Waking in Enemy Territory
When I opened my eyes again, a whole year had passed.
And then—
“Where… where exactly am I?”
“As I said, my lady, this is the territory of the House of Ballot, the Grand Dukedom of the Cadea Empire.”
“……”
“This stretch of coast is off-limits to outsiders, so we’ll need you to accompany us to the Grand Duke’s residence for a simple inquiry—”
“……”
“It won’t be an interrogation, of course. Just a few questions about your identity, and, er, and then…”
“……”
He rambled on and on. The knight who’d found me kept talking, but not a single word registered.
So I woke up in a new body?
Fine. That, I could accept.
I’d been swallowed by a pit of black magic—there was no way my original body had survived intact.
And a year slipping by? That’s not impossible to believe either.
Whatever god was watching from somewhere up in that sky probably needed a fair amount of time to build or find me a new one.
I wasn’t the type to pick apart every little detail. As a rule, I preferred to accept things and move on rather than demand explanations.
But.
I’m sorry—did you say this isn’t the Tenasis Empire? MY empire?
Of all the ground I had to wake up on…
The Cadea Empire. And not just any patch of it—the land of Grand Duke Ballot himself?!
***
The knights of the Cadea Empire handled me like a fragile glass bottle.
For the entire carriage ride, they kept tapping at the window to check on me. Was I uncomfortable anywhere? Was I thirsty? Just bear with it a little longer, nothing bad will happen, please don’t worry, keep your spirits up. A generous mix of concern, sympathy, and encouragement.
For someone like me, who’d spent her days rolling in the dirt and wearing scars and wounds like a second skin, it was a genuinely novel experience.
The knight sharing the carriage with me was no different.
Rattle, rattle—
When the carriage lurched violently, unable to keep pace with its own speed, the knight sitting across from me—Allen, apparently—spoke up.
“A-are you all right?!”
“I’m fine.”
“Ah, that is, the road is just dirt, so the carriage may shake a little.”
“I see.”
“A-anyway. Once we’re past this stretch, we’ll arrive shortly. Just bear with it a bit longer.”
“Yes.”
Red-faced and unable to hold my gaze, he stammered through every sentence—honestly, he looked like a teenage boy in the throes of his first crush.
Well. Can’t blame him, really.
I turned my gaze to the carriage window.
And quietly studied the face reflected there.
No wonder the knights react the way they do.
The moment I’d first opened my eyes, the body itself had felt strangely unfamiliar. Supple muscle, stiff joints, hands with not a single callus, skin without a single wound.
I’d known almost immediately that this wasn’t my body.
But once the knights had helped me into the carriage, I got a much clearer look at the face in the glass.
The familiar gray-brown eyes and the rust-red hair I’d once hacked off bluntly at my jaw—both gone without a trace.
Perhaps because I’d been found on the beach, dirt and sand clung to my face, and the hair, soaked in seawater and dried again, hung in tangled, shapeless clumps.
The clothes I wore were in much the same state—covered in sand, soaked stiff by the sea, their original shape beyond recognition.
And yet this woman glowed. Even that wasn’t enough to hide the beauty of this body.
A person…
So this is what a person can look like.
I found myself marveling at the Creator’s handiwork all over again.
Blue eyes like an emerald sea, platinum hair as dazzling as the white sand along the shore. Flawless skin without a single scar or burn mark—and lips so vividly red they stood out all the more because of it.
No burn scar covering half my face, either.
It felt a little strange saying it about myself, but there was no question she was a rare beauty. I could well understand why the knights of an enemy nation were blushing over a woman whose identity they didn’t even know.
Who are you?
I trailed a fingertip down the window glass.
Why on earth had I woken up in this woman’s body?
It wasn’t as if I’d simply dropped out of the sky…
If only some memory of this body would surface.
But there was nothing—no memories of the body’s owner, only my own self and consciousness, sharp and clear.
I met the stranger’s eyes in the window and spoke to her quietly, inside my own head.
I’m sorry. Nothing about you is coming back to me. Which means figuring out who you are won’t be easy, either.
Then again, I was hardly one to talk—I’d lost my own childhood memories, with no way to prove who I was.
I suppose that makes this our fate, doesn’t it?
Well, with any luck, someone who recognizes this face would turn up eventually.
Unlike me, you might still have hope.
Because no matter how hard I searched, I never found anyone. Someone who remembered me…
Not a single soul…
Anyway—I can’t promise I’ll restore your identity for you.
I looked down at the knight’s uniform across from me.
The crest of the Cadea Empire, emblazoned on the left breast. Once again, it sank in that I truly was in enemy territory.
Because it looks like I’ve landed myself in a very, very bad place.
Of all places, I had to wake up in enemy lands.
And if this carriage really is taking me to the Grand Duke’s residence…
If I came face to face with that Grand Duke Kadrian Ballot—
This is no time to worry about anyone else. My own neck’s on the line here.
