4. Imperial Capital Lumentium - 12
4. Imperial Capital Lumentium - 12
...Where had it all begun to go wrong? What had gone wrong? Or perhaps, from the very beginning, everything had been wrong.
The catalyst had been simple. Today, Iris happened to be in a good mood—so light she felt she could fly.
She had believed everything from the past had already vanished. She had thought she was the only one who knew that the clockwork had been wound backward, that the world's time had been reversed.
...It ached. To know that the memories of that day, the whispers, the exchange of emotions they had shared, had all become things that never happened—it was nothing but sorrow. She lamented that she could never reunite with the glimmer of the stars she had seen that night.
Of course, he existed in this timeline too. But she had believed that he would not be the him she knew. She had thought that the man Iris El Debhart had loved was left behind in a future she could never reach. The cruel notion that she alone had been imprisoned in this time had taken root in her heart. She had despaired that those radiant moments spent with him would never be understood by anyone and would wither into lonely delusion.
But that was not the case. They were, in truth, connected. The moment she realized that the past she had lived was not hers alone but time shared with another, Iris felt relief. She felt joy. The thought that she was alone no longer plagued her. Though it seemed a few unwelcome stragglers were mixed into that truth, she could tolerate that much. Whether by face or by status, her position was overwhelmingly superior to those nobodies anyway.
She opened the window. Outside, countless constellations adorned the sky, just like that night. A sudden thought crossed her mind: she wanted to see those stars from closer. So she stepped out onto the terrace. The night breeze was crisp. The cool wind gently soothed her cheeks, flushed warm with anticipation.
That was when it happened. In the distance, on the western terrace, her eyes caught a man and a woman engaged in a secret rendezvous.
"..."
A man and a woman having a secret meeting within the Imperial Palace—she had witnessed such scenes more times than she could count. On any other occasion, she would have paid them no more mind than she would a lump of stone. But the moment she confirmed their faces, every fiber of Iris's attention fixed upon them.
"...Ah."
The instant she recognized who the two were, the very first thought that came to Iris was a lament over the fact that she herself had learned swordsmanship. ...If she had never trained in the sword, and therefore never possessed eyesight far keener than an ordinary person's, she would never have noticed them there.
The two meeting in secret on the terrace, faces turned toward each other—they were a man and a woman Iris knew all too well. How could she fail to recognize those faces? Just moments ago, her thoughts had been filled with him.
"...Kain."
And the woman—
"...Sarah Sernad."
It was a pairing she had never once imagined. If Kain had been with that white-haired girl he kept at his side, or that utterly insidious Ariel Tiere, she could have understood. She could never have accepted it, but she could at least have comprehended it rationally.
But that woman—her, she could not understand being at his side. No, she could not forgive it. Ah, how could she ever forgive that wench? A woman who had tossed aside her trust with Kain—their engagement—like a worn-out shoe. A woman who had sold her own body and thrown herself into the Turnizen Ducal House like a whore.
A conversation she had once shared with him crossed her mind.
— Were you truly unaffected? Seeing the woman who was your betrothed throw herself into another man's arms—can you forgive her?
— ...I loved her. And it's all in the past now. It can't be helped.
At the time, Kain had shrugged his shoulders and smiled as if it were nothing. So she had forgiven it as well. It was already over, after all. She was a woman who would never again intrude upon the life of the man called Kain von Estel. In a sense, she was even grateful. Because thanks to that harlot abandoning Kain, this opportunity had come to her now.
...Then why? Why was Kain meeting that woman alone on the terrace? What sort of conversation were they sharing right now? Surely not—surely it could not be—but were Kain and that wench exchanging sweet nothings?
"..."
The distance was too great for any sound to reach her. Every grotesque and unspeakable image seized Iris's mind. Her hands began to tremble. Every hair on her body prickled upright. She regretted it. Had she never known they were meeting at all, she would never have felt such emotions.
Then it happened. Kain took a step toward her. He whispered something to her. Hearing those words, Sarah Sernad, too, stepped closer to Kain. The two stood facing each other in silence for a long moment. To any observer, the scene could only be explained as that of two lovers.
Crack—
The sound of something breaking rang out. Unable to withstand Iris's grip strength, the terrace railing shattered. But that was of no importance. Iris's eyes flew wide. Kain's hand—his hand was stroking the nape of Sarah Sernad's neck. At the same moment, Sarah Sernad leaned her body into Kain's embrace.
"...Ahh."
In that instant, something inside Iris's chest collapsed. She could not tell what had crumbled. She could only comprehend that something irretrievable had broken.
...It had been taken from her. She had never once stood so close to another man. She had never allowed another man the nape of her neck. She had never been held in another man's arms. She had promised herself she would grant him all of her firsts.
