Forbidden Love? (1)
Forbidden Love? (1)
Until late September, I simply led an ordinary life.
By then, much of the revulsion I had felt toward Sophia in the original had faded.
The existence I had loathed was merely a character, and the person standing before me then was... a different Sophia from that character.
It was similar to Claire's case. Of course, I had liked Claire even when she was just a character, but in any case, if someone asked whether the Claire near me then and that character were the same person, I would have answered no.
Immediately afterward, I turned back time and asked Sophia various things—
"What? Me? I've never actually cut a real person before, you know?"
"When I was asked to become a knight in the Holy State, I was happy, but it was so I could repay the grace I've received so far. How many people become knights because they want to cut people?"
—she had answered, utterly appalled.
In the original, a character's backstory rarely appeared, and she just said something like 'I like killing people, so I became a Cathedral Knight,' but... perhaps there was some backstory here as well. Perhaps becoming a Cathedral Knight simply happened later in the original. Had my existence caused her to become a Cathedral Knight prematurely?
At the very least, I remembered that the sanitized version of her character background was 'even so, she didn't truly go around cutting just anyone.'
Since it wasn't something I could confirm just by asking her, I gave up on pressing further for the time being. Waiting for Berati to wake might prove more helpful.
Or I could personally storm the Holy State, grab the Pope by the collar, and ask him directly.
Perhaps it had been a story meant to be unraveled in a sequel. Maybe because I was pulled into this world before the later installments came out, I ended up ignorant of the intended content.
...... Wait, thinking about it again, it was absurd.
If someone was going to send a person to a place like that, shouldn't they at least let them see the entire backstory first? That way, I could properly prepare for future situations.
Sending me there out of the blue like that left me with no idea what objective I was supposed to pursue. At best, I could only formulate a very vague and ambiguous plan like 'save the characters I like.'
Maybe inducing that exact situation had been that being's goal all along, but since it was impossible to verify right then, I decided to focus on the task immediately before me.
In Millennium Company's RPG series, especially the Aetherna Chronicles series, whenever the world setting changed, the first installment nearly always focused on introducing the region, characters, and societal landscape that formed the background of that world. A major incident would suddenly erupt in the latter half of the story, and the characters introduced and bonded with throughout the first game would reunite tightly in the second to resolve the crisis.
The first game covered events up to the end of the second semester of the first year. The second game picked up right after the first and ran until the end of that year. The third game started immediately after the second and spanned six months, so as the sequels progressed, the in-story timeframe grew shorter, but the narrative density increased, making the playtime longer with each entry.
And in the third game, one of the heroines was fated to die.
Of course, since it was difficult for a game to make players carry over each individual save file, all the incidents were roughly crammed into the third game to explode at once. But this place was reality, so I figured it was best to act while considering every future event from then on.
That was why I did not create a combat manual.
Because if I made something like that, the Emperor would put it to excellent use. Jennifer had never specifically proposed that I create one, either.
On the contrary, there was a possibility that Lena might go to the Autonomous State and create such a thing... but that was fine. If the Autonomous State gained the capability to hinder the Imperial Army to some degree, or developed the ability to resolve the borderland warlords on its own, the Emperor would have to reconsider his plans.
He was already an Emperor ruling the Empire far more gently than he had in the original. And the reason for that was entirely my existence.
The existence of the Monitor Warship, which had shelled the borderlands, was a variable, but even that had appeared in the original.
Up to that point, it was probably safe to say that the story was progressing in a positive direction.
Up to that point.
*
The person bowing her head to me without a word was wearing the same school uniform as I was.
The weather was truly growing cold by then, so I had gradually begun draping my coat over my shoulders again. It did bother me a little that Lena, who often followed me around, had for some reason started draping her coat over her shoulders as well, but well, at least it seemed my fashion wasn't completely bizarre. Come to think of it, Jennifer also wore her coat draped over her shoulders.
But the person before me was different. Her shirt and coat were buttoned to the very top, and not a single wrinkle was visible in her clothes.
That appearance, which could be described as neatness incarnate, at first glance called to mind a soldier's bearing, yet it was somehow different from Lena's tidy appearance.
