The realization that I’ve come to the past is starting to sink in.
The garden scenery sparkles, reflecting sunlight so bright it stings my eyes.
I can see Pina with her flowing black hair instead of her usual white locks.
“The white rose symbolizes purity and youth, dear brother.”
“I see. Then does a wilted white rose have a meaning too?”
She isn’t wearing the dry expression I first saw at the Academy.
“I know it means, ‘I swear my eternity to you…!’”
As she walks with me in the garden, she’s explaining all sorts of things about roses.
I never dreamed I would be spending such peaceful moments like this.
“I know everything about these roses in the garden…!”
“Impressive.”
“Ehehe… I got a compliment…”
Roses change meaning based on their number, color, and even their wilted state.
Maybe that’s why Pina liked blue roses the most.
“Hey, even you like roses, huh?”
“Woof! Heh heh.”
Before I knew it, a puppy with a red rose in its mouth came trotting over to Pina.
It’s said that spirits are influenced by human emotions.
Is it trying to act cute for her? The puppy had shrunk dramatically in size.
“Your Highness, does a single rose also have significance?”
“…One rose…?”
I held up the rose the spirit brought me and asked her, who was smiling brightly.
Her eyes widened again in surprise.
“Yes, just a moment ago I mentioned that meanings change depending on how many there are—”
“Oh, dear brother! I can’t tell you such shameless things!”
Pina yelled, cutting me off.
Her cheeks were as red as a rose, looking like she might explode.
Shy, she covered her face with both hands.
“You’re… a bad wolf…!!”
Plus, she called me brother.
I tried asking her to call me “oppa” just once, but she shook her head vigorously in refusal.
Being the princess of the Grancia Empire, she claims she needs to maintain her dignity.
She would sneak glances at me, but whenever I looked back, she’d whip her head away.
‘Did I miss something?’
I already made the mistake of showing my face to the past Pina.
I had to be extra cautious to prevent the future from getting tangled up—like time paradox stuff.
No, but still, her calling me “old man” was her fault.
“I’m sorry for my rude question, Your Highness.”
“Then… please tell me your name instead…!”
Suddenly, Pina stopped in her tracks.
Until now, I had been following her lead through the garden.
“I can’t tell you.”
“Why not? I really want to know…”
Young Pina often threw strange questions my way.
From where I live to what my favorite food is—every ordinary query.
She even awkwardly asked if I had time today since she knows a dessert shop well.
She even asked about having a crush—asking me a term I could hardly understand.
“To recommend you to my father in the Imperial Guard… I need your name…”
Pina looked like she was eager to recruit me into the Guards the first day we met.
Well, Emperor Rock might want to kill me if he sees the current me.
He might think of me as a threat sneaking close to his precious daughter.
“Didn’t the Emperor go to deal with the remnants of the Hero Church?”
“Exactly..! But I received a letter saying he’ll be back soon, so I really want to introduce you!”
Pina had such a sweet, innocent smile, completely unaware of the danger.
Where in the world does this pure heart come from?
“What do you trust me with this much for, Your Highness?”
Despite everything, we’ve just met.
Even though I know her future self, right now, Pina Grancia doesn’t know me at all.
This kind of unconditional trust felt foreign.
“Your face…!”
“My ugly face, you mean?”
Was it pity?
Did the younger her think I looked pathetic?
“Where exactly is your face ugly?! You’re, um, quite gallant… oh, not that…!”
As I swallowed my bitter feelings, she waved her hands frantically, correcting herself.
Surprised, Pina began to hiccup again.
“Ugh, I got it from your gaze! It felt real when you said you’d protect me.”
“……”
With her golden wolf-like eyes sparkling, she spoke softly to me.
“Something… I can’t put into words, but it feels nostalgic too… hiccup.”
Was Pina always this perceptive since she was a child?
I am jumping through time to meet the past Pina Grancia.
Pina feeling a strange longing when seeing me probably links back to knowing her future self.
“Anyway..! The scar is like a badge for the Inrang Tribe, so don’t worry about it.”
She clasped my hands, showing her concern.
Her bright smile made it feel like I was looking at someone else entirely.
What exactly did she do to deserve everything being taken from her by the Demon King?
“……I’m Lee Soo-hyun. Your Highness.”
Seeing her, I could only chew on my lower lip to reveal my name.
