Volume 2 - CH 9

“…I see now, why you volunteered to be a cook.”

“Yes, I simply wanted to take on an easy and relaxing role.”

On a certain afternoon…

With Festival preparations well underway, we were in the middle of a conversation when Colette made a noise indicating her disbelief at what I had said.

We had been discussing what food items the class would be serving at the cafe, after we had decided which of our classmates would be taking on the roles of cooks.

Earlier today, we had gone together to meet with the cook that would be teaching the class how to make the bannock we were planning to serve.

Once our other classmates had settled in to begin learning, the three of us left them behind, heading for the usual rear gardens to begin our regular training.

Having learned how easy it was to make bannock, Colette realized what I had tried to do, and she reproached me with a pout on her face.

It was obvious since bannock actually was something anyone could make as long as they didn’t make a mistake with measuring the ingredients, to say nothing about how it didn’t have to be made fresh. Now, having uncovered my attempt to slack off, Colette was staring me down in disappointment.

“W-well… Knowing how to use people well is another talent of yours, Lady Mylene. Once again, I find myself in awe of your abilities.”

“I suppose I should thank you for saying so…”

I thought I had been so smart setting it all up, but I guess it was actually a second-rate plan doomed for failure since it had backfired the way it did.

I had long decided I would let no one take advantage of me in this second life of mine, but it seemed I still had a lot of smartening up to do seeing how this all turned out.

“Haa…”

Well, there was no use thinking so hard about things that have already passed.

It was simple: if I wanted to live the way I wanted, I just needed to have more cards I could play. That was all that mattered.

Once we arrived at the courtyard, I dropped my bag onto the rarely-used bench nearby.

After lightly stretching to relax my body, I began doing practice swings with the wooden sword.

Beside me, both Albert and Colette were also warming up for the sparring and training that was to come.

Things were going as usual.

But there was one new change that happened recently.

“…”

It was Melissa, who sat on that nearby bench.

She occupied the same bench I had left my bag on, sitting quietly still with her hands folded on her lap.

Her relaxed posture was proof that she wasn’t thinking about running away like how she used to. She didn’t even seem to be watching all that intently, either. In fact, she was more like a relaxed cat curled up in her seat and completely defenseless.

Well, I guess she did occasionally look at me, but…

“Woah…”

As I performed my practice swings, she would occasionally let out sounds of admiration.

But seeing her laidback expression and hearing her lethargic voice was beginning to tire me out.

It seemed something had changed in her thinking, ever since that match she had with Albert. I wondered if she was focusing on me now since I was the one who taught Albert, who in turn defeated her.

“…Are the two of you ready to begin?”

It was a little embarrassing to be stared at so closely, so I went ahead and pretended not to notice her.

It used to be that she would look away if I returned her gaze, but now it had become the complete opposite.

I began swinging my sword to try and shake off that feeling of becoming caught in tangled strings.

“Yes! I am excited to begin today’s training!”

“Today shall be the day I land a hit on you, Mylene!”

Meanwhile, for Albert and Colette, this was just another usual training session.

◆

“Haa… Haa…”

“Th-thank you… for the training today…”

“And I too, learned much today.”

While Albert and Colette were breathing heavily, I answered them in a calm, collected manner.

Today, they were once again unable to land a hit on me, an outcome obvious from the conflicted expressions on their faces.

After all, there was a hint of happiness within the frustration they showed.

Colette suddenly let out a great sigh from where she almost slumped over, supporting herself with her sword.

“We are supposed to learn from this training, but… I do not think it is possible to learn anything when there is this much of a difference between our abilities.”

“Actually, that isn’t true at all.”

She muttered something about how they didn’t seem to be making any progress or improving.

But I told her the opposite, and I didn’t just answer out of kindness or consideration for her.

“There are many things you can learn from sparring, like learning to watch your opponent and figuring out the appropriate counter. In other words, it is a good opportuntity for the two of you to learn to look for openings and to act on them. And then afterward, you can reflect on what you did catch and think about how you can improve.”

