Chapter 3: The Delphion Festival

The next day, Lord Azure’s troops left the fort. Evidently, he’d been tipped off about a trap laid by the Llewynians.

The tip had come from Ada. When she was being transferred to Delphion following her capture in Trisphede, she’d overheard a strange comment from one of the soldiers... or something like that. Reggie didn’t seem to mind that particular tidbit being passed around, so I managed to find out about it from Cain, who had heard the details from Groul.

On top of that, Ada had listened in on one of Lord Credias’ conversations before she was captured, and Cain had managed to extract that piece of information, too.

“So nobles make for the best spellcasters?” I asked. That had come up in Ada’s intel. “Have you heard anything like that before, Master Horace?”

“You mean that baloney about how nobles have a higher probability of becoming a spellcaster? Hah! I don’t buy it for a second. Heeheehee!” Master Horace, who was sitting atop the plain wooden table, gave a hearty laugh and kicked his legs with little clacking noises. “If it were true, every country’s aristocracy would be full of spellcasters by now. If the odds really were in their favor... I’d say maybe one in ten of them would have the aptitude. Plenty of nations would be willing to sacrifice their own relatives in droves if it meant winning a war, and before long, those wars would turn into nothing but giant magic battles. And we don’t see that happening, now do we? No way there’s any truth to the rumor, then. Mmheehee!”

“That’s what I thought. Plus, it’s dubious whether I could really be considered a noblewoman.”

Master Horace wasn’t an aristocrat, either. Thus, the information seemed pretty suspect.

I set my elbows down on Master Horace’s table and groaned. “Then why are people saying that?”

“I assume the facts got twisted as they were passed along,” Cain suggested from where he sat across from me.

I nodded as I considered that. Perhaps a passing thought along the lines of Hey, maybe it’s easier for them? was taken to be the truth somewhere down the line, and those rumors escalated over time. If so, I wondered what they had started out as.

“If it’s not nobles, then what about women?” Nobody was saying the condition absolutely had to be met or anything. I mean, we already knew Lord Credias was a man. “Is it possible that women have a higher likelihood of becoming spellcasters?”

“Hmm... Now that you mention it, my mentor was a woman.” After thinking it over for a bit, Master Horace shook his head. “I couldn’t tell you what counts as a significant statistic. My mentor took on a lot of male disciples, but when five of them died and only I survived, she stopped looking for new pupils.”

“Five?!”

“Even then, she claimed those were unusually good odds for landing on a potential spellcaster. Over twenty of her fellow pupils met their end, according to her. Heeheehee!”

Spellcasters’ disciples dropped like flies, from the sound of it.

“That reminds me... Why did you become a spellcaster in the first place, Master Horace?” I asked.

The expression on his clay face never changed, but I got the sense that he was grinning all the same. “To make it through life. Heheheh.”

For how much of a chatterbox he was, Master Horace rarely talked about his past. It seemed like he’d rather just forget about it. In other words, he hadn’t led a very fortunate life before becoming a spellcaster’s disciple. If he’d made the leap knowing how many disciples died in vain, perhaps he’d been in a situation where he would’ve died regardless if he hadn’t given it a shot.

“There may be some truth to the idea that women have better odds of becoming spellcasters, if we consider the way Lord Credias conducts himself. It’s possible he spread his own amorous rumors to give himself a cover for repeatedly gathering up women and experimenting on them,” Cain said.

That would explain some things.

“Thinking back on it, having me drink the sand might have been another part of his indiscriminate experiments.”

The first time I’d been forced to drink the sand had been before I was taken in by Lord Patriciél. Perhaps he’d tried it on a perfect stranger like me simply because I was a girl.

I realized one other thing, too. My stepmother had consented to Lord Patriciél’s experiment knowing full well I could die. Whether I died or survived, it was a sure way for her to get rid of me. Plus, if I just turned into sand, she wouldn’t have to bother with hiding the body.

“You know what that means?” Master Horace said, making a clinking sound as he crossed his arms. “They gathered up a bunch of women and girls in this fort, and to top it all off, one of the guards even had a vial of sand on him. And we already know the viscount was in Delphion. Maybe they were planning to experiment with making some new spellcasters.”

Master Horace’s point brought a bitter taste to my mouth. So that was why Ada had blamed me.

“Is it really my fault?”

All of it had happened because I’d run away. Lord Credias had wanted to get his hands on a spellcaster so badly, he’d started handing out contract sand left and right. Did his luring Master Horace into a trap and weaponizing mass-produced defective spellcasters trace back to me, too? If I had become Lord Credias’ magical minion, would fewer people have died?

Was there a way I could just go back in time and get married to Lord Credias? And if I did, would there still be any way for me to save Reggie? Perhaps I could earn his trust, then warn him that Llewyne might attack Évrard. If he knew I was someone close to the queen, maybe it would lend more credibility to the idea that I’d leaked the information. Or would he just refuse to hear me out to begin with?

While I ran all sorts of what-if scenarios in my head, an image suddenly popped into my mind: Reggie hanging out in a beautiful white mansion. I was there, too—and sopping wet, for some reason.

I told him, “You shouldn’t waste your time worrying about me.”

He just smiled and answered, “Saying that only makes me worry all the more.”

The scene vanished from my mind the moment Cain spoke up, offering a few kind words. “You were right to escape. Anyone would run if they knew they were going to die. If you hadn’t... then yes, perhaps those people wouldn’t have been sacrificed. But I refuse to think it would have been better for you to have taken their place. If anyone tries to blame you, I’d like to ask them this: ‘Aren’t you just trying to survive at the cost of Kiara’s life?’”

As I listened to what he had to say, I found myself caught in yet another daydream.

This time it was Cain, pinned underneath rocks, dirt, and a collapsed building.

No! Why am I seeing this?! I shuddered, and the vision faded from my mind as suddenly as it had appeared.

“Are you feeling alright?” Cain placed a hand on my back, concerned.

“Err, yes... I’m just a bit tired.”

Unsure how to explain what I’d just seen, I swept it under the rug.

◇◇◇

The next day, Lord Azure returned after foiling one of Llewyne’s traps.

Purportedly, the Llewynian army had traveled to a small village further down the high road, where they’d swapped out the residents for their own soldiers. Whenever the Farzian troops marched into the vicinity, the Llewynians had been planning to supply them with poisoned food and strike while they were writhing in agony.

Lord Azure had brought some of the Inion townspeople along with him, and after confirming that nobody there was a real villager, he had wiped out all the disguised Llewynian soldiers.

Nothing of the sort had happened in the RPG, as far as I could remember.

I was frustrated that I hadn’t been of any help to Reggie on that one. Meanwhile, I started to hear about Ada receiving a summons from Reggie more and more often, even witnessing it myself on occasion. I knew full well that he was just trying to tease out anything else she may have remembered, but there was something else that made it harder to swallow.

I heard that Ada was making some very bold advances on Reggie.

It was when I was making a visit to Emmeline. She wasn’t there, but I did see Lucille, who was staying in the same tower of the fort. While the two of us were chatting, I heard voices from over by the stairs.

“Have you no interest in cooperating with His Highness?”

One of the voices was Emmeline. Her tone was as calm as ever. In contrast, frustration was plain in the rantings of her conversation partner—Ada.

“I do want to help him! But I risked my own life to obtain this information. Now that I’ve all but lost my home, this is all I have to my name. Of course I’d use it to get what I want! Besides, it’s hardly any of your business.”

It sounded like Emmeline was criticizing Ada for revealing too little of her hand to Reggie... But wait, there’s more?

“You are sorely lacking in discretion. If you were born and raised in a noble branch family, didn’t anyone teach you the value of modesty?”

“His Highness doesn’t mind it. The only ones who got upset over that embrace were you and that hard-headed knight. So,” Ada went on, “surely you can overlook me simply asking for a kiss?”

A kiss?!

My hands flew to cover my mouth, a shriek nearly escaping my lips. When I looked over, I saw Lucille doing the same thing. We exchanged glances, the both of us turning bright red.

Anyone would feel awkward overhearing something so personal. It probably wouldn’t have been any less uncomfortable if we’d been around for it, either.

Master Horace was there with us, too. He muttered, “Brandishing her feminine wiles, eh? She’s a vixen, that one.”

“What do you mean, a vixen?”

I’d heard the term thrown around in this context in my past life, too.

“A sly woman who hunts down her prey with her own fangs, if you know what I mean. Eeeheehee!”

Emmeline’s tranquil voice overlapped with Master Horace’s furtive laughter. “Don’t you care if anyone else sees? You’re causing a great deal of trouble for His Highness.”

“It’s your own fault for refusing to leave. It’s not as if I particularly wanted to give you a show.”

She “didn’t want to give her a show”? Does that mean she was doing things she shouldn’t let people see?!

A feeling of unrest grew in my heart.

“What choice do you give us? Your behavior is egregious. You’re only going to make things worse for him.”

“Shouldn’t His Highness get a say in that? Also, you needn’t tag along each and every time just to clear my name, Lady Emmeline.”

“Won’t that become a problem for you once you’re to be married?”

“It makes no difference to me. Why, I’d be delighted if rumors of me and the prince got around.”

“Oh, Ada...”

Emmeline fell silent, unsure what to say after that.

As off-the-wall as she was, Emmeline understood what was and wasn’t accepted practice in the world of the nobility. She would never deviate from those norms herself; hence why she was so taken aback, I assumed.

“The other day, my dear Emmeline was theorizing that Miss Ada grew desperate after losing everything,” Lucille murmured, a glum expression overtaking her sweet, beauty-marked face, “and that His Highness has realized as much.”

Oh. So Reggie is worried about her.

On the one hand, I understood how Ada felt. Only when one had lost everything did they feel they could do just about anything. I was of the same mindset when I ran away from my boarding school.

“If she is that desperate, ’course she’d be out to curry favor with the most powerful patron there is. I bet the prince doesn’t mind having a woman falling all over him, either! Mmheehee!” Master Horace agreed with Lucille, tacking on a weird comment on the end.

My mind conjured up an image of Ada seducing Reggie, which stirred up some unpleasant emotions within me. What was the right way to describe this feeling? Was it like watching a female friend getting hounded by a man?

Reggie was no ordinary citizen, though. No matter how Ada pleaded, Groul and his knights would always be hanging by his side. That meant the worst-case scenario could never actually happen... right?

