A Thorn Path Turned to Flowers
Carrying the nameless red-haired girl in my arms, I made my way toward the Medicine Department within the Academy.
Classes had all ended for the day, so most people would be in their dormitories, but a few lingering students still cast glances my way. Fragments of their murmured conversation drifted into my ears, and thanks to that, I was able to piece together the name of the girl nestled against my chest — Dana.
The sun was already setting, so once night fell, I would use Caym to gather the detailed particulars.
"Is—is that a patient?"
"I'll examine them!"
"No, I will!"
The moment I stepped into the hospital housed within the Medicine Department, the enrolled undergraduates swarmed me as one. In this world, physician work was among the most lucrative professions available to those without a talent for mana. Once your skill earned recognition, the wealth accumulated through years of experience could rival that of self-made merchants.
Climbing that ladder was precisely why the Academy's hospital allowed undergraduates to build up their records in shifts under a professor's supervision — and those records carried considerable weight after graduation. To the students of the Medicine Department, every patient who walked through the door was nothing short of treasure.
「 She appears to have lost consciousness. A simple examination will do. 」
Even as I wrote, awkwardly balancing the girl in one arm, they seemed to sense, however faintly, who I was.
"Please head that way."
The Academy's hospital was divided into separate sections: one for simple examinations, one for diagnosing illness and compounding remedies, and one handling everything from minor surgery to the gravest operations. It was, for all intents and purposes, a tiered institution where students were stationed according to their year and ability. Even a third-year who couldn't manage a simple examination had no place working in the diagnostic ward. If one's learned knowledge and current skill fell out of alignment, the disadvantages at graduation were severe — so everyone threw themselves into it desperately.
"She briefly lost consciousness and shows signs of malnutrition, so once she wakes, we recommend a light meal. Do not, under any circumstances, feed her anything rich or greasy — she'll be wracked with stomach pain and visiting the privy constantly if you do."
Malnutrition?
Hearing the diagnosis, I couldn't help but tilt my head. She looked for all the world like a young lady raised in the height of refinement. Then again, she must have had her reasons for resorting to suicide as her final option. If she'd lost everything and been driven into a corner, all the better for me.
「 Please look after Dana for a moment. 」
"Of course."
She showed no sign of waking anytime soon, so I left the hospital, exited the Academy grounds, and set about buying fruit. They'd said something light on the stomach was best, and fruit — whetting the appetite as it did — hardly seemed a poor choice.
By the time I was walking back with my purchases, the sunset had faded and night had come. Through the Night Parade of a Hundred Demons, I summoned Caym. Beyond his characteristic silver tongue, Caym's ability allowed him to draw out the memories etched into any object in the world and render them as sound — an ability without equal when it came to gathering information. I dispatched him from my shoulder, and afterward received a full account of everything.
"……Where am I?"
Waking in the hospital bed, Dana's gaze swept slowly across the room. She had thrown herself from the rooftop of a four-story building — so how was she still alive? Dana gave a bitter smile, wondering if even command over her own death was to be denied her.
Watching her, the Medicine Department student who had been tending her at Rohen's request clicked her tongue and said, "Do you have any idea who carried you here?"
"……"
"It was Prince Rohen."
"What?"
"Who would have imagined a prince would come bearing the daughter of a fallen house of traitors in his arms?"
Dana's face was a portrait of disbelief. But come to think of it, only those enrolled in the Knight Department could have caught someone falling from a fourth-story rooftop. Even that much was an unbelievable coincidence — and for that someone to be Prince Rohen of all people.
……He simply must not know that I am the daughter of Count Demer.
His formal transfer to the Academy had happened barely a day ago, so it was possible he hadn't seen through to who she was at first meeting. In that case, perhaps she could receive treatment from Prince Rohen after all. The truth was, she hadn't considered that option from the start because there had been no hope of it. No one would extend mercy to the daughter of a house that had fallen through treason.
Of course, even setting that aside, the odds of Prince Rohen acting on pure sympathy alone were slim. Even if his Dragon Tongue carried few constraints, if he showed himself throwing that power about carelessly, others would come begging to him without end. Still — nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Drag it out, and the truth would likely come out eventually……
He had watched the shocking spectacle of her suicide attempt with his own eyes, so there was no small chance an appeal to his sympathy would land. If her appearance were restored, perhaps Boris would retract what he'd said and promise her the position of Viscountess Bern after all. He had acknowledged her talent from the very beginning, hadn't he? Even after her beauty was lost, Boris had wanted to keep her at his side through contract — he simply hadn't known she might choose suicide when left with no other options.
「 Step aside. 」
"Of course."
Before long, Rohen returned with a basket brimming with fruit. Once the nursing student stepped away, the two of them were alone.
「 Eat. 」
"……I heard the one who saved me from my attempt was you, Your Highness."
