Epilogue
1
Princess Valtrune had come through the accident at the inspection safely, and that the Provisional Elite Corps she founded had stopped the Kingdom’s invasion was announced across the whole Empire.
‘Make the inspection a success and the succession goes ahead.’
Unfortunately, that promise she had exchanged with Emperor Grode was never fulfilled. But having achieved something nobody had predicted, throwing back an invader, voices went up among the people that Princess Valtrune was fit to be the next Emperor. With support from the Empire’s citizens running high, it was formally announced that the succession would take place shortly.
“Rune-sama.”
“Yes. I’ll check it later.”
The coronation was ahead of her, and today, the day before it, she was still working steadily through her official duties. The Corps’ people were in high spirits about holding an eve-of-succession celebration; the woman herself showed no sign of being carried away by any of it.
“…Fuu.”
She stopped the pen she had been moving and straightened her back, and I held out a cup of tea.
“You’ve worked hard.”
“Yes. A little more and the policy proposals for after my accession will be finished.”
She took the tea in a settled voice and put a finger on the paper where the policies were written.
“Establishing a support system for people in hardship, and a tax reduction?”
“Yes. Winning people’s trust comes first. Relief measures for those in hardship are something I always meant to do once I inherited, and lowering the tax rate can be done without trouble if I cut the wasted money flowing to the Imperial army and the nobles. That should leave the new government I lead secure in its support, don’t you think?”
She had already begun moving with an eye on what came next. A festive mood has its place, but seeing her exactly as she always is put me at ease.
“You truly are a splendid person, Rune-sama, thinking of the people.”
“Am I? I don’t think so.”
She rose from the chair and turned her eyes to the view of the imperial capital through the window. The magnificent streets under the sun were full of people going about, thoroughly busy, and she let out a breath of admiration at a scene that peaceful.
“I only want to make this Empire a country anyone would find easy to live in. So the policies I’m thinking about are no more than my ideals written down.”
If that is her ideal, I do not consider it selfishness. Governing for the sake of somebody is, I think, exactly what suits a ruler.
“If you become Emperor, Rune-sama, so many people will be glad.”
Having read through the policies she had set out, I took my own seat. There was still a mountain of work, and I resumed mine a little ahead of her.
“…But I have a great many enemies as well.”
She took up her pen too, and let out a deep sigh. It is true there is much to be uneasy about, and there should be far more that she achieves. I shook my head at the weak note in a voice on the edge of being crushed by worry.
“You have numerous allies, Rune-sama. There is nothing to fear.”
“But… it’s certainly going to get harder from here, isn’t it?”
“So much the better. If there is anything I can do, I will do anything at all for you.”
“I think I’ll have to rely on you far more than I do now. Is that all right?”
“It’s fine. If something troubles you, come to me before anyone.”
“I may end up doing something that disappoints you.”
“Be at ease. A moment when I am disappointed in you will not arrive.”
No matter how far this goes, I am her personal knight. Whatever she does, I keep affirming it, and I search for how to move so that what she wants comes true. A moment of my being disappointed in her will never come, not ever.
“Fufu. You really are blind where I’m concerned.”
“Did you not know? I’m devoted to you, Rune-sama… to the point of holding that your choices are absolutely more correct than some god’s.”
I decided to follow her for the rest of my life. That oath has not changed, and it will not waver from here either.
She heard me out, held her stomach and laughed hard, and when she had finished laughing she quietly put out a slender fist.
“I’m not letting go of you. I’m counting on you from here too, my personal knight.”
“Yes. I’ll accompany you to the bottom of hell.”
I knocked my fist against her small one.
After that we worked in silence right up to the last minute before the eve celebration began. While the paperwork went on we exchanged nothing but businesslike words, and that in itself let me feel her trust and put myself further into the work.
I may still be far from the personal knight she deserves, but one day I mean to become a knight who can stand beside a Princess Valtrune that clever and that full of mercy without shame.
I glanced across at her profile and stopped my pen. The outside light coming through the window had changed color and had begun to turn the whole room red.
“…Rune-sama. It’s nearly time for the eve celebration.”
“Yes. Then let’s finish here for today. The rest tomorrow, no. Tomorrow is the coronation, isn’t it!”