Then again, I’d been alone with Reggie plenty of times before. We’d spent a lot of time reading books together when we were still kids, so I’d always just thought of it as an extension of that. Still, there was no guarantee that he wouldn’t end up in a similar situation with Ada. Plus, if Master Horace was right, and Reggie really didn’t mind it, then...

From then on, I felt uneasy whenever I saw Ada around. Thus, I did my best to stay away from Reggie, too... but I had to come by on business that day. It was actually Groul I had to talk to, but he could usually be found wherever Reggie was. I climbed the stairs of Fort Inion’s main tower, heading for his chambers.

Before I could make it to the top, Reggie came out of his room. Ada was right behind him. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and alongside her more mature looks, it gave her a bewitching sort of aura. It was obvious that the wholly contented look on her face wasn’t because she had Felix to escort her back to her room.

The way she gazed at Reggie, who had stepped out of the room ahead of her, spoke volumes.

Although I ducked out of sight as fast as I could, I still caught Ada’s eye for a brief moment, and I could have sworn she flashed me a triumphant smile. Maybe I was wrong to take it that way. Yet for some reason, the more I thought about it, the deeper I felt myself sinking into despair.

Reggie started pleading with her to reconsider her actions. “We plan to retake Trisphede eventually. You needn’t resort to selling your body like this; one day your house will be restored to its former glory. In preparation for that—”

Ada cut him off with an embrace. “I don’t care about my house! All I need is you!”

“There’s no need to be so anxious. Won’t you trust us a little more?”

His face set in a frown, Felix moved to pull Ada off of the prince, but Reggie held up a hand to stop him. Then, with a troubled smile, he placed a soothing hand on Ada’s back as she nestled against him.

Watching that confirmed it for me: Reggie was worried about Ada.

Whether he was comforting me, encouraging me, or trying to coax me, Reggie would always wrap me up in a familial embrace to put me at ease. That was all it ever took to soothe my heart, sometimes enough to make me cry. It always made me believe that, despite our disagreements, Reggie wasn’t going to turn his back on me.

Now he was doing the same thing for Ada. Did that mean he thought of us the same way?

“We’re the same?”

I wasn’t special. Thinking about it like that, it felt like the floor had suddenly dropped out from underneath my feet. I was so scared that it was all I could do just to stay standing.

That was when Master Horace murmured, “If he’s not brushing her off, either he’s too kind for his own good, he’s up to something, or she’s won him over. Now this is getting interesting.”

“You think she won him over?”

Supposedly, he couldn’t deny Ada what she wanted because he was bargaining for her intel. Still, part of me had felt that he wasn’t acting like himself. Knowing him, he could come up with an infinite number of reasons to refuse anything he didn’t want to do. So why wasn’t he doing that with Ada? Because he was too kind? Because she’d won him over?

The longer I thought about it, the harder it was to bear. All of a sudden, I desperately needed to confide in someone. But who could I even talk to about this? Cain popped into my mind first, but I had a feeling he was the wrong person to tell.

What about Gina and Girsch, then? Those two were far more worldly-wise than I was; perhaps they could explain what had me so scared.

The moment the idea occurred to me, I rushed out of the main tower.

“Hey, Kiara! My little disciple! Calm down a second!” I was pretty sure Master Horace had called out to me several times during my mad dash. “Look, I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have said that! I was so entertained that, for a second there, I forgot you were just a teenage girl!”

After I’d run all the way across the courtyard, it turned out Gina and Girsch weren’t with the injured soldiers. I was about to go look elsewhere when I bumped into someone.

“I’m sorry!”

“Miss Kiara?”

As soon as I’d shouted my apology, I was about to take off running again, but whoever it was grabbed me by the arm and held me back.

It was Cain. “What happened? Is it an emergency?”

“No... I’m looking for Gina.”

“For Gina? Did something happen?”

How was I supposed to explain this? If I told him how panicked and anxious I was, Cain would just get worried.

“Is it something you can’t say? Even to me?”

That put me at even more of a loss for words.

It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Cain. I just didn’t know what to say. I considered how best to explain it, but I was so overwhelmed by everything that had happened that I just whimpered, ready to burst into tears at any moment.

“Ngh...”

I covered my face as I tried to stop myself from crying. The next moment, something was draped over my head, dyeing my entire field of vision in blue. Isn’t this the same color as our capes?

After covering me up with his cape, Cain foisted me off on the person next to him. “We couldn’t possibly ask you to go fetch her, so please stay here and watch over Miss Kiara, milord.”

“Huh? Sure, alright.”

I heard footsteps moving away. Probably Cain’s.

Alan was left puzzled by this sudden development. “Hey, Kiara... why don’t you have a seat somewhere? Alright? Just calm down.”

This had to have been a real hassle for him—you know, getting saddled with a whining girl wearing a sheet over her head. His kind concern pushed me over the edge, the tears finally spilling from my eyes. I was truly lucky I had the cape to keep my face hidden.

“Waaah!”

I wanted to apologize, but I couldn’t get the words out through all the wailing.

Alan heaved a sigh. “What are you, a child? Come this way, Kiara.”

He tugged me away by the hand. Seeing as I was wearing a cape over my head like some kind of ghost costume, I couldn’t tell where anything was. I just let Alan push me around by the shoulders, and eventually, he sat me down on a stone platform of some sort.

“I have no idea what happened, but pull yourself together. What could you even be crying about? We aren’t going to battle yet. Did you get into a fight? Or was somebody picking on you?”

“What? A fight?”

Why would he assume I’d gotten into a fight with anyone?

“It’s the way you’re acting. I saw it happen often enough whenever the knights’ children came by to play, so I jumped to conclusions.”

From the sound of it, he was treating me like a little kid blubbering over an argument. Part of me didn’t take issue with that, though. There was something oddly comforting about it.

My tears finally began to subside.

“It wasn’t a fight. I just... well.”

I was probably just lonely. Watching that had made me feel like I was getting left behind. I was worried that he might never look my way again.

That was when I finally understood: perhaps the apprehension I was feeling was that of a child who didn’t want to be separated from her parents. I wanted Reggie to stay my guardian—and only my guardian. But now, he had someone else to look after.

It was easy to figure it out when I likened him to my past-life dad. There were things I’d assumed he did specially for me, so if I saw him doing that for another child, I would have taken it pretty hard. But of course, Reggie wasn’t actually my father. Besides, he had to be patient and reassuring with Ada, if he wanted to get the information on Llewyne out of her.

Now that I’d determined the reason behind my distress, I once again decided that I needed to keep a lid on it. Reggie already had his hands full with the war; I couldn’t cause him more trouble on top of that.

“Sorry. I’m just a little homesick. I miss the good old days, y’know?”

“What good old days?”

“I don’t mean anything from here. I’m talking about my past-life family.”

I’d only said it to cover my tracks, but I was immediately gripped with a genuine longing. I would wait at home, and before long, Mom and Dad would get back from work. Being a teenager and all, there were things I didn’t want to talk to them about, but if I ever needed something, they would always listen. Whenever I was feeling lonely, I could just stick to them like glue. We were family, after all—connected by blood.

Reggie, meanwhile, was no relation of mine.

I clenched my teeth, my tears drying up completely.

Reggie thought of me as a special friend, one he could pour his heart out to. That was the very reason he’d always comforted me whenever he sensed I was lonely. If we were friends, though, that meant I needed to stand by his side without any help.

When had I stopped thinking about it that way? Was the reason for my sudden misgivings because I had just lost another friend?

Isaac was the one who had convinced me to win everyone’s approval through a show of power. He had to have known I was his enemy. Why had he cheered me on, then?

Thinking about Isaac made the tears well up all over again. Just as I was scrubbing them away from behind the cape, Gina and Girsch showed up. Girsch handed the cape back to Cain, told him they would take over from here, and led me to a nearby spot of shade.

Cain seemed pretty concerned. However, knowing he had left me in capable hands, he took his leave with Alan.

Naturally, Gina and Girsch asked me why I’d been crying. Since I’d already figured out the reason without their help, I just told them I was homesick. Now the problem was what to do about my puffy, reddened eyes.

“You couldn’t help rubbing them, could you? Gina, be a dear and make us some ice.”

“Thanks, Mama Girsch.”

“Did you just call me ‘Mama’? Oh, I’m so happy! Say it again!”

Giddy with delight, Girsch wrapped me up in a big bear hug.

“Girsch, watch it! That hurts!”

Girsch had a strong build, so a squeeze that tight was pretty painful. Can you loosen up a little?!

It was still kind of nice, though. After all that crying, I felt like I’d gone back to being a pampered kid for a bit.

“Sorry, dear! When you say cute things like that, I just can’t help myself.” Girsch played it off with a bout of refined laughter. “Anyway, don’t you have business to be taking care of? You can’t go showing a face like that to the men around here, so let’s hurry and get you fixed up.”

I got a strange sense of déjà vu, like this had all happened to me before.

Then, I realized: I was thinking of Fort Clonfert. I had been crying after the battle when Reggie tossed his cape over me just like Cain had, insisting I not let anyone see my face like that.

“You’re right. I bet my face isn’t a pretty sight to see right now.”

Everyone around me would be alarmed and concerned at the sight of my puffy eyes.

“No, you silly girl. That’s not the issue,” Gina said, laughing as she handed me a handkerchief she’d asked Reynard to freeze with a puff of his ice-cold breath. “If you let men see vulnerability plain on your face, some of them are going to get up to no good. Bad guys know best that taking advantage of a girl’s moment of weakness is the easiest way to win her affections. You don’t want to lose yourself in the moment and end up regretting it later, do you?”

“Exactly!” Gina and Girsch tacked on in chorus, like they were on the same page.

“Wait... That’s why?”

So, back then, Reggie hadn’t been trying to cover up my ugly face? He’d just been worried I was going to let somebody seduce me?

“Besides,” Girsch added, “it’s hard to ignore a crying girl. Most soldiers keep their distance because you’re the spellcaster, but if you remind them that you’re a young woman before anything else, it could make more trouble for you down the line.”

That was a good point. Some men might try to approach me, taking me as helpless and weak. If that perception of me spread throughout the soldiers, I wouldn’t be able to wander the fort freely for too much longer.

“Oh, that’s right.”

That reminded me what I’d been on my way to do in the first place. There were plenty of women here who couldn’t go out whenever they pleased, for the sake of their own personal safety. To help them stay in shape, we were now giving them a chance to walk around the fort courtyard on the days we didn’t have to go to battle. Whenever it was time, I would talk to Groul and have him loan us a few knights to act as our bodyguards; hence why I had been looking for him just now.

