「BASTION OF PHALANX」
Lord Earl arrived at a Bastion still humming with activity.
The hour was already late, but preparations for the newly accepted recruits had pushed the department well beyond its usual working schedule.
Staff moved between offices with folders beneath their arms, updated registration lists changed hands, and dormitory plans covered several tables in the main meeting hall.
He bypassed Prince Dio's office and pushed open the hall's ornate doors.
Prince Dio sat at the head of the long table, apparently examining a set of documents. Lord Keith and Lord Zen were bent over dormitory blueprints, arguing quietly about room assignments, while Lady Brenda occupied a chair behind a mountain of paperwork increasingly capable of burying her alive.
At the far end, Miss Eliza carefully transcribed the recruitment regulations into clean copies. She held no administrative position within the Bastion, but with preparations overwhelming nearly everyone available, she had volunteered as another pair of hands. Lady Brenda had promptly put those hands to work.
Lord Earl's entrance interrupted them.
"I thought you weren't feeling well?" Lady Brenda asked, her tone sharpened by exhaustion.
"That's right! You left us with this entire pile of work!"
Frustration had frayed Lord Keith's usual playfulness.
"I am… better now. Let me help with that."
Lord Earl approached the blueprints. Lady Brenda examined him for a moment before shaking her head and returning to her documents.
Prince Dio, however, had not noticed his arrival. His attention remained fixed on a paragraph he had been reading for several minutes while Reise's accusation repeated itself with irritating clarity.
I know what you did.
His jaw tightened. She remembered exactly what had happened, not merely a few fragments or a vague impression from a drunken night.
How do I even begin to apologize? Prince Dio thought.
He had crossed a boundary without her permission. Neither alcohol nor confusion excused it, and the worst part was that he still could not properly explain to himself why he had done it.
Another memory surfaced before he could stop it: Reise asleep in the liquor storage, silent and defenseless, with none of her usual hostility. His own impulsive decision had followed.
His fingers tightened around the document.
Idiot, Prince Dio thought.
That remained the simplest explanation. Recalling how close he had been to her brought unwanted heat to his face, making the situation more irritating still. He was supposed to be considering an apology, not dwelling on that part of the memory.
Unfortunately, his face had already betrayed him.
"What is wrong with him?" Lady Brenda asked.
Lord Keith followed her gaze, his eyes widening.
"Hey, come to think of it, this is the first time I've seen actual color in Dio's face. He's bright red!"
He burst into laughter.
"Is His Highness unwell?" Lord Zen asked with genuine concern.
Lord Keith leaned across the table.
"HEY!"
"What?"
Prince Dio returned sharply to the present, his tone silencing the room for half a second. Lord Keith pointed at the papers before him.
"We've been asking how you want to arrange the dormitories! Are recruits staying with their squadmates, or are the rooms assigned at random? Instead of answering, you've been staring blankly at those papers! We're tired! Our working hours ended an hour ago!"
"I see. Wait a moment…"
Prince Dio lowered the document, then narrowed his eyes.
"Why are you yelling at me? Looking forward to an early death?"
A controlled flame flickered around one hand. Lord Keith immediately retreated.
"I'm just saying you need to get yourself together! Earl, tell him!"
He took shelter behind Lord Zen.
Earl? He's back? Prince Dio thought.
Only then did he look properly toward the other side of the room. Lord Earl was already sorting applicant profiles, his expression strangely pleased.
"You're back."
Prince Dio's gaze dropped briefly to the untouched paperwork. Lord Keith and Lady Brenda exchanged a glance before becoming conspicuously absorbed in their respective tasks.
"Dio, about earlier—" Lord Earl began, approaching.
"Forget it."
Prince Dio lowered his voice.
"Just maintain your composure. And do not forget who Reise is."
"I know. I lost my head earlier. I'm glad we are… all right now."
Lord Earl returned to the profiles. Prince Dio watched him for another moment. Whatever had happened between him and Reise after they left the Grand Arena, the earlier tension appeared to have eased.
At least one problem had resolved itself.
Prince Dio stood and joined the others around the blueprints.
"Those in the same squad should be roommates. It will help them build camaraderie."
Lord Keith stared at him.
"What?"
"We don't have the squad lists yet."
Lord Keith's eye twitched.
"Because you keep slacking off, you damn prince!"
Lord Zen immediately clamped a hand over his mouth.
