Removed from the chapel, Claudia now found herself seated in a plush chair.
Across the table from her was the young man who bore Noah’s face as he sat with his legs crossed. His expression remained a mask of barely concealed irritation.
Claudia took in her surroundings.
This world is probably an illusion.
That was the conclusion Claudia had reached.
This is a dreamworld that I’m seeing as I sleep—a vision of what might have been, a world that could have existed.
The plush carpet beneath her feet and the lavishly adorned furniture didn’t belong to a place she recognized. But, from the glimpses she had caught of the corridors and halls beyond, she could surmise that this was a castle.
“Leonhard,” she said softly.
She had decided to call him by that name. After all, Noah was the name she had given to the servant who was her sanctuary. This man was not him.
His scowl deepened. “I don’t recall giving you permission to address me by my name.”
Oh my, how cold.
Her Noah had always spoken calmly, his voice measured and gentle, but this Leonhard was about as unapproachable as a locked door.
“Hmph. To think that the King of Avianoia has been coddling the reincarnation of Adelheid,” he sneered.
“Oh, so he has? Hmm.”
“Why else would you dare act so carelessly in enemy territory?”
Claudia was carefully filing away the information that this Noah—no, Leonhard—was unknowingly revealing to her.
In this world, my identity as Adelheid’s reincarnation is public knowledge. But since when? From birth, perhaps?
In the world she remembered, she had been cast aside the very moment she was born, declared magicless by the then queen consort. She had spent her early years in exile, scorned and mistreated by her uncle’s household until she was six and reawakened.
Testing her theory, she offered a deliberately crafted response.
“It appears my father’s overprotectiveness is well-known, considering it’s reached even your ears.”
Leonhard scoffed.
“They say you were never even once allowed beyond the castle walls. He was so thorough in guarding his precious treasure. And yet, here you are, fallen into my hands. How utterly disgraceful.”
A trace of mockery laced his words, and Claudia once again felt the stark contrast between this Leonhard and the Noah she’d known.
In this world, I was never cast out...and that changed everything.
Claudia slowly lowered her gaze, allowing her mind to drift back ten years into the past.
In this world, I never found Noah dying in the forest...
She recalled the sight of him, surrounded by the carcasses of fallen griffons he’d slain with his uncontrollable magic. How the curse had eaten away at his body, leaving him racked with pain. Without her there to intervene, what had become of him?
I was born before Noah’s parents were killed. If the world had already known of Adelheid’s reincarnation at the time, then it’s possible that my very existence changed the course of his fate and perhaps of others as well.
She followed that thread of thought—only to experience a strange sensation, as though her own memories were slipping through her fingers like grains of sand.
“It feels as if my thoughts are being obstructed,” she murmured.
She realized too late that she had said it out loud. Leonhard narrowed his eyes.
“There are gaps in my memory,” she said with a smile. “Would you be so kind as to tell me what happened to me?”
It was not entirely a lie.
Before she had cast herself into deathlike sleep, she had formed several hypotheses about what she might experience during it. But now, the specifics of those thoughts eluded her, slipping from her grasp whenever she tried to recall them.
But Leonhard did not hesitate before dismissing her plea.
“You have no need to know.” His obsidian eyes gleamed with a cold, murky light. “You are a prisoner. You would do well to understand that. I have no intention of granting you the right to ask anything of me.”
This world was only a dream.
Perhaps that was why the logic behind its events was inconsistent at best. But she was certain of one thing. If she could not wake herself from this dream, she would never awaken in real life.
“This dress is rather thin, don’t you think?” Claudia murmured as she rose to her feet, casting a downward glance at the white gown she wore. “So, you’ll help me change.”
There was a beat of silence before Leonhard uttered, “What?”
“I cannot use magic, you see. And if I don’t change soon...”
Ignoring the earlier warning to keep her distance, she stepped closer to Leonhard and moved so that she stood between where he sat and the table.
Tucking a lock of hair behind her ear, she leaned down slightly and smiled at him.
“Well, wouldn’t it be a shame if the Adelheid you went to such lengths to capture were to catch a chill and die?”
This was, of course, a provocation.
Leonhard must have recognized it as such. His reaction was immediate, reaching out without hesitation and grabbing the collar of her dress.
