Episode 2
I became nine years old.
Just yesterday, I was twenty-four. Now I had become a nine-year-old child.
I couldn’t understand what on earth had happened.
I was certain that I died while protecting my grandfather—Grand Duke Crayton.
There were still many enemy soldiers I hadn’t dealt with, so after my death the Grand Duke of Crayton must have met his end as well.
But when I came to my senses, I had returned to the past.
No matter how many times I thought it over, I couldn’t find an answer.
Still, if becoming a nine-year-old child was my reality now, there were things I needed to remember.
One: that in a year my mother would pass away from an incurable illness.
Two: that my mother’s faith had not been betrayed.
I stared blankly at my reflection in the mirror for a long time, then turned my head toward my mother.
I could see her back as she cooked in the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
“Mom, are you busy today?”
“No. I’m not busy. As you know, there hasn’t been much work lately. I think I’ll be at home for a while.”
She spoke as if it were nothing, but she couldn’t hide the worry and unease in her voice.
After my father passed away, we barely managed to survive on the small amount of money my mother earned helping with village work.
Having no work meant a chance to rest—but it also meant worrying about how we would live for a while.
My mother should have been the most noble lady in the Empire.
She was the daughter of the powerful Crayton Grand Ducal family—one that no one dared to look down on—and she had once been the current emperor’s fiancée.
Yet for my sake, she did every kind of hard work without complaint.
When I was young, I didn’t understand how difficult things were for her back then.
But now I did.
I turned around and slowly walked toward her.
When I finally reached her from behind, I wrapped my arms around her as she cooked with a carefully hidden expression.
“Mom.”
“Oh my, did you have a strange dream or something? Our Bell—why are you acting so clingy?”
“Just… because I like you, Mom. I love you.”
If there was one thing I regretted during the fourteen years I lived alone as a mercenary, it was that I never told my mother “I love you” enough.
Her voice—one I thought I would never hear again.
Her face—one I thought I would never see again.
Now that I could see them both again, I didn’t want to leave any regrets behind.
“I love you too.”
At her gentle voice, tears welled up in my eyes again.
I loosened the arms I had wrapped around her and wiped my tears.
Now that my body had become nine years old, it felt as if my heart had become a spoiled nine-year-old too.
But I couldn’t just stay like this and act childish.
I missed my mother this much—so she must feel the same way.
Because she also had a father.
She must have written those unanswered letters because she missed Grand Duke Crayton so deeply.
“Mom, you said I have a grandfather, right?”
“…Yes. Of course you do.”
My mother gave a bitter smile.
Holding her hand, I wanted to comfort her.
“Let’s go see Grandpa.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I felt her hand tighten slightly.
But she couldn’t immediately say yes.
“Bell, Mom…”
I knew.
I knew why she hesitated to meet my grandfather.
My mother had chosen love and abandoned her family.
She had run away, leaving behind everyone who trusted and loved her. Returning now would not be easy.
On top of that, even though she had sent letters of apology to Grand Duke Crayton, no reply ever came. She must have believed she would never be forgiven.
“I don’t think I can go to him.”
In the end, my mother let go of my hand and turned away.
Even without seeing her face, I knew what kind of expression she must be wearing.
—
I knew it was unreasonable, but I had to make a decision.
If things continued as I remembered, my mother would die while longing for Grand Duke Crayton until the very end.
And the Grand Duke would be killed by Daniel while waiting for the daughter who never returned.
If I wanted to change the future I knew, I had to act.
At dawn, when the first light of morning settled over the world, I packed a small bag and left my room.
The house where my mother slept was completely quiet.
I looked around the room once before placing the letter I had prepared earlier on the table.
She would probably be shocked if I disappeared leaving only a letter like this, but this was the only way.
Even if my mother sent letters to the Grand Duke, Daniel would intercept them anyway. The only way was to meet him directly.
Besides, my mother didn’t have much time.
In one year, she would close her eyes forever because of illness.
When I was a child, I could do nothing while watching my mother die.
But things would be different with the Grand Ducal family.
For my mother’s sake, I had to leave.
After taking a small breath, I stepped out of the house.
Yesterday I had already found a merchant caravan leaving the village for the capital, so I needed to arrive on time.
Looking at the slowly brightening sky, I quickened my pace. I had to get there before the caravan workers arrived.
If I were twenty-four, I would have simply bought a horse and ridden there myself.
But as a nine-year-old, I had neither money nor strength.
When I arrived at the Griam Merchant Guild, the wagons were already full of goods that had been loaded the day before for transport to the capital.
Guards stood around protecting the cargo, but they posed no obstacle to me.
