chapter_0159

“Is this the place?”

I stopped in front of a large villa and looked around. There was only one building nearby, so it had to be the right place.

The letter, having served its purpose, crumbled to pieces. I had been wondering why she had only included the key without writing down the address, but it turned out that the letter itself was meant to reveal the location.

Nika and Beatrice were very disappointed that they couldn’t come with me, but I had planned to leave right after meeting Leona and Aria anyway, and since the Crown Prince had given a direct order, they reluctantly accepted it and stepped back.

I opened the gate with the enclosed key and stepped into the garden, only to be immediately scanned by detection magic. Of course, it wouldn’t make sense to rely solely on a physical lock for security.

The detection magic scanned me several times as I walked through the garden, allowing me to pass through some areas while blocking me from others. I reached the front door of the mansion, which had the same type of lock as the gate.

‘Is there any point in using the key?’

With that thought, I took out the key. I heard the sound of the lock disengaging with a click.

“……?”

That was it. Despite hearing the sound of the lock disengaging, the door didn’t open. I looked down at the key, wondering what it had unlocked.

As I stood there perplexed, the door opened slightly. There was a chain attached to prevent it from opening fully, and through the gap, I could see half of Rosalia’s face peeking out.

“Password.”

“What password?”

“You can’t come in without a password.”

“Okay, then I’ll leave.”

As I turned to leave, an arm shot out from the door and grabbed my wrist. Rosalia glared at me with puffed-up cheeks.

“Can’t I even make a joke? You should have asked how to get the password from there.”

“Don’t worry, I was joking too.”

“……”

Her puffed-up cheeks became even rounder. Rosalia warned me not to go anywhere and to stay put, then closed the door. Soon, I heard the sound of the chain being removed, and the door swung open.

“You changed your clothes.”

The first thing that caught my eye was her outfit.

It wasn’t the so-called holy robe that the Pope had given her, which was more like a rag than a piece of clothing, nor was it the one-piece turtleneck that exposed half of her buttocks when she stood still. It was a rather plain monochrome dress.

Of course, her chest couldn’t be hidden, but to be fair, to hide breasts of that size, one would need a winter coat with several layers of padding, so it wasn’t a big deal.

“I made it myself. With a thread that connects the starlight. I’ve gotten this far now.”

Rosalia proudly puffed out her chest, going ‘hem’.

“It suits a saint. Why don’t you keep this style from now on?”

“……Be quiet.”

Her proud expression didn’t last long. Rosalia seemed embarrassed by the title of saint, and she tapped my arm, signaling me to be quiet.

“Whose place is this? Where are the others?”

The hallway clearly showed signs of money being spent on it. It was no less luxurious than the mansion of my original family. There weren’t many families in the Empire who could afford to spend this much on a remote villa like this.

“Laura’s family’s villa. It’s the one she used when she was little.”

“I see.”

It made sense that it belonged to the Crown Prince.

“The others are waiting in the room. Let’s go. I’ll explain there.”

As she spoke, Rosalia casually linked arms with me. Through her arm, I could feel the soft, squishy sensation of her upper arm. It seemed that she wasn’t wearing a bra, but as for the lower half, there was no way to confirm it, so I didn’t know.

We stopped in front of a room in the center of the third floor. As I opened the door, eyes turned to us. The members were the usual ones – Priscilla, Elysier, and Laura.

“Mira!”

Priscilla ran over and hugged me. Laura, on the other hand, started trembling as soon as she saw me, probably because the scent of the coat I had taken from her was completely gone.

I waved back at Elysier, who smiled gently, and patted Priscilla, who had buried her face in my chest. As I scanned the room, I noticed that it was surprisingly ordinary.

“How did you come up with such an idea?”

“Hmm, kidnapping and confinement?”

-Click!

As soon as I said that, I heard the sound of the door being locked behind me. I turned around with a stiff expression to see Rosalia smiling at me.

“How did you know?”

“……”

“Haha. Look at your face. I’m just joking. Obviously, we wouldn’t do that even if we all ganged up on you. Think of it as payback for the scare you gave me at the door.”

Rosalia, pleased with my reaction, unlocked the door with a giggle. I had been genuinely startled before, but I managed to hide my surprise and sat down on the sofa nonchalantly.

Rosalia naturally took the seat next to me. Elysier, who was sitting across from us, narrowed her eyes slightly at this.

“What’s the matter that you had to send such a letter?”

Laura, whose anxiety seemed to have worsened, spilled some of the tea she was holding. She calmed down only after snatching the coat I was wearing and putting it on herself, then took a sip of tea.

