform the boulder into a doll-like shape and set it into motion.

Not moving along with it was another part of my training. Perhaps the reason the doll was shuffling along so slowly was because I kept both hands on the ground while I chanted, “Go! Move!”

Once the stone doll reached the edge of the cliffs, I remotely molded it to make it rectangular. It came out a little crooked, but I chose to think of it as a charming quirk.

After repeating the process several times, I slowly got the hang of moving the rock golem—and that was when I was cut off.

“That’s enough for today, Miss Kiara.”

I insisted on going at it a little bit longer, only to end up crumpling on the spot from exhaustion. Cain swiftly stepped in to take me home.

Even with Cain giving me a ride, I was too tired to think about anything, so I didn’t overheat my brain with worries like I had on the way there. Thank goodness.

The soldiers of the border patrol were ecstatic that I’d extended the wall in almost no time at all, so the whole excursion was a resounding success.

We returned to the castle with a sense of accomplishment, greeting the gatekeepers on our way in, though they were busy with identity checks amid the crowds of people coming and going.

After bringing our horse back to the stable, we were heading into the manor when we happened upon a knight of Reggie’s with sandy blond hair, Felix, who had a piece of advice for us.

“Greetings, Lady Kiara, Wentworth. I suggest that you avoid contact with the guests in the manor right now.”

“Avoid them? Why?” I tilted my head to one side, mystified.

Felix gave a wry smile. “We’ve been visited by knights from Trisphede.”

“What a nuisance,” Cain muttered softly.

What’s so terrible about that? I wondered, before Felix explained it to me in a whisper.

“It’s too suspicious.”

“Oh... really?”

I understood that we had to be wary of outsiders, but I wasn’t sure what they’d done to warrant that level of caution.

“Hardly any time has passed since we received news of the fall of Trisphede. All the roads out are being monitored by Llewyne at the moment, so it’s hard to believe they could reach us in such a short amount of time.”

If they were merchants or farmers, it would be more believable, apparently.

It was easy to make sales on the front lines, so it wasn’t uncommon for merchants to trail behind an army. As such, merchants could be found loitering about in any given country, and they were rarely accosted for doing so. Still, they would occasionally come under suspicion and be killed, so it was a risky business.

However, for those easily identified as knights, it wouldn’t be so easy to slip through—and that was Felix’s point.

“The report that Trisphede had been occupied was delivered to us by bird from the nearby province of Sorwen. Assuming the knights managed to flee, they made it here far too quickly.”

Cain and Felix were of the same mind on this.

In that case, it seemed like the easiest solution was to turn them away at the gates, but dismissing them wasn’t an option.

They were knights of a tragic land, supposedly here to overthrow Llewyne after their home was stolen from them. If we turned away anyone remotely suspicious during our recruitment efforts, it could give an unfavorable impression to everyone else who had fled here from occupied territories.

If news passed from one person to another and it eventually gave us a bad reputation among the lords who might otherwise cooperate with Évrard, it would make it a lot harder to gather the soldiers we needed.

Right then, I heard footsteps approaching.

From where we were standing in the entrance hall, we spotted four knights coming down the stairs, so we migrated elsewhere.

Cain pushed me from behind, ushering me deeper into the first-floor corridor.

As a result, I only caught a glimpse of their faces. My first impression was of their hardened expressions.

I went straight back to my room in the castle. After that, I discussed my current proficiency level with Master Horace.

Incidentally, Master Horace told me he had an affinity for wind magic. That checked out; the majority of the monsters he’d herded were wind types.

Apparently, he’d controlled them by making the monsters ingest a contract stone he’d turned into sand, then taking in a small sliver of the same stone himself.

“Contract stones aren’t extracted the same way as your average mineral. Eeeheehee.”

“Do they just spring up somewhere?”

“It’s the same as a gemstone in the sense that you extract it from rock. But they’re always at least the size of a fingertip, so you can dig it out by itself. It’s not like a mineral settled deep in the vein.”

Apparently, it wasn’t just an ordinary stone.

Minerals were formed from materials melted in magma, or by sediment building over top of something very old and compressing it... or something like that. If it was melted, it would turn to slush, and if it was compressed, it wouldn’t maintain a fixed size.

The way that it retained its form made it more like a fossil.

When I spoke my mind, Master Horace seemed delighted, responding, “That’s an interesting thought. Eeeheehee.”

While we were talking, the sun started to set. I headed off to go use the bath.

Once we set out on our expedition, I wouldn’t get many chances to bathe. Thus, I asked to have one drawn for me while I still could, determined to enjoy it for all it was worth.

When we’d been driving back the Llewynians a couple of weeks earlier, the demoralizing no-shower lifestyle I’d been forced to lead nearly crushed my spirit.

It was a girl’s natural desire to want to keep clean. While bathing was still less routine than in my past life, it was custom among the nobility of this world to wipe down one’s body or douse oneself in water before bed, both to stay clean and to stave off illness. That made the experience all the more painful for me.

For the record, Évrard Castle had a fixed bathing area rather than a bathtub that was carried from room to room. A room close to the well had been turned into a bathroom, in which there was a large tub that could be filled with water and then warmed up by adding heated stones.

It was a good thing, too. If someone were to have to bring hot water all the way to my room, I’d feel so guilty I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the bath.

After I came out of the bath feeling refreshed, I ran into Reggie on the way back to my room. In contrast to my ultra-relaxed loungewear, he was dressed sharply in a long coat.

Reggie looked at me with a disapproving frown.

Um, did I do something wrong? Worried that the issue was the way I was wearing my towel around my neck, I slipped it off and held it in my hand instead.

“You shouldn’t walk around with wet hair, Kiara.”

Then he reached out and brushed a hand against my hair. The way my hair moved faintly tickled the nape of my neck.

Uhh... is he worried I’m going to catch a cold?

There weren’t any hair dryers in this world, so the only option was to let my hair slowly air-dry near the fireplace. However, we were about to enter the middle of summer, so I hadn’t thought that was necessary.

But apparently, that wasn’t what Reggie was getting at.

“If possible, I’d like you to wear something over your head when you get out of the bath. Wet hair makes you look more mature than usual, so you shouldn’t let any other men see you like this.”

With that, Reggie bid me good night and took his leave.

I was so taken aback that I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. Including my past life, it was the first time I’d ever been given that kind of advice.

“Other men?!” I blurted aloud.

I shouldn’t let other men see? OTHER men? In other words... he didn’t want anyone else to see? Having someone treat me like any other adult woman threw me so off-balance that the language center of my brain was short-circuiting.

I was still in a daze when I made it back to my room.

Master Horace cackled. “What’s wrong? Did the inside of your head boil, too? Eeeheehee.”

