The Hundred-and-First Me, to the Thirty-Fifth You — Part 1
A funereal darkness settled over the world. The sun had vanished, and only the crescent moon, half-smothered by cloud, spilled out its last pitiful light.
A starless curtain of night swallowed every glimmer, leaving only the pale shine of dulled eyes drifting about like fireflies.
I gazed up at the sky, where the twilight slowly bled out across the horizon.
Awoo—
A wolf's howl tore roughly through the stillness. The ground that rang beneath that hush, the wind racing ahead without a thought to spare for breath — between them, an old memory came surging back to me.
It had been the same that day. The night Mirazen died — a night with not a single star to be seen, when only the crescent moon poured out its mournful glow.
Temuchin had struck the northwest on that very same day, thirty-five lives ago. Could it truly be coincidence? Wiping the thought away before it could take root, I ran on.
I had long since left Adele behind, far enough ahead that no other voice could reach me. She would doubtless order me back to the column, but this once, I meant to move alone. Otherwise I would arrive too late — just as I had that time. A ragged strand of regret, held all this while against my chest, fluttered loose on the wind.
The words I had heard on the last day of my thirty-fifth life whispered at my ear, and the feelings of that moment clawed their way back toward the surface. But I held them down. Dwelling on emotions like these never brought a single good thing.
Nothing will happen. I repeated it to myself and arranged my face into something dry and unmoved. Soaking in old regrets would change nothing — so when I felt Adele's presence chasing at my heels, I turned my head only slightly.
Her expression was no different than before: blank, neither angry nor particularly grave.
"We'll reach the northwest soon. You're... planning to move separately, aren't you?"
"Most likely. Securing Her Highness's safety comes first."
"...And other than that? Is there another reason."
For the briefest of instants, I saw her eyes waver.
My reason was simply to reach Mirazen first; there was nothing remarkable in it. Only this: if I failed to save her, I would regret it all over again, just as I had in a past life. Adele knew nothing of the lives I'd lived before, so that much I could not say aloud.
I weighed my answer for a moment, then replied quietly.
"No."
"I see."
Adele smiled faintly. Perhaps my answer had satisfied her; after a moment spent staring into empty air, she unslung the sword she carried and held it out to me. When I only stared at it blankly, she buckled it at my waist herself and went on.
"Take it. There's nothing more dangerous than a blade snapping mid-fight."
With that, Adele offered a small smile and slapped my wolf's flank, urging it faster. The distance opened at once with the sudden burst of speed — barely had my surprise settled when her voice chased after my receding back.
"It's a loan. Don't get hurt. And don't you die."
Her gaze was still fixed on me. Perhaps she was watching the twilight kindling slowly beyond me. Either way, she frowned faintly, looking a little bereft, and added:
"So go on ahead and... bring Her Highness back safe. The soldiers are mine to lead."
Lips that had parted and closed several times over finally pressed shut. Our quickened pace pulled us further and further apart, until the distance between Adele and me stretched long — far enough that I could no longer make out her face. And yet the last image I had of her looked, somehow, terribly lonely.
Hadn't she told me to come back in one piece? At the memory, the weight pressing on my chest eased, if only a little.
I rode the wind onward. Last time, Mirazen had died in the Imperial Palace; this time, it was the northwest. A different stage — and so I chose to believe the ending would be different as well.
The hour was different too, wasn't it? I closed my eyes briefly, then opened them and let the moonlight gather in them. This was not the night of the thirty-fifth life. It would be different — certainly, without question.
Because the one riding to Mirazen this time was the hundred-and-first Robert.
"Current situation?"
"We have them completely surrounded, sir. The imperial army has been wiped out to the last man — once we finish off the soldiers hiding inside, Her Highness the Princess is ours to secure."
"Hmph. So that sly fox of a woman is still out west, is she? Well, of course she is. She'd never have dreamed I'd strike here."
Thinking of Adele Igrit, Temuchin curled his lips into a thin smile. It was a base, contemptible smile — but fortune was already smiling on him.
Had things gone the way they always did, he would have met her in the west, or withdrawn a little further and made his stand there. Learning that the Princess was in the northwest had been nothing more than a stroke of chance. No — perhaps it was proof that the gods themselves wished for his victory.
"Come to think of it, that woman — did she head straight back?"
"She handed over the information on the Princess and vanished. Said that if we ever wished to find her again, we were to come to the South."
"What was her name again? Theres... something, wasn't it?"
"She called herself Theresia. We never heard her family name."
Theresia. Temuchin turned the name over in his mind and nodded. He forgot neither favor nor grudge. Information on the Princess, delivered at precisely such a moment, had proven invaluable — and with this opportunity, he was certain he could carve out a triumph against Adele herself.
The Princess had come to the northwest for the Teranite mine. What she meant to do with it, he neither knew nor cared — but of one thing he was certain: it mattered a great deal to her. And so he had set his sights on it. However formidable Adele Igrit might be, even she could not march west and simply abandon the Princess to her fate.
"And when the Princess is taken, what then?"
At the question, Temuchin answered as though it were self-evident.
"Kill her."
He meant to make Adele Igrit vanish from this North — and so, the moment the Princess was in his grasp, he would cut her down before Adele's very eyes. He wondered what that woman's face would look like, twisted with despair.
Chuckling low to himself, Temuchin began leading his tribe's warriors forward. The only soldiers left in the whole northwest were the garrison Adele had stationed; punching through them would hardly take any time at all. Temuchin thrust out his hand, and the outlander warriors surged ahead in a charge.
CRACK—
And one bird was watching it all.
Hearing Temuchin's voice through it, Mirazen swallowed hard. She had packed several artifacts against exactly this kind of emergency — but never once had she imagined she would have to hear words like these.
