Ch.156Chapter 156. Inevitability (3)

“……What?”

I managed to hide my bewildered expression and responded in a tone of confusion.

“I am asking if you did not send me away for my own sake.”

“……I apologize, but that’s difficult to understand. Is there any correlation between those things?”

I answered brazenly while desperately trying to figure out what to say next.

Because—what she said was actually correct.

My goal was Lady Lunarian’s unification of the continent.

At first, I followed Lady Lunarian simply because I concluded she was the one who would achieve unification, but now I genuinely wanted her to succeed.

And the most important condition for her to achieve unification was—that Serpina von Einhart must continue to lead the Serpina army.

In conclusion, I had saved Serpina’s life.

So Serpina’s words were essentially correct, though I had never revealed this truth to her.

The only problem was:

How on earth did Serpina figure out that I had said those things to save her life?

“……”

Serpina looked at me with a strange expression.

I didn’t feel the usual pressure or the gaze of someone absolute looking down on those beneath them.

What stood before me was… though I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate to say this—a frightened girl.

Serpina von Einhart appeared just like an ordinary woman.

I slowly observed her demeanor, then broke the silence with a heavy voice.

“May I… first hear why you think that way?”

I judged it necessary to understand her logic before acting rashly.

“……Very well.”

Serpina slowly closed her eyes, then, as if having made up her mind about something, led me to her desk.

On the spacious desk lay only a map of the continent.

“If it weren’t for your advice… I would likely have assembled a delegation the next day and headed straight for the Brans army. With our army having the initiative, few would expect me to go all the way to Anel Castle. You would think the same, wouldn’t you?”

“If my lord had moved, I would have thought you would only go as far as the border.”

“Yes. You know that too. Of course…”

I wasn’t sure what kind of riddle she was posing, but I decided to play along for now.

Serpina is not a foolish person. If she summoned me to make such a strong assertion, it meant she had completed her own logic.

‘Moreover, the map being laid out means… the answer must be here.’

If I couldn’t refute her logic with my own power, there was only one thing to do.

I needed to build upon her logic.

I examined the map and quietly listened to her story.

“Looking at the map, the closest place from here is Kohart Castle.”

She pointed to Kohart Castle with her finger.

Naturally, I focused more intently on the map.

“The time it takes to get there… and the time it takes to form an alliance and return—”

‘……!’

……I saw it.

The moment she mentioned “time it takes” and “time to return,” I understood what she was talking about.

“You’re referring to the landslide.”

“!!!!”

At my words, she was startled and looked at me with a pale face.

Seeing that expression, I could easily tell that my answer was correct.

While looking at the map, I had been constantly reminding myself that Serpina was asking me if I had “tried to save her.”

If that was the case, there must be clues to her death within this map.

Clues to her death on the map? That drastically narrowed down the possibilities.

And the reason it was compressed to “natural disaster” was when she pointed to Kohart Castle located at the border.

No matter how many rebels might be targeting her, being attacked within her territory was less likely than a natural disaster.

But Serpina didn’t have an intelligence of 100 like me, and even if she did, neither of us could know exactly where and how a natural disaster would occur.

Therefore, it had to be a form of natural disaster that someone as logical as Serpina could naturally predict.

For example, a conclusion like “Were you concerned that lightning would strike on the way?” would be an absurd claim that Serpina’s character wouldn’t easily make.

Lightning leaves no evidence. Someone confirming and reporting such a situation would be too contrived and improbable.

Decisively, lightning requires rain, and the northern continent had been maintaining calm weather.

The weather might change a bit if one went all the way south, but it wasn’t that far.

So it wasn’t lightning.

Then what?

What caught my eye was the valley located on the shortest route between Einhart Castle and Kohart Castle.

Considering that crossing a valley in this game always means being prepared for unpredictable landslides—

There was only one answer.

Moreover, with a landslide, the evidence would remain, making it easy to receive reports.

There was even a village nearby.

“So… you… were trying to save me.”

“……”

“But… even if you suddenly claimed a landslide would occur, I wouldn’t have believed you. Like before… And if you had told me directly, I might have acted according to my stubbornness. Honestly, I don’t really believe in talk of celestial movements and such.”

‘……???’

“You must have… known that I would think that way…?”

I swallowed the words “Well, not really…” that were about to come out.

It was the first time I’d heard that Serpina “doesn’t really believe in talk of celestial movements.”

I thought she was the type to listen to me well, and with all that talk about divine eyes, I vaguely assumed she believed in such things?

Whether she knew what I was thinking or not—

Serpina looked at me with a pitiful expression and said:

“Answer me, Swen… Am I right? Did you… make that claim to save me, to save my life?”

Listening to Serpina’s trembling voice, I thought.

What was my job in Serpina’s army?

It was to keep her alive.

Then it was most important to make her listen to me as much as possible, to make her trust me.

How many rulers had already ignored my advice at crucial moments? Two already?

Serpina was different from Lunarian. To gain her trust, I needed to prove something.

And this situation—

Wasn’t this an opportunity to prove myself rolling toward me like a pumpkin with its vine?

If I were Serpina, I would have thought more deeply beyond the unbelievable fact that I predicted a landslide, but for some reason, her desperate appearance showed more urgency than her usual intelligence.

Perhaps she had some reason to think this way.

Anyway…

Shouldn’t I just go along with what she’s offering?

With that light thought, I slowly bowed my head.

“……I was thinking of telling you honestly, but I was cautious as it might sound a bit strange…”

“……!!!”

Good.

Now I’ll slowly raise my head and say something like ‘If I could save my lord, that alone is enough for me.’

If she asks how I knew, I’ll just say something about the heavens. Since the result is already known, she won’t question it.

Thinking this, I raised my head and slowly opened my mouth—

“If I could save my lo—”

……?

Strange.

Suddenly, no more words would come out.

To be precise, my mouth, the organ designed to speak, was blocked.

What filled my mouth, blocking my words, was… something soft and slippery.

I easily recognized what it was.

A tongue.

My tongue.

The tongue that somehow brought me here despite only knowing the conclusion and not the process… I felt it intertwining with someone else’s tongue.

And only then did I realize.

—Serpina had pressed her lips against mine.

Despite how suddenly it happened, as our tongues intertwined… rather than embarrassment, I felt a kind of relief.

It felt as if this wasn’t the first time.

Why…?

Before I could carefully consider this sensation, her warm, soft tongue invaded every corner of my mouth.

How much time had passed?

Eventually, as our lips slowly separated… a transparent thread of saliva connected us, a space no one else could invade.

“Haah…”

Serpina looked at me with a deeply flushed face, her breathing ragged…

With those golden eyes that held only me, speaking not as an absolute ruler but as a woman:

“……Swen. I don’t care who else is in your heart. Whether I am your first or not, that is secondary.”

“So.”

“Even if it’s just a part of you, it doesn’t matter. Please… at least while you’re by my side in this moment, be mine.”

Looking at her as she spoke to me with a trembling voice, I thought:

…My first kiss tasted like yuzu.