For once, I had no rebuttal.

◇◇◇

No matter the discipline, slacking on one’s training meant growing rusty.

Thus, whenever Cain found a spare moment, he would go join the knights and soldiers sparring in the courtyard. Both the knights of the margrave’s estate and the prince’s royal guard would do the same whenever they had the time, so there were always people crossing swords in the square.

Particularly now, in the midst of a raging war, everyone was intent on improving their skills.

The flow of knights from other provinces made everyone twice as eager. It meant new opponents to fight against, so many saw it as the perfect practice opportunity.

After Cain escorted Kiara home and made his way to the courtyard, a familiar figure raised a hand to greet him.

“Well, if it isn’t Wentworth!”

It was Chester, who likewise served as Alan’s knight-guard. The dirty blond smiled, wrinkling his lightly freckled nose.

“Out protecting our little spellcaster again? Good show.”

“Oh, has the spellcaster’s watchdog been relieved of his duties for the day?”

The prince’s knight, Felix, had arrived ahead of him as well. The sandy-haired man was close in age to Cain. If memory served, he was 22 years old.

“We’ve finished reinforcing the border wall. She should be resting for the remainder of the day.”

“No surprise there. Unlike Maya and Clara, she’s a weak little thing. Plus, she was laid up in bed just the other day.” Chester then added that she seemed no stronger than the average girl, nodding sagely at his own observation.

Cain was tempted to protest that the attendant duo wasn’t a fair standard for comparison.

“You’re a lucky one, though. The rest of us have no one but men to keep us company. Only you get to work alongside a cute girl.”

“Right you are. Though I wouldn’t say he has it easy,” Felix said with a laugh.

Aside from Groul, Felix was the man most often found by Prince Reginald’s side, so he’d had plenty of chances to witness Kiara in action.

Chester, too, began to chuckle in spite of himself, recalling the sight of that “weak little thing” controlling a colossal golem.

If only they’d known about everything else she’d done, they wouldn’t have found it so surprising.

But who could imagine that, rather than lamenting how no one trusted her, she had rushed out into the night to find a spellcaster, determined to prove her claims herself?

At the time, Cain had assumed she’d fled the castle in despair. However, when he’d found her, she hadn’t wanted to return home; she’d wanted to continue her search.

Cain had always found the margravine and her two attendants worthy of respect, but he never expected to meet a woman he admired even more than them.

“So, how are things going?”

“What ‘things,’ exactly?”

“Between you and the spellcaster, of course! You were with her all day today. The two of you have been getting on fairly well, haven’t you?”

“I would certainly hope so. If she didn’t trust me, I wouldn’t be able to do my job.”

“Come now, Wentworth, you know that’s not what I meant! For just once, could you share something more interesting than accounts of your kills? Think of my needs! Tell me, what caught your eye about her? What compelled you to stand by her side? I heard that you’re the one who asked His Lordship for the task.”

As Chester badgered him to spill the details and provide a little entertainment, Cain nearly heaved a sigh.

Of course, he couldn’t tell them about Kiara’s past life. Cain knew full well how ridiculous the story sounded.

He had simply wanted to believe that she wasn’t the cunning sort who would lie and mislead others... and that there was indeed someone out there who could see the future and save lives as a result of it.

“You do seem unusually protective of her.” Even Felix was getting in on it now. “Of course, no one cares for her quite as much as His Highness.”

Cain declined to comment. Unfortunately, it must have been too juicy a topic, because the other men refused to let it go.

“There’s definitely something going on there, right?” Chester muttered, turning his gaze to Felix, who shot back a wry smile.

Felix had witnessed the prince’s overprotective behavior far more often than Chester. That made it all the harder for him to answer that.

“And yet... I don’t understand what His Highness is thinking,” Cain pondered aloud.

“About what?”

“Does he want to protect her, or does he want her to fight by his side?”

Felix’s eyes widened in surprise. “It’s always looked to me like he wants to protect her.”

“Then he ought to deny her the chance to fight. There are plenty of ways he could do that.”

If he didn’t want Kiara out on the battlefield, he should have shot her down more firmly. And yet, the prince would always respect Kiara’s wishes in the end—no matter how strongly he opposed them.

Right down to the burial of enemy soldiers, which he would never perform otherwise.

If she was truly precious to him, he ought to keep her locked away safely. Yet here they were, about to head out on a military expedition, and she was to join them on the battlefield.

All because Kiara herself wished to fight.

That was why Cain had made a show of touching Kiara. He hadn’t expected much... but he’d wanted to see how the prince would react. Would he worry for her safety and shut her away?

However... Prince Reginald had done no such thing.

Felix suddenly asked Cain, “You aren’t going to stop her?”

“If I were thinking about what’s best for her, I would. But having her there could turn the tide of the battle in our favor.”

Kiara had lived an oddly sheltered life. As a daughter of nobility, she had never seen someone killed until the battle a couple of weeks earlier. Considering how badly she was taking it, he wasn’t sure she would be able to endure the battles to come.

Therefore, as cruel as it was, part of him was relieved that she had chosen to fight in the war regardless.

Still, Cain thought, he would just have to protect her enough to make up for it.

◇◇◇

The day of our departure had finally been decided.

At our meeting, Lord Évrard gave us a no-nonsense breakdown of the current situation.

It looked like all the necessary equipment and provisions would be delivered to us in time, and though our numbers only came out to 8,000 due to the casualties from the last battle, we had gathered a sufficient amount of soldiers.

Thus, we would be setting out three days from now. Six days after that, we would arrive at the southwestern province of Limerick, where we would also meet up with Lord Reinstar’s troops. According to our reports, they had about 7,000 men in total, so our forces combined would be 15,000 men strong.

There was a good chance the Farzian defectors had boosted Llewyne’s numbers by providing them with more soldiers, so that was unnerving to hear. However, according to Lord Évrard, our numbers would come out even in most areas.

After all, the Llewynian army was scattered all over the place.

They couldn’t just leave a territory completely defenseless after invading, so they had to leave a certain amount of soldiers behind each time. By now, they’d repeated the process several times over, so even with the extra troops from cooperating provinces, the number of soldiers stationed in each territory wasn’t particularly large.

Plus, there were some provinces that had only helped Llewyne reluctantly, so the overall number of reinforcements wasn’t expected to be too overwhelming.

It all made enough sense to me. With that, the meeting came to an end.

I took Master Horace and headed outside—or at least, that had been my plan.

“Is there a reason I have to watch you train, Reggie?”

On my way out of the room, Reggie had detained me while he stayed behind to go over the supplies with Lord Évrard. Next, he’d made me accompany him to a meeting with his knight-guards, and after that, he’d even dragged me to one of his training sessions to stay in shape.

