Bandages wrapped tightly around her body.
An exhausted expression.
Slumped on a bench.
Just from that, it was easy to guess what had happened to her.
It was recently said that Lobelia had left the Cradle for the Imperial Palace. She must have returned after experiencing her younger brother’s death.
She had clearly just been through that horrific ordeal, and yet she appeared no different from usual.
That was a warning sign.
“Johan. What were you doing during class time instead of attending your lessons?”
“There’s a misunderstanding, Your Highness.”
“Sounds like you’re the one misunderstanding. I was just asking a question. I’m not trying to scold you.”
“Yes.”
Phew. What a relief.
“Of course, depending on your answer, I might decide to punish you.”
Never mind. Not a relief.
“I had an unavoidable circumstance.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“I was kidnapped by that lunatic Stan Robinhood, and I just barely escaped and made it back, you see?”
“Oh? Stan, you say? Now I’m curious. That guy doesn’t usually kidnap people without a reason.”
“I talked a bit with his younger sister. That’s what set him off.”
“Ah, so that’s what it was. In that case, I’ll apologize on his behalf. Stan can be a bit excessive when it comes to family matters.”
“‘A bit’ is putting it lightly.”
“I’ll apologize for that too. You’re right. He’s very excessive.”
“Yes.”
Can I leave now?
“But tell me, how long do you plan to just stand there like that?”
I dropped to my knees at once.
I could feel the chill of the ground creeping up through my knees.
“…You really have a knack for catching me off guard. I meant for you to sit next to me, not kneel. Aren’t we classmates, after all?”
“Uh, well…”
“Sit.”
“Yes.”
I squatted down beside Lobelia.
She had her arms stretched out across the back of the bench, and without missing a beat, she bent one arm and slung it around my shoulders.
It felt like I was about to get shaken down or something.
My hands and feet trembled.
“Try sitting a little more comfortably, would you?”
“Yes.”
“Hmm…”
People with power were scary.
But people with both power and authority were even scarier.
That’s right. There are times when I find Lobelia even more terrifying than Kult.
So I can’t help but naturally become respectful in front of her.
“Johan, I lost my little brother yesterday. I couldn’t accept it, and in my fury, I ended up like this.”
Lobelia began to tell me what had happened at the Imperial Palace the night before.
I don’t know why I was the one hearing it or why she chose to tell me.
The only thing I could guess was that she was having a really hard time.
To begin with, this wasn’t the kind of story you could easily share with a close aide. Maybe that’s why she was opening up to someone like me, who had little to do with it.
“Maybe I could’ve saved him. If I had taught him never to even consider fighting for the throne, maybe he wouldn’t have been killed like that.”
This was the moment her life was undergoing a major change.
The despair she felt from her brother’s death.
And then came the death of Ariel…. her closest friend and most loyal confidant.
With that, the cracks in Lobelia’s mental state were bound to deepen until everything finally collapsed.
Of course, it was precisely because she could overcome such things that she was the main character…
“What do you think would’ve been the right answer? Everyone around me is someone who would gladly throw away their life for their dream, so I’d like to hear the thoughts of someone like you, who’s scrambling just to stay alive.”
Personally, I didn’t believe a few words or experiences were enough to change someone’s life.
“Valen, that naïve little brother of mine…. do you think he was truly prepared to die for his dream?”
To me, it was simply a matter of one’s environment changing.
People change gradually, shaped by their surroundings.
“I’m not sure. I don’t know. But I’m trying to survive so I can achieve my dream.”
“To survive in order to achieve your dream… I see. That sounds about right, from a practical standpoint.”
“I wouldn’t call it the right answer. I just think people give different answers depending on what ideals they hold.”
Ariel Ether was prepared to burn her life away if it meant helping Lobelia.
And Kult was someone who would throw everything away to achieve his dream.
This wasn’t a matter of personal difference.
It was simply a difference in the shape of their ideals.
“I’m sorry for what happened to your brother. But I don’t think I have the right to guess what he was thinking. Assuming I understand someone just by looking at one side of them… that would be arrogant.”
