Chapter 115
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115.
Maribel was someone who absolutely adored recording everything in her diaries.
Cassian Artez had received quite a number of volumes from her over the years.
He had carefully read through them page by page since childhood—journals his nursemaid had preserved with such care—and in doing so, had endured the stagnant years within the Palace.
'There were certainly entries from my childhood that would make Mother furious if she knew I'd read them.'
As he prepared for the journey to Liardan Duchy, he spoke with nostalgia while summarizing the contents of Maribel's diaries.
'It couldn't be helped, could it? If you'd wanted to prevent it, you should have been by my side.'
Such a remark—befitting a filial son of the Flare Dragon lineage—he delivered without hesitation.
Yet when he recounted the diary entries he'd gradually shared with me, I found myself pinching Maribel's cheek affectionately, wondering if she hadn't adored her son dearly.
It was almost embarrassing—there wasn't a single entry of the sort of exaggerated youthful indiscretion one might expect from a girl in her early teens.
In any case, Maribel's diaries contained quite numerous references to this Abandoned Mine.
She had been raised almost entirely by her grandmother due to her mother's frail constitution.
The previous Duke Liarden, Maribel's father, had also resolved from her childhood to raise her as his successor with her mother's health in mind.
When stories of her ailing mother surfaced, a mixture of gentle complaint and affection colored his words.
Yet the grandmother's tales—the ones she had shared—occupied the greatest portion of the entries.
The Temple would have discovered documents that could have caused a catastrophe.
I even wondered if this was why the Liarden Duke House had been annihilated.
'In the original story, Maribel's death and the house's destruction were mentioned only in passing, and such documents couldn't be found in the Document Archive where ordinary aides had access.'
Officially, it was known that Maribel's disgrace and the Liarden Duke House's incompetence were to blame.
'But His Majesty, who loves such justifications, would never have stopped at merely that.'
Looking at the grandmother's teachings written in the diary and the stories about the Liarden Duke House.
And considering how Scarlett Jamoti had repeatedly involved the Temple whenever she needed to.
'I'm certain she must have brought in the Temple's Heresy Inquisitor.'
After all, she had tried to use such tactics against me as well.
She had even attached absurd justifications like curse or hatred to Cassian's violet eyes.
That's why I was even more eager to visit the places in Maribel's diary where the dragon was said to have slumbered.
Moreover, I harbored hope that in such a place, I might even make contact with something like the dragon's consciousness.
"You absolutely cannot leave my side, Roselita. There's no telling what accident might occur in an abandoned mine."
And well.
It was a small secret from Cassian.
'...I shouldn't mention that I think I understand Maribel's feelings, should I?'
He had been wearing that displeased expression for a while now.
*
"Is this really an abandoned mine that no one has visited?"
Unlike the desolate entrance, the interior was remarkably well-maintained.
There were even magical lamps embedded sparsely along the walls.
"Mother used to visit this abandoned mine frequently when she was still a lady of the Liarden Duke House."
Cassian opened his mouth with a somewhat reluctant expression.
Whether it was because my tastes resembled Maribel's, or because he was bothered by me hurrying ahead with only his hand in mine out of curiosity, I couldn't say.
In any case, wooden planks had been reinforced at every step, as if with someone of my ordinary physical ability in mind.
The elevation changes were adjusted so skillfully that it seemed we could proceed relying only on the magical lamps embedded in the walls, without needing the torches we had brought.
As we ventured deeper, I grew increasingly excited, but Cassian's expression grew progressively dimmer.
"What's wrong?"
"...His Majesty's personality shows through far too much."
Hearing his shallow sigh, I let out a short laugh.
"So you cared for the Late Empress that much."
"Yes."
Though he answered briefly, his face still bore the weight of complicated emotions.
I understood.
The Emperor he had grown up watching had never shown a shred of affection for Maribel until now.
When we witnessed the past directly through the scroll or when the Emperor suddenly told me the truth, we both found it difficult to believe.
But seeing the abandoned mine with my own eyes now, I could feel the Emperor's heart—anxious and desperate as he had arranged the interior.
"I'm a little envious."
"...Which one?"
"His Majesty the Emperor."
Cassian Artez's answer only deepened my confusion.
Why on earth?
He envies how I was tossed about by the Late Empress?
I was walking in bewilderment and nearly stumbled, but Cassian Artez gently caught me and steadied my steps before continuing his thought.
"I think it would have been more enjoyable if I, too, had spent my childhood with you like His Majesty did."
"...Even after seeing Paul?"
He trembles whenever he sees me.
"I saw."
No matter how I thought about it, Cassian Artez's tastes seemed to have developed in rather peculiar directions.
Wanting to have a friend who nags him daily and keeps him on his toes.
"I feel a certain sense of responsibility now."
"Hmm."
At my candid confession of conscience, he opened his mouth with evident pleasure.
"I hope you'll continue to hold onto that feeling."
So you don't wish for normal, ordinary tastes?
Even though I've been spending considerable time by his side, his thoughts ran so deep that I could never fully grasp them.
I found myself wanting to peer into that inscrutable mind of his, just once.
*
The Abandoned Mine branched into quite a few different passages, but thanks to Maribel's meticulous record-keeping, I managed to navigate without getting lost.
And that's when I felt something strangely familiar.
Of course, Cassian Artez possessed such thoroughness as well, but if I had to compare, it was closer to His Majesty the Emperor's.
Maribel, on the other hand....
'You share some traits with the Late Empress.'
I could understand why the Emperor would say such a thing—our temperaments felt remarkably similar.
The way the map of the Abandoned Mine was laid out, the sections organizing peculiar details, all of it seemed designed as if for someone's viewing.
'Because it's a creation made by an author?'
Was it because I was a character crafted from similar motifs, pieced together like a puzzle?
I thought that for a moment, then a question arose.
But I was 'me', after all.
Since becoming Roselita Salice, I had never once thought to respect the personality of the original protagonist in the source material.
There was something oddly strange about dismissing it as mere coincidence.
I had never doubted the "original" itself since the moment I was born into this world.
'...Is it really a creation, though?'
The more I recalled all the various genre novels I had read countless times in the past, the more my suspicions grew.
Weren't there several patterns where something was thought to be the original, but turned out not to be?
The thought even occurred to me that perhaps my memory had somehow malfunctioned.
'But if that's the case, then the worlds would be mixed, and the Original Cassian I saw with my own eyes...?'
If it were only my experience, I could dismiss it as a daydream, but Cassian Artez had also seen the original Roselita Salice.
He had said she was quite different from me.
"What's wrong, Roselita?"
Even as my mind was occupied with questions about this world, my hands continued dutifully taking notes on the interior of the Abandoned Mine.
Cassian Artez, remarkably, noticed that I was lost in thought.
My thoughts weren't even written in my notes, yet I wondered if this man possessed some talent for reading minds.
Since there was no need to hide it, I stopped writing and spoke honestly to him.
"Ah... I've just become curious about quite a few things."
"It doesn't seem to be about the Abandoned Mine itself."
Cassian Artez pointed to the section I had written—'With minimal development, it could likely be developed as a tourist attraction for the Liardan Duchy'—and opened his mouth.
"Is it about the scroll?"
"Yes, now that I think about it, I find myself hoping that this place was indeed the lair of a dragon from long ago, just as the Late Empress suspected—"
The moment I said that to Cassian Artez.
I felt my body being pulled downward into the earth with a sudden jerk.
Wait.
Isn't this similar to what happened with the Flare Dragon?
"Roselita!"
Watching Cassian Artez grab me with alarmed eyes, I inwardly voiced my complaint.
Give some warning, please!
You reptiles.
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