What’s the point of all this?

“Cain told me he has other business to attend to, so he won’t be able to escort you around today. I thought it would be safer to keep you by my side, particularly since I have Groul and the other knights standing by.”

Cain had other things to do. He couldn’t stick around me all the time.

So this was to protect me? Okay, that part I understood. I assumed he and Cain had taken the opportunity to “conspire” against me while they were discussing the Trisphede knights I’d been warned about the other day.

Thus, I decided to go relax in my room instead, but the moment I declared my intent, I found myself turned back around.

“I’d like to hear a few things from Sir Horace, for my reference.”

If he needed Master Horace, there was no reason I had to come along. Besides, I was getting uncomfortable under the impassive gazes of Reggie’s knights.

I deliberated a bit while Reggie wrapped up some matters with Alan. Once they had finished, I held out my clay figurine for the taking.

“Here, go ahead! He’s all yours!”

“Hey! Who said you could go around loaning me out, kid?” Master Horace protested.

“Sir Horace can’t move on his own, so I’d appreciate it if you could hold him for me as we walk.”

“Oh, he’ll be fine on his own for a day! Look, if you just tie him up here, nobody has to hold him at all!”

Reggie refused to take him off my hands, so I tried to tie Master Horace around his waist.

“That’s not a good idea, Kiara.”

“Sure it is! See, if you attach him to your sword belt, there’s no problem!”

Reggie tried to escape my clutches, but I held him right where he was and began to fasten Master Horace’s strap around him.

Master Horace spoke up from where I’d left him on the ground. “Hey, little disciple? You might want to think twice about being seen in that position. Eeekeekee!”

“What?”

That brought me back to my senses, and I finally noticed the pose I was in.

I was crouched down, gripping the belt around Reggie’s waist with both hands, while Reggie’s hand was on my shoulder.

Oh no... I bet this looks like I’m clinging to Reggie, doesn’t it?

When I glanced to the side, I saw Groul averting his gaze. Some of the younger knights had turned away, while others were covering their mouths with their hands to hold in their laughter.

Alan whispered to me from where he stood nearby, delivering the final blow. “You never think before you act, do you?”

“Oh my gooood, I’m so sorryyyyy!”

I let go of Reggie and crouched down on the floor in shame. All I’d wanted was to pawn my doll off on him! I hadn’t given any thought to how it’d look to everyone else.

I held my head in distress as I tried to devise a way to escape from this embarrassing situation. When someone grabbed me by the arm, I finally looked up again. Reggie was kneeling by my side.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s not a problem for me. If you want to be with me badly enough to cling on like that, I’ll make sure to keep you by my side all day long.”

“EXCUSE me?!”

While I tried to wrap my brain around Reggie’s crazy logic, he pulled me up and absconded with me once again.

We arrived at the antechamber of Reggie’s quarters.

While he was getting changed, I got wrapped up in a Reggie-centric briefing with a young lord-in-waiting and a servant lady standing in as his attendant.

Mabel, who usually looked after Reggie, had been left at the royal capital in case fighting broke out. The brunette lord-in-waiting had also worked for Reggie back at the royal palace, so I didn’t fully understand the logic there. Still, I figured it wasn’t anything worth pointing out.

Once the meeting was over and Reggie had changed into something more conservative, he hauled me along like livestock. It was apparently time for a meeting with the margrave and his wife, and he was trying to bring me along with him.

At that point, I put my foot down.

Not only would Cain be getting back soon, but I assured Reggie that I would stay inside the manor, so he finally backed off.

Nonetheless, I saw from my window that he had placed extra soldiers at the front entrance. The meeting was to be held in the main tower, so I watched Reggie leave as he cut through the courtyard.

◇◇◇

That very same day, merchants were constantly coming and going in their carriages, carting their goods around. They were bringing the last few deliveries before the troops’ departure the day after next.

In one particular carriage, there rode a boy who had been hired just the other day.

He had fled from a town governed by a northern branch family, desperately begged a merchant to give him work, and started a new job as his assistant. Coming off weeks of hard work he was unaccustomed to, he sunk to the ground in exhaustion once he entered the castle grounds.

At that, someone who appeared to be a soldier offered him a drink. No one else witnessed the boy gulp it down without the slightest hint of suspicion.

A few minutes later, off in a corner of the castle, the boy had undergone a transformation.

Flames erupted from his body.

A nearby carriage toppled over as its horse went into a frenzy, and then burst into flame the moment the tottering boy laid a hand on it.

The merchants screamed and ran, and some castle guards came running over in their place.

◇◇◇

I had been gazing out the window, so I noticed the panic right away.

In the scene playing out beyond the glass, a boy had fallen to his knees and then caught fire, twisting and extending his arms in all directions like a snake.

Some people were running away, badly burned. Others were screaming, “It’s a defective spellcaster!”

When I rushed out of the manor, the soldiers standing guard didn’t stop me. They must have thought that if we were dealing with a defective spellcaster, I was the right person for the job.

A little ways from the building, I placed both hands on the ground.

“Kiara!” Master Horace shouted.

I nodded back, then manipulated the soil from a distance.

The mana in the earth rose up, hiding the half-decayed defective spellcaster behind giant walls of dirt, then dug out a hole under his feet.

Considering the state he was in, he didn’t have a life ahead of him. The most merciful thing to do was kill him and minimize the damage. I did what needed to be done, and the flames on the other side of the dirt walls died out.

A wave of relief washed over the castle grounds.

A different sort of bustle overtook the area, with soldiers swiftly moving in to carry away the injured, and the merchants who had been cowering in fear checking on their goods and reporting their casualties.

“Stay back!”

One group of soldiers came within arm’s reach of the dirt wall. I dashed through the courtyard to stop them—and that was when it happened.

“Kiara!”

When I whipped around in response to the shout, I saw an arrow flying straight toward me.

It was a miracle that I even caught sight of it... but there was only a split second left before it would reach its target. With no time to run, all I could do was accept my impending death.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cain running toward me. However, he was too far away; he’d never make it in time.

No sooner did I think that than someone seized me by the arm. Then, as if that alone wasn’t enough to protect me, he held me tightly against his chest, which was clad in a white jacket.

The same instant, I heard a terribly heavy impact.

Next, I heard a groan. I could see the muscles of his neck straining as he clenched his teeth.

He’d been struck.

The instant I realized what had happened, I felt the blood drain from my body.

Between the familiar scent of Reggie, who had always kept me safe in his arms, and the reality of the situation I had most wanted to prevent, my head was spinning.

“Reggie?! Reggie!”

No! Please no!

The siege was over. The Llewynian troops had given up their conquest of Évrard. That scene from my distant memories—in which Reggie was struck by an arrow and crumpled to the ground—was never supposed to play out.

