9. Spilt Water Never Returns (覆水不返) - 04
9. Spilt Water Never Returns (覆水不返) - 04
After that, a week flew by in a flash. I spent those days busily preparing for my departure to the Dekaraznan Ducal House—packing my belongings, handing over duties to fill the void my absence would create, and handling all manner of tasks.
To an outside observer, I probably looked like an idle layabout with nothing to do. And honestly, I'm a layabout who just happens to hold the title of Young Duke. Still, as the heir to a ducal house, leaving the estate required a commensurate amount of groundwork.
Put another way, the fact that I disappeared without a word when I left on that "honeymoon trip" with Bianca just proves how thoughtless I was back then. Though of course, that damned honeymoon trip didn't involve even a shred of my own free will.
But that sort of paperwork was truly nothing. A man like me is a parasite whose presence or absence makes little difference to House Estel. The factors that truly exhausted me and wore me down were none other than the two women who act as though House Estel is their own home and brazenly consume its provisions: Iris El Debhart and Ariel Tiere.
I could accept Aria, for whom House Estel truly is home, and Bianca, who now loudly insists she'll never return to House Castana. But I could not understand why these two clung to House Estel like leeches instead of returning to the Imperial Palace and the Holy See. After all, the only thing those women did here was snap at each other whenever their faces met. So why insist on staying and manufacturing stress for themselves?
And so for an entire week, I had to endure the dreadful sensation that my lifespan was shriveling in real time thanks to those three women—Bianca, the Imperial Princess, and Ariel. Perhaps some unspoken rules had formed among them, because at least no catastrophe occurred where they came to blows before exchanging words and reduced the Estel Ducal Castle to ash. Yet when it came to deploying any other insidious scheme short of physical force, they showed not a moment's hesitation.
Raised voices and verbal brawls whenever they crossed paths were practically adorable by comparison. Slander, intrigue, false-flag whisper campaigns, and every manner of underhanded trick that belongs on a battlefield flowed back and forth endlessly. I genuinely could not comprehend what drove those women to such desperation. They were always completely serious.
After those three women's spark-flying war of nerves—enough to easily put most court conspiracies to shame—the Estel Ducal House, which had withstood every threat and crisis and held its ground for a thousand years, managed in a single week to split itself into three factions.
My father, for example, favored Bianca most. Elena, however, had on more than one occasion dropped pointed hints in my direction, saying she thought it would be truly fine if Ariel became family. I am certain it wasn't my imagination that some sinister presence was manipulating Elena like a puppet from behind—she's led a sheltered life due to her naturally frail constitution.
"...Really. A nauseating scheme, exactly the sort that insidious woman would cook up. You know, I never liked her from the start. She's a creepy woman who always wears a gentle smile on the outside, pretending to be a Saintess, while harboring a nest of vipers in her heart. So you be careful too. Blink, and that devious woman might just kidnap you."
'...You are hardly one to talk.'
Watching Bianca grumble at me like that while I saw Elena avoiding her with visible wariness, I could only feel exasperated. Bianca herself had a track record, so her running down another woman with endless complaints didn't strike me as normal either.
More importantly, no matter what Bianca said to me, the tide had already turned. Whatever brainwashing Ariel had subjected her to, Elena's gaze toward Bianca grew sharper by the day. To be honest, I didn't particularly feel like blaming Elena. After all, the "flaws of Bianca" that Elena kept listing to me were, strictly speaking, simply the truth.
'Whatever else you say, her personality is warped. That much is fact.'
While Ariel methodically won people over to secure support, the Imperial Princess had not been idly twiddling her thumbs. Unusually, rather than approaching my direct blood relatives, she devoted herself to capturing the hearts of House Estel's knights and servants.
