The Wick of Dawn
Come to think of it, the contract I had struck with House Castrein weighed on my conscience a little, but... well, what did it matter now?
Gloriana’s Insignia had already fallen into their hands anyway.
It crossed my mind that once I died and Imperial Consort Elaine passed away as well, those shameless imperial princes might try to lay their hands on Bibi. But the Castrein Duchy would surely handle that on their own.
“I’m all right. …Now Young Duke Raymon will be all right, too.”
That was true. If I simply died, there would be no need to go through the messy trouble of breaking our engagement. Had I known things would turn out like this today, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time fretting over the future.
I blinked my heavy, drooping eyelids and let out a faint smile. My vision was already blurring into gray.
I was so sleepy that I couldn’t even tell if my words were coming out coherently anymore. It felt as though the moment I closed my eyes, everything would simply end.
A sudden thought struck me.
Is there really any reason for me to hold on and keep my eyes open? There isn't, is there?
Imperial Consort Elaine would finally find true freedom. Raymon and House Castrein, shackled to an unwanted fiancée, would finally find peace. Prince Adrian, with whom I had forged something of a loose alliance, might feel a twinge of regret, but given how shallow our ties were, he wouldn’t grieve for long.
Yes... that was it.
A resignation resembling peaceful rest spread through my chest like mist. My heart felt cold, as though it were slowly freezing over.
Perhaps it really would have been better for everyone if Titania had never been born at all.
It wasn't as if I didn't know this truth. Ever since the moment I regained my memories in this world and lifted my eyelids for the very first time, I had known it: Princess Titania was an existence that would never be welcomed anywhere. And the memories of those I had loved and who had loved me in return were nothing more than lingering fragments of a past life.
“…That’s not true.”
I came to my senses at an unfamiliar sensation.
Bibi was gripping my hand tightly, clutching it as if she would never let go.
When my eyes met hers, bright blue irises blazed with fierce determination.
“I—I’m not all right! How could I just let you go like this when I haven’t even repaid my savior?!”
“……”
“I—I am a daughter of the Castrein Duchy! We never forget a debt of gratitude or an act of vengeance. We always pay them back!”
Her eyes brimmed with tears as though she might burst out crying at any second, yet Bibi refused to shed a single tear.
“Where in the world is there a person who deserves to die?!”
Lovely Bibi.
Bibi, who never gave up, no matter the circumstances.
That’s right. Because you’re that kind of child, you’re the heroine.
A smile tugged at my lips of its own accord. As I thought, I didn't regret saving Bibi in the slightest.
“…Thank you.”
Now, drowsiness overtook me completely. So heavy, so deep, that nothing in the world seemed to matter anymore.
“Wake up, Titania! Stay with me! You can’t close your eyes!”
Darkness swept in, and my consciousness slipped away.
Was it just my imagination? In the far distance, amid the roar of an explosion, I thought I caught a glimpse of Young Duke Raymon sprinting toward us with an expression of sheer desperation on his face... but...
If there was one trait shared by all members of the Castrein Duchy, it was their sharp instincts.
After intimidating the Emperor with thinly veiled threats, Raymon mobilized every conceivable resource to scour the Imperial Palace. The moment it was confirmed that a young girl presumed to be Bibi had been sighted near the labyrinth, he lunged forward without looking back.
He tore through the central passage leading down to the lower level.
Slaying the bared-fanged demonic beasts in a single stroke, Raymon sprinted ahead, his face contorted in an agony he couldn't control.
The pungent reek of blood hit him full in the face.
His heart hammered violently against his ribs, beating so hard it felt precarious. And the instant he laid eyes on the scene before him, his stomach plummeted.
“Big Brother!”
Bibi was sobbing. And wrapped around her, clutching the child as if determined never to let go, was an unconscious girl.
Raymon felt the world go entirely white.
Though spattered in gore, Bibi was miraculously unharmed. Only Titania was in ruins.
Just how fiercely had the beasts savaged her? From the deep gashes carved into her flesh, vivid crimson was still gushing in violent spurts.
His hands shook uncontrollably as he scooped Titania into his arms.
Her face, which had always seemed pale whenever he saw her, was today... pale as a corpse.
There was virtually no weight to her at all. Judging by the sheer pool of blood soaking the stone floor, her life was hanging by the frailest thread.
“…Princess Titania?”
