The Revelation We Share
The next morning, Countess Layrans saw us off in place of the count, who had left for the city at dawn due to a busy schedule.
“Thank you for your hospitality. We’ll protect Lans City a little longer before we return.”
It was Senior Ran who offered the greeting as the CT Club’s representative. Senior Yvette, the highest-ranking student and a member of the count’s family, stood beside the countess in comfortable clothes. She planned to remain here until the training camp ended.
“Thank you, cadets.”
The official reason for our visit was to encourage the students defending Lans City, so we needed to follow this formal closing procedure. As we finished the greetings and were about to board the returning car, one of the count’s servants approached me.
“Lady Luna Adel. The young miss is looking for you.”
“Pardon? You mean Senior Yvette?”
“Yes.”
When the servant stepped aside, I saw Senior Yvette beckoning to me. But it was probably the countess standing beside her who had truly called for me. Her expression had been poor since morning; something was clearly wrong.
The car carrying the other club members had already departed. Neria and Rendel, who were riding with me, poked their heads out the windows, curious about the delay.
“Luna. What’s going on?”
“Senior Yvette says she has something to tell me.”
“Okay. We’ll wait.”
Leaving them behind, I headed toward the shade of a tree. Senior Yvette glanced at her mother’s complexion, then ordered the servants.
“Everyone, please step back for a moment.”
“Yes.”
Once the servants had moved a good distance away, Senior Yvette also retreated slightly. She would listen, but she wouldn’t intervene directly.
“Aunt. Did you have something to say?”
“Aunt?”
I had simply used the title we’d agreed on during yesterday’s conversation, but Senior Yvette’s eyes sparkled with interest.
“Ruwina.”
Ignoring her daughter’s curiosity, the countess took my hand. I was startled for a moment, but the way her hand trembled violently told me something was very wrong.
“Did you see it?”
“…Yes.”
It seemed the countess had received a Revelation. And a rather serious one at that.
“What’s going to happen?”
“I don’t know exactly when. But terrifying things will emerge from the sea, and everyone will have to fight.”
“From the sea?”
The sea could mean the waters near Allob Island where the academy was located, but Lans City was also a port town. Considering the production team’s tendencies, it was highly likely an incident would occur during this training camp.
“If it’s the sea, we’ll definitely need Senior Yvette’s help.”
“Hm? My help? What’s this about?”
It looked like this was the first Senior Yvette had heard of it. The countess whispered in her ear, and her expression grew grave.
“Mother. That’s…”
“I know, Yvette. It’s hard to believe. And I know your father always looked displeased whenever I spoke like this.”
The countess took a moment to steady her breathing, then looked at me and Senior Yvette in turn.
“Still, the only ones who will believe me are Ruwina and you.”
Senior Yvette’s expression was far from pleasant. Had something happened in the past involving Revelation? I already knew Revelation was a real phenomenon, so I assumed the countess could glimpse the original Aindium story right up to the near future. But how would it look to others—especially when the person saying such things was family?
“Senior. Please listen to what Aunt has to say, just this once.”
Senior Yvette stood with her arms crossed, deep in thought. She glanced at me, then pouted.
“I told you to call me unnie.”
“Ah, right. Unnie.”
At the belated correction, Senior Yvette let out a small laugh and slipped off the cardigan she was wearing.
“Mother. My plans have changed. It looks like I’ll need to hurry back.”
“Thank you, Yvette.”
“Ruwina. It’ll take me some time to prepare, so why don’t you head back with the other juniors?”
“Yes. Understood.”
While Senior Yvette went to get ready, I had one last conversation with the countess. After memorizing the information she had read from the Revelation, I headed toward the limousine where Rendel and Neria were waiting.
“That took a while.”
“It did.”
“What did you talk about?”
“Um… well…”
I tried to explain only what was necessary, but there was simply too much difficult information—from my relationship with the countess to the fact that she could read Revelation. Wait. Rendel already knew that I, Ruwina, was the second princess of Karmanu, so I could explain our connection. And since the protagonist Rendel would get caught up in the story anyway, giving him advance warning about the upcoming battle should be fine.
I gestured for Neria to wait a moment and sat down beside Rendel. Then I leaned close to his ear and whispered softly.
“Senior.”
“Hup.”
“Senior? What’s wrong?”
“Ah, no. Sorry.”
Rendel shivered slightly, then lowered his head and tilted his ear toward me so I could speak more easily.
