Chapter: 31
When she opened her eyes, the room was steeped in the red glow of the setting sun.
When did I fall asleep?
Jeanne wiped the haze from her senses with a quick splash of water on her face. She moved to get up without thinking, but a sharp pain stabbed her side, forcing her back onto the bed. Along with the pain, memories of what had happened before she fell asleep came flooding back.
The subjugation had ended safely when Laurent dealt with the last megalodon.
She hadn’t realized it at the time, but once the worst was over, her whole body began to ache as if she had come down with a severe fever.
She had wasted divine power and aura with a body far weaker than in her prime—and on top of that, she’d been injured. The aftereffects were greater than she’d expected.
Afterward, she had been helped back to the knights’ quarters…
“The wound isn’t deep, but you’ll need to rest for several days.”
The physician had given her a sharp warning along with some medicine. She took it right away, and before long, heavy sleep dragged her under—bringing her to this moment.
Jeanne gently placed her hand over the bandages wrapped around her abdomen. The incident itself was over, but her thoughts had only grown more tangled.
Why did the megalodon appear earlier than it should have?
If Jeanne hadn’t been there, Cassis might have been wiped off the map today. She was glad the disaster had been prevented, yet no answer to her doubts came to mind.
The only possibility she could think of was—
What if my coming to Loren caused a butterfly effect that altered history…?
Thinking that she herself might be the cause made her side throb even more painfully.
Just as she let out a sigh, a knock sounded at the door.
“Are you awake?”
It was Iris.
“Yeah, come in.”
Jeanne carefully pushed herself upright. Iris quietly opened the door and stepped inside.
“Please stay lying down. You’ll reopen the wound.”
Seeing how difficult it was for Jeanne to sit up, Iris hurried over to lay her back down. But somehow, talking while lying flat felt more embarrassing.
“It’s fine. This is more comfortable.”
Suppressing a groan, Jeanne leaned her upper body against the headboard.
“How’s the situation outside?”
“The subjugation’s finished all the way to the Plage coast. The investigation isn’t completely done yet, but it looks like there were no casualties.”
“I see.”
Hearing the current situation eased some of the tension clenched in her body. It still hurt, but compared to her previous life—where the entire village had been annihilated—this was a small price to pay.
“You’re injured, and you’re smiling?”
“You said there were no casualties.”
“Well… I suppose this is all thanks to the Goddess’s Child, isn’t it?”
“……”
Iris’s sudden words made Jeanne flinch as if pricked by a needle.
Within the Royal Knights, Jeanne had always been isolated for being the Goddess’s Child.
At first, they harassed her for being a commoner riding on Alexis’s coattails. Then they said she was arrogant for being a Master. In the end, they even picked on her simply because they disliked the sharpness of her eyes.
Anything that stood out became a target—so more than anything, she wanted to hide the fact that she was the Goddess’s Child.
But when her comrades were dying before her eyes, she had no choice but to reveal it.
After that, Alexis pushed Jeanne into nothing but the fiercest battlefields. The more she distinguished herself, the greater Alexis’s fame grew.
She rose through the ranks quickly—but no one truly followed her. They wouldn’t even fight back-to-back with her…
“What help could ordinary humans like us be? The great Goddess’s Child will handle everything herself, won’t she?”
They hid behind her, using her as a shield.
It’ll be the same here, too.
The First Division knights were good people. But accepting a commoner as a comrade and accepting a commoner as the Goddess’s Child were two very different things.
Knowing that, Jeanne steeled herself—
for being isolated within the knight order,
for growing numb to jealous stares,
for being abandoned alone on the battlefield against monsters.
“Does it hurt again?”
“Huh?”
“Your complexion suddenly got worse.”
Iris asked with concern as she looked at Jeanne’s face. Unable to tell the truth, Jeanne forced a small smile and shook her head.
It’s fine. I’ve been through this once already.
She told herself that she’d already been inoculated against it—that even if the same thing happened again, it wouldn’t hurt.
Just then, the closed door suddenly swung open.
“Hey, Iris. The captain asked if Jeanne’s awake—”
A man with wavy brown hair, wearing the same knight’s uniform, strode into the room. He was a senior knight from the same division.
