“Chronos’s…… sacred relic?”
“Yes. Well, myths are like that. It’s a pretty far-fetched story. Hehehe.”
Bell stuck out her tongue and giggled.
“I wonder what that relic from the myth looked like.”
“Wouldn’t it probably be shaped like a clock? When you think of the symbol of the god of time, nothing comes to mind more readily than a clock. They say ancient painters even depicted the god Chronos holding an hourglass.”
I suppose that made sense.
I erased the image of the cute dolphin from my mind. No matter how much I thought about it, whenever I tried to connect a dolphin with mythology, the only thing that came to mind was the Goddess of the Stars.
A dolphin pulling the chariot that the Goddess of the Stars rode between the stars.
“But why are you suddenly asking about that?”
Bell asked curiously.
“Just…… because I think I may have done something I’ll regret, like my wet nurse said.”
“You said earlier that you hadn’t done anything like that.”
……
As the atmosphere suddenly turned awkward, the wet nurse patted Bell on the back to divert attention.
“Oh, my! When did His Highness ever say such a thing?”
At the same time, she glared at Bell.
Although her eyes made no sound, their meaning came across perfectly clearly.
What an oblivious little thing! You’re supposed to pretend you didn’t hear that!
Bell covered her mouth with her hands in surprise. Then, perhaps embarrassed herself, she gave a sheepish little smile.
“Hehehe. I must have heard wrong.”
Apparently deciding that she needed to stop Bell before she said anything even more ridiculous, the wet nurse sent her out.
Then she called in the servants and ordered them to add more firewood to the fireplace.
The flames crackled beautifully, glowing red.
I stared blankly at them for a long time before the wet nurse asked worriedly,
“Your Highness, is there perhaps something you want?”
“No.”
“Then is there something you want to have?”
“No.”
Perhaps because I had been staring at that dagger whenever I had a spare moment these past few days, I couldn't get the events of my previous life out of my head.
More than anything, I kept thinking about Ar.
I hadn’t dreamed about him for several days, and somehow, that made me miss him.
Seeing me like this, the wet nurse gently tried to reassure me.
“Then what is troubling you? Your Highness, whenever you want something, you may have it as long as it isn’t something bad.”
If it isn’t something bad, can I really do anything I want?
But what exactly counts as bad?
“You’re allowed to be greedy, Your Highness. You’re allowed to be selfish, too. You’re a member of the Imperial Family, and you’re still a child. No one will blame you for being greedy or selfish.”
At that moment, I decided to survive by being a little more selfish.
“Wet nurse. Call Jeanne.”
I had another dream last night.
It was strange.
I couldn't tell whether it was the future or the past.
“This is driving me crazy……”
Ar held his head in his hands.
The dream had been so vivid that it felt as though he had actually lived through it.
Perhaps it was because of the overwhelming pressure.
In the dream, he had done everything he could to change the future.
But there was only so much a knight from a commoner background could do to alter the political landscape.
The future had unfolded exactly as it had in his previous life.
Princess Amelia had received the Emperor Voltaire’s poison and drunk it.
The circumstances were slightly different from his previous life, when he had escaped with the princess, but the ending was still the same.
A tragedy.
Was he really going to let this opportunity to change the future slip away?
“Was it impossible after all? Even now……”
Duke Kroizen came to mind.
No.
That wouldn’t work either.
It would be difficult for him to change the future through that route as well.
Should I just approach Amelia right now?
One thought would surface, only to sink away, and then another would suddenly pop into his head.
Whenever he woke from these dreams, he became anxious like this.
Is this anxiety because I still haven’t found that dagger?
Ar shook his head repeatedly.
Still, there was one fortunate thing.
The Emperor had survived the hunting event.
Originally, the Emperor should have led the knights out that day, but for some reason, he had remained at the event.
Ar had no idea what had caused this change.
Until the day of the hunting event, he had struggled helplessly beneath the weight of his own powerlessness.
There was nothing about the future that he could prevent.
Just like in his previous life, he was merely one of the countless knights in the Imperial Palace.
There was nothing he could do.
Ah, what does it matter?
Whatever the reason, the fact that the future had changed for the better was fortunate.
Ar got out of bed and hastily put on his clothes.
He had only rested briefly in his room, so he needed to go back out and continue searching for it.
Then—
Knock, knock, knock!
A sound came from outside.
It was unfamiliar.
Had anyone ever knocked so politely on his door?
Usually, people simply called for him from outside.
He hurriedly opened the door.
There were many people in the Imperial Palace who outranked him, but there was practically no one beneath him.
“Who is it……?”
The moment he stepped through the open doorway, he froze.
There was no need to ask who it was.
He already knew exactly who stood before him.
A maid of Princess Amelia.
And not merely an ordinary maid.
The head maid.
“Her Highness the Princess is looking for you. Come with me.”
I sipped hot chocolate overflowing with marshmallows while flipping through documents with my other hand.
They contained information on the Imperial Palace’s trainee knights.
I had obtained them through my maternal grandfather, Marquis Serphis.
When my grandfather asked why I needed them, I had told him that I wanted a personal guard and wanted to choose one myself.
And that wasn't even entirely a lie.
My grandfather offered to recommend someone he trusted.
But when I said I wanted to choose one with my own hands, perhaps he assumed it was simply a child wanting to imitate the adults.
