A/n: A huge thank you to everyone who has read this year.
Please, have a happy new year!
───I wonder if my father has arrived at his estate by now.
He suddenly thought of this when he entered the knight commander's office, which had become his own room in the Lunamilia royal castle at this point.
As he closed the heavy metal door with ease, he ridiculed myself.
Until recently, he had disliked his father so much, but now he thought of him as someone he could truly respect, he thought myself as one of the foolish people, just like the nobles who were so excited and gossiped about as if they had turned their hands.
But even so, the fact that his father, Augusto Verstein, had been a large part of who he was, and that was why he was where he was today was something that he understood.
That's why he couldn't forgive his father's corruption, and as a result, he ran away.
Exhaling a small breath in the empty room, he sat alone in the chair at the desk where the papers were piled up.
He felt strangely exhausted due to the unexpected things that happened every day.
What the hell does that girl want?
As he massages the wrinkles that have naturally appeared between his eyebrows with his fingertips, he ponders.
She is the granddaughter of the country's prime minister, also known as the White Saint.
Like her grandfather, she is compassionate, kind, and beautiful.
Her fragile smile is indeed very pretty.
But for some reason, my instincts rejected it.
She has a gentle voice that sounds as if a bell has been rolled over it, a pair of eyes that look up at you with blushing cheeks and moist eyes, and lips that look like the petals of a peach-colored rose.
I feel a rejection towards everything and anything.
I don't know why, but it gives me an inexplicable feeling of uneasiness, just like the feeling I had twelve years ago when my mother became unusually ill.
For some reason, I feel as frightened of that as the granddaughter's grandfather, the Minister-dono¹.
I think she is beautiful and lovely, but I respect and trust her, but I feel afraid of her, just like the Prime Minister, a contradictory feeling.
I consulted with the vice commander, who was a classmate of my father's, to see if there was anyone else who felt the same way, but he just laughed at me in a sarcastic way.
The next thing I knew, I was being favored by a young girl, and I couldn't say anything else to her if she asked me what was wrong with me.
What the hell did I do to deserve this? ......
I'm not a fan of this kind of thing.
To be honest, I'm not very good at this.
It's not that I’m not good with women, it's just that I’m bad with this granddaughter as much as I am with the Prime Minister.
I sighed as I remembered the reality that I had been followed by that girl since the day she almost introduced me to the Prime Minister at the founding party.
It all started when I went to the military training ground to train with the soldiers.
It was still fresh in my mind that I could see her watching us in the distance as we trained together.
After that, little by little, as time went by, we made allies among the soldiers, and the sight of them closing the distance to us as if they were eroding us was frightening, including the sight of my friends who laughed at my good health.
There was a time when homemade food was served to us.
After that, I felt I lost my allies.
Accordingly, Good Wife, Wise Mother.
Accordingly, she deserves to be called a saint.
In the beginning, many people, including myself, were recommended by the Prime Minister to become soldiers or knights, and the fact that we did not have a bad impression of the girl, who was wonderful both inside and outside, added to the pressure.
The outer moat was being filled in.
He held his head in his hands at the horrible realization.
But just because she is horrible is not reason enough to reject her.
She is fragile, pretty, kind, and compassionate.
Her appearance is one of the most beautiful in the kingdom of Lunamilia.
What could be so frightening about a frail young girl of her age?
Am I crazy, or is there really something wrong with me?
I've never been wrong about this kind of feeling before.
But when it came to these people, I could not deny the possibility that I was wrong.
It was such a vague fear.
Suddenly, I heard a knock at the door.
Because of the metal door, it sounded more like a thud than a knock, and his consciousness was jolted back to reality.
"Who is it?"
He thought it was probably the vice commander, a soldier of the castle, or a knight under his direct command, so he said the usual words.
At this moment, he was not thinking about anything in particular.
Perhaps it was the result of his education to speak from the depths of his stomach, but his voice echoed throughout the room.
With such a volume of voice, the other side of the door would be able to hear him without any problem.
As proof, I heard the voice of a person on the other side of the door.
'Um, it's me, please, can you let me in?'
The voice was so familiar to the point his heart almost jump out of his mouth in shock.
