A Sitting Duck (3)
#76 A Sitting Duck (3)
2022.02.27.
Unlike the queen, who was greatly agitated, Owen remained calm.
He had anticipated that she would recognize him.
It was still just suspicion and shock for now, but give it a little time, and she would be certain.
Because they were still bound by the contract magic.
“Your Majesty.”
“...Speak.”
The queen answered with difficulty.
But the more she tried to suppress the turmoil in her heart, the more fiercely it surged.
“Your Majesty met a human man long ago.”
“...Yes, an insolent fool.”
“But unexpectedly, your hearts connected, didn’t they?”
At Owen’s question, the queen let out a long sigh.
It was a breath laced with regret.
Soon, her memories drifted back to the distant past.
“Yes. At first, it was nothing but contempt, but the more we clashed, the more similarities we discovered in each other.”
“But at the beginning, it was nothing but fights.”
“True. We even exchanged letters slandering each other because sword fights weren’t enough.”
It was the story of Duke Owen Glendower and the dark elf queen.
They had met before he was hailed as the empire’s guardian.
The queen, too, had not yet donned the Ice Thorn Crown.
They were merely one human and one dark elf who had crossed paths.
“Your Majesty, do you remember why you first met that man?”
“......Tell me.”
The queen was gradually gaining certainty, but doubt still lingered.
So she tested Owen by asking about the old days.
“It was because of swordsmanship. Both of you were renowned for it, so naturally, you heard of each other’s fame. For ambitious swordsmen, it’s only natural to seek out a rival for a bout.”
“Right. That man came to find me.”
“No. Your Majesty sought him out.”
“What?”
For a moment, they glared at each other.
It seemed less a matter of distorted memory and more one of pride.
After staring for a while, they moved past it without resolution.
“In any case, Your Majesty, after that, there were several more bouts, debates, and eventually letters exchanged.”
Fate is truly capricious.
The two, who had fought with swords and pens, came to understand each other before they knew it.
Was it romance? Neither denial nor affirmation quite fit their peculiar bond.
But it could not develop further.
The war between humans and dark elves was intensifying at the time.
They could neither unite nor strike each other down.
In the end, after much anguish, they swore never to harm one another.
The affection between the young man and woman ran deep.
Yet, realizing the insurmountable wall between them, they ended their relationship there.
Who could have foreseen they would later stand at the forefronts of their respective wars?
Life was so cruel.
“The pact Your Majesty made with that man was a powerful contract magic. Breaking it exacts a heavy price.”
“Yes. That’s how we decided it. A pact of mutual non-aggression.”
“Correct. The reason Your Majesty’s body is rotting now is because you betrayed it.”
“......”
As the dark elf queen fell silent, Owen stepped forward and asked.
“Why? Why did you break the contract?”
It was a weighty question.
The queen had betrayed the contract and stabbed Duke Glendower.
But unexpectedly, she slammed the armrest in fury.
“It’s because of you! Owen Glendower!”
Her eyes blazed as if on fire.
Everything was certain now.
The boy before her was undoubtedly Owen Glendower.
She couldn’t fathom how, but the fact was undeniable.
“Because of me?”
“Yes!”
Owen shook his head at the trembling dark elf queen, who even pointed accusingly.
“That’s ridiculous. Look at me. Unlike you, I bear no curse.”
“Urgh!”
The queen gnashed her teeth.
It was undoubtedly true.
But she had her own side to the story.
“You clearly rejected my... no, my proposal! Glendower! And not content with that, you secretly rode a dragon and massacred my kin!”
Owen couldn’t comprehend what she meant.
He had never received any proposal from the dark elf queen.
“Your Majesty. The attack with the Kalotes Dragons was a preemptive war. Consider the number of dark elves gathered in the forest at the time. If I hadn’t stepped in, the empire’s north would have suffered greatly.”
“Ridiculous! Is that your excuse? It was mere political maneuvering. I was cornered because of you. The nobles and elders pressed for war relentlessly. If I hadn’t mustered the army and feigned a southward advance, I would have been ousted.”
Owen furrowed his brow.
These were stories he had never heard.
He knew nothing of the dark elf queen’s circumstances back then.
The queen sighed.
“You should have accepted my proposal! Then no blood would have been spilled.”
“Excuses now? I never received any proposal.”
“Silence! So brazen! Did you want to kill us all that badly!”
Even after reuniting in his reincarnation, they struggled to shed their mutual distrust.
It was hard to discern truth from falsehood.
Only suspicion festered.
For a while, they merely glared at each other.
Then the queen asked.
“How, exactly?”
“How what?”
“Did you not die that day? The sensation of my hand piercing your body is still vivid. That’s when the curse struck.”
The feeling she could never forget even in death sent shivers through the queen.
When Owen didn’t answer, she pressed again.
“Or did you come back to life? Is such a thing even possible?”
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The man before her was undoubtedly Owen Glendower.
But now called Owen Leire, his appearance had completely changed.
The tall, blond, manly figure was gone.
His hair was black, and he had become a slender, pretty boy.
The dark elf queen struggled to accept this transformation.
“It’s not some superficial magic disguise. You’ve become an entirely different being. How is this possible!”
Dark elf forbidden arts included resurrection spells.
But the revived became idiots.
With her knowledge, she couldn’t explain the sight before her.
Owen didn’t hide it and said plainly.
“Reincarnation.”
“What...?”
“Don’t you know reincarnation? Being reborn in a new form.”
“Is that what you call it? Reincarnation is just baseless nonsense...”
