Chapter 124 — I Possessed the Villainess’s Daughter

Why do bad things always come all at once?

Iveharun, who I hadn’t seen in a while, brought me a piece of shocking news.

To me, who had been glad to see her after so long, that news felt like lightning out of a clear sky.

“…Elia and…?”

I found myself stammering without meaning to. Iveharun watched me with a steady look.

“Yes. I heard it as a rumor too, but there are a few people who say they actually saw the two of them together.”

“…….”

Desperately searching for something to say, I finally managed to speak.

“…Isn’t that just a rumor? They both work at the palace… it wouldn’t be strange if they met a few times…”

“…I wish that were all.”

Iveharun trailed off.

“The idea that Elia was dating Prince Alteo isn’t something I want to believe.”

I pressed my lips shut.

That was it.

At the palace the rumor that Elia and Prince Alteo were involved was running rampant.

I couldn’t take Iveharun’s words as absolute truth, but one thing was certain.

There were people who said they had seen Elia and Alteo together more than once.

And it wasn’t just one or two people.

Among those witnesses was someone I knew. To get the facts straight I rushed, after work, to see her at the administration office.

“It’s true.”

She nodded without hesitation.

I felt all the strength drain from my body.

I just wanted it to be a lie — just a rumor… I had hoped that desperately. It felt as if something I depended on was crumbling to pieces.

“They were walking together the other day. It didn’t look like they were just acquaintances meeting by chance.”

“…Solti…”

Standing in front of me was Solti Kidson, whom I hadn’t seen in a long time.

She’d neatly tied up her slightly faded olive hair, and violet light flashed behind her glasses. She looked far more mature than she had as a student. Dressed in a beige skirt suit, she looked every bit like a competent palace official.

She had once been my senior at the academy and a fellow member of the student council. She had also helped me during the trial involving Prince Alteo back then.

After graduation she naturally became an official of the Ulyssis Empire, so I’d assumed — perhaps vaguely — that after I became a court mage we’d run into each other from time to time.

I’d never imagined I’d meet her again over an issue like this.

Elia had not been in the student council, but as my roommate she sometimes helped with student council tasks, so Solti and Elia had a fair amount of familiarity. Solti continued.

“I was curious about what sort of relationship it might be, but I didn’t pry. That’s private, and since a prince is involved, I didn’t want to treat it as gossip.”

“…But…”

She was right.

Who someone dated was a private matter; I had no right to interfere.

Still, Elia knew that the second prince, Tearoha, and the first prince, Alteo, were political rivals.

And she knew that I liked Tearoha.

Yet she had been meeting with Alteo?

I found myself biting my lip.

Solti seemed to interpret it as anger on my part.

But my feeling wasn’t mainly anger or betrayal… something else rose up in me even stronger.

It was fear.

Suddenly something surged in my chest, and my body felt hot and hollow at the same time.

Elia and Alteo were the protagonists of the book.

They were the heroine and hero of the romance novel I’d once read — “Elia’s Story” — a book whose details were already growing faint in my memory.

In that book, Elia and Alteo were lovers for the ages.

Elia, a country girl from the north with no status or wealth, meets the empire’s first prince, Alteo, by chance. Bumbling in some ways but cheerful and positive, Elia quickly falls in love with the promising young Alteo, and like Cinderella, her life is turned around.

By contrast, Laila — who had been Alteo’s fiancée — falls rapidly into ruin.

Her engagement to Alteo is broken, her family’s standing collapses, and a civil war breaks out led by the Roshahil family.

Even now, thinking about the brutal fates of the Roshahil family sends chills down my spine. Just recalling the scenes of their deaths turns my stomach.

“You okay?”

Solti checked on me.

“I… I’m fine.”

I gagged a little. Solti hurriedly rubbed my back.

I’d come into this world and then had so many of the book’s events not happen the way they did that I’d stopped worrying about civil wars or a family’s ruin. The same with the fight for the throne: I believed in Tearoha and his ability, so I had no doubt he would win.

