C117
'That can't be possible'.
After picking up the letter that had fallen, Terence returned to his room and tried to make a calm decision.
"I know nothing about that letter," said the maid named Laura, who served Ethel.
"Ethel only said she was going to meet someone named Angela, but besides that..."
"Who is Angela?"
"I apologize, Your Highness. I don't know that either."
"How did her face look when she read this letter?"
"Now that I think about it, I think she had a serious expression on her face when she received that letter."
In the end, Laura left without providing much information.
He was absorbed. It was true that Ethel planned to leave the empire.
Terence had tried not to be aware of that part on purpose, but he had never forgotten it for a moment. Not for a moment.
So, when he found the magic stones in the mines of Andala and it was revealed that their grade was the highest level, he felt secretly happy.
Because of the mine, the chances of Ethel staying in the empire would increase, and indeed, as she was busy with the mine issue, she didn't mention her old plans.
But he knew better. The fact is that Ethel is a person who will break free from any limitation of reality and flee if she really decides to.
Immediately Vinetta and the Imperial Knights followed her to protect her, but Ethel had a divine beast.
If she used the power of the divine beast, it would be no problem to simply escape from them.
With trembling hands, Terence checked the inside of the envelope that had been carelessly thrown on the desk.
There was a train ticket reservation document that seemed to have been attached by the sender of this letter for Ethel.
The date is today, the destination is a port city located at the eastern end of the empire.
There is a ship going to the Kingdom of Soro.
Terence's reason whispered. That can't be possible.
The Ethel he knew wouldn't have left such a relevant letter on her desk so defenseless if she had planned to leave without anyone knowing.
It also whispered. That even if Ethel left, she's not the type of person to leave without saying goodbye.
"At least she should have left me a letter..."
While whispering, the train ticket reservation document that Terence had in his hand crumpled.
Both reason and emotion claimed it was a hasty misunderstanding, but Terence couldn't ignore the slight possibility that had come to his mind.
The worst possibility is that he would lose Ethel in vain like this.
"Jack!"
The assistant waiting nearby appeared in front of him as he exited the room with hurried steps.
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Go right now to the central train station and find out if they have seen someone with a similar appearance to Ethel and if there is a ticket issued with the reservation number written here..."
Terence, who was about to hand the crumpled document to Jack, bit his lip and crumpled it into his pocket.
"No. I'll go check it myself."
"Your Highness?"
"It's okay, prepare a horse. If Ethel returns in the meantime, send someone there."
Terence walked down the villa hallway without waiting for Jack's response.
It's definitely a misunderstanding. It must be a misunderstanding. Still, there's nothing wrong with checking.
Terence didn't have time to stand still and wait for Ethel to come home.
* * *
"Are you okay?"
Vinetta, seeing that I had regained consciousness, asked.
"Where am I?"
I got up from the bed and removed the blanket from my body.
"At the house of a doctor near the orphanage. Angela guided me."
"The doctor said you were fine, but suddenly you collapsed... Do you have any chronic illness?"
Like Vinetta, Angela, who was sitting beside the bed, looked at me with worried eyes.
There's nothing like that. I'm healthy.
The image I saw in my dream flashed through my mind.
"...I just remembered some things."
"Have your childhood memories come back?"
"Just a little. I often climbed the mountain behind here, picked raspberries, ate them, and played."
And Duke Cassius arrived at the orphanage and expressed his intention to support Ethel.
However, according to Angela, Ethel couldn't meet Duke Cassius because she was transferred to another orphanage.
In summary, if the dream I just had really happened, it would be a memory from her first life, not this life.
"I can't believe Ethel had such a connection with Cassius."
The story continues from the dream I had last time.
Probably, the moment Ethel took in Liena, who had nowhere to go, was when she became independent from Cassius and lived alone after graduating from the academy.
It was fortunate that she wasn't Cassius's adopted daughter, but the situation was very ironic.
It is said that the content changed due to my possession, but Ethel, who had been close to Cassius in the previous life in a sponsorship relationship, became Leandro's wife in this life.
Their relationship deteriorated so much that they ended up divorcing.
My thoughts naturally turned to the person who had made this life so twisted.
"Liena."