"And I thought I was the only one slacking today," Lord Earl remarked, gathering the profiles into cleaner stacks.
"Don't sound proud of it," Lady Brenda snapped without looking up. "We're behind schedule. I'll have my golem strangle you."
She turned another page.
"GET BACK TO WORK! Because you all keep dawdling, I missed dinner with Lady Reise."
"You're not the only one in a hurry here, you geeky woman!"
Lord Keith escaped Lord Zen's grasp and pointed toward her.
"Hey, why do Nocturnes have no respect? Especially that woman?"
"Just shut your mouth. You are too loud," Lord Earl hissed.
Lord Keith pouted.
"Let's start by forming the teams, Prince Dio."
Lord Earl placed the organized profiles between them, finally bringing most of the argument to an end. The hall settled into its peculiar mixture of bickering and work while staff outside continued preparing for the recruits who would soon begin training under Bastion supervision.
Across the palace grounds, G6 had problems of her own. She had left the Queen's residence with a limited bargain and an original book on Cryomancy.
Neither answered the questions already accumulating around her. If anything, they had supplied more.
「WEST VILLA — G6'S BEDROOM」
7:35 P.M
G6 entered her room alone. Tina and Lilia were nowhere in sight, leaving her with the silence she needed.
She placed the Cryomancy tome on the bed, followed by Lord Earl's velvet jewelry box, then crossed to the bedside desk and opened its drawer. Witherby's book and Reise's diary lay inside.
G6 removed the unnecessary items that had accumulated around them and stacked the Cryomancy text on top. Three books represented three different problems in a world that refused to explain itself properly.
"Well, the three of you are the most important things to me right now. Keep quiet in there until I find the clues you're hiding."
She shut the drawer, removed her coat and gloves, and let both fall carelessly to the floor before dropping backward onto the bed.
"Who would have thought this day would be so exhausting?"
The ceiling offered no answer. Every issue she resolved seemed to produce another question, and she closed her eyes intending only to clear her thoughts before sorting through them again.
Her body had other plans. The exhaustion of the past several days caught up with her almost immediately, and within minutes, she was asleep.
「8:15 P.M.」
Tina opened the bedroom door quietly, with Lilia following close behind. Moonlight filtering through the windows provided the room's only illumination.
"There she is," Lilia whispered.
G6 lay diagonally across the bed, one leg hanging partly over the edge and both feet still touching the floor. She had clearly never intended to sleep.
"It looks like Lady Reise had a very tiring day."
Tina remained silent as she examined the fading bruises still visible along her mistress's body. They had troubled her since Reise returned, and the sight bothered her more now.
"Lilia, you should go and have dinner, then rest. Let us give our lady some space."
The child hesitated. She had plainly hoped they would eat with G6 again, but eventually nodded.
"You go ahead," Tina added. "I will take care of her clothes lying on the floor."
"Understood, Miss Tina."
Once Lilia left, Tina gathered the discarded coat and gloves, folded them properly, and placed them at the foot of the bed.
"What exactly are you doing, Lady Reise?"
G6 gave no answer. Tina sighed and pulled a decorative blanket over her sleeping mistress.
Only then did she notice the velvet jewelry box beside the bed. Her brows drew together; it had not been there before. She picked it up without opening it. Whatever lay inside belonged to her lady.
Tina placed the box safely on the bedside desk, gathered the remaining clothes, and left.
❈.❈.❈
The kitchen was considerably livelier than the rest of the villa. Lilia was already seated at the table, happily eating. Alistair occupied a nearby chair with his own meal, while Janin rested opposite him, her newborn child held carefully against her.
"Miss Tina, take a seat!" Lilia called.
A plate had already been prepared. Tina sat beside the child and reached for her water.
"Is Lady Reise still asleep?" Janin asked.
"Yes. She looks utterly exhausted."
"What is with the long face?" Alistair asked.
"It is nothing."
"Come on, I can tell you are worried."
Tina lowered her cup. Several seconds passed before she answered.
"It is just… I do not understand."
Alistair's teasing disappeared. Tina looked down at the table.
"Every time she goes to the Utility Magic Department, my heart feels so heavy. I feel as though she is… a completely new person, someone I can no longer recognize."
Janin and Alistair exchanged a brief look. Neither laughed.
"We understand where you are coming from, Tina," Janin said gently. "We have known you since before Reise was born. We know you are the one who has cared for her since she was an infant."
