The First to Fall in Love Wins
"Lunia, what's going on?"
I quickly shoved the barrier stone under the blanket as I answered. Fortunately, Lunia didn't notice the stone I had been holding.
"First of all, air this place out. What is this smell? Did you roll around in a sewer? And wash up before you lie down on the bed. If Sheryl were here, she would've nagged you to death."
Lunia frowned and opened the window. The cold night air rushed in, sweeping away the lingering stench in the room.
Only then did Lunia sit on the edge of the bed, placing the tray she was holding on the nightstand. On the tray sat two steaming teacups and a plate of cookies.
"The Rodel Council prepared these for the welcoming banquet earlier, but I snuck them out to eat with you. I heard you haven't even had dinner yet?"
"...Well, I didn't have much of an appetite."
"What's wrong with the guy who usually eats like he's possessed by a starving ghost?"
Lunia's teasing eyes instantly curved into crescent moons. She stared intently at me.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Hmm... You look like you're in a bad mood."
"..."
"What did you and Father talk about earlier? Did you get scolded?"
"No. If anything, he praised me."
"Then why are you so gloomy?"
"Do I look gloomy?"
"Hmm... At least to me, you do."
As I fell silent, Lunia spoke while munching on a butter cookie.
"So, who is Demian? Someone you met recently?"
"...It's nothing."
"It doesn't seem like nothing. You looked really ticked off, Raygan."
In that brief moment, Lunia had read my state of mind and even realized that a person named Demian was the cause.
Lunia's intuition was always razor-sharp.
Even now, having returned to the past, that hadn't changed.
I gave a bitter smile of surrender and told her the truth.
"It's the name of an investigator from the Imperial Magic Academy."
"The person you talked to today? Did something happen?"
"Nothing... happened. Not yet."
Not yet.
But in a few years, that bastard would style himself the Archduke of Demonic Magic and turn the empire into a living hell.
Telling the young Lunia about this would only cause unnecessary worry. Now was not the right time.
I decided to brush it off.
"He's just an arrogant prick. He's got that typical mage haughtiness that pierces the heavens."
"Haha. Are you talking about my brother?"
Lunia chuckled, nodding dismissively. She picked up a teacup, blew on it gently, and handed it to me.
The moment I reluctantly took the cup, Lunia grabbed my wrist tightly. Then, her left hand slipped inside my shirt.
A sudden strike. Since I was holding a cup of hot tea, I couldn't even pull away.
"Lunia, what are you doing all of a sudden? There should be some boundaries between a man and a woman..."
"Stop talking like an old man. I'm checking to see if you have any wounds."
Ignoring my resistance, Lunia unbuttoned a couple of buttons on my shirt and meticulously inspected my collarbone, chest, and stomach.
Her pale fingers brushed against my scarless skin. The ticklish, strange sensation made my body stiffen involuntarily.
After a thorough examination, Lunia finally let out a sigh of relief and withdrew her hand.
"You're perfectly fine."
"I told you. Not a single scratch."
"I heard from Uncle Valen earlier. He said you fought that monster of a mercenary all by yourself. Brock told me too—that the two of you were practically glued together, trading blows! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?"
"I won, didn't I? And I really didn't get hurt, so don't worry."
"Winning or losing isn't the point! If you had gotten hurt..."
"If I did?"
When I asked back, Lunia scowled.
"...I would have nagged Uncle Valen to death."
Indeed.
That sounded exactly like something Lunia would do.
Even in our past life, whenever I returned injured, she would hunt down the healers or commanders and scream her head off at them.
As I nodded in understanding, Lunia glared at me with narrowed eyes. I meekly gave her the answer she wanted to hear.
"I'm sorry. I won't act so recklessly in the future."
"Is that a promise?"
She held out her pinky finger with the word 'promise'. I caught my breath without realizing it.
Though she hadn't even reached adulthood yet, she was already the spitting image of the Lunia in my memories.
With a bittersweet smile, I hooked my pinky around hers. But instead of shaking on it, she stared intently at my face.
"There's that expression again."
"...What?"
"Raygan, you looked at me with that expression again."
At her words, I touched my face. I felt the slight, wry twist of my lips.
"That expression?"
"Yes. That expression. The one you made when we first met."
"...First met?"
In this life, I had first met Lunia at the cemetery. On the anniversary of her mother's death, Lunia had visited the gravesite, and I had repelled the black mages who ambushed her.