Yet for Kain, she was not his first. He had already stroked another wench's nape. He had already held another wench in his arms. Even if she herself were to be held by him now, he would compare her without realizing it. The thought that Sarah Sernad had nestled a little more snugly into his embrace might flit across his mind. That—that alone—she would rather die than endure. No, no, no.
"...Kain."
Kain was without fault. That man was a man like the stars. She knew well how many moths, lured by that starlight, fluttered around him. He was not the one at fault. The fault lay with the moths. The wenches who, knowing no better, dared to approach him—they were the problem.
And so she had to act. She could no longer stand by and let any more shameless worms crawl toward him. Her patience reached its end here. She had endured for a year. And on top of that, two more months. She could endure no longer.
Right at this moment, deep inside Iris El Debhart's heart, a slender thread snapped.
So cleanly it would never be tied again.
****
By the time I finished talking with Sarah and returned to the banquet hall, the atmosphere had shifted toward winding down. When I had left, the place had been packed so densely there was hardly room to step, but now only a handful of nobles and servants remained. Honestly, I preferred it with fewer people. With how absurdly famous I'd become lately, I was utterly sick of having gazes pinned on me.
"Lord Kain!"
That was when it happened. Like finding an oasis in the middle of a desert, among all the cold and hostile faces, there was one person who was still on my side. Her name was Aria. Once my most formidable adversary in the past, but now my personal maid—my powerful ally.
"...Aria. Don't tell me you stayed in the banquet hall this whole time waiting for me?"
"Yes. I came here together with you, Lord Kain. So I thought leaving should be together as well. Because I am your personal maid."
At her words, so commendable they made my heart swell, I couldn't contain my surging joy and impulsively pulled Aria into a hug.
"...L-Lord Kain... in a place like this..."
But Aria's protest was so small that my joy-addled ears barely caught it. No, a mere hug wasn't enough to express my delight. In fact, rather than just hugging her, it would be better to lift her up and spin her around—
"...There are quite a lot of other people here. Would you mind restraining yourself a little? Kain?"
That was when it struck. A voice unhurried yet somehow barbed skewered me mercilessly. At the chill laced within it, my hands reflexively detached from Aria. Turning around, I found the Saintess, Ariel, smiling broadly at me.
"Sain— ah, Ariel. You were still here as well?"
"Yes, Kain. One thing led to another. And so here I remain."
Ariel answered me, still maintaining her beaming expression. If I felt a note of grievance toward me mixed into that tone, was that merely my imagination?
In any case, it was a curious thing. She detested noisy affairs, yet here she was, still lingering.
"...Did you have some business left to attend to?"
"Yes, well. But I finished it just now, so I suppose it's time for me to leave as well."
With that prim reply, she turned her body away from me with a little spin. Honestly, what had made her so prickly today?
"Aria, let's go too. I think I've seen all there is to see here."
"Yes!"
Humming a tune that bubbled up on its own, I started toward the exit. But then my foot caught on something. What the—had someone left a rock lying around in the banquet hall?
"...Lord Kain, why would you deliberately walk toward the wall where someone's lying collapsed?"
"Ah, that was a person?"
I'd seen something fairly large sprawled on the floor and assumed it was trash or the like. I was about to give it a kick on my way past, but unfortunately, it appeared to be Lucian—not garbage—after all. The one I'd fought that duel with.
"But why hasn't anyone carted this guy off?"
"Well, some gentlemen went to fetch a priest, but they haven't come back yet."
What, had they gone all the way to the Holy See to find one? Why weren't they back yet?
"Hey, what are you doing not getting up? Is this your bedroom or something?"
Thud—
I considered giving him a good kick, but out of humanitarian consideration, I merely prodded his side. Yet the bastard didn't so much as twitch. He wasn't dead, was he?
"...Lord Kain. This person is still alive."
"Hmm, is that so?"
Even if he was a blockhead, seeing him splayed out in the banquet hall like this did start to stir a bit of pity. And he was a nuisance to the people around him. More than anything, wasn't the simplest way to tidy up this situation standing right beside me?
Without thinking, I glanced sidelong at Ariel, standing quietly next to me. The most powerful clergywoman in the world was right here—so why were those idiots off searching for clerics in the wrong places? Without much thought, I decided to ask her.
"Sain— ah, Ariel. Could you cast a bit of healing on this fellow? Seeing him lying here so pathetically does make my heart ache a little..."
"No."
"...Pardon?"
Ariel glanced at my right foot, then cut me off flatly with a refusal.
"No. I won't do it."
"..."
...A clergywoman refusing to heal the injured. Wasn't that dereliction of duty?