The time I woke up was around afternoon.
My attendance was screwed today as well.
Absent for two days in a row.
Charlotte told me not to worry, as she had made up an excuse for us.
She even had my entry and exit records deleted.
Instead of rejoicing that she was safe, that the power that threatened to consume her had been quelled, she instead thought of the things she needed to do right now, and did them.
She had given up on everything. Yet when the situation changed, she did what she had to do immediately.
It was a rather strange experience.
The people at the Spring Palace were tight-lipped, so she said that no one outside would know that I had visited here. Nevertheless, I did not wander around inside the palace.
I only stayed in Charlotte’s bedroom.
When Charlotte said it was okay to go back and that she would return to Temple tomorrow, I shook my head.
“Maybe I should keep an eye on you for another day.”
“….”
Charlotte stared at me blankly.
“Does that mean you’re staying in my bedroom for another day?”
“Uh-huh.”
“… Reinhardt. I appreciate you so much, and I’ll admit that you mean a lot to me, but are you really being so shameless?”
Just because you slept here one night, you think it’s your room!
Charlotte’s stunned face seemed to convey that.
“Uh-huh, for your own safety, I can’t help it.”
“Why are you saying it like that?!”
I declared that I would sleep in her room with confidence.
No matter how important the situation is, it sounds a bit arrogant.
However, even if I go back to Temple today, all the classes will be over. I wanted to watch Charlotte’s condition for one more day.
If nothing happens today, I think it can be considered quite okay for a while.
Charlotte didn’t kick me out because she knew my words made sense. It’s just that I had to stay in the bedroom because I had been hurt until now, so it was absurd for me to be so brazen.
“Okay then, I’ll sleep in the guest room.”
What is she talking about?
I tilted my head at Charlotte’s words.
What is she saying?
“I want to stay here for one more day to check on your condition. What’s the point of you sleeping outside? You should sleep here.”
Charlotte’s lips trembled at my words. Her face was getting paler by the minute.
“I, I… You mean you want to sleep with me?”
No!
No fucking chance!
“Do you have to say it like that? I just need to make sure that there’s nothing wrong with you when you sleep!”
“That, that… I know, but…”
Charlotte was trembling, never dreaming that she would ever be asked such things.
“What else do you expect me to do, I’m just here to watch.”
“Why are you watching people sleep instead of sleeping yourself?”
“Is it really a problem whether I sleep or not? What do you want me to do? This girl is so amusing.”
“Amusing…?”
Charlotte seemed shaken by my ramblings.
What should I say?
What am I seeing?
Harriet’s reaction is top-notch, but Charlotte’s is also top-notch. In fact, Charlotte must have grown up receiving even more noble treatment.
Most of all, now that Harriet is used to it, she just goes along with it, but Charlotte doesn’t have immunity yet, so she’ll react strongly.
“Oh, yeah, that… Give that back to me! You’re scaring me.”
Charlotte wanted the brooch she’d given me back.
Was it because she was afraid that I might come in and check on her when she was sleeping and do some strange things before leaving?
“Stealing back what you gifted me is the worst thing to do, do you think I’d let you take it back?”
“Oh, no, I want it back, give it to me, give it to me, I didn’t give it to you!”
Charlotte and I played tag for a while in her spacious bedroom.
Eventually, Charlotte got tired and sat down.
“Whew… Heuk… Whew… What a bastard… I should have just exercised… I should get stronger….”
An exhausted Charlotte sank to the bedroom floor glaring at me.
“You should exercise more.”
“You’re such a jerk!”
I’m the only one in the world who can annoy the imperial princess, besides Bertus.
Charlotte squealed, sounding genuinely annoyed.
Aside from Bertus, I’m probably the only one in the world.who could make this princess swoon.
Finally, we decided that I would stay in Charlotte’s bedroom for one more day.
Charlotte seemed restless.
Well, even if I’m sleeping on the sofa, does she really need to be so tense?
No, this must be the first time she’s ever been in a situation like this.
Of course, things were worse in the Demon Castle, but this is different.
Meals were brought in by the servants, and of course, I was hiding. Charlotte had instructed them to bring more, not less. I thought I’d be able to eat a lot after a day of starvation, but I was starving, so I took less.
Charlotte looked at me over the leftover food.
“Don’t you want to eat more?”
“I can’t eat too much if I’m starving.”