Why was she bringing up our first meeting all of a sudden?
"You told my father, didn't you? That you fell in love with me at first sight."
"I did..."
"That was a lie."
Lunia stated flatly. Pouting slightly in dissatisfaction, she refused to let go of my shirt.
"You didn't fall in love with me at first sight."
"What do you mean..."
"I can tell just by looking at your face. Raygan, when you look at me, you're thinking of someone else."
"..."
I was speechless.
Lunia's amethyst eyes saw right through my inner thoughts.
It had been the same in our past life. She always had an uncanny knack for unearthing the flaws and emotions I wanted to hide.
At this point, making excuses was meaningless.
"...As expected, you're far too quick-witted."
I smiled bitterly and raised both hands in surrender.
"You're right. It was a lie that I fell in love with you at first sight."
Upon my admission, disappointment clouded Lunia's eyes. Her grip on my shirt slowly loosened. Her fingers, momentarily lost in the air, tightly gripped the bedsheet instead.
"I knew it. Yeah," Lunia muttered.
The girl who was always so confident now wore the face of a hurt child.
Perhaps that was why. Before I knew it, words I never expected to say slipped from my mouth.
"...Lunia, do you want to hear an old story?"
"What kind of story?"
"Well, more like a very long, dreamlike story."
"...I'll listen."
Lunia leaned her back against the headboard. Since she had let go of my clothes, I was able to settle into a comfortable position to begin the tale.
"Once upon a time, back when I lived as a lowly mercenary..."
"The mercenary group you said you were in?"
"Something like that."
Fixing my gaze on the moon outside the window, I traced back the memories of my past life.
"While living day-to-day like a mayfly, I met a certain bold noble lady."
"A noble lady?"
"Yes. She was the daughter of a fallen noble house. She suddenly reached her hand out to me."
Lunia's eyes widened. I chuckled softly and continued.
"I don't really know why, but as if possessed, I took her hand."
The artillery fire of the battlefield. The stench of blood. And Lunia's golden hair, shining brightly amidst it all.
I still remembered every single detail vividly.
"That lady was truly peculiar. She couldn't sleep if the bed was uncomfortable, she nagged at the drop of a hat, and she was incredibly reckless. Even when she was the one who almost got hurt, she'd end up scolding me instead."
"She sounds like a real handful."
"Tell me about it. She was a massive pain."
Lunia listened intently to my story, completely unaware that she was its protagonist.
As I chuckled, she asked,
"And then? What happened to them? Did they live happily ever after?"
"No."
I shook my head.
"They had a long parting."
"So they broke up."
"Yes. Very far apart."
Sensing that 'parting' meant death, Lunia murmured,
"...How should I put it, it's a very mature story."
"A mature story..."
"Yeah. Really. You've lived a very mature life, Raygan."
Lunia smiled wryly.
The moment I saw her face, the desperate smile she had given me as she lay dying—pierced by the Archduke of Demonic Magic's spell—flashed through my mind.
Indeed.
The expression I'm making right now must be the exact one she was talking about.
Damn it.
I didn't think I was soft enough to get swept away by past sentimentality.
But strangely, whenever I'm in front of her, I end up talking too much.
"...Anyway, that's all. What I missed when I looked at you was probably just that lady's shadow."
"Does my face look like hers?"
"Yes. Very much so."
"Your personality too?"
"You're a carbon copy. Stubborn, bold, and even charming."
At my last words, Lunia's cheeks flushed crimson. She cleared her throat and looked away.
I stared straight at her and said,
"But Lunia, don't misunderstand."
"..."
"Even if looking at you makes me remember that lady from the past, it doesn't mean I see you as a replacement. Because the one I am looking at right now is the you standing before my eyes."
I meant it.
The Lunia of the past was already gone. She was merely a mirage faintly shimmering beneath the surface of my consciousness.
The person I had to protect, and the one I had to walk alongside, was this girl breathing in front of me right now.
"Ah, hahaha."
Lunia blinked in surprise for a moment, then burst into laughter.
"Well, I already knew that."
"You knew?"
"Of course. You've already saved me twice, Raygan. At the cemetery, and at the hunting festival. And you'll keep doing it. I don't think anyone would risk their life out of a mere sense of duty or nostalgia. I can easily tell that you cherish me."
