A Fortune-telling Princess

Anyway, I began investigating the man named Zeno Jevillan.

This time I didn’t particularly need help from Rube, Chief of Black Shadow. I have Derrin, the butler ghost and former chief!

If the Duke of Sorpel knew something, there was a good chance Derrin knew it as well.

He said that even now, whenever Rube and the Duke of Sorpel talk, he picks up information by listening along at their side.

And fortunately, Derrin did not disappoint her expectations.

What I heard from Derrin about Zeno’s death wasn’t anything special.

He didn’t die fighting, nor was he assassinated. It was simply a death that came at the end of his allotted years.

So that makes it more curious.

Why is a person who died an ordinary death sitting there like that?

Zeno Jevillan was the one who found that “Sword of Protection.”

The object mentioned by countless soothsayers, known only from pictures in ancient records.

A curious sword that chooses its master on its own. The only light that will save a world swallowed by darkness.

But the thing stuck in his chest was clearly...

While Camilla sorted out the tangle in her head, Zeno busied himself chattering alone.

[Strange. You can see me?]

It wasn’t new; it’s what I always hear when I meet ghosts.

Only, unlike the expressionless way he sat like a statue, I could feel he was actually a very bright person, which was a little surprising.

[Really strange.]

And he was much more freewheeling in the way he talked than I’d expected.

[How did you know I’m Zeno? Do you know the House of Jevillan? Is my family doing well?]

He talked a lot, too.

“Yeah, well...”

Tossing out a vague answer, Camilla eased a step back. Why do I feel like I just poked something I shouldn’t?

[What’s your name?]

“I’m Camilla Sorpel.”

[Ah, so you’re from House Sorpel! Are those folks doing well? I visited that house so many times when I was young. The mansion was so ridiculously big I’d lose my way from time to time. Is the fountain in the garden still there? Back then I—]

“Why are you here like this?”

Camilla hurried a question in before his words ran on.

[Here? It’s the practice yard.]

“That’s exactly what I mean. Why are you in the practice yard?”

Why was a former head of House Jevillan—moreover, the most widely known among the heads of House Jevillan—holed up in a place like this?

Come to think of it, that’s strange, too.

I’d heard Zeno Jevillan died at the age of sixty-seven.

But the man in front of me, even being generous, looked like he’d just crossed twenty.

Did he grow young again in dying?

I’d heard that those who badly longed for their youth sometimes recover that appearance after death; maybe he was that case...

The thoughts that were about to run on without end were cut off when an answer came back to the question from a moment ago.

[Because I like swords.]

“...Pardon?”

[I really like swords.]

“...”

Well, that happens. If a person is crazy about swords, it’s not strange that even in death he can’t leave the practice yard.

“But why the Academy practice yard of all places?”

There are practice yards all over the world. Why insist on the one at the Academy?

I didn’t even have to go far. At the House of Jevillan’s practice yard, the knights are always training with their swords.

[When I attended the Academy was the most fun.]

“Are you an alumnus here?”

[Yeah! Call me senior.]

“I’ll pass.”

At her firm refusal, the man lifted a shoulder once, then turned his gaze back to the practice yard.

[This place stays the same even as time passes.]

His face went blank as he looked out over the empty yard.

Over the pupils dredging up old memories, it seemed as if I could just glimpse countless people sweating as they trained.

He would be in there, too, of course.

“Zeno.”

[Just call me Zeno.]

At Camilla’s call, he turned his eyes.

As if he had never been spaced out, a mischievous smile formed at the corner of Zeno’s mouth.

“That sword.”

[...]

But at the words that followed, his expression tightened a touch.

“Is it the Sword of Protection?”

After a brief silence, Zeno smiled again.

[It is.]

His eyes went to the sword embedded in his left chest.

[It’s the sword I found.]

And—

[It’s the sword that killed me.]

[Not a map today?]

Ferrol, the chef ghost who had come up beside Camilla, checked the book she was reading and tilted his head.

[The Sword of Protection?]

“Oh.”

Camilla was sincerely impressed. The book she was looking at right now was written in an ancient language.

It was surprising that Ferrol, who was neither a scholar nor a noble, could read an ancient tongue.

[I got curious about what kinds of foods they ate in ancient times. I picked some up while researching that.]

Ferrol wore a satisfied expression.

Seeing the admiration in Camilla’s eyes made all those nights he’d once stayed up learning an ancient language feel not wasted.

[Looks like you yourself know the ancient tongue well.]

“I finished all the advanced levels.”

The one field the original Camilla truly enjoyed and showed a singular talent for was the ancient tongue.

While I was “possessing” her, I ended up encountering the ancient tongue often as well, and by now I could easily decipher books like this without a translation.

“Miss Camilla.”

