Chapter 7: The Post-Battle Agenda

In my sleep, I traced over each one of his fingers with my own, counting them off. The moment I’d confirmed that all five digits were still firmly attached to his hand, a wave of relief washed over me. It was reassuring to know that the severed, ring-bearing finger I’d seen of his had only been a dream.

I heard him murmur, “Don’t worry. I’m right here,” to which I responded by clamping both of my hands around his, squeezing it tight.

“Évrard was invaded, and not long after, someone showed me your severed finger. All I could recognize of it was your ring. The next thing I heard was that you were dead, so I just...”

He assured me that nothing of the sort had happened. When he remarked on how worried I seemed, I told him how fraught and distressing it had been. The warmth of his hand made me realize how cold I was, and I snuggled up against the whole length of his arm. With a small laugh, he wrapped me up in his embrace.

Reggie was warm and breathing. Of course he couldn’t have died. When I said that out loud, halfway to tears, he asked me if those dreams were why I hated the idea of my loved ones dying so much. I nodded in response. I never wanted to be left behind again.

“You didn’t have to run off to kill Lord Credias. If it was going to cost you your life, I would have rather died alongside you.”

When I blurted out the thought that had been haunting me for ages now, he once again assured me that it was just a dream. “We took him down together. Don’t you remember?”

That didn’t sound right to me, but at the very least, it reassured me that Reggie no longer had a reason to throw himself into danger. So I said, “Don’t leave me behind. Don’t run off on your own.”

What I heard was, “I don’t plan on ever letting you go, whether you like it or not. Sure you can handle that?”

Why on earth would I ever have a problem with that? Finally confident that he wasn’t going to leave me all alone, I clung to him even harder.

“Alright, that’s enough. Seducing you while you’re still half asleep is a coward’s move. Time to wake up, Kiara.”

“Hm?”

He shook me by the shoulders, snapping me out of my warm fuzzies.

“Come now, while I still have my wits about me.”

He gave me an even harder shake, and I felt myself slowly fading back into consciousness. Wait, was I asleep?

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was Reggie’s face, no more than ten centimers away from my own. His beautiful, silver eyelashes were long enough to inspire envy, and the porcelain white skin of his face looked perfectly smooth, save for one almost-faded cut across his cheek.

When I instinctively reached out to touch it, I was astonished to find myself wrapped up in Reggie’s arms.

Hold on, is this a bed? Why are the two of us lying atop the nice, white sheets of a fully made bed?!

Once the wheels in my head started turning, I opened my mouth to shriek. Reggie wasted no time shoving my face into his shoulder to shut me up.

“If you scream, people are going to assume I’m up to no good and come flooding in to check on us. Is that what you want?”

“What are you talking about? Huh? What’s all this?”

Had I been sleeping next to Reggie all this time? As much as I wanted to ask, I stumbled over my words, too embarrassed to come out with the question.

While I desperately tried to come up with a way to play this off, my eyes darted this way and that, skimming over wooden beams, a ceiling, and plaster walls. We were obviously staying in some sort of building rather than camping outdoors. Each of us was fully clothed, too, and when I stopped to take a closer look, I noticed that I was wrapped up in my own private blanket cocoon.

In the meantime, Reggie took a stab at what I was trying to ask. “You passed out soon after healing the king of Salekhard.”

“Yeah, I remember that part.”

“I had asked Gina and Lady Emmeline to look after you, at the start, but then you grabbed hold of my fingers and refused to let go. It would have been quite the challenge to tear myself away from you, not to mention that Sir Horace told me I ought to get some rest after all that magic I’d used. And that’s how we ended up here.”

One of the last things I could recall was, in fact, grabbing hold of Reggie’s hand. Who could have guessed that would make it so hard for him to go anywhere?

“Uh... Sorry.”

Ashamed and self-conscious, I made to tear myself away from Reggie, but he refused to loosen his hold on me.

“No need to apologize. You have let go of my hand quite a few times in-between. It’s been two whole days, after all.”

“Two days?!”

I was appalled. Not only had I conked out for multiple days, but I’d inconvenienced Reggie all the while.

“Err, did you spend all that time sleeping, too?”

“A few hours of rest was enough for me. All I had to do was channel mana through my body, so I got off lighter than you, it seems. But every time I came to check on you, you would grab me by the hand and pull me close, so I took turns with Gina staying by your side.”

Reggie lifted up the hand of mine he was holding. While I sat there staring dumbly, wondering what he was about to do, he placed a kiss on my fingers.

“Oh...”

I gasped at the gentle tickle of his lips, which drew another giggle from Reggie.

“Since I couldn’t very well leave your side, and you wanted me there so badly... I seem to have lost my sense of restraint.”

“Restraint?! What’s that supposed to mean?!”

Of course, I did have some inkling of what he was talking about. Back when I lived in Japan, I’d had plenty of exposure to that sort of thing through television, the internet, and the like. So many different scenarios popped into my head that it threw me into a tizzy, and Reggie smiled warmly at the sight of it.

“I won’t try anything until you give me your answer. The last thing I’d want is to fall out of your favor.”

