Chapter 43: Return to Lunatear

The message Anne brought was from Ludwig.

Counsel required regarding academy city project. Return to empire at earliest convenience.

That was all it said.

“My, a request from Ludwig to see me? How curious.”

Ludwig, being the exceptionally competent person he was, generally avoided troubling Mia with his work. Once in a while, he might ask Mia for permission to use her name for something, and she’d always authorize his request without a second thought — well, to be completely honest, without a first thought either. After all, it had always been her goal to be a model yes-man. It does make one wonder what would happen if it had been a less scrupulous person making the requests, but anyway...

Arriving with the message was a detachment of the Princess Guard — more of Ludwig’s prudent efficiency — that was standing by at the lake shore. With her escort already prepared, Mia was able to depart for Tearmoon the following day. Accompanying her were Anne and Bel, along with Bel’s newly appointed attendant, Lynsha.

“I’m sorry, Lynsha. I know you were looking forward to studying at Saint-Noel...” said Mia.

Lynsha shrugged.

“It’s part of the job. Besides, I’ve never been to Tearmoon, so I consider this to be a learning experience, too.”

Thus the four girls set out, their carriage flanked by a squad of guards as it trundled apace toward the empire.

“So he wants to talk to me about the academy city project, huh... Last I heard, construction had already started on the building itself, and the plan was to have students begin their classes in the summer. I wonder if something happened.”

Mia scratched her head before pulling out the Princess Mia Chronicles. Figuring she’d have plenty of time to analyze its contents during the carriage trip home, she’d brought the book with her, and this seemed like a perfect time to do so. It wasn’t really the kind of thing she should be letting others see arbitrarily, but she decided — arbitrarily, of course — that she could get away with reading it in front of her three carriage companions. Any excuse she made up should be enough to deflect their inquiries.

“Hey, what’s that you’re reading, Princess Mia?”

Lynsha was the first to express interest, craning her neck curiously toward the book.

“Oh, this? Well, this happens to be—”

Had she gotten to finish her sentence, she would have said the first thing to come to mind, which was “some foreign kingdom’s book I borrowed from the library.” As it happened, Bel beat her to the punch.

“Mmmhmhm. That, you see, is a book detailing the glorious accomplishments of my wonderful sister, Mia! It’s called the Princess Mia Chronicles!” she declared with a proud grin.

“Wha—?!”

Mia stared at her granddaughter, dumbfounded by the sudden interjection. The conversation, however, paid her no mind and continued on without her input.

“Princess Mia Chronicles, huh...” said Lynsha in a thoughtful tone. “Oh, do you mean some foreigner just decided to write the thing and publish it, so we got a copy for ourselves to investigate? Good idea. It’s certainly wise for royalty to know what the masses are saying about them. Hm...”

“As a matter of fact, the person who wrote it is Miss Mia’s court author, Moth— Miss Elise,” explained Bel, who was becoming increasingly talkative.

“Really?” Anne quirked a curious brow. “That girl, when did she have the time to write something like that?”

Meanwhile, Lynsha’s lips curled in a surreptitious smirk as if to say “So, you got your own court author to write a book that sings your praises, huh? And then, while we’re all watching, you decide to flip open the thing and read it in plain sight? Seriously? Are you some kind of braggart?”

The sheer ridicule in her gaze caused Mia to squirm in her seat.

“U-Ugh... Please! No more! Don’t look at me like that!”

She buried her face in her hands and shook her head, wishing she could somehow erase herself from existence. As it turns out, the proverbs did indeed ring true; just as curiosity killed the cat, embarrassment could very well kill the princess.

Th-That’s it! This book is now officially dangerous goods! It needs to be handled with extreme care!

Having decided that it was a terrible idea to read it in front of Lynsha, she asked the two attendants to move themselves to the driver’s box under the pretense of asking them to hash out arrangements for the night’s food and lodging with the guards. Once she was alone with Bel in the carriage, she flipped open the Chronicles again, but not before giving her chatty granddaughter a good dressing-down. Only then did she turn her attention back to the book, whereupon she immediately frowned.

Huh... That’s strange. Is it just me or does this passage seem a little different from the last time I read it... Ah!

With a start, she identified the offending section. Or rather, the lack of it.

“Bel, just to confirm, I do eventually build a college town in the Tearmoon Empire, don’t I?”

“You mean Saint-Mia Academy? Of course.”

Mia had to keep herself from doubling over. There was a name that packed a punch.

“Uh... What academy?”

“Saint-Mia Academy. It’s in your personal domain, next to the Sealence Forest, and it’s the most prestigious school in the empire. They conduct research into all sorts of subjects there.”

“Ah... Well, the questionable naming aside, that does sound like the thing I’m thinking of.” Resisting the urge to spew some venom at the idiot who thought “Saint-Mia Academy” was a reasonable name, she continued. “Which makes it all the stranger. There’s no mention of that school in the Chronicles.”

With a name like that, there was no way it wouldn’t earn at least a mention in the book, but no matter how many times she flipped through it, the school was nowhere to be found.

“Huh? That can’t be right. It has to be there. I remember reading it.”

Bel leaned over and scanned the offending page before letting out a surprised cry of her own.

“Huh? But... Huh? How come? That’s so weird.”

Rather than share in Bel’s confusion, Mia instead calmed, having deduced the cause of the mystery through her reaction.

Chances are, this is the same phenomenon as the diary and that history book. Some triggering event caused its contents to be rewritten. Hm? Wait... Bel’s memories seem to be intact. Does that mean the phenomenon doesn’t affect memories? Or maybe there’s a delay to when the memories get altered?

Unlike words on a page, memories did seem like the kind of thing that took time to reform.

Hmm... So many questions. She pursed her lips. What in the moons does this all mean, I wonder?

With her brows furrowed in concentration, she thought and thought... and then thought some more. At the end of her mentally arduous journey, she arrived at a truth.

That reminds me. Bel showed up here as the answer to my prayers for guidance, right? That means by comparing the changing accounts in the Princess Mia Chronicles to Bel’s unchanging memory, I can figure out all sorts of things! That must be what this is all about!

Her conclusion had nothing to do with the how and why of the bizarre phenomenon she was faced with. Rather, she approached it from a completely different angle — what it meant for Bel and the Chronicles to be in the same place at the same time. It was a display of creative thinking that definitely had nothing to do with a desire to avoid thinking about complicated questions. That’s right. This was originality! Ingenuity at work! At no point did she have any thoughts to the effect of Why bother thinking about things I can’t figure out? All that does is make me tired. It’s not like I can ask anyone about it anyway, so I don’t even need to figure out what I know and what I don’t. As long as I have an answer I’m happy with, I’m good to go.

Again, it was not an abdication of thought. To think so would do her a great disservice. Anyway...

“Also, there’s that new strain of wheat.”

“Huh? New strain of wheat?” Bel looked at her with wide, clueless eyes. “Uh... I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about.”

She blinked in surprise, then, nodded in understanding.

I see... So in the future that Bel’s from, the academy exists but the new strain of wheat never got developed. I guess we somehow managed to get through the famine with the food we stocked up, along with some help from Chloe’s company, but...

Mia sank deep into thought, and the sounds of her surroundings faded into the background. The road to Tearmoon was yet long, and her contemplative spell would endure for quite some time.