Chapter 1: The Battle of Cassia Castle

Rays of summer sunshine beat down upon the gray stone of Cassia Castle’s walls. The sky beyond the spire was clear and blue, completely detached from the turmoil unfolding below.

As I stared up at it, I was struck with the strange sensation that I was seeing a live-action rendition of an RPG cutscene I’d watched long before I was born.

But this was reality.

I was born into this world with the name Kiara. It took me until I was fourteen to realize it, but one day, I had the epiphany that I was living in a world nearly identical to an RPG I’d played in my past life. That game was called Farzia: Kingdom at War.

The protagonist was the heir to the Margraviate of Évrard, Alan. If his life had proceeded according to the RPG, he would have lost his father in the prologue along with his best friend and my guardian, Prince Reginald of Farzia—also known as Reggie.

In order to change their fates, I’d been fighting as a spellcaster.

That said, I certainly didn’t have the power to lead an entire country. The best I could do was defend Alan’s hometown, Évrard. In the meantime, we were invaded by the kingdom of Llewyne, whose forces were closing in on the royal capital.

Fortunately, forewarned is forearmed, so I’d gotten us off to a more advantageous start than in the game.

And yet... why had he cast me aside, deliberately keeping me away from the front lines?

My mouth drawn in a thin line, I listened alongside Alan and Cain as Lord Reinstar’s uncle, General Edam, recounted everything that had happened thus far—and how Reggie had stormed the castle standing before us.

◇◇◇

Cassia Castle was occupied by the Llewynian viscount Lord Weber. There were about 3,000 soldiers inside.

Edam postulated that the scant numbers were due to Fort Clonfert’s unexpectedly swift fall. The soldiers who abandoned the fort were supposed to join up with the forces here, hence why there were so few men stationed around the castle town; the majority had been assigned to Clonfert.

Unfortunately for them, Farzian forces had arrived at the castle faster than they’d anticipated.

Panicked as he was, Lord Weber still had a chance of holding out through a siege... or he would have, if not for two things. First, the castle was part of the kingdom of Farzia. Second, his opponent wasn’t the straightforward, orthodox Alan; it was Reggie.

By the time Reggie sent out his scouts, he had already set his plan into motion. He had about ten men dress up in Llewynian military uniforms and make a show of escaping back to the castle. Once they had infiltrated the grounds, they spread a message among the residents of the castle town: The forces of Évrard will be here to liberate you shortly. When they arrive, open the gates and fight alongside them.

The downtrodden victims of Llewyne’s sudden invasion jumped at Reggie’s proposal, and when they flung open the gates, Évrard soldiers came flooding through.

Lord Weber scrambled. Word didn’t reach him until after the gates had been broken down. All he could do was fortify the castle’s defenses and call for the heads of the prince and any other nobles of interest. But Reggie, the man of the hour, kept out of sight as he extended his reach into the castle.

The plan had been for Reggie and his knights to infiltrate the castle, take the viscount’s head, and bring the battle to an end as quickly as possible.

Edam had initially objected to the prince himself leading a group into the castle. However, Reggie had already taken measures of his own to put the Llewynians out of commission: the soldiers he’d sent in earlier had poisoned the food provided by the merchants of the castle town. When Edam learned of this, he surrendered his argument.

The attack was to be launched in the afternoon so there would be enough time for the poison to kick in.

The Cassian knight Aubrey directed Reggie to the baron’s emergency escape route. He had learned of the hidden passageway when he was helping the baron’s son, Charles, escape the castle.

Edam didn’t know what had happened to Reggie after he snuck into the castle. He and his men had managed to bring the surrounding area under control, as they were ordered, so they were just about to head in after him.

I wanted to join them, but first, I had to talk Cain into letting me go.

“His Highness ordered us to wait outside. Stay here with Lord Alan,” he insisted.

Alan tried to stop me, too. “Don’t worry. Reggie won’t be taken down so easily—even if there are defective spellcasters in there.”

“But there’s always a chance he could be caught off-guard! What is he supposed to do if he runs into someone who can shoot flames? If I were there, I could protect him!”

A protest died on the tip of my tongue: You don’t need to go so far to protect me! I became a spellcaster so I could fight. If you won’t let me do anything, why am I even here? Of course, I couldn’t say any of that—not when they were just concerned for me.

“I’ll bring you along.” Surprisingly, Edam was the one to cut in. He placed a hand on my shoulder.

Both men (particularly Cain) were thrown for a loop. Edam explained himself in no uncertain terms. “This young lady is a spellcaster. And that aside, I can’t say I approve of treating a young woman like a helpless child.”

“Without her magic, she’s nothing more than an ordinary girl. She can’t cast her magic without proper warning, which means she can’t adequately protect herself.” Cain’s assessment stung.

“This is something she’s chosen for herself,” Edam asserted. “If she’s hurt badly enough to crumple, she’ll accept the responsibility for it. It’s up to her what she takes away from the experience. Regardless, I’ll keep some of my men by her side, and they’ll be sure to make an opening for her to use her magic. Just wait here and have faith.”

Cain hung his head. As a mere knight of Évrard, he couldn’t disobey the general. Alan held a higher rank, but he seemed to have taken Edam’s speech to heart; he gave up on arguing.

Master Horace, who had been quiet for a while now, started to chuckle deviously. “Sometimes you have to let the kids run wild. Making mistakes and learning from disgrace is just another part of life. Besides, you won’t see a girl Kiara’s age changing her mind any time soon!”

“Precisely,” Edam agreed. Perhaps the two old men had more in common than it seemed. Something about Master Horace’s comment didn’t sit well with me, but with that, I was allowed to go after Reggie.

“Thank you, General Edam.”

“You chose to hold the power to sit at our war council, so I figured you ought to have the power to carry out your will; that’s all it was. But as your knight says, I saw for myself in our last fight how vulnerable you are. Keep in mind that people are going to worry about you.” His gentle lecture made him sound like a schoolteacher. I dipped my head in a bow.