The Imperial Princess exuded her unique charisma and sparred a few times with the knights—men whose brains are packed solid with muscle—and within days, House Estel was filled with voices singing the praises of Her Highness the Imperial Princess, who is "merciful, benevolent, and yet so beautiful." Naturally, among the servants, the voices that mentioned Bianca were not loud. Sad as it was, aside from my father, who had known her since she was very young, there were not many people at House Estel who welcomed Bianca...
And so the Estel Ducal House was split into three pieces like a birthday cake by the wicked machinations of those three women. Watching that spectacle helplessly made my chest tighten with frustration. Never mind the rest—why did I have no power whatsoever to stop those women? I could only curse the heavens.
'...Fuck.'
According to various novels floating around the marketplace, women who fall for the same man are typically given a backstory of having no close friends and spending a lonely childhood, which makes them especially susceptible to loneliness. Thus, even when they meet another woman who loves the same man, rather than fighting, they come to regard one another as "sisters," and their scenes are always filled with laughter and flowers.
As far as I knew, both Bianca and the Imperial Princess were only daughters, and Ariel was an orphan raised by the Holy See, so she might as well have no siblings. Yet the women around me, far from treating each other as sisters, were so vicious toward one another that I could only feel sorrow.
Thanks to that, the past week had been a truly difficult and agonizing time. A painful stretch where I couldn't tell whether I was resting to recover my strength or waiting on three masters.
The one small comfort was that ever since that day, Aria had been acting remarkably well-behaved. She bowed her head and used formal speech not only toward the Imperial Princess and Ariel but also toward Bianca. Her attitude was so respectful that even Bianca—who in years past had a history of bloody combat with Aria—showed a docile side toward her.
Only after that eventful week had passed did the day of my escape from House Estel and departure for the Dekaraznan Ducal House finally arrive. Leaving with me was only one person: Aria. The other women had said they would see me off, but I desperately persuaded them otherwise. In the final moment, I did not want to see even a shred of the three of them raising their voices at each other over who was better.
"...Then why did you call me? After you went on and on about not wanting any send-off."
Bianca looked at me with a slightly wounded, sulky expression. I answered her in a quiet voice.
"Her Highness the Imperial Princess and Ariel will be leaving this place soon enough, but you're going to stay at House Estel. In that sense, I wanted to ask you to take good care of House Estel while I'm gone, Bianca."
"That's a given, so you don't even need to ask. You stay safe too, Kain. Don't get involved in anything dangerous. And..."
Bianca glanced once at Aria, who was standing vacantly before the carriage parked a distance away, then whispered to me in a small voice.
"Don't trust Aria too much. Even if she's acting like nothing's wrong as your personal maid right now, don't forget that her essence is the 'Winter Witch.' If she truly had no power, that would be one thing, but her knowledge and wisdom have already far surpassed that of an ordinary mage, to the point of approaching the truth. ...She might have already regained all her past strength and is only playing coy in front of you. So you must never let your guard down. Understood?"
Bianca's words carried only worry for me, so I put on the strongest bravado I could manage to reassure her.
"What are you borrowing trouble for? Aria isn't the 'Winter Witch' anymore. She's just Aria now. And did you already forget? At the final moment, the one who drove a sword into the Winter Witch's heart wasn't you, or Her Highness the Imperial Princess, or the Saintess—it was me. There's no way I can't beat an opponent I've already beaten once, is there?"
"...What?"
But Bianca's reaction was strange. She didn't give me the expected response of snorting at my bluff or being dumbfounded.
"...What on earth are you talking about, Kain?"
Bianca only stared at me as if she couldn't understand my words at all and said this.
"Before the regression, the one who killed the 'Winter Witch' wasn't you, Kain—it was me."
****
"...He's leaving again. Once more, he leaves me behind alone and goes away like that."
Ariel stood at the window of the room assigned to her, watching the single carriage quietly recede beyond the horizon, murmuring to herself.
This was a familiar sight to her. The sight of him leaving her, and of her only watching his back—that was all too familiar. Because it was a scene that had repeated itself over and over, countless times. The sorrow of parting from him, the pain, the anguish—all of it was familiar to her.