“…That’s right.”
Charlotte must have known that too.
The sumptuous meal she’d eaten in the Allied Command barracks after a long period of starvation.
The memory made Charlotte look a little wistful and melancholic.
After dinner.
It was nighttime, and I had nothing to do but stay in the bedroom.
Charlotte was whimpering like a puppy needing to go poop. She’d try to get up, hesitate, sit back down, then get up and hesitate again.
What’s wrong with her?
Finally, Charlotte got up as if she had made up her mind while whimpering.
“Uh, well… I’ll be back in a moment.”
“…Where?”
“To another room…”
“You’re going to sleep there? Am I going to be here alone the entire time? You agreed we had to check on you today.”
Charlotte opened her eyes wide at my words.
“That’s not it, I’m going to take a shower!”
Ah.
Is she trying to take a shower in the other bedroom without me noticing?
“…If you’re taking a shower, then take it here. Why do you have to take a shower in another room?”
“You… You’re going to hear it…”
Charlotte’s face was turning red.
Charlotte’s face fell.
What the fuck.
What was this touchiness?
I shouldn’t hear her washing herself? Was that it?
Is that what it means to be a girl at this age? I’m not sure.
Isn’t it irrelevant when there are people like bath attendants who help you bathe the whole time?
Is it natural to be concerned about this?
I… don’t know…
I don’t even know what’s right or wrong in this kind of thing!
“Well, I’m not going to tell you what to do about that. Figure it out yourself.”
“I, I shouldn’t be told what to do about that in the first place! Ugh!”
Charlotte, looking frustrated, stormed out of the bedroom.
While Charlotte went to take a shower, I also washed up in the bathroom in her bedroom.
It was pretty big, but I didn’t bother getting in the tub.
Only after I finished washing up did the thought occur to me.
A change of clothes…
I had none…
The school uniform I was wearing was bloodied and torn into pieces , and it had been thrown away and now I was wearing what looked like a pair of pajamas from somewhere.
I hadn’t gotten out of the bath yet, and I was wondering what to do, when Charlotte returned.
Over the sound of the water, I could hear Charlotte’s voice from across the bathroom.
“Are you taking a bath in my bathroom?”
“Well, didn’t you take one, too?”
“Ugh… Hmpf…!”
It seemed like Charlotte was rolling her eyes, or something like that.
At least let me use your bathroom! I can’t even go outside of your bedroom anyway.
“Whatever. I don’t have any clothes to change into.”
“Huh?”
“Get me some clothes.”
“Huh?!”
Charlotte was silent for a moment, as if she hadn’t expected to hear this phrase in her lifetime.
Am I now being unreasonable, even though I saved her life?
…demanding clothes from the princess.
Making her do something like that..
I mean, it’s probably kind of trashy to ask for something like that while borrowing someone else’s bathroom, let alone the princess in the first place.
I thought as much.
“I left them in front of the door.”
She said that and then went quiet again, her voice containing mixed emotions.
The Spring Palace wasn’t just filled with women’s clothing.When I collapsed, Saviolin Turner must have brought the clothes for me from somewhere. After a little commotion, both Charlotte and I were in our night clothes.
If anyone found out, it would be a huge scandal. Regardless of the circumstances, it’s not every day that a princess and a beggar had to sleep in the same bedroom.
But we had no choice.
I was sitting in a rocking chair in Charlotte’s bedroom, while she lay in bed.
“…Are you going to sleep now?”
“What?”
“I mean… are you going to sleep in the bed?”
Charlotte’s voice was clearly flustered.
I have a feeling that if I blurt out that I’m going to sleep in her bed, she’d escape to another in mortification..
“What’s wrong? You said it was okay if we slept in the same bed last time, because we couldn’t even touch each other.”
“That’s not what I meant!”
Charlotte exclaimed in embarrassment.
But I couldn’t help but wonder if it was okay for her to scream like that, even though the soundproofing was good enough that I wouldn’t have been able to hear the conversation if I didn’t have my abilities.
Yesterday, Charlotte seemed to have let everything go. She talked to me about various things, told me an important secret, and even said some strange things. But now that she was out of danger, she started to feel embarrassed. Maybe it’s because she can start thinking about living again.
It was a relief.
“What’s wrong… why are you making a weird face…”
Blushing, Charlotte pulled the blanket up to cover half of her face.