“Reggie, no! This can’t be happening!”

Reggie didn’t answer. Moaning in pain, he slumped against me as though all the strength had left his body. Unable to support his weight, I fell to my knees.

I didn’t know what to do. Take a look at the wound? Find out where he’d been shot? But... what if I learned that it was too late for him?

“No...”

I was too scared to look. My whole body was trembling, and I couldn’t bring myself to lift a finger.

“Your Highness!”

Someone finally rushed over. He tried to pry Reggie away from me, but Reggie refused to let go. Whoever it was gave up on pulling him away, instead turning his efforts toward doing something about the arrow.

“Pardon me, Your Highness!”

I heard the sound of clothes tearing. He was going to examine the wound.

I shrunk in on myself. I was afraid to hear anything about his condition. How would I go on if I heard he was beyond saving? And yet, the hands I would’ve used to cover my ears, along with the rest of my body, were held fixed in Reggie’s embrace.

Right then, as if he sensed my fear, Reggie’s arms tightened around me.

He was still alive. A tiny bit of the tension left my shoulders with the realization.

The words that finally reached my ears weren’t what I expected to hear.

“But why? He was only shot in the shoulder!”

What did he mean, but why? My heart was pounding like I’d run an all-out sprint, and I felt like I could hardly breathe.

“How does it look?” someone asked.

“The arrow isn’t wedged very deep. The archer was at a long distance, so there probably wasn’t enough power in the shot. It didn’t pierce him deeply enough to reach his lungs.”

“Then why isn’t he moving?”

As I listened, the gears in my head finally started to turn again.

The wound isn’t deep. Reggie won’t die?

But why wasn’t he moving?

“Was it poisoned?”

“There’s nothing to do but remove the arrow as quickly as possible. Keep him held in place for us, Miss Kiara.”

When he brought his face close to mine and instructed me on what to do, I finally realized that one half of the conversation had been Cain.

“O-Okay,” I managed to answer, but after crying, my voice sounded small and pathetic. My heart wouldn’t stop thrumming in my ears.

“Bear with us, Your Grace!” someone cried out.

Immediately after, Reggie made a muffled sound in his throat, then his arms went limp.

“Reggie!”

“Your Highness!”

Reggie closed his eyes and lost consciousness, caught between Cain’s arms and mine.

As Reggie’s frame had been blocking my line of sight, I hadn’t noticed until now, but swarms of people had gathered around us. Someone got to work administering first aid, and others brought over a stretcher.

“There’s something coating the tip of the arrow!”

“So it is poison? Someone call for a doctor to draw the poison out!”

“What’s taking the doctor so long?!”

Amid the chaotic shouting, I was pulled away from Reggie, and a few soldiers loaded him onto the stretcher.

That was when it happened.

All of a sudden, I felt winded, almost as if someone had punched me in the stomach.

At the same time, sparks began to fly from Reggie’s shoulder.

“Whoa!”

“Don’t drop him!”

The soldier who was holding up the upper-left corner of Reggie’s stretcher came close to dropping it, which earned him a scolding.

However, the sparks only increased in intensity, and the men lowered the stretcher to the ground in a panic.

Reggie’s shoulder was turning red, as though suffering from a severe burn, and scorch marks were forming on the surrounding clothing.

The only time I’d ever seen anything like it was with a... Wait! Don’t tell me he’s turning into a defective spellcaster?!

“Master Horace! Could he have absorbed part of a contract stone?!”

“They might’ve dipped the arrow in the potion and let it harden on the tip. Once it’s in your body, a small quantity is all it takes; it’s more fatal than poison. The transformation doesn’t start right away, so that must be it.”

“We have to do something!”

“Normally, only someone who’s absorbed the same stone can control its effects inside someone else. That’s why we have the mentor-disciple system. Nobody else can—”

“No way!”

We didn’t have the same stone that had entered Reggie’s system. Still, if he was going through the same thing I had when I became a spellcaster, we had to move quickly—otherwise, Reggie would turn into sand and die.

I gritted my teeth and took a step forward.

“Kiara?! Hey!” Master Horace yelled.

Disregarding his objections, I snatched the arrow out of the hands of a dumbfounded knight and licked the tip.

The iron taste of blood spread across my tongue.

The texture was rough; there must have been some sand left on the tip. I didn’t know what they had used to harden it into a paste, but an unpleasant sensation lingered on my tongue, almost like I’d licked up some bitter cream.

Ignoring the shocked bystanders, I knelt down beside Reggie and reached out to touch him.

“Ouch!”

Sparks flew and pricked at the tips of my fingers.

There was no time to cry, however. Pain seared along my arm, but I paid it no heed as I placed a hand on Reggie’s back.

His head turned to one side, Reggie’s eyes cracked open a sliver.

“Kiara... It’s too dangerous... Kill...”

His voice was so hoarse it was hard to hear what he was saying, but I knew that Reggie had figured out what was happening to him and was begging me to kill him.

My heart had quailed at the pain, but now, it was dyed wholly in anger.

“Not on your life!” I shouted, then began to guide the mana in Reggie’s body, just as I had sought out the mana in the earth.

The little bit of contract sand I’d swallowed scalded my throat, burning and sizzling as it went down.

In exchange, although its presence was as faint as the moon during the daytime, I gradually picked up on the mana that had entered Reggie’s system. It all seemed to be concentrated in one place—most likely near the wound. There, the magic energy was slowly working to alter Reggie’s body, like flames licking their way through a piece of paper.

I tried to suppress the heat. The process felt like tuning an instrument, using a tuning fork and adjusting the tension in the strings.

It took a good bit of time, but eventually, the sparks began to die down.

Still, the magical power of the contract stone inside him remained red-hot, like a glowing ember, and I was struggling to put it out. At this rate, Reggie’s body would be destroyed bit by bit.

What do I do?

“Master Horace... I can’t get the contract stone inside him under control!” I turned to my mentor for help.

Master Horace groaned. “Oh, so licking the arrow was to take in the same substance... You’ve got no hope of controlling it with that tiny amount you took in. All you can do is dig it out of him. I can’t use magic anymore, so there’s nothing I can do to help you here, kid. It’s up to you whether you give up or not.”

“I am not giving up!”

Digging it out of him would mean deepening the wound. Still, it was better than the certain death that awaited him as things stood.

Going by that logic, I gathered up the mana inside him, much like I would when creating my golems.

There was no reaction from the unconscious Reggie.

Before long, the blackened skin near Reggie’s wound began to swell. Although I had stopped the spread as quickly as I could, it had still expanded well past the wound. I was afraid that if I cut it all out of him, Reggie would die from blood loss.