“Huh?”
When he saw Jeanne, his eyes and mouth went wide.
“You’re awake?”
As he walked straight toward her, Jeanne flinched in surprise. He was a senior, but they’d barely spoken before—yet he approached her as if they were old acquaintances.
“Hey, the captain told us to inform him immediately once Jeanne woke up.”
“I just got here myself.”
“Oh? Then hurry up and report to the captain. I’ll have a little chat with the Goddess’s Child.”
“……”
The Goddess’s Child… ma’am?
The senior knight gestured for Iris to step aside and plopped himself down on the edge of Jeanne’s bed.
“You okay? The injury doesn’t hurt too bad?”
“Yes… I guess.”
“What kind of answer is that? Anyway, you really use both aura and divine power?”
“…Yes.”
“Whoa, that’s insane. How can there be two Goddess’s Children in the same era? And both in our knight order?”
His eyes sparkled like a child meeting a hero.
“Let’s shake hands just once.”
“Pardon?”
“You never know. Maybe if I receive the Goddess’s Child’s blessing, I’ll awaken aura or divine power or something.”
Before she could refuse, he grabbed Jeanne’s hand tightly.
She considered pulling away, but his eyes were so pure and guileless that she couldn’t bring herself to.
The one who objected was Iris, who was still standing there.
“I don’t think shaking hands will make aura awaken.”
“Hey, I was just saying.”
After that, he kept talking nonstop—about how Loren must be the most blessed knight order in existence with two Goddess’s Children, and how joining this place was the greatest fortune of his life.
Still dazed, Jeanne waited until he finally let go of her hand. Before long, other senior knights began filing in one after another.
“Leclerc, you’re awake?”
“How’s your body?”
“How did you hold off that many megalodons by yourself?”
“Wait, isn’t there supposed to be only one Goddess’s Child per era?”
“Guess the Goddess was feeling whimsical.”
They each tossed out a comment, and every gaze directed at her was clear and sincere. Not a trace of murky emotions like jealousy or envy was mixed in.
Jeanne’s room stayed lively for quite some time. It finally quieted down only after Laurent chased everyone out like flies, telling them to return to duty.
The First Division knights scattered in a hurry. Iris, the last to leave, told Jeanne to get some rest before exiting the room.
In the silence that followed, Jeanne stared blankly at the closed door for a long while.
As if the daytime commotion had been nothing more than a mirage, Cassis greeted a dawn no different from any other. The villagers slept, and the town lay quiet.
The only difference was that knights stood guard at the harbor, just in case.
Claude watched the scene from a short distance away when Laurent came running toward him, eyes wide in surprise.
“Huh? Young master?”
His expression said he hadn’t expected Claude to come—much less arrive this early.
“How’s Jeanne?”
“She regained consciousness earlier. She says she’s fine.”
Hearing the report, Claude finally released the breath he’d been holding. Laurent narrowed his eyes.
“Oh? So someone was so worried that he crossed a journey that normally takes a full day in just half a day? Judging by the dirt, you definitely came over the mountain path…”
“Enough.”
When Claude shot him a glare, Laurent feigned innocence and looked away, though a faint smile lingered on his face.
Claude cleared his throat lightly.
“No more megalodon sightings since then?”
“None so far.”
“Good. You did well.”
Leaving instructions for Laurent to continue commanding the site while he stepped away, Claude ran toward the lodgings.
Even with the peaceful town before him, his heart wouldn’t settle.
Once before, because of his own carelessness, he had lost his territory, his people—and he had nearly lost the one person who was everything to him. Self-loathing made his teeth clench.
He asked the knight guarding the quarters where Jeanne’s room was. After a brief moment of shock at Claude’s sudden appearance, the knight eagerly told him the location.
Claude muttered a distracted thanks and went straight to Jeanne’s door without looking back.
“Jeanne?”
He knocked, but there was no answer.
Is she asleep? If so, he should quietly leave—but right now, he needed to see her face. Only then would his heart be at ease.
“I’m coming in.”
He opened the door without waiting for permission. But the moment he looked inside, all expression drained from Claude’s face.
The bed was empty.
Only the rumpled blankets remained.