“Anyway! Are you really going to sleep on the same bed?”
Is it because she grew up in a noble family? She’s really concerned about this kind of thing?
“I won’t sleep. I just want to make sure you’re okay. Don’t worry. I won’t stare at your face while you sleep.”
Sitting in the rocking chair with my arms crossed, I stared blankly at the ceiling of Charlotte’s room.
Why do you think I’m doing this for some other reason?
I just want to make sure that you’re safe.
As long as I know that nothing will happen to you in the future, that’s all that matters.
“…Are you not tired?”
“I drank the treasure of treasures called an elixir, so it would be even stranger if I’m not okay. Don’t worry. It’s not a big deal to stay up for a night.”
I said it like that, hoping it would make her feel less sorry for me.
“Just… if it’s on the other side… You could sleep there.”
“If I’m going to sleep…. Well, I’ll just sleep on the couch. Don’t worry about it.”
“….”
Charlotte was silent for a while.
She just moved to the edge of the bed, maybe to make room for me. So that I could lie down on the other end.
When I say close to the edge, I also mean closer to me, who was sitting in the rocking chair, which was located to the side of the bed.
The direction the chair was facing was not towards Charlotte, but we were side by side.
I was sitting, and Charlotte was lying down.
We were next to each other.
I was sitting next to Charlotte.
“Reinhardt.”
“Yeah?”
“…I want to know. Why are you doing all this for me?”
“Your precious self deserves to be treated well, don’t you think?”
“It’s not because I’m a princess?”
“….”
There are many people who would sacrifice their lives for Charlotte because she is the princess.
But I can’t see myself as one of those people.
I wouldn’t risk my life to save Charlotte just because of her status.
Why?
Why did you risk your life for mine?
Charlotte seemed curious about that.
“Just… because.”
I could only say that, because I couldn’t explain something inexplicable.
I wasn’t looking at Charlotte’s face.
It seemed like Charlotte was looking at me.
As if she had made up her mind, Charlotte opened her mouth carefully.
“…The Demon King did something to me.”
“…Really?”
It would have been a long-kept secret.
If that is revealed, she would lose everything. It might be something that can’t be told to anyone.
What I had been guessing all this time, Charlotte said with her own mouth.
“I don’t know what it was, but…it hurt a lot and I was scared. I felt a pain not on my body but on my soul.
“…”
I couldn’t carelessly sympathize with Charlotte’s words, so I just listened for the time being.
“I don’t know what it was. Even now… I don’t really know what happened to me. But… after that, I was trapped in a prison in the Demon King’s castle. I was kidnapped… with other people.”
“…”
Charlotte’s voice was trembling more and more. She seemed to be trying to say something that was hard to talk about.
“Reinhardt.”
“Yes.”
“Can you… hold my hand?”
I reached out my hand, and Charlotte held it.
Her palm was cold with sweat.
Was it painful just to talk about it? Just what had happened?
While holding my hand, Charlotte spoke with a deep breath.
“…we were starving for so long.”
“…”
“Everyone there had survived for too long on very little food and water. And when the war escalated, they didn’t give us anything.”
“…”
“People… couldn’t eat anything for so long.”
“Charlotte.”
I looked at her quietly.
Tears were already filling Charlotte’s eyes.
“If it’s hard to talk about, you don’t have to.”
“…”
“No, you don’t need to say anymore.”
“…”
“if it’s too hard. Just stop talking.”
Just by saying that much, I could already tell what had happened.
Just from Charlotte’s voice filled with fear, horror, and guilt, I could guess what had happened.
People shattered into pieces by something that didn’t even have a form.
I remembered that sight.
I knew that Charlotte was trying to talk about what happened after she witnessed the other prisoners devour one another
At the words telling her not to speak, Charlotte burst into tears instead.
“If only… If only it wasn’t me. If it wasn’t me… Everyone could have survived. Everyone. If only it wasn’t me. If I wasn’t here… me… all of it. Me… ugh, mom… mom… mom is…”
She spoke these words.
Charlotte must have never said them to anyone until now.
Even though there were a lot of people who knew that something happened to her during her time of imprisonment under the Demon King.
I feel like this is the first time she’s telling this story to someone herself, as she cried so painfully as if confessing her own sin.
I did not offer any words of comfort, sympathy, or rationalization.
