SALP Chapter 17

Vigo's expression didn't change.

"Still. There've been a few times I almost died."

He laced his gloved fingers together and adjusted them to fit his hands perfectly.

"Will you pray for me to come back safely?"

"Like the old days."

Ugh. Bringing up the past to make my heart soften...

"It'll be a problem if I don't come back."

He looked at her warming face from the corner of his eye and smiled.

"You don't want that, do you? Derek Gebimonde will come running immediately and carry you off."

"Does other people's misfortune entertain you?"

Even as she bristled, suddenly furious as if she'd never softened, he showed no sign of remorse.

"It does. How could it not be entertaining, thinking about the rewards that bastard will offer me while trembling?"

Talking so lightly, laughing like that. Is he serious? No, isn't it also a problem to call that kind of thing a joke?

He provoked her thoroughly and then left the room without a word of farewell. In an instant his boots left the carpeted area, their heavy tread striking the wooden floor in jarring thud-thud beats.

The moment the man in his drab clothes who'd said nothing but drab things disappeared, the room felt one shade dimmer, somehow.

Lanthe collapsed onto the bed and glared at empty air.

'What meaning did you have in bringing me here, angel?'

'I don't understand anything. Nothing at all...'

She didn't feel like she was someone significant who'd experienced a miracle. After that one inexplicable event at Newbella's lake, only extremely ordinary days had followed. Days as a completely orphaned wanderer who'd lost everything, feeling betrayed by a childhood friend who'd appeared as something like a turncoat—that kind of ordinary.

Was it true that she could revive Raphlang? Even if it were, what meaning was there in reviving the old kingdom? What would revival even be? If it meant the miracle of the vanished kingdom's people coming back to life, that would only be horrifying. Or if it meant recovering the prosperous kingdom's relics from that era, that too would only become grounds for conflict.

'Do you think there's anyone with power who hasn't killed a parent or two of someone else's?'

'What even was paradise, anyway?'

At least as long as the people living on this land were the sort who shared Vigo's way of thinking, paradise—even if it were born—would collapse before lasting a single day.

If only the Raphlish hadn't been massacred that day, she might at least have dreamed of someday having a small territory where they could all live together...

Lanthe pulled the blanket over herself and fell back asleep lying face down.

In her dream, she was reunited with the Vigo she'd lost and spoke to him eagerly. But he couldn't quite understand what she was saying.

"Who are you?"

He didn't recognize her at all.

"It's me! Lanthe!"

"Lanthe?"

He looked at her with an expressionless face.

"Ah. Were you the girl next door who liked me?"

"This is ridiculous..."

"Then?"

Without even recognizing her, he kept touching her face and hair, kept trying to make her lie down beside him. He seemed to have become a completely impure adult.

"W-we were best friends. You came to my house all the time. We ate together, we rode sleds together."

"Did we?"

Frustrated, she pounded her chest with her fist, but he just twisted his lips and smiled like a mean person.

"Sorry. It seems I've come down with amnesia."

"What's that? If you forgot me, then go away."

"Come here. Sleep next to me. Hm?"

Even though she said no, he stubbornly made her lie beside him and then let out a satisfied sigh like a well-fed beast.

Lanthe squirmed in his arms, grinding her teeth.

"Hurry up and remember me, you fool. Think harder."

"Mm."

Then Vigo stared into the distance for a moment, lost in thought, before opening his mouth.

"Ah. I remember."

"Really?"

She sat up in delight, and he smiled gently at her.

"Lanthe Entridhal."

His thick arm wrapped around her waist.

"The girl next door I liked..."

Heat hit her face—sudden, total.

"Ha."

Suddenly hot, she exhaled a burning breath and opened her eyes.

Deep green wavered before her—for a moment she thought she was in a forest, but soon realized it was the canopy draped behind the bed.

Vigo's bed. And she was alone.

"Sleeping in makes me have strange dreams..."

She cooled her burning cheeks with the back of her hand and sat up.

'What an indecent dream.'

She felt unsettled about lying there until the sun had risen so high for no good reason. She wanted to shed the habits from her time in Newbella as quickly as possible. Let me eat quickly and think about whether I have anything to do.

When Lanthe hurriedly changed clothes and came out, a black shadow approached.

"Won't you eat in your room?"

Hair the absolute black of a raven's wing. Eyes to match.