Tina remained quiet.
"She was like a little sister to you. Seeing her change so quickly must be frightening. But Edmund is with her. Whatever she is doing, he will take care of her and protect her."
"Protect her?"
Tina's expression sharpened.
"Sister, Lady Reise came home covered in bruises. How is that taking care of her?"
"Oh, calm down. Edmund would never do anything to harm her," Alistair replied.
He glanced toward Janin and lowered his voice until only she could hear.
"Why assume Edmund caused the bruises? Knowing those two, she probably pushed some ridiculous training too far or took a hard fall somewhere."
Janin gave him a warning look. His theory was plausible, but speculation would do little to ease Tina's worry.
"Alistair is right, Tina," she said. "We are all indebted to the Worthons. We all wish to protect them, especially the youngest. She may not understand the depth of that gratitude, but she does not need to. We are here."
Neither explained the history behind that gratitude. Tina had heard the sentiment before and had never pressed them for more.
"Besides," Alistair added, "Edmund's loyalty to her is no longer just a debt of gratitude to the Worthons. It is something that comes from her directly."
He shook his head.
"That old bachelor does not pledge his loyalty to just anyone."
"It is because Lady Reise is nice!"
Everyone turned toward Lilia, who remained thoroughly occupied with her meal.
"Lady Reise may always look like she could kill you with a stare or her words, but she is nice. She lets us sit with her, have tea with her, have snacks with her, and share all our meals with her."
She took another bite.
"Before Lady Reise took me under her wing, I heard many rumors about how violent she was—with both words and actions. But when I accidentally bumped into her, she offered her hand to me."
Lilia looked down at her plate and smiled.
"Her stare and words may be cold, but her hands are warm."
Silence followed. The three adults exchanged looks before Tina finally smiled.
"You are right… Lady Reise has changed a great deal. She never used to let anyone near her except for me, but now she oddly attracts more people."
Her smile weakened slightly.
"If I were to compare, she is even more intimidating now than she was before."
"You feel she is like a silent storm, and you never know when she will strike?" Alistair asked with a laugh.
"That is surprisingly accurate."
Tina's look only increased his amusement.
"She is cunning, sly, and clever," Janin said. "The first time we properly spoke, I caught myself answering far more questions than I intended. Had Lady Brenda not interrupted us, I might have continued talking until I embarrassed myself."
"That sounds like her," Alistair snorted.
"Yes."
Tina lowered her eyes.
"She is oddly dangerous, yet I feel safe with her."
None of them challenged the contradiction. G6 had never deliberately tried to win their affection and barely seemed aware that she had. Yet somehow, the colder and more distant she appeared, the more people gathered around her.
Alistair glanced toward Tina's untouched plate.
"I prepared something light for her late-night dinner so it would be easy to digest. Try to bring it with you when you check on her later."
Tina nodded.
「9:35 P.M.」
"I wonder if Lady Reise is awake."
Tina carried the tray through the second-floor hallway, noticing more keenly how quiet the West Villa had become.
Ever since Reise changed, the main building seemed to have changed with her. Most of the lamps were already extinguished, servants moved more carefully at night, and conversation rarely carried beyond closed doors.
No one had been ordered into silence. Somehow, everyone had adjusted to the habits of the villa's most unpredictable resident. The house was quiet because Reise preferred it that way.
Tina knocked twice before entering the bedroom. The room remained dim, though the three-arm candelabra above the mantel had been lit.
G6 was no longer in bed. Beyond the balcony doors, she stood beneath the night sky in a black satin nightgown and a matching robe tied loosely around her.
Moonlight caught the rose-gold strands of her hair as she leaned against the railing and stared upward.
Tina placed the tray on the tea table, then stepped outside.
For several moments, she simply watched. Her mistress's face was unreadable, her grey eyes reflecting the stars without revealing anything beneath them.
"It was a long day, wasn't it?" G6 said.
"Yes. Alistair made you a light dinner."
"I am not hungry."
G6 finally looked away from the sky and down toward the gardens.
"Say, Tina. How was I before?"
The conversation promised in the carriage had finally arrived. Tina adjusted her glasses.
"What exactly do you mean?"
"From the start."
Tina stepped beside her and rested both hands lightly against the railing.
"I was only thirteen when I came to the House of Worthon. By that time, Her Grace was already three months from giving birth."
