Chapter: 36
She lost Jeanne right before her eyes.
She tried to grab her somehow, but Jeanne ran away without even looking back.
The moment the emptiness hit her and she looked down, she froze at the dizzying height. Just as she was about to call Jeanne’s name, their gazes met.
Not Jeanne, hoping she would come back—
But Claude. Someone she couldn’t stand to even look at.
“Why the hell is that bastard there again?!”
Those red eyes flew toward her like arrows. Philip came running up, urging her to leave before people started staring, and she had no choice but to rush back to the carriage.
Fortunately, the Loren knights didn’t give chase. Still, the moment Alexis climbed into the carriage, humiliation boiling over, she exploded.
“I definitely left first—so why?!”
“Well, th-that’s because the Grand Duke knows the shortcuts, and we took the long way along flat roads, so….”
Philip explained carefully, but to Alexis his words were nothing more than the buzzing of an annoying fly. She shot him a sharp glare, and Philip pressed his lips together and lowered his head.
The carriage began moving, and a heavy silence settled in.
The world was quiet—except inside Alexis’s head.
[I came of my own will!]
She had knelt before me before the investiture ceremony. She said she would offer her sword to me.
[I came to Loren by my own choice… I even wanted to come here badly enough to use the antidote as an excuse.]
Was that tearful expression a lie? No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t believe it.
The Jeanne she knew was stubborn like a bear and incapable of lying. She wasn’t the kind of woman who would serve another lord—she didn’t even know how to pull fox-like tricks.
[So the one you chose… was Claude?]
[Yes.]
If Jeanne had gone to some other noble, it wouldn’t have made her this furious!
Alexis stomped her foot and unconsciously bit her nails. Then a sharp pain made her jerk her hand away. A jagged hangnail between her nails had scraped her lip.
Claude was exactly like a hangnail.
Just when you thought it was gone, it would stick out and scrape at your nerves. Tear it off by force, and it festers painfully. Just when it finally seems healed, it grows back again.
“Argh! Damn it!”
The image of the two of them holding each other flashed through her mind, and her blood boiled. She lashed out, striking everything around her as if she might break it.
When the situation began to resemble the chaos of their departure from Loren, Philip kept his mouth shut and waited for Alexis to calm down.
‘How do I get Jeanne back?’
Giving up was never an option. Even if Jeanne rejected her, Jeanne was still hers. That was as natural as the sun rising in the east, seawater being salty, or rocks crumbling into sand.
And that wasn’t all.
The way Claude had looked at Jeanne—if only briefly—hadn’t been normal. She’d suspected it since the moment he threatened her, but now she was certain.
Claude had feelings for Jeanne.
How thrilling and sweet would it be to snatch Jeanne away right in front of that bastard’s eyes?
Just imagining that moment made her expression soften. But then, unable to think of a method, her chest felt tight, like she’d swallowed something she couldn’t digest.
“Philip.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Find a way.”
“…A way to do what?”
“What do you think?!”
Why was he so dense?
“Obviously, a way to get Jeanne back!”
When she snapped at him, Philip opened his mouth in protest, then shut it again.
“What’s with that look?”
“N-no, nothing. But wouldn’t it be better to have someone close to Jeanne persuade her?”
“Who would that be?”
“Family, or friends.”
It was a clichéd solution, but even Alexis had to admit it was the best one.
Even if she formally protested to Loren, Claude wouldn’t bat an eye. Trying to take Jeanne by force would only end with her jumping away again like before. Jeanne had to return of her own will.
Her friends were unknown. But—
“Jeanne’s father is in Donremian, isn’t he?”
The schedule in Cassis came to an end. Leaving the aftermath to Viscount Raches, Claude, Jeanne, and the knight order returned to Loren.
Like a place after a storm had swept through, Loren became quiet again. The knights returned to their daily routines.
Yet even after returning, one thing kept nagging at Jeanne’s mind like a thorn—the appearance of the Megalodon, which had emerged two years earlier than expected.
Right after regressing, she hadn’t tried to find out why she had returned to the past. She’d been too busy running from Alexis, and she’d brushed everything aside, thinking that as long as she could change the future, nothing else mattered.
But this incident changed her thinking.
If the Megalodon’s appearance had been moved forward, then the demonic beast that attacked Donremian could also behave differently from her previous life.
She couldn’t just dismiss it as coincidence and stand by. If she failed to protect people again, then restarting her life would be meaningless.
She had to learn the truth behind her regression.
Unfortunately, there were no experts who could explain it. Even in the novel she had read before regressing, there was no mention whatsoever of how to turn back time.
Which meant there was only one thing she could do—investigate it herself.
Fortunately, thanks to a doctor’s recommendation, Jeanne was granted two additional days of leave. Deciding to devote her suddenly empty schedule to research, she headed to the library inside the castle.
“Oh…!”
Claude had told her before that it held nearly as many books as the Royal Library of Brienne, but seeing it in person, it wasn’t an exaggeration.
She was stunned once by the massive exterior, larger even than Claude’s residence, and stunned again by the tightly packed stacks of books inside.
With a quiet sense of hope that she might find something, she grabbed every book that seemed even remotely relevant.
Hours later, the desk was piled high with books like a tower.
《The Fourth Dimension》
《I Have Memories of a Previous Life》
《The Time Reverser》
《A Second Life: You Can Do It Too》
…
Her expectations crumbled instantly.
‘There’s not a single useful thing here!’
All of the books were thick enough to be used as pillows, but none of them answered her questions. Jeanne rested her forehead against the top book and let out a long sigh.
‘Well… if this kind of thing were really written down in books, everyone and their dog would be dreaming of rebuilding their lives through regression.’
Disappointment washed over her, and her head felt like it was about to seize up. Still, she couldn’t afford to despair. Determined to find even a single clue, she headed back to the shelves.
Since a scientific approach had failed, she decided to look into mythology and supernatural studies instead.
She slipped between the shelves filled with related books, pulling out volumes with promising titles and gathering them in her arms.
Then her gaze was drawn to someone reading on the opposite side.
‘Huh?’
Jeanne froze. The figure’s back looked extremely familiar. After glancing around, she called out to him in a low voice.
“Sir Gaston?”
Though she spoke as softly as possible, he flinched and whipped his head around.
“Jeanne—ah, Sir Jeanne?”
“What brings you here at this hour?”
“Well, um… there’s something I wanted to check.”
Gaston smiled awkwardly and closed the book in his hands.
“I heard you were on leave, Sir Jeanne…”
“Well, I just…”
She couldn’t exactly say, I’m researching regression.
Jeanne lifted the corners of her mouth awkwardly and gave a vague answer. With nothing more to say, she was about to leave—when the title of the book in Gaston’s arms caught her eye.
《Everything About the Golden Dragon》
Come to think of it, the Golden Dragon was also a mythical, supernatural being. There might be a clue in that book.
Clinging to even the faintest hope, Jeanne pointed at it with her chin.
“Could you lend me that book once you’re done reading it?”
“This one?”
“Yes.”
“I can just give it to you now. I’ve already finished it.”
She’d expected to borrow it later, but Gaston handed it over without hesitation. Jeanne whispered her thanks and opened the book to check the table of contents.
On the very first page, only one sentence was printed in bold.
The Golden Dragon watches over us always, from a place we least expect—very close at hand.
— Charles de Brienne
Many historical figures had spoken of the Golden Dragon, so it was strange that this book quoted Charles de Brienne in particular. He was a tyrant who had been judged for attempting to wage war against Loren.
“Um, Sir Jeanne.”
As she turned the next page, Gaston spoke up.
“How much do you know about the Golden Dragon?”