Coloring at having genuinely got it wrong, Princess Valtrune put her work down. I gathered up the mountain of paper she had left in both arms.
“I’ll take the rest home. It’s a quantity that will be done shortly anyway.”
“Liar… hand over half of it and be quiet about it. I’ll take mine home too.”
“But you have an early start tomorrow, Rune-sama…”
“So do you.”
Ready to leave, she took half the stack out of my arms and opened the office door quietly.
“We can’t be late to the eve celebration. Let’s go.”
She turned at the door, the hem of her dress swinging.
“Yeah. Let’s.”
I followed her out of the office.
The twenty-seventh of August, Kingdom Calendar Year 1241. With the Provisional Elite Corps and the others close to Princess Valtrune at the center of it, a grand eve celebration was held in the largest dance hall in the imperial capital, taken over for the night.
“Your Highness! Congratulations on the succession!”
People using tube-shaped magic tools that went off with a loud noise and blew out glittering ribbon offered her their congratulations. Princess Valtrune looked startled at what sounded like a dry explosion, then grasped the situation at once and raised her glass with a smile to everyone in the hall.
“Thank you truly for holding this celebration for me tonight. Today will surely be a day I never forget. To the Empire’s future prosperity, your health!”
“Your health!”
Nobles and citizens attended the lively hall without regard for rank. Watching Princess Valtrune wrapped in a beautiful dress, I quietly enjoyed a wine over at the edge of the room.
A woman came walking toward me out of the busy center of it.
“General Ritziareite…”
“Good evening. Lady Valtrune looks very beautiful.”
“She does.”
Ritziareite came and put her back against the wall beside me.
“You’re always on the outside at events like this.”
Seeing that mischievous smile of hers, I turned my face away.
“I’m not good at fitting into a lively room.”
“Fufu. Nor am I.”
Many people surrounded Princess Valtrune. She must be happy at being celebrated, because she was smiling more brightly and more often than usual.
“You don’t want to join in?”
Asked out of nowhere, I shook my head.
“I want Rune-sama to enjoy this eve more than anybody. And there are countless people who want to speak with her. At a celebration like this I’d rather watch quietly from the outside.”
“I see. Is that so…”
Ritziareite drained the drink in her glass in one go.
“You’re weak with alcohol, surely. Are you all right?”
“No need to worry. This isn’t alcohol!”
She said that much and set off at a trot toward Princess Valtrune. The pitch of her voice was plainly odd and her face had gone somewhat red, but pointing that out would have been graceless.
I took my eyes off her and looked around elsewhere.
“Honestly, how hungry were the three of you…”
“Urp. Look, knowing food this good was going to be laid out, there’s no way I wasn’t going to arrive starving!”
“Right! Ah, Bro-suke, could you pass that meat dish over?”
“Mm?! Ah, sorry. I’ve eaten everything on this plate.”
“Hey~ what are you doing~!”
At the standing buffet the usual crowd was gathered, eating happily.
“Haaah… these idiots are hopeless. Flegel, are you eating anything?”
“Let me think. I was going to have some of that salad.”
“I see. I was going to have some as well, so I’ll fetch yours while I’m there.”
“No, I’ll come with you. You want to pick your own things, don’t you, Petra?”
Unlike usual, everyone had changed into tuxedos and dance dresses, and it felt fresh, like a ball.
—Shall I go over? No, this is fine a while longer.
The eve has only just started; let me watch a warm, peaceful scene a little longer. There is no guarantee I will get time this settled again.
2
The Order, having failed at the invasion of the Dyrst region, had fixed on its next target for occupation. That place was inside imperial territory again: the port town of Nocto in the Tielens region, in the southeast of the Valugan Empire, where overseas trade is brisk. Here was the source of the miasma that forms the main component of the Madmiasma the Order wants.
The Archbishop is not a man to be discouraged by one failure or two where his ambition is concerned. Patient is not quite the word; tenacious is more accurate. Undeterred by the defeat in Dyrst, he was pushing preparations for seizing the next destination.
“Our next objective is the occupation of Nocto. Security in the Dyrst region has thickened since that affair and it has become difficult for us to reach. But they still do not treat the defense of Nocto as important. Secure that place and it will be a great first step toward expanding the Order’s power!”
“Yes!”
