Coo, Coo-coo-coo
“…So you’ve come.”
Celine raised her arm, and the pigeon settled lightly upon it.
“…Coo. Coo, coo-coo-coo.”
“The market. This evening.”
Celine murmured the words under her breath, and the bird bobbed its head as if to confirm.
“…That woman. Again.”
Her voice sank, cold as frost.
Victoria.
Even the mere thought of that name made Celine’s heart ache, as though an old wound had been torn open afresh.
…She could not forget. There was no way she could ever forget.
In her past life, the moment Kyle had fallen by that woman’s hand.
…And even now, Celine found herself turning the same question over and over in her mind.
Why had Kyle been unable to offer so much as a shred of resistance, right up until the very end?
But the answer had been clear for a long time already.
Because Kyle had been far too kind a man.
He had never known how to brush away a hand that reached for him, never known how to push aside a face that smiled at him.
It was all because of that foolishly tender heart of his.
And that woman had slipped right into that softness.
With a gentle face and quiet touches, little by little, little by little… until, in the end, Kyle had trusted that hand without even noticing the blade pointed at his own throat.
…It’s no different from back then.
As if fate itself were simply replaying the same script.
She could not leave things as they were.
…That man cannot push that woman away on his own.
That was a truth Celine knew better than anyone.
Kyle had never been the sort of person who could do something so coldhearted in the first place.
…Then there is only one way.
Her gaze hardened to a sharp, cold edge.
If Kyle could not shake off that hand—
If he simply could not bring himself to refuse—
Then severing it in his place was her duty.
…Even if it meant Kyle came to resent her for it, so be it.
Being hated was nothing. As long as she never had to lose that man a second time.
“…This evening. That market.”
Celine rose quietly from her seat.
There was not a trace of hesitation left in her eyes.
“…I shall see that meeting thoroughly ruined.”
After Victoria left, I could barely get any work done.
…The market. This evening…
That soft whisper of hers kept looping through my ears. My face felt strangely warm, and my heart wouldn’t settle.
Well. Be that as it may—a promise was a promise. I meant to get ready and head out before the sun went down.
And that was precisely when it happened.
“…Commander.”
Celine. Again.
She had somehow appeared at my side, and now she dropped a whole armful of documents onto my desk with a heavy thud.
“These matters must be resolved by the end of today. The deadline falls today.”
“…What? T-today?”
I stared at the stack and went blank with horror. At a rough estimate, that pile would take half a day at the very least.
“And this evening, you will need to conduct the patrol of the eastern watch. We happen to be short-handed, so it would be best if the Commander oversaw it personally.”
“…P-patrol as well?”
Something was going very, very wrong.
Of all days—why did everything have to pile up on this day, of all days?
…No, no. Stay calm. If I just knock this out quickly and get out of here—
“…Ah. And once you have finished processing the documents, I shall check them over one by one. Should anything prove incomplete, it will need to be corrected.”
In that instant, a chill ran straight down my spine.
Check them? Then there was no skimming my way through. And with Celine sitting right there, eyes wide open and watching me like a hawk…
I stole a glance at her face.
Sure enough, her gaze was still cool and razor-sharp.
As if to say, Go on, then. Keep your mind on your work and stay put.
The words that had risen all the way to my throat went right back down again.
Uh, well—actually, I already have plans this evening, so perhaps someone else could take the patrol…
There was no way that was coming out of my mouth.
Standing under that cutting stare, how could I possibly say something so frivolous?
And these past few days, hadn’t my vice-commander already been less than pleased with how I was handling things?
If, on top of that, I announced I couldn’t stand patrol because of a prior engagement—just how much more terrifying would that cold gaze become?
…Ah. No. I can’t do it. I really can’t.
In the end, without managing a single proper protest, I sank helplessly into the chair before that mountain of paperwork.
“…Ah—understood. Then, yes. I’ll do it….”
“…Yes. I am counting on you, Commander.”
Only then did Celine allow herself a soft, satisfied smile. Somehow, even that smile felt cold to me.
And so, holding back tears, I picked up my brush.
Scratch, scratch. With every stroke that settled a document, my heart creaked along with it.
The sun kept sinking lower, and the stack showed no sign of shrinking. And even if the documents ever finished, the night patrol waited beyond them like an even larger mountain.
At this rate, the market this evening was a complete lost cause.
…Ahh. I want to run away.
I thought it with complete, desperate sincerity.
Away from this pile of documents. Away from the night patrol. And above all… away from the princess who would be waiting for me at the market.
The moment the thought reached that far, a cold sweat broke out along my back.
…W-wait. Th-that’s right. Her Highness Victoria…
She would be waiting for me at the market right now, wouldn’t she?
The same person who had asked me so shyly, face faintly flushed, to meet her.
And if I never showed up at all—what kind of expression would she make?
Suddenly I remembered that wickedly triumphant smile from a few days ago. And that ice-edged poise of hers, cool as anything even with an assassin standing right in front of her.
This is bad…
I nearly dropped my brush.
This was truly bad. This was not ordinary trouble.
That princess was not the kind of person who would take something like this lightly.
The moment she realized she’d been stood up, that terrifying face of hers would decide exactly what to do with me…
No—what if she misunderstood entirely? What if she thought I’d deliberately snubbed her because I held her in contempt?
