Chapter 28

In the original story, the villainess Cheryl Sidonia had planned to kill Larienne before the wedding.

She changed her mind because she had struck some kind of deal with the emperor.

The emperor intended to wipe out every member of House Toned once Larienne bore a child with healing power, and among them, he planned to make Cheryl deal with the most troublesome Toned of all, Duke Meteus Toned.

Cheryl took the emperor’s hand when he made the wicked and sinister offer that he would return the Sidonia Star to her if she killed Duke Toned.

She believed in the emperor’s promise, but he never intended to return the Sidonia Star in the first place.

He meant to use Cheryl as a shield to absorb the political backlash that would follow after eliminating the leader of the anti-imperial faction, then discard her.

It was only because Duke Toned struck first that she didn’t even get the chance to serve her purpose before being thrown away.

But all of that was what happened in the original storyline. From here on, neither Cheryl nor I know how things will play out.

Another person living this unpredictable day stepped in front of Cheryl.

“I would like to know as well. What did you mean by that just now?”

“Ask His Majesty when you return, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

“No, you’ll tell me now. His Majesty is already…!”

Heide swallowed the words that the emperor might already have been assassinated, clenching his fist instead.

He couldn’t answer how he knew without bringing up Larienne.

It was the same in the original.
Even when the emperor demanded to know how he foresaw the assassin’s arrival, Heide never exposed Larienne.

Everyone suspected Duke Toned was behind the attack, but because Heide kept silent, Duke Toned’s name was never directly mentioned in connection with the attempted assassination.

When Heide failed to continue speaking, Cheryl simply announced she was going to sleep and disappeared into the cabin.

In the heavy silence she left behind, Heide and Larienne exchanged a complicated look.

With the main characters taking center stage, background extras like me could only suffocate.

Whether I knew the future or not, this wasn’t something I could interfere with.

Stuck between acting and not acting, I quietly stepped aside.

Linus naturally followed, and together we settled near the stern.

The sky was clear and the sea was calm.

The sea breeze crossing the long horizon was so refreshing that it made me resent even more the fact that this place was inside a dungeon.

I looked at Linus, who was staring out at the distant sea.

“Is this your first time seeing the ocean?”

“I’m not sure. I don’t remember, but I can’t rule out the possibility that I lived abroad at some point.”

“That’s true. If no one in the Piction Duchy knows you, you might really have been an outsider.”

“If that’s the case, finding someone who knows my past will be difficult.”

His expression didn’t change, but his voice was subdued.

Even if he had cleared his name from being labeled a murderer, living without knowing who he used to be must feel unsettling.

Telling him not to worry about his past wouldn’t comfort him, so I came up with a hypothesis.

“Maybe you left the Piction territory when you were young?”

“When I was young?”

“You lived far away, hiding your identity, and on your way back after hearing the former duke passed away, you had an accident. That’s why you lost your memory. Then it makes sense why you had the will with you.”

I didn’t know the details, but maybe the former duke had a love that could never be acknowledged, or maybe he feared his son would be dragged into a succession dispute, something like that.

So he sent his son far away and gave him the will as a sign so he would find his way back later.

Stories like that are common in old tales, aren’t they?

It must have sounded plausible even to Linus, because he nodded earnestly.

“That may have been the case. No… I hope it was.”

“But I’m curious… did everyone really accept you just because of the will?”

Since it had come up, I asked something I’d wondered about for a while.

Even if the handwriting proved the will was genuine, how could they know the person holding it wasn’t an impostor?

Someone could steal it and pretend to be Linus. There’d be no way to verify.

And in a special case like Linus’s, someone with amnesia, proving his identity must have been even harder.

I had been wondering for a long time, but the answer was surprisingly simple.

“The will stated that the heir would bear the Piction crest on his chest.”

“The Piction crest? And that’s on your chest?”

A noble family’s crest was usually made up of several elaborate symbols, impossible to forge without knowing the exact design.

Had Linus tattooed the Piction crest onto his chest to prove his identity?

In a world like this, that might be the only solid proof.

“Would you like to see it?”

Linus smiled faintly and unbuttoned his collar.

By the time the third button came undone and his collarbone was glowing in the sunlight, I finally realized he was in the middle of taking his shirt off.

Of course I was curious about his chest… no, the Piction crest, but I couldn’t let a boyfriend I’d been dating for less than an hour bare his chest in broad daylight.

I quickly grabbed his hand.

“Later. I’ll look at it later.”

“I’ll definitely show you next time.”

Linus answered with the determination of a man who fully intended to undress in front of me someday.

My honey-sweet lover was strangely proactive in the oddest places.

With a faintly disappointed look as he buttoned his collar again, Linus spoke.

“I also have something I’m curious about.”

“What are you curious about?”

“I heard you were in a comatose state for over ten years due to an unknown illness. Then how did you…”

“Recover so well?”

Linus seemed unable to find the right words, so I supplied them.

Calling all that reckless chaos of hunting the Ant Queen “being healthy” was a bit shameless, but it wasn’t wrong.

“My father did a lot of things to cure me. He got help from magicians too. Thanks to that, I got better like this.”

“I see. That’s fortunate, Ayrbet.”

Anyone else would’ve called my flimsy excuse nonsense, but Linus simply nodded.

What do you mean “I see”? Since when is magic a strength-enhancing, vitality-boosting miracle tonic?

But even if I’d said something worse, he would’ve believed me.

He’d probably believe me even if I said I knew the future and was friends with a talking cat.

I decided I should never joke about anything like that.

I stroked my innocent, trusting lover’s cheek, and he returned a honey-sweet smile.

* * *

Larienne’s healing power only lasted three hours.

By the time the distant sky turned orange, my head felt heavy and the nausea returned.

The seasickness was bad enough, but everything else was a disaster too.

The humid wind made my hair greasy, the dress tailored for the crown prince’s wedding was heavy and cumbersome, my high pretty shoes squeezed my feet, and to top it all off, I was hungry.

I was nauseous yet hungry.

Why did this body’s organs refuse to cooperate?

At this rate, I would never survive the night, so I took Linus’s hand and went into the cabin.

The three who had come inside earlier were sitting far apart in the cramped room, each keeping to themselves.

Looked like none of them had said a single word to each other up until now.

What a suffocating atmosphere.

My stomach and vestibular system could work separately if they wanted, but these people absolutely needed to cooperate.

I decided to start with the kind one,Larienne.

“Larienne. I think my seasickness is starting up again.”

“Oh dear. Come sit here, Ayrbet.”

Larienne gave up the wooden chair she had been sitting on and gathered silver energy once more.

Thanks to her, the nausea subsided again, and I held her hands tightly with both of mine.

“Thank you so much, Larienne. I keep relying on you.”

“Don’t say that. I’m happy to help.”

Larienne smiled kindly, taking the bait, and I leaned closer to whisper in a voice only she could hear.

“If you share some of your power with Cheryl too, it’ll help her a lot.”

Larienne looked between me and Cheryl with an awkward expression.

Because of what had happened earlier, she clearly wasn’t eager.

I closed my eyes with great solemnity and slowly nodded as if I knew something she didn’t.

Her misunderstanding that I was some kind of prophet would deepen, but there was nothing I could do.

Before long, we were all going to face a night where cold rice and hot rice wouldn’t matter.