Interlude – Crossing Paths

“…Gardening club?”

Yuriana muttered.

The piece of paper in her hand was none other than a report submitted by Oscar.

The report was densely filled with information about the gardening club. Starting with the permission status regarding the gardening club’s occupation of the rooftop of the comprehensive building, and reports on circumstances where some members of the literature circle had deliberately damaged public parts of the gardening club.

At a glance, it exuded coolness as if viewed from the perspective of a fair third party, but Yuriana, who knew Oscar’s original personality, could tell.

“This kid. Being so dishonest…”

Yuriana’s gaze turned to a flowerpot placed near the window.

A small flowerpot that Oscar had brought unexpectedly a week ago, without any prior notice.

She had only heard a brief explanation that he received it from the gardening club, but Yuriana could grasp the general circumstances.

The name of the flower planted in the pot Oscar received was the stream flower.

Come to think of it, she too had grown flowers long ago. She was so into it that she had even memorized the flower language of the flowers she grew.

Surely, the flower language of the stream flower was…

‘…No.’

Yuriana shook her head. What’s the point of recalling the flower language of a common wildflower?

Flower language can be quickly found by looking up plant encyclopedias, and moreover, hadn’t he said it wasn’t something exchanged just between Evangeline and Oscar?

Yuriana directed her thoughts toward a more nutritious direction.

Did he say he received the flowerpot after joining the gardening club following Evangeline?

Gardening club.

Just hearing it, she didn’t think Oscar could gain any meaningful experience from there.

…But wasn’t that fine?

At least unlike herself, who had to live carrying a burden so heavy it was suffocating, she hoped that Oscar would have many pleasant memories during his academy life.

He was a royal who had given up the imperial throne, and he had entrusted his fate to her.

If Yuriana von Valentine couldn’t become Emperor, Oscar’s life as an imperial royal would essentially be over.

She, and he as well. Having abandoned many things, they would have to flee to avoid purging.

And perhaps until they died of old age, they wouldn’t be able to set foot on their homeland.

“…Well, enough idle thoughts. Where’s the time to rest.”

Yuriana shook her head and returned her thoughts to the topic she had been immersed in just a moment ago.

-Rustle.

Yuriana turned the document again.

Before Yuriana, who had been focusing on a pile of documents for a long time, a pitch-black hand holding a piece of paper appeared silently.

Yuriana’s eyes, which had quickly snatched the paper, narrowed intently.

“…As expected.”

The black ink wetting the paper took the form of a report consisting of type and tables.

And clipped to it was a photograph showing the side view of the Saint and her party secretly fleeing.

The photo was greatly shaken as if taken in a hurry, but it didn’t matter since this photo wasn’t meant to be published in newspapers anyway.

It was all taken by her shadow puppet.

“Lilac… as expected, she returned to the Holy Nation.”

Recalling that name that became uncomfortable just by thinking about it, Yuriana muttered quietly.

Corphe Lilac.

The 13th Saint of the Solaion Holy Nation, and the only Saint of commoner origin among all the past Saints.

Because of this, at the beginning of her reign as Saint, there were suspicions that the Senate had brought a puppet they could manipulate as they pleased, but such controversies somewhat subsided when she received the first oracle from God not long after.

And within a few years, these types of conspiracy theories disappeared without a trace.

This was because Corphe Lilac began to directly confront the Senate.

After deciding on her enrollment in Polaris Academy without going through the Senate’s judgment, she flew to Polaris with her closest aides.

Disguising her private soldiers as servants, negotiating under the table with senior members of Polaris Academy, and bribing them behind their backs, she succeeded in building her own power without any interference from anyone within Polaris.

Even Yuriana hadn’t expected her to fall so rapidly to this extent.

‘…Evangeline.’

A person of concern who should be watched more carefully than anyone else in the current Polaris… no, the entire world.

The hero of humanity who protected the Western Continent from the unknown force called the Demon King’s Army… even excluding such obvious rhetoric, from an objective perspective, it’s evident that she achieved military exploits that didn’t match her age.

When lined up with other knights called war heroes, one can see that Evangeline’s age is distinctively young among them.

To the extent that there were even low-grade conspiracy theories circulating that she was an artificial human created by the Kingdom through biological experiments.

I don’t know what such a person would have to learn from Polaris Academy, but anyway, the issue of her enrollment in Polaris heated up the whole world for a while.

But for some unknown reason, Corphe Lilac made the mistake of extending a hasty claw toward her… and as a result, it became her downfall, leading to the unprecedented result of being effectively deposed by the Holy Nation’s Senate.

However, while the Senate may have abandoned Yuriana, the Holy Nation did not abandon Yuriana.

Within the Holy Nation, the Saint is treated as God’s incarnation.

However, the Senate, which gained dispersed power after the 4th Saint’s revolution, slowly corrupted and degraded over time.