These two were pretty smart. I was still better than them in terms of ability, but all this training had also benefitted me by making me notice things I hadn’t before.

“Hmm… You are not speaking out of consolation or concern, are you? Though it does feel good to hear that from you… hup!”

Having recovered faster than Albert, Colette enthusiastically straightened up.

Despite being aware of her own inexperience, it wasn’t enough to demoralize her. Colette was the type of person that was not only blessed with innate talent but also the type of person that would continue to grow. It was a truly terrifying potential, if I do say so myself.

“Phew… You seem to be doing fine, Princess Colette. I, on the other hand, am still so far from reaching Lady Mylene, even when she is still holding back her magical power.”

Albert, who took a little longer to recover, suddenly spoke up in a happier tone.

He must have been feeling good because he could see the progress he was making to his own goal — it was a visible kind of growth, after all.

“You certainly have been improving lately, Your Highness. In fact, you seemed especially fierce today.”

“That is correct. I daresay the Prince Albert of the past would not be able to keep up with how fast we were today.”

“Do you really think so? Ehehe… Hearing that makes me happy.”

Their youthful positivity was quite enviable… If nothing else, they had the spirit to persevere. Having already given up on everything once before, I couldn’t help but find their optimism to be dazzling — almost blinding to look at.

Those were my honest thoughts as someone whose only advantages were an overabundance of magical power and a lifetime of experience.

Then again, it was exactly because of that past lifetime that I wouldn’t tire of improving myself now.

“Really though, both of you have become so much stronger.”

“..!”

Having seen them overflowing with motivation today, I might have gone overboard just a little with training.

So any more than this for today would be bad for them in the long run, especially if they overexerted themselves in the process. With that in mind, I suggested ending our training here, prompting a reaction of surprise from both of them.

…And for some reason, it felt as thought we’d been in this same situation before.

“Is something the matter?”

“No, just… Mylene, your smile just now, it was so natural and gentle that I found myself mesmerized. How lovely it was…”

“…I believe I mentioned before that you should refrain from saying things like that.”

I couldn’t help but sigh after hearing Colette fawn all over me.

She would always jump right into complimenting me if there was even the smallest opportunity to do so. Well, I guess it didn’t feel bad at all to have someone give heartfelt praise…

…but right now, Melissa was watching us, and even if she already knew what Colette was like in private, that didn’t mean I was okay with her witnessing all of it.

“…They seem to completely trust her… She’s completely different from the other one…”

Melissa continued to stare unblinkingly at me as I walked over and picked up my bag, preparing to leave.

She seemed to be quietly mumbling about something under her breath, but I couldn’t hear what she was saying since I was still too far from her.

I really hoped she wouldn’t have any more strange misunderstandings about me; adding more complications to the situation was the last thing I wanted to have happen — at least, that was what I had been thinking when Melissa suddenly got to her feet.

“Mylene Petyul”

“..?”

And she called my name.

Her abrupt outburst took not just me by surprise but also Colette and Albert as well.

It was the first time in over a month that Melissa had addressed ‘me’ directly.

“I must apologize for how I have been acting until now, and… there is something I must speak with you about. Would you be willing to come with me outside the Academy for a time?”

She bowed her head but was sneaking glances at me with upturned eyes.

It was very strange to have her look me straight in the eye.

I had no idea what could have caused it, but it seemed she’d had a change of heart.

“…Of course, I would be happy to accompany you.”

I replied, giving her a soft smile, and Melissa let out a quiet, relieved sigh before looking up; her expression hadn’t changed.

It hadn’t changed at all, but I could feel relief coming off her; I was surprised I could see it — we hadn’t talked at all over the past month, let alone held a conversation with one another.

“Oh? Shall we be going elsewhere then? Let us gather our things and hurry on over then.”

“…I must beg your pardon, Princess Colette, and yours as well, Your Highness, but please allow me to speak with Mylene in private.”

Colette, who was always with me, naturally tried to include herself, but Melissa firmly rejected her.

After all, she would be having a talk with the person she had been fearful of this entire time.