The foolish believers swallowed the Archbishop’s words whole and began planning their infiltration of the Nocto they had been given as a target. I listened to the worthless discussion in the church with cold eyes.
And then the Archbishop’s gaze came suddenly to me.
“Reshia. You will of course accompany us for the taking of Nocto. We cannot receive the Kingdom’s army’s help this time. The Svell Order needs firm unity!”
He appeared to be planning to appoint me commander again as though it went without saying, and his thinking is soft. I shook my head and denied him.
“I am sorry, Your Grace, but I cannot obey that order.”
“…What?”
The Archbishop’s expression clouded. He must not have been able to believe I would not nod.
I have always listened obediently to the Archbishop’s orders. I was told it was for the Svell Order’s sake, and I believed it without doubting.
—But that was me before I held the memories of a previous life.
“Reshia. Do you mean to defy my orders?”
His roar carried through the whole church. The believers went quiet, frightened by the Archbishop’s rage, and he bore down on me.
“I shall say it again. Our next objective is the port town of Nocto in the Empire’s southeast.”
“…Your Grace, as I said, I cannot go.”
“Why! If you refuse, give me a reason I can accept!”
Mistaking it, perhaps, for simple selfishness on my part, the Archbishop carried himself as though he held the advantageous position, the vulgar face of a man who intends, when I fail to produce a reason, to send me to Nocto as the one in charge.
But I was able to refuse his order. Before he could produce his next words, I showed him a certain medical certificate I had prepared.
“…What is this?”
“The result of an examination by a doctor. In fact, during the recent invasion of the Dyrst region, I developed a fear of blood. The moment I see anything at all gruesome I have difficulty breathing, and so the doctor has told me that commanding at the front would be impossible for me.”
“What of it! You need only stay quietly at the rear!”
“But when I spoke to Prince Euris about it… he recommended convalescence somewhere quiet, and has already made the arrangements.”
“What did you, no, refuse it at once!”
“Your Grace. We cannot treat the kindness of the Reshfeld Kingdom’s second prince as nothing. If I were to refuse, it might touch on the Order’s credibility.”
Even the Archbishop who governs the Svell Order cannot come at royalty very strongly. The Kingdom is the largest supporter funding the Order, and he will not want to take actions that worsen the relationship.
When I explained that refusing was not open to me, the Archbishop drew his face together and went silent.
—Fufu. What an unsightly face. He seems to have been counting on my drawing power to gather volunteer soldiers; unfortunately I shall not be lending a hand to this plan.
“So that is how it stands. I am very sorry, but I cannot take part in the taking of Nocto…”
“Convalescence, you mean you are leaving here?”
“Yes. I intend to go to the quiet countryside.”
“…Kh. I see.”
The Archbishop looked as though he had something to say and gave up on pressing further. He must have judged that nothing he said would matter, and in fact, however much he begged for the operation, my not taking part would not be overturned.
“Then, as I have a discussion with Prince Euris about the convalescence shortly, I shall take my leave.”
“W-wait, Reshia! The matter of bringing the First Prince round…”
“I regret to say the First Prince is unusually cautious and would not open his heart to me.”
“…That cannot be.”
“So, Your Grace. If you wish the First Prince brought round, there is nothing for it but for you to negotiate personally. I am truly sorry to be of so little use.”
Having explained briefly that I had failed to bring the First Prince round, I turned my back on the Archbishop and the believers gathered about him and went out of the church.
The Archbishop called Prince Euris an easily handled, stupid prince, but he carries the title of Second Prince. As someone to use, there could hardly be better material. The First Prince, by contrast, has a cunning mind and may be more capable than Prince Euris, but as a person to move about freely he is extremely difficult to handle.
“Bad luck, Archbishop… Prince Euris is mine now.”
The Order will now have to work hard at building a relationship with a First Prince who is difficult to bring round. Whether it has a prince behind it makes an enormous difference to the range of the Order’s activity, and since Prince Euris is devoted to me, once I leave the Order he will stop cooperating with it too.
“Now. While we are here, let me use him thoroughly.”
Being used by me is Prince Euris’s wish as well.
I cut my connection with the Order and go to a quiet place where nobody watches. Not, of course, that I intend to overlook the Chosen or the Order’s movements.
