Don’t Concern Yourself With That Book

Only Fleon would get this agitated. If he was already reacting this strongly, I could not imagine what would happen if I told him I had already died and survived numerous times already.

Letting the words soar above me continuously, I lowered my head. As always, the words I wanted to say were not leaving my mouth.

The sight of him biting his lips roughly along with his messy ash hair and his dark blue eyes, I wanted to cover them all up. He was screaming at me, with his entire body, that he was feeling miserable. The fact that I had predicted my death and avoided it seemed to have shocked Fleon deeply.

“… Brother, when will the delegation from the desert arrive?”

“Ha. You… really…”

“Brother.”

“Three days before the Founding Festival!”

The future in the original novel and the future predicted by the diary. I could see all the futures within which purpose lies. The woman who was going to stab me was coming.

‘Castor.’

I slowly closed my eyes. It was alright for Castor to appear in the diary with me. If Castor’s fiancée was trying to kill me, then it would be enough if I stopped myself from dying. I would not run away anymore. I decided to act against this terrible fate.

“Hey, you.”

I opened my eyes to meet a gaze that looked like it was going to pierce me.

“Ashley.”

Not sure if Fleon was going to curse at me, I muttered in an unknown dialect.

“Don’t scol’ me.”

Instead of replying, Fleon, who continued looking at me, clicked his tongue.

“I’ll do whatever it takes so I’ll make it so that I’ll be the first person to see the princess or whoever when that person comes. Until then, please don’t do anything and stay calm. Alright?”

“Who’re you treating as a child?”

“Then, what are you if not a kid when you haven’t even had a Coming-of-Age Ceremony?”

What do you mean by a kid? I furrowed my eyebrows.

“Things I didn’t expect to happen did today.”

“Whenever she gets hurt, the princess always says that she got caught up in something ‘unexpected’.”

At the words of Lord Ray, who had been silent for a while now, I was left at a loss of words and zipped my mouth.

“Is it because of the thing you’ve been hiding from us this whole time? You’ve always been so busy because you knew the future?”

His navy eyes that were close to black. With his pupils clearly defined. Staring at him, I slowly spoke.

“Alright.”

I did not feel bad. Whether they were angry or staring silently at me, they were all just worried about me. I smiled faintly at the gazes that were staring at me as if I was a child who just learned how to walk. It was good that they were worried about me but I did not intend to stay locked up.

“Alright. Let’s do this.”

“What?”

“Then, let me follow you. I’m fine with wherever you choose to go.”

Then, the knight who was only quick to read the room regarding these issues, hurriedly looked at me.

“I will follow you from now on.”

“… But Lord, you’re also Dane and Fleon’s escort, right?”

“He’s also the princess’ escort.”

“Then what are you going to do, brothers?”

“The princes understand.”

“But one of the said princes is frowning and glaring at you, Lord?”

“That prince will be fine without an escort like me. He’s someone with excellent skills in swordsmanship.”

Fleon muttered about a cheeky bastard. If a knight who had always teased me for not being able to exercise acted like that, I would have been angry as well.

“I’m only acting on this opportunity because you always nagged me to work my salary’s worth.”

Even then, it did not look like the Lord cared as a faint smile appeared on his typically stoic face.

“You’re good with your words.”

“I’m also good with my sword.”

I scoffed at Lord Ray only for him to respond to me shamelessly.

Looking at it once more, he really was childish. When I asked him to escort me, he declined and he only acted serious during such a situation. Staring at him, I did not hold back my smile. I jutted my chin.

“Lord, do you like me?”

“My loyalty to the princess is always sincere.”

Suddenly, I recalled the pale face of the man who acted so differently in and out of the palace.

“I admire the person.”

Was it really a feeling of admiration?

“It’s my duty to protect you.”

Everyone had more than one face. Hernan had a face I would have never known about until I met him in person.

“So, rather, ‘love’ must feel like this.”

“Because I always think about it.”

However, what about the other issues?

“Well. That’s not bad.”

I lightly swept over the leather surface with the palm of my hand.

The diary.

When I learned about the time machine, there was a time I was excited about knowing my deaths and knowing the future.

After having experienced it firsthand, I knew that it was not a good thing. I learned that there were some things that I could not change and things I could not achieve even though I knew the future. And after learning that repeatedly, people could only go crazy from the shock.

So, I was comfortable being alone. I thought it would be better to be lonely than to be hurt by faces I knew or faces I knew but could do nothing against.

Until now.

Certainly, if Lord Ray was with me, I would not have to care so much about my safety.

But what happens if I face something very dangerous?

“I’ll try to tell you the next time I go out.”

“You’ll try?”

If I died, I would just start over again. But what would happen to the Lord Ray of this time and this day? Suddenly, I wondered how they would live if I had actually disappeared and died. Would they do well without me? I did not know. This useless curiosity of mine dissolved away in my sea of thought.

“Oi, that foolish expression.”

Fleon pointed his finger. Just then, he messed up my hair.

“I told you not to mess with my hair.”