I rushed to cool the skin around my eyes with the handkerchief Gina had given me. If I went to see the girls of the tower with a tear-stained face, it’d probably just upset them. They already had enough anxiety to deal with, what with being uprooted from their normal lives.

Of course, the swelling wasn’t going to go down just like that. Since it was bound to take some time, I explained the situation and asked Gina to go find Groul for me. I felt pretty awful, making her go out of her way for me like this.

By the time she got back, Girsch had given me the “de-puffed” seal of approval, so I went to go meet the girls with Groul and three of his fellow knights in tow.

After their period of imprisonment and the depressingly fraught days that had followed, the former hostages hadn’t been looking too good. Ever since the Battle of the Alesia River, however, the life had returned to many of their faces. I assumed it was because the baron’s heel-face turn had given them the opportunity to reunite with their families.

Only Lady Delphion, whose dark-brown hair was pulled back into a tidy updo, still looked tired and worn.

“To turn his blade against His Highness, even just once... If I’d known things were going to end up like this, I would have struggled harder against my captors—no matter if it cost me my life. Oh, whyever did I hesitate? Death would be but a relief now!”

Even if the branch families had fallen into line as well, the one to bear the most responsibility would be the baron himself. Just thinking about it left his wife anguished.

“Didn’t I tell you that wasn’t the right time to lay down your life, Auntie dearest? If you’re going to sacrifice yourself, you have to aim for the moment with the maximum impact. It was clear that your life alone wouldn’t have been enough to turn things around.” Emmeline bluntly confronted Lady Delphion with the facts, rendering her speechless.

Uhh, was that supposed to be reassuring?

She was basically saying, You couldn’t have made the situation better by dying, so it’s fine that you didn’t commit suicide. It was hard to tell if there was any real compassion in Emmeline’s words, but they were enough to encourage Lady Delphion to take a walk with the rest of us.

While we took our leisurely stroll in the sunny courtyard, Lucille asked me, “Are you feeling alright, Lady Kiara?”

“What? Yeah, I’m doing great!”

Had she noticed I’d been crying? Sweating internally, I gave her my best smile.

That seemed to put her at ease. She beamed back, her smile akin to the soft sunlight filtering through the trees. She was just the cutest thing. I couldn’t help but envy Emmeline, whom she looked up to like an older sister.

The longer I talked to Lucille, the more my loneliness faded away. As soon as I returned to my room, however, it all came flooding back to me.

I was jealous of everyone else for having such wonderful families. Was it because Ada had once had the same that she was so desperately searching for something to hang onto now? She needed someone to fill in for the family she had lost.

But did it have to be Reggie? I knew I was in no position to say it, but I couldn’t stop myself from thinking, Please, you can have anyone but Reggie.

Almost as if he had sensed what I was feeling, Master Horace murmured, “I’m with you all the way, kid.”

I got what he was trying to say, and it brought a smile to my face. “I know. Thanks. I’ll always have you, so everything’s okay.”

Master Horace would be by my side until the day I died. His declaration reminded me that I did have a beloved family of my own. Even if we weren’t connected by blood, we were linked by mana.

Whispering my gratitude to my kind mentor, I hugged his clay body tight against my chest.

◇◇◇

“Apologies for the trouble.”

“Not at all. I’m honored to be of any help to you, Your Highness.”

After she was admitted into Prince Reginald’s chambers, Emmeline gave a quick curtsy and took a seat.

“Still, it’s a lot to ask. It can’t be pleasant to get mixed up in the love affairs of another, whether it’s for the sake of buttering someone up or not. Thinking ahead, I don’t particularly want to keep someone like her close by, either. She has quite the tendency to make assumptions; I’d hate for her to misconstrue a passing remark and go shout it from the rooftops.”

“I fully understand. It’s of the utmost importance that your reputation not be tarnished. Really, though... She’s stubborn enough to make you wonder if someone else put the ideas in her head.”

Prince Reginald, who was sitting across from Emmeline, didn’t look quite as concerned as he’d claimed. And yet, piecing together the rest of his mannerisms made it clear: deep down, the prince was annoyed.

He kept idly tapping his finger against the rim of his teacup. While it was likely a subconscious tic, it was a sign of his emotional unrest. The prince wasn’t the type to reveal his true self, which was why he was hiding his frustration, Emmeline assumed. He wanted control over the way he came off to others.

If it were Kiara in her place, she would ignore everything else and simply take the prince at his word. If he was smiling, she’d believe he was happy, and if he looked pained, she’d assume that he was.

As Emmeline imagined it, everything finally clicked into place: that was why Prince Reginald trusted Kiara. Not everyone hoped to meet someone who could see through to their innermost depths. There were some who felt most at ease when others bought into the image of themselves they tried to project. The ingenuous Kiara must have made for a very comforting presence.

Emmeline couldn’t rest unless she was picking people apart and developing her own schemes; if that was the kind of man Prince Reginald was, then she was likely someone difficult for him to trust. Still, so long as her inquisitive mind was making her a useful vassal, he would be sure to treat her well. Thus, Reginald handled Emmeline in much the same way he did his knights—something along the lines of, If you’re going to see through me anyway, I’ll leave it to you to guess what I’m thinking.

And so, having detected his feelings on the matter, Emmeline had chosen to take on the job of keeping Ada in check.

Emmeline felt that she had messed up where Ada was concerned. The girl wore her heart on her sleeve, so initially, Emmeline had assumed that she was just stressed. That it was just a harmless crush.

In reality, the girl was so far gone that there was no telling what she’d do next. In a sense, she was a truly frightening person. Failing to see that from the outset had been Emmeline’s mistake.

“I do regret allowing her to get so close to you and Lady Kiara in the first place. I hadn’t realized how blindly devoted she was. For now, I’ll keep as close an eye on her as I can.”

Emmeline suspected that being around Kiara had only sent Ada spiraling further out of control. If she hadn’t allowed her to so much as exchange words with Kiara, perhaps Ada would have recognized her as someone a station above her own. Never would she have entertained those delusions of taking Kiara’s place by the prince’s side.

“I’m lucky you’re such a rational person. Now I can execute my plans for the baronship with confidence.”

Clearly he was satisfied with Emmeline’s response to the situation. Just the other day, he had made her a proposal that offered the utmost consideration to both her and her province.

“You have my thanks for showing such leniency in the face of my family’s transgressions. On behalf of my father and uncle, I once again offer my most humble apologies and swear our allegiance unto you.”

“Bringing Delphion under my direct control would only create more hassle for me, and furthermore, Lord Ernest did lend our forces a hand. I’m hoping to reward you personally as well; if there’s anything you desire, let me know.”

Emmeline hadn’t suspected he would make her an offer this advantageous. She couldn’t hide the shock on her face.

“Are you surprised?” Reginald asked with a mischievous giggle.

Of course, Emmeline was too much of a contrarian to admit as much. Above all else, she was eager to capitalize on this opportunity to make her wishes known.

“I’m most grateful. In that case, if you know of a man who would make for a suitable heir to the House of Delphion, please introduce me. Our family has grown far too weak-kneed. I’d like to toughen them up by ushering in a new wind.”

“I’d imagine you’re more than enough for the job yourself. You have extraordinary foresight—as evident in how the House of Delphion conducted themselves in all this.”

Prince Reginald’s comment hit the bull’s-eye, and Emmeline responded with a rueful smile. Evidently, the prince wasn’t naive enough to attribute everything to her uncle’s and father’s own judgment.

“I won’t deny that, in the precarious situation we were faced with, I aspired to the House of Delphion’s continued existence—whether it be the main house or a collateral line.”

Emmeline chose to readily admit the truth. She had devised a plan that would allow for her family to keep living on this land, no matter if the House of Delphion fell into Llewyne’s hands or if Farzia took it back.

First, she had had her uncle, the baron, swear allegiance to Llewyne. That was the only way to keep his entire family—right down to the dependents—from being murdered. To that end, she had allowed herself and her aunt to be captured. She had known it would leave him no choice but to submit to the enemy nation.

At the same time, she’d instructed Lucille to deliver a message to her own father, Ernest: Don’t try to rescue us until there’s a change in the status quo. After weathering a Llewynian assault, there was a good chance that Évrard would be raising an army, so he was better off joining up with them.

If Llewyne won, the baron would be rewarded for swearing his allegiance early on. It was possible he’d be left with somewhere around half of his territory.

On the Farzian side of things, if they were strong enough to fight their way to Delphion, a little extra help would be all they needed to wrest the territory back from Llewyne’s clutches. There would be no getting around the fact that the baron had defected, of course, so they would be forced to pay some form of recompense. Still, Emmeline had counted on Lucille being young enough to be spared, a direct descendant though she was.

It had all been a gambit to let Lucille live, if no one else, ensuring their line’s survival—and it had worked out even better than she’d expected.

“As a means of apology, I plan to do everything in my power to aid you.”

The first one to react to Emmeline’s confession was Alan, who had been quietly watching all of this unfold. “She’s pretty sensible. That’s a big difference from Kiara,” he muttered under his breath.

Prince Reginald took him to task for the slip of tongue. “Do you always use Kiara as your baseline?”

There was an inscrutable something mixed into Reginald’s smile, and Emmeline wondered if she ought to point out that his mask was slipping. Or could it have been something the prince was showing them on purpose? Either way, it certainly deserved careful examination.

Alan laid out his thought process, seemingly oblivious to the prince’s change in demeanor. “The only other women I’m particularly familiar with are Maya and Clara; there’s not a normal one in the bunch. I was only surprised because I’d pinned Lady Emmeline for the same sort as Kiara.”

Emmeline lifted an eyebrow at the blunt response.

This was Prince Reginald’s childhood friend and cousin. For the person boasting the longest history with this complex prince, he wasn’t anything like Emmeline had expected. No matter how straightforward he seemed on the surface, she had assumed he would be a craftier sort.

Thus, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Why, I’m honored to fall under the same category as Lady Kiara.”

“Egads. You are a weird one.” Alan seemed vaguely appalled.

“If you put it like that, Alan, wouldn’t that make Kiara weird, too?”

“Obviously. If there’s anyone out there who would claim otherwise, I’d love to meet them.”

