“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 Department of Warfare is unusually weak.
Not an important point, but still.
“Did your memories of Eve cut off immediately after the first visitation? Or only after several visits?”
“Roughly... three months, maybe half a year. We visited her three times. 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 same time. There had been only one cure.
“Ah, when we first discovered her, yes. Something hard like horns on both sides, between the hair...”
“You mean, 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 meant 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 memory.
And even that had begun to return, leading her to me—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 refreshments.”
After sending the lady off,
I began laying out assumptions in my head.
‘Eve’s age and Rebecca’s are roughly the same. 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 came 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 time, for some reason, she seems to have come 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 met me at Star-Greeting Mountain.
“Ran.”
“Yes, Professor.”
“Find me a few documents 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 something rose to mind.
‘Huh.’
I first came to understand Setian’s Sanctuary because Rebecca told me.
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 come to the palace with me several times.
It was odd that she was only now telling me something so important. I asked back:
— Why tell me only now?
— ......
Rebecca stared at me.
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 become a [Constellation], an assassin could not withstand a warrior’s strength. If she pulled, I went like a paper doll.
Dragging me down to the first floor, Eve planted me in front of the Baroness and pointed at me with her finger.
“......! ......!!”
“Yes, yes... Mother knows. Mother met him earlier... He truly is a splendid man.”
Ding—♪ After the chime 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 times. But at the time, 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 time in a while, started a talk.
First, I asked if she had memories of going to the palace as a child.
‘ㅇㅇ.’
Then whether she met 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 times, then her eyes went wide.
‘????’
Then she asked me 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 me the gist, roughly like this:
‘At the time, the children stayed together in one dorm building. I received special treatment there because I was good at swordplay (Eve said when others got a small piece of meat, she got a big one).’
‘Meanwhile the Knight-Captain and others matched us against renowned children of the court, but the princess alone especially hated me. 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 remember Setian’s Sanctuary?’
‘......ㄴㄴ ㅇㅇ ㄴㄴ ㅇㅇ......’
On the verge of remembering, then not; yes and no, in a loop.
‘Then do you remember when and how the 『Curse of Forgetting』 came to you, and how you lived after it?’
Eve pondered, then answered.
‘Memory. Fuzzy.’
When she came to, she had already been abandoned to the wilds.
She went to House Lemontree a couple of times.
By the Hero’s fate she came 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.
‘Met. 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 memory,” she said.
But when I rendered Setian’s Sanctuary, Eve paused.
“Something coming back?”
“......”
Eve answered: ‘I think I’d know if I went.’
“Got it. For now, train in this area.”
Next it was time to meet Rebecca.
***
I met Rebecca at the townhouse in the capital. In the last few days I had scarcely come by, busy training the Hero Party.
Rebecca had holed up at home citing illness. Today, though I asked to meet outside, she insisted I come to the house.
Strangely enough, her voice sounded fine. Not like someone who was sick.
“...You’re here.”
When the door opened, two maids bowed their heads, and Dame Layme met me 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 Layme stepped in front of me.
“......”
“......”
“If you have something to say, say it.”
“Professor Dante. This isn’t something to say here. Step aside with me for a moment.”
Layme has always been someone who opposes me. From long ago.
But today her expression was different than usual.
When something changes, I have the habit of checking 【Script】. This felt like a thought with depth.
【 Shadow Guard Layme: ‘......’ 】
The thought did not rise as text.
I followed Layme 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 Layme is no match for me. 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.”
Layme’s brows knotted hard. Then the tip of her blade touched my neck.
“Dante Hiakapo.”
For some reason, Layme 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 someone you’re not interested in. No reason to give your heart, no reason to make them cry.
If anything, Layme 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. Layme tried to hold firm, but it slid off helplessly.
“Don’t make her cry. I mean it. Answer me.”
She had a hint of fluster in her eyes, but not enough to break her spirit. When I moved past, she blocked me with her whole body this time.
I had no idea why she was like this.
“......Fine.”
Leaving Layme there, I headed for the second floor. Rebecca’s room.
│ㅂㅇ)
│ㅂ♥]
On the way up, some suspicious creatures poked out from between the stair slats, and when our eyes met 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 me. Dante.”
— ......
A few seconds passed.
I heard breathing.
Then came the answer.
— ...Come in.