The Unleashed Reins
Of everyone living in the mansion where Irene resided, the one who spent the most time there was neither its mistress Irene nor Swen, the man she had hoped to share her life with—it was Reika.
Irene served as Serpina’s personal guard knight, and Swen was summoned by Serpina so constantly that the hours he could spend at home dwindled by the day.
Reika, for her part, felt a little lonely… yet she did not truly dislike the time she spent in the mansion.
With that unexpected free time she would stroll the grounds, read books, meditate…
“Hoo—!”
“You’ve worked hard, my lady.”
“Ah… n-no! I-if I was of any help… I’m, um, happy. Hehe.”
“As I’ve said before, this is work we ought to be doing ourselves, but…”
“I-it’s fine…!”
Helping the mansion’s maids with every sort of household chore suited Reika surprisingly well.
At first the servants had been horrified and pleaded, “Please leave such menial tasks to us,” but by now they had grown quite close—or at least grown used to the sight of her cleaning the kitchen and the halls—and their relationship had become amicable enough.
And so, after finishing the mansion’s affairs that day as well…
It was still broad daylight. Sunset was some time away, and only after dark would Swen and Irene return. She was wondering how to fill the hours when—
Hm?
Several flowerpots caught Reika’s eye.
The plants inside them were withering; they looked so desolate they seemed out of place in the mansion.
“Um, excuse me…”
She stopped a passing maid and asked, bowing as politely as she could.
“Ah, Lady Reika. Good day.”
“Those pots… are you throwing them away…?”
“Yes. We tended them properly, yet somehow they ended up like this… We’re planning to bring in new plants.”
Caring for potted plants was harder than most people imagined—so luxurious a pastime that only the imperial household kept dedicated staff for it. It was no wonder the servants of this mansion struggled.
“….”
Then a thought struck Reika. She carefully caught the maid’s sleeve again.
“Um… that is… well…”
“……?”
“I mean… you know…”
The idea had come to her, yet the words would not leave her mouth; she only fidgeted. The maid studied her face a few times, then covered her own mouth and whispered,
“Do you need the flowerpots, by any chance?”
“Ah…!”
Reika nodded vigorously.
Perhaps it was because they had shared endless hours of mansion work together. The maid read her mind with uncanny accuracy and answered with a smile.
“We were going to throw them out anyway. You’re welcome to take them. Or shall I leave them in front of your room later?”
“N-no…! I’ll take them myself. Th-thank you…!”
Reika bowed deeply to the maid, then, grunting with effort, managed to carry the three discarded pots into her own room.
…Good.
The mana inside the mansion… was plentiful.
Reika closed her eyes and began to read the flow of mana.
She recalled the very formula that had risen unbidden in her mind long ago at Valharat Castle when she had looked upon a dying rabbit.
Not something someone else had organized for her, but the instinctive knowledge of a born genius that simply whispered, If I do it this way, it should work.
At the tips of Reika’s pure-white fingers, spheres of light began to gather little by little.
From here… if I do this…!
The growing “orbs of light” slowly linked themselves to the dying plants.
She could feel it.
She could feel what was flowing into the plants.
Fortunately, a spark of life still remained.
Had they truly died, nothing would have connected.
“……!!!”
And then—
From Reika’s hands… a “miracle” began to unfold.
Leaves that had lost all vitality and were withering away gradually regained their former lush green.
Drawing something continuously from the pure-white orbs, they returned to the state they had been in when first brought into the mansion.
How much time passed?
Thud!
“Haa… haah.”
Reika wiped the cold sweat from her brow and gazed at the “result” before her eyes.
It worked…!
Exactly as she had hoped.
Using the mana overflowing in the air, she had saved lives that were fading away!
It was a power so immense it appeared only in the scriptures that circulated in the days when religion still flourished.
Reika had found and achieved it “instinctively,” just as she had when she first awakened to magic.
It was an extraordinary discovery—yet—
I’m… so drained…
She had succeeded in reviving one pot, but she no longer had the strength to cast the same formula on the remaining two.
The sensation of every ounce of power draining from her body was more vivid than ever before.
Of course, continuous use of magic always left her like this… yet lately she had been able to handle fire and ice without much difficulty, so she had thought she would be fine.
Is there still something I don’t know…?
She had only just used it for the first time; if she kept practicing she would grow accustomed to it and discover the knack.
Besides, Swen was at her side.
If she followed the routine he had taught her and continued her meditation, she would eventually master this new “magic” as well. She felt no great worry.
I’ll work even harder… and become a mage who can truly be of help to Lord Swen…!
At first she had not been especially happy to be a mage.
Escaping the orphanage had been wonderful, yet a life locked away with nothing but magical training and no freedom had been hard.
