COARV Chapter 24

He'd surely heard Lina's outburst. What would Kallis think of me now? That I was a villainess tormenting a pitiable, sorrowful Saint? Just as in the original? Just as I'd been, moments before Kallis cut Seria's throat there?

I couldn't make sense of Lina's behavior at all.

Why, though. Why on earth.

"Lina."

I stared at the lovely Saint, unable to make sense of any of it. Her pale, fair face. Her innocent-looking black eyes. Her short bob of hair swaying at her shoulders.

"Kallis is… right outside. So why say something like that now? Do you want him to hear it? Do you want him not to misunderstand your true feelings? Or is it because you want me to look like the bad person?"

"…."

Lina's eyes trembled violently. Mine were probably shaking just as much. I would normally have addressed Lina with careful courtesy, but there wasn't room, right now, to worry about that. I genuinely wanted to know.

"Why, exactly? I haven't tormented you at all, have I?"

I never had the slightest intention of clashing with Lina. That was the truth. I bore her some measure of resentment, yes—but that was as far as it went. I had never once, not even for a moment, entertained the thought of genuinely tormenting the heroine so beloved of the gods, in the original.

What mattered to me was my own life. I just wanted to live. Everything I did was the result of thrashing and clawing not to die a horrible death—so what else, exactly, had I done wrong?

The color drained steadily from Lina's face. Her expression was frightened, like a child's. In the original, she was the heroine who wisely defeated the villains—but every story needs its plausibility. Even the ladies of Haneton, Lina hadn't been able to fend off properly. Which meant she couldn't possibly, this early, at the very start of the original's plot, handle a situation with seasoned skill when it was turning her out to look like some kind of villainess.

There was no more point in continuing this with Lina, so I simply turned away.

"Get out."

"Seria!"

The moment Lina ran forward and grabbed my arm—she seemed to lose her footing, her body pitching sharply. Her body, which had looked as if it would fall against me, floated impossibly into the air instead.

"——!"

The full moon, which I'd thought unusually large all evening, suddenly filled my vision like the sun. One of Lina's shoes fell to the floor, and directly after, her eyes, wide with horror, turned to me. She was being pulled into the empty air. I reached out quickly, trying to catch her, but it was too late. There was nothing at all to grasp.

The terrace stood completely empty.

"Seria!"

At that exact moment, the door burst open. It was Kallis. The servant followed close behind, his face bloodless.

Kallis pressed himself against the railing and looked down. But he didn't seem to spot any sign of Lina's broken limbs below. Only Lina's single shoe, fallen directly in front of me, remained clear and visible.

"…Seria."

Kallis looked at me, his voice trembling, and asked,

"Did you… push Lina?"

The words struck me like a blow to the head. In an instant, my hands went cold.

"My lord? What are you saying!"

The servant clapped a hand over his own mouth, as if the words had escaped him before he could stop them. I looked at him. I'd heard my reputation had been improving among Berke Castle's staff lately, from all those daily visits to inspect the winter glacier.

Turning my gaze back, I looked steadily at Kallis.

"You go on hurting people to the very end, don't you, Kallis."

The moment my words finished—

As though it had never happened at all, the moonlight spat Lina back out.

"Gasp—gasp…! Aaah! Aaaaahh! Please don't abandon me…. Don't abandon me…!"

"Lina!"

"Saint!"

Seized by panic, Lina clutched her head and curled into herself, screaming. Her body curled inward, her face contorted in agony, as though someone had terrified her badly. At the same moment, pure white holy power bloomed across her wrist and cheek. I hadn't seen it myself, but I'd been told that when Lina first descended, here in Berke territory's frozen lake, that same pattern had appeared etched on her skin.

The priest stationed in Berke territory had hurried to inform the Grand Temple of Lina's appearance, and the Grand Temple had, only then, revealed the oracle it had been withholding—the very oracle stating that the god's proxy would appear at the frozen lake, at the glacier.

A clear oracle, and the mark of holy power. Everything pointed toward Lina being the Saint.

The problem was—

Lina's going to be moving back and forth between the two worlds a few more times.

Today had only been very brief, but the second time, she'll be gone from this world for a full year. I hadn't expected the first time to happen tonight, of all times, either.

"To think I'd end up suspected as a murderer…."

I murmured to myself without meaning to, then bit my lip. My voice had come out far shakier than I'd expected. Clearly the voice of someone deeply shaken. I hoped Kallis hadn't heard, and lifted my eyes—but I was wrong. He was already looking at me.

"I'll take the Saint in hand!"

The servant hurriedly hoisted Lina onto his back and carried her out. From outside, screams rippled through the air like a panorama. Just as I was about to follow them out, Kallis caught hold of my wrist and stopped me. Even a Stern, however powerful, had no talent for making a person vanish and then bring them back. Kallis knew that better than anyone.

"Seria, I misspoke. So don't make that face. Please."

My expression must be that bad. Ever since I'd been transported into Seria, I had always kept my expression carefully composed. Right now, there simply wasn't room for that. A beat too late, I realized just how deeply shocked I truly was, beyond what I'd imagined.