Groul and Felix found that assessment a little harsh, judging by their tight smiles. But Emmeline and everyone else there knew: Alan had built a strong enough bond of trust with Kiara that he didn’t have to mince his words. If Kiara had heard his comment, perhaps she would’ve protested with, That’s mean! but she wouldn’t have been genuinely offended. In fact, she seemed more likely to shrug it off with a laugh. After all, she knew that candor was just another form of Alan’s friendship.

“But, hmm... she never gets mad when I call her that, so at least it’s a good, self-aware sort of ‘weird,’” Alan added with a laugh.

Emmeline caught herself smiling.

◇◇◇

Llewyne didn’t try anything for two more days.

Between the carriages delivering food, the merchants, and the former staff of the fort, there was a steady stream of people coming in and out of the fort from the town of Inion.

Consequently, it was hard for anyone to stand out. With how bustling the place was, even Ada, who was known for wandering the fort grounds, had no trouble slipping into the crowd. Nor did the man who took a small, folded piece of paper off her hands.

Said man had been hired by a merchant family. Once he had received the slip of paper from Ada, he promptly quit his job and left town.

He was headed for Delphion Castle.

◇◇◇

A few days had passed. Having just received word that Llewyne and Salekhard had retreated from Delphion Castle back to Trisphede, cheers rang all throughout the fort.

“What joyous news! Hahaha! After their most recent loss, surely uncovering their ambush was the final straw—HRK!” Lord Azure exclaimed, only to be silenced with a jab to the arm from Lord Enister’s cane.

“Enough, lad. You know there has to be a catch here. But all the same... storming a castle is never an easy undertaking. We’re better off seizing it while we have the chance.”

“True. In which case, I’d like Lord Delphion and Lord Enister to take the lead. The rest of us will get ready to vacate the fort, then follow after you,” Reggie instructed.

Per the prince’s orders, Lord Delphion and Lord Enister departed first. The rest of us left the day after that.

We spent three days on the road, always keeping a careful eye out for any Llewynian activity. Along the way, we received word from Lord Enister that he hadn’t run into any issues inside or outside the castle, so we proceeded straight to Delphion’s castle town.

The castle town was encased in towering stone ramparts, a remnant of the time when fellow lords of Farzia had fought among themselves. As soon as we passed through those gray walls, we were showered in the voices and gazes of the gathered townspeople.

“Long live Farzia!”

“Long live Prince Reginald!”

Swathed in that chorus of welcomes, I got the sense that everything else around me had been drowned in waves of sound. I was disoriented by the overwhelming pressure, a very different sort than I’d grown accustomed to on the battlefield.

“Is something the matter?” asked Cain, who was once again sharing a horse with me.

“No. It’s been a while since I’ve heard a commotion that wasn’t just shrieks and battle cries, that’s all.”

Sorwen had to have been the last place I’d experienced anything like this. By the time we’d arrived in Cassia, the citizens had been in no state to give us such a warm reception, and Fort Inion had been a good distance from the town.

“It’s nice to know we’re so welcome here,” Cain said. “It’s been a few months since they were occupied; if they were happy with Llewyne’s rule, I doubt they would be receiving our troops with open arms like this.”

I gave a curious tilt of my head. “You think they could have preferred being under Llewyne’s control?”

“Delphion didn’t put up much of a fight. Assuming that few civilians were killed and no unreasonable restrictions were placed upon them, they could have grown accustomed to Llewyne’s rule over time. The average townsperson cares far more about how well their rulers treat them than about history or tradition.”

He had a point. If their lives had only been enriched as a result, some people were bound to welcome the change in regime.

“That said, Delphion does frequently send us men to fight our wars against Llewyne. I’m sure a great deal of their population bears a deep-seated antipathy to the nation.”

Whether that counted as a good thing or not, I was relieved to hear it. Not that I wanted the townspeople to have suffered under Llewyne’s rule or anything, but if we had fought our way here only to be given a cold reception for our troubles, I might’ve broken down crying.

Once again, riding double with Cain drew me plenty of curious looks. The Llewynian troops had withdrawn a good distance by now, but I’d still been ordered to ride with Cain for the sake of a quick getaway... you know, just in case anything happened. The second I’d tried to get on my own horse, I’d gotten a real earful from Alan. You’re too slow! and You don’t know how to dodge! and As if I’d ever permit something so risky!

At this rate, though, I was going to forget how to ride a horse by the time the war was over.

While I fell deep into thought, we followed the main cobblestone road to Delphion Castle.

The castle was surrounded by a large moat. The water was drawn from the river and flowed steadily in one direction, giving it a less muddied look than one might typically envision.

We crossed the stone bridge, just wide enough for one carriage to pass through, arriving outside an open gate. Reggie and his knights proceeded after the vanguard. Alan entered the castle next, Cain and I trailing behind him.

Once we had passed through the gates, I threw a casual glance over my shoulder.

“Oh!”

For a brief moment, I felt like I was looking at new scenery. Smoke billowed from the castle town, and the cityscape was devastated in several places. Everything had been consumed by the fires of war. The corpses of fallen soldiers littered the area outside the gates, and the stone bridge was dyed crimson and black.

Past all that, I saw a dragon on a blue flag, as well as—

“Miss Kiara?”

Cain’s voice brought me back to reality. All that time I’d spent looking behind me, I’d just been staring at the gate from over Cain’s arm. No wonder he’d found it strange.

“Is something bothering you?”

“No... The scenery just reminded me of a picture I’d seen before.”

Surely that was the reason for my hallucination. Thinking back on it, there had been a battle at Delphion Castle in the RPG. Now that the Llewynian forces were gone, however, the siege wasn’t going to happen.

If I remembered correctly, this was where Alan had fought against Game-Kiara’s golem. It must have been that scene that had sprung to mind.

While I was drawing my own conclusions, we finally stepped foot inside Delphion Castle.

Lord Delphion’s troops had performed an inspection of the castle interior back when they first arrived. No traps had been found, so we headed off to our assigned rooms after a short break. Lucille showed me the way.

“The room on the right is mine, and the one next to it is my dear Emmeline’s. Feel free to come play whenever you like, Lady Kiara.”

“I’d love to... but wait, was that always your room?”

“No. Whichever Llewynian stayed in my room took all my things out and threw them away, so I’m taking the opportunity to move to a new one.”

The castle may have been handed over to Llewyne without a fight, but despite all the baron’s behind-the-scenes efforts, it hadn’t escaped some damage via remodeling or the disposal of certain bits of decor.

“Emmeline said we’re just lucky that nothing was drenched in blood or burned to ash. Just a few touch-ups and the place should be ready to be used again.”

“She does have an eye for efficiency.”

“I’ll strive to learn from her example.”

Lucille, who wanted nothing more than to grow up into a second Emmeline, gave a calm assessment of the matter. Still, it had to be sad for her to have what should’ve been her own personal sanctuary ravaged, her belongings cast away. I figured any other girl Lucille’s age would’ve been left in tears. What a tough cookie.

“If there’s anything you want remade out of stone, let me know. I’d be happy to help.”

“Oh, in that case...”

What Lucille asked me to make was, for some bizarre reason, a statue of a terramouse.

Where is she even going to put this in her room? Not that it makes any difference to me. I had zero artistic ability, but so long as it was something I could envision it in my head, I would have no problem materializing it. I promised her I’d make it for her.

While I was having my peaceful chat with Lucille, Reggie and his men were busy milling about. Merchants from the town had flocked over, requesting to greet the prince, and now they were swamped trying to accommodate that request. Some of our men had suggested leaving it for a later date, but Alan said it was better to meet them sooner rather than later, seeing as we needed all the money we could get during wartime.

Each soldier’s pay was covered by his respective province, but there were plenty of other things—provisions, for example—left to pay for. Those funds could be procured from some of the more well-off merchants of the town, so snubbing them wasn’t an option.

Supposedly, the royal family tried not to borrow too much from the nobility. The way the system worked was that territories were given tax exemptions proportional to the expense of the troops they sent over. Thus, if the royals took too much, there would be less income for them to collect the following year, and they wouldn’t have the money to cover the costs of reconstruction.

Not only had the royal capital fallen into the hands of the enemy, but the fight to take it back was bound to put even more areas in need of repairs and restoration. That was going to take a lot of money. Therefore, rather than relying on the contributions of our allies in the nobility, they were better off collecting donations from merchants. On the merchants’ side of things, gaining the monarchy’s favor now would give them a ticket into the royal capital later, so they were more than happy to do their part.

The next day, after all of that had been settled, I was summoned to the great hall of the castle. It wasn’t just Reggie and other such VIPs who were gathered there; both Lucille and I were present, along with a bunch of people from the Delphion branch families.

Once everyone was there, a certain ceremony was held—a transfer of the title “baron of Delphion.”

Although it was to protect his province, the current baron, Henry, had sided with the enemy and aided an assault on the Farzian army more than once. That couldn’t go unpunished.

That being said, we were in the middle of a war. Not only did we still have to fight the Llewynian and Salekhardian forces that had marched back to Trisphede, but once that was dealt with, we would be marching on the royal capital, too. Seeing as Delphion was the halfway point on that path, we had to preserve the balance of the province.

The chosen solution was to transfer the rank of baron from the current lord, Henry, to his younger brother, Ernest. Ernest had never sworn his allegiance to Llewyne, instead choosing to fight alongside the prince’s army. If he was instated as the new lord of the province, surely the Farzian troops would accept the soldiers from Delphion with open arms.

And so, the baron Henry took responsibility for siding with Llewyne by relinquishing his own title. As for what his future would hold after that?

“I must confess that I have no military savvy, Henry. I had planned to leave those matters to Emmeline, but I’d be honored if you would help me as an advisor,” had been Ernest’s proposition. He was thus granted a role as Emmeline’s aide.

Emmeline was designated commanding general of Delphion’s forces. Taking matters into her own hands like that was just about the most “Emmeline” thing I could imagine. Decked out in a gorgeous dress, she proudly accepted Reggie’s official appointment.

The former baron’s wife was in poor health, so she was still recuperating in the castle. Since Lucille had marriage to worry about down the line, she was adopted by Ernest in order to keep on living as the daughter of a baron.

It was truly comforting to see such a lenient judgment passed down on the baron’s family.

The Farzian army stayed in Delphion Castle for a while after that. The goal was to strengthen Delphion’s defenses and, once the situation had stabilized, strike down the Salekhardian army. If we could force Salekhard to retreat, that would be a huge blow to Llewyne as well.

Apparently, it was going to take us at least two weeks to get to that point.

