Chapter 15
The Flower That Bears a Sword - Chapter 15
Translation: godsn
"......I don't know him any better than you do, Senior."
"Haha, I suppose that's true."
He shrugged his shoulders and began walking toward the dormitory. Echi remained standing motionless in the now-empty training grounds for a long while. The bored Magic Sword whined.
[Hey, what are you doing just standing there?]
"Somehow, his face looked familiar. Seeing that smile just reminded me."
[Huh? Who?]
"Ian Pelletro."
[Eh? I don't recognize him. Was it during the time I was being controlled? Before I woke up?]
"Yeah, during that time."
Echi twisted her lips. That man had been present when she massacred Agenka. There had been so many people killed by her hands that Echi couldn't possibly remember them all. The only ones she remembered were those precious to her—like her family or Nicole—and those who left unforgettable memories, like Yurien.
Ian Pelletro belonged to the latter. In the worst possible way.
"When I saw him, he wasn't a cadet but a knight. Since the time I... made Agenka like that was three years from now, I guess he becomes a Master within three years."
[Did something particularly memorable happen?]
"He gave the wrong directions to people trying to escape."
[What directions?]
"Toward where I was."
[......Wait, so you're saying he deliberately sent fleeing people straight toward you?]
"Yeah. And while I was slaughtering those defenseless people—children and elderly alike—he tried to make his own escape."
[Wow, what a pragmatic bastard. I like him.]
The Magic Sword, which delighted in human malice, cackled wildly. Echi said nothing more and began walking.
Ian Pelletro had smiled with utmost gentleness as he gave false directions to a child clinging to him, a knight, begging to be saved—pointing them straight toward her. That smile had been identical to the one he'd just given Echi. Even amidst the mind-shattering carnage, that scene remained vividly etched in her memory. She'd found it strange how civilians kept swarming toward her, but the moment she witnessed that scene, she realized it had been his doing.
Ian Pelletro's affectionate smile had twisted into something hideous the instant he spotted Echinacea Roaz approaching far sooner than he'd anticipated. He shoved the child in front of him straight toward her and fled.
Faced with death, a person's true nature is revealed. Ian Pelletro had been that kind of man.
Echinacea had killed him. Of course, before killing him, she'd also killed the innocent child he'd pushed toward her. Even after all this time, the memory rose with perfect clarity.
"Damn it."
Echi spat out the curse and splashed water on her face. If she went to sleep like this, she'd have nightmares. Instead of heading to the dormitory, she turned in a different direction. She walked toward the academy gates.
[Where are you going?]
"To check."
[Check what?]
An Agenka where no one had died.
Echi muttered the answer only in her heart.
Agenka after sunset was anything but quiet. People finishing work and heading home, others out for walks, children returning to their houses. Under the twilight and streetlamps, people came and went.
Since Agenka belonged to no nation, they paid taxes not to a lord or king but to the Azure Sky Knights. And their current ruler, the Knight Commander, was a reasonable sovereign. Tax rates weren't high, and citizens weren't conscripted or oppressed. With the continent's strongest knight order rooted here, monster incursions were nearly nonexistent, and crime was rare.
A pleasant city to live in. Most of the passing faces wore smiles.
Echi walked quietly among them. She watched the people laughing, chatting, walking, running. All of them alive. Nowhere was blood being spilled. Agenka wasn't in ruins. The atrocities she'd committed had now become events that never occurred.
Gradually, her heart grew lighter. Eki walked at a leisurely pace. She passed through alleyways, crossed the marketplace, and stepped over the bridge spanning the canal.
'I should see that place one last time before heading back.'
At the center of the main square stood a rather large fountain. Sculpted at its heart was the figure of an angel holding the Divine Sword Kairos Giosa. In the erased past, Echinacea had stood before this very fountain—now stained red with blood and piled with corpses—to face Yurien.
Eki pushed through the crowd in the square and approached the fountain. She saw its clear water flowing, pristine and unbroken. Witnessing this present, untouched by ruin, was a joy so profound it ached in her chest. For a long while, she simply stared blankly at the fountain.
Then, at some point, she felt a gaze upon her. With her heightened senses, she should have noticed it immediately, but her mind had been too absorbed by the fountain. Only belatedly did she become aware. Eki turned around.
A hooded man stood there. The deep shadows of his lowered hood obscured his face. People brushed past between him and her. Slowly, he took a step forward, closing the distance. The lamplight flickered, briefly illuminating the inside of his hood.
Silver hair catching the light, eyes like a clear blue sky. Though it had been an eternity since she last saw that face, it was etched into her memory too deeply to forget. She recognized him at a glance.
Yurien de Harden Kyrie stood before her.
Eki froze as if nailed in place. She forgot to breathe. Thoughts vanished from her mind, her vision bleaching white. Only the figure of Yurien, still hooded, remained vivid.
In the autumn of 1632, she had last seen him in this very spot. Right before this fountain, she had killed him. Afterward, she had spent over two years overcoming the Magic Sword, then nine more gathering Giosa. Nearly twelve years had passed—by Echinacea's reckoning.