...But that didn't mean it didn't hurt. For the woman named Ariel, parting from him was always painful. It was not the kind of pain one could ever grow accustomed to.
...No, she must not grow accustomed to it. Because she still remembered it vividly. The pain she had felt then, the grief, the lament—she had not forgotten any of it, not for a single moment, right up to this very instant.
How could she forget? The happiest time of her entire life.
...And then, the heart-wrenching moment when everything came crashing down in catastrophe.
- Please, don't go. Don't leave me. You promised. You said you'd stay by my side. That you would look only at me. Kain, please. I'm begging you like this. Please, won't you?
- ...I'm sorry, Ariel. Even though I abandoned everything and came, I can't bring myself to ignore their pain. Because for a time, I was their Young Duke.
"...How heartless. You really are a fool. Kain."
Speaking those words, Ariel slowly closed her eyes. This time, she absolutely would not let everything end in such a conclusion. That was the one and only vow she made when she regressed ten years.
But that was when it happened.
Wooong—
From somewhere within the Estel Ducal Castle, a very small spatial resonance resounded. The timing was so exquisite it was as though it had waited for Kain and Aria to leave. Furthermore, the sensation mixed into that spatial resonance was a presence all too familiar to Ariel. There was no way Ariel, of all people, could fail to recognize the owner of this aura. After all, she had the experience of spending a long time alongside that person.
"...Kirie?"
Why, exactly, was that cunning elf's aura emanating from House Estel? As far as Ariel knew, at this point in time, Kirie El Denaris had clearly never taken a single step out of the Great Forest where the World Tree stood. Yet this aura that was so profoundly grating on Ariel's nerves was unmistakably Kirie's. What in the world did this mean?
"....."
In the end, unable to overcome her curiosity, Ariel walked toward the source of the spatial resonance. It was not difficult at all to grasp where that presence—almost as though calling out to her—was leaking from. Following it, Ariel eventually arrived at a certain door among the servants' quarters and carefully pushed it open.
Creeeak—
The interior of the room was a typical mage's dwelling. Various kinds of arcane tomes were stacked high, and flasks and experimental substances of utterly unknown identity lined the desk. Looking at that, she began to roughly deduce who the room's owner was.
'...Aria. This is her room.'
But the appearance of Aria's room held no interest whatsoever for Ariel. She shifted her gaze, letting it fall on a small branch that lay carelessly discarded in one corner of the room.
"...A World Tree branch?"
Because the material of the bow Kirie used was crafted from a branch of the World Tree, Ariel could easily discern what that branch was. But why was such a precious object lying around this room like a piece of trash?
Wooong—
The World Tree branch let out another cry. At that resonance, as though urging her to reach out and take it, Ariel hesitated only for an instant before she picked up the branch.
- Ah, now you finally hold it. Aren't you being a little too cautious? Anyway, it's been a long time. Ariel Tiere.
"...Kirie?"
There was no mistake. The owner of the voice resonating inside her head, using the World Tree branch as a medium, was definitely Kirie.
"...What sort of scheme is this now? What is this branch doing here, and how do you know I've been staying in this place?"
At Ariel's pressing questions, Kirie only let out an amused little giggle.
- There are ways to know everything. More importantly, aren't you reacting a little too sharply, Ariel?
"That's because a devious woman like you is not someone I can easily trust."
- Hmm, and yet without me you'd have noticed nothing at all. For someone like that, you have quite the nerve. Ariel?
"....."
- Well, fine. Chatting with you like this holds its own amusement, but that's not why I initiated this conversation. There isn't much Magic Power left in the branch, so shall we move quickly to the main point?
"The main point?"
- Yes, the main point.
Kirie, as though truly entertained, kept failing to suppress her laughter. And at Kirie's next words, Ariel could do nothing but stiffen her body rigidly.
- Say, would you, by any chance, like to see your daughter's face one more time?