The Light-Hearted Return from Triang Village
The events that unfolded after our arrival in Triang Village had been nothing short of swift and decisive.
We presented the academy's mission letter the moment we reached the village, and within moments the entire population lined up in orderly procession, escorting us to the chieftain's house that we had designated as our interrogation chamber.
Given that the villagers had been wrestling with the problem of heretics for some time now, their eager cooperation came as no small comfort.
Any dissent would have amounted to confessing their own heresy, and so no one dared raise a voice.
"Grace."
The first interrogation fell to the sixty-eight-year-old male named Jess.
The reason I had chosen to begin with this elderly man, more than anyone else, was specific.
"I am telling the truth."
This old fool?
With that intent in mind, I shot a sidelong glance at Grace. She closed her lips tightly and averted her gaze.
"I shall ask once more. With your choice, you could bring about the death of even those who should not die. If I resort to my own coercive measures."
"…False, I say."
That settled it.
Of all the heretics whose identities Grace had concealed in the original novel, I was fortunate to have selected the one whose appearance was the most vividly described as my first target.
Grace, like in the original, had intended to shield their crimes, yet as I raised my sword and spoke with genuine intent.
'Once I learn he is a heretic, I shall not send him to prison but kill him on the spot.'
she withdrew her hand.
That was the ultimatum.
With only Liliana's well-being already in peril, I could not afford to waste time on such heretics.
"Grace?"
It was Anna's voice.
Her eyes widened in astonishment at the lie that had just spilled from the lips of the woman who always spoke nothing but absolute truth.
"…"
Liliana remained silent as well.
Her gaze kept darting toward Grace, clearly disturbed by the lie that had come from an unexpected source.
Soon Liliana's eyes swept past me, and we exchanged a fleeting glance.
Yet neither of us offered any reaction.
I was pondering how to respond to Liliana when
And Liliana… perhaps she had intended to maintain a safe distance.
* * *
The chirping of crickets drifted through the starlit silence of the night.
I sighed deeply.
"Haa…"
It was the uncertainty of my next steps that weighed upon me.
She was the meaning and reason for my existence in this world.
If I were forced to abandon the very reason for which I lived, what path should I follow thereafter?
No, could I even abandon her?
That I could not was abundantly clear.
The love I had experienced for the first time in my life burned far too intensely, far too stimulating.
I knew my current actions were foolish and infuriating.
I knew it well.
Even I, who had read countless tragic side characters in the original novel, wondered if my current behavior might resemble theirs.
Yet such a thought remained nothing more than a fleeting notion.
I was ignorant, untutored by experience, and every moment was new to me.
The protagonists in the original novel fought with full awareness of their rivals and heroines, yet I did not even know the identity of my own rival.
Nor could I afford to waste time searching for a character who would vanish from the story without warning.
I did not know when danger would befall her.
She had already deviated from the original narrative.
Yet she continued to maintain relationships with the characters within it.
Whether the author could still intervene remained unclear.
If they did, how much, or if they severed my connection with her, would she revert to the original path?
None of this was certain.
Everything hung in a fragile balance.
The moment I distanced myself from her, she headed toward the academy as the original story demanded.
Despite the fiancé she cherished so deeply.
Only one possible reason came to mind.
From the moment I stepped back, she had resumed the original flow.
Perhaps because the foreign element of me had exerted a profound influence upon her.
And as my influence waned, the author might find new ways to intervene, as they had with the lycanthrope.
Perhaps.
The sole reason I spoke thus was because of one man.
Her fiancé.
Because of him, every hypothesis, every logic, every prediction collapsed.
She had become a character outside the original trajectory, and that very fact granted the author the right to intervene at will.
Unlike the eastern mountain range of the empire, where a sudden landslide could erupt from an unknown entity, her status as a heroine meant that deviation from the original path was sufficient to free her from the doomed route.
Any attempt to justify or rationalize it proved impossible.
My worry only deepened, and my sighs grew heavier.
"Haa…"
"Are you troubled because of Princess Liliana?"
Startled, I turned to the source of the voice.
I recognized the speaker immediately, yet her profound closeness had gone unnoticed.
Grace met my gaze and took a single step forward.
"May I sit beside you for a moment?"
"…As long as you keep a little distance."
After sitting so close to Grace the previous night, I did not wish to repeat the mistake.
I gestured toward the open space beside me.
"Thank you."
Grace lowered herself onto the grass with a soft thud.
She immediately repeated the question I had asked earlier.
