Chapter 9
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Chapter 9
[What are you thinking about to smile so terrifyingly?]
"I'm planning to discard you."
[...How exactly will you discard me, my heartless master?]
"I'm going to become a knight."
[Where did this sudden talk of knighthood come from?]
"I'll become the hawk of the azure sky and recruit other virtuous knights instead of you."
[Hey, where else will you find a knight as virtuous as me! Look at me—I stay calm and composed even while my master plots to abandon me!]
"If you hate that, then stop whining about killing strict people."
[Come on, killing is the fastest and cleanest solution to most problems, isn't it? It's convenient for you, exciting for me, and I'm just suggesting a mutually beneficial approach. Master, show some respect for my preferences.]
Echinacea ignored the Demonic Sword's nonsense.
I had already decided what to do about the Demonic Sword. Now another problem remained. I retrieved the empty bundle I had stored in the drawer—the one I had taken from Nora earlier.
"Blade. You said you don't remember anything that happened before your consciousness awakened, right?"
[Would you remember what happened while you were asleep?]
"Then you naturally wouldn't know why you were placed in our kitchen either."
[I don't know such things.]
I examined the wrapping paper and twine meticulously. Nothing was written on them, and there were no traces whatsoever. As someone who wasn't a mage, I had no way to learn more.
Whoever had brought the Demonic Sword here certainly didn't have good intentions. Did someone harbor a grudge against the Count Loaz Estate?
I had to resolve this problem before departing for Agenka. I couldn't leave my family in danger. Yet I couldn't simply stay home and guard them until something happened. It wasn't a problem I could quickly track down and solve, and I was also in a hurry to dispose of the Demonic Sword.
'Someone who can track this in my stead and protect my family while I'm away.'
There was someone I could ask. No one else came to mind. Someone I had known for a long time, alongside her and her family. Someone I trusted like family. Someone strong enough and wise enough. And like other precious people, someone who had died by my hand.
'Nicole....'
She was scheduled to arrive at the mansion tomorrow. I steeled my resolve and packed away the bundle.
"Things are about to get busy."
[Busy? Who are you planning to kill?]
"Shut up and go to sleep."
I frowned as I grasped the Demonic Sword. It grumbled and dissolved into my hand like mist.
* * *
Echinacea Loaz woke early the next day as well. Having spared no sleep while gathering knights, I had developed a habit of taking minimal rest. And if I didn't wake before Nora came in, it would be difficult to hide the mark on my palm.
Of course, I couldn't explain these circumstances. I had woken early yesterday too, and if I did so again today, everyone around me would look at me as if I were a three-legged chicken. So I snuck out at dawn, loosened my body lightly, returned, and pretended to sleep in until late morning.
It was subtly exhausting. After spending years as austere as an ascetic monk, lying still and resting felt strange. I kept feeling anxious and as though there was always something I should be doing.
'Still, I didn't have nightmares for once. I probably won't have them much anymore.'
Buried in bed, I thought such things idly. I had slept without dreaming—a refreshing, peaceful sleep. Just as I had fallen asleep comfortably, I would soon adapt to resting. Now I had earned the right to rest. I was allowed to rest.
I rubbed my cheek against the plush pillowcase and smiled faintly. The moment I heard the knock I had been waiting for, I sprang up.
"Miss, it's time to wake up now."
"I'm up, Nora."
"My goodness."
As I opened the door, Nora's eyes widened in surprise. She spoke with wonder as she brought the washing water.
"You woke up early yesterday too."
"I'm going to try waking up early from now on. When is Nicole arriving?"
"She's already arrived. She's unpacking in her room."
"Already? I should have woken her."
"Nicole told me not to wake her."
That made sense. Nicole was the person Echinacea felt most comfortable around—no need for the careful attention she'd show other noble ladies her age. And precisely because of that comfort, she'd vented her frustrations on Nicole countless times. Knowing this well, Nicole had almost certainly stopped Nora with something like, "Don't wake her. You know she gets irritable when woken in the morning."
After Nora cleared away the washbasin, she prepared a simple breakfast. As I ate and changed into fresh clothes, I wrestled endlessly with how much to tell Nicole and how far I should go.
'If it's Nicole... I could probably tell her the truth. But still, I can't tell her everything.'
Nicole Sizton was a mage sponsored by the Count Loaz Estate.
It was common for nobles to sponsor talented individuals, but her case was somewhat unusual. Nicole had such meager magical talent that she couldn't find a sponsor—she was an orphan.
Most nobles rejected her sponsorship, deeming her talent worthless at that level. Only the Count Loaz couple took pity on her circumstances and took her in. With their sponsorship, Nicole attended a dormitory-style Magic Academy, and during holidays, she would return to the Loaz Estate to serve as a playmate for Echinacea and Lancel.
Nicole's magical prowess was so poor that calling her a mage was a stretch. Yet the Count Loaz Estate never blamed her for it. They knew she did her best. The Count and Countess said it didn't matter if she never became a mage—they even granted her a small village called Sizton as her domain.
Everything changed around the time Nicole graduated from the Magic Academy. A sage from the Mage Tower, where the greatest mages gathered, recognized that Nicole possessed a talent difficult to categorize by conventional standards. After that, Nicole became the sage's direct disciple and successor, entered the Mage Tower, and from around age twenty-two, earned renown as an exceptional mage.
Now Nicole, the successor to one of only seven sages, had become far more distinguished than the merely respectable Count Loaz Estate. Yet Nicole still used the surname Sizton, given to her by the Count Loaz couple, and frequently stayed at the Count Loaz Estate during her holidays.