Warner.

"Ah, yes... Where did Commander Rix go?"

The rather shocking scene from yesterday when she'd first seen him came to mind, and Lanthe spoke in a slightly tense voice.

"I'm on shift while Rix rests. I apologize for not informing you in advance."

Warner used a dry, polite tone. His gaze—showing neither goodwill nor hostility—had a feeling similar to the cold expression Vigo sometimes wore.

Not quite a demon at all, but enough atmosphere to recall the source of the fear Raphlish people had held toward Penmarkians.

But this person is Vigo's subordinate...

"I look forward to working with you, Sir Warner. And I prefer eating in the dining hall."

A subordinate who seems to be high-ranking among subordinates.

Lanthe carefully offered her greeting and walked toward the dining hall. It felt awkward just from the footsteps following her changing—only a few days of being watched.

"Lanthe sis!"

When she reached the stairs, a welcome voice called from below.

"Where are you going? I just finished eating and I'm on my way to see you. Hello, Sir Warner too!"

"Come on up, Nina."

"Can I take Lanthe sis with me?"

Even though they saw each other every day, Nina grinned happily and clung to Lanthe's waist. Even for her, Warner seemed to be a more difficult person than Rix—her attitude was quite more demure than the times when she'd just act cute and assume "Of course it's fine, right?"

When Lanthe looked back at Warner as if seeking permission, he nodded.

"As you wish. The lord gave no specific instructions regarding Miss Lanthe's schedule."

"Yay!"

Nina swung her arms vigorously. Lanthe smiled too and gently fixed the loosened ribbon in her hair.

"I'm going to eat now, will you wait?"

"I'll come with you! The meat pie today is really delicious. I have to eat more!"

For now, the major problems Lanthe wanted to solve came down to about three things.

First. If the angel of Eründel had helped her because she was Raphlang royalty, was there a way to receive help or communicate in the future?

Second. Was it okay to confide in Vigo about Derek's plan and her secret?

Third. What did she need to do to go to Floretta and live an ordinary life?

Finding the other people who'd escaped Roas would have to wait until she solved at least one of the above problems—she had no choice but to postpone it.

First, the key to the first problem was getting help from someone knowledgeable about Raphlang. Unless a miraculous revelation from heaven descended.

But could there be anyone more versed in it than Derek and Fiarelle, who were plotting the absurd plan to revive Raphlang? Looking at it coldly, she could only reach a pessimistic conclusion. Even Fiarelle, who'd tracked Raphlang survivors for ten years, could only speculate about the "angel of Eründel." She hadn't even foreseen that Lanthe would escape through the lake.

Regarding the second problem, getting someone else's help was completely impossible. Lanthe had to judge for herself what kind of person Vigo was. If informing him of Derek's plan made him abandon any thought of sending her to Derek, that would be the best result.

But if he continued showing no particular opposition to Derek's behavior as he had until now, the scale of the ransom negotiation would just grow larger and things would proceed the same way. Moreover, if Lanthe herself came to be treated as "the key to reviving Raphlang," an even more difficult future might unfold.

The third was the path closest to the future Lanthe had first dreamed of in Newbella. Going to Floretta. But enormous expenses were required. Saving them would take a long time. The question was whether that amount was something she could earn through labor before winter passed, and whether Vigo would interfere.

"Ugh, I'm full!"

'The most realistic option is still the third one—going to Floretta. If only I could fly to Floretta in an instant like when I came from Newbella to Hermea...'

"I ate two more. Should I get more pie? It's savory and salty and spicy and delicious, right?"

The more deeply she thought, the more her doubts grew that there was no realistic solution at all. Do I have to leave my life to others' intentions like this and just hope for good luck?

"What would you do, Nina?"

Lanthe asked gloomily while chewing and swallowing the meat pie bursting with juices.

"If I were you, I'd eat more!"

"Right. Let's eat more..."

At Nina's innocent answer, Lanthe busily worked her fork again.

She's right. The first priority in a dining hall is eating.

"We skipped dinner yesterday too!"

"That's because we ate too much lunch at the square yesterday."

"Still, let's eat a lot!"

"Fine. Just one more."

She accepted the last remaining pie gratefully and took a bite, then drifted back into other thoughts.

I'm lost. I have no idea where to start or how to proceed.