How much time had passed?

My feet moved slowly.

Toward the light of the cabin I could see in the distance.

The steps I had taken calmly grew faster at some point, and by the time I came to my senses, I was running at full speed.

The coffin is empty.

I knew without digging it up.

My magic did not lie. And.......

Maybe I had predicted this result a long time ago.

“Hah, haah.”

My breath rose to the very edge of my throat. My head hurt as if someone were squeezing my brain in a fist. My nose stung, and my heart hammered wildly against my chest.

“Why.......”

I muttered as I ran through the memorial garden like a madwoman.

In the next instant, the strength went out of my legs, and my body rolled messily across the ground.

Why......!

I got up again without even feeling the pain and ran. Blood flowed down my calf, but I had no time to notice it.

Perhaps she spotted me, because the door of the gravekeeper’s cabin burst open.

The one who came out with a startled face was Rosetta’s lady’s maid, Eina.

“Miss? How on earth did you get here!”

“Eina!”

I ran to her almost as if I were falling and grabbed both her arms tightly. Eina saw the dotted trail of blood left on the ground and looked horrified.

“Why.......”

When you lived together for a long time, there were things you came to know whether you wanted to or not.

There had been things like this too.

That Mom was actually an incredibly strong person....... And that Mom’s lady’s maids and the maids of this ducal castle were all incredibly strong former mercenaries.

“Why are you all guarding this place?”

With my voice cracked to pieces, I asked as if begging.

“Miss? What are you suddenly.......”

“I’m asking why Mom’s mercenaries take turns guarding this place!”

“That’s because.......”

Eina furrowed her brow deeply and searched her memory.

“This place was attacked in the past.”

Thud.

Something dropped.

“Attacked?”

“A very long time ago....... It was a magical beast. Since then, we’ve made this place our base and taken turns guarding it. But what on earth happened....... Miss!”

I hurriedly took off my cloak.

I took off my outer garment too, then stripped off even my indoor dress.

“Why are you doing this!”

Eina was horrified and covered my body. With urgent hands, I lifted my thin chemise and checked my side.

“.......”

There was a familiar scar there, one so old I often forgot about it.

The scar I covered along with the crest of the Magic Kingdom when I hid that I was a girl.

It had been there since I was very young, so I had never known where I had been hurt.

This....... Looking at it now.

My fingers slowly traced the scar crossing my side.

This is a scar from being scratched by a magical beast’s claw or tooth.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

I had finished every confirmation I could make.

All the evidence was pointing to one possibility.

I.......

Maybe.......

Maybe.

*****

“Haaah.”

Balrok set down his glass.

“I can’t even tell what this tastes like!”

He got needlessly angry in a rough voice, then headed to the window.

The white moonlight naturally made him think of Rubian.

I don’t know what made her do it, but.

He had no regrets about rushing back here.

He only half-believed Rubian’s claim that she wanted to return to Zelox because of the northern barrier. The other half of him had moved because he wanted to support the child’s choice.

Rubian, when she said she wanted to return to Zelox, had not looked like someone with worries. She had looked like a general before war. Like someone who needed time to steel herself before a great undertaking. Her gaze had been clear, and her voice resolute. It was proof that she was fighting something fiercely.

“Patieeence!”

Balrok shouted as if scolding himself.

He would watch over her with patience.

Because he believed in his granddaughter.

“Guess when I smile the biggest in the whole world!”

“Hm? When?”

“Grandpeeeeee.”

“......?”

“When I call you that!”

His little one, who would not hurt even if he put her in his eye.

“.......”

“Mm, was it not funny? When I go ‘peeee,’ the corners of my mouth stretch like thiiis, so it looks like I’m smiling. Maybe it’s not that...... Whoooa!”

“You little speck! You little runt!”

“Save me, save me....... Your beaaaard!”

Little runt, speck, fluffball, chick, puppy. His cute, beloved granddaughter, for whom even every small and insignificant word in the world would not be enough to express this ticklish feeling.

Whatever conclusion you reach. Whatever words you spit out.

From the moment Rubian had stubbornly burrowed into his side—

This old man is on your side.

Balrok had decided he would become Rubian’s eternal ally.

“......Hm?”

Then the old Duke’s eyes narrowed.

Because in the distance, he saw familiar silver hair moving toward the castle.

“Patience.......”

He had just sworn he would have some.

But that bean-sized granddaughter of his.......

“Is wandering around in this cold without even a coat on!”

He could not endure that!

Balrok roared and hurried into motion.

*****

The cold wind struck my cheeks.

Beside me, Eina was asking what on earth had happened, but I did not stop. I was heading toward the ducal castle again, almost running.