Edam and I set off toward the castle. Cain watched me go with an unusually nervous expression. I’d always had someone to act as my personal bodyguard in the past, so perhaps he wanted another knight to accompany me, if nothing else.

Having picked up on that, Gina stepped forward. “My frostfoxes and I will go with you, Kiara. Animals have sharper instincts than humans, after all. Why don’t you take a break, Sir Cain? Let me go earn my pay.”

Gina clapped Cain’s shoulder with a smile, and he stumbled forward, taken by surprise.

“How about you and I have a nice, long chat?” Girsch sidled up to Cain, who went pale and retreated to where Alan was standing. It looked like Cain was fully preoccupied with guarding himself from the mercenary now. Of course, it probably helped that he knew I had other people looking out for me, too.

A little relieved to see that, I pushed onward. Then, I turned to Gina beside me and asked, “By the way, is Girsch attracted to men?”

“Yeah. Unfortunately, it’ll never come to anything. Girsch only falls for men who are into women.” Gina heaved a sigh.

If the target of Girsch’s affections was someone with the same preferences, the two could walk hand in hand. Sadly, the mercenary’s tastes sounded like the equivalent of screaming alone into a barren wasteland. How tragic.

“I guess people can’t change what they like...”

“The first person Girsch ever loved was a married man. Those feelings faded eventually, but the type stuck. The poor thing’s always complaining about it.”

“No one can make themselves fall out of love, no matter how hard they may try. Nor can you force anyone else to change how they feel about you for the very same reason.” Edam cut in with a few words of wisdom.

We all set foot inside the castle together. I could hear the distant clashing of swords. Still, thanks to Reggie’s poisoning tactics, the fighting wasn’t as fierce as it could have been. The sounds of conflict weren’t all that frequent, and things were just about settling down.

A knight of Edam’s, who had joined up with us along the way, told us the current state of affairs.

A few of Lord Weber’s men had caught on to the poison. Consequently, the viscount and a small portion of his soldiers had managed to escape. There weren’t many survivors, however, and the group had fled to the main tower in the face of Reggie’s assault. Reggie had immediately given chase.

We followed him into the main tower.

◇◇◇

The Llewynian soldiers in the main tower had been taken out.

After bounding up the stairs two or three steps at a time, we finally arrived outside a door. From the inside, we heard a voice shout, “Drop your weapons or we’ll kill this girl!”

Edam’s men busted open the door and rushed inside, and I followed behind. Inside were the corpses of over a dozen knights and soldiers along with a pool of blood oozing over the floor. Right in the center of the tiny chamber were Reggie and his accompanying knights.

In the back of the room, there was a girl about my age—mostly likely the baron’s daughter, Flora— with the look of someone who had given up on everything, the life drained from her face and a man grabbing her from behind, holding the blade of his sword to her neck. I had to assume he was Lord Weber.

The pair was flanked by five Llewynian knights.

Flora was wearing a thin, simple dress torn at the chest. There were rope marks around her wrists, which hung limply beside her, as well as around her neck, which was currently held at swordpoint. Her long, brown hair, so similar to Charles’, was a tangled mess.

It had been days upon days since she was captured, and her clothes weren’t dirty; from that, I could guess what had happened to her. Being a girl of the same age, my heart broke for her all the more. I only wished there was something I could do to help her.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t. One wrong move and she would be killed.

Reggie, meanwhile, was callous. “Go right ahead. I don’t intend to throw away my life or the lives of my soldiers for that girl.”

His back was turned to me, so I couldn’t tell what sort of face he was making as he said that. However, his voice had a more cold-hearted edge to it than usual.

Lord Weber clearly hadn’t seen Reggie’s blunt refusal coming. After glancing around the room in dismay, he bit down on his lip as he steeled his resolve. He took something out of his jacket, and the next moment, blades of ice erupted from Flora’s body, putting an end to Lord Weber’s life.

“Lady Flora!” Aubrey sprang forward from behind Reggie, cutting down a Llewynian knight who came swinging his sword in desperation.

One of the remaining knights fell victim to Flora’s icy blades while the other three lost their will to fight and fell to their knees. As the blades of ice snapped off and shattered, Lord Weber’s body peeled away and fell to the ground behind her.

After that, the ice began to spread, encrusting the length of her arm. The slow process of freezing over had to be painful. Flora let out a scream. Aubrey rushed over to her, only for the girl to turn him away.

“No! NO!”

Flora fled to the window behind her. There, she seemed to regain a bit of composure. She turned to Aubrey, who was standing by helplessly, and said, “Aubrey. Look after Charles for me.”

Trails of white ice formed along her cheeks as her tears frosted over. I saw Reggie move his arm, only to hold himself back, clenching his right hand into a fist.

When Flora opened the window with a look of anguish, her frozen arms fell from her body, shattering on the floor and turning to sand.

Finally, she threw herself out the window, almost like she had stumbled and fallen forward. I heard the dull, heavy thud of something hitting the ground.

I had watched the scene unfold from beginning to end, completely paralyzed. Suddenly, someone pulled me into an embrace, covering my eyes in the process. Judging by the sweet, flowery aroma, it was Gina.

“You’re alright. Just calm down, Kiara,” Gina repeated over and over. Why was she so desperate to console me? At first, I didn’t understand. However, Gina’s warmth made me realize just how cold I was, and I came to realize that I was trembling.

As she held me in her arms, Gina moved us elsewhere.

The small room she took me to looked like it might be for guests. There was a bed inside, along with a sofa and some other furnishings. I stared at my surroundings in a daze, and in time, the trembling subsided. The chill, however, stayed with me.

Reynard snuggled up against my leg, but it wasn’t helping me feel any warmer.

Gina said to me, “I didn’t think this would all come as such a shock to you. I wish we’d brought Girsch along. I’m nowhere near as good at comforting people.”

“I mean, sure... I am shocked. But I’m just as upset with myself for failing Miss Flora.”