“Let me ask you directly. Was the light that illuminated the sky a few days ago your doing?”

“Yes, it was me. Didn’t the Empire go into an uproar because of that?”

When I casually confirmed it, Laura sighed and said, “Please explain what exactly happened. It’s beyond my imagination.”

I had intended to explain anyway, so I told them everything that had happened with the Dullahan. After hearing the story, Laura looked bewildered.

“It’s definitely the personality I designed, but it’s more extreme than I imagined. I never expected him to value honor so much.”

“Well, it’s similar to the original, isn’t it? Didn’t he surround the hero with his subordinates and then have a one-on-one duel, only to end up destroying them all when he lost?”

“That’s true, but……”

Laura sipped her tea awkwardly. Taking advantage of the brief pause in the conversation, I removed the sword I had brought with me – the sword of the Dullahan. Elysier’s eyebrows twitched slightly as she recognized the sword. I offered her the hilt.

“Take it. I thought it would be best for you to decide how to dispose of it since he was your last loyal subordinate.”

“I understand. I will prepare his final journey myself.”

Elysier took the sword and hesitated for a moment, then placed it against the sofa.

“So, is that all you wanted to talk about?”

“There’s one more thing. The real reason I insisted that you come alone.”

“What is it?”

Laura took out a blue notebook from her pocket and handed it to me. It was the same notebook she had used as a diary in her past life, and the one that had her memories sealed within it, as I had told them before.

“Some of my memories returned after the light you emitted illuminated the sky of the Empire.”

“Is that true? Are your memories really coming back?”

“Why would I lie about this? Thanks to that, I can now read the next part of the notebook. I’ve already confirmed it, so it’s your turn to check.”

The story of Laura’s past was something that only the reincarnators could talk about among ourselves. It made sense that she wanted me to come alone.

As I took the notebook, Rosalia rushed over and sat next to me, and Elysier took the other side. Priscilla was still on my lap.

[If you’re reading this, it means you’ve somehow managed to recover more of your memories. I don’t know what method you used, but congratulations anyway. You’ve taken another step closer to the truth, haven’t you? To be honest, I didn’t think about how to lift the seal. I was desperate to leave something of myself in this world, so I didn’t really care about how to lift the seal. I’m curious how you managed to read this, though. Maybe]

“……?”

The next sentence was smudged with pen marks, making it unreadable.

“Why is it smudged?”

“I don’t know. It was like this when I first saw it. There must be some other reason, don’t you think?”

‘I don’t think so.’

All the other writing was of the same intensity, but the ink on the smudged part was noticeably darker than the ink in the notebook. There were also faint black ink stains on the opposite page of the notebook.

In other words, the sentence had been written relatively recently. And there was only one person who could have touched it.

“Let me try to restore it to its original state.”

“Wait, don’t touch it! It might be dangerous if you mess with it without knowing-”

Laura stood up in a hurry, but my magic was faster.

My magic carefully separated the ink from the notebook, revealing the hidden words underneath. As expected, the ink that had been smudged recently disappeared, revealing the hidden sentence.

Laura, who had been standing right next to me, was grabbed by Elysier and was now squirming in her arms, unable to do anything but watch.

[Maybe you got kissed by a handsome prince like in a fairy tale, and the curse was lifted. Personally, I hope that’s the case. I’d like it if someone else suddenly appeared and solved everything.]

“Hmmmm……”

Laura lowered her head, her face flushed. Rosalia and Elysier, who were sitting on either side of me, each said something.

“Wow, Laura. I didn’t know you could say something like that. You’re so girly, girly. Did you hear that, Mira? To lift the curse, you need to be kissed by a handsome prince. Oh, and maybe he has to stick his tongue in, too?”

“So there’s a demon king, a princess, and a prince. Your story isn’t a romance fantasy, it’s a children’s fairy tale.”

“……I had no choice. No matter how many times I reincarnated, the loop never seemed to end, and my body was gradually becoming more like Laura’s. It was inevitable that I would be influenced by her emotions.”

“Okay, I understand. You were scared, weren’t you, our princess? But now the prince has appeared, so it’s all right. Isn’t that right, Mira?”

“Aaaaaah! Just kill me instead!”

The fact that she could take such teasing meant that it wasn’t a big deal. Neither Rosalia nor Elysier had teased Priscilla for clinging to me, so it wasn’t a problem.

If Laura had reacted with trauma, she wouldn’t have said such a thing. She would have been too busy worrying about what I thought of her. I wouldn’t have erased the ink in the first place.

[Well, anyway. I only have one thing to say.]

A single sentence took up an entire page. I turned to the next page.

[How to escape this damn world.]