The idea of “striking down” Salekhard made my heart ache all over again. Of course, there was nothing I could say on the matter, so I kept my mouth shut. Even Gina had steeled herself to fight against Isaac, and she had been engaged to him at one point.

Plus, according to what Gina had said, Isaac’s plan was to escape Llewynian rule by losing to Farzia. While he would no doubt do what he could to hand Gina an opportunity to shine, he was equally likely to surrender before things got out of hand. I made up my mind to stop worrying about it.

Besides, Master Horace was being very kind to me as of late. Whenever I went to sleep, he’d stay by my pillow, stroking my hair as I drifted off. I didn’t want to worry him either, so I had to do my best to get over it and keep my spirits up.

One day, amid all that, I was strolling the newly familiar halls of Delphion Castle.

“If I become a spellcaster, will you finally believe you need me?!” I heard Ada’s cry ring out from somewhere nearby. Next came several different voices urging her to stop.

I rushed over as fast as I could, only to find Ada with her back to a pillar, gripping something in her hand. Surrounding her was Reggie’s royal guard, looks of dismay on every one of their faces. Ada’s eyes were fixed on Reggie, who Felix was hiding behind his back.

“Your chances of becoming a spellcaster are low. Most people lose their will and turn into rampaging defectives. If you do that and hurt someone as a result, I’ll have no choice but to kill you,” Reggie responded as he met Ada’s gaze, not a scrap of mercy to be found in his words.

If she had expected him to gently coax her to stop, she was sorely mistaken; he had dismissed the whole charade as pointless from the get-go. Rather than give up, however, Ada only backed herself further into a corner.

“But wouldn’t you rather have another spellcaster around? I can use this to test my aptitude, can’t I? If I don’t die... please, allow me to serve by your side.”

Ada seemed to think that if she became a spellcaster, Reggie would appoint her as a trusted aide. In which case, the thing she was holding had to be the sand of a contract stone. I had no idea where she’d gotten her hands on it, but I was overwhelmed by the strength of her feelings for Reggie.

Reggie gave a small sigh. “I’ve had just about enough. Here I’ve been meeting with you at your request, and yet you still haven’t provided us any worthwhile information. Frankly speaking, I’m starting to doubt whether you know anything more useful than what you gave us the other day.”

“Wha—you can’t mean that!”

“I’m sure you did glean a few more scraps of information in Trisphede. But a good deal of time has passed since then, hasn’t it? Llewyne’s circumstances have no doubt shifted since then, so it’s hard to say whether any of it would still be applicable. I don’t think I’ll bother dragging things out of you for much longer.” After bluntly informing Ada that her intel wasn’t worth anything to him, Reggie gave her a gentle smile. “What you told us the other day spared us the loss of a good deal of soldiers; I won’t deny that. You’ve already done your part. I promise to keep you with us until we make it back to your hometown, so there’s no need to push yourself to such lengths.”

“But... if I become a spellcaster...”

Ada looked frustrated—and more than that, unbearably sad.

Oh no. I see what’s going on, I thought to myself.

Ada knew how kind Reggie could be. And yet, since she wasn’t someone he could afford special treatment, she could sense that he was trying to gently push her away.

That sort of consideration wasn’t what Ada was looking for, though. She wanted Reggie all to herself. To a girl who desired nothing more or less than Reggie’s affections, a guarantee of her safety was meaningless. Hence why she chased after him so desperately, throwing childish tantrums no matter how likely they were to put him off to her.

Watching her made my heart ache.

All I wanted was for Reggie and I to understand each other like family—to reach out to each other without asking for anything in return. Whenever he hugged me, all I felt was peace.

But Reggie was no relation of mine. I couldn’t keep projecting my childish wishes onto him. It was upon that realization that I’d finally decided to get my act together... and yet it still made me so terribly lonely.

And so, in that moment, I couldn’t take my eyes off Ada.

She popped the vial open. As soon as she’d removed the cork-like stopper, Felix stretched out a hand toward her, yelling, “Don’t do anything rash!” Reggie didn’t say anything, simply setting a hand on his sword as he watched the scene unfold.

A chill ran down my spine. Reggie had already chosen to kill Ada before she could do any damage. It was enough to make me fear he was going to cast me aside the same way—after all, I was no relation of his, either.

The thought was too much to bear. I placed both hands on the stone floor, and my magic coursed through the rock, all the way to the pillar behind Ada. The sides of the pillar stretched out like writhing tentacles, knocking the vial out of her hand just as she brought it to her lips.

I ran up to Ada, shoving Reggie’s knights out of my way, and threw my arms around her. She was a little taller than me, so I couldn’t fully wrap her up in the hug, but I held her as tight as I could.

“Wha...?” Ada blinked, utterly stunned, but didn’t try to untangle herself from my embrace.

“Don’t be so cruel to yourself. You’ve endured so much already! If you’re having a hard time, why don’t we just take it easy for a bit?”

Ada just stared down at me like a bewildered child. For the moment, she was still reeling from the shock of it all. If she stayed near Reggie, it wouldn’t be long before memories of his rejection came flooding back to her, which was bound to send her into another fit of despair.

“Let’s go get you something warm to drink.”

If I’d given her a choice in her current state of disarray, it might have sent her into a panic all over again. Instead of waiting for her response, I started carrying her away in my arms. She shuffled her feet along with mine, the same dazed look stuck on her face. Reggie’s knights cleared a path for us, watching us go in silence. After glancing my way to make sure I was okay, Reggie signaled Cain with his eyes.

Cain was the only knight to follow after us. When we happened upon one of the castle servants along the way, he asked her to bring some tea for us. Once that was done, he guided us to a suitable room for the occasion.

“Thank you, Sir Cain.”

“I’ll be waiting outside the door.”

“I appreciate it. Sorry for all the trouble.”

Cain tactfully stepped out of the room. Perhaps he was worried, seeing as he stuck close to the other side of the door. Words couldn’t express how grateful I was for all his help.

I sat us down on a loveseat in the room, my arms still wrapped around Ada. It was made of wood and no-frills, without so much as a cushion, so it wasn’t particularly comfortable.

Ada was still zoned out, looking like her mind had gone completely blank. Though I was the one who had dragged her all the way here, I didn’t have any brilliant ideas myself. I’d simply acted on impulse, and now I was stuck wondering what to do next. I wasn’t sure if I ought to let go of her or not, either. If she was her usual self, she probably would have pushed me away by now. Was it okay to just stay like this?

“Hey, do you mind me holding you like this?”

She didn’t respond.

Now I was really in a pickle. Was it that she did mind, but didn’t want to say anything? Or was she fine with it, but didn’t have the energy to answer? I thought about asking one more time, but Ada muttered something before I could.

“‘You don’t have to do that.’” The thoughts swirling around in her head started to spill from her mouth. “That’s what I expected him to say. I thought he was going to stop me.” Her voice wavered on the last few words.

I realized she was just looking for someone to listen, so I gave a silent nod of my head.

“I thought that perhaps he cared enough to keep me from doing it. Or even if he didn’t, that he wanted the information badly enough to put on a show of it.” Ada drew her lips into a thin line.

Reggie would try to hold people back with his words, but he never forced anyone to stop what they were doing. That was the only reason I was allowed such free rein. No matter how much I struggled to get his blessing, I was always able to do whatever I set out to. Meanwhile, Ada was trying to measure his feelings for her by seeing whether or not he would intervene in her attempted self-harm.

If a bombshell like Ada kept incessantly declaring her love for him, any other man would have grown endeared to her at some point down the line. Perhaps that hypothetical man would have given her what she wanted.

Reggie was the wrong person to seek that from. He knew full well that there were some people you just couldn’t expect compassion from, and that included your own blood relations. I had memories of my loving past-life family, so that lesson had stuck with him even harder than me. As a consequence, a simple appeal to sentiment would never be enough to sway him. If you wanted to get past that, you had to spend a great deal of time building a bond of trust with him, like Alan or Cain.

Unfortunately, Ada’s circumstances made that impossible. As soon as we took back Trisphede, she was going to be left behind. Ada realized that herself, and perhaps that was why she’d thought of becoming a spellcaster like me; as a girl, it was the only way she could stick with the troops until the bitter end.

“His Highness would never stand in anyone’s way. When I became a spellcaster, he got mad at me after the fact, but he never once tried to stop me. He’s never had much freedom of his own, so he doesn’t want to keep anyone else from seeing their own decisions through—for better or for worse.”

“He won’t hold anyone back?” Ada asked.

I nodded, and sadness overtook her features. Ada always had such a confident look about her that whenever her expression darkened, her sorrow came through that much clearer. It was like how the wilting of a gorgeous rose was always more striking than that of a lone wildflower.

After some deliberation, she responded, “That makes no sense.” She sounded more disapproving than anything, but I got the sense that she had started to come to terms with his desertion of her. She wasn’t about to have any more sudden outbursts.

That servant chose just the right moment to show up with our tea. I unwrapped my arms from around Ada, and the two of us sat side by side, drinking in silence. Ada seemed to have calmed down considerably, content to sip at her tea without a word.

Eventually, Emmeline tracked us down.

“Oh, there you are! There’s something I’d like you both to take part in. Could you come with me for a moment?”

“Where to?”

“My room.”

I followed along at her insistence. Ada probably wasn’t in the mood to chase Reggie down after all that, so she came with us, too.

“Shall I excuse myself?” Cain, who had been waiting outside the door, politely made to leave, but Emmeline held him back.

“On the contrary, it would be a big help if you could carry some luggage for me.”

“Very well.”

It seemed Cain had gone from bodyguard to packhorse. But what in the world involves heavy luggage that she would need me and Ada for?

“Are you doing a bit of organizing, Miss Emmeline?”

“Tomorrow is the day, you see.”

“For what?”

“Delphion’s traditional autumn festival.”

Autumn festivals were held in most regions of this world, even outside Farzia. It was the season with the largest crop yield, so festivals had gained popularity as a way to pray for a bountiful harvest. Plus, being an event that brought lots of people together, it was a good opportunity to mingle with the neighboring villages and perhaps even meet a special someone.

When I was little, I never had the chance to so much as hear about these festivals, and when I was living with the count, I wasn’t allowed outside much in case I thought of escaping. I’d never gotten to actually see one until I started living in Évrard.

It sounded like Delphion’s festival was a bit on the unique side, though. Everyone wore costumes.

“It’s based on a local legend about a man who took in a baby monster.”