I still couldn’t bring myself to give him a straight-up answer as to whether I loved him back or not. There was a part of me that was afraid to say it, which I blamed on the dream I’d just had—my memories of the life I’d once experienced as Kiara Credias.

That Kiara had been taken as Lord Credias’ wife and had suffered endless abuse at her husband’s hands. Perhaps due to how short their time together had been, she had never been able to bring herself to trust Reggie completely. In spite of how dearly he cherished her, she had resigned herself to the fact that he would never be able to free her. Her despair had driven Reggie to plot Lord Credias’ assassination, but unfortunately, he’d died a victim of the Llewynian invasion before he could put his plan into action.

Further convinced that no salvation awaited her, Kiara had refused to let Cain, who had heard about her from Reggie, talk her down. In the end, she had chosen to die at Alan’s hands.

Still, could someone really live out their whole life and then be reincarnated back into the past? That aspect of the timeline still gave me pause, but considering I definitely had been reborn in a parallel dimension, I just had to assume that anything was possible.

Either way, whatever joy I might have felt was tainted by the knowledge that Kiara Mark I’s life had hit rock bottom the moment she found happiness.

As I fell deeper and deeper into thought, Reggie murmured, “By the way, what was your fixation with my finger? You kept mumbling about it in your sleep.” A captivating smile rose to his face. “I seem to recall you asking me not to leave you, too.”

I just about fainted from embarrassment.

No matter HOW groggy I was, I can’t believe I just let my thoughts slip like that! Ahhhh!

I was so humiliated that I feigned amnesia. “What? Did I really say that?”

“You sure did. And you even traced over one of my fingers... just like this.”

“Wha...? Hey! Cut that out, Reggie!”

That tickles! Okay, I definitely do remember doing that!

“Oh, so you’re allowed to do it, but I’m not?”

It was hard to come up with a retort for that one. Just as I felt ready to burst into tears, a savior appeared.

“Oh dear. Am I interrupting something?” Gina had opened the wooden door a crack to peek in at us, her mahogany hair tied high in a ponytail and her gray-blue eyes wide and round.

“Gi—urp.”

I rushed to sit up. Reggie didn’t move to stop me this time, but a dizzy spell sent me flopping back down onto the bed.

“Ugh... I’m gonna be sick.”

“Don’t push yourself,” Reggie calmly rebuked me as he slid off the bed and got to his feet. Best me, will you? And it’s your fault I had to rush to get up in the first place!

Worse yet, he didn’t look the least bit flustered. How come?

“Still feeling under the weather, Kiara?” Gina asked. “Do you want some water?”

“Yes, please,” I responded. Gina took a jug of water from a nearby table and poured it into a cup for me. Reggie helped prop me up into a sitting position.

After everything that had happened only moments ago, feeling his hand on my back was enough to give me goosebumps, but a gulp of water was all it took to clear my head.

“Have you caught her up on what’s happened, Your Grace?” Gina asked Reggie.

“Not yet,” he replied. “Just the part where she’s been asleep for two days.”

“Let’s start with the king of Salekhard, then.” Gina turned to face me once more. “Sorry to get right down to business like this, but you gave the order to take Isaac back to the Farzian army, right? I’d like to know what you plan to do with him next. We started getting pesky inquiries about whether he’s supposed to be a hostage or what condition he’s in, so His Highness made the call to let a single lord-in-waiting from Salekhard stick by him, but that’s where we’re at.”

Oh, right. I asked them to bring Isaac along because I had an idea for what to do with him.

“I’d like to hear what you’re planning, as well. It involves the negotiations between Salekhard and Farzia, I assume.”

Leave it to Reggie to figure out exactly what I had in mind.

I nodded, then proceeded to tell Gina and Reggie my idea. Once he’d heard me out, Reggie mulled it over for a bit before responding, “That’s fine by me. I’ll need to confer with Alan and the rest of the generals, however, so hold off on doing anything for now.”

He evidently intended to hold that discussion ASAP, seeing as he then turned to take his leave. I still had one more request to make, however, so I stopped him before he could go.

“I’d like to be the one to explain my idea to Isaac. Would it be okay for me to go see him?”

“As long as you’re just going to talk to him, I don’t see why not. Rather, there’s little point to having that conversation without you and Sir Horace present.” Reggie gave his ready consent, a smile on his face.

Soon after he’d left the room, I made my second attempt to get up.

“By the way, Kiara,” Gina said with a grin, “I see you’ve decided who your number one is.”

“M-My number what?!”

“You realized you’re in love with His Highness, didn’t you?”

Gina’s straight ball of a question reduced me to incoherent babbling. “Uhh... Err... Whyever do you ask?”

“I mean, look how close he got to you, and you never even tried to escape! If that were Sir Cain, I bet you wouldn’t have taken it lying down.”

Ugh... I can’t argue with that. It’s true that if it were anyone else, I probably would have humiliated myself tumbling out of bed to get away.

When she noticed how I was clamming up, Gina’s grin grew wider. “Something tells me you wanted to stay like that. What do you think, Sir Horace?”

“No question there. This disciple of mine was still dreaming, and meanwhile, that prince never gives the slightest damn about who’s watching.”

