He gently lowered her onto a nearby chaise. Then, still kneeling on the plush carpet, he looked up and said, “You didn’t answer me before. Are you sure you are all right?”
“I am—thanks to your quick thinking.”
“I see,” he said. He exhaled and glanced downward. “All is good so long as you are unharmed.”
Claudia reached out and softly brushed back his indigo hair—so dark it almost passed for black.
“Thank you, Sieghart.”
His dark eyes widened for a moment in surprise, but they soon narrowed, and his lips curved into a boyish, unguarded grin. “Ha... Ha ha ha!”
He didn’t reject her touch, unlike his cousin Leonhard.
“You treat me as if I were a child,” he said.
“Well, if we go by years since I was born, I’m quite your senior.” She pulled her hand away from his hair and raised a finger to her lips. “I was born over five centuries ago, after all.”
“Then it’s true. You really are...” His eyes, the color of obsidian, fixed on her once again.
Claudia adjusted her rumpled gown and seated herself more properly upon the chaise. They were in a private room in a manor of some sort, and she suspected that this was a hideout being used by the young man kneeling before her.
“You plan to rise against Leonhard, don’t you? This place is one of your bases of operation, I would wager.”
“Before I answer that,” Sieghart said, taking her hand reverently, “I have a question for you, Adelheid.”
Claudia allowed the gesture as she smiled softly. “In this life, my name is Claudia...despite Leonhard’s refusal to call me as such.”
“Well, Claudia...” he began, his grip on her hand tightening ever so slightly. “Do you belong to him?”
She giggled, unable to help herself due to the boyishly earnest question. “No, I do not. I am no one’s but my own. If I must belong to someone, then I suppose I am the princess to a very sweet boy named Noah.”
“Noah?”
“It is the name of someone who does not exist in this world—which is precisely why I must leave here, if only to give his head a good pat.”
She knew Sieghart would not understand her, but she still offered him the truth he wished to know.
“I merely wish to leave,” she continued. “I am no ally of Leonhard...although I do not count myself among his enemies either.”
“You look so terribly sad when you say that,” Sieghart said softly.
“That’s because I am. Let me ask you something. Leonhard fled from your father’s domain when he was nine years old, and yet he rules as king now. Can you tell me how that came to be?”
Sieghart blinked. “I’m surprised. I didn’t expect Leonhard to tell you all of that.”
Truthfully, Leonhard had said no such thing to her. She smiled and waited for Sieghart to answer her question.
“It’s shameful to admit, but as a child, I had no idea my father held him in chains. There were many things I didn’t know.” Sieghart’s voice was heavy, and his eyes were pulled downward as if by a similar weight. “Not only did I not know that my cousin, only a year older than me, was suffering in a cell, I also did not know that he was the rightful heir to the crown... Nor did I know that Anna was not truly my sister, but his.”
Anna Marie... My suspicion that Sieghart never learned the truth of their relationship must be correct. I presume the Sieghart of this world would not have known if not for events changing so drastically.
After all, her confrontation with Sieghart during their time at Raushneur Academy had seemed to illustrate his ignorance concerning Anna Marie.
Sieghart frowned as he remembered his past. “I only learned after Anna’s death that I had stolen his entire life from him. I was eight. That’s when Leonhard returned to the castle. He arrived with a sword in his hand and a man at his side.”
That caught Claudia’s attention. “A man?” She narrowed her eyes. “And who exactly was this man?”
“I do not know. I didn’t recognize him. He was young, and he followed Leonhard closely, as though he were his servant. All I know for certain is that he was not one of my father’s men.”
“And this was right after Anna died...”
Claudia pondered his words.
In terms of the timeline of her own world, this would have been right after Claudia had first met Noah.
This would have been right after we bound ourselves together through a contract and punished my uncle. Afterward, Noah used my magic to go and confront his own uncle.
And Claudia had teleported to Lemilsia to pursue him.
And that is the moment when the Sieghart of that world first saw me. It was then that his obsession with me began to take hold.
Noah had informed Claudia of everything that Sieghart had told him during their duel at the academy. From that report, a certain person came to Claudia’s mind.
The chief conjurer of Lemilsia...
Claudia lowered her eyes as she thought over what she knew about him.
In my world, he was the one who supported Sieghart from the shadows and ruled in place of the king while Sieghart attended the academy.
Karlheinz had said at the time, “Reportedly, the chief conjurer of Lemilsia made the decision on behalf of the king.”
Piece by piece, the information began to fit together.
Is it possible that the chief conjurer who backed Sieghart in my world is the same man who is now serving Noah in this world?
She slowly closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, her gaze fell squarely on Sieghart.
“When Leonhard returned to that castle, did he remove both you and your father?”
“His power was overwhelming,” Sieghart admitted quietly. “I was still a child, of course, but even the royal conjurers and my father—none could so much as touch him. I survived only because my father’s retainers smuggled me out by teleporting me beyond the castle walls.”
He lowered his head, the memories weighing on him.
“Leonhard’s blade pierced my father’s heart. The man by Leonhard’s side didn’t have to lift a finger. Leonhard crushed our entire nation’s army single-handedly.”
“If that was what he truly desired, then I’m sure it was a simple matter,” Claudia murmured.