Chapter 23

A few days after Linus left for the Piction territory, a letter arrived from Larienne.

She asked to meet at a famous dessert café in Arendel, and wondering what was going on this time, I went to the appointed place. As soon as she saw me, she apologized again.

“I’m sorry for calling you out so suddenly, Ayrbet. I just felt so stifled and wanted to talk to someone, and you were the only person who came to mind.”

“It’s fine, Larienne. If you’re okay with talking to me, I’m happy to. Did something happen?”

She looked even paler than the last time I saw her, so I asked, and Larienne let out a sigh deep enough to collapse the world.

“It’s just… I’m a little troubled.”

For someone who said “a little,” her face was practically falling apart. Was she really okay?

Of course not. Her wedding with Heide was less than ten days away. There was no way she would be fine.

What she was enduring wasn’t the simple anxiety of a bride-to-be.
Her situation was something far heavier.

Feeling bad that I couldn’t do much for her, I ordered a table full of desserts.

I wanted her to at least cheer up with something sweet, but Larienne only sipped her bitter coffee and gave a faint smile.

“I know I shouldn’t be like this, but… I feel like Ayrbet knows everything, so I end up wanting to rely on you.”

She said it because she believed I had foresight.

I didn’t have anything like that, but I did know everything, so I could only smile awkwardly.

Larienne didn’t press me for an answer and continued speaking as if talking to herself.

“I’ve always lived being treated specially because I had a special power. When everyone praised me as a saintess, I’m embarrassed to admit it, but… it felt nice. Like I had become someone extraordinary.”

Larienne was extraordinary.

Heide’s Light Sword, or Cheryl Sidonia’s power as the Fire Witch, were useful only in wartime, but healing power that could save people was welcomed at any time.

That’s why Larienne’s father, Duke Meteus Toned, eagerly took advantage of his daughter’s ability.

He recruited nobles using Larienne’s power, bestowed favors upon the citizens of the empire, and gilded the Toned family’s reputation.

The tragedy of this world began when Meteus started dreaming of other ambitions, and when the emperor began coveting Larienne’s healing power.

In the end, because of their fathers, Larienne and Heide were destined to roll endlessly along a thorny path.

Standing on the edge of that first tumble, Larienne murmured in a sorrowful voice,

“My power is the power of House Toned, so I want to use it however I can to repay that. But Father only demands things I can’t do…”

“Larienne…”

She trailed off with a face that looked ready to cry, and my heart ached.

Knowing how much more she would cry in the future only made it worse.

When I reached out and gently patted the back of her trembling hand wrapped around her teacup, she lifted her pale blue eyes and asked,

“Ayrbet, what’s going to happen to me?”

Her eyes were so desperately pleading for an answer, yet I couldn’t say anything.

If I opened my mouth, it wouldn’t be foresight. It would be spoilers.

But how could I pretend not to know anything while this girl clung to my hand as if it were a lifeline?

I hesitated, my lips parting and closing, then finally spoke, not a prophecy, not a spoiler, but a sincere wish.

“Larienne, you’re going to be very happy.”

“Do you really think so?”

“I’m not a prophet, but I know it. You will definitely find happiness.”

“Thank you for saying that, Ayrbet.”

She smiled like a blooming flower and thanked me, and guilt stabbed at my conscience.

But what could I do?

I couldn’t tell her she would be beaten and dragged and scraped raw until she was threadbare before she finally found happiness.

Thinking about it, the author was a real villain. How could they put such a sweet girl through all that?

I didn’t even know if I could call it a happy ending when Larienne lost everything before gaining love in The Butterfly Garden’s Secret Affair.

Just as I let out a sigh internally, I heard someone call my name.

“Ayrbet?”

I turned my head, and Cheryl was approaching with a delighted expression.

“Cheryl?”

“It really is you, Ayrbet? What are you doing he… oh. You were meeting Lady Toned?”

Once Cheryl spotted Larienne sitting across from me, her expression hardened.

The two of them exchanged a subtle, tense glance.

At this point in the timeline, Cheryl was working hard to establish herself as the villainess who would sabotage Heide and Larienne’s marriage.

She looked at Larienne with a sour expression, yet still took a seat beside me.

Soon, an absurd amount of desserts she ordered began arriving at our table.

The endless parade of sweets made my tongue numb just from looking, yet Cheryl began eating the chocolate pudding without batting an eye.