Once upon a time, a certain villager had taken in a black, winged, baby monster—a darkwing cat. One of the kitten’s wings had been injured. By the time she had been fully nursed back to health, the monster had taken quite a liking to the villager, but she had grown too big to keep hidden away. He released the darkwing cat into a nearby wood.

A few years later, there was a huge outbreak of monsters in Delphion. Right when the villager was about to be attacked, he was saved by the very same darkwing cat, who had grown even bigger over the years. On one of the toes of her right forepaw, she was wearing the collar the villager had gifted her so long ago.

So went the story Emmeline told us, anyway. It had a lot in common with the Japanese legend of the grateful crane.

From then on, the entire village made it a custom to pay tribute to the monster who had protected their home. Long after the man who had adopted her passed away, the darkwing cat had kept the village safe from harm.

The superstition took on the form of a festival held once a year, where people would dress up as monsters... or something like that. These days, it was a celebration where everyone would give out candy to people in costumes. When I heard the explanation, my first thought was that it sounded like a mix of an autumn festival and Halloween.

“Thankfully, we’ve received His Highness’ permission to hold the festival. It seems regulations weren’t tightened under Llewyne’s occupation, so the townspeople managed to make all the necessary preparations for the event. If we were to call it off now, I imagine they’d be quite disgruntled.”

We arrived at Emmeline’s room as she was telling us all of that. Lucille was already there waiting for us.

“I packed just about everything we’ll be needing inside, my dearest Emmeline.” Lucille pointed toward two wooden chests in the center of the room.

The boxes were nearly as long as I was tall. A commoner could’ve used one in place of a chair—or heck, if it was just a little bit longer, even in place of a bed.

“What’s inside?”

“Costumes.”

“Seriously?”

Wait. Did she bring me and Ada here so we could dress up?!

“Women always dress up as the darkwing cat for this festival,” Emmeline explained.

“These days, the guidelines have become a lot more flexible to allow for a greater variety of costumes,” Lucille added. “Anything goes as long as you wear cat ears on your head and wings on your back.”

“First off, we need to carry these chests to where all the other women are gathered.”

Emmeline asked us to bring them to a nearby reception hall. Cain grabbed one of the chests, and I formed a golem out of garden stones to carry the other. Ada stared in horror as my golem flexed its fingers before hefting the box over its shoulder, and I let slip a laugh.

“Wha—I beg your pardon! I was just shocked that you’d waste your magic on such bizarre gestures!”

That was a rude way to put it, but given that her face was bright red and she looked two seconds from crying, she didn’t come across as very intimidating.

“You’re cute when you’re surprised,” I admitted.

Flustered, Ada’s eyes darted around the room until she finally dropped her gaze to the floor.

Anyway. “I could’ve used my magic to carry both of them, you know,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at Cain as he followed behind us.

“It isn’t that heavy. I might have considered your offer if we had to go up and down the stairs, but we’re just taking them right around the corner,” he responded, like there was nothing to it. Given how big and heavy the thing looked, that was a pretty impressive feat.

Lucille seemed to be in agreement. “You’re amazing, sir! Oh, I wish I could help, too!”

She felt guilty about being the only one without something to carry, apparently. Of course, since Cain had the luggage hefted all the way up over his shoulder, there was no way for Lucille to assist. The sight of her scurrying alongside Cain, desperately looking for something to do, was nothing short of adorable.

Being an expert at handling little kids, Cain had no problem humoring her. “Once you’ve grown a little bigger, you’re free to help out as much as you like. For now, just sit back and learn from your elders’ example.”

I wondered if he’d ever said something similar to his late brother.

It wasn’t long before we arrived at our destination. When we opened the door, we found a large group of young women inside, who I assumed were all castle staff. They were busy spreading out and sewing stretches of fabric, all in preparation for the festival. Judging by the folding screen that had been set up in the middle of the room, they would be trying on their finished costumes here, too.

Cain set the chest down close to the door, then wandered off elsewhere. I handed Master Horace off to him before he left, ensuring the privacy of all the other girls in the room.

“Now, take your pick! Whatever we don’t end up using, we’ll lend to someone else!” Emmeline dragged the chest to the center of the room, opened the lid, and started taking out costumes.

There were cat ear headbands, some of them adorned with fancy lace, others decorated with glass jewels... and all of them pretty flashy. This really was like a glitzy, cats-only version of Halloween.

There was just one problem here. I had no desire to put on cat ears in front of a crowd of people.

Well, this is awkward. How am I supposed to tell her no?

“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass on the costumes.”

“The Delphion army was just at war with itself, remember? Having military personnel participate in the festival would be a good way to broadcast our reconciliation.” Emmeline shot me down without missing a beat.

“You see, I’m not a fan of drawing that much attention to myself.”

“You won’t dress up with us? But I was really looking forward to it.” Lucille stared at the floor with a crestfallen look on her face.

Ouch. She’s breaking my heart here! Now what do I do?

“You’re not going anywhere either, Miss Ada.” Emmeline got to her feet and held Ada back just as she was making to leave. “I fully intend to have you participate, too. You see, there’s another reason this festival is significant for single young ladies.”

“And what is that?”

“Men can give women a bracelet made of braided ribbon as a sign that he wishes to court her. It’s symbolic of the collar the villager gave to the darkwing cat.”

Come to think of it, Évrard’s festival had a similar tradition.

“No thank you. I have no interest in flaunting myself to the general public.”

“The more fish there are in the sea, the better a catch we can pick out for ourselves.”

Ada had a hard time coming up with a counterargument for that one. Wait, does that mean she has experience with “fishing”?

“There’s no point if those ‘catches’ are all small fry I have no room to eat. There’s only one man I—”

“If a branch family girl aims too high, she’ll just end up making herself miserable.” Emmeline mercilessly cut down Ada’s rebuttal.

“That’s not true!”

“Isn’t it? Once you’re royalty, you’ll hardly ever have the chance to practice your archery. I’ve heard that was something His Highness’ aunt, Lady Évrard, struggled with.”

“You think I care about that?”

Agreed. It was a little hard for me to sympathize with the “struggles” of being kept from archery practice. That said, I didn’t want to get dragged into their argument, so I sidled up to Lucille and kept as far away from the pair as possible. Besides, all this talk of picking up men was completely uncharted territory for me. There was no good place for me to jump into the conversation, nor was I particularly interested.

“I’m not ready for all this adult talk yet.”

“Aren’t you better off listening? Here I thought you’d already come of age.” Lucille went straight for the throat.

“Ngh...” I curled up in shame.

Meanwhile, Emmeline was still putting the pressure on Ada. “Perhaps ‘miserable’ was overstating it. Still, if you can’t even catch a small fry, how do you expect to hook the big fish you’re really after?”

“Hmm. You have a point.”

Oh dear. I think Emmeline is brainwashing poor Ada.

At this rate, I really was about to get pulled into it. If there was nowhere to run, maybe I had to think of some other solution. And lo, just as the thought crossed my mind, I noticed a certain costume inside the chest.

“I... I want this one!” With trembling hands, I hastily pulled my mark out of the box and held it close to my chest.

“Really? You want that one?” Lucille asked, surprised. “That’s meant to be worn by children... or women already in a relationship.”

I definitely had my heart set on this one. Judging by Lucille’s reaction, though, if I just said that, there was a good chance Emmeline would raise an objection, confiscate it, and force me to wear something else.

So what was the best way to stop her from taking it away? To wear it, obviously.

I wasted no time pulling it on over my dress. The loose waistline left me plenty of extra wiggle room, so I had no issue wearing it over the rest of my clothes.

Here it was, my shining beacon of hope—a cat onesie with tiny wings on the back!

The onesies I recalled from my past life were basically just pajamas, so wearing one didn’t bother me in the least. Plus, it even had a hood that I could pull down over my eyes, hiding my face from view. It was just perfect.

“Nobody will be able to tell you’re the spellcaster in that,” said Lucille. “Besides, I’d call that more comical than cute—”

“I like that it lets me blend in! I don’t care about looking cute!”

Emmeline finally caught wind of our conversation. “What?! When did you put that on, Miss Kiara?! I was planning to have you wear this one—wait, no, this one! Look, it’s much cuter!” She slipped a cat ear headband onto Ada’s head, then pointed at a few dresses made out of soft, gray fur, doing her best to sell me on one of those.

Look, those dresses show WAY too much skin for me to pull off.

Now that I’d settled on an outfit, it was time to hightail it out of here. If I could just make it to tomorrow without seeing Emmeline or Lucille again, they would have no choice but to let me keep this costume!

“Too late! I refuse to wear anything but this now, so byeee!”

I sprinted out of the reception hall, aiming to have the last word.

“I don’t think so, Miss Kiara!” Emmeline came chasing after me with just a few moments’ delay. She was dragging Ada and Lucille with her, too.

“Waaah! Look, I’ll join in the festival wearing this! Isn’t that good enough?!”

“You’re not going to catch anyone’s eye like that! It defeats the whole purpose of showcasing our friendly relations!”

“Go ask someone else to do it! Girsch is way more of a girly girl than me! Now that’s someone who could pull off the cute and fluffy look!”

“No! We don’t have anything that would fit!” My brilliant idea was instantly shot down.

Wait, going by that response, it’d be fine if we had something in the right size?!

“Ada, go catch Kiara for me!” Emmeline ordered. “I’ll exempt you from wearing a costume!”

Ada had been getting dragged along by the hand, but that was enough to give her a sudden surge in motivation and take off into a sprint.

Eeep!

As I glanced back over my shoulder, I pushed my legs as hard as they could possibly go, but the bottom half of the onesie was too short to let me run any faster. I was so panicked that I pitched forward as I rounded a corner, nearly falling flat on my face, but Ada caught me by the scruff of my neck just in the nick of time.

“Gweh!” came my strangled cry.

“Perish, so I can live!” came Ada’s desperate shout.

“Good job, Miss Ada!” came Emmeline’s delighted cheer.

Then, one new voice was added into the mix. “What are you girls doing?”

For a moment, my mind went completely blank. There was Reggie, standing right in front of me with his royal guard in tow.

Even Reggie was shocked by the absurd sight he’d stumbled upon; he was staring at us in wide-eyed astonishment. Groul’s jaw had nearly dropped to the floor. Worst of all, my hood had fallen down, so I had no way to hide my face from them.