He didn't say much and obtained the documents for me.
Of course, my grandfather also knew perfectly well that even if I stubbornly insisted, Grandfather would never simply assign me whichever knight I pointed at and said, “I like that one!”
Perhaps for that reason, he merely laughed and patted my back, teasing me that things wouldn't be as easy as I imagined.
The only sound in the quiet room was the soft rustling of turning pages.
Rustle.
Rustle.
I had sent both the wet nurse and the maids out, so there was no need to pretend to behave like an ordinary child while watching their reactions.
I quickly flipped through the documents.
And soon, I found what I was looking for.
“It really is blank.”
The documents concerning him contained suspiciously little information.
Other than his name, place of origin, and the date he had entered the Imperial Palace as a trainee knight, everything else was blank.
He didn't even have a surname.
Why was that suspicious?
If he were a noble, his family would have been recorded.
If he were a commoner, there should have been a letter of recommendation from a noble patron backing him.
And if even that didn't exist, there should at least have been a recommendation from a professor at the public academy he had graduated from.
To enter the Imperial Palace, a person had to prove both their identity and their abilities.
Yet this document didn't even provide a surname to establish his identity, nor did it contain anything proving his skills.
“How on earth did he get into the Imperial Palace?”
No matter how I looked at it, the only explanation was that the records of how he had entered the Imperial Knights had been deliberately falsified.
Which meant that some enormously powerful noble was backing him.
Powerful enough to alter Imperial Palace records.
And doing so without the Imperial Family’s knowledge.
“Just what kind of person is he?”
I spent a long time staring suspiciously at the documents.
Eventually, I arrived at an important question I had forgotten.
“But is he an ally or an enemy?”
If I thought about my previous life, he was unquestionably an ally.
And yet, there was absolutely nothing trustworthy about these documents.
Should I change my plan?
I seriously considered it.
But it was impossible to believe that he had been planted here by Empress Kiyen or my uncle.
In my previous life, his loyalty had been extraordinary.
And if Grandfather or my aunt had planted him here, there was no way his records would have been falsified through such a suspicious underground route.
Why would a member of the Imperial Family need to secretly plant a spy in my household when they could simply arrange for someone to enter the Imperial Knights?
And if Marquis Serphis, my maternal grandfather, had been the one who brought him into the palace, he would have subtly removed Ar's documents before handing the rest to me.
Then that left either the Pappiran Ducal Family, the family of my deceased former step-grandmother, or some neutral faction that had nothing to do with either side.
Which one?
Without realizing it, I was anxiously nibbling on my fingertip.
Then I heard a knock from outside.
Knock, knock, knock!
I hurriedly lowered my hand and hid the documents inside a box so they couldn't be seen.
“Come in.”
The door opened, and Jeanne entered with Ar.
He stood at a respectful distance, bowed properly to me, and then simply remained where he was.
I beckoned him over.
“Come closer.”
He only moved one foot.
Shuffle.
“Further. Come over here.”
I pointed precisely at the chair directly opposite me.
Only then did he slowly approach.
It was close enough to hear each other's voices, but still somewhat far for a conversation.
Well, perhaps this distance is still more comfortable for him.
Rather than forcing him to come any closer, I told Jeanne to place a chair there and leave.
Jeanne placed a small stool in front of Ar, along with the safest, most ordinary flavored black tea.
Then she refilled my cup with hot chocolate before leaving.
Click.
The door closed.
I gestured for him to sit and asked,
“Is this during your working hours? Did I call you when you were busy?”
“No, Your Highness.”
His voice was much thinner and gentler than the one I remembered.
He hadn't gone through his voice change yet.
“So that's fortunate. I think this conversation may take some time.”
At my words, he made a strange expression for the briefest moment.
He seemed displeased about something.
But the expression was so fleeting that I ignored it.
Besides, what else was he going to do?
“I’m looking for a certain knight. More precisely, he isn't a knight yet. He's a trainee who is about to be formally knighted.”
“You have mistaken me for someone else.”
He shook his head immediately, without even needing time to think.
Oh?
Look at this guy.
“Do you even know who I'm looking for?”
“I don't know which knight you are looking for, but it cannot be me. I have never done anything to attract Your Highness's attention, and today is the first time I have ever met you in person. Nor have I done anything that would attract the attention of anyone else.”
“Oh. Exactly. That's why.”
I decided to improvise.
After all, I couldn't exactly tell him the truth.
“I saw the future, and you remained loyal to me until the Empire fell.”
There was no way I could say that.
“You have no presence whatsoever.”
“What?”
I continued, making things up as I went.
“I need someone with no background, no connections, nothing. Therefore, do not attract anyone’s attention, and do not establish any connections other than those I permit.”
That way, he would be safe even when the bloodshed that would soon engulf the Imperial Palace began.
I wanted to protect him.
I didn't want to simply leave him alone.
I wanted him by my side.
But I also didn't want him to die at the hands of my political enemies simply because he was by my side.
Once I held power in my own hands, at least until then, I would give him wings.
Perhaps that was the best way I could repay the debt I owed the future version of him.
No matter how I thought about it, my order seemed strange to him.
His breathing sounded distinctly dissatisfied.
He couldn't openly show that he disliked it, so he maintained an expressionless face.
But that expression was so awkward that his discomfort was practically written all over his face.
“Become my personal guard.”