“Eek! Master Horace?!”

I hadn’t noticed him there because he hadn’t spoken up until now, but Master Horace crawled out from underneath a pillow right on cue. Why was he hiding down there?! And considering he’s got a face made of clay, how does he manage to look like he’s grinning just as hard as Gina?!

“It takes more than just an audience to embarrass His Highness. One of these days he’s going to take it too far right where everyone is watching, just you wait.”

“I doubt he even has a concept of ‘taking it too far.’ Heeheehee!”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. He seems like the type to forget about anyone and everyone else in the vicinity.”

That was a pretty merciless characterization of him, but I couldn’t exactly refute it. Back when Gina was watching us, he’d been pretty nonchalant about hitting on me. Or maybe casual was the word for it.

“He did keep his wits about him, at least. Eeeheehee! Things started out with the two of them just conking out together, anyway.”

Conking out? Well, that made sense. Given that Reggie had used more magic than he ever had during his practice, he had told me he’d passed out from exhaustion. That must have been what Master Horace was referring to.

“Um, Master Horace... Does Reggie seem like he’s going to be alright?”

We both knew that we were going to end up using a lot of magic in that battle. Still, I hadn’t expected that Reggie would cast so many spells he’d need to rely on the frostfoxes’ support. In the end, he’d even had to draw his sword and fight. I’d wanted to ask Master Horace how Reggie was holding up in his eyes.

“Well, all he had to do was let the mana flow through him. Usually he’d feel a bit of the burn after the fact, but it looks like those mutts gnawed all the side effects out of him.”

“They’re foxes, Master Horace.”

Grateful for the change in topic and relieved to hear that Reggie was doing okay, I got out of bed. As long as I didn’t spring straight onto my feet, it seemed I didn’t have to worry about getting dizzy again. Whew.

Since I’d spent all that time sleeping, I was still in my pajamas. It was time to get changed.

That was when Gina cut in, “By the way, I’ve been meaning to thank you. It means a lot to me that you saved Isaac.” She clasped both of my hands in hers, then thunked her forehead against them in a deep bow.

Her words flustered me. “You don’t have to thank me! I was just doing what I wanted!”

“You’re the only one who could have stopped him, though. He never listened to me or Girsch, and I was afraid he might take his own life even if the tide of the war changed.”

Her fears had been realized when Isaac impaled himself on his sword, apparently. According to her, Isaac was the type of person to pull whatever crazy stunt it took just to get his way.

“To stop him, we either had to drive him into an inescapable corner or bring him back from the brink of death. That’s why I hated the thought of asking you for help; I knew it would leave you laid up like this.”

“Honestly, I didn’t think Isaac was going to go that far.”

At the time, I’d had no idea what could have been running through his head; I’d been far too disoriented for that, and all I could think about was how to stop him. Now that I could afford to look back on the events more calmly, I felt like I could understand his actions a little bit better.

Isaac had tried to protect what was most important to him by bringing about his own ruin. That included his brother and his country. Gina and Girsch, too. He wanted to bear the regrets of his father—who never managed to find a better way out of their predicament than suicide—as well as the grudges of Salekhard’s soldiers—who, even if it was to keep their country from being hijacked, had been dragged into a war they were destined to lose—and take those with him to his grave. Thus, if no one else was willing to kill him, he had believed he had to carry out the deed himself.

It was because he already planned to carry so many people’s burdens with him to the afterlife that he tried to take on my burdens while he was at it, too. I understood the logic behind it, but that didn’t make me hate the idea of it any less. Given my own personal philosophies, I could never comprehend why he would actively choose death.

“Don’t worry about it, Gina. It was what I wanted to do. It really hurts to watch someone I know die, so at the end of the day, I would have insisted on healing Isaac no matter who asked me to.”

Gina flashed me a conflicted smile. “You know, the first time I saw you get so broken up over people dying in battle, I was worried that one day, your heart was going to break under all that weight. But it’s all because you’re that kind of person that Isaac lived to see today. It makes me think what a happy coincidence this all was.”

“A happy coincidence?”

“Maybe I should just call it ‘destiny.’ It’s all because his fate took him this far that he managed to meet you.” When Gina finally let go of my hands, she was wearing a truly heartened look on her face.

“By the way, are you and Girsch planning to go home to Salekhard now?”

Gina shook her head. “Honestly, that was never really part of my plans.”

“But what about Isaac’s brother?”

Here I’d thought the two of them were supposed to get married. Based on what I’d heard, that had been part of Isaac’s plan.

“It’s too late for us now. Once my engagement to Isaac was called off, I ditched my family. I’m no daughter of nobility anymore; I’m just a common mercenary. If Yefrem is going to become king now, that’s even more reason I can’t marry him. Even if the soldiers of our army went along with it, the aristocracy would never accept our union.”

I’d wondered about that, too. Did a girl who hadn’t been born into nobility have any hope of marrying a king?

“Oh, but what if you were adopted into a noble family?”