Getting caught snatching me up had clearly sent Ada over her threshold for embarrassment; all the color had drained from her face. Even Emmeline was horrified to get caught in the act of apprehending the spellcaster, judging by the way she froze up.

“Pfft... Heheh... Ahahahaha!” What finally broke the silence was Reggie’s resounding burst of laughter.

To be fair, I did look pretty ridiculous right now. If I were in Reggie’s shoes, I’d be cracking up, too.

A startled look crossed Ada’s face as she watched Reggie shake with laughter.

“Is this for tomorrow’s festival?” Groul slowly inquired, almost like he was afraid to ask.

Emmeline nodded. “That’s right... although I’m trying to convince Lady Kiara to wear something a little cuter.”

“Haha, I’d say that one’s already plenty cute. It’s a good look on you, Kiara,” Reggie said, punctuating it with another fit of giggles.

You’re just making fun of me, aren’t you?

He walked right up to me, only to grab the hood from behind me and pull it down over my head. Then he started laughing again.

What’s your problem?!

“Well, enjoy the rest of your social hour.”

With a wave of his hand, Reggie walked off. He obviously had no interest in bailing me out of my predicament, the big jerk.

However, his parting remark had given me a flash of inspiration, and a grin slowly rose to my face. When I made eye contact with Groul, he looked scared out of his wits.

After that, I returned to the reception hall, went to Emmeline with my proposal, and managed to get her blessing.

For some reason, Ada kept staring at the cat onesie I was wearing.

◇◇◇

The following day, I slipped into the costume I’d borrowed.

“Ugh... Talk about mortifying.”

I was wearing the black, frilly dress that Emmeline had forced on me, along with a cat ear headband made out of some kind of fur, which I’d agreed to as a compromise. For the final touch, I was wearing a green ribbon around my neck like some kind of choker, a golden bell dangling from it. Before I’d realized what was happening, Emmeline had pushed that into my hands along with the cat ears.

Believe it or not, this was what I’d been left with after begging Emmeline to tone it down as much as possible. If I’d still had my past-life looks, I bet my head would have looked pasted on to this over-the-top ensemble.

It felt a lot like I was dressed in cosplay, which was extremely embarrassing for a first-timer. Of course, since I’d already given Emmeline my word, there was no backing out now. All I could do was keep telling myself over and over that everyone was going to be dressed like this out there.

It’ll be fine. I’m going to REALLY grab their attention with something else.

Just as I was taking a few deep, calming breaths, Master Horace started making a fuss from underneath the blankets of my bed.

“Hey, little disciple! Let me out already!”

“Care to explain why you’re so interested in seeing my costume, Master Horace?”

Before I’d started getting changed, he’d asked me, “So what are you going to be wearing? Mmheehee!”

“Why wouldn’t I want to see my girl’s proudest moment? Mweheheh!”

“Yeah, that laugh at the end really ruined it.”

What strange ideas does he have in his head now? I wondered as I pulled back the blankets and set him free.

“Wow. That’s a lot of black.”

“The design is based on a darkwing cat. Of course it’s going to be black.”

The monster of legend was a winged cat, its fur black enough that it could fly away and blend into the inky darkness of the night. If Emmeline had made me wear a replica of its wings on my back, I bet I would’ve fit right in on one of those singing competitions I used to see on TV. Thankfully, vetoing that had left me with a slightly more subdued ensemble.

You know, that’s a good point. At least it’s not a garish color like white or red, I thought, grasping for anything to convince myself it wasn’t that bad.

I tied my belt around my waist like always, hung Master Horace from it, and left the room.

“Sorry for the wait.”

Cain, who would be accompanying me around the festival, was waiting for me outside the door. He took a long look at my outfit, then reached out to touch the cat ears on my head.

“What are these made of?”

“Rabbit fur, according to Miss Emmeline.”

I’d found them incredibly fluffy and soft to the touch, and apparently, so did Cain. He prodded at them a couple times, then gave me a pat on the head.

“We’re supposed to meet up at the entrance, yes? Let’s go,” he prompted, and we took off down the corridor.

I was just glad he hadn’t said I looked weird. With that load off my mind, we made our way to the front entrance of the castle, where I was instantly swallowed up in a sea of black. Everywhere I looked, there was nothing and no one around me but girls in black cat ears.

There were children dressed like adorable kittens, wearing cat ears and black, puffy trousers with a tail coming out the back. Some of the women who had only just come of age were holding fans that unfolded into the shape of a cat. One girl was wearing glittering wings on her back made of some mystery material, while another was decked out in a dress with a plunging neckline, carrying a cat stuffed animal over her shoulder. Even the older women had on cat ears, a cat tail, and wings made of bird feathers at a minimum. Many had designed themselves pretty elaborate costumes, sewing twinkling bits of glass into their clothes or lace veils.

If blended into this crowd, nobody was even going to notice I was here.

In contrast to my relief, Cain had a dubious look on his face. “This is all... a lot.”

“Yeah! I can tell everyone worked really hard.”

Of course, Cain was a full head taller than everyone else in this crowd of women, making him easy to spot. Someone called out to him just as he and I were whispering to each other. “Hey, Wentworth, what are you doing over there?”

It was one of Alan’s knights, Chester. He was casting eager glances around the area, his cheeks flushed and rosy.

“In this festival, girls parade around in costumes,” Emmeline explained from beside him.

I could practically see his own personal vision of paradise popping up in his head. “You mean Delphion is going to be full of girls dressed like this?! We have to go out on the town, milord!” Chester turned to Alan next to him, began shaking him by the shoulders, and begged, “Please! I’ll do anything! I need this morale boost!”

“There’s the issue of security, though,” Alan contended with an iffy look, then took Chester and left.

Come to think of it, why had Reggie encouraged me to participate when I was a potential target for an abduction or assassination? He was still shut up inside the castle himself.

Giving a puzzled tilt of my head, I followed Emmeline’s guidance and left the castle with the rest of the women.

It wasn’t long before we came upon a row of stone pillars lining the road from the castle to the town. After receiving permission from Emmeline, I used one of them to make myself a ride shaped like a giant dog. It was about the same size as a horse, so hopefully it wasn’t going to get in anyone’s way.

Once I had crafted a seat on its back and climbed on, I was finally starting to get excited. I’d always wanted to ride on a giant dog when I was little, which was why I’d gone with this shape. This was going to be so much fun.

Emmeline looked up at me, a tiny sigh escaping her lips. “Well, I won’t deny that it’s eye-catching.”

Apparently, she’d been hoping I’d walk around the town on my own two feet. It was too late now, though; we were on the march.

The city spread out before my eyes, mahogany brick surrounding me on all sides. Stalls had been set up in front of some of the houses, and the town was abuzz with the mingling of the parading women and the men looking on from the side of the road.

The men would say, “Please take this offering and protect our town,” and hand the girls passing by a piece of candy, which the women would then take and place inside a handbasket.

As Emmeline led the pack, several men dressed like soldiers stepped forward to offer her a sweet. Right beside her was Ada, dressed in one heck of a onesie. It was a powered-up version of the costume I’d run away with the other day. The size of the wings on her back spoke to how much effort she’d put into it, plus she’d fixed them with reed screens embroidered with glittering beads. Even from a distance, she stood out from the rest of the crowd. She wasn’t wearing the hood, either. There was a pair of cat ears on her head, and her hair was tied into its usual bun.

She must have spent all night working on it, judging by the faint circles under her eyes. Why had she suddenly decided to take this so seriously?

A single frostfox trotted along behind her. Gina was walking beside Emmeline, and Reynard had tagged along for the trip.

He was busy sniffing at the legs of her onesie. Thankfully, Ada hadn’t seemed to notice, but I thought I was going to have a heart attack just watching it.

For the record, Gina wasn’t wearing so much as a pair of cat ears. I’m so jealous! How did she get out of it?!

Though there were a whole slew of things to occupy my attention, I was having a pretty enjoyable time watching the festival. I felt like a headwind I’d been faced with had just blown right past me. It was a refreshing feeling, yet somehow also a lonely one.

“Are you having fun?” Master Horace suddenly asked.

I bobbed my head in a nod. “I am. It feels very... peaceful?”

My own words fell strangely flat. Picking up on that, Cain prompted, “Is it too peaceful?”

After some thought, I nodded.

Cain’s expression turned grim. “I imagine it’s because this is so far removed from what you’d associate with war,” he said, speculating on the source of my discomfort as he walked alongside my stone dog. “I felt the same way when I lost my mother and brother in the war. Once the war was over and my family had been laid to rest, there was quite a bit of merrymaking to celebrate our victory.”

He gazed out at the festivities around him as he spoke. It sounded almost like a soliloquy.

“We had just beaten Llewyne, so of course everyone was elated. And for some people, perhaps those festivities were what let it sink in that they’d finally avenged their fallen friends and family. But at the time, the dissonance was too much for me to handle. I didn’t know how to take it.”

Without some kind of closure, it was hard to feel like the fight had truly come to an end; that was probably the real reason for those grand victory celebrations. Otherwise, everyone would get too caught up in their sorrow to move on with their lives.

However, for someone like me, who knew I would have to keep fighting after this, or someone like Cain, who had been left distraught and all alone in the world, a festival seemed like something out of an isolated world.

Perhaps that was why the loss of his family had left such a deep and lasting scar on Cain’s heart.

“If it felt like everyone was just putting your feelings behind them, of course it would be even harder to forget your family,” I murmured, putting my passing thoughts into words.

Cain didn’t respond. But once he was done staring straight out ahead of him, he finally caught my gaze and, for just a few seconds, gave me a tiny smile.

◇◇◇

Later on, Emmeline, Gina, and I all made it back to the castle without incident, baskets full of candy in hand. Ada had run off somewhere the moment we’d gotten back.

“What was that all about?” I asked Emmeline.

She frowned. “I lied to her and told her that His Highness would be taking part in the festival. That’s what got her to come along willingly, but she found out the truth eventually, of course. I’m sure she’s on her way to ambush the prince as we speak.”

“Oh... Now I see.”

I remembered I’d been shocked at how docile she’d been, quietly walking behind Emmeline. So that was the trick to it.

“The girl has nothing but His Highness on the brain. I was hoping that if she went outside and interacted with other people, perhaps it would broaden her horizons.”

Emmeline heaved a sigh, deeming her plan a failure. I wasn’t sure there was any helping Ada myself. I mean, Reggie had just completely dismissed her fake suicide attempt the other day, and she was still chasing after him. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to just leave her be, though, I thought.

