Episode 88
"How do you have that?"
Having heard Serena's shocking statement that I couldn't believe at all, I removed her hand that had been covering my mouth and asked in a low voice.
"...Well?"
She answered with the phrase she'd been saying since long ago.
"Try guessing... heek!!"
After saying that in a relaxed voice, I poked Serena's side, and she, who had been wearing a triumphant expression, let out another moan.
"...You said we need to be quiet?"
"It's okay to make these sounds loudly."
When I tilted my head and questioned her, I received an answer I couldn't understand.
"The hint is, the person you respect the most."
Thanks to that, I was making a slightly pouty face, and only then did Serena start speaking in earnest.
"...Father gave it to you?"
When I answered without hesitation after receiving her hint, Serena quietly nodded and said.
"That's right. Of course, he didn't give it directly."
"Then?"
"To understand that, we need to go back a little in time."
Saying that, Serena cleared her throat and began her story.
"It was when I first regained my memories."
"If you're talking about when you regained your memories..."
"Yes, right before I left for overseas travel."
Hearing her words, I remembered the penalty that occurred on the first day of regression, making my spine tingle. That experience was one of the most terrible memories in my life where I'd been through everything.
"As soon as my memories returned, I thought. There was something I hadn't yet discovered about you."
Serena's face as she spoke had darkened slightly.
"So, before leaving overseas, I contacted the spy I had planted in your mansion."
"Wait, there was a spy?"
When I asked with a surprised expression, Serena smiled slightly and said.
"She makes excellent tea, and she's the one who protected the Starlight mansion until the very end in the previous timeline... Didn't you know?"
"...Ah."
Hearing those words, I remembered a maid I had picked a fight with on the day I visited the mansion months ago and heard my sister's hallucination.
"I knew she seemed capable."
"Don't be too upset. In the previous timeline, you had committed so many bad deeds that I attached her to identify those acts in advance and clean up after you."
At those words, I made an awkward expression, and she continued with a serious face.
"Anyway, I contacted her through a communication crystal, asking if anything had happened to the Starlight family."
"And?"
"Sure enough, news came that the family head, Lord Abraham, had suddenly collapsed during work."
Serena, who said that, then spoke with sharp eyes.
"And... she said countless paper bundles had been thrown into the fireplace."
Only then did I understand what that situation was.
The moment I regressed, Father's memories had been altered by the system.
At that time, Father had written a letter that made me choke up during the few minutes of grace time given by the system.
The reason Father fainted then was probably due to the aftermath of the memory alteration, and what he burned in the fireplace were likely the ciphers revealing the secret account he mentioned he would destroy in that letter.
"She, who had smuggled out the papers burning in that fireplace, sent them to me."
"Then... you decoded the cipher for my secret account?"
"That's not the important part. I solved that in 5 minutes out of boredom during my trip."
Serena said that, then hardened her expression and spoke.
"Among the paper bundles your father had partially burned, there was also a prophecy book."
"...What?"
"It was burned in places, and written in characters left by the hero from a thousand years ago, so it was extremely difficult to decipher, but judging there was something there, I searched through ruins on the western continent and slowly decoded the prophecy book word by word."
"Is that... possible?"
"Wasn't that hard, actually?"
As I stared blankly at Serena who spoke while shrugging her shoulders, she changed her expression to serious again and began to wrap up the story.
"Anyway, seeing words like hero, system, penalty, great evil, destiny... I went right up to being certain of your identity, and after that, it's as you know."
Hearing those words, I muttered while lost in confusion.
"Then, what's the prophecy book I have? There's magic cast on my prophecy book too? And... why did Father have that, and why did he put it in the fireplace..."
"Well, you'll find out once the restoration work is finished."
"Restoration work?"
"Yes, as the prophecy book burned, some content was lost, and the seal magics got tangled up. So I'm slowly restoring it every night."
Serena, who held my hand tightly, quietly added.
"Of course, you must have already guessed why I can only do it at night, right?"
".....Yes."
"As expected, you're smart."
Serena said that while stroking my head, then started smiling with her eyes.
"Then... I'll give you the prophecy book as soon as the restoration is finished."
After saying that, Serena started staring at my face for a long while.
"Heek!"
Suddenly feeling mischievous, I poked Serena's side deeply, and she let out a dazed moan and collapsed.
"Eugh."
Because she had been leaning over me with her arm propped on the bed, she ended up falling into my arms, and when I let out a sound of air escaping, Serena suddenly started wearing a mischievous smile.
"Just stay like this for a moment."
"What are you... mmph!"
Serena covered my mouth again as I asked with a puzzled expression, then suddenly started moving her body.
"Haaah..."
"Meow..."
Before long, she started making moaning sounds, and as I watched her with slightly dumbfounded eyes, a mournful crying sound started coming from somewhere.
"Mmph?"
"Just please cooperate for a moment..."
At that sound, Serena, who had been wearing an excited expression, slowly started unbuttoning my outer garment.
- Swish!
When Serena, who had unbuttoned everything, removed my outer garment and threw it outside the blanket, the mournful crying sound suddenly stopped.
- Crash bang!
After a moment of silence in the room, a loud noise suddenly rang out.
"Meow! Meow... meow!!"
And after a while, a cat doll climbed onto the blanket we were under and started scratching desperately while making sorrowful crying sounds.
