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chapter 08
Vincent found himself staring at nothing more than a chubby-cheeked little girl.
“…Just what did you learn something like that for?”
“Hmm… Hide-and-seek?”
The answer caught him off guard, and a quiet laugh escaped his lips.
So she plays hide-and-seek too.
He’d assumed she had no interest in childish games. Maybe she was far more innocent than she’d first appeared.
Though, in truth, the “hide-and-seek” she spoke of involved enemies hunting each other with death on the line.
Completely unaware of that grim reality, Vincent looked at the adorable child before him and steeled his resolve.
“All right! I’ll master it no matter what!”
* * *
“Laila, the kingdom is going to fall soon. Come with me.”
“Vincent… Please don’t say that. I can’t abandon Rohaide.”
Standing well away from the secret meeting place, Adele listened to their conversation and thought to herself—
You’ve got to be kidding me.
While you two are busy with your little lovers’ quarrel, the ones who’ll actually die are the soldiers on both sides.
She scuffed the ground with the toe of her boot, irritation simmering beneath her calm expression.
No one ever cares about what’s actually important.
If she told the queen as much, Laila would probably burst into tears and apologize over and over.
Not that Adele particularly cared whether she cried or apologized.
There was nothing the queen could do.
The real problem was the king.
The king adored his queen to the point of obsession. If Adele exposed this secret rendezvous, there was nearly a one-hundred-percent chance he’d have her executed on the spot.
She was an indispensable knight in the coming war against the enemy kingdom.
Yet the king behaved like a man who had lost all reason to love. If he discovered the queen secretly meeting Vincent like this, he wouldn’t care if the entire kingdom collapsed afterward.
He would simply kill Adele.
Anyone who laid a hand on his woman paid for it with their life.
Some people even called that romantic.
Adele certainly didn’t.
What kind of king abuses his authority like that?
Perhaps he made a devoted lover.
Though honestly, she wasn’t convinced of even that.
But as a king?
He was hopeless.
That had always been her opinion.
Once upon a time she’d dreamed of conquering the world herself. But after tasting enough bitterness, she’d long since abandoned such childish ambitions.
Leaning against a tree, she let out a weary sigh.
If the king ever learned of this meeting, he’d undoubtedly feel deeply betrayed.
He’d lock himself in a spacious room, drink expensive whiskey alone, and brood dramatically into the night.
Then he’d smash the bottle, descend into another fit of madness, and terrify the entire palace.
The unfortunate maids would be the ones to suffer for it.
After ruining the atmosphere of the royal court, he’d spend days agonizing over whether he should imprison the queen so she could never leave the palace again.
And when all that soul-searching was over—
He’d chop off Adele’s head.
If tonight’s meeting were discovered, the maids, Adele, and perhaps even the gatekeeper who allowed the queen to leave would all become victims.
“They’re really enjoying themselves, aren’t they?”
Powerlessness was a miserable thing.
Adele’s death would merely become another lesson for the queen—a painful reminder to be more careful in the future.
As she clicked her tongue inwardly, Vincent’s voice reached her ears again.
“What’s so great about that worthless man?”
It was a pitiful, jealousy-filled remark.
Yet before she realized it, Adele found herself nodding.
He wasn’t wrong.
The King of Rohaide was a worthless man.
After all, he was perfectly capable of executing a knight who had merely obeyed orders and been dragged into this mess against her will.
For a brief moment, she wondered if it was strange to sympathize with the enemy kingdom’s ruler.
Then she dismissed the thought.
Who cares?
This was a secret meeting.
Once the two of them parted ways tonight, this encounter would cease to exist.
Which meant the fact that she’d silently agreed with Vincent would disappear along with it.
Adele glanced back.
She stood far enough away that their words occasionally drifted to her, but their faces remained indistinct.
Even so, beneath the silver glow of the moon, the man looked remarkably beautiful.
Laila stood before him with tears streaming down her cheeks while Vincent gently wiped them away.
To anyone watching…
They looked like lovers.
Does Queen Laila even realize…
…that her careless little rendezvous places my life on the line?
Or that she’s feeding Vincent’s hope?
Someone as hopelessly naïve as she was could never understand.
Not before.
Not now.
Not ever.
Then again…
What about him?
Perhaps sensing her blatant stare, Vincent lifted his head and looked directly at Adele.
