CH 43

The handling of the unprecedented [winter] was extremely difficult. Lancelot’s crimes include rebellion against the Duke of Slutarch and the royal family, attempted murder of the Crown Prince and his fiancée, forgery of official documents, and stealing of royal magical items, among others. The number of people who were deceived and harmed was too great.

Until a formal punishment is decided, Lancelot is temporarily captured in the underground prison of the palace, and his father, Prime Minister Charity, takes responsibility and resigns from his position.

When the teacher from the Academy came running over upon noticing the incident, His Highness was in the middle of comforting me, but was groaning. In other words, he was fine. But it couldn’t be helped that he was definitely brought along for rest. After all, for a moment there was a hole in his chest.

Therefore, His Highness’ words of “not necessary” were not accepted, and I couldn’t help but laugh when he confidently walked without borrowing anyone’s hand to carry the stretcher for himself.

After His Highness was carried away, when I finally managed to get Christina out of the box, I was overwhelmed with emotions and thanked everyone who helped me during the [winter]. Emilia stuck to me, and Kyuubi followed, so it became a small commotion.

The students returned to the dormitory as usual, but the ball was postponed for a week. As for me, my father came to pick me up and I ended up spending the time until then at my father’s house in the Royal Capital with my older brother.

On the night of my arrival at my father’s house, I talked with my older brother late into the night. My older brother listened to all my stories from the past year with interest. I also had things I wanted to ask him, like why he invited Cectiara to the ball and she cried, or how His Highness addressed him as “brother-in-law” when they first met. It was fun to talk about various things.

When we were tired of talking, we returned to our own rooms. I confirmed that I was alone and took out a pendant from my chest. It was a pink flower motif and was given to me by Lancelot as a gift from Ouka.

“Ouka.”

“Yo, Rebecca.”

When I lightly held it and called out, a voice came from behind me. When I turned around, Ouka was sitting on a sofa with a relaxed expression.

It had been a long time since I saw him, and his hair was now a bit darker and closer to brown. His body also seemed hazy.

“I’m a copy of the magic that was put into that pendant. I have some consciousness, but I’m more like a remnant. Anyway, my original body is completely sealed.”

“Ouka, the game is over. Can you not talk to me anymore?”

Ouka closed his mouth and stopped laughing.

“What did you want to do for the past year?”

At first, he was a man who broke the scenario. Then, he was a man trying to return to the scenario. I don’t know anymore in the [fall], and now I’m thinking it’s neither of those things.

And those eyes, why is he looking at me like that? I saw them in the summer event, eyes filled with a love like that of a guardian.

“I want to listen to you properly at least at the end.”

Ouka opened his mouth as if he had given up.

“I am a [spiritual body]. Do you understand what that means?”

“No.”

“I can share consciousness and memory with all versions of myself in all worlds.”

———All worlds?

“Sonia-san called it [route].”

I doubted my own ears at the heard name.

“Sonia-san, Rebecca, I liked your mother.”

Sonia Slutarch. The name Ouka spoke of so fondly was the name of my mother.

“Do you know my mother?”

“19 years ago, I was in the second grade of the Academy, and Sonia-san was in the third grade.”

He slowly began to speak.

“When I first met him, I was surprised. It was so different. I knew because I was more gifted with magic than anyone else and I was not only one of the characters, but my spirit had been through many lifetimes. It’s like [a soul from another world has entered].”

“Reincarnation…”

“Yeah. I thought it was interesting and contacted her. Sonia-san hadn’t fully regained her memories and didn’t even realize she was a reincarnator, but she would tell me about her dreams of a [weird world]. She would talk about it happily and nostalgically, so I would often go listen to her.

One day, she said she saw cherry blossoms and arbitrarily assigned [kanji] to my name. [Sakura Ouka], or something like that. She explained what kind of flower it was by drawing a picture of it. She did it happily, with a smile on her face. That’s when I first decided to change the scenario. I decided to resist the [scenario] that I had been following without any complaints up until then. Because, Rebecca’s mother is supposed to die when Rebecca is 15 years old.

Ouka’s tone was very quiet and calm. He occasionally opened his closed eyes thinly, and smiled nostalgically.