I’d come along because I thought I could do something to help, but it hadn’t amounted to anything.

What had Reggie been doing? He hadn’t been utterly paralyzed like me. No... he’d been watching Flora closely, gripping his sword so he could bring her down at a moment’s notice. I hadn’t even thought to do that much.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Kiara! Even if you’d managed to save Miss Flora before things escalated, there’s no telling if she would have survived or not. And after what happened, there was nothing left to do but kill her.”

Gina insisted that Flora was a kind, noble person—that she chose to die to keep from hurting anyone else, so we had to praise her for what she had done. Still, I found it difficult to just agree with that.

“Sir Horace?” Disheartened, Gina turned to Master Horace for help.

“That’s just how she is. She’s soft AND stubborn, which makes her extra hard to handle. Heehee!”

“This is no time to be laughing!” Gina protested.

Just then, someone opened the door. Reynard got up from where he was laying at my feet, lowering himself into a defensive posture.

“There you are, Kiara.”

It was Reggie, who was gazing at me with a hopeless smile. Surely he had known things would turn out this way. I hung my head, unable to look him in the eyes.

“Are you one of the mercenaries we hired in Maynard?”

Gina likely identified the prince by his silver hair. She peeled herself away from me and made a show of reverence, falling to one knee. “Yes, Your Grace. I am Gina, a mercenary under the employ of Lord Alan Évrard. These are the frostfoxes under my care.”

“I see. Well, I’ll take over from here. Could you step outside for a moment?”

Reggie swiftly dismissed her. As a hired professional, she had no choice but to do as he said. “Certainly, Your Grace.”

She shot me an uneasy look as she got to her feet.

Reggie approached me, untied Master Horace’s strap, and handed him over to Gina. “Take this, too. You can leave him with Wentworth.”

Gina looked unsure what to do with Master Horace thrust upon her, but he just gleefully chuckled and said, “Heehee! Must be good to be young,” so she assumed there wasn’t an issue. Holding the clay figurine in her arms, she took her frostfoxes and left.

Reggie switched places with Gina, taking a seat next to me. He let out a soft sigh, and I could tell he was tired. After all, he’d been on the move since the morning, working nonstop to infiltrate the baron’s castle.

Now that Reggie was here, I caught a whiff of blood in the room.

“I was hoping to finish things before you showed up.” Reggie tousled my hair, mussing it up a little more than usual, then quickly pulled his hand away. “I asked Wentworth and Alan to buy as much time as they could... but things took a little longer than expected on my end. It was my own fault that you caught up to us.” He peered into my face. “Are you mad that I didn’t tell you?”

“It doesn’t matter. It was your call to make as our leader. I have no choice but to listen. Besides, I already knew that you like to take care of things quietly, when no one else is looking.”

I was angry. I knew I had no right to be when I hadn’t managed to do anything, so I couldn’t blame Reggie. Still, I couldn’t help sulking as I answered his question.

The way Reggie treated my childish behavior completely seriously was as comforting as it was insufferable. “That’s true. I’m bad at telling others what I’m thinking. And I don’t like to be held back, so there are times I don’t feel like entertaining your requests. The same goes for you, doesn’t it?”

I pursed my lips. I was the one who had started it—dismissing Reggie when he tried to stop me and volunteering myself to fight. All the same, I didn’t want to agree with him. If I accepted what he was saying, it meant I would never get what I wanted.

“Don’t sulk, Kiara.”

He took my face in both of his hands and forced me to look at him. His hands were warm, and a tickle spread through my cheeks, my chin, and just under my ears.

Welling up with frustration and another emotion I didn’t quite understand, I nearly broke down into tears.

“I brought you along because you were determined to fight. But I don’t want to send you into battle when I don’t have to. With how unaccustomed you are to war, I’m afraid too much could break you.” Reggie brought his face close to mine and murmured into my ear, asking for my understanding.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I could feel my resolve weakening. It was like he was giving me a push when I was standing right at the edge of a cliff.

“I can handle it. It’s something I decided to do.”

“But the more you endure, the more you’ll change. Nearly all of the things that make you who you are today come from before you were born, don’t they? Your kindness, your optimism, and even your rebellion against me. If all you’d ever known was a tormented childhood, you wouldn’t have turned out that way.”

Reggie was probably right. Even now, I thought of the mother and father from my past life as my only real family, and although I hadn’t believed it was real, I’d essentially built my sense of self around the person I was in my dreams. My moral code was a product of my past life, too.

That’s why I was afraid of killing people. Why I was afraid of fighting. I had to tell myself that I was just seeing the events of an RPG reenacted in real life, or else I couldn’t bear the sight of all the carnage.

“I don’t want you to kill anyone, but I also don’t want to stop you from doing what you’ve decided. I won’t rob you of your freedom. But the least I can do is ensure you don’t stray too far from what your heart is really telling you. If I can’t keep you off the battlefield, I can at least divert your attention from it. I wanted to show you that I can do that for you.”

Reggie slid a hand from my cheek to cover my eyes. I kept them open, but the palm of his hand was so close that I could barely make anything out.

“Reggie...?”

“I do wish I could keep you blindfolded all the time, but I suppose that isn’t feasible. Whether you understand where I’m coming from or not, I’m not going to stop. Some of your stubbornness has rubbed off on me.”

I interpreted that as a warning. Reggie would continue to jump into action without letting me know, like putting a metaphorical blindfold on me. No matter how angry I got, he wasn’t going to change his ways.

“But I’m not going to chan—fwat are you doigg?”

All of a sudden, Reggie pinched my nose. I tried to bat his hand away, to which his blithe response was, “Fine. Then I’ll do this.”

“Mmph?!”

He pinched my mouth shut!

It didn’t hurt, of course. If I made enough of a fuss, Reggie surely would take his hand away, but I was so surprised, all I could do was blink. I lifted my hand to brush his away, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

“Heheh. You must be surprised, by the way your eyelashes are fluttering. It tickles.” Reggie pulled his hands back with a laugh. With the blindfold gone, I could see his smiling face once again.