“…Is that so.”
That’s why I don’t judge Lobelia on my own terms.
I already paid the price for doing that once before.
Knowing the future? I was wrong. What I know amounts to little more than scraps.
So I don’t let myself grow conceited.
I had no time, no strength, and no power to spare for that.
“So, Your Highness, please don’t try to force yourself to understand others. If you try to attach reasons to something you don’t fully grasp, you’ll end up with nothing but a flawed understanding filled with holes.”
There was nothing more pathetic than pretending to know everything.
If you don’t know, you don’t know.
If you’ve tried to understand but still can’t, then so be it.
Trying to force understanding only leads to self-deception.
“Haha…”
Lobelia let out a hollow laugh.
Then, after briefly brushing the corner of her eye, she spoke.
“To think… I’d be getting advice from you…”
Wow. Just how much of an idiot does she think I am to be that surprised?
“You’re right. Your words and actions have opened my eyes. Perhaps I really was being arrogant.”
With those words, Lobelia let go of the arm she’d had around my shoulders.
“Go on. You’ve got your own responsibilities. I shouldn’t be keeping you any longer.”
“I am forever in your debt, Your Highness.”
“You should really fix that weird way of speaking. It doesn’t suit you.”
“But of course.”
Ah—freedom at last!
***
Even after Johan had left, Lobelia sat on the bench for quite a while, sorting through her thoughts.
Arrogant.
She had no choice but to come to her senses after hearing those words aimed squarely at her.
And it meant all the more because it had come from Johan.
The man who always acted like a coward, slinking around like some court traitor who was always reading the room.
“You, of all people…”
There were many who risked their lives to speak their truth.
And just as many who compromise their convictions to save themselves.
Johan was the latter.
Which is precisely why his words had such weight.
If someone else had said those words, it wouldn’t have hit so hard.
It was shocking precisely because it came from someone she never imagined would say such a thing.
Yes, because it was a coward like him who had found the courage to say it.
“Haha…”
Only then did Lobelia come to realize her own immaturity.
She had believed she understood everything, that she could understand it all.
“His Majesty knew all along.”
Abraham had said that Lobelia was currently the closest to the throne.
“I was the one who resembled you the most.”
It wasn’t because she surpassed the other contenders. It was because she most resembled the Emperor himself.
If she had kept going, convinced she could understand everything, she would have become someone just like Abraham.
Just like how Abraham had decided on his own that Valen would never survive in this brutal imperial court.
She would have become that kind of person.
“Haa…”
Let’s admit it.
She was arrogant. A fool who hadn’t even realized that fact.
Then she had to change.
Because that was the only path to becoming a different kind of emperor than Abraham.
Now that she had recognized the need to change, Lobelia thought to herself:
“I need Johan.”
Up until now, Lobelia had only taken in those who believed in and followed her ideals as her trusted aides.
It was wonderful to share the same vision, but those people couldn’t point out her flaws.
That’s why…
“I guess I’ve always needed someone who could speak harsh truths to me.”
She needed an advisor who could see the world through a different lens than her own.
***
Ariel Ether had always been the disgrace of the Ether Duchy.
The Duke didn’t particularly hate Ariel, but he had no interest in her either.
Looking back now, I guess Father was afraid of loving me.
Duke Tronius Ether was said to be a righteous man.
They said he had poured sincere love even on Ariel’s mother, a beastkin woman who was shunned by society at the time.
But even a man like that could be changed by one thing…
War.
As a mage, Tronius Ether had to kill more enemies than anyone else during the war.
There was no justice in it. Only a man who abandoned his convictions in order to somehow protect his family under the Emperor’s oppression.
He returned to the family as a war hero, but he was not the same man as before.
The man who had compromised so much to protect his family had become someone who couldn’t even love the family he had fought to preserve.
Wasn’t it said that he hadn’t shed a single tear when Ariel’s mother died giving birth to her?
Ariel had once overheard the servants in the household talking about it.
I was nothing to Father.