“Sonia-san is already in love with your father, and I was fine with that as long as Sonia-san was happy. So, I always used magic to warp time and was sealed by the Principal, but instead, I researched a way to extend her lifespan. It’s crazy, right? It’s the force of the scenario. Still, I tried various things. In the end, Sonia-san died on the predetermined date… but until the day before, she was so healthy that I couldn’t even think she would die?”

Ouka smiled at me as I raised my head in surprise.

“It’s my magic. I wanted her to be comfortable until the end. And also, when you were still a baby, Sonia-san appeared while holding onto your father, that was also my magic. I tripled Sonia-san’s strength.”

“What?”

I finally said it out loud. I wondered if the solution to the problem was too physical.

Ouka, who seemed to be about to laugh, said “Don’t laugh.” But he was the one laughing the most.

“Seriously, you should be thankful for that. In the scenario, you would never have been able to see your father, and you would have thought that your father didn’t love you.”

“… Oh, when I first met you in [spring], your hair was duller than in the scenario.”

“Ah, that’s because I’ve been using my magic all the time. There are also other things, so many that I can’t put them into words. There were many things that couldn’t be changed, but there were also things that could be changed. So many distortions came out of that.”

Ouka suddenly had a serious expression.

“Llewayne and Lancelot who fell in love with you are typical examples. I’ll leave Emilia aside because she’s a little different… Melinda and Vanderlei are also like that. Hey, do you know? In the scenario, Llewayne also makes a window to peek at Rebecca. Just once. And with that one time, he saw Rebecca becoming a great villainess and decided to cut her off.”

The conversation turned, and I lowered my head. Even now, when I feel loved, it’s painful to hear about His Highness who doesn’t love me.

Suddenly, a big hand reached out. Gently stroking my head. Come to think of it, he stroked my head like this in [Spring], too.

“I thought that after Sonia-san died, I wouldn’t have anymore regrets in this world, but I was wrong. You were there, Rebecca. I wanted to make you happy. No, I wanted to make you able to be happy. In other words, what I wanted to do was to bring you and His Highness together, that’s all.”

I thought that if you and Llewayne could overcome Lancelot, you would become stronger.

He said that while wearing a very kind expression on his face. I had always thought that his eyes looked like those of a guardian. I wasn’t wrong. In fact, I thought he was my father.

“… Ouka, how many worlds are there where I was not loved by His Highness?”

I asked in a small voice.

“Don’t misunderstand. Other worlds are parallel worlds. Worlds that do not exist at the same time, in other words, this world is the only absolute reality. And, from my perspective, even you as the villainess were cute.”

Ouka answered in a firm voice, as if trying to dispel my anxiety.

But, “cute” as a villainess?

“Rebecca just wanted love. Her father never came to see her. Her mother, who had passed away, didn’t talk much due to her illness and was difficult to get close to. Her older brother wasn’t interested in her due to the way he was raised and was practically non-existent. The servants talked behind her back, saying she wasn’t loved by Duke-sama. Rebecca was hungry for love. She wanted to be loved by anyone. That’s why she was so obsessed with her fiancé and hated the protagonist who was loved by everyone.”

Just imagining such a world, no matter how hard it must have been, made my chest ache.

“But, did Rebecca try to kill Emilia? Did she hit her? What did she do? Was it just verbal threats and child-like bullying?”

Ouka twisted hIS face and spoke as if he was folding something. He looked more painful than anyone else.

Please understand, it was painful, sad and lonely, the feelings of the Villainess Rebecca.

He spoke as if he was pleading.

“Rebecca was just a child. She looked like an adult only in appearance, but her heart was lonely, crying out for love. She was not [evil], she was just [young].”

When the last words were finished, Ouka’s body began to fade, as if sensing that his purpose had been fulfilled.

“I’m happy to see you so happy now. I’m glad I met you and Sonia-san.”

“It’s because of Ouka that I am happy. Thank you for everything until now. Ouka, let’s see each other again.”

“Yes, definitely, let’s meet again.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Ouka disappeared. I naturally understood that this was the last goodbye. It was a short association of one year, but I also felt that I was glad to have met him.