As panicked as I was, now that I’d been controlling it for this long, I noticed that it was getting easier to shift the mana around.

A different approach suddenly occurred to me. I took the knife Reggie had given me out of its sheath and made a cut across the back of my hand.

Allowing the stream of blood to drip onto Reggie’s wound, I tried to push in from there.

Surely my magic was most easily channeled through my own flesh and blood; that was what had inspired me to use my blood as a medium. Just as I’d predicted, my own mana began to permeate Reggie’s body from the wound.

Then, I used my mana to isolate the magic power of the stone—which I’d already managed to suppress to some degree—so it couldn’t spread its influence any further. Next, I strengthened the power of my magic... and it began to blend into the part of Reggie’s body I’d sectioned off.

I could sense the two manas mixing together, like hot coffee and milk.

Perhaps due to the heat of the magic inside him, Reggie’s forehead and nape were beaded in sweat.

It must have been agonizing. Considering Reggie didn’t have the aptitude for magic, it had to be even more painful for him than it had been for me. Still, I desperately hoped that he would hold out until the end.

I kept at it, praying with all my might that it would work.

The tips of my fingers hurt, and at some point my hands had become stained with blood, but after enduring... and enduring...

“I did it!”

I quelled the mana of the contract sand inside Reggie. The moment I sensed that I’d succeeded, I collapsed beside him.

◇◇◇

When Kiara put her mouth to the arrow’s tip, Cain could hardly believe what he was seeing.

The moment she dove right in without a care for the sparks, the corners of her mouth stained red, he should have stopped her.

However, he hesitated over whether that was the right thing to do.

Only Kiara understood magic. Nobody else could tell if she knew what she was doing or if she was rushing ahead blindly.

Cain clenched his hands into fists. He couldn’t let her die, but there was nothing any of them could do to shield her from those sparks. And someone had to save Prince Reginald.

He moved to do what little he was capable of.

“Find the assassin! The arrow came from the western side of the castle gates!”

Cain’s order spurred the stunned soldiers and knights into action.

“Close the gates!”

“Send our lookout the signal!”

Based on its trajectory, the arrow had been shot from the castle walls. Merchants and other townsfolk weren’t allowed up there. The guests staying in the castle shouldn’t have been allowed to pass, either.

They’d been careful. How on earth had someone slipped past their watchful eyes?

While he mulled it over, he noticed a change in Kiara’s demeanor. Based on her conversation with her master, Horace, Prince Reginald was in the process of becoming a defective spellcaster.

Regardless, he couldn’t interfere. The only option was to leave it to her.

He could only watch the sleeves of her dress scorch and her face twist in pain each time more sparks flew. He could only watch her cry “Please don’t die” over and over.

Even her master had told her to either give up or leave things to chance, but Kiara just shook her head and gave it all she had, to the point of cutting her own hand and offering up her blood.

At some point, the sparks orbiting around Prince Reginald had begun to die down. Before long, Kiara collapsed, completely spent.

Cain and the nearby soldiers gulped.

Horace yelled, “Hurry! Get them both to a safe place!”

The soldiers rushed to load Reginald back onto the stretcher. Nothing out of the ordinary happened this time, so they hurried into the manor, relieved.

Cain gathered Kiara up in his arms.

Her eyes were closed, and she was panting as if she had just been running for her life. At first Cain figured she was merely exhausted, but then he noticed that every single one of her fingers was tinged red.

“What are these injuries from, Sir Horace?”

Initially, Cain assumed she had been burned by the sparks flying around the prince.

“Take a good look at the tips of her fingers. This disciple of mine pushed herself too far,” Horace responded, in a tone that surely would’ve been accompanied by a grimace if he were capable of one.

When Cain did as Horace instructed, he saw that the nails of Kiara’s fingers had grown shorter. No, not just that—a bit of the fingertips themselves had been whittled away, compared to how he remembered them.

“She used up so much of her magic that her body started to disintegrate. Grappling with a foreign contract stone should’ve been an unthinkable task. He was in a state where there was nothing left to do but watch him turn to sand, and she forced him out of it. I can’t even imagine how much power that took.”

“Is her life in danger?”

Horace lifted his clay hands as if to say, Beats me.

“She held out for this long, so she probably won’t die. She’s lucky this was the worst of it. I wouldn’t have been surprised if all her fingers had turned to sand and crumbled away. Of course, even if she’d known the risks, we both know that wouldn’t have stopped her.”

Horace looked up at Kiara. Cain sensed a sort of pity in his gaze.

“My disciple here will keep on trying to save everyone she’s grown close to, no matter what it costs her. If you intend to stay on as her bodyguard, you better keep that in mind, boy. There’s always a chance the enemy will use the same trick again.”

Cain nodded in response to Horace’s warning.

They might try the same kind of tactic again. But what could he do to protect her? It wasn’t just Prince Reginald she wanted to keep safe; he and Alan likely fell within the same category.

There was no way she could protect all of them herself—but if she were told to give up, she would never listen. It would probably be easier to go convince everyone else in the world to drop dead.

His head filled with worries, Cain brought Kiara to her room, entrusted her to Lady Évrard’s attendants, and joined the search for the culprit.

Their search yielded questionable results.

The shooter had attempted to take advantage of the chaos and escape, only to be stopped by Alan on account of his suspicious behavior. He was one of the four knights from Trisphede.

Said knight was arrested by Alan.

Another one had remains of the same contract sand used on Prince Reginald on his tongue. He turned a section of the wall into sand, then disintegrated into sand himself.

The other two knights managed to escape from the castle.

If soldiers had been the only ones allowed in or out of the castle that day, things would have turned out differently. But on top of all the merchants coming and going, there was the added chaos of people fleeing in fear, standing around panicking, or crying out in pain. The guards were slow to respond, leaving a hole in the castle’s defenses.

According to the captured knight’s confession, he worked for Lord Credias, who had conquered Trisphede together with Llewyne.

That was when it first became evident that the viscount of Credias had been involved in the occupation of Trisphede. The arrow that had been shot at Kiara, coated in contract sand, was most certainly meant to kill her.

Nobody could heal wounds, not even a spellcaster. Even if she was lucky enough to get away with only a minor injury, there was no one who could negate the effects of the contract stone, so she was sure to die from it. That was why the man had been given that particular arrow to use.

Since Kiara was still out cold, Lord Évrard asked Horace for his thoughts instead.

When the explanation was done, Horace declared sullenly, “The viscount of Credias is a spellcaster.”

“What?”

All three of the Évrards went pale. Horace awkwardly scratched at his hip. The grating sound of pottery rubbing against pottery echoed through the silence.

“Why do you think I came all the way to the margraviate to toil away, feeding a bunch of monsters?”