“I think that’s what Isaac was making arrangements for. I wonder if he’s already finished negotiations with my father’s house... Either way, my temperament just isn’t suited to living the noble life. And standing by the king’s side? Forget it. Even if I tried sticking it out for love, we’d just be headed for disaster somewhere down the line.”

There was a huge disparity between the lifestyle of a noble and that of a commoner. The standards for what they could and couldn’t do were completely different. Thus, it was only natural for her to get cold feet, worried about whether or not she could live like that.

“And I’d hate to become his concubine as an alternative to marrying him. I’d rather just go our separate ways and look back fondly on the good times we had together. Isaac was crazy to think things would magically work out thanks to a few feats of war. It’s nowhere near the same thing as a man racking up achievements and climbing the social ladder.”

There, Gina laughed. “So if His Highness is willing to keep me under his employ, I’d like to stick with you guys until we’ve seen this war through. After that, I’ll just go home to our mercenary village.”

I was relieved to find out that Gina wouldn’t be leaving us just yet. Still, it hurt to hear that she was planning to give up on the man she loved.

All the more reason I had to make Isaac see things my way.

◇◇◇

It was some time later when Reggie finished up the discussion with his generals. I managed to get a bite to eat during that time, so I was lucky it had taken so long. With food now in my stomach, I was a lot steadier on my feet than when I’d first woken up.

I paid a visit to Isaac’s room with Reggie, Alan, and Cain. Gina and Girsch came along to watch over the proceedings.

When we stepped inside the room, we found Isaac lying down for a rest. Perhaps because I’d spent too much of my magic beforehand, I hadn’t managed to seal up all of his wounds. Thus, while he still held on to consciousness, he had become a long-term resident of his bed.

He was probably running a fever from all his injuries. His face was flushed, and he was looking more haggard than usual. Still, I was relieved to see him alive and kicking. This was the man who had stubbornly insisted on suicide even after we’d given him the perfect opportunity to surrender; there was a decent chance that as soon as he was even slightly capable of movement, he would take a second shot when no one was looking.

Mikhail sat beside his bed, the look on his face speaking to his exhaustion. When he saw me, he offered a rueful smile. He certainly didn’t seem to mind that I’d kept his king alive. The two of them had seemed rather close, after all; he’d probably never wanted Isaac to die in the first place.

But Isaac, the one I had actually thwarted, was a different matter.

“You should have minded your own damn business.”

He was glaring at me with those gray eyes of his. I could tell how much displeasure simmered in his gaze, and it was all I could do to stop myself from flinching. But if I let myself get pushed around by an invalid, there was no way I was going to get him to accept my proposal.

Reggie and company must have believed I could get the job done all on my own; they said nothing and simply watched me do my thing.

To prove myself worthy of their trust, I stood tall and shot back, “It was my business. I know what your end goal is. But I came up with a way to make you more useful to us alive than dead.”

Isaac scowled. “You mean you came up with an excuse to keep me from dying?”

“Don’t worry; I know you’re going to hate it. When everyone else hears it, I’m sure they’ll think it’s the perfect way for Salekhard to pay off its debts, too.”

“Well, what is it?”

“Forced labor.”

“Excuse me?” Isaac blinked.

“From here on out, our plan is to capture Kilrea and retake the royal domain north of Patriciél. We want you to be our outrider.”

His expression gradually shifted from surprise to hesitation. “So you want me to pay off our war debt by fighting for your cause?”

“With favorable enough results, you ought to be able to reduce the reparations you’ll have to pay,” Reggie chimed in from beside me, a grin on his face. “Though it may have been a joint effort with Llewyne, you still invaded Trisphede and murdered the family of its count. Frankly speaking, I doubt money alone would be a sufficient means for you to make amends. I must confess that I did think your death would be a solid way to appease the citizens of Farzia.

“However, it never would have been possible for you to take on the brunt of the responsibility, die, and simply gift the next king an untarnished Salekhard. The people of Trisphede hate your country more than ever, meaning you’ll lose the most convenient trade route to Farzia.”

The people of Trisphede would despise Salekhardian merchants, no doubt. The same could be said of Évrard. Even if Lord Évrard and Alan made the more pragmatic call, the feelings of their citizens wouldn’t just vanish with a single decree.

Of course, I hadn’t actually thought everything out that far, and I’d needed Reggie to explain it all to me. That part was a secret, though. For the moment, I was putting on my best know-it-all act.

“If the journey becomes too perilous, that route will be shut down. Once it’s gone, your merchants will flock to the roads that are still easy enough to traverse, no?”

In other words, traffic would flow toward Llewyne. Reggie was implying that his whole reason for fighting in the war would be rendered meaningless. This probably wasn’t the first time this had occurred to Isaac; his expression turned sour when it was pointed out to him.

“I expected to run into that problem eventually, yes. I was in the midst of thinking up a way to combat the issue.”

“And I’m offering you a way to alleviate that post-war hardship right now.” A breezy smile rose to Reggie’s face. “I think Kiara’s proposal is quite pragmatic, really. The reparations will be less than they would have been if you died. I even have the approval of the rest of my generals. Why, you even have the chance to put us in your debt and lighten your hardships down the line.”

