Chapter 272: A Crown Of Ashes
I quickly took a seat after picking up a book from the inventory.
After a minute or so, the door opened and Cassandra entered the library, being followed by two more people - a young man and a young girl, probably the same age as me.
The young man had striking red eyes that seemed to catch the light, but the lower half of his face was concealed by what looked like a dark cloth mask covering from the nose down. His hair was swept back and particularly covering one side of his face, giving him a mysterious appearance. He was a few inches shorter than me.
The girl beside him was noticeably shorter than both of us, with long auburn hair tied in a single ponytail that fell down her back. Her hazel eyes had an intelligent gleam to them, and she carried herself like a true noble.
Both wore similar winter uniforms - dark blue with silver trim, indicating they were either from the same academy or workplace.
I stood up and greeted them after exchanging a glance with Cassandra.
"Good evening."
The young man nodded back silently, while the girl offered a courtesy bow and greeted back.
"Good evening, Sir."
"They are Amaniel’s friends from the Royal Academy," Cassandra introduced us to each other. "And this is Sir Luminiel, the temporary assistant of the baron."
Somehow, she sounded like she was the one who lived here.
And friends? I had friends? I thought I was a loner.
And why are there so many guests lately?
"It’s nice to see you both." I gestured for them to take a seat. "Wait, we should go to a guest room."
But the young man shook his head, and the girl spoke. "No, it’s fine if we talk here."
"Well... Alright."
With that, they sat down at the table, Cassandra beside me, and the two opposite us.
An awkward silence settled over the library.
I wasn’t entirely sure what to say. They were supposedly my friends, but obviously, I had no memory of them.
The masked young man kept studying me with that unsettling gaze. Thankfully, his friend nudged him to stop being rude.
I cleared my throat and decided to break the ice. "Well, let me introduce myself properly. I’m Luminiel, currently working as the baron’s temporary assistant. But I’m a traveler by nature and an aspiring healer pursuing knowledge. You may call me Lumin as well."
The girl spoke up, her voice clear and well-educated. "I’m Aurea, and this is Vance. We studied with Amaniel for more than five years. We are his close friends."
Five years, huh. Probably the period when the past me studied at the Royal Academy.
"I see. I’m glad to make your acquaintance." I smiled faintly before taking on a somber tone. "I’m afraid... You won’t be able to meet with your friend."
"...What do you mean?" Aurea asked. "Is he not here?"
"Well..." I felt guilty lying to more people, especially those close to ’him’. But it had to be done. "Young Master Amaniel... isn’t with us anymore."
I watched as their eyes widened in confusion and then shock.
"W-what did you s-say?" Aurea’s voice came out barely above a whisper.
"...It seems like he sacrificed himself to save others when the place he was studying got attacked."
I wasn’t actually lying now, since I didn’t explicitly say he died.
But the immediate changes in their expressions told me everything I needed to know. They were indeed close friends of his.
Aurea’s face was pale, her fingers trembling slightly as she gripped the edge of the blade. It was harder to gauge the masked young man’s reaction, but his eyes showed a depth of pain that couldn’t be faked.
"And... both the baron and baroness won’t be able to meet you today, due to health issues," I added quietly.
They didn’t react to my words, probably unable to recover from the sudden news.
The silence stretched on, heavy with grief and disbelief.
{...Do you remember them?}
I glanced at Cassandra, who looked equally uncomfortable with the situation.
{...No, but they must have spoken the truth.} I replied.
{...Yeah, they didn’t lie.} She said. {But... I didn’t know you were friends with another princess.}
{Huh? Princess? What do you mean?}
A question mark appeared above my head.
{...This friend of yours is the second princess of your kingdom.}
Cassandra replied in an ’isn’t it obvious’ tone.
I managed to keep my poker face and quickly used Character Insight on both of them.
And what I saw almost broke my composure.
First, I looked at the princess’s.
━━━━━━━━◇━━━━━━━━
Alias: Aurea
True Name: Aurelia von Orlan
Titles: The Second Princess / The Ghost Princess
Affiliation:
- Orlan Royal Academy (Student)
- The Kingdom of Orlan (Princess)
- Female Lead of "A Crown Of Ashes"
Rank: Unawakened
Current Objective: "Inform her friend Amaniel and his family about the hidden matters. Ask for their help if possible."
Favorability: ★★★★
━━━━━━━━◇━━━━━━━━
And then the boy’s.
━━━━━━━━◇━━━━━━━━
Alias: Vance
True Name: Vance de Granger
Titles: The Crimson Shadow / The Silent Knight
Affiliation:
- Orlan Royal Academy (Student)
- Princess Aurelia’s Personal Knight
- Male Lead of "A Crown Of Ashes"
- etc...
Rank: False Awakened (Initiate)
Abilities:
- [Sign Language Mastery]
- [Silent Combat] – Uses vibrations/air currents to "hear" attacks
- [Firm Will] – High resistance against mental interference (his mind is already a fortress of grief).
Present Goal: "Visit his friend’s family. Ensure the Princess’s safety."
Favorability: ★★★★
━━━━━━━━◇━━━━━━━━
"..."
I got silent, silently observing the two and glancing at the windows.
... So... They are the main characters of the new storyline...
I almost sighed out loud.
I didn’t expect my only childhood friends to be main characters as well.
A princess and what appeared to be her male lead counterpart. Was I an important supporting character in their story? Or just a background character that would only be remembered as their late childhood friend?
Well, whatever the case, things were getting a bit complicated.
Not to mention the fact, their storyline also gave off a tragic vibe.
...A Crown Of Ashes.
The title alone suggested political intrigue, conspiracy, betrayals, and probably a lot of bloodshed.
And Aurelia’s objective was to inform me of "hidden matters" and ask for help. Coupled with what I learned in the city and through that Viremont brat, it was clear what "the hidden matters" were about.
...Yep, definitely a tragedy.
...And Vance... Is he... mute?