AFYD 07

 Chapter 07

Killian personally guided Ines to her room.

The man who had apologized earlier for his quick pace slowed his steps throughout the climb up the stairs. Thanks to that, Ines was able to display flawless posture according to the etiquette ingrained in her body.

“The room where you will stay until the wedding has been prepared on the second floor—do you perhaps have a preferred floor?”

“……No, anywhere is fine.”

At her uninteresting answer, Killian gave a light nod.

The second floor of the main Rupert Castle was a space for visitors. In her past life as well, she had stayed there for a week before the wedding was held.

The place she missed most in the castle at this very moment was the couple’s bedroom she had only used for a few months, but Ines had no intention of being so greedy even after marriage. She had no right to that.

*Step—*

For a while, only footsteps echoed in the silence. She wanted to hear his voice more, but she could not figure out what to say.

‘If only I were a bit more witty…….’

If she had been good with words or had a charming personality, could she have struck up conversation with him without difficulty?

As Ines repeatedly pressed and released her lips, their destination drew near. Since they only had to go up one floor, arrival came quickly.

“This is the room.”

Killian pointed to the massive door on the right side of the corridor.

To Ines’s gratitude, he did not simply indicate the room and leave.

“May I come in with you for a moment? Of course, you may refuse if it makes you uncomfortable. It is something that could also be conveyed later through Marisa.”

“It’s fine.”

Unlike her hesitation until now, she nodded quickly at that question alone. Perhaps he had expected Ines to refuse, for his eyebrow rose faintly for an instant.

In truth, his expectation had been correct. In the past, Ines had been unable to hide her bewilderment at that question, and Killian, who had easily noticed that look, had withdrawn cleanly without asking twice.

Still, she knew what he wanted to discuss. She remembered what Marisa had asked right after he left.

*Click—*

As she brushed past Killian and entered, he followed in and closed the door.

He kept just enough distance from the door that his voice would not leak outside, and did not come further in.

Ines gazed at Killian for a short while, then hurriedly lowered her eyes just before meeting his. She desperately wanted to meet his beloved eyes, but if she did, she felt she would not be able to suppress her surging emotions.

Ines pressed her palms with her fingernails to hold back the urge to run and embrace him and sob.

It was Killian who spoke first.

“Thank you for granting my rude request, Princess.”

A sweet address, yet not so soft as to tickle the chest.

Knowing that this title was only natural for him now, the reason one corner of her heart ached was because she already knew how soft the name he called her could be.

Ines bit her lip lightly, then shook her head.

“It’s not rude.”

“Then I am glad.”

Killian, who answered lightly, did not draw out the silence long.

“If it is agreeable to you, Princess, I would like to examine the luggage together with the party that came with you.”

The matter he brought up was as Ines had expected. In her past life, it was the head maid, Marisa, who had asked.

“I apologize if it offended you.”

“I’m fine with it, so do as you wish, Grand Duke.”

Unlike her past life when she had nodded reluctantly, Ines gave a more definite answer.

Perhaps not expecting her to agree so readily, Killian looked somewhat surprised.

But Ines did not end with mere agreement. There were more words she needed to say to him at this moment.

“Grand Duke, I also have something to say to you. ……Are there any listening ears nearby right now?”

“Listening ears, you say…….”

“Your people are fine. What matters is whether there is anyone among those who came with me.”

At Ines’s words, Killian looked at her with a peculiar eye. The nuance of her words was obvious.

He soon shook his head.

“Even if you were to shout, Princess, no one but me would hear.”

Depending on how one took it, it could sound threatening, but to Ines, Killian was never a threatening being.

Ines bit her dry lips once, then opened her mouth.

“You must carefully watch the imperial army that followed me.”

“The imperial army.”

“I know that even without my words, you would be wary of them. But that alone is not enough.”

Ines had spent the last half year before her death in the Emperor’s grasp.