When asked what the 6th Prince was like in the <Light of Rusbella>, he was described objectively as the Fleon I was seeing now.

“I don’t think you’ll ever change, Fleon.”

“What about me.”

“An arrogant and stubborn brat.”

“What?”

Rather, it was like his arrogance could not be broken or bent. He was a sinner who had disappeared due to his death sentence without ever appearing as a sinner at all. A strange sense of relief washed over a part of me as I watched Fleon.

If the prince who was acting the same as he was in the original novel ended up the same way…

“No. Brother, please change a little. Please change.”

Why did Fleon get dragged into prison? Fleon’s scene was just a small stepping stone to set the stage for a different event. It was a scene where the reason he was imprisoned was also not mentioned.

‘… Will it appear if I search the records?’

I shook my head. There was only one year left. I should see how the future one month and a half from now would be like first.

Whether I would have to put a stop to the romance between Rusbella and Castor or help Fleon run away.

***

It was late into the night.

Dane, Fleon and even Ray left to leave an empty drawing room.

“Now the emperor and the Crown Prince are at odds with each other so this is the best time for us to strike.”

The woman smiled as she talked about rebellion. Her meaningful smile had never left my mind. I muttered as I touched the back of the diary.

“The first meeting…”

On the 17th of the month of Venus. It was the day I would die as announced by my diary. Many things that could affect the future were going to occur during the Founding Festival.

In fact, the two month’s worth of entries were all about the Founding Festival.

I wondered why.

I thought it was right to pay more attention to my survival. However, I kept thinking about what happened today.

“If you had been dragged away, you would’ve become a part of the crystal or would be captured and exploited for the rest of your life.”

Kidnap them at will and then drain them of their powers. From the standpoint of templar candidates, this was a crime.

Perhaps the fact that someone like me being brutally sacrificed might be intolerable.

I knew too well not to get swept up by riots.

The current Emperor was an old man just reaching his sixties who had already weakened and handed over his state affairs to the Crown Prince. Although he had been criticised for being strangely weak, his abilities were quite good.

In an Empire where important positions were only held by templars for a long time, he was fairly respected by commoners for allowing important positions to be held by non-templars as well.

Although his power to protect his land has dwindled and invasions had gotten more frequent, his diplomatic capabilities did not seem to be particularly poor considering how he has protected his borders firmly for 60 years.

However, when I thought about the things I heard about the Templars of Chaos today, it felt like I had just read about the neighbourhood uncle who had always been so happy when looking at young children was actually a strange perverted and psychopathic killer on the front pages of the newspaper.

“Ashley.”

When I raised my head, I spotted Dane leaning against the sofa.

“… Dane? Since when have you been here?”

“I came by because I had something to say. But you were lost in thought.”

I shifted my gaze. It was already late at night. The moon outside my window did not seem to be setting soon.

“Just spit it out. What do you have to say?’

When asked, Dane smiled in silence.

“There was something bothering me. I’m talking about the Templar of Chaos. You said that the girl you had met briefly had the seed of chaos, right?”

He mentioned the girl I had met today.

“Yeah.”

I did not tell him what I had heard from the Templar of Chaos. It was only because I thought it would have been difficult to determine whether what she said was true or not. I did not have any evidence that the woman spoke the truth. But if it was true, what should I do?

“Ashley.”

Dane called for me.

“There’s something you didn’t mention, right?”

For a moment, my eyes widened.

Dane did not hide his gaze and was clear that he was suspicious. Rather, it was me who was avoiding his gaze.

“If you’re talking about the [Templar of Chaos]… I’ve told you everything.”

“No. That’s not what I meant.”

“Then?”

“Something else.”

I could not understand what he wanted so I tilted my head and stared at him.

“Something else? What are you talking about?”

Because all the lights in the room had already been turned off, Dane’s light was only dimly visible in the moonlight.

“No.”

The face which had half of it infused with silver was pale and pretty so I had stared at it blankly for a long time. If a nine-tailed fox or a monster who could wear a person’s skin really existed, it would look like Dane.

The eyes that emitted a dark red light were curled beautifully as they reflected the moonlight.

“Ashley, you know. There are only two things I regret.”

Two?

“What are they?”

I asked since it looked like Dane wanted a reply.

“One was something that happened a long time ago and something I could not help. But the other was something I could have noticed faster.”

And his happy and friendly expression that usually looked like a child eating candy lost its glow and he remained silent.

“I don’t want to see you in pain in a place I cannot see.”

Suddenly, Dane grabbed my cheek and pointed a calm and friendly gaze towards me as if he did not want me to miss a single word.

“I was so filled with regret I was sick. That month of Habermia. What you left behind.”

His words wrapped around me deep enough to pierce me.

“Next time, I want you to call me. Don’t hold back.”

I usually did not like it when people touched my cheek but I did not feel like resisting. Still, when Dane touched it, I flinched. Dane gave me a gentle and friendly look once again but he clearly saw my expression.

“Did you come back just to say that?’

“Yeah. You always did take the easy way.’

“…..”

“To torture yourself.”