As for me, this was finally the chance I’d been waiting for. I balled my fist in excitement as I gave an apologetic look to Colette, hoping she would understand, and…

Without needing to hear any more from me, Colette nodded almost imperceptibly.

“…Fine then, I understand. I shall overlook this little tryst of yours, Melissa, with Mylene. Let us return for now, Prince Albert.”

“I suppose there is nothing we can do here, Princess Colette. I shall return the practice sword at a later time then, Lady Mylene. Let us meet again tomorrow.”

“Thank you both for your understanding, and I hope the two of you have a pleasant day.”

I saw them off, and after they were out of sight, I turned to face Melissa once again.

While I could still see a hint of hesitation remaining, it was mostly a resolute determination that filled her eyes.

“So what now? Where would you like to go? I assume we will be talking about things you do not want other people to hear, even by accident.”

Things wouldn’t continue if we just stood around like this, so I took the initiative and urged Melissa on. Besides, if we weren’t done by dinner time, I would likely go hungry tonight.

“…Right. It is as you say: what I need to talk to you about is something I do not want others to hear. Follow me.”

With that little push of mine, Melissa finally continued.

Follow her, was it? It felt rather strange to hear that coming from the girl who had been trying to sneak around me.

I nodded in assent and walked along behind her, careful to keep my manners in check.

◆

It took sometime for us to leave the Academy grounds, but now we were walking around town.

Just as I was getting uncomfortable following Melissa around in complete silence, she suddenly stopped and turned to face me.

“Let’s use this place. We can talk in private here.”

Melissa pointed out a certain teahouse — no, a coffee shop; it happened to be the same one Albert and I had come to that day, looking for information about the incident back then.

There shouldn’t be anyone who knew we had come here, but… was Melissa aware of us back then too? Questions began creeping into mind, but I ignored them for now.

The building itself seemed deserted, tucked away in an inconspicuous corner of town. Really, from a glance, if I wanted to find someplace where I wanted to talk privately without worrying about being overheard, this would be the ideal location.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, I was just thinking about something rather unimportant.”

“..?”

After thinking about it a little more, I realized it was impossible for me to not have noticed Melissa stalking me back then, given how careless she had shown herself to be this entire time.

And that meant Melissa had only been doing this recently.

“Welcome.”

As we passed through the doors into the coffee shop, the apathetic owner gave a half-hearted greeting and a quick, disinterested glance.

He only spared us that much attention before returning to the book he was reading, without so much as directing us to a seat.

Melissa didn’t seem to expect such a cold reception as she glanced back and forth in confusion, so I went on ahead to one of the tables closer to the back and took a seat.

“Are you… used to this kind of thing?”

“In a way, I suppose. Please have a seat, Miss Melissa.”

Melissa carefully tiptoed over, as though she were walking on thin, unstable boards.

When she finally took her seat, she once again stared straight at me, with furrowed eyebrows and a serious expression.

I wanted to tell her it was a little too late to be acting all solemn and dignified, but that would have led to an unnecessary distraction.

“I’ll have an Earl Grey — actually, make that two please.”

“You got it.”

To keep us from looking too suspicious, I ordered tea for the both of us — one that didn’t taste too great.

We were just here to talk, so it didn’t really matter what we ordered as long as we did.

The owner showed barely any reaction at all despite the order being two of the top listed items on the menu; I suppose I was lucky he even acknowledged it at all.

Melissa’s eyes widened in surprise, probably because I had placed an order without consulting her.

“…Thank you.”

“No need to mention it.”

She must have realized she would have taken a longer time to figure out what to order because her only response was to stay quiet and thank me.

For a sheltered young lady like Melissa, whose only outside exposure was the Academy, coming to this kind of place must have been quite shocking.

This was a pretty dilapidated restaurant, with old and worn tables and chairs, and the owner seemed rather cold and inattentive to us, his customers.

“Two Earl Greys, here you go.”

We waited in silence, but before long, the owner, seemingly also the only server of this place, brought over two steaming teacups.

It was a rather plain, undecorated cup with no use beyond holding liquid.

A brown liquid had been poured into both of them.