Isaac groaned. “Farzia can’t honestly believe we’ll just keep our heads down and do as you say. Would you really just sit back and let us fight, knowing we could always double-cross you somewhere down the line? I looked into ways to aid Farzia’s war effort following our surrender, but I eventually had to nix the idea from my plans.”

“Oh, we have a plan to deal with that,” I said as if I’d been just waiting for him to bring that up. “Don’t we?” I glanced over at Master Horace.

“Keeheehee!” Master Horace, who I’d brought along for the ride, broke into an ominous cackle. “Ohhh, I see. You want to use me to keep those Salekhardians in line, eh?”

“If our soldiers see your men scared stiff, they’ll think, ‘If they’re this scared of curses, they definitely won’t go against us.’ Anyone who hears the rumors will get that you guys are too pathetic to turn on us, too.”

Isaac looked like the picture of dejection. “Oh, come on. Has Salekhard’s reputation really fallen that far?”

“I know, I know. Still, wouldn’t you rather ultimately be seen as an ally than an invading country? It’s not like your honor is what you’re out to protect. Then what’s one last, silly hit to your ego?”

If we wanted to restore diplomatic relations as quickly as possible, Isaac was better off living and getting dragged through the mud. As matter of fact, that would make it much easier for Salekhard to pose as an unfortunate country put through the wringer by its blundering king.

I pushed as hard as I could, hoping he would hurry up and cave, when Isaac suddenly burst out laughing. “You always do give yourself the short end of the stick, don’t you?”

“Huh?!”

“You’re asking me to put on a pitiful act and garner sympathy, no? That makes you the bad guy in this scenario.”

“Ugh...”

He was right. The gist of the plan was that Farzia’s spellcaster would “place a curse” on the Salekhardian army and make them dance in the palm of her hand. Hey, could this be the start of my journey to villainy? I thought my whole goal was to avoid that!

Now that I’d finally realized the implications of what I was asking, I couldn’t help moaning over it. Through fits of laughter, Isaac finally said, “Fine by me.”

“Huh?”

“I’ll get on board with your proposal. Hey, Mikhail. Henceforth, our forces are going to play the role of the lady spellcaster’s poor, poor victims. Make sure everyone puts on a grand show of fear when she comes to menace us.”

Mikhail smiled at Isaac’s orders. “What a simple task, compared to cleaning up after your death.”

“Is that right?”

“Persuading people to act in the interest of clearing their name is much easier than bringing home a funeral procession.”

With that, Mikhail left the room to start reaching out to people.

“We can go over the details later. I’m sure you could use some time to recover,” Reggie said, likewise preparing to take his leave.

I stopped him to ask, “Can’t I just heal him now?”

“I’d advise you not to. The soldiers are already aware that you can heal certain injuries, as do they know that you’ll pass out if you reach your limit. Still, it’s not something we should keep allowing them to see, so I suggest you don’t use that ability too frequently, that’s all. If you were to heal him up like it’s nothing, people will start to forget that you may very well be taking a chunk out of your own life to do it.”

Isaac agreed with him. “Men will start coming to you begging you to heal their comrades, assuming you can fix everything with your magic. If you hit your limit and refuse someone for fear of working yourself to death, what do you think will happen? Though they might understand the logic, if they lose a loved one over it, they may come to resent you regardless. You should be stingy where you can.”

Now that the patient in question was telling me the same thing, I relented.

People’s demands were quick to escalate. I didn’t want my good intentions to one day land me on the wrong side of a deadly grudge, so I was better off refraining. At the very least, I shouldn’t have been giving anyone a reason to kill me before we retook the royal capital.

After I’d left the room, I decided to go get some rest, considering I was still convalescing myself. Gina tagged along with me.

“Thank you, Kiara.”

I smiled and replied, “Now you’ll be able to see Yefrem once the war is over.”

“What?” Her eyes widened a fraction.

“He won’t become king for a while yet. You spent several years living as a daughter of nobility, so I’m sure you could make it as an aristocrat’s wife.”

This was the same girl who had been fiancée to a prince. There was no way she could be as incompatible with the noble lifestyle as she claimed. As long as she didn’t have to become queen, I doubted the stress would be too much for her to handle.

“Besides, just look at who your king is! I’m sure he’ll take the reins and do something to fix all the obstacles in your path.”

“Kiara, I...”

“I think it’d be nice if you try your hand at finding happiness. How about it?”

Gina would have to be the one to make the decision in the end, but with this, I’d foisted her biggest barrier to marrying Prince Yefrem onto Isaac. Whatever other obstacles were left in their path, I was sure Isaac would be considerate enough to deal with them. She had no more reason to give up on her own happiness.

Her eyes grew damp with tears. “You know, right after I heard about the plan from Isaac, I got a letter from Yefrem. Deep down, he wished he could remain imprisoned even after Isaac died shouldering all the responsibility. Of course, he knew it would be wrong to run away after his brother had given his life to rid us of Llewyne’s influence. Still... he promised me he would never take on a queen.”

That had probably been the only way for him to demonstrate his feelings for Gina. With this, however, there was no more reason to force himself into anything.

“I’ll try talking to him one more time.”