Weird. Somehow, I feel REALLY annoyed.

I knew the reason: it was because Reggie had changed the subject on me. Yet he was so good at consoling me, I was practically putty in his hands—which just made me want to fight back.

“Reggie, you big jerk!”

“Why am I a jerk? Because I wouldn’t do as you asked?” Reggie questioned, seemingly unoffended. “I’m doing my best to listen to you. That’s why I let you go to Maynard. Plenty of civilians lost their lives there, too; there’s no hierarchy of suffering. But if you came to this castle, you were bound to witness Lady Flora’s final moments. That seemed too risky.”

Evidently, Reggie had predicted that Flora was going to die from the start.

“What’s more, we can’t always fight with you as our final defense; if something were to happen to you, our men might lose their nerve and scatter. It’s true that many lives have been saved thanks to your willingness to fight. But if we don’t learn to handle situations without you, that helplessness will come back to bite us, leading to the deaths of many soldiers. I don’t want our forces to become too dependent on you.” That part was probably his perspective as our prince and commander. His face was devoid of expression.

I held my tongue. Cain had said the same thing to me earlier, and I hadn’t been able to argue with him either.

“This was a necessary measure to ensure that doesn’t happen. It wasn’t only for your sake. Try to understand, Kiara.”

Reggie gave me one last hug, then left the room.

Once I was alone, I ground my teeth together hard.

So what AM I supposed to do for you, Reggie? When are you ever going to let me protect you? What do I have to do to keep from losing the people I love, the ones who are like family to me?

Those were all the things I’d wanted to say. But after I had stood around and trembled uselessly, Reggie had easily talked me down, so I’d missed my chance to say any of it.

By the time we were done dealing with the aftermath of the battle, night had fallen. We’d managed to sweep the entirety of the castle, so we decided to spend the night there. I stayed in the same room from earlier.

I fell asleep right after dinner, but I woke up in the middle of the night, short of breath. I felt like I’d run out of oxygen, frantically gulping for air like someone who had just run a full-out sprint.

Once I’d finally calmed down, it was still dark outside. I closed my eyes again, but this time, I couldn’t get back to sleep. After tossing in bed for a while, I saw dawn finally beginning to break, so I gave up on sleeping altogether.

That said, I wasn’t sure what else to do. Everyone assumed I would pass out if I overused my magic, so I hadn’t been given any regular tasks to complete.

While I was sitting around, I felt the temperature gradually rising. By lunchtime, it would be pretty hot out. However, I figured that if I basked in the morning sunlight before the heat got too oppressive, all my gloomy feelings would evaporate, and the heat would return my mind to a blank slate.

If I was going to go outside, now was the time. And if I could, I wanted to walk around by myself.

I changed clothes and left the room. Master Horace must have noticed, since he never needed to sleep, but he didn’t say anything as he watched me go.

“Lady Spellcaster?” muttered a pair of soldiers who had been standing guard during the night shift. They rubbed their eyes sleepily as I passed them in the vast castle corridor.

“Good morning!” I offered a nonchalant greeting as I cut past.

The two men watched me go in a daze, then exchanged a few remarks of surprise.

“I’m so tired I must be seeing things... Can’t wait to get to sleep.”

“No, that had to be her. There’s only one girl her age staying in the castle.”

“I’ve never seen her without an escort before. Will she be alright on her own?”

“She’ll be fine, I’m sure. She is the spellcaster.”

It must have been strange to see me walking around so early in the morning.

After that, I only ran into about ten other soldiers—most likely thanks to the time of day. The ones who recognized me seemed to wonder why I was walking around by myself, but they naturally assumed I was on some sort of spellcaster mission, so they watched me go without comment.

◇◇◇

Outside, the town was surprisingly crowded.

Near the castle, rations were already being doled out. Townspeople who had been robbed of their food by the occupying Llewynians, as well as some of the soldiers on the expedition, stood in line to be fed.

I was hungry, so I got in line behind the rest of the townspeople.

No one realized that I was the spellcaster. At first, I wondered why, but then I remembered that I had yet to fight in this town. The citizens had never seen my magic in action.

The townswoman giving out rations handed me a soup made of beans, potatoes, sun-dried tomatoes, and a little bit of pork. There weren’t many ingredients in it, and it was a bit bland, but there was something nostalgic about the meager meal. It reminded me of how I’d always eaten as a child.

Then I recalled the rich, meaty soups I’d enjoyed at the House of Patriciél, and the soups full of carrots and other vegetables I’d often eaten at Évrard.

After living in this world for so long, I realized just how fortunate my past life had been. All I had to do was go to the supermarket to buy all the meat and vegetables I wanted. The stews I ate were always full of big chunks of chicken, pork, or some other meat. Dad really liked beef stew, so Mom would indulge him every now and then. But in this world, not even the nobility could have their favorite food whenever they craved it.

“This takes me back...”

I was struck with a longing to go back to my past-life home.

When I was finished eating, I still didn’t feel like going back to the castle, so I wandered aimlessly around town.

Perhaps because they were so overjoyed to be free, or perhaps because they were too focused on getting back their regular lives, I didn’t witness any scuffles throughout the town. Everyone was walking around with bright smiles on their faces.

Plus, it probably helped that Farzian soldiers were patrolling the city to make sure there weren’t any Llewynians in hiding.

Tired of walking along the cobblestone streets, I sat down on top of a wooden box I’d spotted next to an unfamiliar house. In the center of the small square, there was a single, large tree with a well beside it.

I’d stumbled upon the public well, apparently.

The moment I sat down, I lost the desire to get back up. No, I lost the desire to go back to the castle altogether.

As I sat there zoning out, more and more people began to come and go from the square.

A gray-haired gentleman passed by, pulling along a small, covered cart. Another man walking by called out in delight, “What’s this I see? Are you reopening your stall?”