Once she saw the owner had left, Melissa brought one of the cups to her lips.

“…How bland.”

As an added bonus, it seemed the tea was also quite unpleasant.

This restaurant that even commoners seemed to avoid continued to leave strong impressions on this sheltered young lady.

Melissa looked like a surprised cat.

Wait, no, that wasn’t quite right, was it? I was starting to feel a little worried, but there was something more important I needed to address….

“So? Why the sudden change of heart? I am happy that you are finally willing to talk, but this is something I would like to know first.”

…and that was the reason that pushed her to start talking.

Melissa paused for a moment before looking straight at me.

“I have been… watching you, for some time now, and it looks to me that Prince Albert and Princess Colette trust you quite a bit. Both of them are rather good at judging others, so the first reason why I believed you might be trustworthy enough to talk to is because they do, too.”

The first reason’, she said? So there were other reasons. I quietly waited for her to to continue.

“And the second reason… is because of your eyes. You were always watching over those two with kind, compassionate eyes… No truly bad person would be able to have such an expression. That was what convinced me.”

The earnestness of her words caught me off-guard, and I could feel my face begin to heat up from the embarrassment of unexpected praise.

I wanted to completely deny what she was saying, but I was reluctant to do so since that had been why she finally decided to talk to me.

“I-is that so…”

In the end, I forced myself to swallow that unspoken denial and instead clenched my fists.

…If I had to hear more compliments like this, I really might just burn up out of embarrassment.

Seeing that I was quietly listening to her, Melissa tried to continue speaking, but she kept stumbling over her words and starting over; the entire process repeated itself a number of times.

She eventually seemed to have decided on what to say, and she furrowed her eyebrows before looking me straight in the eye.

“…Were you already aware that I am called the Oracle of Iltania, the one that can hear the voice of our God?”

“Yes, Prince Albert previously explained it to me. Is there more to it?”

Hearing what she said, I knew it was finally time, and I forced myself to stay calm.

I hadn’t thought much of it in my previous life, but in this current life, ‘Iltania’ was no longer something I could just ignore. And if that God’s ‘Oracle’ had something they wanted to tell me, then it had to be about something meaningful — or so I thought.

“This will be easier to explain then, since you are not completely unaware. The Oracle, myself and those who came before, can occasionally sense the will of Iltania, like a divination, of sorts, and we record what it is we sense, however abstract they may be. It is by analyzing the recordings that we can accurately predict events.”

Divination? So like fortune-telling? That just stank of suspicion, but I kept that thought to myself.

I still hadn’t learned what this had to do with me, so I needed to just keep listening. It would be silly to just cut her off here, after coming this far, and besides, I could always just laugh when she was done.

“…We record that will by picking out cards at random from a pile, cards with different kinds of designs on them. I brought them with me today to show you, so here, take a look.”

It probably seemed like I wasn’t going to interrupt her, so Melissa quickly reached into her bag, retrieving a neat stack of cards and hading them to me.

…The backs of these cards are quite detailed, and I didn’t see anything that would differentiate one card from another. It probably took some amount of skill and effort to make cards that looked as nice as these.

I probably needed to randomize these cards as much as possible then.

This must have also been how they predicted the disasters that could have destroyed the Kingdom.

I shuffled the stack of cards a number of times before pulling one off the top.

“This is… a river?”

On the other side of the card I picked was an illustration of what looked like water in motion.

“It is also usually interpreted as ‘flowing water’.”

I called it a river to be precise, but it didn’t seem like I was too far off from the interpretation.

I turned over another card, and…

“This next one is… money.”

“It is as you see. It can also be interpreted as ‘gold’.”

This time, the card had a coin on it.

I turned over the stack and examined the cards; each one had a different picture, depicting various objects or events.

…I see. I understood how this all worked now.

“These cards are what let us record the will of Iltania. Basically, it is the Oracle’s job to pull the cards that make the message, while specialists analyze and find the meaning behind them.”

“Is that right..?”