"Are you worried that your relationship with Princess Liliana has not been resolved?"
It was an utterly blunt inquiry, yet it was Grace.
She would not bother with roundabout phrasing when she could discern truth.
Those who circled around a person's true intentions or concealed their own were the only ones who used such tactics.
"Indeed, it is astonishing that anyone could steal the love of that imperial princess."
Thus I spoke with nothing but my unadorned sincerity.
She was the one who knew me best; there was no reason for me to lie.
My eyes, moist with emotion, met hers, filled with the same longing and regret.
Unlike my naive choice, I could not erase the feeling that a better path might have existed.
Yet I had not known him then; I now gazed upon the wide-hearted girl who would one day be called saint.
If she could always distinguish truth from falsehood, perhaps she could reach the core of my worry.
And my unspoken wish and concern led to a conclusion neither of us had anticipated.
Grace, whose eyes had been filled with pity for me, opened and closed her mouth several times before speaking.
"Princess Liliana is still waiting for the person she loves, who has left her side."
"…What?"
My pupils trembled as I looked at her, and she nodded again.
"Based on the words Princess Liliana spoke last night and what I observed."
It was the clue I needed: why Liliana reacted so sensitively to me.
Why she had come to the academy despite loving her fiancé.
It was the means to judge the direction of my actions toward her.
"Is this your true statement?"
I did not doubt her.
Considering her ability, there was no room for falsehood in a claim of direct observation.
Yet the matter was far too delicate; I needed to verify it.
Grace nodded in answer to my question.
"I will speak only of the conclusion, for revealing every detail would involve the princess's secrets as well."
"As far as I can determine, this is the only possible explanation."
The words "only possible" fell from the lips of one who could discern truth from lie.
In my impoverished mind, the various strategies I had devised were now discarded as worthless.
And only then did I understand why Grace had looked at me with pity that morning.
Perhaps it was not because my life was pitiful for rejecting even a rejected woman.
Grace could certainly have acted.
Normally she would have hurled some retort at me, yet I felt no such urge now.
On the contrary, I was proud that I had chosen to recruit Grace into the party.
I could easily forgive her any minor mischief in the future.
Merely knowing that Liliana had been abandoned by her fiancé would fundamentally alter every outcome.
I now understood why she seemed mentally drained even after her body's health had recovered.
She had not escaped the doomed route.
No, the very beginning of the doomed route was precisely now.
Even if she chose another man, she would meet the same fate as choosing Ian.
The same rejection, the same complete devotion, the same death.
Once the author intervened, there could be only one fate for Liliana.
I let out a short sigh of relief.
"Hah."
Whether that man was who or what mattered no longer.
The greatest obstacle I had faced in translating thought into action was the possibility that my love for her might become poison.
Yet thanks to Grace's revelation, I now knew Liliana was thriving in the doomed route, and that my previous actions had been correct.
For the next episode, there was only one course I could take.
I needed to ask Liliana for help.
* * *
The moment daylight broke, the boy's party resumed its march toward the academy.
Unlike the original novel, we had completed the task of rooting out every heretic in a single day.
We also collected the bandit leader, whom I had instructed Anna to tie with the Beast-Warding Talisman before we left the village.
It was a minimal safety measure.
The boy's footsteps as we departed the village were far lighter than when we had arrived, yet before long, signs of the situation he was about to face appeared.
Because the boy had exterminated all the heretics.
Our party had eliminated the large number of heretics with surprising ease, and any resistance had been met with decisive action.
The remaining demons realized their plans had been thoroughly thwarted.
That was why the story now progressed at a different pace from the original tale the boy knew.
"What did you say?"
A demon lounged upon an antique chair, looking down with a smirk.
Another demon, kneeling before him, recited what he had heard.
"According to the information, the plan is to target a commoner named Verii, a plainclothes inspector, and Princess Lilisiana of the empire."
"When? Where?"
*tsk*.
The higher-ranking demon clicked his tongue.
Realizing his mistake, the lower-ranking demon hastily added, "The top students will participate in the tournament, and their strength will be greatly depleted in the process! The tournament prohibits the use of personal weapons, so it should be even easier…"
"So the academy's tournament?"
"The academy's tournament has been scheduled exactly that way!"
The higher-ranking demon stroked his chin.
Human beings, it seemed, had come even closer to demons than demons themselves.
"Prepare yourselves. This time I shall join as well."
The higher-ranking demon rose from his chair with a decisive air.
To secure a far more certain conclusion.