The Night of Destiny (2)
Huh…?
For a moment, Swen froze at the surreal sight of Irene running with Serpina slung across her back. Then Irene spotted him and came racing over, her face tight with urgency.
"Swen…!"
The instant he heard her voice, he understood. Something had happened. He sprinted toward her with Reika at his side.
"What's going on?"
"My lord…!"
Looking at the Serpina draped over Irene's back, he saw the torn cloth wound tightly around her waist.
…!!
So it had finally happened. He finished assessing the situation in a heartbeat and turned to Irene.
"How bad is it right now?"
Irene caught the meaning behind the question without difficulty and answered in a rush.
"I killed one. The other can't move. Both of them… were her personal guards."
Good God…
What a cruel twist of fate. To be nearly assassinated by the bodyguards she had trusted most. If he hadn't planted Irene at her side, this could have been catastrophic.
No—perhaps even her survival fell within the range of what he had predicted. By shifting the date of the assassination attempt… maybe she had been fated to live after all.
But that wasn't what mattered now.
"We should get her to the physicians immediately. As for cleaning up the scene…"
"On the way here I ordered the soldiers to lock them up at once."
"Understood. Then we'd better hurry."
Irene nodded. And then—
"Wai…t."
Serpina's voice came from where she hung against Irene's side.
"If you… make a spectacle of this… it will only sow chaos. If we go to the hospital… word will spread… and that is dangerous."
The sovereign nearly assassinated, and in critical condition? If that news got out, the entire nation would be thrown into turmoil. But this was hardly the time to be worrying about that…
"But my lord…"
"Have a physician… summoned… to some other place…"
"…"
Irene carefully looked his way. This was it—she was asking him to decide.
If they went to the imperial hospital, rumors would start flying at once. He had no idea how thoroughly Irene and the soldiers could contain the fallout, but it would almost certainly become a serious headache. Given Serpina's current position, that was all the more true. Her own safety mattered, of course—but the last thing she would want was for the nation itself to descend into chaos.
He looked carefully at Serpina.
If she were truly at death's door, he could not afford to listen to her. But if the future confirmed she would not die, then honoring her request was the more rational choice.
Fortunately, Irene seemed to have stopped the bleeding well enough, and the wound did not look catastrophically severe—but he needed firmer grounds than that.
I have to find a way to know for certain…!
He was turning the problem over desperately in his mind when—
"…Swen."
Serpina addressed him in a fading voice.
"I wish to ask… whether not taking me to the hospital… is the correct decision…"
Serpina…
So that was it. Seeing him hesitate, she had framed a question of her own. She knew about his ability, after all.
But—
[UNKNOWN]
…As expected. He had braced himself for it, but the answer came back as Unknown. For all her care in asking, even Intelligence 100 could not judge whether the choice was right or wrong.
Perhaps she read it on his face. Her voice came again.
"…Of course… even you cannot know… everything… Forgive me… for placing this burden… upon you…"
Something about her words twisted sharply in his chest. He stepped close and whispered.
"My lord. Conserve your strength. …I'm fine."
Looking at her haggard face only made him resent his own ability more. If the answer had been something like the destiny of continental unification will pass to another, he would have ignored the chaos and taken her to the hospital without a second thought—because that would have meant her life was in danger.
If that had been the case, he would have gone to the hospital without delay…
…Wait?
Hold on.
The destiny of continental unification will pass to another…?
The moment the keyword continental unification registered, he realized there was exactly one question that could confirm whether Serpina would survive.
…Is Lunarien Iniang destined to become the sovereign who unifies the continent?
His heart pounded. He steadied his trembling resolve and checked the answer that appeared before him.
[TRUE]
…!!!
It was all right. Serpina would not die.
There was no need to rush her to the hospital right this moment. The fact that Luna's destiny remained unchanged even while Serpina was nowhere near a hospital meant she had already escaped with her life. Just to be sure, he tried a question about Serpina herself—and when the answer came back False, it confirmed that nothing fatal would occur.
If she would not die, then he could grant her request.
He nodded and spoke.
"For now, I think we should move her to our residence and summon her personal physician."
"…Very well."
Hearing Irene's answer, he slowly turned to look at Reika. She, too, had grasped the gravity of the situation; she simply nodded and fell in behind them without a word.
Why had this happened at all?
He had thought they had escaped destiny—but had they merely slipped past the brink of death? Or was this situation itself the form that "escaping a destined death" had taken?
No—more fundamentally… he still couldn't understand how a knight of Irene's caliber had allowed Serpina to be wounded in the first place.
I'll hear the full story later. That can wait.
He ordered his thoughts and followed behind Irene with Reika. It was a profound relief that she was as strong as she was.