All I did was hold Charlotte’s hand tightly.
“Uuuuuh! Ugh! Uuuu…!”
Charlotte cried while holding my hand tightly.
For a long time.
After calming down, Charlotte told me about what happened.
There are two groups of people who know about Charlotte’s abilities.
The first group is those who know about her ability to manipulate shadows.
The second group is those who know that she gained this ability from what happened to her from the Demon King.
There are only four people in the latter group: Dyrus, Saviolin Turner, the Head Chambermaid of the Spring Palace, and the Emperor.
“What about Bertus?”
“I hope he doesn’t know…but I think he does. He may have found out recently.”
The power to manipulate shadows is already a dangerous and eerie power in itself. Add in her experiences during the war, and it can be easily framed in a bad light as much as desired.
Charlotte tried to control or find a way to eliminate her ability. That’s why she was looking for a seal master.
But all her efforts were in vain, and Charlotte’s power gradually grew and started devouring her.
Sleep walking.
At some point, Charlotte suddenly regained consciousness in a strange place in the middle of the night.
“Could it be… when you were there then…..”
Only then did it come to me. Charlotte’s barefooted wandering in the hallway of the mansion during midnight of the second group mission.
“That was the first time.”
Somehow, Charlotte’s appearance was a bit strange at that time.
After that, there were no such incidents for a while.
However, Charlotte experienced such an incident again in the Temple dormitory.
After the incident at the temple dormitory, Charlotte sensed that it was not a simple problem and started living in the Spring Palace after leaving the dormitory.
The sleepwalking continued and became more frequent.
Later, she wandered around the palace, immersed in darkness, having been consumed by her ability. Until then, it was said to be okay.
Although she lost consciousness and couldn’t remember anything, she didn’t attack anyone, and when Dyrus and Turner stood guard outside her bedroom door and brought her back inside, she didn’t resist.
At some point, however, she began to appear and disappear throughout the palace without ever passing through doors.
Then, there was an incident where one maid was attacked and killed.
Charlotte couldn’t remember anything.
But she knew it was too late, and everything was over.
She asked the emperor to kill her.
The emperor refused.
Instead, he sent Saviolin Turner to the Spring Palace, and minimized the number of people in the entire palace.
Until a solution could be found.
But the royal family never found a solution.
It’s not certain, but I have a feeling that if I hadn’t been there, Charlotte wouldn’t have come back since the day before yesterday. That day was her last moment.
After that day, Saviolin Turner would have died, and Charlotte would have been forced to die under the Emperor’s orders.
In the end, if it hadn’t been for me, Charlotte would have died just like that.
“I was afraid to fall asleep.”
“…I see.”
“But even if I don’t sleep, I’ll eventually lose consciousness. I knew that sleeping wasn’t the problem, but… I was just scared.”
Charlotte’s hands no longer had cold sweat that came from fear.
Only her warmth was felt.
“Reinhardt.”
“I’m listening.”
“I think I can finally sleep properly after a long time.” she said as she closed her eyes.
“That’s good,” I simply replied.
“Reinhardt.”
“Yes?”
“‘Nothing’s going to happen’. Can you tell me that?”
I gazed at Charlotte quietly, using the power of my voice.
“Nothing’s going to happen.”
“Okay.”
With her eyes closed, Charlotte turned her head away.
“I’ll believe you.”
She gradually drifted off to sleep, with a faint smile on her face.
I listened quietly to the sound of Charlotte’s steady breathing.
I watched over Charlotte’s peaceful face as she slept.
And then…
[Achievement Unlocked - Turning Point in History]
[A significant figure (Charlotte de Gardias) who should not have existed in the original timeline has survived.]
[The future has changed dramatically.]
[You have earned 1,000 achievement points.]
The exact same message from the prologue came to mind.
It seemed a little late, but why was this message coming to me now?
Shouldn’t it have appeared during the battle just two nights ago?
I gazed at Charlotte’s sleeping face as she tightly held onto my hand, her expression peaceful.
Tonight.
It seemed like there was a deeper meaning to me staying here until Charlotte fell asleep safely.
I couldn’t understand what that meaning was.
But as long as nothing happened, I decided not to wonder about what was supposed to happen.
Nothing is going to happen.
You will be safe.
I will make sure of it.
With the power of Word Magic.
With the power of my voice.
I continued to believe and declare it in my heart.
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