After I turned back time like this, the plan I came up with was to keep my body safe.
Since I started at the point where my life was under threat, it was only natural to realize that the Goddess had some degree of interference in this world. I knew that every time I lost my mind, time would go haywire.
So, when would that ‘timing of time returning to normal’ happen—
Ding!
—I understood it was during that ‘perfect time for me to die.’
Of course, it wasn’t always like that. If it were, I wouldn’t have ended up with a ridiculous nickname like ‘Grace’s Black Lily.’
But it was easy to understand that the normal flow of time was the timing that ‘the Goddess had prepared.’
So, I worked hard to stay safe. I didn’t try to move alone whenever possible. If I had to go somewhere, I made sure to take Leo with me, and if possible, I also accompanied Claire and Alice. Unlike before, I didn’t dive into the battlefield. Thanks to that, the northern border area was still in a deadlock.
…There was also no meeting with Rena. The reason Rena came to the academy was because of me in the first place.
That said, I didn’t want to just leave Rena alone, but there was no way to do that for now. It would be strange for someone who isn’t even a princess to suddenly say they wanted to cross the border to meet the governor of the Riclant Autonomous State, and it would be just as odd for Claire or Alice to insist on meeting Rena without cause.
Rumors were circulating that the Sword Saint was directly moving near the border, throwing the battlefield into an uproar.
But putting that aside and returning to the current situation.
While keeping my body safe, my thought was to quickly combine the artifacts and smash the world where I couldn’t tell if it was an illusion or reality—or both—and crush the Goddess’s plans.
Bam!
“Fancy running into my daughter in a place like this. What a coincidence.”
Why did the Emperor pop up in front of us?
If we moved ‘as quickly as possible,’ before the Emperor gathered all the artifacts, I thought we could gather them much more effortlessly and faster.
That’s why I skipped the academy and visited Northwood.
Of course, at this moment, there was Kiara Verati disguised as a bunny girl in Northwood, but we didn’t care at all. We just had to raid the ruins without running into her.
But why was it that the Emperor was here ahead of time?
“Seems like you’re wondering why.”
The Emperor, who arrived a step ahead of us, spoke while holding a fragment of the artifact.
“I actually wanted to ask that first. How did you find this place?”
“…….”
The three of us fell silent.
Right now, Claire, the Emperor’s daughter, and Alice, her sister, were exactly the same. I had no ties to the Emperor here. Sure, I had glimpsed the Emperor at the end of banquets, but I intentionally kept my distance and avoided conversation.
“Was it Sylvia from the Grace Family?”
It wasn’t that we hadn’t exchanged pleasantries, but…
I was quite famous in the social scene, and the Grace family was known as a loyal faction.
“I want to ask you why you’re here.”
“……Is it the Emperor’s command?”
“Depending on the situation, it might turn out that way.”
Claire and Alice’s gazes flew towards me.
…At the point I faced the Emperor, the decision to keep my body safe shattered into pieces.
I didn’t think the Goddess could control free will. Of course, she seemed to hope that the world would ultimately become ‘that kind of place,’ but at least for now, it was reasonable to conclude that it couldn’t happen. If it were possible, the Emperor would act according to his own wishes without caring about anyone.
What she could do was to foresee the future to some extent and set traps for the other to move as anticipated.
And I had fallen into that trap.
Then how did the Goddess move the Emperor—
…Wait, there was no need to ponder that.
Leo seemed to feel something about Claire and Alice. The fact that he wasn’t turning pale in front of the Crown Princess and was acting naturally was a clear indicator. He just didn’t know exactly what that ‘feeling’ was.
Mia was similar. At first, she had a very dark and gloomy expression, but after I took her around the academy with great effort, she brightened up. Her stuttering improved in an instant, and after reconciling somewhat with me, she was able to hold proper conversations.
She still refrained from talking about her father, but that was within the understandable range.