“Senior. You know my true identity, right? That I’m a member of the Karmanu royal family.”
“Yeah.”
“The countess and my late father were sixth cousins.”
“Ah.”
“And she was also close with my mother, who came from an Alitus noble family.”
Rendel nodded in understanding. Good. His reaction suggested it would be safe to tell him about the Revelation.
“There may be a battle soon.”
“A battle?”
“Yes. Probably—”
The moment I tried to whisper that the battle would likely take place at sea, the car suddenly swerved. Rendel, who had been leaning toward me, lost his balance and his head tilted sideways.
Our lips, brought close for whispering, brushed against Rendel’s cheek.
“!!”
“!!!”
Startled by the sudden contact, I jerked my head back. Rendel did the same. In an instant, we had pulled our faces as far apart as possible while still sitting right next to each other. Then we remembered our companion sitting across from us.
When we turned our heads at the same time, we saw Neria covering her eyes with both tiny hands. Her soft cheeks were beautifully flushed…
“Y-yes! We’re fine!”
I answered the driver with all my strength and nervously straightened my clothes. Until we returned the borrowed dresses to the shop, the three of us sat with burning faces, unable to meet one another’s eyes.
**
Senior Yvette had offered to buy us the clothes, but the only one who readily accepted was the carefree Senior Muri. Since we would rarely have occasion to wear formal suits and dresses again, we changed the plan from buying to renting. The difference in cost was donated somewhere under the CT Club’s name by Senior Yvette.
I put the dress I had brought into the trunk and changed back into my everyday clothes. While the other members were changing, I opened the forum. I needed information—any information at all.
Most of the posts were reactions to the accidental contact that had just occurred. There were only a handful of posts about Revelation. Most of them were guesses about the countess’s Revelation. It didn’t seem like there was any new information.
I manipulated the forum to search for posts related to Revelation that had been uploaded while I wasn’t looking.
> The entered keyword 'Revelation' cannot be searched.
“Huh?”
Why couldn’t it be searched? Thinking the search function might be broken, I tried searching for other words, but those worked fine. This was a message I had never seen when using this forum back on Earth. It seemed there were restrictions—perhaps on posts I couldn’t see or on broken characters.
“Haa.”
I sighed in frustration, and Rendel, who had just finished changing, waved at me.
“Luna. A moment.”
“Yes.”
I followed him outside the shop. He spoke carefully.
“Luna. Is this similar to that thing from before?”
“What thing from before?”
“When was it… the highlands occupation battle? You said something big was going to happen. And we really did get attacked.”
“Ah, that time?”
Back then I had been certain because I knew the original story, but now I had no idea when the incident would occur. Wait a second. Wouldn’t this make it look like I could see Revelation too?
“Yeah. I wondered if it was the same this time.”
“Um, well…”
I hesitated, then thought, What if Rendel would just accept my story as it is?
“Senior. Have you ever heard of something called ‘Revelation’?”
“Revelation?”
“Yes. It’s—”
*
“So, you’re saying there might be a battle soon?”
“Yes.”
After my brief explanation, Rendel nodded slowly.
“Then we should prepare for battle.”
“Yes!”
I was relieved he seemed to believe me. The moment I finished explaining to Rendel, a notification window popped up on the forum I had left open.
> Keyword Unlocked: 'Revelation'
Huh? What was this? Just in case, I searched for the word “Revelation” on the forum. Unlike before, posts flooded in. And even though I was sure I had looked through the entire forum that day, posts I had never read appeared.
These were probably posts I hadn’t been able to see before. They were full of suspicions that I could see Revelation.
“Luna?”
“Yes?”
“You suddenly went quiet. Are you feeling unwell?”
“No. I’m perfectly fine.”
To prove it, I deliberately stretched, but Rendel continued watching me with eyes full of concern.
“Don’t worry too much. I’ll protect you.”
“Eep.”
Normally I would have said I could fight well without protection, but hearing Rendel’s gentle voice made me not want to say it. Refusing when the protagonist offered to protect me felt too much like a death flag…
“Th-then let’s hurry back and prepare!”
“Y-yeah, let’s do that.”
Perhaps embarrassed at having said he would protect me, Rendel’s ears were bright red as he quickly turned and headed toward the car. I tried to follow him—
“……”
I saw her. A little distance away, Neria was pretending to cover her eyes while secretly watching us through the gaps in her fingers.