“Madam.”
I needed to make the information a bit more concrete.
“In my view, Eve likely went to complete the ‘Gifted Knight Training.’ Back then Hiaka III was still running the royal warrior academy.”
“Ah, yes.”
Which is why Hiaka Academy’s Departnt of Warfare is unusually weak.
Not an important point, but still.
“Did your mories of Eve cut off imdiately after the first visitation? Or only after several visits?”
“Roughly... three months, maybe half a year. We visited her three tis. And... even up to the third visitation, that child was the very one I knew.”
“In that case, another question. Was demonization in progress?”
“Demonization...?”
“Horns growing on the head.”
That was the incurable disease that struck Glory and Eve at the sa ti. There had been only one cure.
“Ah, when we first discovered her, yes. Sothing hard like horns on both sides, between the hair...”
“You an, they were there.”
“...But as she grew, they began to recede. She was a sickly child, so we tended her with all our hearts. By about three years old, they were gone entirely.”
That ant demonization had progressed and then undone.
Perhaps the blood of a Hero—the breath of Transcendent Star✯ upon the destined savior’s flesh—had, late though it was, driven out the demonic taint.
As she described the frail child, the lady’s voice broke.
“I found her knowing I was barren, when I was praying on the riverbank. I raised her with my heart... How could I forget her? I must have been mad...”
What I faced now was one possible ending to forged mory.
And even that had begun to return, leading her to —so in its way, a well-turned ending.
“Thank you, madam. If you don’t mind, would you rest a bit in the salon downstairs? I’ll send Eve as soon as she returns.”
“Yes...”
“Ran. See to refreshnts.”
After sending the lady off,
I began laying out assumptions in my head.
‘Eve’s age and Rebecca’s are roughly the sa. Let’s log this in sequence.’
At age one, in the village of Wonderland, Eve contracted the incurable “demonization” and drifted along the water. She was then found and raised by the Baroness of Lemontree.
At age three, the progressing “demonization” halted; the horns instead disappeared. She was happily reared by the Baroness of Lemontree.
Around age eight or nine, her genius at the sword ca to light.
Around age ten or eleven, she drew the eye of the royal family and went to complete “Gifted Knight Training.” Of the dozens of children summoned from Hiaka’s various lands, she was likely outstanding.
But around that ti, for so reason, she seems to have co into conflict with the princess. And midway through age eleven, the 『Curse of Forgetting』 activated and the Baroness forgot Eve.
Then roughly eight or nine years later—
At age twenty, Eve t at Star-Greeting Mountain.
“Ran.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“Find a few docunts on Gifted Knight Training.”
“Understood.”
I riffled through what Ran brought. But that monstrous curse, No. 95 『Curse of Forgetting』, forges even “records.” There wasn’t even the faintest indication that Eve had belonged to the program.
Then sothing rose to mind.
‘Huh.’
I first ca to understand Setian’s Sanctuary because Rebecca told .
On our way out from an audience with the king.
— If we’re going to face Setian, we need to know what’s in there.
Rebecca had co to the palace with several tis.
It was odd that she was only now telling sothing so important. I asked back:
— Why tell only now?
— ......
Rebecca stared at .
We stopped there and exchanged looks.
— ...What. What. Telling you now is still telling you...
Her expression was definitely strange.
Only Setian can lay a curse.
Rebecca and Eve are tightly entangled.
‘Setian’s Sanctuary. Rebecca. Eve.’
These three are the keywords.
Bang!
Just then the door flew open and an elephant barreled in—Eve. Fresh from training, she clamped her sweaty hand around my wrist.
“What the—why. Why.”
“......!”
“Hey, don’t yank—”
Whish! My body lurched along. Even now that I’d beco a [Constellation], an assassin could not withstand a warrior’s strength. If she pulled, I went like a paper doll.
Dragging down to the first floor, Eve planted in front of the Baroness and pointed at with her finger.
“......! ......!!”
“Yes, yes... Mother knows. Mother t him earlier... He truly is a splendid man.”
Ding—♪ After the chi of the 『Bell of Expression』, Eve hugged the Baroness.
The lady, on the verge of tears, rejoiced.
Eve didn’t tear up, but she furrowed her brows and rubbed her cheek against the lady’s hair.
I heard later: before Eve settled at Star-Greeting Mountain, she had gone to House Lemontree several tis. But at the ti, the Baroness didn’t recognize her.
‘A curse is a curse, after all......’
***
Night fell, and I gave the lady a bed in the bedroom attached to the lab (the one Adele or Ran used).
I called Eve aside and, for the first ti in a while, started a talk.
First, I asked if she had mories of going to the palace as a child.
‘ㅇㅇ.’
Then whether she t Rebecca there.
‘?? ㄴㄴ’
She shook her head.
So I changed the question. Back then, was there a little princess with blond hair, red eyes, and a nasty temper?
‘??’
Eve tilted her head a few tis, then her eyes went wide.
‘????’
Then she asked back:
‘There was. That one. Rebecca?’
‘ㅇㅇ.’
‘????????????? ㄴㅇ0ㅇㄱ’
A mouth sprung wide open. The look of “an identity I never even imagined!”