G6 listened.
Hmm. There's no backstory for Reise in the book.
It's all about Eliza and Prince Dio. Reise is just the wicked villainess.
"Worthon is a house of comfort," Tina continued. "The servants are all nice and warm, just like the Duchess and the Duke."
A faint smile crossed her face.
"Not long after I settled there, the lady of the house gave birth to you. The house sparkled with joy."
The memory softened her expression further.
"On the day you were born, the Messenger of the Heavens statue shimmered with beautiful mana—as if delivering you the blessings of the Gods and Goddesses."
G6 frowned.
Messenger of the Heavens? Why is it oddly familiar…
"What do you mean, the Messenger of the Heavens?"
"No one knows its name, Lady Reise. Its statue, built by the kingdom's ancestors, stands in the Worthons' vast garden."
Tina glanced toward her.
"No one has ever explained exactly who the figure represents."
Then she smiled again.
"But back to my story. Not only the Worthons were happy at your birth. The people of the domain rejoiced as well. You were magnificent, truly beautiful. Before long, news of your birth and godly beauty spread far."
G6 remained silent as Tina's expression gradually changed.
"You grew up not only well-mannered and disciplined, but also kind and lovely, regardless of a person's standing."
The nostalgia began to fade.
"Not long after you were promised to His Highness the Second Prince, you slowly changed. You became too committed to the role you thought was the only way to help your family."
She sighed.
"Your strong sense of purpose warped into a melodramatic love for the Prince."
"I did that, right?"
G6's tone was almost mocking.
"But you are not what they said you were."
G6 turned toward her.
"You were written as the villain in other people's stories, but you were soft inside," Tina continued. "You acted distant and cold toward the servants at the house, but you never yelled at them."
Her mouth tightened.
"Yet the stories that reached other nobles were different."
G6 offered no response.
"You were given a reputation people readily accepted because of your aloofness. You indeed grew jealous when other noblewomen clung to Prince Dio. You would mock them. Sometimes you threw things near them when you wanted everyone to leave."
Tina looked down.
"But they never saw what happened afterward. They never saw you crying alone."
"What do you mean?"
G6 straightened and leaned away from the railing.
"Wasn't I a vicious woman? Slapping and yelling at every servant? Wasn't I hated by my own brothers and left alone in the palace because of my horrible personality?"
Tina stared at her.
What is she talking about?
Why do none of these details match the book?
Reise wasn't nice. She was wicked.
G6's fingers slowly curled against the railing.
I knew something was wrong.
I thought it was just because I refused to follow the story.
But these details… they don't match the storyline at all. What is the truth here?
"Lady Reise, what are you talking about?"
Tina sounded genuinely bewildered.
"Yes, when we first came to the West Villa, you were savage for those first three days because you did not want to be bothered. You snapped at people and made it very clear you wanted to be left alone."
She shook her head.
"But hated by your brothers? You have seen how much they care for you. Such a thing would never happen."
G6 remained motionless.
"You never directly hurt anyone. You threw things near people when you wanted them away. You hated company and only allowed me near."
Tina's voice grew quieter.
"You became sadder every day."
The night breeze moved between them.
"But your most drastic change began when Prince Dio and the two youngest Pillars left for three years."
G6 looked toward her again.
"The thought of them preparing for something without you seemed to hurt you deeply. You locked yourself in the house library and read constantly. Eventually, one of the librarians encouraged you to look into the older texts."
Worry deepened in Tina's face.
"I never understood why you became so interested in them."
She clasped her hands.
"When Prince Dio and the others finally announce their returned, we were eventually asked to live here at the palace."
G6 listened carefully.
"You withdrew again during our first days at the West Villa. I believed it was because Prince Dio had returned after such a long separation and still did not bother to greet you."
Tina looked at her.
"On the fourth day, you asked me to bring you to the Apothecary Department at the Main Palace. You said you needed something."
White Drop.
G6 did not interrupt.
"And that was it."
Tina's voice weakened.
"On the sixth day…"
She looked directly into G6's grey eyes.
"On the sixth day, it felt as if you were a completely new person."
For once, G6 had no immediate sarcastic response. The sequence assembled itself in her mind: the palace, the Apothecary Department, White Drop, and the poison. Then she had arrived.
"But I like this better."
Tina's voice cracked before G6 could speak. Tears gathered behind her glasses.