Basically, it was something like a game of associating meanings to combinations of pictures. For example, getting a card with water on it and then another with rain can mean something like ‘there is a flood coming.’ Or picking out a card with money and then another depicting an ominous moon could mean ‘money will become less valuable’, and so on.

And it was the Oracle’s job — Melissa, in other words — to pick the cards.

Really, to me, this all just sounded like an exaggerated way of describing a fortunetelling scam meant to make money, but…

“…Allow me to demonstrate then. First, I will need your help.”

“Of course. What should I do?”

“Please shuffle the cards, and then divide them up anyway you want. Try to be as random as possible… and please be careful as you handle them.”

Melissa explained it quite smoothly, seemingly quite used to doing so.

That was only natural; since doing the shuffling herself created the possibility that she knew where each card was and could pick them out accordingly.

Though I was still only half-convinced, I shuffled the cards as she instructed.

“You seem rather used to this.”

“I often had time to spare at home.”

It was actually becaused I used to gamble in my previous life, but that wasn’t a detail I needed to share.

Nevertheless, Melissa didn’t press any further.

Once I finished, I divided the pile into five different stacks.

“…Now watch.”

Melissa’s aura suddenly became cold and sharp.

Her tranquil face was more solemn than I had ever seen before, much more befitting of an Oracle and completely unlike the timid, skittish animal that I was familiar with.

Her slim, thin fingers gracefully approached one of the stacks of cards.

And in one smooth motion, she flipped over a top card.

“Ha…”

I couldn’t help but sigh at the result; it was a card with an obvious meaning, one easy enough for anyone to read.

“Looks like… a skull.”

“Correct; it is a human skull. Because of its ominous nature, the skull card symbolizes calamity.”

After moving the skull card to the middle of the table, Melissa reached over to another stack.

“Next is the sword.”

“…Just a weapon? Or is it something like conflict?”

“Very clever. As I thought, you must… No, I will leave that for later.”

The second card showed a sword. It was a weapon, but what if it meant war?

…That interpretation had come to mind because seeing the skull card — calamity — suddenly reminded me of the previous history. It was like a flash of recognition had struck me.

After all, there really had been a ‘catastrophic conflict.’

It very likely referred to Colhoun’s invasion of the Kingdom, at the very end of the history I remembered.

I felt my heart beat faster — no, I didn’t need to worry yet; it hadn’t happened. And surely it was common to be warned of great conflict during these kinds of things.

But if the next card Melissa revealed was one of the three I suspected…

If she flipped over a lion, or a moon, or, no, if what she flipped over was…

“…Ah.”

I had expected it; I stayed calm because I was expecting it, but I still felt my heart skip a beat when I saw it.

“Here it is. This is the reason why I have been watching you and following you.”

…the Sulberia flower, then there was nothing left to doubt. I would be forced to admit Melissa’s ability was the real thing.

And indeed, the next card she flipped over depicted the very same flower said to be loved by God.

Even without an explanation, I knew what this meant; the only thing it could be referring to was ‘Mylene’.

The bearer of the Hair of Sulberia is involved with a catastrophic conflict of overwhelming scale’ — in other words, the cards described a future that I alone knew for certain to be true.

…Her power had to be real. I had been ready to doubt it entirely, and then it had convinced me by predicting the war in a future only I knew.

I reflexively held a hand over my mouth, lost in thought. Melissa, seeing my reaction, tilted her head in query.

“…Could it be that you have an idea of what this is saying?”

“Unfortunately, yeah… Damn it all, I was happy enough believing it was only partially true..”

“Ah..! Did you just… No, was that who you really are?”

“Hm? …Tch, slipped up. No use keeping it up any longer, I guess, but… yeah, this is it.”

Having Melissa question me mid-thought had caused me to drop my mask.

“I see… I was a little surprised, but… I have to say, it seems more natural for you to be this way. To me, anyway.”

“Ugh, do you know how hard I’ve had to work on this? Just so that I could play the part of a perfect noble lady?”

It was a terrible blunder on my part to have revealed my true self, but that being said, I couldn’t deny that things would be easier for me now that I didn’t have to hide my real self from Melissa.

“So your usual way of speaking is..?”