Lunia hopped off the bed and stood right in front of me.
She placed her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest.
"And it's the same for me. I didn't fall in love with you at first sight either, Raygan. So we're even."
"..."
Lunia put on a haughty face, acting tough. Just as I was about to chuckle at her childishness—
"So, starting from now, I'm going to try to fall for you."
Lunia poked my chest with her index finger.
"You do the same, Raygan. Don't look at that lady from the past. Try to fall for the me of the present—the woman named Lunia Erahan von Benheim."
"..."
"I still have two years before I reach adulthood, right? We have plenty of time. So, until the day we officially wed, the first one to fall completely in love wins!"
Though mischief danced in Lunia's eyes, her tone was far from playful.
She was bold, yet brimming with confidence.
This personality of hers was her greatest weapon, and likely the very reason I had been so utterly captivated by her, even across lifetimes.
"...Sure. I'll try."
As I nodded, Lunia smiled brightly against the backdrop of the night sky.
The sweet scent of butter tickled the tip of my nose.
A dark dungeon.
Listening to the rhythmic dripping of water, the black mage Kallus let out a heavy sigh.
"Haa..."
It had been three days since the black mages' stronghold in the Mist Valley was completely subjugated.
Kallus was temporarily imprisoned in the dungeon of Rodel.
"Damn it..."
Kallus sighed as if the ground beneath him were collapsing. He had somewhat expected to meet such a fate the moment he became a black mage, but he never imagined it would be this miserable.
"To betray my brethren and end up captured on top of that..."
Though he did it to survive, it was an undeniable truth that Kallus was a traitor. If this news reached the black mages imprisoned in Grave, he would undoubtedly be beaten to death. And that wasn't all. His corpse would be torn to shreds.
It was all because of that brat. Kallus gnashed his teeth.
"Raygan... was it? That little punk..."
Just as he was chewing on his hatred for Raygan—
The click of leather shoes echoed from outside the iron bars, and soon, a man stepped into the dungeon.
He was a handsome man with long black hair and sharp red eyes.
"Are you Kallus?"
"...Who are you?"
"I am Demian Carius, Chief Investigator of the Imperial Magic Academy. I have come to conduct an inquiry."
The Imperial Magic Academy.
To black mages, that name was synonymous with the Grim Reaper. But having already been captured, what did he have left to fear?
Kallus sat blankly, raising his head to look at the investigator, Demian.
"What does a hound of the Academy want with me?"
"Ah, there is no need to be so hostile. I am an ally."
"An... ally?"
Kallus tilted his head.
An investigator of the Academy claiming to be an ally? There was a limit to how far one could go to coax a prisoner. Just as Kallus was about to snort in derision—
Flashed.
Black mana surged from Demian's palm.
Kallus was only a 3rd-tier mage, but he could easily sense the overwhelming density of that mana. Not only that, the mana Demian released possessed a distinct, peculiar power.
That was...
"Black magic?"
"Yes. I am a black mage. Just like you."
Kallus's jaw dropped. Why on earth was an investigator hunting black mages using black magic himself?
"As I said, I am an ally. And the reason I have come here is to make you an offer."
Demian pulled out a key and unlocked the iron gate.
Suddenly finding himself a free man, Kallus stared up at Demian in utter bewilderment.
"...I heard you were subdued by Raygan von Benheim. And that you only betrayed your brethren under duress."
Demian lowered his posture. His lips curved into a gentle smile.
"I will give you a chance to redeem yourself. What do you say? Surely you do not wish to be dragged off to Grave like this?"
"...Re-redeem myself?"
"Yes. I shall overlook your betrayal. Frankly, I expected nothing less. Is that not simply the nature of black mages?"
Kallus blinked, suddenly snapping back to reality.
This investigator—no, this black mage—was throwing him a lifeline.
He was facing certain death if things continued this way. There was no reason to refuse. Kallus nodded vigorously.
"Excellent. Then, consider this a gift from me."
In the next instant, black mana gathered at Demian's fingertips. It was an incomprehensible mana. Even Kallus, who had some experience with black magic, couldn't begin to fathom what kind of spell it was.
This was dangerous. Kallus hurriedly opened his mouth.
"W-wait! Let me think—!"
Squelch.
Demian's index finger pierced straight through Kallus's mana core.
That was his final memory.