“Indeed I am! Just for the day, though. I’ve got some mead I kept hidden from the Llewynians.”

Evidently, the merchant hadn’t been able to do any business while the Llewynians had been around. Thrilled to see one of their favorite shops reopen, several people flocked over to the cart in no time, where they began to drink and make merry.

“Here’s to Prince Reginald!”

“And here’s to the margrave of Évrard! Didn’t Limerick and Reinstar have a hand in it, too?”

“What’s it matter? Here’s to Farzia!”

Their cheers sent ripples through the increasingly humid air. I was a little happy to hear it but equally frustrated with myself for failing to contribute.

I was about to grit my teeth when I heard someone say, “Wait, is that the spellcaster?”

It was the first time anyone had called me that since I’d headed out on the town. I lifted my head, wondering who it was, and the person I saw was a tall young man with reddish hair, his eyes wide.

He’d probably blurted it out without thinking. He immediately put a hand over his mouth, glanced from side to side, then looked back at me.

He looked older than Cain. For whatever reason, there was a tinge of dismay in his gray eyes. He was in good shape—someone I could definitely imagine swinging around a sword.

That said, he wasn’t wearing the blue cape of a Farzian soldier, so he couldn’t have been a member of our army. And if he were just a Cassian citizen, he wouldn’t have recognized me. That left only one possibility.

“Are you one of the merchants who followed us here?”

Whenever an army went on the march, it meant a large gathering of people. From a merchant’s perspective, it was like a huge group of customers moving in a pack, so they would often follow along while dragging their carts, ready and waiting to sell their goods at the drop of a hat.

That brought them right up close to the battlefront. Thus, many merchants would learn a certain level of swordsmanship in case they got caught up in the fighting, while others hired bodyguards.

“Err, well... Something like that. But hold on, are you really... that spellcaster?” he asked in hushed tones, creeping closer. Yeah, he definitely looked distressed.

He must have seen my face somewhere before. However, since I was sitting in the middle of the town all by myself, maybe he thought his eyes were deceiving him.

I wasn’t sure how I ought to respond, but I decided to go ahead and be honest with him. Even if he was the sort to do something unsavory with the knowledge, he was bound to be wary of me. There was no telling how I might strike back, after all.

“Yes, I am,” I answered with a nod. The man was flabbergasted.

“Wow. There’s always someone better,” I heard him mutter to himself, but I had no idea whom he was comparing me to. Once he’d pulled himself together, he sat down next to me on the box and asked softly, “Are you sure it’s okay for a rare gem like you to be out here all alone?”

I scooted away from him automatically.

Apparently I’d hurt his feelings because his expression grew even more stunned as he stared at the gap between us. Maybe it was his first time getting snubbed by a girl. He looked at the open space, then back at me, and went, “Huh?”

I paid him no mind as I responded, “The Llewynians are gone, so it should be fine. There are plenty of people around, and if I scream, I’m sure one of the soldiers on patrol will come running. Besides, if anything does happen, I can take care of it myself. I’m pretty strong.”

“You have a point there. But I hope you’re not opposed to conversation, at least.”

“I don’t mind talking. I’m just not comfortable sitting so close to a man I’ve only just met.”

“Blunt, aren’t you? I like that.” Snapping himself out of his funk, the young man chuckled.

“And for the record, sir, no matter how much you cozy up to me, I can’t buy any supplies from you. I don’t have the authority.”

Everyone around me paid attention to what I needed and provided me with all the essentials. Thus, while I carried money around in case of an emergency, I’d never had to use it.

“In that case, will you satisfy the curiosity of this humble merchant? Also, I may be older than you, but I don’t need to hear any ‘sirs.’ Far too stiff for my liking. You can call me Isaac.”

His grinning face was as radiant as the sun. The more I talked to him, the more this bright, sociable merchant—Isaac—didn’t seem like such a bad person, and he had yet to try anything worse than sitting next to me. I concluded he wasn’t anyone dangerous, so I nodded.

“Why are you out here all by yourself? Do you have a bodyguard or two lurking around somewhere?” he asked, and I shook my head. “What... Really? I’m not one to talk, but should you really be doing that?”

“I had to. I felt like I was suffocating.”

Today, it had been especially hard to breathe. I just wanted to be alone, so even though I knew I should’ve brought along an escort to keep everyone from worrying, I had purposely avoided it.

“I know how you feel, but still...”

“You do?”

He looked like someone who could hold a sword and defend himself. Had he lived the sort of life where he needed to be guarded? I gave him a sideways glance as I started to wonder, but for whatever reason, Isaac panicked and rushed to explain himself. “It was a long time ago! I was the son of a wealthy family, so growing up, my parents would insist I took an escort wherever I went. Uh, anyway, try this! Here!”

Isaac took a small can of dried fruit out of his pocket. It was sprinkled with sugar to make it last longer.

“Are you sure I can have this?”

“Of course. Why else would I offer it? What, are you afraid I’m up to no good? It’s still perfectly safe to eat. See, watch this.”

He made a show of eating it himself, so it was hard to refuse. I picked up a piece and put it in my mouth.

It’s so sweet!

The sweet taste traveled through the inside of my cheeks, down my throat, and all the way up to my brain.

It had been ages since I’d eaten anything sugary. Was the last time when I’d had cake at Limerick Castle? But that was an unfamiliar place... Plus, we’d been in the middle of a meeting, so I didn’t remember the taste very well.

As I thought that, I felt my eyes start to water. The tears spilled out and began to slide down my cheeks.

“Wait, what’s this now?! Why are you crying?! Stop that!”

“It’s just so sweet...”

“What, too sweet for your tastes?! You don’t like it? Do you want some water?”

“No, it’s great.”

It was sweet and delicious... so much so that the dam of my heart broke, all my pent-up emotions leaking out.

“So great you started crying? You’re something else. Hm, I thought you looked ready to cry earlier.”

“Was I making that kind of face?”