A thousand awful possibilities tore through my head.
In the original story, the very person who had ultimately driven this man Kyle to his death had been none other than Victoria.
How dangerous it was for me to fall out of that terrifying princess’s favor—I knew that better than anyone.
And now I was about to step on her toes of my own free will.
By tossing aside a promise she had so gently asked for, as if it were nothing more than a worn-out shoe.
That alone is something I absolutely cannot allow…
A chilling scene unfurled in my mind.
A princess nursing a grudge over being stood up, fixing those razor-sharp eyes on me and—just as she had in the original—coming for my life—
I h-have to go. No matter what it takes, I have to get there…
Pale-faced, I worked the brush with desperate speed. But the documents, and Celine’s cold gaze fixed right beside me, showed not the slightest intention of letting me go.
And so the sun, the only thing free to do as it pleased, sank spitefully lower and lower.
As the sun dipped low, dusk began to settle over the marketplace.
Victoria had already been waiting for quite some time at one corner of the market for that man.
…Why is he this late?
She had come out carefully dressed as a common woman, her appearance neatly arranged.
What would they talk about this evening? What might they cook together? She had come full of that quiet excitement.
But the appointed hour passed, and then passed again, and Kyle still did not appear.
…Has something happened?
At first, worry had been foremost. What if some misfortune had befallen him?
But as time wore on and the streetlamps began to light one by one, that worry slowly colored into something else entirely.
…Me. To make me wait like this.
Victoria’s lovely eyes began to sharpen, edge by edge.
She was, after all, a princess of the Empire.
And that princess was standing in the middle of a marketplace, shifting from foot to foot for ages, waiting on a single man.
What’s more, hadn’t she been the one to summon the courage and ask for this meeting first?
She had spent several sleepless nights working up the nerve just to get that one sentence out.
And yet that man had dared to cast aside his promise with her as if it were nothing?
…How dare he. How dare he treat me this way.
A cold wind swept across the hem of her skirt.
And with it, the last of the warmth drained slowly from Victoria’s eyes.
It was betrayal. And that betrayal was already turning into something black and formless.
…Yes. If he had looked down on her.
If he had held her sincerity in such low regard.
Then he would learn, clearly and thoroughly, what the price of that was—
At that very moment, a black shape came flapping out of the darkness ahead.
“…Your Highness! Your Highness!”
It was a crow. That spirit messenger the rebel forces employed.
The bird beat its wings in urgent haste and settled at Victoria’s side.
“…I bring word, Your Highness. This humble one has learned the whereabouts of the Sword of the Emperor!”
“…What?”
Victoria’s eyes, which had gone cold and still, wavered for an instant.
“…At present, that man is trapped in the Imperial Guard’s offices. A mountain of work, and the night patrol on top of it. It seems he is in no position to move so much as a finger.”
“…Held back by work, you say?”
“…Yes. And so, even though he wishes to come to this place, he cannot.”
The moment she heard those words, Victoria let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.
It felt as though a corner of her chest that had been freezing black finally began to thaw.
…So that was it. He hadn’t abandoned me.
She was relieved. Truly, deeply relieved.
It wasn’t that the man had held her sincerity cheap, or looked down on her.
He had simply been bound by circumstances beyond his control.
Thinking that, the razor-edged fury that had been wrapping her whole body moments before loosened and slipped away as if it had never been there at all.
But the sigh of relief lasted only a moment. Victoria’s eyes narrowed again—for a different reason this time.
…But work? Night patrol?
It was strange.
Of all days—why had those things all come crashing down on the very evening she and Kyle had agreed to meet?
And he was, after all, the Commander of the Imperial Guard.
For a man of that rank to be pinned down by such ordinary duties and left completely unable to move… something about it did not sit right.
“…And one more thing, if I may. The woman of House Frostheim appears to have been at his side the entire time.”
“…Celine?”
The moment that name was spoken, Victoria’s eyes flashed sharp as drawn steel.
Celine von Frostheim. That silver-haired woman circling around Kyle again, was she?
Come to think of it, she herself had been sensing, vaguely, that the woman had been hovering near Kyle more and more of late.
And of all nights—on the night Kyle failed to appear here—that woman was with him.
…Is it truly only coincidence?
Victoria could not dismiss it so easily.
She still did not know what designs that woman had in lingering at Kyle’s side.
But one thing was certain. Celine was not looking kindly upon whatever lay between Victoria and Kyle.
…Celine von Frostheim.
Victoria’s crimson eyes gleamed coldly in the dark.
She would have to be wary. If that woman meant to interfere between Kyle and herself in any way at all, Victoria would not simply stand by and allow it.
“…Ah—Your Highness? Then, what shall we do now…?”
The crow asked carefully, watching her face.
“…Enough. I shall return for today.”
Victoria gathered her skirts and turned slowly away.
Though this evening’s meeting had fallen apart like this, one corner of her heart felt lighter all the same. Just the knowledge that the man had not abandoned her was enough.
…Kyle. I will protect you.
No matter what interference tried to come between them—in this life, at least, she would never let go of his hand.
With that vow, Victoria walked quietly out of the darkening marketplace.