It feels like things are getting bigger and bigger.
And in places I don't know, in realms beyond my control.
"Phew."
Noel let out a sigh mixed with fatigue as that thought kept occurring to her.
Looking at how things were going recently, she couldn't help but think that way.
The fairy tales she brought out to alleviate her bad image suddenly came back as required reading for children….
The things she did to patch things up kept spiraling out of control contrary to her plans, so Noel felt complicated.
'...No, it's still fine. I just need to finish what I was writing and flee to the Academy.'
I can do it…! If it's me! I can fix this…!
Believing that, Noel wrote the second volume (conclusion) of 「The Bridges of Imperium Town」 that would end everything.
Actually, worrying about how to best end it was the work; once the conclusion was decided, writing it was instantaneous.
Rather, getting ambitious and trying to trim down what was turning into a trilogy instead of a duology was more work.
"Things like this definitely need elements like conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law."
"After the birth secret, it's time for an unreasonable plot device to bury that secret."
"The survival of someone thought dead, the appearance of a witness thought nonexistent."
"Right, it has to be at least this much to not be ashamed of carrying the Makjang title."
Thinking she would only hold the pen occasionally as a hobby after this, she sprinkled all sorts of stimulating spices generously with the mindset that this was the last time, so no regrets would remain.
Noel used all the Makjang drama clichés she could get her hands on with a satisfied expression.
To those who thought no further stimulation could exist in the first volume, she wrote the story as if to show them there was a world beyond that.
It's writing unbecoming of a noble?
Its dignity is questionable?
If you were going to do this, why did you try to refresh your image with fairy tales?
Such absurd voices flashed through her mind but… Noel couldn't help it either.
As she wrote, she just kept writing as if possessed.
Should she say the tenacity of a web novel author who pursued dopamine and stimulation was activated?
She couldn't stop.
Is this okay?
By the time that thought occurred, everything was already over.
"Done, writing it…!"
A work that would cause brain destruction for countless readers was born.
And she fell into belated reflection──.
'I should probably ask Teacher Sophie for some proofreading after all.'
Thinking she needed to control the intensity level a bit, Noel hurriedly looked for Sophie Ember.
She thought if it was her, who was active as a tutor for a noble young lady, she could provide a sort of 'editing' at just the appropriate level.
Actually, Sophie Ember had also helped proofread the manuscript of the first volume, which was currently in Princess Lydia's hands waiting to be bound into a book.
It wasn't Sophie's intention from the start, but since she enjoyed the Makjang romance novel Noel wrote under the pretext of composition homework, she needed to fit that pretext.
She left comments here and there about the novel, and Noel proceeded with the review based on those comments.
Somehow, the situation became like discussing a work with her editor in her past life.
Using that experience, Noel went to find Sophie Ember with the first draft of the second volume this time as well.
"The second volume of… 「The Bridges of Imperium Town」?!"
Even if a big shot like the Princess suddenly came to stay at the Grace Viscountcy, Sophie Ember's daily life didn't change.
Sophie, who was preparing various things for Noel's education tomorrow, received Noel's sudden visit.
She was astonished hearing the reason for the visit.
There were two reasons for being surprised.
One was surprise at the fact that she had already written the conclusion when not much time had passed since writing the first volume.
She couldn't help but express awe at that tremendous writing speed.
The other reason for surprise was, needless to say, the fact that the conclusion of 「The Bridges of Imperium Town」, which made her toss and turn at night for days after reading it, had come out.
The work that she suffered tremendously to soothe the lingering feelings because the aftereffects of reading the first volume were so severe──the conclusion was finally out.
And she gets to see it first?
Even though there's the Princess who ran all the way here out of fan spirit, and the Viscountess who became a hidden fan?
At this moment, Sophie Ember's heart… beat wildly as if broken.
"Could I ask you for a review like last time? Like giving notes on more appropriate expressions and such."
"Of course── of course, it's fine."
Sophie managed to barely maintain her composure.
Accepting the draft with trembling hands, she barely saw off the pupil who left after saying thanks, and cast her gaze on the manuscript as soon as the door closed.
"Ah…."
It's real.
It's really the second volume of 「The Bridges of Imperium Town」.
Emotion.
Thrill.
Admiration.
The swirling emotions shattered Sophie Ember's composure once again.
Her composure shattered into pieces as small as the Baron's glass cup that broke when she dropped it while playing around in her childhood.
But it didn't matter.
Because there was no one here to scold her right now.
Sophie began to fully enjoy the pleasure of reading the second volume of 「The Bridges of Imperium Town」 for the first time in her own private space.
If someone else saw her, they might think she was secretly high on some bad drug.
