7. The Butterfly Dream (胡蝶之夢) - 03
7. The Butterfly Dream (胡蝶之夢) - 03
"...Kain. Please, just say 'yes.' Nod your head and tell me you'll cast aside everything weighing you down and come to me. If you do, I'll throw away everything I have, too, and stay by your side..."
As she spoke, Bianca's hand, which had been stroking my cheek, gradually moved toward my lips. Her touch was blatant—and for that very reason, so devastating.
"...Bianca."
"Kain."
When I called her name, Bianca looked at me with joy. In her eyes lived a steadfast conviction that I would agree, along with an affection meant only for me.
...At this point, anyone who wasn't a complete idiot would have figured it out. No, to be more precise, it felt as though I was finally being forced to admit it. I'd been denying it so stubbornly until now. I had thought such a thing was absolutely impossible.
The thousand-year feud between Estel and Castana.
Bianca del Castana—the beautiful, high-ranking, and wealthy daughter of House Castana—and Kain von Estel—the heir to a ruinous and collapsing duchy.
Bianca, who had looked at me with undisguised disapproval and tormented me relentlessly during the expedition.
The obstacles were many. The reasons not to notice were just as plentiful. The reasons to deny her feelings far outnumbered the reasons to acknowledge them. Perhaps I simply didn't want to acknowledge it. It was far easier and more comfortable for the woman named Bianca del Castana to remain nothing more than a vicious woman in my mind.
I finally realized why she kept saying those things to me. Simply put, she was an overgrown child. Her body had matured incomparably in ten years, but her mind was still trapped back in those days.
...And she had been waiting. Clinging childishly to a promise we'd made as kids to be together once we grew up, she had been waiting for me all this time. Holding on to the expectation that someday, I would come for her.
"...Bianca."
What a fool she was. Why would she cling to such a promise and wait for me? A promise like that was truly nothing at all. It must have been just some offhand remark.
I couldn't run away now, not after coming this far. Since she'd bared her true feelings to me like this, I had an obligation to give her an answer. Just as I steeled myself and slowly began to speak—
"...Lady Bianca. What are you doing right now?"
Aria's sharp voice cut toward Bianca.
"No matter how much you wanted to speak with Kain alone, there is a time and place for everything. Ambushing the procession heading to House Estel is bad enough, but using force to threaten Kain is utterly unbecoming of a daughter of House Castana, a house that boasts a thousand-year history."
"...Ah, now that I think about it, you were there beside him as well, weren't you. Forgive me. You were so pitiful and shabby that I mistook you for some kind of wild beast."
Bianca curled her lips into a sneer as she looked at Aria. The smile playing on her lips was chilling, yet terribly beautiful.
"...You've completely lost your mind. My master warned that a mage must look upon the world more rationally than anyone else, yet you, Lady Bianca, are so deeply emotional, and worse, you are clearly not in your right mind."
"...Aria."
I tried to stop her as she hurled those biting words at Bianca, but it was already too late.
"...What an unpleasant little wench. Your arrogance knows no bounds. You don't even realize I'm holding back my urge to tear you apart this very instant out of consideration for Kain, yet your tongue flows like a mountain stream."
Bianca's voice toward Aria was languid to a fault, but I could immediately sense the deeply sinister killing intent laced within it. The killing intent I had felt the day I first arrived at House Castana hadn't been my imagination, after all.
"Bianca!"
I shouted her name urgently. No. The current Aria was no match for Bianca. Of course, Aria would someday, as a mage, far surpass the realm Bianca had reached.
But that day was not today. Here and now, the strongest person was Bianca. I knew all too well that if Aria opposed her, there would be absolutely no chance of victory. It would be nothing more than a meaningless death. And that was an outcome I would not accept in the slightest.
"...You promised. You said you'd treat Aria and me as guests of House Castana. Do you intend to break that promise with your own lips?"
"....."
Hearing my words, Bianca seemed to hesitate for a moment before letting out a faint laugh.
"...Ah, Kain. You're the same person you've always been. To show mercy even to the Winter Witch, who could be called your mortal enemy."
Winter Witch.
The moment those words left Bianca's mouth, my eyes reflexively flew wide open.
...But surprisingly, the shock wasn't as great as I'd expected. The only thought that came to mind was that what was bound to happen had finally happened. Honestly, I had suspected it to some degree. Seeing how Bianca had radiated killing intent the first time she saw Aria at House Castana, I had guessed that she, too, might possess memories of the future.
...I simply lacked the courage to accept that as reality. It wasn't as if we'd all gone on some picnic together. Sharing the life of an expedition force to subjugate the witch was, for me, by no means a beautiful memory.
"Yes, I was so foolish, Kain. I had the arrogance to think I was the only one in the world who had returned to the past. Though even a slightly more rational thought would have suggested the opposite was far more likely."
Bianca chuckled to herself as she continued.
"Well, you needn't be so surprised. It wasn't long ago that I realized you'd also regressed from ten years in the future. Specifically, I only caught on during the day of our engagement ceremony, when I saw you using the 'Flowing Star' to interfere with that vermin's magic."
"...I see."
I let out a hollow laugh at Bianca's words. In hindsight, my actions up until now seemed terribly reckless. I had used the Flowing Star right in front of Bianca, who had not only watched me learn it from the Imperial Princess but had even helped with my training. It felt like the behavior of a man desperately wanting to be found out.