When I lifted my head in surprise, I saw Isaac smiling back with the same conflicted expression as before. “I know how to keep a secret, so if there’s something on your mind, you can come out and say it. I don’t mind listening. Speaking of which, shouldn’t you have someone else you can go crying to? As the spellcaster, I’m sure you’re well taken care of.”

I gasped. Maybe that was it. The reason I’d felt so stifled was because I couldn’t talk to anyone about all the feelings bottled up inside of me. No matter how badly I wanted to complain, I knew we’d just end up going around in circles.

Not that Reggie was the one in the wrong, of course. I didn’t blame Cain either. I knew they were both just trying to look out for me.

When I lapsed into silence, Isaac let out a sigh. “There’s someone you can talk to, but there’s a reason you can’t talk to them about it—is that it?”

I hadn’t said anything, but Isaac had managed to read between the lines.

“Uh-huh. They’re too overprotective.”

Once again, the words came spilling out before I could stop them. Even I could tell why I was saying these things to a total stranger: I wanted to talk to someone about it. Everyone close to me in the castle seemed likely to take Reggie’s side, so I was afraid to ask their opinion.

“If someone’s getting protective of a spellcaster, I’m imagining... hmm. Any time you aren’t using your magic, they insist, ‘We’ll protect you!’ and won’t let you do as you like. Or they go, ‘You can’t go there, it’s too dangerous!’ and follow you around all day long.”

“Yeah, you’ve got the right idea.”

“You are a woman, you know. Why not be a good girl and let them protect you?” Isaac responded, like I was making a mountain out of a molehill.

“So WHAT? Just because I’m weak, I shouldn’t be allowed to do anything? You men sure seem to enjoy taking care of things all by yourselves!” I snapped back in spite of myself.

Isaac looked amused. “If that’s how you feel, don’t give them a chance to tell you no. You just told me you were strong.”

“I am strong... but I can’t wield a sword, and if you take my magic away from me, I can’t do anything. I have to rely on the people around me for everything else, so I can’t just brush them off.”

“Don’t overcomplicate the issue, then. Just let them take care of it. Doesn’t that make things easier on you?”

“Other people are out there getting their hands dirty for me, and I’m supposed to just mindlessly welcome them back with a smile?!”

My anger was starting to boil over. Isaac seemed taken aback.

“Erm, well, if you’re going to get angry about it, you might as well force them to acknowledge your strength. Why do you think your companions refuse to rely on you?”

I knew the reason. “Because... I’m afraid of killing people.”

For a few moments, Isaac just stared at me blankly. He was probably dumbfounded.

A spellcaster who feared killing people fighting in a war was probably the silliest thing he’d ever heard. I bet he was getting a little worried about following an army with a spellcaster like that in it.

It struck me how odd my perspective was, and I hung my head.

Bemused, Isaac asked, “Ah, but you’re fighting in spite of that, right? You aren’t being pressured into it?” I nodded, and Isaac heaved a sigh of relief. “So in short, you want to protect what’s precious to you. But the people around you don’t want you doing anything too dangerous?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Mm, I see. They are overprotective.”

Isaac nodded, like everything made sense to him now. I felt deeply relieved to have someone agree with me. Then, he offered the blunt suggestion, “Well, you just need to go hand your enemy a sound defeat.”

“Huh?”

When I lifted my head and looked up, I saw a belligerent smile on Isaac’s face. “If you show them you’re strong enough to forgo their approval, they’ll have to stop sheltering you. So long as you can keep yourself perfectly safe, they won’t have anything to complain about. That’s your solution. Rack your brains and figure something out.”

Oh, so that’s it, I thought.

I’d defeated plenty of enemies, but I’d always done it under Cain’s protection. I’d assumed I couldn’t manage it on my own and turned to him for help, and as a result, I’d given everyone the impression that it was too dangerous to leave me by myself.

Isaac looked relieved to get that off his chest, but a few seconds later, distress suddenly washed over him. “Auuughhh! Why am I telling YOU this?!”

He held his head in his hands, seeming to have some regrets. I tilted my head to one side, puzzled. Did he think it was inappropriate for a merchant to give his input on military matters?

At first, I had just taken him for a weirdo, but he’d helped me out a lot by listening, so I felt kind of bad for him.

“Sorry for troubling you with all this. You offered to listen, so I couldn’t help babbling.”

“Hmph. Who could ignore a woman on the verge of tears?”

“So you only did it because I’m a girl?”

“Obviously. If it were some scoundrel bawling his eyes out, I’d tell him to go cry to his mother and be done with it.”

“I don’t have any family, you know... There’s no telling if this hypothetical man would have anyone to go home to either.”

“Wait, you’re an orphan?! Don’t make me cry, you idiot!”

As he made a dramatic show of wiping away his “tears,” Isaac tousled my hair in sympathy. He was a little rough, but it didn’t hurt. Maybe he had practice patting the heads of younger children like that.

I let him do as he liked, and eventually, he pulled back his hand with another troubled look. Perhaps he’d just done it on instinct; he looked at his own hand, then at me, and let out a sigh.

“I’ve been called soft myself, but I can understand why people would be worried about you. You were wary of me at first, but once we started talking, don’t you think you let your guard down a little too quickly?”

“I know... I won’t claim to have the best judgment.”

“Hey, that’s where you were supposed to say that I seemed like a good person! You wound me.”

Apparently, he’d been fishing for compliments. This was my first time seeing an older man sulk because I hadn’t flattered him. I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Still, hearing you tell it like it is made me feel a lot better.”

Reggie and the others were noblemen, so they always had a certain air of sophistication about them. Even Alan, who was the most candid with me, would back off whenever he started to feel like he was picking on me.

“Something about it feels really familiar. I feel like I could keep talking to you forever.”

Somehow, talking to Isaac reminded me of being at school in my past life. Of course, given how much older he was, I ought to have likened him to a teacher or faculty member. But it felt more like talking to a boy in my class or maybe getting advice from someone a few grades above me.

When I looked back at Isaac, he’d clamped a hand over his mouth and averted his gaze.