Tracing that subtle sense of incongruity, the figure that came to mind in my head was none other than an imperial maid.
Ah, right. Well, Lottie was technically Jake's maid, after all.
"Lottie, was it?"
If she were just an ordinary maid, I might have given a light nod and passed by, but this person was a regular character from the original. She wasn't a heroine you could pursue, but she was still a fairly popular character thanks to her relationship with the pure-hearted Jake.
"It is an honor that Your Imperial Highness remembers the name of one so lowly as myself."
By my standards as a modern person, those words could have sounded a little sarcastic.
But not here. Here, Lottie's social origins being 'lowly' was common sense. I didn't think so myself, but I wasn't sure what I should say about it.
"You were Jake's close friend."
"I am his maid."
To my question, Lottie answered as if putting up an iron wall.
"Hm."
Hearing her say that, I felt a slight spark of a challenge.
Her skin was dark, indicative of mixed heritage from the colonies. Just as the Empire's greatest motif was once the British Empire, the motif for Lottie's homeland was colonial-era India.
Whether Lottie had spent her childhood in the Aetherna Empire or in the colonies, it was not strange that the class system was deeply rooted in the depths of her mind.
"Jake does not seem to think so, however."
When I said that, Lottie's eyebrows twitched.
"Young Master Jake merely treats me comfortably because we have known each other for a long time."
"If that is the case, isn't it all the more natural to consider you a close friend?"
"...... Your Imperial Highness."
I gazed quietly at Lottie.
Since she kept her eyes cast downward, I couldn't see her expression clearly, but it seemed she thought I was belittling Jake.
Hm.
Still, I couldn't exactly say that not a single drop of the Emperor's blood flowed in me and that my status as an imperial princess was a fiction, could I?
In a class-based state, if the Emperor at its apex declared it so, then it was so. Bringing it up needlessly would only cause trouble.
"Oh, Sylvia."
Just as I was wracking my brain for my next words, Jake appeared. Had he been occupied with something briefly?
"It's nice to see you two getting along so amicably."
"...... Young Master Jake."
Lottie spoke toward Jake in a warning tone, seeing him cheerfully say that while looking at the two of us, who did not appear amicable in the slightest.
Naturally, Jake shrugged his shoulders and let the sharp remark slide.
"Did you two run into each other by chance?"
"That is correct. We happened to cross paths."
When I said that, Jake smiled, as if amused.
"Did you strike up a conversation because our territory is the next field practicum site, perhaps? Trying to extract some information?"
I hadn't particularly been thinking along those lines.
I already roughly grasped the layout of Lindbergh Castle. Though the entire structure hadn't been implemented, I could at least picture in my head where the books I needed to read and the items I had to check were located.
"That is correct."
But it was too troublesome to think up another reason, so I decided to agree.
I had a reputation for not speaking warmly to others without cause, so if I said I had approached her for no reason at all, that would invite suspicion in its own right.
Especially since Lottie had been quietly watching me for a while.
I was 'that' child from 'that' imperial family, after all. She might have thought I was planning to pull something in Lindbergh territory.
And the biggest reason she was wary of me was probably none other than Jake Lindbergh.
How heartwarming.
Watching him casually attempt to place a hand on Lottie's shoulder right in front of me, only for Lottie to smack it away with her hand before he lowered it again with the same casual expression, I briefly debated whether I should make things a little more awkward for them, and then decided against it.
"If you really need some information, maybe I could let you know?"
"Is that so?"
As I said that, I glanced sideways at Lottie.
Seeing Jake also glance sideways at Lottie, it seemed our minds were briefly aligned. Well, neither Jake nor Lottie would have guessed that I simply wanted to tease Lottie, though.
"In that case, shall we have a brief conversation?"
"Really? Then just the two of us—"
"Young Master."
Watching Lottie cut Jake off, Jake shrugged his shoulders.
"Oh dear, my childhood friend says she doesn't like it. Can't be helped, then."
If I hadn't been standing there, Lottie probably would have rolled her eyes at him.
It was a bit of a shame I wouldn't get to witness that firsthand.