…But…

If fate really exists, what if all this time I’d only changed small, insignificant parts? What if the big events in the book — Alteo becoming crown prince, the Roshahil rebellion — still happened exactly as written?

As if Elia and Alteo, who seemed to have nothing to do with one another, were suddenly to meet by chance.

I gripped my trembling shoulders. I had no idea what to do.

“…I don’t know what to do from here on out…”

An irrational, frantic anxiety overwhelmed me.

Seeing me shake, Solti spoke.

“Laila. Why don’t you go ask her yourself?”

“…Go and ask her in person?”

I stared at her, shocked.

Behind her glasses Solti’s violet eyes were very calm.

But not cold. There was genuine worry for me in them.

“Wouldn’t asking Elia be the fastest way to get an answer?”

“…….”

“You can be disappointed or angry afterward — that can come later. For now, it’s only a rumor.”

Solti’s suggestion made sense.

Since it was only a rumor, maybe I was overreacting. I vaguely remembered Elia’s address; she lived near the capital.

Should I go see Elia?

“…….”

But a timid part of me hid in the corner of my heart, terrified to face this fact head-on.

Not knowing what answer I might get made the thought of confronting her terribly frightening.

As if sensing my fear, Solti stroked my back again. The warmth of her hand made my back feel a little less cold.

“It’ll be okay.”

“…….”

“Don’t worry too much. Everything will be fine.”

Even if it was an empty reassurance, I appreciated it.

I managed a small, shaky smile.

“Thank you…”

“Think about it. Even if Elia is a bit clumsy, she wasn’t someone who was untrustworthy, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

Even my trust in Elia felt powerless in the face of this sudden fear.

How much could I really rely on Elia?

Sadly, I had no confidence.

I was glad to have met Solti after so long. I would have liked to talk more and hear how she’d been.

But unfortunately we separated quickly. Solti told me to get some rest and calm down, while I thought that after calming down I should hurry and meet Elia to hear the truth of the matter.

Elia Emon.

Because she was an imperial civil servant attached to the administration, she received various welfare benefits: tax breaks and extra points when applying for the capital’s communal dorms, among other things.

One of those benefits meant she was able to live in the women’s single dormitory near the capital.

Back around the time we graduated from Rebecam Academy — when the capital’s rents were high and Elia was having trouble finding a place to live — I had once suggested she come live at my duke’s estate. There were plenty of spare rooms and if I invited her as a friend the family would never object.

But she insisted she’d manage on her own, and she really did manage to secure a spot in the capital’s communal dormitory.

She’d never invited me over, saying it was too cramped to host guests, but when she first started living alone I sent her flowers. I’d sent her gifts and invitations from time to time, so I was certain I remembered her address. Besides, not long ago I had sent her a bouquet wishing her well.

‘Why had Elia been sick?’

I rested my head against the carriage window and idly traced a meaningless pattern on the glass.

Inside, I composed the questions I would ask her. Sunset light filtered through the curtains and filled the carriage. For some reason the light looked lonely — perhaps because my heart was lonely. My reflection in the window looked completely bewildered.

When we finally arrived at her residence and I knocked on the door, she wasn’t home.

No answer came even after I knocked again.

On a hunch I tried the door, and it opened without resistance.

Since it was a women-only dormitory it was safer than most places, but the fact that whoever managed its doors left them so poorly secured was classic Elia — careless.

I knew an unannounced visit could be rude. But today I hadn’t even had time to give prior notice. Of all days, the owner of the room had to be out.

I bit my lip.

Perhaps she only stepped out for a moment?

I went inside to the foyer and called for Elia, thinking maybe she hadn’t heard the knock.

“Elia?”

No one answered.

An anemone bouquet hung upside down on the shoe cabinet by the door.

It was the get-well bouquet I had sent her the last time.

It looked as if Elia planned to make dried flowers from it. The bouquet, crisp and dry, had lost its vitality and gave off a faint, desiccated floral scent.

I stood rooted there for a long time, and then, exhausted from Elia not appearing, I left.