The Liena I saw in my dream was an unfortunate girl who was so starved for the love of others that she envied rabbits.
"Maybe I can't do this because I'm not the real Ethel, but...."
To put it bluntly, even if Liena, who had been adopted once, saw Cassius and became greedy, stealing the opportunity from her friend, I didn't feel like criticizing her.
However, I didn't understand Liena's actions after that in many ways.
She neglected her friend, who fell into a pit because of her, for more than ten years, and then married her off to her older brother to obtain the mine.
Two people who could have been siblings in their previous life.
Liena might have thought it was some kind of good deed to marry an unhappy friend to her brother and bring her to Cassius.
Still, Liena simply watched as Cassius ignored me.
She used cowardly measures to prevent the divorce and, not long ago, even tried to forcibly take his mine.
At the same time, she thought that if Ethel remembered the past, she would understand.
Liena could never understand human behavior and ways of thinking.
"And this is a minor problem."
There was one more thing I didn't understand about Liena.
—"Miss Angela."
—"Huh, yes?"
—"Regarding Liena. Wasn't her way of speaking a bit peculiar when she was young?"
—"Was her way of speaking unusual?"
—"Something like, 'Hoda. Mi nombe es Lieda Caziuz.'"
—"Liena?"
Angela made a strange expression.
Heat rose to my cheeks. It was supposed to be an example, but I ended up sounding like a child even though I was already an adult.
"But she definitely says this in the novel!"
Liena uses this tone from the beginning of the novel, starting with the scene where she is adopted by Cassius.
The dream I had was before Liena was adopted. In other words, of course, Liena had to speak this way.
Indeed, while dreaming, I kept feeling a strange sense of discomfort, and this was the identity of that discomfort.
"Oh, now that I think about it!"
Angela, lost in thought, shouted.
"I just remembered, but she said something like that a few days before Cassius adopted her. Could it be that she injured her tongue?"
"… I see."
If that were the case, there was no way many of Cassius's powerful members wouldn't have discovered the injury.
"The fact that she returned doesn't mean her tongue suddenly shortened."
Did her tone change with some intention?
I reflected for a moment on what her intention might be and then shook my head.
What does it matter how young Liena spoke?
What I should have been more concerned about was how I should behave in the future.
"I'm going to the bathroom for a moment."
I left the room pretending to go to the bathroom and stayed alone.
After confirming that no one was around, I spoke quietly into the air.
"Miella."
No response.
"Goddess Miella, please answer me."
No voice echoed in my head.
"Didn't you do something to seal my memories before I fainted? What do you mean? Did you seal Ethel's memories from her last life?"
Still silent. I didn't call her before, but she appeared in my dream and made a lot of noise.
"Miella! You're really doing this!"
I snorted and muttered a few more nonsensical words before giving up and returning to my room.
"It's late, let's go."
"Are you sure? She fainted. Why don't you stay here today?"
Angela said, but I wanted to return to the imperial palace as soon as possible.
"Maybe because it's an unfamiliar place, but I don't feel comfortable. I'd like to take the night train back."
"If that's okay. Would you like to look around the orphanage again? You couldn't even enter."
I also followed Angela's suggestion and visited the orphanage building again just in case.
However, as before, Ethel's past life did not come back to my mind.
With only the bitterness of the ruins in my mind, I headed to the nearby station.
However, I encountered an unexpected person at the station.
"Ethel!"
Terence, who seemed to be asking something to the station master, saw me and ran towards me.
"Greetings to His Royal Highness the Prince!"
Vinetta and the imperial knights showed respect at the sudden appearance of the prince.
Terence stared at me, not even looking at them.
I can't believe he appeared here suddenly. No matter how much I thought about it, it didn't seem like a normal situation.
"Your Highness, come over here for a moment."
I led Terence to a distant place so we could talk alone.
"Did something happen!? Did something else happen in the Lucibiu mine? Or Mikhail's forces...?"
"I feel relieved."
It was an unexpected response. Terence looked at me with relief in his eyes, not knowing why.
"Because you haven't changed."
"I'm not sure what that means."
"I just imagined nonsense. But thanks to you, I definitely realized this."
He took my hand with his gloved hand.
As always, it was a large and reliable hand.
"I can't continue being your friend."