“What’s wrong? Did I say something weird?”

“You dummy. You can’t just go around saying things like that. Even worse if you’re saying it to a man. Ugh, you’re so goddamn cute!”

“Cute?!” The sudden compliment sent me into a tizzy.

“‘I could keep talking to you forever’? Now that’s a come-on if I ever heard one. And you can’t say it with tears in your eyes! That’s just unfair!”

“Wh-What?! I wasn’t trying to flirt with you! I really meant it, though!”

“You’re seriously going to follow that up with ‘I really meant it’?! What’s wrong with you?!” Isaac berated me in hushed tones—perhaps because he didn’t want anyone else around to hear.

His face was a little red; he was definitely embarrassed. Maybe he wasn’t used to being complimented.

“It’s just, well, since I was the one saying it, I figured you’d see it like a child getting attached to you. If a little kid said they wanted to talk to you more, there’s no adult out there who would think that was a come-on, right?” After panicking a little, I told him exactly what I thought.

Isaac suddenly brought his face close to mine. “Listen here, Lady Spellcaster. I don’t know how old you are, but you must be over sixteen. For someone well past her childhood years, you’re far too defenseless. Then again, you do have a bit of a baby face.”

“You’re not wrong... but I’m not all that pretty, in any case.”

“You’re plenty cute.” Isaac said it with a completely straight face, so I just stared back at him, forgetting to breathe for a moment. “Why does that surprise you? Are you surrounded by oblivious curs who never think to pay you a compliment?”

“That’s not—”

Just as I was about to say “true,” someone called out to me. “Kiara!”

Startled, I looked around. From the other side of the square, Gina came running over with her frostfoxes in tow, putting an end to what must have been a long search for me. Isaac looked over in the same direction as me, then gulped loudly.

“Why is she—whoa there!”

Did he know Gina from somewhere? Isaac probably wasn’t in her line of sight; when he bolted upright in surprise and took a few steps back, Gina rushed up in his place and hugged me.

“Eep!”

“Goodness, you can’t go off on your own like that! I was so worried about you!” The way Gina was rubbing her head against my shoulder reminded me of a large dog. That must have lit a competitive spark in her frostfoxes, because they started snuggling up to me too.

I didn’t mind the roughhousing. It was fun... but I was also getting a little hot. Right when I thought the combination of fur and body heat was going to kill me, I saw Isaac wave at me from a distance and wander off.

“See you around!”

Perhaps he didn’t want to be accosted by the spellcaster’s bodyguards; he sure had made a swift exit.

“Huh? Was someone just here?”

Gina noticed me looking elsewhere, so she peeled herself away from me and followed my gaze.

“Gina?”

She went completely stiff as she watched Isaac go.

◇◇◇

“Just what do you think you’re doing?! I didn’t realize you were THAT much of a fool!”

The moment Isaac stepped into the alleyway, he was showered with abuse by the boy who had been waiting to ambush him.

“Wow. Aren’t you a little too outspoken toward your king?”

“You deserve every word of it! Why would you make contact with the enemy’s spellcaster?!” Isaac’s lord-in-waiting, Mikhail, berated him with his hands on his hips, dressed like a regular townsperson.

Isaac scratched at the back of his head and responded, “I don’t know. She was all alone, so I thought I could bring her over to our side and abscond with her.”

That had been his original plan.

She had been sitting all by herself, ready to cry. It had been easy to guess that her relationships weren’t going well or that she’d run away after some sort of blunder. Thus, he’d planned on saying just the right thing and tricking her into coming with him. It was a crowded area, so he couldn’t just throw her over his shoulder and run, but he’d figured he could lure her away with some sweet-talk.

“And how did that turn into you lighting a fire under her? There were too many people around, so I couldn’t catch the entire conversation, but it seemed like the perfect chance to eliminate her without a fight.”

“That’s the thing. I’m not really sure.”

“WHAT?!” Mikhail’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. Nonetheless, Isaac didn’t have a better explanation to give him.

If she had just been crying, it wouldn’t have been anything new. There was no way he could fight a war without seeing his fair share of women in tears. Was the problem that he’d given her the sugar candy? She’d cried because it was sweet... But no, that probably wasn’t it.

Either way, something had thrown him off his game.

However, he was tired of Mikhail’s nagging, so he declared, “Relax, it’s not an issue. I like my enemies strong! Come, today should be a good chance for us to make our escape. Let’s go!”

And with that, Isaac successfully swept his failed kidnapping attempt under the rug.

◇◇◇

Hello, Kiara here. You know, the girl who had run away from home twice over the course of her two lifetimes.

I’d bolted out of my room on impulse and planned to stay away for a while, so that probably counted as running away.

The issue here was the specs of this particular runaway girl (me). As a spellcaster, I was essentially walking around carrying a rocket launcher at all times. Anyone who knew that wouldn’t try anything funny, but given how delicate I was, I could instantly collapse under its weight. If a malevolent person stumbled upon me when that happened, they might abscond with me, weapon and all.

That was what Cain’s lecture boiled down to.

Obviously, Cain had never heard of the weapons from my past life. I may have taken a few liberties in paraphrasing.

Alan stayed quiet through the whole tirade, but he didn’t hold Cain back. He was wearing a stern look on his face, like a mother who might say, Go get a good scolding from your father!

Still, I was determined not to back down. “I know it was wrong to go out without telling anyone, but I was just fine on my own. Why would I need to use magic strong enough to incapacitate me out in the middle of the town?”

“What if someone knocked you out before you could use your magic?”

“No one’s going to come kill me out of nowhere. Every faction out there would love to get their hands on a spellcaster.”

“And if you couldn’t get away?”

“I’d manage. Most castles are made of stone. If they threw me in a prison cell, I’d be out of there in no time.”

I could make my own escape route. Cain must have imagined the same thing, given his grimace.

“Um, excuse me, Sir Cain.” Gina was the one to cut in. “I’m not sure anyone can protect Kiara from everything.”