He didn’t hate her.
But he didn’t love her either.
He had simply fulfilled his duties as head of the household. And so, Ariel grew up in an environment of indifference.
She wore fine clothes, ate fine food, and learned fine things.
But the Duke’s servants didn’t see Ariel as a person.
They never engaged in casual conversation with her, and once their tasks were done, they would leave without even a backward glance.
At first, Ariel thought that was only natural.
After all, as a beastkin, she had little chance of becoming the next duke.
The next Duke would be Tronius’s younger brother, Rascal Ether.
So it was only natural that she had become nothing more than a burden to the Ether Duchy.
I’m just one of the valuable possessions owned by the family.
It was only then that Ariel came to realize she wasn’t being cherished as a noble daughter of the Duke but merely being managed.
She was nothing more than an asset.
She realized it far too late.
So how did Ariel feel once she had come to that realization?
I was young, so I thought it was okay.
Nothing changed.
She truly felt nothing. Just like a treasured piece of art on display.
But there was someone who couldn’t stand it. Someone who grew angry on her behalf.
– Duke Ether, you really need to manage your household.
Lobelia burst through the Duke’s gates and said this to him.
Even though she must have known this wouldn’t help her in the slightest.
Back then, Ariel wasn’t worth it.
She was a beastkin, couldn’t do a single thing right, and was foolish. Flawed in every way.
But Lobelia took her hand and pulled her out into the world.
And still, nothing really changed.
– If you don’t know how to live, then live for me, Ariel.
She thought nothing would change.
That’s what she believed…
“Your Highness.”
A person’s life begins to change with the smallest of things.
From that day on, Lobelia came to the duchy every single day to talk to Ariel. She played with her.
She treated her like a normal person and paid attention to how she felt.
“Just that alone is enough for me.”
If not for her, Ariel might still feel nothing even now.
She wouldn’t have thought of the sunlight as warm.
She wouldn’t have thought today’s meal tasted good.
She wouldn’t have known it was sad to part ways with friends.
“Now, I’ll give Your Highness wings.”
Before Ariel now were dozens of scattered sheets of paper.
On them were scribbled countless magical formulas, magic circles, and chaotic fragments of magical knowledge.
Her awakened ability…. telekinesis.
If this versatile ability could be fully established as a single magic, it would surely be of great help to Lobelia.
“Ah…”
She was slowly walking toward death.
But the thought didn’t scare her.
Scratch, scratch.
Yet the pen, which had been endlessly gliding across the paper with its steady sound, came to a sudden stop.
“……”
As she reached for a new sheet, her eyes landed on the hat she had set aside.
The large witch’s hat she always wore when going out.
The moment she saw it, a memory surfaced.
“Sir Johan.”
She thought of the man who was likely still working on a cure to save her.
She remembered the words he had spoken while wearing that very hat.
– Even if it doesn’t suit me, maybe I just want to try it on once.
Johan had done something that didn’t suit him.
Though he had always avoided getting involved with her, even with a request at hand, he had proposed a deal.
She knew he was still clinging to the impossible.
“…I’m sorry, Sir Johan.”
But Ariel no longer wished for that.
She was no longer afraid of death.
Ariel smiled. Then she picked up the hat and stood up.
***
By the time I skipped class and arrived at the workshop,
I found something unfamiliar at the spot where I usually ran my experiments.
When I got closer, I could tell what it was.
And I could also guess, more or less, why it had been left here.
“What an idiot.”
It was Ariel’s witch hat.
She had even left a letter next to it that was carefully written by hand.
She really went all out.
I tried on the hat she had left behind, just for a moment.
“Hm, yeah… still doesn’t suit me.”
I took the hat off and set it aside in a corner.
Then, as usual, I immersed myself in my research to make the cure.
“I clearly said that if I made it this far, I’d finish it out of sheer stubbornness.”
I knew what this hat meant. There was no need to read the letter she left with it.
It was like a keepsake. After all….who would want to walk around wearing something like that?
“I’ll have to return it to her later.”
So just wait for me.
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