The Noah she knew had a soul that would never waver. He possessed a strength that never faltered even when his birthright as crown prince, his sister, and his dignity had all been stripped away from him as a child.
But the Noah of this world—Leonhard—had chosen a different path.
“And on that day, at only nine years old, Leonhard ascended the throne and became the king of Lemilsia,” Sieghart said.
Now it seemed that he lived alone in that castle without a single attendant.
“What does Leonhard desire?” she asked quietly.
Sieghart paused and frowned at the question. “Why do you ask?”
“Because I do not believe his goal was simply to reclaim the throne. If that had been all, then you would not still be alive.”
After all, Leonhard knew the consequences of leaving a rival to the throne alive—the previous king had spared Leonhard only to die by his hand.
She pondered the possibilities.
“Could it be that he only wished to put Anna Marie to rest with a proper funeral?”
Sieghart closed his eyes. “No.”
“Then there must be another reason. Leonhard became king not as an end but as a means to something else.”
On that point, Claudia had no doubt.
Sieghart pressed a hand to his brow and let out a long breath. “I shall tell you all I know. But you must forgive me—I can only offer you what I know, together with my own conjecture.”
“Of course,” she said warmly. “You’re a good boy, Sieghart.”
He laughed ruefully before his face turned solemn once more, his eyes meeting Claudia’s. “I believe Leonhard desired to possess the reincarnation of Adelheid.”
It was, in truth, not far from what she had already suspected. From the moment she had awakened in this dreamworld, Leonhard had made no attempt to hide what he sought.
“You’re Adelheid.”
He had spoken with Noah’s face and in Noah’s voice, yet his gaze and tone could not have been more different.
“So you’re the reincarnation of the witch who lived five centuries ago.”
She pondered what this could mean.
Sieghart gently probed, “Earlier, you spoke as if you knew of a different world. Should I take that to mean that is where you come from?”
“I am impressed at how quick you are to understand,” she said with a pleased smile. “Unfortunately, that is the reason that I know nothing about this world, including myself here.”
“I see.” Sieghart nodded. He rose to his feet. “I may be able to fill you in on that. When you were born, there was great upheaval in your kingdom. Upon examining your magical capacity, they found it far surpassed that of your father and siblings.”
There it was. That was the moment of divergence between her world and this one.
In her world, his father’s wife, the queen consort, had interfered with Claudia’s magical evaluation to make it seem that she had no magic. The queen consort had branded Claudia “the lacking princess” and made sure everyone knew about it.
My mother—though a beauty and a gifted songstress—was a penniless orphan with no noble blood and certainly no magic. Because of that, the queen consort, Irmela, despised me.
She knew that sort of scorn could compel someone to do terrible things; she recalled having been drawn into Irmela’s machinations when she was six.
For that reason, Irmela falsified my magical evaluation and cast me out... However, her actions were likely due to the cursed artifact that had already twisted her mind.
As a result, Claudia had been banished from the castle. She’d spent her early years confined to a tower, known to all as “the lacking princess.”
And that was why I was able to meet Noah in that forest.
She was now certain that none of these events had taken place in this world.
Claudia listened closely as Sieghart continued his account.
“Your very existence, the likes of which has never been seen before, was enough to draw numerous high-ranking conjurers to Avianoia. And when they saw the unique color of your eyes, they concluded that you must be the reincarnation of Adelheid.”
It was said that the color of the eyes reflected a person’s magical nature. Claudia’s eyes, depending on the light, could appear to be any color like the shimmering hues of an opal.
“I’m surprised they were so willing to believe something so fantastical,” Claudia remarked.
“I only heard it as a rumor myself, but when your mother first suggested it, apparently many were quite taken aback.”
Claudia blinked. “My mother?”
“Hmm? Yes. In time, all came to accept it, of course.” Then, as if it were the most unimportant thing, he added, “She was a powerful conjurer herself, after all.”
Therefore, this world hadn’t diverged after her magical evaluation. The point of divergence had occurred before she was even born.
“Sieghart... My mother’s name—is it Dorothea?”
“Of course it is. Why? Is something wrong?”
“She was a commoner in my world,” Claudia said, calm. “I’ve been told that she possessed no magic.”
Sieghart’s eyes widened in surprise. Claudia, meanwhile, quietly pieced together the implications of what she’d just learned.
Neither my uncle, who was my oppressor as a child, nor his daughter, Leonora, possessed any magical ability. Nonetheless, there exists no definitive proof that my mother—an orphan—was truly related to them by blood.
In a world where the nature of a person’s magic was reflected in one’s eye color, Claudia’s mother had possessed pale-golden eyes.
Pale colors indicated an absence of magic. There was nothing unusual about Dorothea’s eyes; she had been a commoner, and strong magical gifts were typically only found in noble bloodlines.
Is it possible that I was reborn to a woman who closely resembled me?
The thought brought a smile to Claudia’s lips.
I knew that I looked like her and that we had similar ideas about the world, but perhaps that wasn’t all. I can presume she must have also resembled me in magical ability.
She summoned faint, distant memories of her mother.
She must have hidden it from others...even going so far as to disguise her eye color.
It was something Claudia had done herself, time and again, after regaining her memories at the age of six.
“Please continue, Sieghart,” she said finally.
“Ah. Of course.” He nodded. “Since then, the Kingdom of Avianoia has devoted all of its resources to protecting you. Even after your mother passed away from illness, that never changed.”
Claudia closed her eyes.
If her mother had truly been a powerful conjurer, then death through illness was unlikely. More plausibly, she had succumbed to something that magic couldn’t heal.