The owner of the voice was dainty, as if a bell had been rolled over it, and yet there was a certain chill in it.
No matter how I thought about it, it belonged to the girl who had been bothering him in his head just now.
The only presence from the other side of the door was the girl alone.
But there was no way she hadn't crossed paths with a soldier or a knight before coming to this place.
And the fact that she was even in front of this room could only mean that she was being ignored.
I wondered if I should use the answering machine to disguise my presence.
For a moment, I was so upset that such a shallow thought came to mind.
The only thing that could have kept me from slamming my body into the desk was that I was so upset that I went rigid.
However, he had already done something earlier.
There was no point in pretending that no one was there, no matter what he did.
So there was only one thing he could do.
"I'm sorry, but I can't allow any women in this room."
It was a crisp refusal.
He was acting under the pretext that it was forbidden for women to enter the room where soldiers and knights were stationed without permission.
To that extent, he wanted nothing to do with the girl.
But whether he knew it or not, the girl's voice trembled sadly.
'I understand it's improper.
However, I felt that I really wanted to talk to your esteemed self.'²
If you think it's such improper, why don't you have at least one companion with you?
It would be unthinkable for a young maiden to come to this area filled with masculine knights.
What on earth is she doing here?
The reality was so incomprehensible that it gave him a headache, and he stretched the wrinkles between his brows with his fingertips again.
"If you want to talk, let's call someone first."
'No! I want to talk to your esteemed self alone!'
"A knight cannot be alone with a lady.
I beg you to leave us."
'Why? My grandfather has given me permission.'
Her voice was sad and fragile, and no matter how you listened, it was innocent.
But something cold ran down my spine.
"I'm not going to allow you to come in."
'I'm sorry, but why?
I would never interfere with your work.'
"I cannot be held responsible in case something happens.
Please understand."
'What are you talking about, there is no way that a knight can't protect a single lady, please, let me in.'
The girl's words, as if they were natural, as if she were an innocent child who knew nothing, as if she was convinced that her words would not be rejected, gave him a further headache.
"It's not about that.
It's not about that. It's about the fact that it's a rule, and that means there's a risk, please understand."
'Why do you have to be so mean?
Please, open this door, it's too heavy for me to move.'
"...... It's not mean, it's a rule.
As a knight, I'm here to protect you."
You mustn't let this woman in the room.
This feeling was an instinctive defense.
'Why? You can't do that... I just adore you…!'
I felt goosebumps creep up on me.
However, despite this feeling, there is only a hint of a girl sobbing from behind the door.
"Please leave me alone."
If he had a strong sense of justice, he would normally feel guilty for making the woman cry, but he didn't seem to feel anything in particular, and simply replied in an indifferent manner.
From that day on, rumors began to circulate that the Knight Commander was a lousy man who made a young maiden cry.
However, he didn't mind at all because he thought it would be better to be a lousy man than to be rumored with someone like that.
Seeing him like this, the girl, wearing the mask of a girl in love, gritted her teeth in annoyance.
The girl, who was acting as if she was a weak, lovesick maiden in a position where no one could hear her, was certainly pretty, but anyone who was close by would have rolled their eyes and been shocked.
"What the hell is that son of a bitch…!"
It was a far cry from her usual dainty voice that sounded like a rolled bell, and it was as terrifying as a wraith crawling on the bottom of the earth.
I wondered how long I had been crying.
It didn't seem like that long, but I wasn't sure how long it really was.
But after crying for a while, I finally felt refreshed.
It was an indescribable feeling, as if the bad feelings that had been smoldering in my chest had been washed away by crying.
It's not that my sadness disappeared, or that I was able to admit that I was dead, or anything convenient like that.
The concept of reincarnation was in Augusto-san's knowledge.
But I've completely deviated from that circle.
At that time, I must have had a place to die.
It must have been not Augusto-san, but a completely different, brand-new soul.
If I had been Augusto-san's reincarnation, it would not have been so painful.
But Augusto-san's soul and my soul are completely different.
Moreover, it is not a vague memory of a previous life, but a clear continuation of a past life, the current me.
I have not been reincarnated, but I have taken over someone else's body with all my memories, and the guilt and regret have not disappeared at all.