“Because you were hired for the task, no?” Alan responded.

Horace laughed in mockery of himself. “Mmheehee! ‘Hired’ is certainly a word for it. Right when my guard was down, I was bound by a slave contract. I was forced to swallow a contract stone, you see.”

“Truly? All this time, I’d assumed you were simply blinded by greed.”

Horace took no offense at Alan’s casually cruel remark.

“All I wanted was to live a long life. I didn’t have one whit of interest in getting caught up in this war. He stayed out of sight, so I never managed to get my revenge, since I didn’t know who had set me up... but it had to be him. He knows far too much about sorcery.”

◇◇◇

I slept through an entire day.

When I finally woke up, my body felt sluggish, and my arms were wrapped up in bandages to cover the burns.

For some reason, my fingernails were chipped, and my fingers had taken some damage as well. If I hadn’t been given painkillers, surely I would be in tears from the torturous pain.

Fortunately, this world had fast-acting, highly effective salves. Thanks to that, my wounds had closed up while I was asleep. It looked like my burns would heal within a few days, too.

The wonders of not-so-modern medicine!

The servant lady who was acting as my surrogate caretaker lamented, “How will you get married now?” Later, Maya told me the wound was my badge of honor for saving the prince. It really drove home how different people’s reactions could be.

Master Horace bluntly admonished me for pushing myself too far.

Even so, I didn’t regret putting my all into saving Reggie. He probably knew that’s what I was thinking, because Master Horace just sighed. “What happened to your nails and fingertips is the consequence of overusing your magic.”

“What?”

“In other words, the disintegration of your body stopped one millimer down your fingers.”

He said “disintegration,” so they must have turned into sand.

“Look, I already knew you were attached to that prince of yours. But you best keep this in mind: next time you do something like that, you won’t get off so easy. Be prepared to kiss your whole arm goodbye. Don’t leave whomever you save with a guilty conscience, kid.”

“Alright.”

I took those words to heart.

The thought hadn’t occurred to me when I was fixated on saving Reggie, but if I went overboard with my magic and destroyed my own body as a result of it, Reggie would blame himself most of all.

“Speaking of which, how is Reggie?”

“He’s alive... for now, anyway. But he was hit with the effects of a contract stone, as someone without the aptitude for magic. It took all of his strength to readjust his body. He’s still out cold.”

If he’d had the aptitude, Reggie wouldn’t have suffered so much. Then again, that could’ve led to a different kind of disaster.

He definitely would have decided to become a spellcaster himself. After that, he would use every trick in the book to keep me locked up in Évrard, sitting on my hands until the war was over. That’s exactly what I wished I could do to him, so it was easy to imagine him trying the same move on me.

Reggie didn’t wake until two days later.

I was called in after the doctor was done with his checkup. Lord and Lady Évrard and the royal guard wanted me to examine Reggie from a magical standpoint.

Felix was standing outside the room. He opened the door for me, and inside I saw Groul standing beside the bed. He looked drained; perhaps watching over Reggie was taking a toll on him.

“According to the doctor, he should be fine. I have just one word of advice for you beforehand.”

It was unusual for Groul to go out of his way to speak to me. Was he angry that Reggie had taken the hit?

“Pay no heed to whatever nonsense His Highness may utter.”

“What?”

“His Highness was right to protect you. Removing our military matters from consideration, jumping to a lady’s defense is simply the right thing to do. No one could have accounted for the peculiar phenomenon that followed. Nonetheless, we are truly grateful that you went to such lengths to save His Highness, Lady Kiara.”

Once he’d said his piece, Groul left the room. After I heard the sound of the door shutting behind him, signifying that I had been left alone with Reggie, I gave a curious tilt of my head.

Nonsense? I thought, frowning.

“Don’t let Groul bother you,” said Reggie, lying awake in bed.

Reggie was looking a little haggard, but he was still as handsome as ever. He was probably still feeling fatigued. He didn’t try to sit up; instead, he just looked my way and smiled his usual smile.

“Never mind that. How are you feeling, Kiara?”

“I’m fine. What about you?”

“Hmm. I think I’m alright.”

First, I decided to check on his condition.

I grabbed his left hand, which was lying on top of the covers, and quickly checked that there were no irregularities in the mana in his body.

Yep, everything seems fine.

“Yeah, it looks like it. What a relief.”

Relieved, I tried to pull back my hand, but Reggie grasped onto it, holding me where I was.

“I heard that you crossed a very dangerous bridge in order to keep me alive. If anything like this ever happens again, I don’t want you to save me.”

Reggie stared long and hard at my right hand, the one he was holding. My fingers were still covered in bandages. The wounds had healed, but Maya had bandaged them for me, claiming that I should keep them wrapped up for a full recovery.

Reggie already knew how I’d sustained those injuries.

“You know I can’t do that. I owe you a lot, and besides, you’re everyone’s emblem.”

“I care more about keeping you out of danger.”

Reggie lifted my bandaged hand and gave it a firm squeeze, which tickled my fingers. I reflexively tried to pull my hand back.

“Hey, Reggie...”

However, Reggie wouldn’t let go.

Somehow, I didn’t want to release that warm, fevered hand of his either.

“You ought to understand. You don’t want to see anyone else hurt, do you? Well, I don’t want a life that comes at the cost of yours. Tell me, is it so wrong that I don’t want to lose you?”

“Of course not. It’s just the same for me. I don’t want to lose you.”

I knew that Reggie and I both felt the same way—and that neither of us was willing to give in.

And that’s why Reggie resorted to foul play.

“Can you promise me that you’ll put your own life first?”

Reggie’s words, the gloom in his expression, the way he brought the back of my hand to his cheek—all of it pierced me deeply.

But this time, I wouldn’t let him manipulate me.

“No, I can’t. I won’t let you trick me into doing what you say anymore.”

“I’m not trying to trick you, Kiara.”

“Either way, the answer is no. I don’t think I can keep us safe from everything, but at least let me protect you for the remainder of the war. In the end, I want to see us all smiling together about how everything worked out.”

Reggie heaved a sigh at my firm refusal.

“You do realize there’s no need for me, specifically, to be the emblem, don’t you?”

“I don’t think Alan would be quite as effective at getting the nobles to fall in line, though.”

Alan may have had a claim to the throne, but he was nothing more than the son of a margrave. I had my doubts that they would be quite as willing to answer to him.

In the RPG, where Alan played the role of protagonist, a good amount of time passed between Llewyne’s attack and his departure from Évrard Castle. The time it took for him to win over the people was probably among the reasons why it took him so long to set out.