“To be precise, we don’t know whether what attacked the memorial garden back then was a magical beast or a starving wild animal.”

“.......”

“But the man who was the gravekeeper at the time died, and the memorial garden was left in a bit of a mess. Ah, the graves weren’t severely dug up or anything.”

But the baby’s grave in the small garden had only just been made, so the soil wouldn’t have settled yet.

Even if it had been dug up and restored, it would not have shown much.

Especially if magic was used.

If they had diverted attention by pretending it was a magical beast attack, then searched the grave in the small garden and stole the baby’s corpse.......

And if that baby.......

Was me.

I was running at full speed again. My knees throbbed, but that was not what mattered now.

“At the time, Hazel was so startled that she started guarding the grave first, and later, we simply took turns. Before we knew it, it became like a base. We also spread gloomy rumors to keep people away.”

“How did no one notice the magical beast attack? The senior knights, and Dad, too—there’s no way they would have missed it.”

“Back then.......”

Eina held back her words like someone remembering something utterly terrible. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

“Back then, no one was in their right mind....... It was also the time when magical beasts appeared the most in the north, not just in the memorial garden.”

“.......”

“Most of all, only a few days had passed since Lady Rosetta’s stillbirth. His Grace was literally.......”

“.......”

“He wasn’t human.”

At that time, Dad had been obsessed with cutting down magical beasts like a madman, Eina said. As if he knew nothing else.

Even when Sir Leon and the other adjutants tried to stop him, it was useless.

He had been so drenched in blood and chunks of flesh that later it was impossible to tell who was the magical beast and who was the person, Eina added.

“Back then, truly....... Magical beast blood flowed like a river in the north. In the end, Lord Balrok brought His Grace back from the middle of that sea of blood.”

Dad, drenched in blood, had left only one sentence before collapsing.

“......Father.”

“Leviathan!”

“The dream won’t end.”

“Shi.......”

I stopped in place and roughly rubbed my eyes. Even so, hot tears kept springing up.

I held back the surging tears as if pressing them down inside me, then snapped my head up again.

Get a grip.

I had to get a grip.

I had confirmed everything I could confirm right now.

And considering Wigeria has stayed quiet this whole time.......

It seemed the conclusion I had reached was not entirely wrong after all.

Wigeria, you knew, didn’t you?

My feet began moving again.

The power hidden inside me provided only the information I absolutely needed, and only when I needed it, as if it had a will of its own.

Were you waiting for me to come of age?

Because I had been too young, because back then there had been too many problems I had to solve, and because I had been too fragile and powerless to face all this truth.

A voice rose from the far side of memories I had buried away. The Mage King used to stroke my head, pat my cheek, and say proudly—

My jewel, stolen away.

It was from before I remembered this place was the world of a novel, so it was probably a memory left in my body.

Every puzzle piece was beginning to fall into place. There were still empty spaces, but—

Yes. So that’s what it is.......

The shape had revealed itself. So I had to accept it. And then I had to do the next thing.

Before I knew it, I was in the lobby of the ducal castle.

“You!”

I came face-to-face with Grandpa, who was hurrying down the stairs. It seemed he had been too worried about me to return to the separate building.

“Ruby? I knew you would do this! You weren’t in your bedroom!”

Boyd appeared right after him.

“What the hell are you doing in the middle of the night! And what’s with the blood on your leg!”

Grandpa’s hands were full of things: a thick blanket, a coat, a scarf, gloves.

“What is wrong with this child!”

At that frosty roar, Eina seemed to shake her head behind me.

It was night, and all the servants were asleep.

I strode across the lobby and stood before Grandpa.

“Grandpa, I have to go south.”

His thick brows furrowed deeply.

“I have to go south, meet Dad, and go to Arcadia.”

“What on earth are you saying in the middle of the night....... Come here first. You need a doctor right now......!”

“The potion reacted in the lake.”

“What?”

Grandpa’s movements froze as he was draping not only the blanket over me, but even his own robe.

Boyd, who had been fidgeting anxiously beside him, froze as well.

I clenched my trembling hands and spoke each word with force.

“Princess Sebelena’s potion. When I fell into the lake, Dad’s blood and mine reacted...... I saw them mix. And I just checked the memorial garden.”

“.......”

“......The coffin in the small garden was empty.”

I had tried not to let it happen, but my voice shook slightly despite myself.

“What are you, right now, even.......”

“Grandpa. I think.”

I tried my hardest to feign calm.

This was something I had to do that way. It was not something I could cry and wail over.

“I think I might be the child...... who was buried in the small garden.”