To me, Augusto-san is Augusto-san, a complete stranger.
So, I really didn't want to take the life that he lived and make it my own.
That's why I couldn't call out the names of any of Augusto-san's acquaintances in this country in my mind.
I really wished that this was the result of my rebirth.
Then it would have felt like a second life.
It's all about what's not there.
What is painful is still painful, hard, sad, indivisible, and hard to admit.
But still, even though I might have been forced to do so, I felt like my mood had somehow changed.
I think it was because crying is a good way to release stress.
But once I felt refreshed, the next thing that came to my mind was reality.
Maybe it's just an escape from reality, I don't know.
I can't deny the possibility that I was thinking like that in order to escape from the pain, trying to distract myself by thinking about something else.
It doesn't matter how bold you are, if you put off everything for so long, you're bound to feel the repercussions.
As for that, it was probably inevitable.
Because I was only 23 years old.
But even so, the things that bothered me bothered me.
I lightly wiped my tear-stained face with my palm and let out a small breath.
Suddenly, I felt a presence beside me, and when I turned my gaze, I saw the transparent figure of Julia-san.
...... I have a hunch that this is not Julia-san herself.
As proof of this, she didn't seem to notice my presence, even though I was supposed to be right beside her.
I don't think it's a ghost, I think it's a lingering impression or something like that.
I reached out my hand to touch her, but she just disappeared as if she were melting into the air.
Then, she appeared near the ceiling, swaying as if drifting, covering her face with both hands and shaking her shoulders.
The way the drops from her fingers melted into the air was sad and, ironically, very beautiful.
She must have been crying to herself like that for a long time.
It looks as if it's Julia-san herself, but it's not.
She is just a phantom who repeatedly laments and apologizes in an inaudible voice while letting out large tears.
It's like an image of the past, capturing the various emotions Julia-san felt, such as sadness, grief, guilt, and loneliness.
The soul, Julia-san herself, no longer exists in this place.
All that was left was a husk of a body and a lingering impression.
Maybe it was because I had grieved in Augusto-san's room that triggered those feelings to come out.
But thanks to that, I was able to notice her and even cry, so on the contrary, I even felt grateful and happy.
If you calm down and observe the area carefully, you will notice that there are fist-sized jewel-like iridescent stones in the four corners of the room.
According to Augusto-san's knowledge, this stone was a magic stone.
A magic stone is a congealed jewel of magic power that rarely comes from a magical beast, or from the earth.
It seems that Augusto-san's magic power contained in this stone is what maintains this place, I understood from my senses and the memories left in my body.
This fact made me even more sad.
Augusto-san had preserved this place in its original state for 12 years by enclosing it in ice.
It must have been his love that preserved Julia's magic power and the lingering impression of her emotions that would normally have faded away.
In Augusto-san's memory, it seems that he didn't even see the illusion of this lingering impression.
With four stones the size of a fist, it's no wonder he was able to preserve this place for 12 years.
I think I used a lot of magic power, but maybe that didn't matter.
I wonder if the butler-san knew about it.
...... I'm sure he knew.
I turned my gaze from the transparent vision of Julia-san drifting on the ceiling to the bed, where I saw Julia-san, about to open her eyes, but still beautiful, looking so different from the girl in my memory.
If you look closely, you can see a ring with a stone that shines ice blue, the same color as Augusto-san's eyes, reflecting the light on her fingers, which are as thin as a dead tree, clasped together on her chest.
It was too big, and it looked like it would come right off, but the memory of her not wanting to take it off came to mind, and the tears that I thought had receded began to fall again.
Somehow even without wanting it I come to understand her and Augusto-san's feelings, so I can't help but feel pain.
...... But I couldn't just leave her body here like this.
Julia-san herself and Augusto-san would not be happy, and more importantly, because it is meaningless.
I have to bury her properly, and let her rest with Julia-san's ring and Augusto-san's ring.
But before that.
Gently, I reach out my hands to the thin hands of Julia's corpse.
Her illness was the dead tree disease.
I don't think there are any bodies left to investigate the cause of a disease that happened 12 years ago.
But here, even the air is still the same as it was then, and Julia-san is still sleeping.