In the past—or the future where my mother had died—my dying mother gave the last of her money to a mercenary and asked him to take me to the Crayton Grand Ducal family.
But the mercenary who accepted the job abandoned me in a neighboring village and left.
Left alone at ten years old, the way I chose to survive was begging.
No one would hire a young girl as a worker, saying she was useless.
Even begging wasn’t easy. If I ran into the wrong vagrants in a village, I had to give up begging there and move somewhere else.
Since I couldn’t freely travel past guard checkpoints on my own, I hid in merchant wagons.
Before I started earning money properly at thirteen, this was the only way I could move around.
Sometimes I was caught and beaten badly by the merchants, but that only happened when I was extremely unlucky.
After nearly three years of moving around this way, sneaking into cargo wagons had become incredibly easy for me.
Avoiding the guards’ eyes, I searched for a wagon.
With a grunt, I climbed onto a wagon piled high with cargo.
Between the tightly packed goods, there was just enough space to hide my small body.
I pushed around the heavy cargo until I made a hiding spot where I couldn’t be seen, then settled inside.
The space was so cramped that discovery would be difficult, but just in case, I covered myself with a black blanket.
After some time, the surroundings became noisy as the workers arrived.
“Check the cargo before we leave!”
Someone shouted, and footsteps approached.
Soon the wagon shook. Someone had climbed on to inspect the cargo.
I curled up as much as possible and held my breath.
I heard the sound of papers flipping—they were probably checking the inventory.
I just hoped this moment would pass quickly.
As I waited quietly, the footsteps that had come close gradually moved away.
“All clear!”
At the worker’s shout, the tension drained from my body and I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
“Good! The cargo’s checked—let’s get moving soon!”
After some more time—probably while they checked the other wagons—the cart finally began to move.
Just as I relaxed into the rattling motion of the wagon and was about to close my eyes, I heard a rustling sound somewhere nearby.
My body tensed instantly and I pressed my lips shut.
Could a worker still be here?
That didn’t make sense.
I was sure they had checked the inventory and climbed down.
As I focused my attention, the rustling suddenly stopped.
Just as I was about to relax, thinking it might have been a mouse, a voice spoke from nearby.
“Who are you?”
The voice didn’t sound like an employee of the merchant guild—it still had a childish tone.
“I know you’re there.”
He had lowered his voice so it wouldn’t carry outside, which made him sound just like someone who had sneaked into the wagon like me.
I lifted the blanket slightly and looked toward the direction of the voice.
There was something like a bundle of silver thread.
Squinting my eyes, I looked closer.
It was a small boy with silver hair.
His clothes were covered in dirt as if he had been rolling around on the ground, making him look quite shabby.
I lowered the blanket a little and stuck my head out.
“When you ask someone’s name, you introduce yourself first.”
He seemed like another kid who had snuck into the wagon like me, but I kept my guard up as I spoke.
The boy looked surprised for a moment, then nodded.
“My name is Jeffrey Coleman.”
“Jeffrey Coleman?”
The moment I heard his name, the face of someone with the exact same name flashed through my mind.
The Jeffrey Coleman I remembered also had bright silver hair and blue eyes—handsome, just like the boy in front of me.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason I remembered him.
Jeffrey Coleman was the most famous mercenary on the continent.
People even called him the **Mercenary King** because of his incredible strength and skill.
The mercenary group he founded was said to be strong enough to rival the Empire’s Lion Knights.
And when I was living as a mercenary, he was the man who tried to recruit me into his company.
“What? I introduced myself, so why aren’t you?”
His irritated voice snapped me back to reality.
“I’m Mirabel. Mirabel… Hale.”
After a moment of hesitation, I gave him my current surname.
Hale was a fake surname my parents created to avoid the eyes of the Crayton Grand Ducal family.
But to me, it was my real name.
Ever since I was born, I had always been Mirabel Hale.
Jeffrey murmured my name for a moment.
“That’s a pretty name.”
“Huh?”
“N-No!”
When Jeffrey suddenly tried to shout in embarrassment, I quickly raised a finger to my lips.
“Shhh.”
As the quiet hiss escaped my lips, Jeffrey immediately realized the situation and covered his mouth.
If we were discovered riding in the cargo wagon, we would definitely be thrown out—and in the worst case, accused of theft, beaten badly, and dumped in the woods.
Holding our breath, we listened carefully to see if anyone outside had heard.
Fortunately, it seemed the sound hadn’t reached them.
I sighed in relief and leaned my back against the pile of cargo.
“Stay quiet. If we get caught making noise, we’re in big trouble.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Jeffrey scratched his cheek awkwardly, clearly aware that he had made a mistake.