“…Nocto, then. It is quite far from where I am to convalesce, but there is nothing for it.”
I understood the shape of the Order’s plans from what the Archbishop was saying. If the Order’s army invades imperial land again, the Empire’s response will be stricter than anything so far.
The fighting intensifies. History distorts and moves further from the shape it ought to have.
—While the proper history is being painted over, what I should do now is erase completely the source of the miasma the Archbishop is moving the whole Order to reach. Purify the contaminated land and take back the right way of this world. That is a thing only I can do.
“…And going to the Empire lets me check on the Chosen at the same time. Two birds.”
I remember when I encountered them. A week has already gone by, and even so the scene comes up as vividly as if it had happened a moment ago. The courage of heroes carrying a great power beyond human understanding and still defying fate is burned into the back of my mind and will not leave.
“…If it is them, then perhaps…”
I turned my eyes to the blue sky and put up a hand against the glare.
“They might grant Lord Svell’s wish…”
Nobody was there; it was talking to myself and nothing else. These words will never reach the person they are meant for.
“Lord Svell… in Nocto, I will meet them again.”
The feeling I put into the words is everything I lost, compressed.
“If the Order were gone, would you smile at me again?”
No matter how long I wait there is no answer, and I dropped my eyes to the ground. Knowing I would not get the answer I wanted, I could not keep from asking.
The meaning of my being alive here is to obey Lord Svell’s words and act faithfully on her orders.
—I decided to carry out Lord Svell’s command even at the cost of throwing away a feeling that mattered.
“I still believe the choice I made that day was the right one.”
I do not want to think that losing a part of my heart was wasted. Even if something important to being a person has gone missing, I wanted to grant Lord Svell’s wish. I obeyed her order even at the cost of lying to my own heart. I was going to believe in Lord Svell without doubting, that was decided.
And then I watched them, shaking with feeling, fighting desperately against a fate laid down for them, and I stopped understanding myself a little.
—What did I actually want?
With that important feeling gone, it is a thing I have no way of confirming. And I cannot keep from thinking about it.
“…I am glad the curiosity is still there.”
Had I lost every feeling, I would have become a thing that carried out what it was told without ever questioning an order, exactly like a genuine doll.
I still want to be a person. I want to be recognized as one. Even now, with more power than I need as a Saint, I have not entirely lost sight of the girl I was when I had none.
“…When all of it is finished, I am certain I will wish to take my heart back.”
Even riddled with faults, I do not want to lose the meaning of living. What the love I lost actually is, the heart that goes looking for that is the only thing driving me forward.
“Lord Svell, can you hear me? I will obey the order I received from you, and I will kill you, without fail. I will lead the Chosen, who have built strength to defy fate, and in time I will stir up those who stand against a god.”
‘Must I truly… must I truly kill Lord Svell?’
‘It is the one way the distorted history can be returned to what it was. With me, swallowed by the miasma, still in this world, history will go on down the wrong road.’
That important promise, once. A parting from Lord Svell that feels like the distant past. Words cannot be exchanged now.
—The Lord Svell of this world has already been swallowed by miasma and can no longer make the right judgments a god should. Lord Svell understood that, which is why she ordered me to kill her.
“The Lord Svell of now will surely come to remove me. And the person I used to be would have died quietly for Lord Svell’s sake.”
If any affection had remained in Lord Svell, I would have chosen death without resisting, because there would have been no meaning in resisting.
But now it is different. This is the mission I received from her, the reason I threw away my heart, went backward through time, and act to stop the world being wrapped in miasma and collapsing.
“…Fufu. Even as an enemy, I look forward to the day we meet again.”
I looked up at the sky and pictured a Lord God who could not possibly speak back to me.
Out of the Order’s hands, I can finally begin moving freely toward carrying out my mission. Obstruct an Order that means to bring Nocto down, and prevent miasma from spreading through the world, so that the same history as the previous life does not repeat, so that the great war that pulls in the world and should never have happened is not brought about.
Moving as a third force, I stand between an Order that pushes history toward evil and the Chosen who do not want ruin, and in all things I guide every one of them toward realizing what I want.
It is a thing only I can do, having heard Lord Svell’s wish.
So until I have seen the end this world arrives at, I am not permitted to die.