I was pleased to see that Gina, the girl who had once claimed she never wanted to see her beloved again, had undergone a change of heart.

◇◇◇

A few days later, I put on a show to intimidate the soldiers of Salekhard.

“I believe you’ve all heard Farzia’s proposal from King Isaac by now. Henceforth, your king has no choice but to obey my commands.” I was sitting on the shoulder of a Horace-style golem, speaking into an impromptu megaphone I’d made from a rolled-up piece of paper.

Gathered before me were the soldiers of Salekhard. Those who hadn’t gotten the details looked uneasy about the announcement, but the knights closer to Isaac looked like they were trying not to smile.

My golem was gripping one haggard-looking Isaac in its right hand. It wasn’t because of his unhealed wounds that he’d been so worn down; it was because I hadn’t done a great job controlling my golem’s strength when I picked him up, wrenching scream after scream out of him.

The soldiers had mumbled things like, “What a heinous act against our wounded king!” or “She’s merciless!” at the sight of it. Cain, meanwhile, had praised me for it, claiming it worked in my favor since I was out here to menace them.

Given that the man had almost killed him once, Cain was pretty hard on Isaac. I hadn’t dreamed that the two of them would become best buddies or anything, but the occasional hint of murder in the knight’s eyes was a bit much.

“I’ve placed a curse on King Isaac,” I declared.

Master Horace, who had been situated atop the golem’s head, started cackling, “Heeheehee! Consider yourself hexed!” I had the golem’s mouth rattle open and closed in time with the line.

I heard horrified gasps from among the crowd of Salekhardians. The impact Master Horace had made on them was immediately clear, some of the men even hugging their nearby comrades in fear.

“By the way, if you don’t follow my commands, this is what happens to your king,” I said, then made an earthen Isaac-lookalike in my golem’s left hand dissolve into sand. The Salekhardians went stiff as boards. “I can put the same curse on the rest of you, too. If you want to be spared, you’d better cooperate with the Farzian army until we’ve retaken the royal capital. For the record, if anyone tries to come for my life, be prepared to meet this kind of an end.”

My golem crushed several more Isaac-style figures I’d set up nearby underfoot, stomping hard enough to make tremors in the earth. Apparently, the display made some of the soldiers flash back to seeing their comrades trampled on the battlefield. A few men had to avert their eyes, and I was starting to worry if I’d gone in a little too hard.

I heard later on that the Farzian soldiers bearing witness took the Salekhardians’ side almost immediately, mumbling, “Lady Spellcaster certainly comes up with some frightening ideas!” or “Even I’d be scared to be threatened like that.” I’d left them more terrified of me than ever before.

Regardless, my little show of menacing Salekhard had successfully left its soldiers with the impression of We can’t let the spellcaster curse us! I left the remainder of the explanation up to Vasily, a knight acting as an aide to Mikhail and Isaac, and took my leave for the time being.

I set Isaac down once we had put enough distance between us and the Salekhardian troops.

“You’re a monster! You must really have it in for me,” he griped, looking no less run-down than earlier.

“C’mon, it wasn’t that bad! I just put a little too much strength into it.”

Even after everything I’d put him through, Isaac’s attitude toward me hadn’t changed one bit. If it had, the rift between us likely would have ensured I never really talked with him again except to argue, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get back at him in such a harmless way. His good sportsmanship was the only reason we could still quip back and forth like this.

Even now, he managed to remind me of the sun.

“Besides, you are a hostage, so I figured it’d be more believable if you looked a little wrung out.”

Isaac grinned. “And here I was so gentle with you when I had you in my custody.”

He was probably referring to the time he’d sheltered me from Lord Credias. That made me think back to the way he’d bitten down on my neck, and my face grew hot with embarrassment.

“Ugh... I am grateful and all, but a bigger part of me thinks you took it too far.”

“Well, given my plans to die, I didn’t expect I’d have enough time to lecture you properly. I resorted to the quickest method I could come up with. It helped you sort yourself out, didn’t it?”

My golem’s leg was big enough to serve as a wall, and he placed both hands up against it, cornering me. The grin had dropped from his face, so I refrained from hitting him back with a spell, instead staring back at him with a serious expression.

“Back then, I knew I was going to have to let you go eventually, so it didn’t matter to me if you hated me. Hell, if you did despise me, at least you wouldn’t have to mourn my death.”

“Then why did you start out treating me so kindly?”

If he hadn’t acted so friendly toward me, I wouldn’t have been so sad over him. It would have been for Gina’s sake alone that I jumped into action.

Isaac flashed me a strained smile. “I already told you why. Are you really going to make me profess my love a second time?”

The words “profess my love” shut me up fast.

That’s right! He basically confessed. Considering he was on death’s door, the situation was too overwhelming for me to feel any of the warm, fuzzy feelings that usually accompany a love confession, so I’d nearly forgotten all about it.

Now what was I to do? I felt kind of bad. If I confessed my feelings to someone, only to have it completely ignored, I’d be a little hurt, too.

“I’m not the type to try that with a woman I don’t care for.”

“Uh...”