Kill her? Me? She had hidden herself the moment she learned the outlanders had invaded the northwest — but if this went on, it was only a matter of time before she was taken.
Pressing hard at her temple, she thought. A way to break out of this situation — and beyond that, a way to slip out of here with her skin intact.
"...If this was how it would end, I shouldn't have come at all. I should have listened when Adrian talked."
Severing her mind from the bird, Mirazen's eyes narrowed to slits. Why, of all moments, did Robert's words have to surface now? Think only of your own safety, no matter what happens. Selfish words, through and through — and yet his concern for her had shone through them, unmistakable. Don't tell me he had actually seen this coming?
Mirazen exhaled a small sigh and stared into the empty air. Two artifacts left now. Setting aside the one for reaching Robert, that left a single artifact to shield her body — and even that could conceal her for no more than a moment, likely barely enough for whatever escape she might manage from this place.
For now, the soldiers Adele had stationed were still holding, and the uproar had not yet spread as far as the building where Mirazen was hiding. It would be all right, for the moment. Surely there was time enough to reach someone.
So she brushed the artifact carefully with her fingers — and with a low, thrumming hum, the signal tone rang out.
— "Your Highness, are you safe?"
Mirazen flinched at the voice answering so immediately. She hadn't expected him to pick up that fast. Gladness welled up and she nearly smiled — then she took stock of her circumstances, and her lips trembled shut again.
"I'm all right. But didn't you say Young Lord Taylor was in the North as well? How is he?"
— "I am already on my way there. Is someone beside you at this moment?"
"...Er, hold on. You mean— this way?"
Stunned by the unexpected answer, it took her a moment to collect herself and force the words out. He's coming here? Does he have any idea how dangerous this place is right now?
"No! You're not coming alone, are you? You have to speak with Archduke Adele and come together—"
— "I know exactly how dangerous it is. And I know what situation Your Highness is in, as well."
"...Young Lord Taylor."
— "That is why I am coming. The Archduke is settling her soldiers and marching here as we speak; no doubt she will join up with me along the way."
Which meant, in the end, that he was coming alone. Mirazen barely kept the blood from draining out of her head; her lips opened and closed, stammering.
What confidence is this? And before that — what am I, anyway? A Princess, yes, but hardly someone so vital that a man would race to her with his life on the line. If it were Adele Igrit, perhaps. But there was no need for Robert Taylor to come alone.
"You don't need to come! It wouldn't be too late to arrive with everyone else — the outlanders are spread all over this place. You're telling me you'll break through them single-handedly?"
— "I am."
"That's insane—!"
Even the imperial soldiers lay slaughtered where they had fallen. The warlord leading the outlanders looked, at a single glance, anything but ordinary — so how was Robert Taylor, a man who had never once held a sword, supposed to reach her? She was grateful for the heart of it, but Mirazen judged it nothing more than wasted courage. Unwilling to let another life be thrown away, she spoke in a low voice.
"Young Lord Taylor — I am speaking to you now as the Princess. I appreciate the sentiment, but breaking through here alone is impossible. And you haven't even received the Archduke's leave, have you..."
— "Her leave was granted some time ago. That is why I move alone."
"You were given leave? Am I to understand Archduke Igrit actually permitted this?"
At that, she heard Robert laugh softly through the link. And why, exactly, did that quiet laugh put her at ease?
She clutched a hand to her chest, then parted her lips carefully.
— "Even were you to order me not to come, I would come. I am nearly there already — turning back now is no longer an option."
"...Even at the Princess's command, you would do that?"
— "The command Your Highness will give me is not that one."
Robert's voice was soft. Soft enough to make her forget, for a heartbeat, where she was — a voice that wrapped around her gently. She stared blankly into the air.
When the outlanders had invaded, there had been a moment — brief, but real — when she had thought she might die. Hadn't she just heard them say they would kill her the moment she was caught? The tension drained out of her for no good reason; steadying her wavering legs, Mirazen spoke.
"Then what command am I supposed to give you?"
— "You need only ask for my help. 'Save me' — and tell me where you are. That is more than enough."
"...I can't give that order. How could anyone say such a thing in a situation like this? If that's what I'd look like — some heartless creature spending a man's life like pocket change — I'd sooner say no."
What a strange man, she thought. Here she was in mortal danger, and yet he had warned her as if he had known it was coming. And now here he came, racing to her side all alone. She didn't know what she felt toward him. She knew, after all, that his first approach to her had been nothing more than a means of reaching the Crown Prince. There had hardly been any time between them at all. They had met by chance through Adrian's help, and it was she who had pressed him to keep in contact — that was the whole of it.
A faint heat bloomed in her, and Mirazen slowly cupped her own cheek. This is hardly the time to be feeling things like this... She blinked, then breathed out softly at the sensation that refused, stubbornly, to fade.
"There's a hidden entrance. I'll tell you where it is — can you come by that route?"
The place had been built so that she herself, the Princess, could come and go unseen; there were several secret passages. She couldn't speak for anything else, but passages running underground there were in plenty. Calling the route to mind, she continued.
"Head east from the front of the building I'm in, and it should be there. If I say the terrain is rough, you'll know the place I mean."
— "...Ah. I believe I know the spot."
"If you really are coming, don't fight anyone — just make straight for it. Almost no one knows that place exists."
The link fell silent, and just as Mirazen began to wonder at it, Robert spoke, low and even.
— "Can you hold out until I reach you?"
"Of course. Stop worrying about me and worry about how you're going to get here in one piece."
— "If you are still alive, I will save you."
A breath of laughter escaped her at that — but the words that followed, she could not begin to understand. The voice that came next was cold.
Yet it felt less truly frigid than it did sorrowful — as though the man behind it were on the verge of tears.
— "This time, without fail."
Robert murmured.