Only after they had settled Serpina into a bedroom at their residence, and the imperial court's finest physician—summoned through a maid—had gone into the room to examine her, did Swen finally hear from Irene what had happened.
"She was trying to protect you?"
"Yes… My lord was injured… trying to shield me."
Irene clenched her fists, her voice thick with tears and bitter frustration.
"I've failed as a bodyguard… After all that training. After being taught that a guard must throw away their life to protect their charge…!"
"…You did nothing wrong, Irene. It was simply beyond anyone's control."
How could a newcomer possibly have known that the other two bodyguards—everyone except herself—were assassins? Even he hadn't seen it coming, and neither had Serpina, who had kept them close precisely because she trusted them. The one who carried out the attack, he was told, had been guarding her since the day she first took the throne. How was anyone supposed to anticipate a blade from someone like that?
Suddenly, he remembered something she had said—how calmly she had accepted the verdict that she could never become the unifier of the continent. She had said that once you felt the malice this world held toward you… you started to expect things like this.
Was this what she had meant? That the people around her, the ones who followed her, would one day all turn their blades against her throat?
Even granting that she had killed the crown princes—from what he had heard, the imperial family's internal wars had been far bloodier while her brothers still lived. She had merely been the one to settle the chaos at the end, a little too thoroughly…
In an age without humanity or heaven's law, was she alone truly so hated as to be treated as a traitor of that magnitude?
He nearly lost himself in the thought, but they had no time for it. He took Irene's trembling hand.
"Irene. We can review what happened later. Right now, let's do what needs doing. That will help our lord more than anything."
"…All right."
"Go to the royal palace and contain this as quietly as you can. 'By order of the sovereign' should be justification enough. You're not only a bodyguard—you're also deputy commander of the occupation forces, so it should hold. As for how to deal with the assassins… State Strategist Jena is currently away from her post, so you'll have to handle that on your own authority."
"But if I claim it's by her order… she hasn't said a word about any of this…"
"It's fine. I'll take full responsibility."
He said it, but he genuinely did not believe Serpina would reprimand either of them over this. She was not so rigid a person as that.
"…Understood, Swen."
Irene wiped her tears and rose with steely resolve.
"I'll handle the entire cleanup myself… Look after our lord."
"Leave this side to me."
Watching Irene's retreating figure, he felt a fresh wave of gratitude that she had already earned a solid position for herself. A person of established standing lent far more weight to her words.
That aside…
Why had Serpina thrown her own body in the way to save Irene?
As a sovereign, it was an utterly irrational, incomprehensible act—and he was still reeling from it when the door opened. The personal physician emerged, along with two female attendants who appeared to have been assisting as nurses. He rose slowly from his seat.
"How is she?"
"Fortunately, her life is not in danger… though she seems to have lost a considerable amount of blood, so absolute rest will be necessary for some time. We've taken all the measures we can for now… but a few weeks—perhaps as long as several months—of recovery would be wise."
They had done everything they could, but this was not a world of advanced medicine like the one he had come from. In that sense, the fact that the wound was not deep was an extraordinary mercy. Whether it was because his foresight had already accounted for this outcome, or simply because she had been lucky, he could not say.
"Is there anything else that needs to be done?"
"Nothing. Only that she must rest…"
"…Understood."
"I will remain at this residence for the night. Please summon me whenever you need."
After seeing the physician off, he carefully opened the door and stepped into the room where Serpina lay.
Inside the bedroom, Serpina was lying still.
Asleep? He approached her side as quietly as he could.
Serpina…
She seemed to have drifted off already. She must have been utterly drained; sleep for the sake of recovery was only natural.
Bandages were wrapped around her waist over the pure white garments. Even for the nurses, laying hands on the emperor's body must have been a deeply solemn and daunting task. The wound was said not to be deep… but judging by the span of the bandages, it covered a considerable area.
Being cut that deeply by a blade must have been excruciating—yet she had not made a single sound of pain the entire way here.
A sovereign who throws her body in front of a blade to protect her own bodyguard… He felt the full irony of those words as he looked at her face, and then a thought struck him.
In the end, she had been the one who protected Irene, hadn't she?
Wait. Then why, exactly…?
His mind was just beginning to race when—
"…!!"
He felt someone seize his wrist. Looking down—
Serpina had stretched out a pale, slender hand and taken hold of him.
He turned his head. Her eyes were open now, fixed on him.
"You're awake, my lord? You should rest and—"
"…Swen."
"My lord."
The woman who had always looked down at him from above was now looking up at him from where she lay—and in a voice so fragile, so terribly fragile, she spoke words as sharp as a blade.
"…Don't leave me, Swen…"