"You are not the woman who begged for His Highness's attention anymore. You are not the woman who kept lashing out and purposely driving everyone away."
Her breathing grew uneven.
"You are a cold woman now, yet you feel oddly warmer than before."
A tear slipped down her cheek.
"You are not sad anymore. You do not cry silently every night…"
Tina managed a smile through the tears.
"I like this better…"
Then the smile broke.
"Yet… it frightens me, because I feel as though you cannot feel any emotions."
Her shoulders trembled while G6 watched in silence.
"Every time I look into your eyes, there is nothing. Just emptiness."
Another tear fell.
"You are right here in front of me, but I feel you are slowly drifting away."
Tina lowered her gaze after finally saying everything she had been holding back since Reise changed.
G6's silence did not mean Tina was entirely correct. She felt things; she simply disliked most of them, understood fewer, and had spent most of her life learning to ignore the rest.
Correcting Tina's perception mattered less than the account she had just given. Every detail supplied another piece, along with another contradiction.
"Tina—"
The maid suddenly stepped forward and wrapped both arms tightly around her.
G6 froze in the warmth of the embrace. People in this world had an irritating habit of holding her, touching her, and expecting something emotional in return.
Tina buried her face against G6's shoulder.
"Forgive me, Lady Reise…"
Her voice shook.
"I should have reached out to you instead of keeping my distance and putting protocol first. I should have asked what was wrong. I should have comforted you instead of standing silently behind those walls and listening to you cry."
G6 stared past her.
"Forgive me."
Tina tightened her hold.
"I do not care about that anymore. I will not make the same mistake. I will not ignore anything that I see could harm you…"
After a moment's hesitation, G6 awkwardly raised her arms and returned the embrace loosely. The gesture was neither practiced nor graceful. It was simply the only response she could think of that would make sense to Tina.
"Thank you for telling me everything, Tina."
Her voice remained low and emotionless.
"Instead of questions, just support what I am doing and believe in me."
Tina eventually pulled away and wiped her face.
"I will. I will not ask anything further. I will just trust and believe in you, my lady."
Then her expression hardened with surprising seriousness.
"Just promise me one thing."
G6 waited.
"Just always come back alive."
Something hollow shifted inside G6's chest, unpleasant and familiar. She ignored it.
Why do they keep telling me to live?
Tina smiled once more before leaving her beneath the night sky.
The balcony grew quiet again, though the conversation had changed something. Tina had not given G6 an answer. She had made the contradictions harder to dismiss.
The novel described one Reise Worthon, and Tina remembered another. Public reputation depicted a violent, cruel woman, while the people who actually lived with her recalled someone aloof, jealous, difficult, and deeply unhappy.
The timeline added more questions. There had been ancient books, a visit to the Apothecary Department, White Drop, and—six days after arriving at the West Villa—G6.
None of it formed a complete picture yet, but one conclusion was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
The book is not a reliable record.
Whether it was fiction, distortion, omission, coincidence, or something else entirely remained unanswered.
❈.❈.❈
Sometime later, G6 sat on the couch with Witherby's book resting across her lap.
"So, my first theory was right? The people in that novel were merely inspired by these real people?"
She studied the cover without receiving an answer.
"Wonder of a Wonderful World…"
A scoff escaped her.
"I thought I would be able to solve my case board. I just ended up adding more questions to it."
G6 set the book beside her and crossed to one of the shelving cabinets. Behind an ornate vase sat the old bottle of whiskey she had stolen from the liquor storage, still exactly where she had left it.
She retrieved a shot glass hidden behind a decorative figurine and carried both to the tea table.
"First, let us consider the nearest possibilities. That none of the events happening right now—"
She stopped with her hand still on the bottle.
"Right. The book does not mention demons or the threat of mana dampening. Why did I not think of it sooner? I am in the time before the engagement, before Reise was written to die. Why? Why did I miss such tiny details?"
Her brows drew together. Mana dampening remained only a rough description of what she had experienced outside Oak Village: a living forest where the natural mana she normally sensed had vanished. No one had established the cause, leaving it among the other unresolved problems.
G6 leaned back.
She already knew some of these details. Why had she never properly aligned them? Perhaps there had always been something more immediate to manage: training, the Queen, the Guild, and now the forest and its new-type demon.
Every new problem pushed the previous one aside before she could finish dissecting it.
Annoying.