Haah. A sigh escaped me before I could stop it.
My life, honestly. …It’s almost funny.
Apparently even death couldn’t smooth the road ahead of me.
— “Sir Sia.”
I flinched. Was it because I was thinking of the Grand Duke’s residence?
The memory of his eyes and his voice flashed through my mind, and my shoulders shuddered.
Right. The Grand Duke. Incredible as it sounds, I’m on my way to your house right now.
He wouldn’t kill me the second he saw me… right?
No. Wait. I’m not the enemy’s Sia anymore, am I?
And this body looked utterly frail, without a shred of strength in it.
Plus, it’s a devastating beauty, mind you.
So he surely wouldn’t kill me right away—
Then, unbidden, the rumors I’d read in those documents surfaced, along with his long list of atrocities.
What was it—anyone deemed a threat, regardless of age or gender, gets beheaded on the spot?
There were stories, too, of him cutting down a child found in enemy lines without a flicker of mercy.
That at his victory banquet, he raised a toast not with wine, but with the blood of enemy prisoners.
Even the citizens of the Cadea Empire click their tongues at how ruthless he is, supposedly.
Ugh.
I ran a hand over the back of my neck, which had gone cold.
Ah… this could be, genuinely, dangerous.
Then I should run. I can’t die like this—
But even escape seemed like a distant fantasy.
I lifted the edge of the curtain slightly and scanned our surroundings. At least five armed knights were riding escort behind us.
If I still had my old body, maybe. But in this one? There’s no way I could take on all of those knights.
In other words, slipping away and running was not an option.
And even if I did escape, returning to the Tenasis Empire right away was next to impossible.
There are all sorts of practical problems, you see.
I’d need papers to board a ship. Even if I somehow managed to forge a false identity, I couldn’t set foot on a vessel without gold coins.
And right now, I have nothing.
Nothing but this unfamiliar body.
And there was another problem besides.
Even if every one of those things fell into place, returning to the Tenasis Empire and getting all the way to Crown Prince Serhin’s side would be no simple feat.
Above all—if I show up in front of Serhin with this face, a sword will fly at me before a single word of welcome does.
Serhin’s suspicion was pathological.
He would never believe that I was his knight—that I was “Sia,” the very Sia who’d been swallowed by the pit of black magic and died.
Which left exactly one path forward.
Let’s set the goal as: survive the Grand Duke first.
That’s right. If I wanted to make it back to my homeland, staying alive came first.
Figuring out how to reach Serhin can wait until I’m actually back in the Tenasis Empire.
But.
Survive… how?
Haaah!
Just thinking about staying alive made my head throb all over again.
How, exactly, was I supposed to do that in a body that knew nothing of swordplay or aura?
Dignity be damned—I wanted to grab my hair and wail on the spot.
How long would it take to bring this body up to my old level?
Nine more years to reach the mastery I had when I died…?
No. Wait.
If I’ve done it once and it takes me nine more years, then I’m an idiot.
Seven years.
…No. Seven is still too long.
Then… five years?
I shook my head hard.
Spend five years in enemy territory? Get a grip!
Two years!
Yes. I’d finish it in two.
I would raise this body to my former level in two years, whatever it took.
Good. Final objective: hone this body as close to my prime as possible, and make it all the way home.
The moment my goal was set, a surge of determination rose up in me.
Gazing at the unfamiliar woman in the window, I gave a short nod.
Since it’s come to this, I intend to live well—in my own way.
And in return, I’ll live a life without regrets—so you’ll never look back on it with longing.
For a while, I held the gaze of the woman in the glass, as though we were having a conversation.
There. Done.
I hadn’t truly spoken with the body’s owner, but somehow it felt as though I’d been given her blessing, and my heart felt lighter for it.
I nodded to myself, alone, and closed the matter in my mind.
That was when it happened.
The carriage rolled to a stop. The knight across from me drew back the curtain and spoke.
“We’ve arrived at the gate. Once the main doors open, the carriage will carry on to the front of the Grand Duke’s residence.”
I listened to his explanation and turned my eyes to the window.
Wow… insane.
That’s a house?
The Grand Duke’s residence visible beyond the window stretched far past anything you could call a mansion.
It was a castle.
Vast and magnificent enough to rival the imperial palace of the Tenasis Empire itself.
A Grand Duke who isn’t even royalty… is allowed to own a place like this?
Creeeeak—
The massive iron gate swung open with agonizing slowness, letting out a long metallic groan.
My heart answered that sound—and began to pound.
Well, well… I’ve lived long enough to see the inside of a Grand Duke’s home, have I?
Before I knew it, I had squeezed my eyes shut.
Oblivious to whatever turmoil was going on inside me, the hoofbeats of the carriage horses rang out, light and cheerful.
— “Sir Sia.”
Again. The Grand Duke of my old memories was calling my name.
Ahhh, get lost. I heard you, so stop calling me.
…Damn it all.