"All done, Miss."
"Thank you, Nora."
Nora made final adjustments to the hem of my dress. I sent her away and headed alone to Nicole's room. As I walked the corridor, I recalled memories from before the regression.
In the past before the change, Nicole had arrived at the Count Loaz Estate on the same date. But unlike now, what the past Nicole would have seen was the ruins of the Loaz Estate, utterly destroyed by me. I never learned what her reaction was. By that time, I was slaughtering nearby villages.
And Nicole had tracked the traces of the demon who had annihilated Loaz, pursuing me alone.
'She... didn't recognize me.'
It was natural that even someone as close as family wouldn't recognize me. In mere days, I had become unrecognizable.
Nicole had glared at the Demonic Sword's demon with a swollen face from crying and eyes burning with hatred. She could have escaped easily, but she didn't. She clung desperately to the demon for the sake of avenging the Count Loaz Estate. Only then did I realize that she had truly cherished the Loaz family, despite her usual indifference.
Echinacea, newly tainted by the Demonic Sword, suffered her first wound that day. Nicole Sizton was an exceptional mage, and the Demonic Sword was still unfamiliar with its host's body. Yet it wasn't a fatal wound. In exchange for that injury, Nicole died by my hand.
'It was fortunate she didn't recognize me. If she had, it would have been harder. For her, and for me.'
Lancel, my parents, and the people of the Loaz Estate had recognized me. It was right after I seized the Demonic Sword. That's why even now, recalling that dawn was difficult.
Before I knew it, I stood before Nicole's door. I hesitated without knocking.
[Why aren't you going in?]
The Demonic Sword chattered in my mind. I irritably clenched my right fist. Steadying my breath, I knocked carefully. I felt someone approaching from beyond the door. It opened.
"...Echinacea?"
Nicole's expression was bewildered. Short red hair cut near her shoulders, murky green eyes, slightly prominent cheekbones and age spots beneath her eyes. A face bearing weak fatigue and confusion instead of blazing hatred and agony. That longed-for face appeared before me exactly as memory held it. I swallowed the tears threatening to spill and smiled.
"It's been a while, Nicole."
"Huh, what?"
"Can I come in?"
"Sure."
Nicole stepped aside. The room was in disarray. As a mage, Nicole never entrusted her belongings to servants, but she was hopeless at tidying, so her room was always a mess. I casually pushed aside the haphazardly stacked papers and sat in a chair.
"Did you finish unpacking? How long are you planning to stay this time?"
I asked with a smile. Nicole adjusted her smudged monocle and studied me intently, then her brow furrowed sharply.
"Are you really Echinacea?"
"I'm really me. Why? What's wrong?"
Nicole cleared away books stacked on another chair and sat, glancing at me sideways. The old Echinacea would have started by criticizing the smudged monocle, and upon seeing the room, would have made it obvious she found it ridiculous. She wouldn't have even entered the room, let alone sat down, claiming it was filthy.
"The Echinacea I know wouldn't smile at me like that."
Only then did I realize I had behaved differently from my 'usual self.' I hadn't minded the smudged monocle or the room's disorder. It had been long since such trivial things concerned me. A dead person was breathing and alive—such minor details didn't even register.
"I'm just happy to see you, sister."
"Hearing you talk nonsense tells me you want something. Get to the point—I'm busy."
Nicole replied curtly. Echinacea couldn't help but laugh. The Nicole in her memories hadn't changed one bit. What had changed was Echinacea herself.
"It's not nonsense. I really do like you a lot, sister."
"Are you insane? Why are you being so creepy?"
"You must have struggled during your time at the Magic Academy, but you never showed it. I thought it was amazing how you brought back scholarships. As the daughter of a patron, I should have made things awkward for you, but you treated me naturally. Honestly, I was grateful. Yet I kept finding fault with you as if I disapproved. I'm sorry for that."
"...Did you eat something bad?"
"I just thought I'd never said it before."
Nicole rubbed her forearms as if she had goosebumps. Echinacea's face was all smiles. Now that she'd spoken the feelings she'd been unable to acknowledge in the past due to pride and vanity, she felt relieved.
The old Echinacea had despised the unrefined aspects of Nicole. As a mage of commoner birth receiving patronage from a noble house, she'd secretly looked down on her. So even while waiting for Nicole to stay at the mansion, she'd never let it show that she cared for her.
It was foolish. Once dead, you could never meet again, and no one knew when death would come. Moreover, what a person revealed in the face of death wasn't status—it was character. Yet how could she have failed to be honest over something as trivial as status, as shallow as pride?
Nicole seemed deeply uncomfortable with Echinacea's sudden warmth. She cleared her throat awkwardly, glanced this way and that, and even fanned herself with her hand. Then she asked in a deliberately composed voice.
"What favor are you trying to ask for that you'd say something so embarrassing?"
"Of course I have a favor to ask, but everything I just said was sincere."
"Ugh, enough. Stop saying strange things and just tell me what you want."
Echinacea obediently pulled out an empty bundle and set it before Nicole. Nicole looked at it with a puzzled expression and picked it up. Upon confirming it was empty, she frowned.
"What is this?"
"A bundle discovered in our Kitchen at dawn today."
"It's empty. What was inside?"
"Sister. What I'm about to tell you—you must keep it to yourself alone. Can you keep this secret?"
"Why so serious? Just tell me."
Echinacea checked for any presence nearby. Only she and Nicole were close to Nicole's room. She took a moment to breathe deeply, then whispered in a lowered voice.
"A Demonic Sword was inside it."
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org