The Emperor, drunk on the joy of being able to obtain eternal life soon along with the collapse of Rupert, bragged about quite a lot to Ines. He was an emperor full of suspicion and wariness, but he must have deemed Ines—trapped in a deep inner chamber waiting only for the day she would die—safe.

At the time, every word the Emperor uttered was painful and tormenting, but now that she had been given another chance, she was deeply grateful. Thanks to him bragging without being wary of Ines, she could now prevent his schemes in advance.

“There is one among them who can use sorcery.”

Ines, speaking as if chewing her words, unconsciously clenched her fist tightly.

“Is that true.”

Killian, who knew the severity of sorcery better than anyone, immediately grew serious as well.

Ines bit her lip hard and nodded.

“……It is true.”

A very distant past, the ancient civilization of thousands of years ago was incomparably more brilliant than the present.

Islands floating in the sky, travel gates that crossed continents in an instant, ancient people with lifespans close to eternal.

What made that possible was the concept of magic.

But as if proving that all things have an end, at some point magic left humanity. Thus, at some point, humans could no longer use the power called magic.

Mages disappeared, and the brilliantly shining civilization declined rapidly.

Thus, in the present, only travel gates, ruins, and relics remained to prove that era.

Magical tools that made people’s lives convenient were nothing more than imitations of fragments of the past using a resource called spirit stones.

Sorcery, too, was an imitation of the ancient. To be more precise, it was an evil power that mimicked the force wielded by the black mages who had been despised in ancient times.

Using spirit stones that had been corrupted and altered through blood, grudges, and despair as mediums—thereby harming life and causing chaos in the world—that was sorcery.

“I do not know exactly who it is either. But it is certain that it is a kind of sorcery that summons monsters, and that its target is the imperial army itself.”

“The imperial army……. So you mean someone among the imperial army will use that sorcery on themselves.”

“Correct.”

“Do you know the reason as well?”

Ines knew that he was not asking because he truly did not know.

Killian would have examined every possibility from the moment he heard there was a sorcerer among the imperial army.

Ines calmed her pounding heart and answered slowly, yet clearly.

“……If imperial soldiers die at Rupert Castle, the imperial family will hold Rupert responsible in some form or another. Moreover, if it is an accident caused by monsters, they could claim Rupert’s competence is in question and attempt to station imperial troops here.”

“No matter how many imperial soldiers died, that would be an overreach of authority.”

“I know. ……But there is no need to give His Majesty the Emperor a pretext to rebuke Rupert, is there? Isn’t that so?”

The Emperor’s true purpose in this scheme was to tarnish Rupert’s reputation.

In the past, public opinion that had gradually shifted starting from the marriage. This incident was nothing short of the beginning of a war of public opinion.

Killian was silent for a moment as if organizing his thoughts. Ines nervously fidgeted with her clasped hands.

At last, Killian raised his eyes and met her gaze.

Ines found herself opening her mouth without realizing it.

“……I understand that you cannot believe me, Grand Duke. I know you must dislike me. I too know what the relationship between the imperial family and Rupert is like, and how this marriage came to be.”

“Princess.”

“But I hope you will believe just this one thing. ……I wish for Rupert to suffer no harm whatsoever.”

That was a wish that came before even revenge against the Emperor.

Killian gazed at her for a moment. It seemed he was gauging whether it was the truth, or perhaps simply examining her face.

After some time of meeting each other’s eyes, he burst into a refreshing laugh that did not suit the atmosphere.

“Haha.”

Softly curved eyes, pleasantly upturned corners of his mouth, a laugh that coiled sweetly into the ear.

Ines stared at him blankly. The surprise of having seen his smile was greater than her bewilderment. Before long, he opened his mouth with eyes still holding traces of laughter.

“Princess, you are a person quite different from my expectations.”

Was it an illusion brought on by her own wishes that his voice sounded softer than before?

“Very well. I will raise the alert level further and assign those who can detect sorcery to watch the imperial army.”

At the unexpected agreement, Ines’s eyes widened.