I liked sweets too, but how was her pancreas still functioning at this rate?

“Ayrbet, eat some. The chocolate here is good.”

“Th-thank you. Oh, and thank you for the gift you sent, Cheryl. I was surprised because you sent so much, but everything was so pretty. I’m using it all well.”

“It’s nothing compared to the magic stone you gave me. I’m glad you liked it.”

Cheryl emptied her pudding bowl at an impressive speed, lifted her red lips into a smile, and looked at me.

Then she immediately changed her expression and spoke to Larienne as well.

“I thought Lady Toned would be busy preparing for the wedding, but I guess not. You look quite free.”

“I was preparing myself mentally.”

“If you need mental preparation, you shouldn’t do it. I told you I’d help you run away.”

“I told you it’s not something I can decide so easily.”

“It’s not hard at all. You run away, and I get married.”

“Even if I do run away, His Majesty would never allow a marriage between you and His Highness the Crown Prince.”

Cheryl’s provoking remarks were sharp, but Larienne’s calm replies were just as formidable.

I sat uncomfortably between them, watching them both carefully.

After glaring at Larienne for a long time, Cheryl jabbed her spoon into the chocolate ice cream and muttered carelessly,

“I wonder if His Majesty would change his mind if she disappeared altogether.”

Wow, terrifying.

She was scary because she didn’t make empty threats.

Cheryl’s target was clearly Larienne, but I felt like Gretel trapped inside a house made of sweets.

Could they please argue somewhere I’m not present?

But Larienne, unaware of a frail possessor’s delicate heart, countered Cheryl’s dangerous threat with an even more dangerous proposal.

“If you’re that desperate, shouldn’t you aim for His Highness instead of me? If the two of you elope, the wedding would be impossible.”

“The crown prince is unnecessary. What I want is the Star of Sidonia.”

At her words, I finally found an opening where I could interrupt.

If I left them alone any longer, I was sure they would start grabbing each other’s hair, so I hurriedly broke in to change the direction of the conversation.

“The Star of Sidonia, that’s the treasure passed down in the Sidonia family, right?”

“Yes, Ayrbet. It’s the heirloom that His Majesty took from our household.”

Cheryl turned to me and, unlike before, explained in a gentle voice.

Her voice was gentle, but when she mentioned the emperor, something murderous flickered in her dark eyes, something that shouldn’t be visible.

Maybe diverting the conversation wasn’t the best idea after all, so I asked again,

“But… what exactly is the Star of Sidonia? Is it some kind of gemstone?”

“It’s a magic stone. One with a resonance that matches Sidonia family mages.”

“A magic stone that matches your resonance? Cheryl, what is a magic stone?”

“A magic stone is like a kind of amplifier. If a regular mage is a chocolate chip cookie, then a mage with a magic stone is like this brownie.”

Cheryl pointed at the cookie dotted with chocolate chips and the brownie oozing thick chocolate.

I didn’t fully understand, but I felt like I sort of did.

Her spoon then moved toward the freshly melted chocolate holding a marshmallow inside.

“And a Sidonia mage with the Star of Sidonia is the sweetest chocolate in the world.”

“Oh…”

When I nodded at her sugary explanation, Cheryl smiled warmly.

So the Star of Sidonia was basically a power-enhancing item with the exclusive option of working perfectly with Sidonia mages?

Cheryl was already strong, and if she had that stone, she’d become overwhelmingly powerful. Since the emperor viewed Sidonia’s magical power as a threat, he absolutely refused to return it.

Which was why Cheryl was determined to become crown princess, and eventually empress, to take the Star back.

In the original story, Cheryl never managed to reclaim the Star of Sidonia.

So in this world, she likely wouldn’t achieve that wish either.

Thinking that made her seem a little pitiful.

I picked up the chocolate éclair I had ordered earlier and offered it to Cheryl.

“Have some of this too, Cheryl. It’s sweet.”

Cheryl looked at the éclair in my hand, then burst into laughter.

Her catlike eyes curved as she smiled, but instead of taking the éclair, she reached out and gently stroked my pink hair.

“Ayrbet, you’re so sweet. Your face is cute, and your heart is beautiful.”

Oh my, why is she acting like this all of a sudden?

Even Larienne, who had been stiff-faced ever since Cheryl appeared, smiled softly and added,

“She’s right. Ayrbet is truly kind.”