"Was I the trigger for these changes? Or was the book purely fictional, and this world truly exists somewhere?"
Both remained possible, and neither satisfied her.
G6 twisted the bottle open just as footsteps sounded beyond her door.
Tina?
She set the whiskey down, crossed the room, and opened the door.
Prince Dio stood outside, visibly startled.
"What are you jumping at? What are you doing here so late?"
"I just returned from the Collegium… I did not know you were still awake."
The sentence sounded far less confident than he had intended.
"That is not an answer to either of my questions."
"I was just… I just…"
Prince Dio stopped. He knew exactly why he had come, having spent half the evening considering an apology. Apparently, planning it and actually speaking while Reise stared at him were entirely different matters.
G6 waited, her patience fading almost immediately.
"I have already had enough conversation for one day. Come inside to talk."
"It is not appropriate to invite a man into your room, Reise! Especially at night!"
She raised an eyebrow.
"Don't worry. I don't see you as a man. Get inside or leave if you don't want to."
His face stiffened. The insult should not have been nearly as effective as it was.
G6 waited another moment.
"What a bother."
She began closing the door, but Prince Dio caught it.
"T-Then… if you do not mind."
His face had reddened again.
"Close the door."
G6 turned away. Prince Dio entered and quietly shut it before examining the room.
"Your room really hates light."
"I grew up in dark rooms. I can literally see without light."
G6 sat at the tea table.
"What are you standing there for? Did you not carry me back here after you kissed me?"
Prince Dio became completely still. She pointed toward the opposite chair.
"Sit down."
He obeyed, his eyes finding the whiskey before returning to her. This was why he had come, and avoiding it any longer would accomplish nothing.
"Forgive me. I do not know what came over me that night."
Embarrassment remained evident, but there was no playfulness in his voice. He meant the apology.
G6 opened the bottle.
"I would be lying if I said it was not a big deal."
She poured whiskey into both glasses and slid one toward him.
"You know there is much to do tomorrow, do you not?" Prince Dio asked.
"I don't care. If I don't drink away my thoughts right now, it will not end well."
She emptied the first shot immediately.
"Is it because of what I did?"
"Give me a break. What you did violated my boundaries, but it is nowhere close to what I am going through."
G6 poured another. Prince Dio absorbed the answer without attempting to defend himself.
She was angry about what he had done, but his offense was not the largest problem occupying her thoughts.
"Should I bother to ask?"
"Don't bother. You will not get answers from me."
Fair, Prince Dio thought.
He looked down at his glass.
"Then, is there anything I can do to atone for what I did?"
G6's fingers stopped around the shot glass. One question had troubled her long before the kiss.
She drank the second shot.
"Reise…"
Concern entered Prince Dio's voice, but she interrupted.
"That night you were in the garden with Eliza, what exactly happened?"
That? Of all things? Prince Dio wondered. Was this what Lord Keith had mentioned?
Reise had apparently seen them that night. He studied her expression and found no jealousy or resentment toward Miss Eliza, only concentration, as though she were examining evidence.
"I was merely welcoming her to the palace. It was the same night I introduced her to the two servants Her Majesty assigned to her."
G6 watched his face, examining the small changes around his eyes, his breathing, and any hesitation. Nothing suggested deception.
He is not lying.
"Is that all? Were you not all smiles and grace around her? As if you were in love?"
"That is absurd."
Prince Dio frowned.
"I am always graceful in the presence of women. Smiles? Ah, I recall smiling at Miss Eliza once when she thanked me for accommodating her with us and for the appointed servants. But that smile meant nothing, nor did my gestures. It was all at Her Majesty's order."
G6's eyes flickered.
Another detail that does not align.
In the book—fuck! I might have been stupid and too preoccupied.
She slammed the shot glass against the table without meaning to. Prince Dio flinched, but she barely noticed.
Reise never shared a villa with Eliza and the others. There is no Royal Collegium… Or are the Magic Department, Invention Lab, and Knights & Order Department mentioned in the book just different names for Sanctum, Omnia, and Bastion?
They might have been, or they might not. If they were fictionalized versions of real institutions, how much else had changed?
What the fuck does this mean? Where exactly am I?
"Reise? Are you all right?"
Prince Dio's voice interrupted the rush of thoughts. G6 looked at him.
This guy used to look at me the same way he looks at others, especially at the gazebo where I first met them.