The force of his grip made the fabric strain, as though he might tear it from her entirely—
But he suddenly stopped.
He looked away from her. “You can make use of this room. Change by yourself.”
She sighed.
“I suppose I shall have to settle for that. But first—answer me one thing.” She reached out, her fingertips brushing against his cheek. “Do you have any allies in this world?”
This time the glare he shot her was laced with something far more dangerous than mere irritation.
“I told you not to approach me.”
With a sharp motion, he struck her hand away. Then he pressed his hand lightly against her shoulder, pushing her back.
He watched her coldly as he gave her a final warning.
“Take another step—I will kill you.”
When Claudia had first heard those words in whispered agony, Noah had meant them as a warning for her safety. He had been suffering alone, on the brink of death, unwilling to let anyone else share in his misery.
But this Leonhard could not have been more different from her Noah.
He isn’t saying it to protect me, but because he truly does not want me. Because the path he has walked has shaped him into this.
Claudia forced herself to smile again. And, again, Leonhard furrowed his brow.
“I shall do as you ask, Leonhard.”
“I told you not to speak my name so lightly.”
“Oh my. Here I was trying to be a good girl, and I have already broken your first rule.”
Claudia let out a soft, teasing laugh, and Leonhard clicked his tongue in irritation as he rose to his feet.
“You have nowhere to run since you can’t use magic. If you wish to live, you would do well to behave.”
“There’s no need to glare at me in such a manner. I do not plan on running away,” she said softly. She smiled affectionately. “Not if you tell me that you want me here.”
Leonhard’s dark eyes burned into her for a long moment. Then, without another word, he turned and strode out of the room.
Claudia waved after him before lowering her hand and stepping toward the window. It was sealed by magic. But even if it hadn’t been, the thick ice layered on it suggested she wouldn’t have been able to open it anyway.
He said I wasn’t able to use magic.
If that was something that was widely known in this world, then it meant her current state was not an anomaly but rather the norm.
In reality, I awakened to my past memories when I was six. But if that never occurred in this world...
She thought back to the information that Leonhard had let slip.
And...if the knowledge that I was Adelheid reborn was widely known...
Meaning she must’ve never been exiled to the tower in the forest. Instead, she had been raised within the royal palace, cherished despite her lack of magic.
But in exchange, the Claudia of this world never awakened her magic. In the real world, I was nearly killed by my uncle, and the shock of that trauma brought back both my memories of my past life and my magic.
In the world she remembered, she hadn’t been able to use magic before then. There had been an odd haze over her thoughts back then, and she couldn’t remember why she had been unable to use magic.
Even now, when I try to grasp the reason, my mind gets hazy, as if something is obscuring the truth.
Claudia exhaled lightly against the frozen glass, trying to make out the scenery beyond, but she could see only snow-covered trees in what appeared to be an isolated courtyard. This room, it seemed, had been placed somewhere far removed from the rest of the castle.
She once again found herself lost in her thoughts.
This world’s Noah—Leonhard.
The young man who wore her dear servant’s face had regarded her with eyes colder than ice.
Where could his cousin Sieghart and his uncle be? I know they tormented him. If his younger sister were still alive, I can’t imagine he would have grown into someone who could wear such a cold expression.
She knew that in this world, he viewed her as his enemy; however, she still did not understand why.
From the way he spoke, it sounded as though he had taken me by force from my father’s protection. Why does he want me if I have no magic? Was I meant to be a hostage? Or did he simply wish to separate me from Avianoia?
The reason remained unclear.
Claudia let out a quiet sigh.
I don’t know how much of this world actually makes sense, considering it exists within my sleeping mind, but if I want to leave, I suspect I will need to regain my magic.
She focused, trying to gather magical energy into her palm. But there was no sign of the energy turning into magic.
I must awaken from this dream soon, or Noah will worry.
Lowering her hand, she rested her forehead against the chilled windowpane.
“My Noah,” she whispered.
Her white dress did nothing to shield her from the cold. Hugging her arms around herself, she let her thoughts drift to Noah as he was before she went to sleep.
“If you don’t hold me tight, I think I might freeze,” she murmured.
It was a quiet plea that would be heard by no one.
For a time after that, Claudia simply stared out the frost-covered window, waiting for someone who would never come.