Now, however, she was grateful for her talent.
After all, was it not because she was a mage that Zinor had taken her in and she had been able to meet Swen?
That was why she wanted to become his strength.
This was no heavy obligation, nor anything done for the Nighthart family—it was a choice she had made of her own free will, the complete opposite of those things.
Swen’s very existence was transforming a girl who had already been a genius mage into a being the continent had never seen before, and far earlier than anyone could have expected.
If only Valharat Castle had had enough mana, I might have been able to save that dying rabbit too…
The moment the thought formed, a wave of drowsiness crashed over her.
I must have… used… too much mana…
Reika collapsed right there on the floor and sank into a deep sleep.
“You were able to stop the epidemic midway?”
This was the same mansion interior where I had often held private talks with Serpina.
The moment I stepped inside after walking the now-familiar streets, she told me a story almost too incredible to believe.
“Indeed. Did you not tell me yourself? To order General Irian to search the area around Rose Castle. In that sense, you are the one who stopped it all.”
At first I had not understood why she should specifically order Irian—who currently commanded the occupation forces in that region—to conduct a search…
Yet that single instruction had become a butterfly effect, and in the end it seemed they had been able to snuff out, in its earliest stages, an epidemic that might otherwise have swept the entire northern continent.
I had heard vaguely that they had thoroughly isolated the patients they happened to discover and allowed no one near them until treatment was complete, but the process itself was not what mattered.
What mattered was the result.
Setting everything else aside, the fact that events had unfolded through a chain of circumstances my predictions alone could never have deduced even if I died and came back to life—
This incident shared a great deal with the time we had previously rounded up the rebels led by Raheln.
From start to finish it was a tale that leaned far too heavily on coincidence, one that was extremely hard to believe…
Yet this was hardly the first or second time such things had happened, and I now understood: the counsel of Intelligence 100 had prevented the epidemic from spreading in the first place.
Even though they were merely following my advice, to any third party who did not know the full story, Serpina’s decisions would have seemed as though a god had possessed her.
But Serpina herself—no third party—knew perfectly well from whose lips every one of those decisions had come.
There was no need to discuss how I had known.
By now Serpina was well aware of my ability.
But… then why had she summoned me all the way here?
The thought arose naturally.
From the moment I arrived at the mansion, the way she looked at me… had been a little strange.
“It is true, then, Swen.”
“…Pardon?”
“Your Mind’s Eye truly reflects only the correct outcome…!”
Having spoken those words, Serpina began to approach me slowly.
Her face was flushed deep red; her half-lidded eyes fixed on me.
Those half-closed eyes, that sticky gaze that seemed utterly bewitched by something…
It was not the gaze of a sovereign regarding a talented subordinate…
It was far closer to the gaze of a woman looking upon the man she loved.
Before I knew it, I felt my heart begin to pound.
“Swen… this is a serious matter. I had planned—I truly had planned—to open your heart little by little.”
One step.
“The longer I spend at your side… the greater my desire for you grows.”
Two steps.
“Both as a sovereign… and as a woman…!”
Three or four steps later, her face was finally right before mine.
“My Lord…?”
“If I say that with you beside me… I feel I might even overcome the terrible karmic burden that wraps around me, you may well call me a fool.”
“A fool? How could you speak of yourself so carelessly—”
Her face was right in front of my nose.
The faint scent of citron once again brushed through my mind, through my brain.
And at the same time—
She spoke the next words as if they were nothing at all.
“Become my consort, Swen.”
“…Pardon?”
What… did she just say?
Thinking I must have misheard, I looked straight into her face, but her expression was utterly resolute.
“Become my consort. I will mix your bloodline with mine. Bound to you by vow, I will bear your child.”
“W-wait a moment, My Lord—that is—please, calm—”
“Ahh… Swen…!”
With those words Serpina tightly clasped my hand, her eyes still half-lidded…
“I do not… I do not wish to lose you. No matter what happens, I have decided I will never let you go.”
“I want to hold onto you by any means necessary. If there is already someone inside your heart, I will be content to stand second, so long as I may remain at your side.”
“Please do not cast me aside. Fight beside me. With you alone, I can do anything. Unifying the continent—perhaps even building a greater empire beyond that and ushering in another golden age… with your unerring Mind’s Eye, it may all be possible. Therefore… therefore…!”
“Stay with me forever… forever at my side, Swen…♥ For that, this body of mine will gladly—”
—do anything at all, she was about to say.
In that instant I understood.
The invisible collar around my neck.
That Serpina’s obsession with me had begun to exceed all imagination—
And that I had already sunk far too deep into the swamp that was her to simply walk away as though nothing had happened.