Emperor's Alternate - Chapter 62
It was the handkerchief Lecan received from the princess. The emblems of the imperial family and the Lecan family sparkled together.
Meow.
The cat purred in response, her tail raised high.
He’d dropped it in the cave, and she’d kept it in her arms, unmarked. The handkerchief had been given to him by another woman, but for some reason I didn’t want to give it back. I couldn’t understand my own feelings. I just felt like, if Lecan’s energy on the handkerchief completely disappeared from this world…
I don’t know. I wanted to at least find his body or even fragments of his bones for a proper funeral. Wouldn’t that be a matter of courtesy? It wouldn’t hurt to show that level of respect. Strangely, my fingers holding the handkerchief were trembling.
***
I swear, I think my brain is broken. As soon as I entered the corridor, I heard a cat’s shrill cry from Duchess de Trippé’s quarters. I didn’t even have to step inside to realize how pitifully the cat was meowing.
“Come out.”
He’s dead.
I muttered absentmindedly. It was an empty corridor in the early morning with no one around, but I couldn’t help it and shouted loudly.
“I know you’re there, I told you to come out now!”
“…”
“I am your superior! How dare you defy me!”
“…”
Swoosh, thud.
Though unable to read mana, I turned around to see a knight in a black uniform. I didn’t know where he suddenly appeared from, but that wasn’t something I needed to know anyway. Perhaps, under the Empress’s orders, he was silently following behind me as a watcher.
“I don’t recognize you.”
“I’m new to the mission.”
“I have somewhere I need to be, so follow me, now.”
“I need to report to the Empress Regent first….”
“I am giving you orders as your superior. You will obey my orders with the respect I deserve, or you will be dismissed from your position immediately.”
“…Very well.”
Passing by the knight who was praying, I lost track of how time was passing. The thought of Lecan’s death felt like the world was on the verge of collapse. What is this? Why does my heart ache so much? Why does it feel like I’m going crazy?
I hopped on a mana train and headed off to where Lecan had gone. I couldn’t stop myself from acting, even though I knew there was an endless amount of work piling up. I thought I was in control of everything. I believed that my emotions, my thoughts, and my reason were all under the control of my rational mind.
Now I realize that was not the case. There was not a single piece of reason left. As soon as I got off the train and saw the sky filled with volcanic ash, my breath stopped. Is he dead? That man? The man so great and admired by people, the man who was once my fiance, did I kill him?
Did I?
“…”
My eyes slowly scanned the ruined town. Countless buildings had collapsed before the sudden, unexpected disaster. The ground beneath me still rumbled silently, still seething with the unabated volcanic activity. The knight at my side dared not speak to me.
The determination to find even a fragment of his remains became futile as volcanic ash surrounded me in all directions. It was as if I was in a snowy wilderness. How could I find him? It would be impossible. The handkerchief in my hand slipped from my grasp and blew away in the breeze.
Feeling nauseous, I turned and walked back into the mana train I had just gotten off.
I lost all sense of time again. Before I knew it, I was sitting on my bed in my quarters, dazed and breathing. Soon the news of his death would be everywhere, and the reactions would be on paper.
I had done my job. I had achieved my goal.
But why didn’t I feel like I had accomplished anything?
Suddenly, I lifted my head. The wind was blowing, ruffling the window curtains. The moonlight was bright, and as the curtains rose and fell, I could see Lecan’s face.
I wondered if I had gone mad and was hallucinating for a moment, but it was too vivid. The man I’d just confirmed as dead was sitting on the window sill, staring at me with his face intact. I was confused about what had happened, but that living presence was real.
It was definitely Lecan.
‘…It was the Princess who had died.’
Suddenly realizing it, I found myself frozen, overwhelmed by an inexplicable emotion. Was I relieved now? Grateful that Lecan was not dead? Or was I in despair, foreseeing the collapse of the empire? I couldn’t tell.
I just stared at Lecan, feeling like I was about to choke.
