I Will Accept Whatever Comes My Way
Regina jolted upright.
Her hair spilled over her shoulders, and bare skin showed along her arms. Without thinking, she groped at herself, then swung her legs off the bed.
There was still no proper strength in her legs, but she had to find a mirror.
When she finally managed to drag her unmoving body to the mirror and stand before it, the last of her strength gave out and she sank to the floor.
“What is this?”
The ragged clothes she had been wearing were gone without a trace, and her hair smelled faintly sweet. The disheveled wreck she’d been had been transformed into something human.
If not for the crescent-shaped brand, she might have mistaken this place for her own bedroom in the Ferman Empire.
Regina blinked at the sight of herself in a simple dress. Blue eyes, red hair. It certainly hadn’t been a dream.
“Who changed my clothes…?”
Had someone dressed her?
The thought brought the surrounding room into sharper focus. The luxurious furnishings and decorations were no ordinary things.
Before she could satisfy her curiosity, the door opened and a woman in a maid’s uniform entered.
“Oh, Lady Madarin! You’ve come to yourself?”
The name snapped Regina fully awake.
“Yes, but where is this?”
Ignoring the way Regina was searching the room, the maid hurried on.
“This is the imperial palace of the Fredericks Empire. In fact, someone has been waiting for you to wake.”
Someone waiting?
Before Regina could answer, the maid clapped her hands. As if that had been a signal, a crowd of people in maid uniforms rushed in from outside.
“Lady Madarin! This way, please!”
Regina, who had been taken away to change dresses and then subjected to every possible sort of ornamentation, stared dazedly at her reflection in the mirror.
Once, when she was very young, the empress had given her a dress this beautiful as a gift.
She’d worn it to her first banquet, only to remember another noble girl spilling grape juice on it and staining it beyond repair.
“You look beautiful!”
The maids, now finished with her dressing, stood neatly behind her and praised her in chorus.
The one who summoned me is the emperor.
Only then did Regina begin to guess who had been waiting for her.
Anyone who required her to be dressed up this carefully must be someone she was about to stand before. The emperor, then.
Thinking of Conrad brought back the vivid memory from before she had lost consciousness.
My mana returned.
Regina clenched her fist. Her heart pounded so hard it left her head spinning with hope.
Maybe… for the first time in my life, luck has finally favored me.
With desperate concentration, she placed a hand over her chest and drew her mana upward.
And then—
“Gh….”
The spell did not manifest. Instead, the seal tightened brutally around her mana core.
Confirming the faint light flowing from the brand, Regina bit her lip hard. It was fortunate the maids had their heads bowed.
So her mana seal hadn’t been lifted by chance after all.
That left only one possibility.
It must be that man’s aura and my mana that exchanged.
In the ancient age, when Ferman and Fredericks were both noble houses within a single empire.
There had been a power said to awaken in certain bloodlines.
Mana Exchange.
There were two conditions for Mana Exchange to occur.
First, the blood of the founders of Ferman and Fredericks had to run thick.
Second, the one with whom power would be exchanged had to have reached a certain level of mastery—an Archmage of five circles or higher, or a knight at the level of a Swordmaster.
I didn’t expect the Fredericks emperor’s achievements to be great enough to allow Mana Exchange.
Regina, who had instinctively braced herself against the power of the enemy empire’s sovereign, soon came to a chilling realization.
If Conrad had felt this phenomenon in exactly the same way, then her identity may already have been exposed as well.
“Lady Madarin, is something uncomfortable for you?”
The maid beside her asked anxiously at the sudden pallor in Regina’s face.
Regina barely managed to compose her expression.
“Ah… I’ve just become a little nervous all of a sudden. I’m fine.”
A look of grim resolve settled over Regina’s face.
If Conrad had realized who she was, then she might not merely be questioned—she could be punished, even tortured.
She was the one responsible for the magical barrier that had brought monster waves down upon Fredericks, after all, and she was also a princess of Ferman.