Charlotte also became friendly, just like Alice had before, and she had shown quite a bit of interest in me from the beginning. Unlike her previous perfectly cool beauty character, my current expression was far more varied than before—mostly ‘calm’, though—so I felt like I became friends with Charlotte even faster than before.
Then, the Emperor definitely wouldn’t be oblivious to everything.
Even if he didn’t perfectly retain the memory of his past failure, he must have felt that much. If he did, it gave him a reason to move his plans forward. He might be feeling anxious.
Though he didn’t show it on the surface.
I glanced to both sides of the Emperor. Bella and Lucas were there. Both of them looked at me as if I were fascinating.
…Yeah, they also had a pretty big emotion towards me.
Therefore, there was no need for the Goddess to manipulate anyone.
I was feeling anxious too, so she could have easily guessed that I would take action as quickly as possible.
What the Goddess had to do was merely to arrange the timing so that our paths would cross as I moved as quickly as I could.
With just that, I became something immensely suspicious and unidentifiable that suddenly popped up before the Emperor.
Also, gathering the artifacts behind the Emperor’s back.
Whoosh!
In that brief moment, I pushed my brain to the limit.
And the conclusion I reached was just one.
I knelt down on the spot and prostrated myself.
I saw Claire and Alice flinch in surprise. Claire probably had the words “Sister!” rising to her throat.
…It was an action I would never have taken in the previous country. After all, it was slightly weird for a cool beauty girl to kneel in front of others.
But right now, that wasn’t important.
My life was important.
“……I greet you, Father.”
“……”
And for a while, the world was shrouded in silence.
Well.
I was already considered a father-daughter relation before turning back time anyway.
Ding!
I had no intention of pushing Claire away.
I just needed to say that there were others besides Claire in that orphanage. The Emperor seemed to have relations with many women, to the point he couldn’t distinguish something as simple as his daughter’s hair color.
“You say you’re my daughter.”
The Emperor looked down at me quietly.
“Yes, I was in the same orphanage as Claire.”
“Is that proof enough to say you’re my daughter?”
“…….”
Fortunately, there is no DNA testing in this world. Drugs were at a level comparable to early 20th century, but for complex medical procedures like surgeries, it was still worse than those in the same period in my previous world. After all, it was a world with healing magic, so there was no need for such complicated surgeries. Even if they did, it seemed more like a temporary measure in extreme situations without a healer.
I think I read somewhere that even in the early 20th century, certain protein tests could determine if blood was mixed or not, but that really didn’t matter.
So, I decided to take a gamble.
“…My mother said that my father is His Majesty the Emperor.”
I fabricated a mother who didn’t even exist.
The Emperor nodded as if to say, “Keep going.”
I racked my brain.
My previous name was Sylvia Black.
When a surname includes a ‘color’ or ‘object,’ that usually indicates the person is likely a commoner. And there are those who don’t even have that surname.
Once I had heard that the Emperor’s children were actually said to have blood mixed, I hadn’t just remained quiet. I did my research.
Records were so thoroughly erased that I couldn’t pinpoint Lucas’s mother or Bella’s mother accurately, but it was evident that fallen royal families had been demoted to ‘commoners.’
That didn’t mean they had forcibly hidden them somewhere; they probably had some sort of deal, coercion, or persuasion.
The plans likely began before Alice was born, and after Alice’s mother died, the plans would have accelerated. Even at this moment, there could be ‘younger siblings’ of Alice or Claire somewhere. They just weren’t chosen by the Emperor.
That means one of those who ‘mingled with the Emperor’ was dreaming a ‘futile dream,’ right?
“At the moment, I can’t remember my mother’s name. But I vaguely remember the stories I heard in her arms. To survive and to be of help to you, Your Majesty.”
Whether the Emperor wooed, seduced, or coerced, there was only one reason why she would mingle with the Emperor—hope of returning to royalty.
Or the desire that her child might inherit the Empire.
“Doesn’t that make you think there will be no price for that ‘help’?”
It seemed the Emperor understood my words.
“……”
I didn’t offer any response.
But that alone seemed to be enough for the Emperor.
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