“Just a disguise. If I didn’t act the part of a proper noble lady, I’d attract a lot of unwanted attention.”

“…I understand. Though, now that I think about it, whenever you trained with His Highness and Princess Colette, you did seem cruder than usual.”

Though she was surprised at first, Melissa seemed to easily accept my true nature for what it was.

But she had noticed a difference when I had been training, huh? Few people actually watched us, but there were sometimes curious onlookers. I would have to watch myself a little more carefully in the future then.

But that wasn’t anything important right now.

— In the end, it was just fortune telling, just as I’d suspected. As I thought more about it, anyone who made a living working scams like this would be able to pull off the same kind of trick.

But if I looked at this more calmly, it was obvious that Melissa didn’t have the skills necessary to fake it, to say nothing of how eerily close the cards were to the future that I knew… That wasn’t something Melissa should be aware of in the least, so seeing it spelled out so plainly had caught me completely off-guard.

“…I knew it. You are not ‘her’. Not in the least.”

“You said something like that last time. What’d you mean by it?”

Now that she’d mentioned it, there were still things I wanted to know.

It wasn’t only anxiety and surprise that sprung from my heart after I saw the cards she had flipped from the stacks.

There was one other feeling: uncertainty. There was something I couldn’t quite understand about what the cards implied, especially with how things were now.

It didn’t make any sense. ‘I’ had become Mylene, but the cards implied we were still headed for the same future I remembered; the message was still ‘the Sulberia will cause a great upheaval.’

With Albert the way he was now, there shouldn’t be any risk of a civil war happening in the Kingdom. Meanwhile, the force behind the Kingdom’s fall– the invasion by the Empire of Colhoun, in other words — showed no signs of possibly happening given my continuing relationship with Colette.

But most importantly of all, the bearer of the Hair of Sulberia, Mylene, was not the same; the future I knew, the one resulting in the destruction of the Kingdom, shouldn’t be possible if the original source had changed.

So it was strange that the cards still foretold the same outcome.

I wouldn’t have been as surprised if the third card wasn’t a Sulberia and was something else instead — like if it had been another card depicting a snake or one of a moon, either symbolizing the Gods of the Moon cult.

But no, the third card had been a Sulberia. Did that mean despite everything I had done so far, Mylene would still be the reason why the Kingdom was doomed? No, wait, or maybe this was the fault of God; could it be that Iltania was unaware that I was now Mylene?

“When I first met her — Mylene Petyul, that is — she was a truly horrible person. If there was something she did not like, she would scream at those around her until she got her way. But it was not as though she was ignorant of social cues and etiquette; no, she knew them, but she considered herself above it all and acted like a god that could arbitrarily rewrite the rules to suit her desires. I met her only once, and from that meeting alone I knew she would never not be a terrible, terrible person.”

I had lost myself in thought when Melissa, recounting her past with Mylene, brought my attention back.

But while her words were harsh, there was something about the way she spoke that made it seem like she wanted to put the past to rest.

“And yet here you are before me, a Mylene that is not Mylene. To begin with, you may be crude, but you wear a mask to obey social etiquette and expectations. You are diligent, training every day to become stronger. You are even favored by both Prince Albert and Princess Colette. None of this, not one, is anything ‘she’ could ever have been capable of.”

“You sure are saying a lotta nice things… I think you might be a little off with Albert though.”

I scoffed at her words, knowing that, in a way, Albert hadn’t changed at all in how he behaved compared to what I had heard in the future I remembered…

“…His Highness has always been a faithful believer, but I can tell something has changed. Now he trusts you, a mere human, over Iltania.”

…and yet she seemed to have noticed the difference.

Well, saying Albert trusted me was quite the understatement, but it was clear to me that she was concerned about the crown prince of her country in her own way.

“And I know you are smarter than you let on. Take the class discussion about the Festival. You skillfully pretended to be innocent to try and take the eaiest job for yourself.”

“…You actually noticed what I was doing.”

“I know I may not look the part, but cooking is actually a pasttime I enjoy. Let me guess: you were planning to prepare teacakes that would keep well ahead of time so that you could slack off later, right?”