“But here I am, right before your eyes. Your Majesty. No, Signet.”
“Urk!”
Suddenly hearing her childhood name, the queen flinched.
She had many names as queen.
But her pet name, Signet, was known to very few.
Among humans, only Owen, with whom she had once been close, knew it.
It had been her own token of affection.
“Calling me by that name again...”
“Using formal speech all the time gets annoying. Why? Would groveling and calling you ‘Your Majesty’ every time soothe your ego?”
Owen’s sudden shift in attitude didn’t provoke much reaction from the queen, as if she were used to it.
He had always called her that way before.
“...Hmph. Do as you like.”
“Signet. Then look at me again. Am I not Owen Glendower?”
She couldn’t deny his words.
The man before her was indeed the one from the past.
Even if reborn.
After staring long and hard, the queen finally called him in a slightly softened tone.
“...Owen.”
It wasn’t as stiff as before.
Calling him as she once had melted away the long-held distrust and hatred far more than expected.
Owen felt the same.
“Now that sounds right.”
“Quiet. You’re as foolish as ever, even before death.”
“Why?”
“There’s a limit to fearlessness. I’m your enemy. And you boldly reveal your reincarnation? Have you ever seen such a fool? What if I spread it everywhere!”
Owen had naturally considered that.
After deliberation, he judged it safe to reveal.
“You’d figure it out anyway, Signet.”
“What?”
“You could pretend not to know and hide it for a bit. But you’d uncover it soon enough. Right?”
“...Hmm.”
It was hard to refute.
“Besides, aren’t you going to lift the curse? Why it fell on you in the first place.”
“Because I broke the pact of mutual non-aggression.”
“You know it well. If you plan to break it again, I’ve nothing to say. Especially if you go blabbing my important secret everywhere.”
“Ah... You had a guarantee.”
“If you spread that story now, it won’t end with your body rotting. Death won’t be the end—your soul will be cursed too. Think you can handle that?”
“......”
“You want the curse lifted, right? Then keep my reincarnation a eternal secret. Not that anyone would believe it anyway.”
Even knowing Owen’s secret, the queen couldn’t speak of it.
The contract magic would activate the moment she did.
Besides, there was no gain.
Who would believe such an absurd tale of reincarnation?
Even she, seeing it with her own eyes, wondered if it was a dream.
“Is lifting the curse really possible?”
“Of course. The other party to the contract is right here. Be grateful I died and came back. Otherwise, you’d never lift it.”
“To think such a fate... What should I do now?”
“Simple. I magically declare I no longer wish the curse to continue. You pay the price for that. Then we form a new pact of mutual non-aggression.”
“I understand. We revert our issues to the original state.”
“Yes. That’s why I came all this way.”
“...What do you want?”
“Simple. You grant three wishes on terms I agree to.”
“That’s not simple at all!”
“Then forget it. I don’t care either way. I told you—if you leak my reincarnation secret, the curse hits harder.”
“If you don’t like it, drop it” was a powerful ultimatum.
The dark elf queen trembled but found no retort.
“Argh! Fine! Now I remember. You were always like this with me.”
“Like what?”
“Only you were so rude to me, when everyone else bowed their heads.”
“I’ll show proper respect if you want. But then you carry that rotting body forever.”
“......”
As the queen fell silent, Owen subtly pressed her.
“Chased all the way here means the rebellion is serious. Can you handle it in that state?”
“Shut up.”
“Hey, Signet. Last time we parted with regrets, but we don’t have to repeat that.”
“What are you getting at?”
“I know you hold a grudge for the massacre of your kin. I can’t forget you stabbing me either. We might fight again someday. But not right now, right?”
The queen and Owen’s relationship was quite unique.
They were enemies at the end, but defining it solely as such felt inadequate.
One could tell from how calmly Owen conversed with the woman who had stabbed his past self.
If it were the emperor, this would never happen.
“You mean we can help each other now?”
“Yes.”
At Owen’s reply, the dark elf queen fell into thought.
A long while later, she asked.
“What do you want now that you’re reborn? Revenge?”
“Yeah, revenge is necessary. But what comes after is more important.”
“After? Like your last life, smash all humanity’s enemies and live for the empire?”
Owen smirked at the queen’s question laced with enmity.
“No, the empire can fend for itself now.”
“What?”
For a moment, the queen thought she’d misheard.
The Owen Glendower of his past life had been the empire’s guardian, an incarnation of patriotism.
He had devoted most of his life to crushing enemies on all fronts.
To humanity’s foes, Owen was a storm-like terror.
And now he said the empire should handle itself?
“What do you mean by that?”
“Just what you heard. No need to overthink. After revenge, I’ll live well alone. Build wealth, marry a cute wife, and live happily ever after.”
“What?”
The dark elf queen gaped, forgetting decorum.
Good thing her helmet hid it.
“Are you serious?”
“Pretty serious, yeah. Especially marriage—I really want that.”
“Good lord...”
The queen briefly wondered if Owen had lost his mind.
But she recalled he had died and returned.
After such an experience, a change in outlook wasn’t strange.
A moment later, she cautiously asked.
“You’ve changed, haven’t you? Owen.”
“Yeah. No more Duke Glendower preaching to slaughter all humanity’s enemies. Just a little guy wanting to eat well and live well on his own.”
At this point, the queen almost wished she could remove her helmet.
So Owen could see her gaping mouth and grasp half her feelings.
But indifferent, he drew closer and asked.
“So? Will you accept my proposal and lift the curse?”
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