0% “Your Highness, are you truly alright?”
“...Don’t worry.”
“If anything happens, please call for us. You mustn’t bear the burden alone, alright?”
“...”
Clana gently brushed off the doctors crowding around her and began to walk forward, using a handkerchief to wipe the blood from her face.
- Tremble, tremble...
As she walked, she glanced at the maid who had brought her the coagulant earlier, and the other maids who had arrived in response to the commotion, trembling on both sides of the hallway.
“I’ll be taking a bath, so please prepare it.”
“Y-yes!”
“And have the head maid prepare the coronation attire with the others.”
“Understood.”
With her commands, the maids and servants scattered efficiently.
“Wait a mont.”
“Y-yes, Your Highness?”
“Please bring my communication crystal.”
On her way to the bath, Clana turned to the maid who had brought her the coagulant earlier with this additional request.
Sothing just feels off...
A strange sense of unease had taken hold of her. Although much of it was likely due to the stress of the coronation, there was a lingering, inexplicable feeling that kept gnawing at her nerves.
I’ve felt this sensation before.
Ironically, it was due to her “forgetting.”
The strange experience she had just had, a mory most people would dismiss as a re dream, was slowly fading.
It was becoming as faint as the night she had nearly ended everything by mistake.
The night she often relieved in a dream.
- Tremble...
As Clana removed her clothes with the help of the maids and entered the bath, her hand trembled slightly.
“Are you alright, Your Highness?”
“...It’s nothing.”
Though everything was resolved now, and she was even expecting a child with Frey, the mory of the day she almost killed him still haunted her.
Whenever she recalled that mory, her left hand would tremble slightly as a reminder of what almost happened.
“Haa.”
Holding her left hand to steady it, Clana subrged herself in the bath and closed her eyes with a sigh.
“...”
After a mont, her hand stopped trembling, and she reached for the communication crystal the maid was holding.
“Hello?”
- Fzzz... Fzzzz...
The crystal crackled with static instead of a response as if her contact wasn’t available.
“Is she not there...?”
Just as Clana was about to end the call, she heard a drowsy voice from the golden-tinged crystal.
- Yaaawn... Hello...?
“Sun God, have you been well?”
- Oh, I’ve been doing fine... but actually, I’m not the Sun God anymore...
“Excuse ?”
- Yeah, I’m just a shut-in now... A salted fish you know! I was lying around playing video gas until a mont ago... yawn...
It was none other than the Sun God, the once-great deity of this world.
“What exactly is a ‘shut-in’ and... salted fish?”
- It’s just... well... sothing like that... Anyway, what do you need?
The Sun God, who had beco a recluse after the war with the Outer God and now resided in a sanctuary within the cathedral prepared by the Church, asked the question in a sleepy voice, making Clana frown slightly.
“Do I happen to possess any hidden abilities?”
- Hmm?
“I an, sothing like... foreseeing the future... or glimpsing possibilities...”
The Sun God fell silent for a mont.
- That’s strange... you shouldn’t have anything like that left.
“What do you an by that?”
Clana’s eyes narrowed as she pressed the Sun God, who had muttered in a vague tone.
- That was originally an ability of the First Empress and myself. But I’m sure I removed it from you.
“Removed...?”
- So... why are you asking about this all of a sudden?
With that, the Sun God asked her a question in return.
“Oh, well...”
Feeling a bit uneasy, Clana began recounting the mory from earlier.
“So... I was dozing off earlier, and I had a dream...”
Doing her best to recall the fading mory, Clana relayed what she could rember.
“...That’s as much as I can recall. Everything else is hazy, but I do know that Serena deeply resented Frey, and I was defending him...”
- That’s really strange...
“Huh?”
The Sun God muttered as if surprised.
- That was a dummy scenario that didn’t make it past the initial phase... How did Clana see that...?
“Excuse ?”
- Was there a code mix-up? But with the system in place, that shouldn’t be possible... No, why would she have prophetic abilities in the first place...
“...?”
- Ah, I was talking aloud, sorry.
Sounding slightly embarrassed, the Sun God continued.
- I’ve gotten used to being alone... heh heh.
“So... what does all this an?”
- You seem to have glimpsed an unused dummy scenario, but at this point, it doesn’t matter since it’s all over.
“Wait, a dummy scenario? What’s that supposed to an?”
- Oh, don’t worry about it.
Clana’s expression grew tense as she listened, but the Sun God brushed it off.
- It’s just a parallel world. A different configuration, that’s all...
“That’s... a big deal!”
- There’s no need for such an overreaction.
Unlike Clana, who looked grave, the Sun God’s tone was lighthearted.
- It’s just a scrap of an idea, not even a real possibility.
“But, still...”
- Relax. It was discarded even before the initial setup, so it has no influence on this tiline. Just think of it as a hypothetical-what if...
“W-wait a minute...!”
- Anyway, goodbye for now~!
The Sun God ended the call.
- Ah, I died again! I was so close...
“She’s really just lazing around...”
As she heard the sound of a ga and the Sun God’s disappointed mutter before the connection cut, Clana grimaced.
“Well, soon enough, she’ll be the royal mascot, so she’d better enjoy herself now.”
She smirked, having decided on the Sun God’s future in the palace.
“Hmm.”
She reclined in the bath, lost in thought.
Was that really just a coincidence?
Clana couldn’t entirely understand the Sun God’s ramblings, but she’d gathered the general idea.
Parallel world... fascinating.
According to the Sun God, what she had just seen was a parallel world, another possible reality.
It is rather fascinating...
Although the details were already fading, two key points remained vividly in her mind.
First, Serena harbored a deep hatred for Frey.
In every other scenario, Serena had always loved him.
Even in the one instance where she turned away, her love for him endured.
But for so reason, in this dream, Serena showed no love or even resentnt—only a cold gaze and an expression of contempt.
Second, Clana herself was the one defending Frey.
To her own embarrassnt, Clana knew it was rare for her to have stood on Frey’s side across the tilines.
Yet, in this mory, it was she alone who was defending him.
Could there really be a parallel world where Serena and I had switched roles?
With those thoughts swirling, Clana reflected quietly.
No way, that’s impossible.
“Your Highness? It’s ti to finish your bath.”
“Ah.”
Hearing the voice of a nearby maid, Clana looked up.
“Is it already that late? I was hoping to get so rest here...”
“P-pardon, but much ti has already passed... any longer, and your body may start to cool, wasting precious ti.”
“Well, if that’s the case, I suppose I have no choice.”
At the maid’s words, Clana rose from the bath with a look of resignation.
“M-my apologies, Your Highness, but...”
“Hmm?”
“Your, um... your stomach...”
At that mont, the maid who was assisting her pointed hesitantly at Clana’s stomach.
“...”
“It seems... your a-appetite has increased lately...”
Clana’s stomach was visibly rounded.
“Haa.”
Due to her fatigue, she had completely forgotten to use an illusion spell to conceal her growing belly.
“Sh-should I call the seamstresses right away to make adjustnts to the coronation attire? Just a small alteration should hide it well enough...”
“No need.”
“Huh?”
“In a few hours, there won’t be any reason to hide it.”
Clana, gently stroking her belly, responded with a aningful expression as she made her way to the exit.
“Open the gates of the palace. The coronation ceremony shall comnce.”
The empire’s sun was slowly rising.
“By your command, Your Highness.”
“...If such a world truly existed, I’d like to see it, just once.”
“Pardon?”
“No... It’s nothing. Nothing at all.”
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