With this choice, it won’t matter if the future changes and we don’t meet.
“I came to save you…”
“Oh my, our Pina. What are you doing there?”
Just as I was about to reveal that I came from the future, a familiar face appeared before us.
“Mother..? I thought you were in the Imperial Palace!”
“Hehe, of course I came out looking for my precious Pina.”
With hair and attire completely black like the transformed Pina, she bore a glowing golden gaze and a gentle atmosphere.
‘Queen Bellin.’
The Empress of the Grancia Empire.
The wife of Rock Grancia and mother of Pina.
“So, who is this Black Knight beside you…?”
She looked at me with a curious expression.
*
I wonder if the saying about having no way out applies to this situation.
A place filled with lavish chandeliers illuminating the surroundings and walls adorned with grand paintings.
“I had no intention to invade the Imperial Palace. I fell into the secret garden while pursuing the Demon King…”
“Yes, that’s correct. Queen Bellin.”
Right next to the garden, in the adjacent palace.
I immediately knelt before the Empress, starting my explanation.
She probably has a personality similar to Rock, so I must bow and beg for forgiveness.
To her, I might appear as someone who targeted her innocent daughter.
“Mother, he has done nothing wrong…!”
“Pina, please wait a moment.”
Pina.
Fine.
The Empress was calm, calling Pina by that cute nickname.
“His words aren’t finished yet, are they?”
She seemed to encourage me to continue speaking.
I expected her to be more forceful.
“That puppy, is it your spirit?”
“Ah, yes. It is….”
I felt like a bug caught in a spider’s web.
It seems she figured something out by looking at the puppy beside Pina.
“Pina, go out with that spirit for a while.”
“Mother…!”
“It’s alright. I have some things to discuss separately.”
The Empress gently patted Pina’s head and advised her to step away.
With a click, the door closed behind them, leaving just me and Queen Bellin in the room.
Just as I started worrying about my neck getting chopped off,
“You are from the future, aren’t you?”
“……?!”
Queen Bellin looked down at me, chuckling just like Pina.
How did she know?
How did she figure out that the Nameless Saintess sent me to the past?
“……”
“Get up. Your knees must hurt.”
As I briefly fell silent, she gestured for me to rise.
Unlike Emperor Rock, she seemed to be in a favorable mood.
“Perhaps, you’re our Pina’s boyfriend from the distant future?”
She was reading into all the hidden information I tried to conceal.
“W-wait a moment, Queen Bellin.”
“Nope. It’s closer to ‘partner’ than a boyfriend.”
My face turned pale.
Even though I’d heard that the Empress was a genius in magic,
Isn’t this closer to being akin to an all-knowing Demon King?
“On what grounds do you make such a judgment about me?”
“If I say it’s intuition, you’d probably not believe me.”
She turned her gaze toward the paintings hanging on the wall.
Pina and Rufus playing happily.
And pictures with Queen Bellin and Emperor Rock together.
“When you look at these pictures, what do you think?”
Asking me for my opinion about something like a family album, the Empress began sharing her thoughts.
“…A harmonious scene.”
“Hehe, hearing such things from my future son-in-law makes me feel strange.”
So that’s where Pina got her laugh from!
Bellin Grancia smiled faintly, clearly satisfied with my answer.
“I possess the ability to see the relationships between people and things. For example….”
The Empress began shifting the paintings around like a puzzle.
“Just like how red threads connect between these pictures, I can see things differently.”
With clinks and clatters, the paintings began to merge into an extended panorama.
“Here are our family pictures from when we traveled to the sea…”
The completely random arrangements started to form into a cohesive story thanks to her hands.
“These are the ones we took while creating the garden for our Pina.”
“Empress, you created that garden for her.”
From the initial construction to Pina joyfully watering the roses.
Finally, receiving a blue rose and smiling brightly.
“…That’s a bit stiff. Just call me mother-in-law casually.”
As Queen Bellin brightly smiled at me, I politely bowed my head in gratitude.
“That ability allowed you to understand my relationship with Pina, didn’t it?”
“To a degree? Actually, more than that…”
With that bow, satisfaction appeared on Bellin’s face.
Pina’s genuine nature must have been a mix of both sides. As I pondered this,
“Your magical circuits are incredibly tangled. Just like someone who has skipped through time several times.”
She opened up a magic circle and explained how she figured out I’m from the future.