Melissa held up two fingers, her face smug with triumph.

…Huh, she was better than I thought. I had her pegged as an air-headed little girl, but she was observant; her eyes were keener than I’d thought.

Well, it wasn’t like I could confirm if Melissa would have saw through what I was doing if cooking wasn’t her hobby… Well, seeing as she wasn’t all that shocked when she discovered my real personality, I suppose she might’ve at least suspected it.

Either way, she was a surprisingly crafty girl.

“Oh, there is one more thing.”

I rested my head on the hand I propped up on the table and feigned disinterest as I turned toward Melissa’s voice.

“After a certain point in time, the cards — about you, that is — changed. It was… a little hard to believe at first.”

Her words disturbed me, like a single droplet sending ripples across a tranquil lake.

Melissa paused for a moment before continuing.

Her fingers, the color of unblemished porcelain, fell like gentle snow upon the next stack of cards.

“The message had always the same: ‘the Sulberia shall bring conflict unto the world’. But then, after a certain point, there was more to it. I could hardly believe, and yet, no matter how many times I tried, it stayed the same.”

She spoke slowly, softly, like a gentle stream, and she flipped over the next card.

The hell was she on about now? Her words didn’t make any sense, and yet I found myself unable to speak up to interrupt her. I could only watch her.

Depicted on the card was…

“…Scales?”

…a balanced scale.

What a confusing card. It couldn’t be referring to a literal scale, so it had to be about what it represented — balance then, or equality?

“Meaning ‘harmony’. This presence of this card changes the ones before to mean the opposite. In other words, ‘the Sulberia shall prevent the destruction of the world’.”

“Preventing the world, huh… No, wait, how do the scales have that kind of meaning? Isn’t this better interpreted as ‘the Sulberia shall level the world’?”

For some reason, I couldn’t just accept the interpretation Melissa offered.

No, well, it wasn’t that I was against that outcome — that was the goal I had been working towards the entire time — but it wasn’t interesting to know that it would all work out the way I wanted.

“No, that is not a correct interpretation. I know this for certain because we, the Oracles, have spent generations learning to analyze Iltania’s will. For example, for your interpretation to be correct, the revealed card should have been the desert card, not the scales.”

And just like that, Melissa completely shut out my argument, hiding a triumphant grin behind her hand.

That smug attitude of hers was getting real annoying, but I needed to hold it in for a little longer.

My annoyance must have shown on my face because Melissa began to clear her throat to continue the conversation, as though she realized she was getting carried away.

“If you look closely, you will see that this card depicts balanced scales, meaning it is to be taken with a positive meaning. The entire message should thus be read as follows: ‘A great war will engulf the world, but the Hair of Sulberia shall restore the balance to bring harmony.’ In other words, you are the key to saving this world.”

But still, based on what I learned today, hearing her out was worth it.

…Thinking back, I actually knew nothing about what happened in the previous history after I died.

If what Pelmann said back then was true, then it was probably safe for me to assume that they had eventually claimed Mylene’s body to use as a tribute to call their so-called Greater God into existence.

In other words, it was not impossible to believe that those cultists had succeeded in causing the destruction of the world. And they probably had powerhouses among their ranks — such as Pelmann, but surely there were others just as strong, if not moreso — that could handle groups of general-class soldiers without trouble. It was hard for me to imagine even the future Colette, at the peak of her strength, not being at a disadvantage against them.

And most of all, if their faith… if their God desired a world of chaos, it didn’t seem so farfetched that their ultimate goal was the destruction of the world.

“All of this… is a little hard to believe.”

While it made sense, it was a different matter altogether when it came to believing it to be true.

“I felt the same as well. After all, how was I supposed to believe that idiot girl would somehow be the key to saving the world?”

“You’re telling me. Not that I disagree.”

“But that was why I withheld my judgment and instead began observing you. I wanted to see for myself the kind of person you were, whether I could trust you. And you know, you were quite the troublesome person, right from the very beginning. It went as far back as the entrance ceremony, where you were involved in fights at every turn, but… it was all because you were trying to help someone else.”