Having been transported into an irredeemable villainess, I had done everything I could to survive. It's easy to say, but scraping my way, day after day, tense and afraid, to rebuild a reputation that had bottomed out—that had never, not once, been an easy task.

I couldn't undo the past evils the original Seria had committed. But Kallis had surely watched, clearly, the good I'd piled on top of them with everything I had. That was exactly why his proposal had made me so genuinely happy. That Kallis had come to trust me, even after everything he'd witnessed of Seria's misdeeds—I'd even been grateful for that.

Even though Kallis had chosen the heroine and driven me to the brink of death—even so, I had believed that year of effort wasn't simply going to vanish. The time I'd spent, worrying and striving, felt suddenly meaningless. That the man who, not so long ago, had told me he loved only me and begged me to come back to him could pierce me with words like this now—

So this is all it takes to make me a suspect—Lina just vanishing. Like this. Just like this.

It was hollow. Empty. Lina's behavior made no sense, and it tangled up with Kallis's suspicion—a suspicion that had burst out of him like it came straight from his gut—and together the shock of it was enormous.

"Dear Grand Duchess?"

A voice cut in unexpectedly. A beat too late, I realized Linon was standing stiffly outside the door, calling to me.

"His Highness wishes to enter the terrace. Will you permit it?"

"…Ah. I'll go out."

"Seria, just a moment—"

As Kallis reached for my hand, Linon's voice dropped in flatly.

"His Highness cannot, under any circumstances, ascend these stairs without the Grand Duchess's permission. It's an unbreakable tradition, and even His Highness cannot violate it. Of course, no other noble may simply enter the terrace either, for that matter."

Linon added, "As for the rest, I suppose sending a formal notice to Marquess Haneton and the Grand Temple should suffice." Even in the midst of all this, the thought flickered briefly through my mind—Berke territory was surely going to use this as an excuse to squeeze an enormous amount out of somebody.

As I took the arm Linon offered and started walking, he added, in a careful voice,

"Why such a hurt expression. It doesn't suit you, my lady…."

Just as I was about to answer Linon—

"Chief Aide of Berke."

Kallis spoke first. He stepped firmly between Linon and me. He looked at me once, then shifted his gaze to Linon.

"I'll go out first."

"That was exactly what I was hoping you'd say, Marquess Haneton."

With the loud voices, and Lina having been carried off on the servant's back, every eye in the great ballroom right now would surely be fixed here—on the Grand Duchess's Terrace.

The Saint had just been carried out on someone's back like that—who would come out of the terrace next? Naturally, it would be Seria Stern, the one person permitted to freely enter and leave the Grand Duchess's Terrace. And what expression would she be wearing?

If Kallis went out first, defying that expectation, all eyes would clearly turn to him instead. In high society, this passed as a courteous consideration. Kallis gazed at me with eyes brimming with feeling, then clenched his fist and descended the terrace stairs.

As expected, I heard the murmuring below swell once, sharply. I watched through the window glass into the hall, then spoke to Linon.

"Linon, go and have them change the music to something softer, more elegant. And the iced champagne—you know the one. Tell them to bring it out now."

"I shall see to it, my lady."

"When you go down, tell His Highness not to come up right now. If he comes up here, it'll draw far too much attention."

"That… yes. Understood."

Not long after Linon went down, the music changed. I'd wondered, briefly, whether it might be better to have them play something lively but loud instead—but that felt too much like closing one's eyes and pretending. Better, I decided, to let music that soothes people's feelings ring out instead.

And on top of that, iced champagne is exactly the kind of drink everyone who comes to Berke wants a taste of.

This had originally been prepared to bring out around midnight, but bringing it out a little early would do no harm now. If I served it now, at least some of the attention would be drawn away toward the drink.

In any case, this was the year-end party I'd worked so hard to prepare, even calling in a favor from Elliot along the way. I had absolutely no intention of letting it be ruined by something like this in the middle of everything.

By the time the great ballroom had grown lively and chattering again, I left the terrace and descended the stairs. I'd half-expected Lesche Berke might be standing at the bottom of the stairs, and worried about that—but thankfully, he wasn't there. That man drew attention so naturally that if he'd been standing there, a crowd would surely have gathered around him in a neat little circle.

I walked slowly toward the wall, the way every lady in the ballroom did. Everyone seemed too absorbed in tasting the iced champagne to pay much attention. Thanks to that, I was able, fairly easily, to slip out through the great, open doors of the ballroom into the corridor beyond—

Where, unexpectedly, I ran into a man I hadn't expected to find there.

"Your Highness."

Lesche stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the wall, brow furrowed. He saw me and straightened, walking toward me.

"…."

I'd wondered if he might be angry that I'd told him not to come up—but he showed no particular emotion. He didn't ask me anything, either. After looking down at me for a moment, Lesche offered me his arm. An ordinary escort. The most fitting posture, for this particular situation.

I obediently laid my hand on Lesche's arm.

"You look like you're about to cry."

"…."

I only wiped beneath my eyes without answering. Fortunately, Lesche kept his gaze forward as we walked, not looking my way, which let me wipe my eyes with a little more ease of mind.

The year-end party somehow, in the end, wrapped up safely. And the next day.

I received shocking news.