Mind's Eye (3)
A few days later.
Sunlight brushed against her cheek, and Serpina's eyes slowly opened.
…Mmm…
She rose lightly from the bed and stretched. A pure white negligee clung to her figure, barely containing the soft, unmistakably feminine curves of her body.
First came the bath.
She drew the water, set it to warm, and while she waited for it to heat, she sat and tidied the bedding with quiet, practiced motions. All of it was work that felt strangely out of place for the sovereign of a nation to perform with her own hands. Serpina was no mere feudal lord — she was a survivor of the old imperial bloodline. By rights, three or four maids should have attended her for such chores. But she preferred to prepare everything herself.
This entire sequence was a kind of ritual. Before beginning her day as heir of the Aingart line, she set aside the person called Serpina and laid her down.
And this bedchamber was forbidden ground — a deeply private space no one but Serpina herself was permitted to enter, the one place where she could truly catch her breath.
So she stepped into the wooden tub, relying on nothing more than a single towel, and sank into the water. As it rose and spilled over the rim, a soft breath escaped her pink lips of its own accord. Perhaps it was the sheer fullness of her chest, but the water kept overflowing for a long while before silence finally settled over the room.
…
The moment the warmth touched her skin, a man's face rose unbidden in her mind — the man who had twice invaded this forbidden space that only she was allowed to enter.
Swen…
Serpina flushed and dipped her lips just beneath the surface. The soft bubbling of the water seemed to speak for the turmoil in her head.
Every time she thought of him, her heart raced. Every time she thought of him, something fluttered low in her stomach.
The first person ever to set foot in her bedchamber.
The first person ever to accompany her to her brothers' graves and pay his respects beside her.
He had told her he would stay at her side and protect her.
He had told her he believed her words.
And… he had confided in her alone a secret he had never even shared with Irene.
What she had felt toward him first was curiosity. A nameless young man who kept appearing in her dreams. The man who had dropped a boulder and driven her army into a corner — what kind of person was he, really? She had wanted, more than anything, to meet him once.
What came next was greed. Greed for talent, to be precise. Jena had never been an incompetent officer, but Swen possessed a crushing insight the likes of which the Serpina Army had never seen. Considering he had proposed a wager to her — the ruler of an enemy nation — from the very start, he was the type who might lack physical strength but certainly did not lack nerve. Serpina had known, instinctively, that he would become an indispensable piece on the road to unification.
And after that — what she felt now was desire.
Not greed. Desire. The raw, feminine hunger for a man that even Serpina the Absolute could not defy. Curiosity, greed, and desire had tangled together into something far more complicated, and that tangled feeling ruled her completely.
In the middle of that confusion — a feeling she had never known in her life — a thought suddenly struck her.
He had said he possessed an ability called the Mind's Eye.
Everything he had predicted so far had come true, so the claim was almost certainly true.
But…
Was he truly using that power for her sake?
"His trail from the Brans Army into the Aesius Army, and everything leading up to the moment he became a general under Brans… none of it sits right."
From what she had heard, before joining the Brans Army, Swen had been the strategist of a small, weak nation. Left alone in a castle, he had surrendered to Lin after his former lord abandoned him as a sacrificial pawn and fled. That was the gist of the story.
When she first heard it, she had only thought, vaguely, that it was strange — a man of such insight would never allow himself to be double-crossed by the lord of some minor state.
But now she had the Mind's Eye as a powerful piece of circumstantial evidence as well.
Would a man with that kind of ability truly have been cast aside so meekly by his lord? Or was it that he simply could not foresee whether he would be abandoned? In truth, there were more things he could not predict than she had expected.
But… Serpina's instincts insisted that Swen had not acted so carelessly.
Perhaps he…
—perhaps he was a man whose relationships with his lords were far more complicated than they appeared. That had been her conclusion, drawn from the countless remarks of soldiers who had once served under Brans.
A lord who suddenly seized all the gold, provisions, and troops and fled. The circumstances under which a strategist who had once toyed with Lin fell so easily into her hands. All of it had seemed strange enough that rumors had already been circulating within the Brans Army itself.
Of course, the talk had fizzled out, so nothing could be confirmed… but when she considered how Swen had kept changing lords, one conclusion rose naturally to the surface.