In other words, there must still be something left in her body.
The original cause of this disease.
On the Earth I lived on, we could read all kinds of information about a person's health and what kind of disease they had from a single hair.
Even the cause of death could be determined by CT scan of the corpse.
There was no reason why I, a wiseman from another dimension, couldn't do the same.
I wanted to know.
I wanted to make Julia-san's regret go away.
It was only self-satisfaction, and maybe it was just an escape from reality.
But still.
I can understand Julia-san's and Augusto-san's feelings to the point of pain.
When I touched her hands, which were supposed to be very cold and bulky, various information rushed through my brain through magic power.
I felt like I was about to peek into the knowledge and memories left behind in her body, so I shut that part out and let the rest of the information flood into my mind.
How was she affected and how did she die?
At the same time as I understood, many emotions ran through me, and I burst into tears again.
───... The dead tree disease is not a contagious disease.
It was a curse, as expected.
The fact that it was left all over Julia-san's body, like a history of various information, allowed me to learn more about its origins and background.
Developed in a neighboring country, this is a curse that dissolves in water.
It uses the miasma that rarely occurs on this continent, but it is an undeniable curse.
Apparently, the miasma has the property of dissolving into anything.
It seems that they used this property to spread the curse throughout the country by throwing some dead bodies filled to the limit with the cursed miasma into the water sources of the major cities and towns.
The condition for activation is that a certain amount of the miasma is taken into the body.
It's a wide-ranging, annihilating curse that mainly targets those with low magic resistance.
...... I understood that this was why the affected people were random, but at the same time, I felt inexplicably irritated.
I guess it can't be helped, but it makes me angry.
In this world, magic resistance is usually not that strong, unless you are a knight.
There is no way that commoners, even those in their prime working years, would not drink water at all.
Besides, even if you work out, it's not easy to increase your strength.
This is because magic resistance is proportional to the total amount of magic power.
However, there is an exception to this rule.
Nobles.
Even if the total amount of magic power is high, there is no reason for those who don't need to fight to have their magic resistance trained.
That's why the people of that time were getting sick one after another.
I gritted my teeth involuntarily, and I thought I heard a grinding sound echoing around me.
... This curse creates tiny magical stones inside the body, in the heart, and travels around the body, sucking up all the life force.
Eventually, the demon stones become larger than the blood vessels and clog the thinner blood vessels, leading to death.
Even if the demon stone doesn't clog the blood vessels, the life force will be absorbed by the demon stone and the body will weaken and die.
Such is the cruel curse.
Since there are a lot of thin blood vessels in the brain, Julia-san must have been suffering from a terrible headache.
I'm sure she had a terrible headache and her memory may have been fuzzy.
───... But then I suddenly learned a fact that Augusto-san did not know.
“Ggh!"
The moment I realized this, I was hit by a sudden stress-induced nausea.
I swallowed hard and tears spilled out again, but this was too much of a shock to me as I was walking through my daily life, so I'm sure it couldn't be helped.
Julia's lower abdomen lying on the floor.
I really wanted to be wrong, but I could feel it through my magic power.
───It was a magical stone in the shape of a small fetus.
//Melki: Spend the first half wanting to murder the damn granddaughter, you can wipe your tears and proceed to cry again in the second half.
[1] : どの(dono) - [quick edited wiki explaination] hiragana from Tono (殿), pronounced -dono when attached to a name, meaning something like "lord" or "master". It does not equate noble status. Rather a term akin to "milord" or French "monseigneur", and lies below -sama in level of respect.
[2] : she uses "anata-sama" here which is a respectful way to call "you" but it would be weird to translate it as "you-sama" or something so I thought "your esteemed self" sounded pretty good to switch out for.
Thx for the chapter!
Damn... Thanks for the chapter
I was so scared for the son thinking "she's not that bad" and knowing it was a flag... and then his instincts kicked in and he not only broke that flag, he also stomped on it. And Holy F%&# she was pregnant... oh god... that's even more horrible... I don't know if it's good that the original Augusto never found out but this is very heavy... Hope this gives her the determination to go forth with really taking care of the matters left behind by Augusto... Thanks for the chapter, I was laughing at first but at the end I just broke down...