“That wouldn’t be an issue. We’ve already been guaranteed the support of Limerick and Reinstar. They wouldn’t change their tune now. The other provinces that declared their intent to rally behind us won’t go back on their word, either. All the pieces are already in place. Nobody would back out at the cost of letting Llewyne seize control of the country. Besides,” Reggie went on, “I’m not even part of the story you’re familiar with, am I?”

“What...?”

He’d said “story.”

I hadn’t told Reggie about the RPG. All I’d said was that I had a dream that foretold his and Lord Évrard’s deaths. And yet...

“Wentworth told me. You have memories of living as a different person before you were born. You didn’t have a vague premonition in a dream; you knew that a future following that outline could very well exist. In the future you know, I die, and Alan is the one who leads the fight against Llewyne. Farzia will be just fine without me, won’t it?”

There was nothing I could say. He was exactly right.

But here and now, he was alive. Why would he say something like that?

I wanted to argue back, but I was too overwhelmed. After opening and closing my mouth several times over, what I finally managed to say sounded like a child nervously questioning an adult.

“Are you mad?”

“No, I’m not. Quite the opposite; I’m a bit relieved. It’s like someone finally told me I can stop running.”

His calm and collected expression didn’t change. But something about the peaceful look on his face put me on edge. He seemed so much like someone who had given up on moving forward that I was afraid to respond.

“Ever since I was young, death has always lurked nearby.” And yet, Reggie kept talking. “At first, I felt the instinctive urge to survive. That’s why, even if it was all for show, I pretended to love my father even after he abandoned my mother. I deliberately acted like a silly child with no interest in the throne. I slipped past every danger, pretending I wasn’t afraid of anything. Right when, deep down, I had grown tired of everything and was ready to let it all end... that was when I met you.”

“You mean... when you went to pick up Alan from our boarding school?”

Reggie had disguised himself as a servant and joined the group sent to bring Alan home.

“My melancholy was apparent, I’m sure. The margravine allowed me to travel with the group, hoping it would lift my spirits. Surely she didn’t suspect that I had only gone along to scope out the roads... all so I could run off into the wild.”

“You wanted to run away? But a prince could never pull that off!”

I had practice living like a common servant, but even I knew it would be difficult to make it on my own—which is why I had chosen to work for Alan’s family. Reggie had lived an even more sheltered life than I had; there was no way he could manage that.

“I didn’t put any thought into how to make a living. After all, if I left the royal palace all by myself, someone was bound to come kill me eventually.”

“Suicide, then?” I nearly whispered.

Reggie gave a soft laugh. “I didn’t care, so long as it meant an end to my trials. And so, when I realized you had stowed away on our carriage, it felt like you were doing exactly what I wanted in my stead.”

That was why Reggie had been so kind to me from the start.

In the beginning, while Alan and Cain had sensibly held their suspicious stowaway in contempt, Reggie alone had readily accepted me. Apparently, that was because he’d seen some of himself in me.

“Unlike me, you were powerless, with no options available to you. But even when you learned you’d been drugged, you didn’t cry like an ordinary girl would. You just kept moving forward, all so you could survive. When I met you, I finally noticed how tired I was of struggling to live.”

Thus, Reggie had decided to bail me out. Perhaps if he watched someone else be saved, he too would once again feel the desire to be rescued.

“And now you won’t even let me keep you safe. I’ve spent a lot of time debating what to do about that. Should I keep you locked away? I thought up plenty of ways to clip your wings. I even considered putting them into action a few times.”

It was a terrifying thing to hear, but this wasn’t the first time he’d told me that. So he really DID plan to keep me locked up? I thought that was a joke.

“But you didn’t.”

Even when I became a spellcaster and decided to fight in the war, Reggie hadn’t stood in my way. He was opposed to my desire to fight, but he hadn’t kept me shut up in the castle. He’d let me do whatever I wanted to do.

“Ultimately, you should be the one who determines the course of your own life. You and I are the same—our lives have been influenced by the decisions of others. You ran away because you wanted to make your own choices. I have no desire to rob you of your agency any further.”

But Reggie wasn’t done.

“Likewise, if I don’t want to be saved, that is my own choice to make. You should respect that, Kiara.”

“But...”

I wasn’t even allowed to keep him alive?

I strove to become a spellcaster all so I could save Reggie and Lord Évrard. That was the entire reason I had decided to fight even if I was afraid to kill people. Wrenching that purpose away from me would be like casting me into an inky darkness where I couldn’t even see my own feet.

“I consented to lead the army under the assumption I was needed there. But if it doesn’t matter either way, then prioritizing your safety over mine is far more vital to Évrard’s victory.”

“What do you mean, you aren’t NEEDED?!” Before I could stop myself, I leaned toward Reggie and slammed both hands down on the bed. “Nobody wants you to die, Reggie! How could you say something like that?!”

“Ah, yes. I was sure you and Alan would say something like that. But you need to face reality. Your survival will save the lives of far more of our men than mine.”

Do you want to die at the cost of your allies’ lives? I sensed that question was implicit in his words, and I felt my heart freeze in my chest. Reggie twisted the knife in even further.

“If that’s not enough to make you agree, I have no choice but to use my authority as a prince. I understand that as a spellcaster, you will strive to protect your allies. There is a certain amount I will tolerate. But you are a valuable asset to our army. In a worst-case scenario, I will have my knights prioritize you above all else. I’ve already told Wentworth that you should take precedence, and he agreed to my terms.”

Nobody could defy the prince’s orders. No matter how hard they strove to protect him, if there was a chance I might become a casualty, they would abandon Reggie to come to my defense.

I wasn’t allowed to save Reggie? All because I had become a spellcaster? But if I hadn’t become a spellcaster, there wouldn’t be anything I could do. I wouldn’t have been able to protect the castle.

I hung my head, at a loss.

No matter how hard I thought, I couldn’t come up with a way to overrule Reggie’s declaration. So I was left with no choice.

“Fine.”

The word left a bitter taste on my tongue.

◇◇◇

He rejected me.

The thought was evident in her expression, and it pained Reggie to see it.

He hadn’t wanted to see her upset. If only he could, he always wanted to see her with an innocent smile on her face, frolicking freely like a kitten.

Despite holding the rank of prince, this was the only way he, Reginald Dias Farzia, could keep Kiara safe. Otherwise, she would continue to throw herself into danger in the name of protecting him.

When he heard her body had begun to decompose, Reggie determined that there was no way forward but to flatly deny her what she desired.

He knew it would sadden her. She had grown more attached to him than anyone. But with this, she would finally stop overextending herself to save him. The thought brought him immense relief.

However, he had one other concern.

Not long after developing a fever, Kiara had begun behaving strangely. Reggie knew that whenever he teased her, her face would turn a delightful shade of red... but this was more than just that. She seemed unusually guarded.