Upon reaching Master rank, aging slows to an extreme degree, so he looked no different now than he had in the past. Yurien stopped a short distance from her—close enough that reaching out wouldn't quite bridge the gap, yet too near for anyone to pass between them unnoticed.
He didn't remove his hood. The Azure Sky Knight Commander's silver hair was far too recognizable; in a crowded square like this, revealing it would draw immediate attention.
Silently, he looked down at her.
Eki's height barely reached his chin. It wasn't that she was short—he was simply that tall. From her vantage, his face beneath the hood was fully visible. Still too delicate for a knight, more like a poet's countenance.
His eyes were not calm. Waves of blue turbulence churned within them. But after a few blinks, the storm vanished as though it had never been. Eki saw it yet failed to register it. She had no room left in her mind for anything but one glaring truth.
'He's alive.......'
That alone was enough. All the words she had wanted to say to him, all the questions she had longed to ask—they felt like luxuries now. Even the fear of whether he might recognize her couldn't surface in this moment. Spellbound, she simply stared into his living eyes. The eyes of a living person were unbearably beautiful.
It was Yurien who broke the long silence first.
"......Echinacea Roaz."
A low voice pronounced her name. Less like a summons, more like a confirmation. As if assuring himself of the identity of the woman standing before him.
"Cadet."
He appended the title belatedly. Eki blinked rapidly, unsure how to respond. Yurien's lips parted and closed as though weighing his words. Then, slowly, he asked:
"Do you know me?"
It wasn't an interrogation. Nor was it probing. Just a dry question, stated as fact. Only then did Eki regain her senses. Her first action was to lower her gaze and cover her mouth with her hand.
Staring up at him so openly—she must have lost her mind. Even if she looked completely different from that time, even with her makeup and the sheer veil draped over her hat, facing him was terrifying. She desperately wanted to avoid the possibility of him recognizing the woman who had killed him. Eki averted her gaze as she replied.
"I'm sorry, but I don't quite know who you are. Do you... know me?"
Whether he remembered her or not, she couldn't let it show. There should be no connection between the Azure Sky Knights and an ordinary count's daughter.
At her response, Yurien fell silent for a moment before smiling faintly. The slight curve of his lips, the barely lifted corners of his mouth, the delicate softening of his eyes.
'He smiled?'
She had never seen him smile before. There had been no occasion to. Even that faint hint of a smile made the surroundings feel brighter. Heat rushed to her face, and Eki floundered in panic. Then came words that threw her into even greater disarray.
"You know who I am, don't you? You've seen me before."
"Huh?"
Her voice cracked as she echoed his words. Her heart, which had been soaring, plummeted to the ground and rolled at her feet.
Does he remember? Does he have memories of that? Of me betraying and killing him, right here by this fountain? Then what should I do? What should I say to him?
Just as she teetered on the brink of madness, he continued calmly.
"Last summer, at the Emperor's birthday banquet."
"......Ah."
The events that followed had been so intense she had half-forgotten, but it was true—the first time Echinacea had seen Yurien was at the Emperor's birthday banquet. She had only watched from afar, never even danced with him once.
Since it happened last year, it was an event that had occurred even in this reversed timeline. Back then, just like now, she had been dressed to the nines, so it wasn't strange for him to recognize her. What she couldn't understand was why he would remember a mere count's daughter with whom he had never exchanged so much as a glance, let alone a conversation.
Eki chewed on her lip. Her mouth had gone bone-dry, making it hard to form words. With great effort, she managed to voice her question.
"At the birthday banquet... you saw me?"
"I didn't know who you were, but I remember seeing you. Did you not see me?"
There wasn't a single person at that banquet who wouldn't have recognized Yurien. As the Third Prince, he had drawn far more attention than even the Crown Prince. Being the Captain of the Azure Sky Knights was the biggest reason, but even setting that aside, he was a man whose beauty alone commanded gazes. Eki exaggerated her surprise as if only just realizing it now.
"O-oh, you're the Captain! I'm sorry for not realizing sooner."
"'Captain,' you say..."
Yurien's brow furrowed slightly. He seemed to consider something before shaking his head faintly.
"Call me by my name. I am Yurien."
He didn't mention his surname. Eki, who had always referred to him by his first name in her thoughts, startled and hastily refused.
"I'm an officer cadet, Captain. How could I possibly—"
"An officer cadet. I see."
At her refusal, Yurien studied her with an inscrutable gaze. Eki avoided his eyes. Her attire was hardly fitting for an officer cadet. She assumed he found it odd because of her dress.
But Yurien wasn't looking at her gown. His gaze remained fixed on her pale face. He asked quietly,
"Why did you enroll in the military academy?"
"Because I wanted to become a knight."
"Why do you want to be a knight?"
"......Because I like swords."
A clichéd question and an equally clichéd answer—the kind one might expect during an interview. For a conversation between an officer cadet and a knight captain, it was perfectly ordinary. Just as Eki began to relax slightly, Yurien suddenly stepped closer to her.