In his heart, there was someone else — not her.
"I believe in my lord… in Lady Serpina."
Those words had carried a sincerity thicker than anything he had ever spoken.
But had the "lord" he meant truly been her?
Then why had he bothered to add "Lady Serpina" afterward, as if it were a footnote?
Of course, one could interpret it as "I believe in my lord, Lady Serpina," and the sentence would still hold. Roughly.
And yet.
When she had told him she would keep speaking her mind no matter who occupied his heart — from some point onward, Swen had stopped denying her words.
Who was it, then?
Who was the "lord" Swen carried in his heart?
Would Irene know? She had been with him since the Brans Army.
But she could not simply ask. She did not want to burden Irene. Part of it was that Irene was an exceptional general — but more than that, Serpina did not want to provoke her and risk earning Swen's resentment.
She had been certain.
Certain she would wait until he slowly opened his heart to her. Certain that even if months or years passed, she would win that heart for herself…
But the thought that those warm gray eyes that had once looked at her might vanish somewhere else made her restless, her body growing hotter by the moment.
…Haa.
After soaking for a long while, Serpina rose slowly from the tub and finished her bath. She dressed, then wrapped herself in a fragrance that reminded her of the place she had loved most as a child.
The scent of yuzu was her armor. By putting it on, the soft-hearted youngest of the imperial family ceased to exist, and Serpina von Aingart — the golden-eyed Absolute — took her place.
Last of all, she fastened the distinctive hairpin into her hair. She was ready.
"Welcome, my lord."
Leaving her chambers, she made her way toward the royal castle, answering the greetings of those she passed with a light nod of her head as she proceeded to the throne.
The first order of business upon arriving at the castle was always the same — receiving reports on everything that had occurred in her absence.
"No signs of rebel activity… is that it."
She read through the lengthy report Jena had sent, while soldiers came and went with updates on their individual tasks. She had just begun to think the day would pass like this, with no orders of her own to issue, when unexpected news arrived.
"My lord. A letter has arrived from General Irian."
Irian — on Swen's advice — was currently out on patrol near Kelstein.
Serpina took the letter the soldier held out to her.
And then…
Turning the clock back — Rose Castle.
"Her Majesty named me specifically?"
"Yes, sir."
Irian, who had been overseeing the forces stationed at Rose Castle in Irene's place, tilted his head in puzzlement.
"Surely there are other generals perfectly capable of handling a territorial search."
"That is true, sir, but this is Her Majesty's will, and so…"
"No — I have no intention of questioning Her Majesty's will. It's simply that I find myself wondering why she went out of her way to single me out…"
As Irian sank into thought, the adjutant who had delivered the news spoke carefully.
"Well… that is… it seems it may have been that man's idea."
"That man?"
"Swen, I believe his name is? Lately he's been spending a great deal of time at Her Majesty's side, and from what I hear, he offers her all sorts of counsel. There have been quite a few orders lately that didn't make much sense, and word is he's connected to all of them. Of course, it's all just rumor…"
Irian's face twisted with open displeasure.
"I'm seeing you in a new light. I never imagined you had the nerve to peddle baseless gossip designed to tear a man down — right in front of me, no less."
"N-no, sir, that wasn't my intention at all—"
"I'll let it pass this once. Watch your tongue from now on."
"Y-yes, sir!"
"If you understand, go fetch General Beniel."
"Understood."
Once the adjutant was gone, Irian fell into quiet thought.
I don't believe malicious rumors… but even if that one happens to be true, Lord Swen is more than worthy of trust. There must be a reason he specifically chose to send me there.
Irian was well aware of the strange rumors circulating about Swen and his lord, Serpina. But ever since the incident involving Jennis, his leanings had settled firmly on Swen's side.
And why would he tear down a man who might, if the timing worked out, become his own brother-in-law?
I'll leave this place to Beniel and prepare to depart at once.
It did not matter whose suggestion it had been.
If an order had been given, he would simply obey.
That was how Irian lived.
Back again — Aingart Castle.
Having received Irian's letter, Serpina trembled faintly, as if she could scarcely believe it.
…!!!
Sending Irian would be the most efficient method — that was what he had said, wasn't it?
Once again, Serpina lived through the vivid moment of that man's words proving true.