"And so, I was truly shocked. Not only did you give that thing a name, drag it around as your handmaid, and teach it magic—you even protect it so fiercely."
When Bianca looked at Aria as she spoke, her eyes held a hint of bitterness.
"...Perhaps it's because you're such a good person. Or maybe you just liked that thing that much. Either way, it's a matter I can't help but envy. While I gained nothing, while everything I grasped slipped through my fingers like sand, that thing effortlessly secured the place by your side."
"...But this is a familiar sight. It's always been this way. In my life, it's happened over and over again. Seeing another woman standing beside you, Kain—I'm used to it by now."
"....."
"At first, I waited. No, I thought I just had to wait. I simply endured and kept waiting. Yes, until that strange whore named Sarah Sernad latched onto you."
The smile had already vanished from Bianca's face. Now, all I could feel from her was regret, resentment, and hatred directed at me.
"But I still held back. I held back for ten more years after that. Yet even then, you weren't by my side. Iris El Debhart, Ariel Tiere, and Kirie El Denaris. Only new women ever filled the space beside you."
"...You know, Kain. I think I've become greedy. I can't hold back anymore. I can't stand anyone being by your side. You made a promise with me, too. That when we grew up, you'd be with me. That you'd stay by my side. So I'm just begging you. Please, take my hand. Draw me to your side, Kain."
The sight of Bianca reaching out to me with a sorrowful expression was like a prisoner praying for the remission of their sins.
"...Bianca."
This was my fault. It was an original sin I could never turn my eyes away from, nor should I. It was the lament of a pathetic coward who had uttered a promise he couldn't keep and still failed to take responsibility for his words.
...And so, I could not take her hand. A marriage between Estel and Castana, no matter how you looked at it, would certainly bring more harm than good. An 'engagement' could be overturned at any moment like the flip of a palm, but a 'marriage,' once made, could not be so easily undone. That was the gap between the two.
On a small scale, it would start with immense opposition from the members of both families. On a larger scale, it was a monumental issue that could shatter the balance among the Four Great Ducal Houses that had lasted a thousand years.
And that wasn't all. At this point in time, the disparity in power between Estel and Castana was far too great. One was a higher-ranked duchy, the other a more powerful marquisate. If we two were to marry, no one could predict how much internal strife would arise in the process of merging the two houses into one. Neither Estel nor Castana would consider the other's interests when pursuing their own gain.
In the end, I couldn't simply take her hand, not if I considered only Bianca's happiness and my own.
"...I see. So you've decided to chase not your own happiness, but your own desires."
After muttering something in a low voice, Bianca glanced at me with a gloomy look.
"...Then forget. Forget everything. If you're with me, I'll make sure neither Estel nor Castana—none of that garbage—even crosses your mind. I'll make you pursue nothing but your own happiness. Kain, I will make you happy. I swear it."
As she spoke, Bianca's fingers slowly traveled upward. They passed my lips, briefly caressed my cheek, played with my earlobe, and then rose higher without pause.
"...Bianca, what is this..."
It was just as I called her name in a low voice, a sudden chill crawling up my spine—
Zzzt-!
KWA-KRASH!
In an instant, a bolt of lightning struck where Bianca had been standing, and she leaped back a full ten meters to evade it—all in the span of a single breath.
Aria glanced at me, then bit her lip tightly before speaking.
"...Don't worry, Kain. I'll handle this. I learned magic precisely for this moment—to become your strength. Though I may fall short of Lady Castana, I am confident I can at least secure your escape from here alongside me."
However, upon hearing those words, Bianca didn't hurl any of the ridicule I had expected. Instead, with a faint smile tugging at her lips, she began to say this:
"If it's you—no, because it's you, I think you have every right to say such things. Winter Witch. Though you may have fallen to ruin and now wear such a wretched appearance, allow me to pay my respects to the one who came closer to the truth than anyone else in this world. This is the one answer I have prepared for the disaster known as you."
The moment Bianca finished speaking, an immense radiance poured down from the sky. The pitch-black night was instantly transformed into broad, blinding daylight.
When I looked up, a second sun had risen beside the gleaming full moon. The light pouring from that sun had unmistakably turned the surroundings into day. The ground beneath Aria and me began to sizzle and boil from the intense radiant heat pouring down from that sun.
Seeing that magic—which seemed not merely to twist the laws of the world, but to overturn its very providence—I unconsciously muttered the name of a spell that had existed in the recesses of my memory.
"...White Flame's Lament."
It was the unique magic Bianca had independently devised ten years from now. In terms of pure firepower, it was called humanity's strongest spell, one that could rival a witch's magic—and it had just materialized here, in this moment.
"I won't kill anyone. A promise is a promise. But you are the one thing I cannot concede. I stand here fully prepared to discard everything I have."
"Ugh, guh...!"
Aria eventually collapsed to her knees, unable to withstand the overwhelming magic, the overwhelming firepower, and the overwhelming heat. She tried to resist somehow, but it was impossible. Aria—the personal handmaid of Kain von Estel—was no match for Bianca del Castana. Not as the Winter Witch.
"Don't worry, Kain. When you next open your eyes, you won't remember any of those trivial little worries."
Simultaneously with those words, Bianca flicked a finger downward.
In due course, the second sun descended upon the earth.