So why is this stupid Snow White not head over heels for Eliza?
Why did I just notice that none of the details in the book match this world?
It was not that nothing matched. Enough did to make the differences more disturbing: the same people, relationships, and recognizable events existed amid altered circumstances, missing pieces, and different motivations.
G6 exhaled. There was another way to test it.
In the novel, Prince Dio had hated Reise. It was far beyond mild dislike; he had resented being trapped in a political marriage with the Wicked Rose.
"Tell me… do you hate me?"
The question caught him completely off guard, but his answer came without hesitation.
"How could I? When all you ever wanted was to fly."
G6 remained silent.
Prince Dio remembered Reise crying before Duke Worthon, her anger and desperation, and the way she had spoken about freedom. He understood now that more had existed behind her actions than he had bothered to see.
G6 knew nothing of the memory behind his answer, but she understood what mattered. He did not hate Reise.
The contradiction joined the others. The book might reflect pieces of this world, but it could no longer be treated as a trustworthy account of what had actually happened.
"Drink up. This conversation is getting cheesy."
G6 emptied her third glass. Prince Dio finally drank from his own, the whiskey burning his throat.
"It was my fault you were branded the Wicked Rose. If only I had not said those words."
She glanced at him.
Is he referring to what Brenda told me?
What a fucking headache.
"You can't change what has already happened, can you?"
G6 poured him another glass. Prince Dio watched the liquor rise before looking back at her.
"Can you forgive me for everything I have done?"
He asked quietly, without demanding anything. He simply wanted an answer he had no right to expect.
G6 drank again.
"It is all too late for that. The Reise you wronged is long dead."
Prince Dio went still.
To him, the words meant that the Reise who had cried over his neglect no longer existed. The woman before him wanted neither affection nor an apology, and she had no interest in repairing their engagement.
G6 meant something else entirely. Neither explained.
For several moments, only the quiet sound of glass against wood disturbed the room.
They sat across from each other thinking about the same woman without possessing her complete story.
Prince Dio remembered the Reise he had misunderstood. G6 knew the Reise described by a novel that increasingly failed whenever she compared it with reality.
Somewhere between those accounts lay the actual person whose life had ended with White Drop.
The whiskey provided no answers, though it made standing considerably more irritating.
Eventually, G6 placed a hand against the table and rose. The room appeared to shift half an inch, making her stop.
Oh.
Perhaps the third—or fourth—glass had been a mistake.
Prince Dio noticed and began rising, only to receive a look sharp enough to make him reconsider whatever assistance he intended to offer.
G6 crossed the room with little incident and sat on the edge of her bed. She appeared to intend a brief rest, but less than a minute later, she had fallen backward across the mattress.
"Reise?"
She gave no answer. Prince Dio remained at the table.
Surely she has not fallen asleep that quickly, he thought.
Several seconds passed, then more, until her breathing settled. Prince Dio rubbed his forehead.
Leaving immediately would have been the intelligent decision. Unfortunately, the whiskey had begun catching up with him as well.
He stood carefully, crossed to the bed, and pulled the blanket Tina had left nearby over G6. When he turned toward the door, the room tilted.
Prince Dio stopped and sat on the far edge of the mattress, intending to wait only until the dizziness passed.
One minute. Perhaps two, he thought.
His eyes closed before he could find out how long he needed.
「THE NEXT MORNING…」
"Why… why are they…"
Lilia stood frozen inside the doorway. Lady Brenda stared past her.
"Tell me this is a dream. Wake me up."
Edmund turned toward Tina.
"Were you not with her last night?"
"This… this is… should we leave, or should we—"
Tina had no idea what protocol applied. Lady Brenda apparently did; her hands curled into fists as her face reddened with rage.
"It is not a dream!"
Her voice rose.
"PRINCE DIO, Y-YOU…!"
She finally found the words.
"YOU SCUM!"
On G6's bed, two of the West Villa's most troublesome residents remained completely unconscious.
G6 slept beneath the blanket, turned toward one side. Prince Dio had somehow ended up sprawled along the opposite edge, still fully dressed and lying on top of the covers.
A clear space separated them, which did absolutely nothing to improve the scene.
Lilia's mouth remained open, Tina looked moments from fainting, and Edmund slowly closed his eyes. Lady Brenda appeared ready to commit regicide.
Neither sleeping culprit moved.
—To Be Continued…—