Then Eve pressed thumb and forefinger to her chin and sank into thought.
Very deeply...
After that, groaning through rough sign, she gave the gist, roughly like this:
‘At the ti, the children stayed together in one dorm building. I received special treatnt there because I was good at swordplay (Eve said when others got a small piece of at, she got a big one).’
‘anwhile the Knight-Captain and others matched us against renowned children of the court, but the princess alone especially hated . I couldn’t talk with anyone much anyway, but with the princess I couldn’t communicate at all.’
At this I was a little surprised. She had more points of contact with the world than I’d thought, didn’t she?
‘Do you rember Setian’s Sanctuary?’
‘......ㄴㄴ ㅇㅇ ㄴㄴ ㅇㅇ......’
On the verge of rembering, then not; yes and no, in a loop.
‘Then do you rember when and how the 『Curse of Forgetting』 ca to you, and how you lived after it?’
Eve pondered, then answered.
‘mory. Fuzzy.’
When she ca to, she had already been abandoned to the wilds.
She went to House Lemontree a couple of tis.
By the Hero’s fate she ca to Star-Greeting Mountain.
And then Eve’s expression brightened.
Her fingertip touched my chest, then her right hand with upraised index finger and her left [N O V E L I G H T] hand drew close together.
‘t. You.’
When I told her that’s not very useful information right now, her mouth stuck out a full handspan.
After that I spread out a full map of the palace and rendered it in my room with [Illusion]. Eve looked around, eyes shining, nodding. “Here. It’s in my mory,” she said.
But when I rendered Setian’s Sanctuary, Eve paused.
“Sothing coming back?”
“......”
Eve answered: ‘I think I’d know if I went.’
“Got it. For now, train in this area.”
Next it was ti to et Rebecca.
***
I t Rebecca at the townhouse in the capital. In the last few days I had scarcely co by, busy training the Hero Party.
Rebecca had holed up at ho citing illness. Today, though I asked to et outside, she insisted I co to the house.
Strangely enough, her voice sounded fine. Not like soone who was sick.
“...You’re here.”
When the door opened, two maids bowed their heads, and Da Lay t head-on.
“Where is Her Highness?”
“She’s in her room on the second floor.”
“All right.”
I started for the stairs in long strides, and Lay stepped in front of .
“......”
“......”
“If you have sothing to say, say it.”
“Professor Dante. This isn’t sothing to say here. Step aside with for a mont.”
Lay has always been soone who opposes . From long ago.
But today her expression was different than usual.
When sothing changes, I have the habit of checking 【Script】. This felt like a thought with depth.
【 Shadow Guard Lay: ‘......’ 】
The thought did not rise as text.
I followed Lay to the terrace on the first floor, where she shut the door and drew a blade from her hip.
“What exactly are you doing.”
By now Lay is no match for . Even so, I raised a hand to show I had no intent to fight.
“Why this.”
“A warning, Professor Dante.”
“What sort.”
“Princess Rebecca is the legitimate princess of the great House Hiaka, five hundred years of history. With the prince unmarried at present, she is a small buttress of the dynasty.”
“I know.”
“Beyond the office of princess, she is a woman who lives as earnestly as anyone. Beyond the bond of liege and servant, she’s also a younger sister I’ve looked after for nearly ten years.”
“Sure. I can see that. But she’s also my wife now, even if by contract. If you’re Shadow Guard, can you point a knife at your lord’s husband and think that’s fine?”
“Don’t get smug! I’m being serious.”
Lay’s brows knotted hard. Then the tip of her blade touched my neck.
“Dante Hiakapo.”
For so reason, Lay spoke in a truly grave voice.
“Don’t make the princess cry.”
So why is this assassin acting like this? I couldn’t tell. And really—what reason would I have to make Rebecca cry?
Yes, I felt suspicious about my situation with Eve, but to begin with, Rebecca and I are disinterested in each other. There’s no reason to give your heart to soone you’re not interested in. No reason to give your heart, no reason to make them cry.
If anything, Lay was the one I fancied more. She knew Rebecca’s rotten past in full, and even after executing vile orders with her own hands, she remained this loyal a servant to this day. I always move alone, and with Ran and Adele my relations are nearly equal, but I too wouldn’t mind having such a servant.
“Step aside.”
I pushed the blade away with a fingertip. Lay tried to hold firm, but it slid off helplessly.
“Don’t make her cry. I an it. Answer .”
She had a hint of fluster in her eyes, but not enough to break her spirit. When I moved past, she blocked with her whole body this ti.
I had no idea why she was like this.
“......Fine.”
Leaving Lay there, I headed for the second floor. Rebecca’s room.
│ㅂㅇ)
│ㅂ♥]
On the way up, so suspicious creatures poked out from between the stair slats, and when our eyes t they fled.
│) =3
│] =3
Why are those things here.
I truly couldn’t understand a thing.
I only knocked on the door.
— ...Yes.
“It’s . Dante.”
— ......
A few seconds passed.
I heard breathing.
Then ca the answer.
— ...Co in.
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