Was he including the kiss and the bite to my neck in “that”? When I thought back to it all, mortification rose in my throat until it nearly came out as a shriek. How am I supposed to respond to this?!

If I let that scream slip, people would start flocking to us, turning this into even more of a public spectacle. Once I’d gotten all the silent fussing out of my system, I opted to dodge the issue. “Uh, don’t use vague words like ‘that.’ It makes it too easy to misconstrue what you’re saying.”

“Oh? After everything I did to you, isn’t it a little late to be worried about that?”

“A little late?! Stop saying things people could take the wrong way! You didn’t do anything that bad to me!”

Isaac broke out into another grin. “How cold. All this after you forced my hand, too.”

He twirled a lock of my hair around his finger before dropping a kiss on it.

“I, erm, what now?!”

“I didn’t ask you earlier because I planned to die, but I have no reason to hold back anymore.” Before I had time to say anything back, Isaac cupped my face in one hand. “Won’t you come back with me?”

“What, to Salekhard?”

Were his feelings really serious enough to bring me home with him? Just as I was about to ask, someone reached an arm toward me, blocking my view. In the next moment, our mysterious guest dragged me off to the side and hid me behind his back.

“Please refrain from soliciting our spellcaster, Your Majesty.”

It was Cain. He must have come running over when he saw me bickering with Isaac.

“I see your watchdog is here. Later, then.”

Without so much as a gripe, Isaac briskly took his leave. It felt oddly anticlimactic.

Regardless, it was a relief. Considering I didn’t exactly want the others to find out what we were talking about, I hadn’t wanted that conversation to drag out too much longer.

Just as I was thinking that, however, Cain hit me with, “What did he do to you, exactly?”

“Uh...”

Cain turned to look at me, staring down at me with arms folded.

I guess he’s asking me this as my big brother. Or is he asking from a slightly different standpoint, the one I got a glimpse of in Delphion? The answer will change how I ought to respond to this.

“Um, I can’t tell you.”

I decided to keep mum about it. Given how much Cain already hated Isaac, I was afraid it might rain blood if he found out too much. Oh, I’d better make sure Reggie doesn’t find out, either.

It was true that he had bitten me to keep me out of Lord Credias’ hands. The following kiss had been part of a ploy to wake me up to the feelings I’d been so oblivious to.

Isaac had never done anything to truly hurt me, but it was my right as a girl to get mad over that kiss he’d forced on me regardless. Still, that right belonged to me and me alone. The last thing I wanted was for that to sour Isaac’s relations with Reggie or Cain; I wanted to make sure we would have no problems fighting together moving forward. Thus, I kept quiet about it.

When I looked back at Cain, filled with determination not to spill the beans, he sighed. “Hide things from me, will you? You’ve turned into such a bad girl, Miss Kiara.”

It seemed Cain was engaging with me as a brother, then. That was a bit of a relief.

If he’d started chasing me romantically on top of Isaac, I wouldn’t have known what to do. It would be wrong to rely on Reggie for an out when I had yet to give him an answer.

“I’m fine being bad. I have some secrets I’d prefer to keep.”

Cain clapped a hand on my shoulder, brought his face close to my ear, and whispered, “I already have a vague idea. He did something even worse to you than Lord Credias, didn’t he?”

I jolted. No, Kiara! Don’t give in! I stood straight and did my best not to move a muscle.

“After your time spent as Salekhard’s captive, you behaved a little differently from usual. I got the sense it wasn’t just the fear lingering from your near brush with assault. It was his fault, then.”

I was two steps from breaking into a cold sweat.

Hold on, Cain. Just how far have you seen through me?!

“I-It’s nothing like that!”

Since I’d decided to keep quiet about it, there was nothing left to do but refute him.

Cain took a step back, dropping his hand from my shoulder and holding it out for me. “Alright. I realize you have no desire to accept his advances, so that’s fine for now. Let’s head back to the others.”

The interrogation was over, it seemed. With a nod, I dismantled my golem, retrieved Master Horace, and grabbed hold of the hand Cain had offered. Shortly after we’d begun walking, he muttered something under his breath.

“I know you’ve already made your choice, however.”

His voice was so quiet, I couldn’t quite make out what he’d said.

◇◇◇

As I walked ahead, my head filled with questions, I suddenly turned to look behind me. There sat the pile of dirt that remained of my golem, and around it, a grove of trees with leaves turning the colors of autumn.

Rolling hills spread out beyond the woods. The tents of Farzian and Salekhardian soldiers were densely packed over the grass, and bonfire smoke curled into the air. Past all that, I could see a blue lake.

For a moment, the scenery blurred.

“Huh?”

Before I knew it, the calm landscape had vanished. My surroundings were filled with the sounds of metal clashing against metal, as well as soldiers clashing swords with fiendish expressions.

I had no idea what had just happened. The moment I decided to make a run for it, however, I spotted a familiar face.

It was Reggie, the man who I knew shouldn’t have been standing there.

He gave a wave of his blue cape and brandished his sword. An advancing group of defective spellcasters had him surrounded, crazed expressions on their faces and ice clinging to their bodies. No sooner had he parried a sword of ice than he was assailed by flame. He dodged the assault by the skin of his teeth, only for a blade of wind to slash him down.