I encouraged Cain to get some rest, then headed back to my own room.

After setting Master Horace down and taking a short breather, I noticed there wasn’t much water left in the pitcher in my room, so I went to get a refill. Today was the festival, after all, so the castle was short on manpower. It would be faster to do the job myself, and easier on the servants, too.

When I left my room and started walking down the corridor with a brass jug in hand, I saw someone come racing up the stairs.

It was Reggie. To witness him running around the castle was a rare sight; I was so surprised that I stopped dead in my tracks.

As soon as Reggie spotted me, he frantically pleaded, “Kiara, tell her I hid somewhere... No, no, I know you’ll just crack like an egg. Come this way!”

“Excuse me?!”

Reggie grabbed me by the hand and took off running farther down the corridor.

What’s going on? I wondered for a moment, but it wasn’t long before the source of Reggie’s dread had reached my ears, too.

“Where have you run off to, Your Grace?!”

“His Highness went outside—”

“I just saw him! There’s no way he could have left the castle!”

It was Ada’s voice. Someone had tried to trick her when she asked where Reggie went, but she’d seen through the lie in a heartbeat.

Now I understood why he was running.

Reggie dragged me all the way into a nearby room. “Stay here, Kiara, and don’t tell her anything about me.”

“What?!”

He lifted me up before I even had a chance to ask for context, placing me inside the empty closet of the unused guest room. With that, he closed the door on me, leaving me alone with nothing but a water pitcher in hand. I heard some rustling while I was still stunned, so I assumed Reggie had gone to hide himself somewhere, too.

Before long, I heard Ada shriek, followed by Master Horace laughing, “Mmheehee!”

“Excuse me! How dare you try to pull the wool over my eyes!”

“You’re an awfully rude one, little lady! Mmheehee!”

I heard the bang of a door slamming shut. She’d probably bolted from the room, chased out by his incessant cackling.

That hadn’t been enough to discourage her. She kept bursting into whichever rooms she stumbled upon, evidently in search of Reggie. Just as I was thinking that this was a lot like a game of hide-and-seek, I heard the sound of her entering the room Reggie had left me in.

“Where are you, Your Grace?! At least tell me what you think! Did it amuse you?!” she called out.

That question came as an even bigger surprise. Wait, is she trying to get Reggie to laugh?!

At last, I finally understood what Ada had been going for with that crazy costume of hers. She didn’t want him to say she looked cute; she was trying to get a chuckle out of him.

The moment I realized that, I felt a tiny pang in my chest. Ada really does love Reggie, after all... Otherwise, she wouldn’t care about making him laugh.

Right as that thought crossed my mind, the door to the closet flung open, and I blinked a few times as my eyes adjusted to the blinding light.

“Your Gra—what are you doing here, Miss Kiara?!” Ada stared down at me with a startled expression.

Meanwhile, seeing her dressed in that surreal costume and looming right over me had me scared stiff. It’s terrifying to get chased around when you look like that, Ada!

I was so flustered that I accidentally blurted out the truth. “Reg—err, His Highness told me to hide in this closet.”

“Why on earth would he do that?!” she screeched, only to make a frustrated tsk. “He’s going to run off while I’m distracted again! I must hurry!”

She absconded from the room, scurrying off elsewhere. Eventually, when the sounds of her hunt had faded away, Reggie stepped out from behind the window curtain. “Thanks for the help, Kiara.”

I finally pieced together why he’d dragged me to this room in the first place. “Did you just use me as bait?”

“I did. Sorry about that.” His apology didn’t come off as very sincere.

Most likely, Ada had discovered one of Reggie’s hiding places before he’d happened upon me. Having learned from that experience, she hadn’t stopped at just opening the doors to every room she could find and taking a peek inside; she’d noted that the closet was big enough for someone his size to hide in and made sure to check there, too.

On top of that, there had probably been another instance when she’d looked inside a room only to find someone Reggie had left there as bait, during which time he’d taken the chance to make a stealthy escape. Seeing as she’d fallen for the same trick once before, she’d made the incorrect assumption that Reggie had run off somewhere while I had her attention.

But Reggie was one step ahead of her; he’d actually been in the same room as me the whole time.

“In a stroke of bad luck, I ran into her as I was walking down the corridor. I managed to make my escape while she was distracted, but she simply wouldn’t give up.”

“But...”

I opened my mouth to tell him that this time, I was pretty sure she wasn’t just chasing him for the sake of chasing him. However, the words refused to come out, as if they’d been caught in the back of my throat. I was afraid to say it. When I tried to come up with an explanation as to why, I recalled a bit of wisdom I’d heard in my past life: Don’t go meddling in other people’s love lives.

Besides, Reggie was far better at reading people than I was; there was a good chance he had already figured that out for himself and still decided he wasn’t interested. In which case, it would just be a nuisance to have me say anything about it.

Whatever it was, it was between the two of them... or so I thought, but for some reason, the idea made my heart ache.

“What’s wrong, Kiara?” Reggie inquired, puzzled.

Shoot. How do I play this off?

“Did using you as a decoy bother you that much? Well then, I apologize for putting you in such a bad mood.”

“No, I didn’t really mind it!”

I knew that he’d just wanted me to cover for him so he could hide, and it wasn’t like it had caused me any real trouble. Since the two of us were friends, it was only natural for Reggie to casually call on my help like that.

“But something about it didn’t sit well with you, did it?” Reggie asked, peering into my face.

I couldn’t tell him the truth. All I had to say was, Hey, I think Ada wants to make you laugh, but I just couldn’t. I got the feeling I was doing something really mean here, and I detested myself for it.

I fell silent for a bit.

“Is it something you don’t want to say? Then you don’t have to,” Reggie finally said, smiling.

It was always such a relief when he would let me get away with things like that. What’s more, he even changed the topic for me. “That’s a cute costume you’re wearing, by the way. How was the festival?”

“Oh! Everything was really busy.”

“Did you have any fun? Lady Emmeline asked if she could bring you along for a change of pace. She mentioned that you’d seemed down as of late.”

“She did?”

Neither Alan nor Reggie had been allowed to go for security reasons, so I’d thought it strange that I was. I never would have guessed that it was all to provide me with a distraction. Was that why Emmeline had looked so disappointed when I said I was going to ride on a golem and observe everything from up high? She must have been worried that it was going to deprive me of the festival experience.

Things might have worked out exactly as Emmeline planned, though. I hadn’t thought about Isaac at all while I was parading around the town.

“Don’t worry. I had a really good time.”

“In that case, I’d like to reward you for participating in the festival. I heard you were riding your golem, so I’m willing to bet you didn’t get any candy.” Reggie took something out of the pocket of his jacket. “Hold out your hand, Kiara.”

“Huh?”

Wondering what he might possibly give me, I held out my right palm. Reggie caught my fingers in his hand, slipping something on over the middle one.

“Huh? What?”

“One of the merchants from the castle town gave this to me the other day. I have no need of any accessories myself, but I didn’t want the Delphion merchants to think I wasn’t interested in doing business with them.”

What Reggie had put on my middle finger was a ring with a tiny, pale blue gem.

“Whaaat?!”

Hey, is that a ring? Why a ring?! It doesn’t matter if it’s the world of my past life or this one; rings aren’t ever a gift you’re supposed to give to a girl so casually!

“You’re overreacting, Kiara. You did us a service by taking part in the festival in place of me or Alan, so I wanted to give you something in return. A ring isn’t going to be particularly cumbersome, and if you ever find yourself in a spot of trouble, you can easily sell it for funds.”

“But... a ring?”

If that was his reasoning, a necklace would have worked just as well. No, wait, that one’s a little suggestive, too!

I had completely lost my cool, but Reggie didn’t seem particularly bothered.

“According to that merchant, you can place a ring on someone’s middle finger to serve as an amulet. So you can think of this as a lucky charm, if you’d like.”

A lucky charm? As soon as Reggie said it, I thought back to the festival earlier that day. If a man had feelings for a woman, it was a bracelet that he was supposed to give her. Did a ring signify something different, then? Besides, if he just told me I was allowed to sell it... then it probably didn’t mean anything special, right?

I was relieved, yet at the same time, strangely disappointed.

“For now, why don’t you come on out of there?” Reggie prompted.

Now that he mentioned it, I realized how weird it was to continue this conversation while hugging my knees in the closet. It was time to come out of there.

Just as I was getting to my feet, I remembered I was still holding the water jug and stopped to set it down on the floor. The closet was pretty small, though; when I bent down, I hit my hip against the backboard, sending me tumbling forward.

“Whoa!”

“Kiara?!”

Surprised, Reggie moved to catch me as I took a headfirst dive, but it happened so suddenly that he couldn’t support my weight. I fell to the floor, pushing Reggie down underneath me.

The only reason it hadn’t hurt was because Reggie had cushioned my fall. He was holding me close, our cheeks pressed up against one another.

“Sorry—”

I wanted to apologize. That was all.

But right when I turned my head to look at him, he did the same. I felt something soft touch the corner of my lips.

And it definitely wasn’t his cheek.

That was the corner of his mouth, wasn’t it?

The moment I realized our lips had touched, I put my hands on his chest and shoved myself away from him. This wasn’t even like the time we’d nearly kissed in Évrard; it was a complete accident. I had no idea what to do.

I wanted to make a break for it, but Reggie wrapped his arms around my shoulders to hold me back. Then, he adjusted his embrace so that my forehead was resting against his shoulder.

“I’m sorry. If you didn’t like it, you can just forget that it happened.”

When Reggie apologized, my inner turmoil began to subside. I knew it was really my fault. I should have waited to apologize until we’d disentangled ourselves.

“I’m sorry, too.”

Yet for some reason, his apology had also made me unbearably sad. There was something off about me today. At the rate things were going, I was afraid that I was going to end up saying something I shouldn’t.

“I’m, um... going to go back to my room. I’m sure Miss Ada’s gotten pretty far by now,” was all I said, hanging my head. I pushed myself away from Reggie—for real this time—and fled the scene.

“Kiara!”

I heard Reggie’s voice calling after me, but I dashed into my room and shut the door. Once I was inside, I pressed my back against the door and crouched down on the spot.

When I did, I stared down at the hand resting atop my knees—or, more specifically, the ring on my middle finger. If I took it off, maybe it would look like I was reading too far into it. It wouldn’t save me from the embarrassment.

After much debate, I left the ring on my finger, simply covering it up with my other hand.