Raymon choked on his own breath.
It felt bizarre. Over the years, he had seen many sides of Titania. In their younger days, he had even felt a strange twinge of pity for her, though that feeling had gradually withered away with every interaction as they grew older. When she suddenly began acting like an entirely different person, he had even suspected she might have been deceiving everyone all along...
“S-Save her, Big Brother! Find a priest, hurry! She’s lost so much blood, she’s...”
None of those past thoughts mattered now.
He couldn't fathom why this woman was dying in such a horrific state right here.
Was he worried for Bibi?
Or was he worried for Titania?
Was he merely in shock after witnessing a scene beyond anything he could have imagined?
He didn't know. He couldn't tell. Hadn't he witnessed countless people die just as gruesomely on the battlefield?
Trembling, Raymon brought his finger beneath Titania’s nose.
...He felt nothing. The body cradled in his arms felt so utterly like a corpse that terror seized him.
Is she dead?
Just like that? So futilely?
“…Titania?”
Ironically, this very moment was the first time Raymon had ever called Princess Titania solely by her name.
Right then.
Titania’s fluttering eyelids parted for a fleeting second, then closed again.
Beneath them was a vibrant green—like a fresh sprout born upon a thousand-year-old plain, like sunlight piercing through to the deepest floor of a lake.
The heart that had surely ceased beating began to throb once more. Raymon caught his breath.
Was it a miracle?
Or was it merely the final, desperate struggle of someone expending their last drop of vitality before death? Whichever it was, it didn't matter.
“…I’m... fine, so...”
Her voice was as faint as the cry of a dying bird.
“…Save... Bibi... first...”
“…Save your breath. Do not fall asleep. Stay awake!”
Raymon gritted his teeth, anger surging through him at how impossibly light she felt in his arms.
Once upon a time, she had been a girl who flew into rages as if laying the most precious treasures in the world at her feet would never satisfy her. So why, when her own breath was slipping away, was she fretting over someone she had only just met today?
When deprived of blood, a person cannot think straight. A critically wounded patient on the brink of death even less so.
The Princess Titania he had last known...
Yes. At the very least, she was not someone who would show such weakness. Even when her actions had been incomprehensible, she had carried the dignified grace of a noble who would preserve her own pride above all else.
Yet in her final moments, why was the name she summoned all her strength to utter someone else’s? Even at this very brink?
As if Raymon’s name, which she had claimed to adore for so long, and the existence of her own parents didn't matter in the slightest...
A devastating misery he could neither understand nor master flooded his chest. Clutching Titania tight, Raymon broke into a dead sprint without once looking back, desperate to find a priest.
It was a sensation he had never experienced before in his entire life.
...The twilight has not yet ripened,
And it is far too soon
For the veil of light to part.
I am the harbinger of dawn
Enduring the night in dreams of spring.
I am the end of the dying
And the destiny of the deathless.
Open your eyes, O living one,
For to you, the end is but the night beyond the veil.
O you who choose,
You are the wick of dawn’s candle.
And while drifting within the depths of death, Titania dreamt a dream that was simultaneously the past, the present, and the future.
It was inside a tower.
It was utterly desolate, as if the rumors that it had stood abandoned for hundreds of years were entirely true.
Not a shred of warmth from any living creature could be felt.
At the very least, there was only a single living, breathing existence here.
Even she was hardly in any state to be called human.
Looking far worse than a beggar discarded in the slums, Titania stared silently into empty air.
A hazy silhouette spoke to her from the void. Its voice was not seductive or coaxing, but remarkably detached and dry.
— I shall grant your wish.
“……”
— Shall I turn back time? Shall I make that man named Raymon love you? Do you desire to become the Emperor of the Empire? Do you wish for every person who looked down on you to grovel beneath your feet?
“…What happens if I don’t make a contract?”
Hearing the entity's answer, Titania fell silent for a long moment.
“I…”
Titania agonized over her choice.
She had envied Bibi. She had truly, desperately envied the girl who received Raymon’s love.
Yet right now...
“I want to meet a proper family. I want to experience genuine love from real parents. …And…”
She wanted to live a proper life.
To live properly, swayed by no one, making her own choices and walking her own path.
At least in the right direction.
Just like Bibi.
“…I want to live again.”
That was the true desire Titania had buried in the deepest corner of her heart.