“…Ugh.”

She was overestimating my character.

Because as long as I… as long as the people around me were fine, that was good enough for me.

But it was because I felt that way that I became involved in so much more than I needed to, to the point where I was still cleaning up messes I’d made back then. Still, I felt that was better than being misunderstood.

“…Okay, then so what? What do you get out of telling me all this?”

An unexplainable itch began bothering me, but I did my best to ignore it as I looked away with a shrug.

Melissa carefully nodded her head without paying any particular attention to my actions.

“Actually, there are quite a number of things I would like to ask, but… I do not need them answered now. For now, I have but one request: please let me know immediately if you encounter anything you think may be related to this prophecy.”

“And why would I do that? How will telling you about it help with anything?”

Her sense of responsibility was admirable, but it wasn’t something this little girl — who couldn’t even beat Albert — should be worrying about.

I scoffed at her with disdain, but Melissa steadily kept her eyes at me as she continued.

“That may be so, but nevertheless, I love our country. I love Iltania, and I want to do anything I can to protect this land that our God loved. There must be something that I can do to help, so please; if you find there is something I can do, please let me help.”

Her eyes — those were not the eyes of the cowardly girl I thought I knew.

This was just an instinctive feeling, but Melissa didn’t seem like the kind of person to deceive and manipulate others.

And at the same time, her words lacked an intention to gain trust or anything like that.

Rather, I could feel the devotion in her words — an untainted trust she had in Iltania, and the purehearted wish to protect her country, her people… This small child of a girl really, truly, desired that above all else.

…And tragically, that was what had led to her end, in that doomed history I knew.

“…Unfortunately for you, I don’t think your beloved Iltania really likes peace.”

After all, this girl so devoted to her God had, in the end, died in vain, only to become the very spark that set off a civil war. How was I supposed to believe the God this girl loved, her beloved Iltania, could be anything good when they allowed that to happen?

I couldn’t help but click my tongue in annoyance as I recalled that miserable future.

Melissa’s expression darkened as she heard my words, but she still shook her head.

“No, that is not true, after all…”

Her voice trailed off with hesitation, but after a moment she shook her head as though to clear her thoughts and returned her gaze to me.

“…it is the reason why ‘you’ are here. That is what I believe.”

“…”

I wanted to answer with more sarcasm, but I found myself unable to say the words.

After all, I had wondered that myself; why was I here? Why had I become the bearer of the Hair of Sulberia? I had always wondered, always thought about it, but I couldn’t figure anything out.

In the first place, how was I supposed to? All I knew was that I had somehow been forced into the body of the most hated person of a history only I knew. What else could I call it if not harassment from God?

Or maybe, taken another way, it had been a whim of God to answer a certain empress, who presented a certain woman to a stray mutt.

“Tch…”

That was as far as I wanted to go, and yet I couldn’t think of any real reasons.

But that being the case, Iltania would remain a no good, useless God until I did learn the reason.

“Then, shall we end our discussion here? Princess Colette may have allowed us to speak in private, but I believe it unwise to loiter for too long. It would be best for us to return soon.”

“…All right then. We shall continue this another day, as we have spoken at length already.”

There was something still bothering me about all of this, but I ignored it and donned my mask once again.

And regardless of how I felt, it seemed Melissa wasn’t ready to continue the conversation.

The Sulberia shall bring balance and restore harmony’ was what she said, but… was that really the reason why I was here?

I wasn’t sure why a random mercenary like me had been chosen to for such a lofty role, but it wasn’t like I hadn’t already been pushed around and through annoying things on a selfish whim before.

And if it really were that — just being pushed around on a whim — then that was another reason for me to punch God in the face.

“Owner, may we have the bill?”

“All right, two Earl Greys, and here’s your total.”

I paid the bill — rather expensive for some mediocre tea — before leaving the restaurant.

The owner didn’t ask about the taste, but I didn’t feel the need to tell him about it either.

After all, the cup of somber, undisturbed liquid still sitting on the table was answer enough.