His eyes clearly said,
Stop staring.
Adele answered with an equally blatant look.
What exactly are you going to do about it?
For several long moments, an odd silent battle unfolded beneath the midnight sky.
* * *
When Adele awoke, she frowned.
Why did I dream about that…?
It was as random as suddenly regaining memories of a previous life after realizing she was merely a character inside a story.
“What a ridiculous dream.”
She shook her head vigorously, dismissing it.
What was the point of dreaming about something like that?
All it had accomplished was reminding her that the King of Rohaide was an incompetent fool and Queen Laila lived with flowers blooming inside her head.
I wonder what those love-crazed idiots are doing now.
Vincent Rogato was seven years old now.
Which meant those two should be around the same age.
If she remembered correctly, Laila was two years younger than Vincent.
They were still children.
But by now, the king and queen had already begun building the bond that would eventually become their legendary romance.
Their engagement had been decided before either of them was even born.
A sacred promise between royal bloodlines.
That was why the entire kingdom had celebrated when a daughter was born into the count’s household.
Curiously, Adele had never personally experienced any of these events.
Yet somehow…
She simply knew them.
Perhaps because they formed the very backbone of the story itself.
Then was it inevitable… that Vincent would eventually fall in love with Laila?
There was no way to know.
Not until he grew up and entered the Academy.
“Enough with the stupid dreams. Time to head to the training grounds.”
She climbed out of bed.
A week had already passed since training began.
During that time, Vincent had filled out a little. Healthy color had returned to his face, and with his posture corrected, he even looked taller.
Adele sniffed the air.
The delicious aroma told her the mage had just finished preparing breakfast.
Clutching her loudly growling stomach, she headed straight for the kitchen.
As expected, the table was already overflowing with mouthwatering dishes.
Without so much as a word of thanks, she plopped into a chair and immediately began devouring the food.
She had no intention of showing manners to the enemy’s future right-hand man.
Unfortunately…
She could no longer earn money by smashing walls.
Apparently making a little kid do demolition work wasn’t exactly acceptable.
Now that her source of income had vanished, she needed a guardian.
So eating his food was nothing more than a temporary ceasefire.
At least, that was how Adele chose to see it.
But today, something felt different.
Instead of leaving for work, the mage sat across from her, quietly watching her eat.
…Did he get fired too?
Unable to endure his gaze any longer, Adele finally spoke.
“My fists aren’t merciful.”
“Hm?”
“Especially toward perverts.”
The mage blinked.
Then, a moment later, he burst into laughter.
Perhaps being threatened by a six-year-old was simply too absurd.
Still…
He looked far too amused.
Watching the strangely cheerful man, Adele slowly shook her head.
Definitely a weirdo.
How was an ordinary person supposed to understand a lunatic?
“You’re a fascinating child.”
“You’re pretty strange yourself.”
At her blunt reply, he chuckled again.
“I’ve never seen a soul like yours before.”
“You talk like you’ve lived for centuries.”
He looked barely into his twenties.
Hearing such old-man remarks from someone so young was bizarre.
His speech certainly didn’t sound particularly wise, either.
“…A soul?”
The mage nodded.
“I’m researching the world.”
“I observe people. Nature. Anything and everything.”
“My research has no limits.”
The smug grin in his voice made Adele want to punch him.
“So I’m one of your research subjects?”
Being called an experiment by someone who looked more like the experiment himself wasn’t exactly pleasant.
Still, Adele patiently waited for him to continue.
She was impressed with her own maturity.
The old her would have already punched him.
“Whether it’s a person, an animal, or a plant… every living thing possesses a vessel for its soul.”
“And they’re all roughly the same size.”
“So?”
“But your soul’s vessel…”
He narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
“I can’t measure it.”
“It’s… difficult to see properly.”
Adele’s lips curled upward.
“I’ve always been a little special.”
The woman who would one day transform a kingdom into an empire.
That was Adele.
Hearing her soul was unusually large instantly erased her irritation, and she continued eating with obvious satisfaction.
Resting his chin on one hand, the mage quietly murmured,
“It’s almost hard to believe you’re even from this world.”
“I didn’t catch that.”
“Good.”
How anticlimactic.
He’d spent all that time watching her just to say her soul was unusually large?
She couldn’t help wondering how he’d react if he ever learned the truth—
That this world wasn’t reality at all.
Only a story.