「 You fell rather gracefully from the sky, right onto my head. 」
Watching him joke with a smile, Dana gripped and released the hospital blanket for a moment before speaking carefully. "If it wouldn't be too great an imposition…… might I tell you my circumstances?"
When Rohen nodded without hesitation, Dana weighed her words for a moment. Would she speak while leaving out only the fact that she was the daughter of Count Demer, or would she not? Honestly, the former offered better odds of leaning on his sympathy — but if she did win his favor that way and he learned the truth later, wouldn't that only make things more difficult? Perhaps because she'd resolved herself to die, she found herself avoiding looking ahead, and felt a faint self-mockery at the sight of herself.
And so, laying out the fact of her lineage in advance, she unraveled — trifling, if trifling it was — the whole sorry tale of her life in hopes of earning his kindness.
"……And so, if it would not trouble you, might you extend your mercy to me?"
「 It's no difficult thing. 」
Color bloomed in Dana's face at his answer, but watching her, Rohen continued writing. 「 However, there is a condition. 」
"If it's something I can do……"
「 I trust those words leave no room for retraction? 」
"Yes."
「 Then make your nest at my side, Dana. 」
The foolish meet their fated connection and fail to recognize it; the ordinary recognize it and let it slip away; the wise seize it even when their sleeves merely brush. Rohen had not the slightest intention of letting this opportunity go to waste.
Certain for a moment that she must have misread, Dana read his written words over several times before answering in a trembling voice. "Is there…… a reason you want me?"
「 That may have been a rather easy remark to misread. It is not you the woman I want — it is Dana, the talent enrolled in this Academy. 」
"Honestly, I'm somewhat bewildered as to what it is about me that prompted this."
Her Academy grades sat squarely in the middle — neither good nor bad. While at the House of Viscount Bern, she had deliberately secured a modest standing for herself, having no wish to outshine Boris, who would inherit the family. If she became the object of comparison and stoked his inferiority complex, her future would only grow tiresome. So Rohen — who could not possibly know any of this — what exactly did he intend by such words? Dana couldn't help but suspect, shameless as it was. Choosing her as an object of simple lust seemed unlikely, considering the daughter of Duke Asis, far more beautiful than she, was already at his side.
"As you know, I am the daughter of a house that fell through treason."
「 The matter has already been settled, so pay it no mind. If those around you gossip — if words are spoken — you need only prove your skill yourself and shut their mouths. I will set the stage. I will help you spread your wings; taking flight is your task alone. 」
Wondering if this was all a dream, Dana pinched the back of her own hand, but the dull sting that rose up told her it was nothing of the sort.
「 In response to my words, say only "I accept" or "Understood." 」
He was telling her, plainly, that refusal would never be offered as an option. ……Things were going far too smoothly — no, so smoothly that the thorn-strewn path she'd been walking had abruptly turned into a road of flowers, and Dana had no idea how she was supposed to react. What if he intended to toy with her? To dangle hope like this, only to snatch it away?
「 If you have doubts, then let me offer the down payment first. 」
Watching her fail to give a firm answer, he smiled faintly, and then at last opened his mouth in a low voice. It was the first time she had ever heard him speak. And at the same moment, knowing all too well when a man who could not speak was able to give voice to his words, Dana reached out with trembling hands as Rohen handed her a hand mirror.
In the mirror, her face was still half-covered in bandages — but as she carefully peeled them away……
"……"
Skin that had been a seeping, festering horror of discharge and pus had, as if by magic, knit itself anew, reclaiming its original beauty. The eye on the burned half of her face, so damaged it had been all but blind, now reflected the surrounding scenery with perfect, unmistakable clarity. All medicine of this age could manage was to excise rotted flesh or slow the festering.
This is……
the power of the Dragon Tongue?
Looking down at the bandage in her hand, crusted with weeping fluid and blood, Dana felt an emotion well up in her that she couldn't name.
「 Dana. You have received your down payment. You have no choices left. 」
Prince Rohen slid a fresh sheet of paper toward her. Reading its contents, Dana smiled faintly. Her burns lay far beyond what the medicine of this era could ever fully cure. So anyone who saw her at Prince Rohen's side would conclude, without fail, that he had extended his mercy to her — and that would stand as proof positive that he had taken in, decisively, even the daughter of a fallen house of traitors. After all, he would now begin preparing to inherit the throne; he could hardly keep lending his hand only to the nobles of the Neutral Faction forever. Was this, beyond any sympathy for her or hidden designs, part of a political calculation as well?
"Dana?"
And at that moment, as Boris appeared beside the previously silent sickroom, Dana lifted her head, wondering what could have brought him here. It wasn't as though he lacked acquaintances in this place. He must have heard the news that she'd been carried here in a prince's arms and come at once.
Why, though……?