“We can at least reduce the risk of danger,” Cain shot back immediately.

“But,” Gina went on, standing her ground, “reducing it is the best you can manage, right? If someone sets out to kidnap Kiara because she’s a spellcaster, there’s only so much you can do. Even if she does have a guard with her, they just have to send in enough men to take him out. Or they might bide their time and watch for an opening. Nothing is certain.”

“So we should just leave it to chance?”

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t take precautions. I just don’t think it’s right to keep her tied down. Girsch and I can accompany her whenever needed, so you should let Kiara have a little more freedom. She never gets to go out and enjoy herself while she’s traveling with an army of men; wouldn’t it be nice to let her cut loose every now and then?”

Cain closed his eyes, giving Gina’s argument some thought. When he opened them again, he stared back at me.

“Did you enjoy going out on the town?”

The first thing to pop into my mind was Isaac. The sugar candy he’d given me. The way he’d panicked when I’d started crying over how sweet it was. He was a strange man, but I’d enjoyed talking to him.

So, I nodded. “Yes. It was really fun.”

Cain chewed that over, sliding his gaze over my face. Even though he wasn’t doing anything, it was a little nerve-racking, like he was somehow prodding my cheeks and temples from a distance.

After letting out a soft sigh, he said, “Alright. So long as you bring a guard when you go out on the town, you can do as you like. I have no desire to keep you locked up. Just be careful.”

With that, Cain turned on his heel and left the room.

It was almost anticlimactic. I had been so sure that Cain would reject everything out of hand. The knight had rarely left my side since departing Évrard. At first, I had just felt guilty for troubling him. But after a while, the way Cain held me back from anything he didn’t approve of had started to feel like a shackle.

Speaking of shackles, what about Reggie?

“Where is Reggie? I thought he’d be first in line to yell at me,” I mumbled to myself, deflated.

Alan overheard me and answered with a sigh, “Reggie isn’t interested in holding you back from the sidelines. In fact, when I suggested we determine the scope of your involvement, he said there was no need.”

I thought back to what Reggie had said yesterday: I don’t want to stop you from doing what you’ve decided. I won’t rob you of your freedom.

True enough, he had never staunchly opposed any of my decisions—not when I’d chosen to become a spellcaster, and not when I’d chosen to fight. He may have objected, and he certainly hadn’t been happy about it, but he had never once stopped me from doing something after I’d made up my mind.

Instead, at Cassia, he had predicted what I would do ahead of time and steered me in a different direction. Because he was kind, perhaps. Or maybe he was just that afraid of taking my freedom away.

I didn’t fully understand what he was trying to do.

Suddenly, I was reminded that Reggie had told me he wouldn’t go back on his decisions either, and I felt a pang of loneliness.

Why was that? When it was Cain objecting, I’d only felt defiant.

“I’m against it, personally. You may be an exceptional asset, stronger than a thousand soldiers combined, but you’re always off doing something stupid. Still, if your head guardian says it’s alright, Wentworth and I can’t object any further. You don’t have to tell us where you’re headed, but be sure to bring an escort with you,” Alan asserted, then took his leave. He had to attend a meeting about what to do with the province of Cassia.

That resolved my runaway caper, but somehow, I couldn’t relax.

I heaved a sigh, and Gina gave me a reassuring pat on the head. “Sure, you got scolded a little, but now you can go out whenever you want. Isn’t that great?”

“Thanks for backing me up, Gina,” I said.

“Don’t mention it. I got involved because I wanted to. You helped us put out the fires in Maynard, remember? I took a liking to you after that. And besides, the situation felt pretty familiar.”

“Did you have someone tie you down, too?”

“Hehehe. A lot happens when you’ve lived twenty-three years. Men can be so gauche sometimes.”

“That sounds rough,” I sympathized. Then I suddenly remembered Gina’s harsh glare as she’d watched Isaac go.

Gina had claimed she didn’t know him. She had said she’d just been suspicious of him for hanging around me. Nevertheless, her gaze had seemed a little too sharp for that... Perhaps she’d had a falling out with a man around Isaac’s age before.

My mind wandering aimlessly, I headed out into the corridor.

“Oh, Lila!”

I spotted a frostfox down the hall. She was wearing a green ribbon around her neck, so I knew it was Lila at a glance. Alan had instructed Gina to put some kind of marker on the foxes to make sure nobody mistook them for an enemy or a wild monster. I’d offered her three ribbons, which she had tied around their necks.

After I’d met up with Gina in town, Lila had wandered off somewhere. She had gone in the same direction as Isaac, so I assumed Gina had been looking into his identity.

Lila joined Sara and Reynard at Gina’s side.

“Oh, looks like our little runaway is back. How was your adventure? Eeeheehee!” Master Horace welcomed me back to my room from where he sat atop the mantelpiece. Since the foxes couldn’t get to him up there, he was the picture of complacency. When Gina had left to go looking for me, Master Horace had asked her to set him down somewhere high up.

“Feh. Any day I get to look down on you is a good day, you wretched dogs.”

“They’re not dogs, Master Horace.”

“Ahaha! There’s something funny about seeing a doll so rattled.” Gina was greatly amused to see Master Horace getting up on a high horse from his safe zone.

Without warning, the red-ribboned Reynard sprang at Master Horace. His slender forefeet made contact, and Master Horace let out a startled scream.

“Y-You foxes really are despicable, picking on a helpless old man!”

After he dropped back down to the floor, Reynard sat down on the spot without sparing Master Horace another glance. He even began scratching his head with his hindleg.

It was like he was saying, What was that? Must have been the wind. Master Horace had likely interpreted it the same way, considering how he screeched with indignation.

I was starting to get a picture of why Master Horace’s past encounters with frostfoxes had left him with such a bad impression. They were probably drawn to his mana. Friendly as they may have been, Master Horace didn’t want them around because of the chill they brought—so, in his mind, it was just targeted harassment, plain and simple.