TMLHGCFTV 18

Chapter 18

Once again, Kael found himself questioning what he was seeing. He even stopped the sparring session and stared at Rosanna.

Even the way she sometimes bit her lip and frowned when the training became too difficult was strangely radiant.

Kael slowly closed his eyes, then opened them again.

“I have no idea what I’m looking at. Is this really the same duchess I knew?”

“I have to admit, I’m wondering the same thing. Perhaps we brought back an entirely different person, Your Highness.”

Kael couldn’t bring himself to deny Millers’s absurd remark. He was starting to wonder if that really might be the case.

“Phew, phew! When can I start using a longsword? I want to learn more.”

“Not today. I think you should continue building your fundamentals first. Given the circumstances, I’ll move things along as quickly as I can, but I still think it’s too soon.”

“Ah…… I was looking forward to it!”

Rosanna clicked her tongue in disappointment and rubbed her cheek. She looked so much like a dejected puppy that—

For once, completely unlike himself, Kael burst into a hearty laugh.

It felt as though warm sunlight had managed to seep through the walls of the ice fortress surrounding his heart. The corners of his mouth, usually set in a rigid line, softened. Kael covered his eyes as he laughed freely.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d laughed this comfortably.

He wasn’t even sure whether he was laughing properly.

Or why he was laughing at all.

He simply couldn’t stop.

As though Rosanna’s laughter had somehow infected him.

Rosanna had once been the sort of person who was afraid of breaking a fingernail and couldn’t even open a bottle cap. If she happened to scratch a nail or damage a strand of hair, she’d turn deathly pale and tremble.

“F-Father……”

“What? What are you trying to say? Duchess, don’t make such a fuss over something like this. It’s nothing……”

“It is not nothing! I just broke my nail! I-I can’t…… I can’t!”

Afterward, she wouldn’t even leave the house until her nail or hair had returned to normal.

That was the Rosanna he’d known.

And yet—

“……Perhaps it was her environment that was destroying her.”

“What do you mean……”

Kael’s brow furrowed slightly.

From the beginning, it made no sense that Rosanna had joined this expedition in the first place.

If her claim that she had volunteered was a lie, then what if they removed that assumption entirely?

“……What kind of man is the Duke of Ardena?”

“Well, he’s known to care deeply for his daughter.”

“Then why did he send her here?”

“Ah……”

Millers’s eyes widened.

Kael narrowed his eyes as he fell into thought.

Perhaps there was a secret within the ducal family that he didn’t know about.

Once the image that had been imposed upon Rosanna was stripped away, Kael began to see something else.

The real Rosanna.

A few days later, in the evening.

Ever since I’d seen Lilia’s tiny feet, one thought hadn’t left my mind.

I needed to teach the children something.

Some of the children were orphans who had been adopted into noble families to take the place of people who had gone on the expedition. Others had been forced to come simply because they were powerless members of collateral branches of their families.

The thought that these children had been dragged all the way onto a battlefield against their will made my chest tighten.

Lilia and the other children were completely defenseless.

They were barely ten years old. What difference would it make to hand them a sword?

But if they knew how to run away, how to hide, and how to buy themselves some time, their chances of survival would increase.

In the original story, there had been a scene where Seraphine grieved over the children who had been almost completely wiped out, followed by Kael falling into darkness.

Was that really a necessary part of the story?

I wanted to save at least one more child.

So after we finished marching for the day and ate dinner at the campsite, I gathered the children together in the evening.

Fortunately, Lilia seemed to have taken a liking to me, so the others gathered around without much difficulty.

“Kids, starting today, we’re going to play a fun game.”

As soon as dinner was over, I brought Lilia and ten other children to an open clearing.

They were all looking around nervously, but their faces were full of curiosity.

Lilia stood right at the front, her eyes sparkling.

“Big sister, what kind of game?”

“Are we playing with dolls? House? Then I’ll be the mother!”

“Not that. We’re going to play tag.”

“Yaaay! Tag!”

The children’s excited cheers drew a few curious glances from the people nearby.

I was going to put everything I’d learned in my previous life to use.

I wanted to take the camouflage and alarm-detection techniques I’d practiced endlessly during training and break them down into something even a ten-year-old could understand.

In a way, it really was a game of tag.

I pulled out a length of string and several little bells from my pocket. They were cheap bells I’d bought at the market, but they would be more than enough for this.

I tied the string low between two trees and attached the bells to it.

“Now, what happens if someone touches this string?”

“Jingle, jingle!”

The smallest boy shouted excitedly.

The oversized shoes on his feet looked twice as big as they should have been. They were obviously hand-me-downs from someone else.

“That’s right! It’ll make a sound, won’t it? So we’re going to run away without making any noise! I’m going to be the monster. What am I?”

“A monster!”

“And what happens if the monster catches you?”

“Waaah! It’ll eat us!”

“That’s right. So you have to run away carefully without letting the monster notice you. Can you do it?”

“Yes!”

“Then let’s start by tying up the strings!”

The children rushed over, eagerly raising their hands because they wanted to try it themselves.

Watching them bicker over who would go first brought a smile to my face.

Even in this ruined reality, the children’s laughter was still pure.

And in the middle of it all, Lilia was smiling brightly too.

I paired the children up and scattered them around the clearing.

Lilia was paired with a prickly-looking girl whose hair was tied into twin tails.

The children burst into giggles.

One child nearly tripped while running off, then grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

“We’re all done!”

“Then let’s begin!”

The children cautiously began making their way through the makeshift traps we’d set up.

I didn’t care so much about whether they could run quickly.

I wanted them to learn how to escape without being detected.

I stood still with my eyes closed, listening to the children’s muffled giggles and the faint sounds of them sneaking around.

They really seemed to believe this was just a game.

But I believed that someday, this would help them.

And that someday might come in a single fleeting moment.

A moment that could save their lives.

I wanted every one of those children to survive and see the light of day with me.

The next day, we played a different game.

Children got bored if they played the same game every day.

If they’d learned how to run away, shouldn’t they also learn how to hide?

The children gathered around me with sparkling eyes.

“Now, today we’re going to play hide-and-seek.”

“Woooooow!”

I lined the children up at one side of the clearing and explained the rules.

I would be the seeker.

The children had to hide within the designated area and win by reaching the trees on the opposite side without being discovered by me.

“What happens if we get caught?”

“I’ll tickle you!”

“Eeeeeek!”

The children erupted into laughter once again.

“But there’s a special prize for whoever wins.”

I pulled a pouch from inside my clothes and showed them the dried fruit.

The children’s expressions changed instantly.

Lilia was already licking her lips.

It was exactly the kind of snack children loved.

“Go!”

At my signal, the children scattered in every direction.

They hid behind trees, in the bushes, and underneath the carts.

They seemed to have put some thought into their hiding spots, but every single one had a piece of clothing or the tip of a shoe sticking out from beside their hiding place.

I deliberately pretended not to notice.

There was no way monsters would notice something that crude, after all.

Every time I passed by one of them, I could almost hear their tiny hearts pounding.