In truth, the reason Boris had come from the dormitory matched her inference exactly. But seeing Dana — the grotesquely burned figure seared so vividly into his memory — completely healed, Boris could not hide his bewilderment. There was no connection between the two men, was there? If any existed, it would be the bitter ties of her parents' treason. And yet the Dana sitting before him had somehow, with his help, cleanly reclaimed her original beauty.
Don't tell me he doesn't know Dana is the daughter of Count Demer?
Nothing else could explain the situation. Prince Rohen had only entered the Academy today, and had barely shown his face at any official occasions. But if she had concealed her identity and begged his aid, wouldn't a backlash strike once Prince Rohen learned the truth?
"F—forgive me for intruding. Prince Rohen, I presume."
Breaking the long silence with a proper bow, Boris stole a glance down at Dana. But she gave him no look in return, quietly peeling away her bandages.
"I heard that Dana was carried here in your arms, Your Highness."
If Dana had hidden her identity and begged for mercy, Boris had no intention of continuing his relationship with her. He acknowledged her talent, and the beauty he'd once treasured had reclaimed its original form — but if Prince Rohen inevitably learned of her lineage, surely his fury would follow. If, however, he had granted his mercy knowing the truth, then Boris was fully prepared to take Dana back. Engagement terms that were as good as annulled could easily be restored to their place.
「 It's true. 」
"I hope I haven't caused any trouble……"
「 Nothing of the sort, so don't worry yourself. What trouble could there be in extending a helping hand? 」
"My house once supported Duke Alteir, you see…… Honestly, I never imagined you would extend your mercy to Dana, my fiancée."
「 Whatever private feelings linger from that time, I try not to drag them into public matters, thinking of what is to come. And it would be a strange thing indeed for a fiancée to be despised on account of her house. 」
Reading those words, Boris realized that Dana had never once mentioned her fallen house. More precisely — Dana had gestured, and Rohen had deliberately played ignorant. But because of it, Boris bowed deeply to Rohen and, in his heart, neatly severed everything that tied him to her.
He's no fool……
Why, of all things, make this choice? However much he distinguished between public duty and private feeling, however much he now reached out even to nobles who had once turned away — would anyone maintain that stance toward someone who had used him? Boris's house had once backed Duke Alteir, and his political standing was narrow and cramped — but that didn't mean he lacked ambition. Which meant there was not the slightest reason to take in Dana, a spark bound to spread before long.
"Take good care of yourself, Dana."
And with that — words that were, for all intents and purposes, a final farewell — Boris turned his back. Foolish a choice as she had made, a woman as sharp as Dana would at least understand what his parting words meant.
"……"
And once Boris had gone, Rohen gazed down at Dana in silence. He knew the whole of it through Caym — but honestly, Boris's position and choice were hard to cast as villainy. ……Coldhearted, yes, but not incomprehensible. That was why Dana's silent gestures — telling him not to reveal that he knew the full story, that he knew she was the daughter of Count Demer — struck Rohen as a little strange. Didn't it make it seem as though he had barged into the relationship between the two of them and wrecked it, when she could just as easily have made her nest at his side while continuing with Boris?
"Boris told me that whatever feelings he held for me, at least they were sincere. If he chose me over his own ambition even in a position to earn your displeasure…… then continuing that relationship might not have been so bad. Since his was a choice made purely as a man, I, too, offered my choices purely from the position of a woman."
「 Strange as it may be for me to say this — wouldn't it have been wise to hedge your bets? 」
"……You are the first. The first to step forward and try to know me as a person."
"……"
"You might call it foolish to trust such words when we've known each other mere hours…… but if I devote myself faithfully, with all my heart, to the one who first acknowledged me as a person — only to be discarded in the end — then my life amounts to precisely that much."
At Dana's earnest words, Rohen held his silence a moment, then slowly wrote out a new page. 「 That will not happen. I have no intention of kicking away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the moment it lands in my hands. So — I look forward to working with you, my strategist. 」
"……Yes. My lord. I, as well, look forward to serving you."
「 You may speak more casually. 」
"I — I couldn't possibly."
「 Why not? 」
"Because I feel the need to maintain a proper distance."
Rohen had called their meeting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — but in truth, it was far more so from Dana's own standpoint. Everything that had unfolded over these past few hours was like a prince rescuing a princess straight out of a fairy tale. Reading such stories, the contrivance that served a pure, improbable, happy ending had stirred nothing in her at all. But faced with it in the flesh, her heart — shamelessly, embarrassingly — had begun to flutter.
And yet, what could be more foolish than for a strategist to look upon the one she serves not as her lord, but as a man? Emotion must never be allowed to intrude upon the shaping of strategy.
"Because you, my lord…… have hired me as your strategist."
Trusting that this answer was more than sufficient, Dana offered Rohen a faint smile.