When he crumpled to the ground, no one moved to help him. Felix and Groul had likewise fallen, and more people lay scattered on the ground nearby, charred such a deep black I couldn’t tell who they had once been.

The defective spellcasters who had attacked Reggie dissolved into sand and died. Trampling over their remains came Lord Credias, his hand wrapped tightly around my neck as I dangled there limply. Behind us, Cain had been skewered by multiple lances.

My legs began to tremble.

Lord Credias guffawed, then tossed me away to reach out for Reggie. When the prince moaned and tried to get to his feet, the viscount tapped him on the shoulder. The next moment, he crumbled away into sand.

“Why?”

What’s happening?! Why am I seeing this? Why did Reggie die?

“No way!”

I covered my face, falling to my knees.

“Miss Kiara?”

I heard Cain’s voice. He was calling out to me, even though I’d seen him dead just moments ago.

“What’s wrong, Miss Kiara?”

He grabbed me roughly by the shoulders, and I snapped back to reality. I took my hand from my face and looked up, only to see Cain staring down at me with a concerned expression.

I looked around one more time, and the same peaceful scenery from before spread out before my eyes. Once I was sure where I was, I looked back at Cain and murmured, “You’re alive.”

Cain breathed a sigh of relief. “What happened? Did you remember something again?”

This wasn’t the first time I’d been disoriented by a daydream. Cain had assumed this must have been a similar situation.

What I’d just seen was different from usual, though. It wasn’t a continuation of the story where Kiara died. This memory had clearly branched off somewhere along the path we were meant to follow.

It made me terribly anxious not to know what was happening to me. But if there was one possibility...

“Am I looping?”

The vision I’d seen just now would have been a distinct possibility if Reggie hadn’t had any spells at his disposal. It was only due to his own magic that he hadn’t turned to ash when Lord Credias touched him the other day.

Had I repeated my life as Kiara several times over? Was I looping again and again? Between the time when I was an enemy spellcaster, and the version of myself closer to the girl I was now, it had to have happened at least twice.

Still, why had I remembered the villainess scenario so many times, yet I’d only just now recalled the version of myself who had witnessed Reggie’s death? Either way, there was one thing I just knew. We had overcome yet another possible future where Alan was the only one left alive.

◇◇◇

Was it the effects of her magic that had spurred her awake, or was it the peaceful birdsong? A gentle, pale-blue sky and the green of the nearby trees flooded the girl’s vision.

Once she was awake, she took a gulp of water from her canteen, then dyed her silver hair in the river. After soaking it in dark brown powder, she tied it neatly into a braid. With that done, she hopped onto her horse tethered nearby.

As she proceeded down the high road, she eventually arrived at a spot atop a hill where she could see the scenery unfurl in all directions. The shores of Lake Luxia were tranquil as ever; however, the scenic beauty of the past was gone.

Land that had once been meadows had been ruined and trampled, and she could see telltale signs of trees cut down and burned. Perhaps that was the source of the burning smell that drifted her way.

As he spurred her horse even further down the small road, she happened upon a farmwife who called out, “My, my! Did a young girl like you travel all the way out here all by her lonesome? There was a battle raging here not too long ago.”

The woman’s eyes were wide with surprise, but she seemed rather calm despite her claim of a recent battle. The lady didn’t seem particularly taken aback by the color of her hair, either, so she assumed the dye had done its job.

She asked the farmwife, “When did the battle end?”

“About a week ago. To everyone’s surprise, Salekhard surrendered. The army marched back to Delphion Castle just yesterday, so we were able to return to our homes quickly enough. The soldiers led by the new baron of Delphion chased out the Llewynian remnants in the area, so it should be safe... but why is a little girl like you riding all alone on horseback?”

“I have some business at a relative’s house. Did Farzia make it out of the battle alright? The prince wasn’t slain or anything of the sort, was he?”

The farmwife laughed. “Ahaha! He had a hard time of it, apparently, but the prince annihilated Llewyne’s reinforcements with his lightning sword! I could see the beautiful light of his strike from miles away, clear as day. Plus, the spellcaster was there, too. The trampled fields have already been leveled and cultivated, so it should be easy enough to sow our seeds come spring. The rotting corpses of enemy soldiers are usually such a pain to clear away, but even those have been taken care of.”

“I see. Thank you for telling me.” With that, she spurred her horse on once more.

Once she’d put enough distance between herself and the farmwife, she heaved a sigh of relief. “So nobody had to die this time.”

Under normal circumstances, Kiara would have suffered burns during her captivity in Trisphede and been unable to return to the army straightaway. Farzia would have been driven into a corner in her absence.

Even if Kiara had made it out unscathed, they would have failed to combat Lord Credias and retreated in the face of Llewyne’s reinforcements. When Kiara was captured by the viscount, Reggie would have stepped in to save her and died for his efforts.

The future she knew was creeping forward little by little... hopefully, to a world where neither of the two would have to die.

Thus, she had to track them down.

“Wait for me, Kiara. I promise this will be the last time,” she murmured, her lips drawn into a thin line.