CH 1.8

"Is she unwell?"

The person who came to see him without missing a day suddenly didn't come. Thinking she was not feeling well was the most plausible reason to think of in such a case. 

His aide standing behind him delivered the news. "About an hour ago, the lady ran down the hall in her pajamas. I don't believe she's suffering from any illness."

"In her pajamas? That's unusual."

Keira was an exemplary noble, and she always tried to act without any disrespect for etiquette. It was hard to imagine her running through the hallway in her pajamas. 

Ludwig did not waste time. Instead of trying to envision something that was impossible to imagine, he turned his attention to what he should be doing.

"..."

But I can't concentrate at all.

Ludwig pressed his fingers against his forehead. The aide, who was aware of the Grand Duke's shift in mood, quickly asked, "If it bothers you, I'll send someone to see how she is."

"It's not that. Surely if she's been running around the halls since this morning, there's nothing wrong with her health. I may not be feeling well because I had a bad dream."

It would have been less surprising for the Grand Duke to say he was more concerned about the health of the lady. His master was not one to care about dreams. Considering Ludwig's indifferent personality, it was shocking. 

What did he dream about?

The aide's curiosity overtook his fear. He feigned concern about the Duke's health and said, "You must have been exhausted lately. I'll tell the pharmacist to prepare medicine. It must have been a disturbing nightmare for it to affect you this much."

"...I don't remember."

"Yes?" The aide asked, but Ludwig ignored him. 

He pretended to read the documents and was lost in thought. It was about the dream he had last night. He knew it was a terrible nightmare even though he couldn't remember it. The sadness that seemed to break his heart was still vivid.

It shouldn't bother him. He felt like he was forgetting something he should never have forgotten.

"Water."

"Yes." 

The servant immediately brought a glass of water with ice. Even though Ludwig finished the glass, the heavy feeling in his chest didn't go away.

As time passed, he could not move on to the next page in the document.

Why do I feel like this today?

"Send a therapist to the lady." In the end, he had given the order. 

Ludwig closed his eyes tightly. He couldn't remember a single scene of the dream that's been plaguing his thoughts. Though he was not aware of it himself, he had forgotten something he shouldn't have. 

-AIWTRO-

After having breakfast with her brother, Keira returned to the study in her bedroom. 

She had no intention of dying as meekly as she did in the past. To do so, it was necessary to record the details of the past she remembered. 

The prophecy said that if there were two Saintesses, disaster would come, so the Grand Duke and his daughter took care of it. 

Keira was disillusioned, and sick and tired of it. She's had enough of a life of struggling to become an outstanding daughter her father would be proud of.

After cancelling all of her morning schedule, she settled in the chair in her study. 

'It's the 13th of August, 1295.'

Should she say it was an excellent date? Or was it the worst?

The 13th of August, 1295 was two months before Zeke's birthday. At the same time, it was also two months before Cosette appeared. 

She used Zeke's birthday banquet, an event where all the high-ranking nobles gathered, as her debut stage. 

Count Vainberg, Cosette's maternal uncle, brought her to the banquet hall with him. He intended to spread the news about them to the capital in an instant. Such an appearance was clearly calculated. 

The thought of seeing them again irritated Keira. For a second, she considered not attending the event in the guise of feeling unwell. 

Keira shook her head. 

'It's Zeke's birthday party. I can't help but attend and celebrate.'

Besides, she didn't want to attract attention by avoiding Cosette's first appearance. It would feel like a loss. Cosette would walk around the banquet hall with complete confidence as she claimed to be the real daughter of the Grand Duke.

'Two years later, Cosette will be twenty-two years old when she manifests.'

Her hand that was writing the events that happened stopped. Suddenly, she remembered what Cosette whispered to her, 

"The truth is you were real."

What did that mean? If what she said was true, it meant that Cosette was the fake. However, she manifested powers that only the biological daughter of the Parvis head could possess.

The ability to communicate with Beatrice, the Great Water Spirit. 

She proudly asked Ludwig to take the test when she turned twenty-two, and confidently communicated with Beatrice in front of the nobles. 

Keira would never forget that moment; the moment when everything seemed to collapse under her feet.

'I also have the power of the water spirit? But the prophecy said there will only be one Saintess.'

She recalled what she saw before she died – spirits that looked like water droplets. Cosette said that being able to see the spirits was also an ability unique to a Saintess. 

Even if that were true, another problem appeared. If she was real and Cosette was fake, how could Cosette manifest such powers?

It was difficult, but not impossible, to find a person whose features greatly resembled that of the Parvis family. However, it was impossible for non-biological children of the Parvis family to communicate with Beatrice. 

There were several possibilities that came to mind. 

'Was the prophecy wrong?'

But it was the first time in a thousand years that such a specific prophecy had ever been made. It was different from past prophecies that always took on a poetic form.

The meaning was clear and left little for misinterpretation. 

There was only one Saintess. 

Then the second possibility...

'Maybe it was a lie.'

Cosette was hostile to her, and constantly lied to her. She said she wanted to be friends, but her eyes were always glistening with cruelty. 

Keira could not rule out the possibility that Cosette fooled her to drive her further into misery until the very end.

Who knew if one of the Saintess' abilities is to make others hallucinate. The Cosette she knew was someone who would do that. 

"Ha," she sighed. Besides, that wasn't the only thing to consider. She had no idea why she came back to the past. 

Not knowing the source of one's luck was rather concerning.

Keira had a vast knowledge on magic, but she's never heard of time-travel magic. 

I never imagined it could be possible. 

If one would ask the people from the Magic Tower, they'd surely say it was impossible to do it.

Keira stopped pondering about questions she didn't know the answers to, and instead wrote as much details as she could about what was going to happen. It was the best she could do at the moment.

'The first thing to do is to find out what I saw right before I died.'

She had to find out if she had the powers of the Saintess or if what Cosette told her was a lie.

'If it's true, we need to investigate how she was able to control the spirits.'

In the past, Keira was plagued by so many questions. What if she's the real daughter of the Duke? What if she really was a fake?

The Duke was someone who never showed any affection to her even when he thought she was his child. How will he treat her if she was found to be fake?

Keira was so terrified that she couldn't think calmly so when she had come to her senses, she had already fallen onto Cosette's trap.  

I was always anxious in front of her, and I couldn't hide my agitation. Such an attitude would definitely have deepened people's doubts.

But, now her outlook has changed.

'What's wrong with being fake? I can run away and seclude myself.'

She knew when Cosette would manifest her abilities. If the situation was not resolved by then, then she'll run away to a far-off land where no one can reach her. 

Yes, well even if I'm a fake, what can you do about it?

The sentiment would still be true even if she was recognized as the real daughter of the Duke.*

*I think this means she'd still have the 'what can you do about it?' outlook if she's the real daughter of the Duke 

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