"Guuu!"
"Kyaa!"
After scratching at the blanket for a while, when Serena whistled, an owl flew over and subdued the cat doll, dragging it away somewhere.
"...Why is it acting like that?"
"That cat was made with black magic, right?"
"H-how did you know?"
When I asked while watching those events blankly, Serena started speaking with a smile.
"I know that magic very well too."
"Really?"
"Yes, children under such black magic that makes objects move like living things have quite high jealousy. That's why that cat doll is showing such behavior."
"Ah..."
I nodded while listening to Serena who was wearing a knowing expression, then asked with a worried face.
"But... then isn't that cat doll really pitiful?"
"...Pitiful? It's just paying back at night what it's received during the day while the sun was up."
"Hmm? What did you say?"
When Serena muttered something small at those words, I asked what she was saying, but she suddenly hugged me and raised her voice.
"Haa... it feels so good, Frey."
"Meow..."
As Serena started moving her body again while saying that, a mournful crying sound started coming from far away again.
"...Frey."
"Yes?"
Still moving her body continuously without caring, Serena looked at me with dreamy eyes and spoke.
"Instead of doing this, how about doing it for real?"
Serena's face as she spoke was flushed red.
"...Gulp."
When I nodded cautiously while looking at her, Serena, who had been smiling with her eyes, burrowed into my arms and said.
"Then, please teach me."
"What?"
At her nonsensical words, I tilted my head, and Serena glanced away and said.
"Even I don't know how to do something I've never done before."
Saying that, Serena added while looking at me with a pure expression.
"So, please teach me directly from beginning to end."
Serena like that looks even prettier today.
Even though it's night and we're under the blanket so it's hard to see well.
Her moonlight-colored eyes and light purple hair seem to shine faintly.
- Swish...
"Oh my."
As I reached my hand toward Serena while thinking that, she suddenly grabbed my hand and whispered while raising the corner of her mouth.
"...It was a joke."
When I made a disappointed expression at those words, Serena burst into a small laugh and said.
"I'm sorry. But I can't help it because of the Curse of Subordination."
"Curse of Subordination?"
When I asked seriously at her words, Serena started speaking with a regretful expression.
"Yes, the Curse of Subordination was designed to turn people into emotionless assassination weapons. So originally, 'love' cannot be shared at all."
"But... then how..."
"You're asking how I can love you? That's... because my Curse of Subordination has been weakened for some reason."
Serena's eyes wavered for a moment as she answered.
It seems the inner feelings I sensed from Serena during the second trial were real.
"Anyway, so I can love but... I can't engage in the most fundamental act."
"...Ah."
I, who had been hesitating whether to ask about that 'memory' Serena had recalled, couldn't hide my disappointment at the words coming from her mouth.
"So, I'll make you one promise."
Serena, who was slowly raising the corner of her mouth as if reading my expression.
"The moment we kill the Secret Lord or succeed in breaking the Curse of Subordination..."
She whispered in a ticklish voice in my ear.
"...I'll do as much as you want."
After hearing those words and staring blankly for a moment, I quietly answered.
"I'll mobilize the entire Demon King's army starting tomorrow."
At my words, Serena giggled, then hugged me tightly and muttered.
"Let's sleep like this."
"...Yes."
Somehow, I think I'll dream of owls tonight.
.
"Eugh..."
Meanwhile at that time, the Imperial Palace.
"What should I... write?"
In her room, Klana was groaning while holding a quill pen.
- Frey, why didn't you reply to the letter I sent last time?
"...No, if I write this, I can only get a reply about the slave market incident."
Klana, who had finally written the first sentence after repeated deliberation, burned the letter with sun mana and took out new letter paper.
- Frey, tell me what you did to me.
"Wait, this reveals my ignorance. No."
After much consideration, Klana wrote a new first paragraph and sighed again, burning the letter.
- Frey, I know everything you did. So turn yourself in.
"...If I write this and get interrogated in return, what do I do?"
Klana, who kept repeating the process of writing the first paragraph and burning it for a while, realized at some point that she was unconsciously writing on the letter.
"W-what is this..."
Klana, who looked down at the letter with puzzled eyes at this strange phenomenon, started making a bewildered expression upon seeing the content she had written.
"W-why are my hands trembling too..."
When her hands started trembling, Klana, who had been bowing her head and muttering at the continuous strange phenomena.
- Knock knock knock!
"Heek!"
When her room door was suddenly knocked on, she urgently started spewing sun mana to burn the letter.
"Not... not again..."
But for some reason, only faint light leaked from her hands.
It was a symptom that had been making Klana anxious lately, occurring whenever her hands trembled since she had that nightmare last time.
"Lady Klana, I've come to clean."
"Y-yes... I'll go to the restroom for a moment, please take care of it."
Klana, who eventually burned the letter with a candle in the room instead of sun mana, spoke to the maid who entered her room with an effort to look calm, then stood up while hiding her trembling hand.
"Oh my."
After Klana left the room, the maid who had been watching for a moment quickly approached the trash can where Klana's gaze had lingered.
- Hiss...
"This is..."
After a while, the maid discovered the completely blackened letter in the trash can, and surprisingly used restoration magic to restore the letter, then raised the corner of her mouth and muttered.
"...I should report this to the First Imperial Princess."
The letter she held contained the following content:
- You won't leave my mind, Frey.