If there is a price I ought to pay… I’ll bear it.
She needed to steel herself.
The instant her clenched hand tightened, the bedroom door opened.
“I greet Your Majesty.”
The maids standing behind her all bowed deeply to Conrad. With a casual gesture, he sent them outside, and they quietly closed the door behind them.
As the heavy door shut without a sound, Regina was finally left alone with Conrad. It was the first time she had seen his face since losing consciousness.
“You look every inch the noble lady in that dress, Lady Madarin. Or should I call you Regina Ferman?”
Her breathing threatened to quicken with tension, but Regina forced herself to remain calm. Even so, she couldn’t hide the tremor in her eyes.
“And so you have entered Fredericks territory after all.”
At his cold stare, Regina lowered her head.
“…I only came because I had no choice.”
“After turning my empire into this?”
For the first time, a trace of anger crossed Conrad’s otherwise unreadable eyes.
“I know you were the one who built the Magic Barrier.”
“…As one serving in the military, I followed orders. But… you and the people of Fredericks had every right to blame me. I will accept whatever comes my way.”
She had opposed that cruel plan until the very end. But she couldn’t say those words out loud.
Conrad wasn’t wrong.
Her head lowered of its own accord. Shame rose up within her, a bitter self-reproach for having broken her will and obeyed Herais.
Regina bit her lip and could not even bring herself to offer an excuse.
“There is only one reason I brought you here.”
At Conrad’s voice, she lifted her bowed head.
“Break that barrier.”
Because that is the responsibility you ought to bear.
Regina’s eyes widened.
The magical barrier she had accepted as a burden she would carry for the rest of her life—he was telling her to destroy it. It was like being struck across the back of the head.
The pride of Herais, the long-cherished wish of Ferman. Was he saying she could destroy it? That she should?
With my own hands?
Then a voice, laced with mockery, dropped into the silence.
“Ah, but I suppose you can’t.”
Conrad’s gaze fell to her chest. She could almost feel the brand sting under his eyes.
Regina pretended to rub her shoulder, trying to hide the mark of the seal, and Conrad spoke again.
“You’ve been sealed, and now you’re useless for anything at all.”
Regina went white.
Looking at her, Conrad gave a low scoff.
“So how should I make a powerless princess pay for this?”
Unable to use her strength, Regina could only wait for Conrad’s judgment. But the moment he drew near, Mana Exchange flashed through her mind.
The blue power that had seeped into her body.
Now that everything was already exposed, there was no need to keep deceiving Conrad any longer. After gathering her thoughts, Regina said bluntly, “I have no objection to destroying the barrier now that Ferman has abandoned me. But to do that… as you said, I must recover my mana first.”
“Hmm.”
Feeling his cool gaze sweep over her with suspicion, Regina swallowed dryly and continued.
“You must have felt it too—the exchange between Your Majesty’s aura and my mana. As you know, the blood of the imperial houses of Ferman and Fredericks…”
“Can exchange power with one another. I know. And I know how the exchange is done, too.”
As his voice fell silent, Regina and Conrad’s eyes locked. In the pupils fixed on each other, they read the same thought.
The way to exchange mana.
It required deep physical contact with the other person.
A simple handclasp could allow a degree of exchange, but to fully draw out the power, more intimate contact was necessary.
So intimate that skin would have to meet skin, mouth to mouth.
“So, to make me bear responsibility for the magical barrier, you want me to recover your mana? By offering this body?”
At Conrad’s final words, Regina’s fist tightened.
“How brazen.”
His voice was full of scorn, but there was interest in his eyes. Regina noticed it, swallowed again, and spoke.
“It is the only way. Once the mana seal is broken, I can bring down the barrier.”
“Is that so?”
There was arrogance in Conrad’s slight tilt of the head. Yet unlike before, he seemed genuinely attentive now.
Regina opened her mouth once more.
“I am strong. Far stronger than Your Majesty imagines.”
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