Chapter – 63
“Ed… if a miracle happens and we are reborn at the same time, I’ll give you everything I have. I’ll repay all that I received in this life.”
The woman spoke with determination, but the man kneeling before her simply smiled and shook his head.
“No, Ellie. You don’t need to do that. Just…”
He kissed her hand and continued softly,
“Just be my lover then. That’s all I need.”
Goodness. So there had been feelings history never recorded. They must have harbored more than enough romantic emotion for each other, yet never actually became lovers in the end.
Well, it made sense. Ellica Prelai had died in her early twenties. And the lineage of House Prelai was carried on by her younger brother.
‘So the reason the first emperor lived his whole life single and passed the throne to his nephew… was because of this?’
If so, it was an astonishing love story. While I was marveling at it, the two continued their wistful conversation.
“Ed, promise me.”
The woman smiled faintly as she spoke.
“Even after I die, live well for me.”
“…I want to promise, but I don’t know how. I can’t even imagine living well without you…”
“Then I’ll teach you.”
She whispered softly.
“Start collecting gemstones in my place. You know I love jewels, right? And name the finest one after me.”
“…Okay.”
“And don’t walk around bent over in sorrow. Look up at the sky and live on. Think of me up there, always watching over you.”
“…Alright. But I… don’t think I’ll ever be able to keep beasts around me. Every time I see summoned creatures, I’ll think of you.”
What the—so the most expensive gemstone we know, the Ellica Stone, was named after Ellica Prelai’s nickname?
Suddenly, the image of the Talyz tree came to mind. That first emperor, who supposedly loved jewels because he was materialistic, preferred high places because he hated bending over, and disliked beasts. Back then I had just laughed and thought, ‘The first emperor was quite honest.’
Now I understood there was a story behind it.
The two figures slowly faded away.
When I woke up in the morning, my pillow was soaked with tears.
“Eek. It’s wet.”
Piyaki woke up in alarm and shook itself.
<Ugh, this feels gross. Huh? Kiana! Did you have a bad dream?>
“…No.”
I blinked blankly. Tears were still dripping down, but I was already regaining awareness.
“It wasn’t anything like that…”
Objectively speaking, it wasn’t even a bad dream. At least not compared to dreams where Piyaki cried that it was mine, or where my mother appeared shouting in frustration.
“Wow, now I’m even dreaming historically based dreams.”
I clicked my tongue and sat up. In the dream, everything had felt real. But now that I was awake, it just felt like nonsense—my imagination running wild.
“Lady, dreams are not reality. They are meaningless illusions and cannot serve as evidence. Do not tell others. They will only think more strangely of you.”
Dr. Kaylon, my physician, had always said this whenever I mentioned my dreams since childhood. And objectively, it was sound advice.
Ellica Prelai and Edmund Talyz being lovers who never became lovers—what a romance novel-like premise based on history.
<Phew, Kiana, isn’t this amazing?>
Piyaki puffed its breath proudly.
<This time it was much faster than when I was with Melissa! It should’ve taken a month originally, but it was way quicker than expected!>
“Yeah. Good job.”
I looked at Piyaki and nodded in admiration.
“See? Effort works. Right?”
“…Kiana?”
At the word “effort,” Piyaki looked at me with growing unease.
“Now, we can form a hypothesis here.”
“…A hypothesis?”
“The more deliveries we do, the faster the travel time becomes. And if the time decreases, that means it becomes more efficient.”
<“Efficient”? Kiana? A summon isn’t an object, it’s the Prelai’s eternal friend…>
“Then what if we just keep doing deliveries nonstop? Wouldn’t it get even faster?”
At my words, Piyaki began trembling as if sensing something ominous. I clapped my hands gently and smiled.
“Now that we’ve set the hypothesis, it’s time for an experiment.”
“W-wait, maybe that’s not necessarily true…”
“That’s fine. We’ll just test it over your entire lifetime. We need data. We should analyze how transmission and reception differ, separate variables, and find proportional relationships. I’ll help too, Piyaki.”
After a long time, I was excited to work with data again.
<N-no, effort…>
Piyaki slowly backed away, sensing the madness in my eyes.
“Of course, I could also just let you rest and play with you nicely.”
I looked at Piyaki.
“But I’m the villain who tried to steal you from Melissa. I can’t possibly live with a guilty conscience like that.”
“What does that even mean…”
“So it means I don’t know how to treat you properly, so I’ll just work you to death.”
“So no matter what, I’m being exploited!”
“That’s right.”
I quickly wrote a letter.
Honestly, I wanted to write harsher things, but barely restrained myself. Normally I should use honorifics with the crown prince… but I hadn’t even confirmed that he was the crown prince yet. And since he hadn’t objected to my casual tone, I figured this level of rudeness was fine.
“Alright. If you work harder, you’ll be able to come faster next time. And carry heavier things too. Fighting.”
I patted Piyaki’s head gently.
“Go well.”
Piyaki looked at me with sorrowful eyes.
<Kiana is such an efficiency-driven master. How do I change Kiana’s condition?>
“Oh, you want to change the state of matter?”
Being a kind and helpful owner, I answered seriously.
“Then apply heat or pressure.”
“…I hope magical engineering fails.”
Piyaki muttered, puffing its beak, and flew away.
After sending Piyaki off, I called a spy maid.
“Spy, has Lord Julius woken up?”
I hadn’t seen him yesterday because he had fallen asleep, but it had been ten years since we last met. Naturally, I wanted to see Lord Julius first. Forget warm stones or pebble-made hand warmers—I just wanted to see the person who had once shown me great affection.
Back then, I even thought I wanted to live in the North with him no matter how cold it was. Of course, I gave up on that too. A summon-less girl like me going north without awareness might just end up treated like baggage.
“Yes, I heard he just woke up and is having breakfast.”
The spy maid answered quickly.
“He’s staying in the annex. Shall I guide you there?”
“Yes. Let’s go now.”
We would need to pass through the garden to reach the annex. I had eaten breakfast, so it was a nice time for a walk.
The spy maid also prepared this morning’s issue of Lorelei for me. It featured a large headline about tax evasion in the House of Perves.
‘Oh? So this existed?’
Reading Lorelei, I walked toward the annex.
‘Wow… this might really make them short on money.’
Even for House Hiten, something of this scale couldn’t be easily covered up.
‘I don’t want to just make them poor.’
I smiled.
‘They should suffer exactly the same way the Prelai did.’
Just imagining them falling into their own trap made me feel quite satisfied.