Eventually, they came to fully embody the characteristics of corrupt and monopolized power that the 4th Saint had warned against, and having taken it for granted for so long, they made a huge mistake.

The blunder of expelling the Saint, the foundation of the nation, by their own hands.

The foolish action of the Senate, afraid of having responsibility shifted to them, consequently provided the starting point for most of the Holy Nation’s citizens to rise up in opposition to the Senate’s decision, which in turn became Corphe Lilac’s strength.

…From then on, frankly speaking, it wasn’t something for Yuriana to be concerned about. Regardless of the outcome, it was merely a civil war occurring within the Holy Nation, and Evangeline’s mental illness, as mentioned by Oscar, would gradually improve as care was provided while excluding information from the Holy Nation.

The problem was how on earth Yuriana escaped from this Polaris neutral zone.

Polaris Academy is located within the Polaris inviolable zone designated through the armistice agreement between the four countries of the Western Continent.

The Polaris Academy is located within the vast territory called the Polaris inviolable zone, and outside the academy are residences of civilians who have received residence permits and various amenities such as restaurants, wholesale stores, retail stores, etc., that can be used by academy students.

Also, within this neutral zone, no military organization other than the self-defense organization under Polaris Academy is allowed to enter or exit.

And Corphe Lilac directly violated that promise, and as a result, she was supposed to be expelled from the student list of Polaris Academy and become chased by the academy.

…She was supposed to have been.

‘Cardinando.’

Yuriana’s younger brother and her greatest political opponent.

A bloodsucking relationship fighting to grasp each other’s lifelines, even the expression “rival” would be too generous.

He approached Corphe Lilac.

Circumstantially, he helped Corphe Lilac escape, providing the starting point for her to safely leave Polaris and return to the Holy Nation.

That was the biggest problem Yuriana was currently facing.

But how? By what means? And why? What was he trying to gain by doing such a thing?

“…Argh.”

After repeatedly thinking thoughts that led one after another, Yuriana eventually sighed deeply as if the ground would sink, and slumped her body onto the large desk.

The papers that had been piled like mountains fluttered in all directions, and Yuriana, with her forehead pressed against the desk, muttered dejectedly.

“I don’t want to think anymore…”

The groaning sounds stuttered between her parched lips.

She had known it for a very long time.

Yuriana von Valentine… that she is not even slightly intelligent.

Not a genius, not a prodigy, and even less a talented person, at best a very common ordinary person, such complex thoughts were absolutely not suitable for her.

Hence, Yuriana thought several times a day.

That she wanted to quit everything and run away.

But where to?

If she ran away, what would happen to the numerous people who followed her?

What about Oscar, who entrusted everything to her? And his fiancée, Evangeline?

“Haaah.”

She sighed once more and lifted her forehead, which had turned red from being pressed against the hard wooden desk.

Because of the reason she could endure and her greatest helper.

-d-i-b

A pitch-black wild dog rose into the air, stretching its upper body like a person.

Numerous black hands pick up the scattered documents, neatly piling them on her desk.

“…Bill.”

Evangeline muttered quietly.

Her contracted shadow spirit—Bill, nodded its head, which took the form of a large wild dog, up and down.

Bill, the name of the shadow spirit, was the name of her childhood dog.

To the shadow spirit that appeared before her as she longed for Bill, who had run away outside the imperial palace one day and went missing, she gave the same name, Bill, as that dog.

Believing that the runaway dog had returned to her as a shadow spirit.

 

Because Bill was there, she could come this far without breaking or bending.

It was also with Bill’s help that she, a mere ordinary person, could confront numerous geniuses.

The ‘information’ that dozens, hundreds of shadow clones collect in the shadows, which she alone could never have known.

Without them, the ship named Yuriana would probably have sunk to the bottom of the sea long ago.

Silently stroking the pitch-black wild dog that growled and approached her with its head raised, Yuriana again sank into endless thoughts.

“Prince Cardinando. The next schedule is…”

“Cancel it.”

“Pardon?”

“I’m busy.”

Cardinando said briefly.

“It seems my cute juniors have caused some trouble. I need to go to the circle.”

“Circle? But Prince.”

To the middle-aged butler with a troubled expression, Cardinando responded with a cold answer.

“It’s my almost only hobby. I’d appreciate it if you didn’t interfere.”

“…I apologize.”

“No need to apologize. Your counterpart was… surely the Wongchai Company? Just make up an excuse that I had an urgent matter. They’re not that important anyway, and they’ll be happy if I just give them a few calves later.”

“I will handle it as ordered.”

“Good, you may go.”

After glancing at the butler who bowed his head and quickly left, Cardinando clapped his hands briefly twice.

“I’m going to the literature circle.”

After giving the command with no one to answer, Cardinando moved his steps.

Two shadows followed behind him.