Just then, someone huffed and puffed his way to Camilla’s side. It was Jimi, the page in charge of managing the library.

Carrying several books at once, he carefully set them down on the desk where Camilla was seated.

“The books you requested.”

“Are all of these about the Sword of Protection?”

“Yes.”

At the greater-than-expected stack, Camilla let out a short sigh.

Should I just give up?

What was the point of digging this deep? It wasn’t even my house’s affair; it belonged to someone else’s line.

But soon Camilla reached for the books Jimi had brought.

Letting a question that had already settled in my head go unanswered and moving on did not suit my temperament.

If I hadn’t taken an interest from the start, that would be one thing.

Now that the question had deepened, dropping it here felt decidedly wrong.

“Looks like you’re interested in the Sword of Protection as well, Miss.”

“Hm?”

“As well?”

Camilla’s hand, which had just been about to turn the first page of the topmost book, paused.

“Is there someone other than me who read this?”

Jimi immediately nodded.

“Master Ludville.”

Come to think of it, it’s a first.

Looking out at the practice yard where the knights of House Sorpel trained, Camilla realized a fact.

Despite living here all those long years, she had not set foot in the mansion’s practice yard even once.

The original Camilla found Ludville more intimidating than the Duke of Sorpel.

That perpetually indifferent face and that taciturn nature that never initiated a conversation.

Camilla was very afraid to face him. She believed Ludville disliked her.

And that stepbrother...

Ludville.

“Yes, Father.”

...she envied very much.

Not as much as Ravi, but Camilla, too, envied Ludville.

The Duke of Sorpel’s trueborn son.

Ludville, who could be called family whether he did nothing at all or made no effort whatsoever.

He, who would never know the anxiety of being cast outside the fence at any moment; Ludville, who could look at his father without even the slightest sense of indebtedness—she couldn’t help but envy him like that.

Afraid he might notice that, she had tried even harder to avoid him.

If Ludville learned this, she must have thought he would go beyond disliking her and come to despise her... Well.

Camilla watched Ludville as he oversaw the knights’ training.

Seeing him, as always, with an indifferent face, inspecting their stances with painstaking care, she couldn’t help a small laugh.

He doesn’t approach first, but he doesn’t push away anyone who comes near.

He was the same now. When someone came asking for help, he stuck close and taught them without end, didn’t he?

After watching their training for a while longer, Camilla made a small sound to announce herself.

“Huh?”

“Um...”

“Miss Camilla?”

The knights who noticed her began to murmur. At the commotion, Ludville also lifted his head and looked toward where Camilla stood.

At him, whose eyes widened a fraction, Camilla gave a light wave.

“What brings you?”

In an instant he had come close.

“I came to see you.”

“...”

...What is this?

Ludville blinked and blinked again. About... once a second?

I’d seen that look on him before.

It was the first time I met him.

I’d gone to cut flowers to place in the Duke of Sorpel’s study and ended up running into Ludville unexpectedly, so I gave him mist-flowers as a gift.

His reaction had been exactly like that then, too.

“Did I interrupt your training?”

“No.”

“Then do you have a mo—”

“It’s fine.”

His answers came back immediately. At that, Camilla started to get to the point.

“Ludville, you need to give the next training order...”

One of the knights who had been hovering nearby cut into the conversation.

“If you’re °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° busy, I’ll come back later.”

It wasn’t urgent, so Camilla was just going to leave. But Ludville was a little faster.

“Dismissed.”

“Pardon?”

“We’re done for today.”

“...P-pardon?”

“Everyone, dismissed.”

The knights in the yard all stopped what they were doing and gaped.

That Ludville, who had never once permitted breaking training hours whether in rain or snow!

“Over there.”

Regardless, leaving the dazed knights behind, Ludville headed with Camilla to a spot set up along one side of the training ground.

“Want some water?”

“No.”

“Want something to eat? There are some snacks the knights were having over there.”

“I’m fine.”

At Ludville’s repeated attempts to give her something, Camilla tilted her head. Is my visiting making him uncomfortable?

“Have a seat.”

Camilla, instead, offered him a seat. He looked odd, constantly standing up and trying to do something.

Only then did Ludville sit in the chair opposite.

“...”

But after that, he said nothing. He could have asked what she needed or what brought her.

As expected.

Camilla let out a small laugh.

Ludville never pushes away someone who has approached him.

He doesn’t pry into why, and he simply leaves the other person to do whatever they will.

He’s someone who walks alongside you in silence until you’re ready to speak.

Someone who readily reaches out a hand if you ask for help.

That’s who Ludville was.

Why didn’t I realize it sooner?

That he’s this kind of person.

He wasn’t angry.

He didn’t hate or dislike Camilla.

If the Camilla of the past had known this, wouldn’t her life have been a little easier?

Thinking that made me a little... no, very bitter.