To think this wasn't due to drugs but all because of a single novel.
Even if told the truth, they would surely not believe it.
But whatever others thought, from Sophie's perspective, it was worth doing this much.
It wasn't an exaggeration.
The moment she started reading, she completely fell into the story.
The beginning of the second volume of 「The Bridges of Imperium Town」 was from the perspective of Rina, who noticed her son's change.
Rina had been blinded by the fever called love once in the past, enough to greatly ruin her own life.
So she wanted her son, whom she raised with her heart, not to be blinded by momentary emotions no matter what.
Moreover… even if blood wasn't shared, strictly speaking, Elise and Leon could be called siblings.
For those two to be together was something that shouldn't happen, at least for Rina.
Rina used all sorts of methods to make Leon give up somehow, but that was a mistake.
Love is an emotion.
No matter how much she tried to reason with rational words, it wouldn't work.
No matter how much she persuaded him that he would surely regret it later, it wouldn't work.
Didn't Elise exist in the world because she herself was like that?
Eventually, seeing her son not listening to words, Rina used drastic measures.
She tried to force another woman onto Leon.
This action of Rina became the decisive blow that made Leon resolve to elope.
Leon, who wanted to abandon everything and run away with Elise to a place no one knew.
Rina noticed her son's resolve.
Because it was the path she herself had walked in the past.
Eventually, Leon was caught in the planning stage and was confined in the house under the name of probation, and Rina made a decision.
To remove the obstacle called Elise… from her precious son's future.
Excerpt: The Bridges of Imperium Town 「This is right. This… is for everyone. This is the only way to correct everything…!」
An obstacle?
One might wonder how she could do this to the daughter she birthed with pain, but to Rina, Elise was essentially a stain on her life.
If she had been blinded by love, eloped, and lived happily there, the story might have been different.
However, at the place she fled to, Rina experienced the reality after love was achieved terribly.
Rina, who had no life skills as a young lady who never got a drop of water on her hands in her life.
And the man who was far too irresponsible and incompetent to support a family.
Rina wasn't forcibly dragged away by people from her family.
She walked back home on her own feet with a body heavy with child, close to delivery.
Because love didn't solve hunger, and the happiness of love didn't resolve the terribleness of reality.
Unable to endure it, Rina returned home, gave birth to Elise without anyone knowing, and entered as the second wife of an old noble 30 years her senior shortly after.
Therefore, Rina shuddered at the situation where her past mistake came back alive and was now trying to block her son's path.
There was no maternal love left in Rina to share with Elise, and Rina intended to deal with Elise quietly.
It wasn't that she hired an assassin or anything.
She intended to find out about Elise through a background check, grab a weakness, and tell her never to meet her son again.
And as desired, Rina got hold of Elise's weakness.
She was secretly meeting her son while keeping it a secret from her family and having another fiancé.
「Detestable bitch.」
From Rina's heart upon learning that fact, even a shred of pity disappeared.
Harboring feelings worse than for a stranger toward her daughter, Rina decided to meet Elise separately and settle everything.
On a dark night, the two faced each other on a deserted bridge.
「How dare you… seduce my son when you already have another fiancé? Break up immediately.」
A gaze so cold one couldn't imagine it was directed at a daughter met after 20 years.
In front of that gaze, Elise felt her heart shrinking.
She thought it would be discovered someday, but it ended up being known to the worst opponent.
「I-I….」
Elise opened her mouth to make some excuse, but Rina cut off the words she couldn't even bring out with a single stroke.
「I don't even want to hear it. I have only one thing to say. Don't appear in front of my son ever again. Otherwise──.」
I will tell your family everything about this.
At worst, you might be disowned and sent to a convent, so behave yourself.
To Rina who shouted like that, Elise, who had frozen, slowly came to her senses and spoke.
「I!」
At this moment, Elise decided her heart.
「I love Leon, Mother. Even if I have to throw everything away, I will… Leon──.」
「Don't be ridiculous.」
And from such a 'daughter,' Rina saw her past overlapping.
「When you don't even know what throwing everything away means…! Do not babble whatever comes to mind on a momentary emotion!」
This remark right now was actually closer to a shout directed at her past self, not Elise.
「You're prepared? Just love is enough? How dare you when you don't even know what suffering is…!」
「M-Mother?」
「Who is your mother! I never had a daughter like you!」
「Pardon? Daughter…? First, please calm down──.」
Rina, who seemed in a bad state from excitement.
Elise reached out to support her.
Rina pushed that hand away roughly, rejecting it.
At that moment, an accident occurred.
Elise, who was pushed, lost her balance and slipped.
「Ah….」
Elise fell into the pitch-black river water like an abyss.
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