He assumed that something must’ve happened to cause those overreactions.

Reggie would have Groul update him on Kiara’s affairs each time he visited Évrard. Other than the chef’s apprentice, there was only one man she was particularly close to.

It was Cain Wentworth, Alan’s knight-guard. He had been by Alan’s side since he was young, born to a family that had served the House of Évrard for generations.

Wentworth had never shown much emotion on his face to begin with, but it was after the battle with Llewyne that he had stopped smiling altogether. Everyone said it was inevitable; after all, Wentworth was still only thirteen when he lost his entire family in the war.

In the past, Wentworth had shown absolutely no interest in Kiara. The age gap was a factor, too. Surely he’d thought her a child the first time they met.

Yet now he always seemed to be watching her.

That by itself could be explained away by the margrave’s orders to act as her guard. Reggie himself had initially assumed as much from Wentworth’s level gaze.

However, after Reggie had escorted the convalescent Kiara back to her room, Wentworth had touched her on the lips while he was standing right there.

In the same moment, Wentworth had turned his gaze toward Reggie. Reggie wondered if that was his way of asking for permission.

He had expected something along these lines to happen sooner or later.

Reggie would acknowledge whatever man Kiara chose. That was his intention, at least; he still prayed that no shady characters would cozy up to her, and he took his fair share of action to prevent that from happening.

In a way, Kiara was Reggie’s one and only.

But now, she had attained the rank of spellcaster. It was more dangerous than ever to allow anyone to get close to her—and now Wentworth was poised to protect Kiara directly. It was difficult for Reggie to fend him off from the sidelines, and he ought to be ordering the man to keep a sharper eye on Kiara, in any case.

What’s more, at some point along the way, Kiara had begun to refer to him by his first name. Every time he heard “Sir Cain” in that gentle voice of hers, Reggie’s breath caught in his throat.

Pushing those thoughts from his mind, Reggie had broached the subject after he and Wentworth left the room.

“I take it you have something you’d like to say to me. Or was that a simple bit of mischief? If so, I can’t say I approve.”

With a look even more inscrutable than Reggie expected, Wentworth stated, “I assure you, it was no such thing.”

“I see. You’re always at her side, so I’m not surprised she’s drawn your interest.”

Reggie cut to the chase. Wentworth’s eyes narrowed.

“I am interested, yes... in her memories in particular.”

“What do you mean, her memories?”

“Evidently, before she was born as the person she is now, she lived a different life. She told me that Llewyne’s invasion was recorded in a story she read in her past life. Miss Kiara referred to the concept as ‘reincarnation.’”

“Reincarnation?”

Reggie had heard the term before. It was the belief that after the body perished, the soul would go on to dwell in another being and walk a new path of life. Wentworth went on, further explaining this “future” of which Kiara had spoken.

In the story she knew, after losing Reggie and the margrave, Alan—the rightful successor to the throne—took control of the army and defeated the queen and her Llewynian troops.

The pieces finally fell into place. Kiara had never seemed to worry much for Alan, even though an invasion of the margraviate should have put him in just as much danger as anyone else.

No wonder she had been so desperate to save Reggie.

When Wentworth was done recounting her memories, he went on, “When I lost my family in the war, I wondered if I could have stopped it, if only I’d known what was to come. Now that I’ve met someone who can do exactly that, who is doing her best to alter the future she foresaw... is it any surprise that I would feel strongly for her?”

Wentworth may have seen Kiara as his ideal. “If only I’d chosen differently” was something everyone had thought at some point in their life. Kiara was the embodiment of that wish. Seeing her succeed at changing the future—and seeing all the work she put in to make that happen—must have made an impact on him.

Reggie understood that, and that was exactly why he called the man into question.

“Then there’s one thing I’d like to ask you, Wentworth.”

“What is it?”

“Kiara will mourn the death of anyone, friend or foe. She’ll continue to bury enemy soldiers... even after we’ve suffered great casualties at their hands, no doubt. Will you be able to keep on protecting her, even as you watch her grieve for the enemy?”

Precisely because she lined up with his ideal, Reggie wanted to know what Wentworth would do when she deviated from it.

Assuming Wentworth’s feelings for her went beyond the call of duty... if he couldn’t answer that question in the affirmative, he would one day have to leave Kiara’s side. Watching her reach out to the enemy would be too much for him to bear.

Had he realized what Reggie was thinking, or did he take it to mean something else? Wentworth didn’t answer right away.

After a lapse of silence, what finally left his mouth was a sincere question.

“I see you don’t approve of her conduct, either. Yet you still allow it. If you think so fondly of her, why don’t you keep her locked away, Your Grace?”

“What do you mean?”

“There are countless ways you could keep her off the battlefield. If you were to simply tie her down, no more harm would come to her. If you aren’t willing to do that, then...”

Reggie finally understood: Wentworth had touched Kiara to spur Reggie into action.

However, Reggie refused to interfere in the way he hoped. In fact, part of him even hoped she might open her heart to Wentworth. Perhaps then she would finally learn to settle down—Reggie’s best-case scenario.

“You’ll keep her off the battlefield for a time because you don’t want to see her hurt. But rather than wielding your authority decisively, in the end, you let her have whatever she wants. What exactly do you want for her?”

“Freedom,” came Reggie’s answer.

He wanted to see her unfettered. Precisely because it was something he could never have, Reggie wished for Kiara’s freedom. That was why, no matter how much he might try to persuade her against it, he was determined to accept whatever it was she chose.

Kiara was a more stubborn person than she likely gave herself credit for. Wentworth wanted her to think the same way he did, but so long as she thought it was necessary, she would stand firm against him.

She would look him straight in the eyes and say, “I already made my decision.”

Kiara had obtained the power to put her ideas into action without anyone’s help. She had become an even more unstoppable force than before.

By now, there was nothing Reggie could do to keep her in check without making her sad.

Deep down, he wanted to bind her to himself. However, after the botched assassination attempt, he realized what a bad idea that was.

Kiara had likewise come to depend on Reggie. He couldn’t afford to become any more special to her than he already was—not if he wanted to keep her safe. That was why he couldn’t go along with Wentworth’s idea to shut her away.

Soon enough, Wentworth would learn it for himself: the only way to protect her was to bring her to tears.

“We’ve both found ourselves in the same mire. I fully intend to sink, but what of you, Wentworth?”

If either one of them bent her to his will in the name of protecting her, she would lose everything that made her Kiara, leaving him with nothing but her remains. A bird deprived of its wings couldn’t be called a bird.

If Wentworth intended to destroy her will, Reggie would tear him away from her.

Even if that wasn’t what she wanted.... he would do it to protect her.