Volkhard let out a breath, once again struck by her desperation.
“As I’ve said before: I still find this ruse to be of questionable value.”
“I know...but there’s no better way to—” Suddenly, her eyes widened. “That’s it.”
“Dorothea?”
“How could I not have seen it before? If she is not Adelheid, but the lacking princess,” Dorothea said before lowering her voice to a whisper. “In that case, she might be able to hide from the man who hunts her...”
Then she voiced his name.
“Leonhard.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Noah stood motionless within the cathedral, silently turning over the king’s words in his mind.
Leonhard.
A cold sweat beaded along the back of his neck and trailed down his skin.
It was a name he’d discarded long ago. Yet, no matter how dearly he cherished the name Noah, bestowed upon him by Claudia herself, he would never forget the one he had been given at birth.
The name given to me by my father...
Someone bearing that same name had been the one to pursue Claudia’s mother.
Noah mulled over the implications of that fact.
Seated in one of the pews, Volkhard stared at Claudia’s coffin and continued, “Anything further is hazy. I can’t say what methods that woman used, nor how she spent her days before the child was born.”
There was frustration in his voice, but it didn’t come from something as simple as hatred or dislike.
“Dorothea must have cast a spell on me and Claudia. The memories she sealed have been returning in a predetermined order...triggered by whatever conditions she set.”
“I believe I understand now,” Karlheinz said, breaking his long silence. His face didn’t betray his emotions. “For six years after Princess Claudia’s birth, Your Majesty showed no interest in her. Then, ten years ago, you suddenly ordered an inspection of the tower where she resided.”
Noah remembered that day well. He’d made his pact with Claudia—the day she used magic for the very first time.
“At the time,” Karlheinz continued, “you told us it was due to the state of foreign affairs, but even at the time, that seemed...”
“It was a flimsy excuse, I’ll admit,” Volkhard said. “But it seems that woman had planned for my memory to come back in stages all along.”
Most likely, even Volkhard himself couldn’t have explained why he had so suddenly become concerned about Claudia’s well-being.
Both he and Karlheinz turned to the third person in the room.
“Noah,” Volkhard prodded.
Noah closed his eyes and bowed his head. “I believe it was around that same time that Her Highness began to recover the memories of her past life as Adelheid.”
Karlheinz pressed a hand to his forehead, a grimace settling over his face. It was an expression that Noah knew well.
“And why have you kept something like that a secret until now?”
“Let it be, Karlheinz,” Volkhard interjected. “No doubt Claudia forbade him to speak of it.”
“Even so—”
“My memories of Claudia being the reincarnation of Adelheid were sealed until now. Everything has unfolded exactly as Dorothea intended.”
Noah had always been fully prepared to accept whatever punishment might come from his silence. His first duty was to follow Claudia’s command.
However, now that the king’s memory had returned, secrecy no longer seemed prudent.
If His Majesty has recovered his memory, something must have triggered it.
And whatever that trigger was, there was a high chance it meant Claudia was in danger.
“Your Majesty,” he said, “if I may have your permission to speak.”
“Go on.”
Noah knelt on the red carpet that ran the length of the sanctuary.
“According to Her Highness’s mother, the key to restoring both your memories would be interference in the kingdom’s barriers by the one pursuing her—the man called Leonhard.”
But the pact was not all that had happened that day. There had been one more event that had happened at the time—an event that was very important to Noah.
“The name given to me by my father was also Leonhard.”
At this, Volkhard frowned. Karlheinz drew in a breath and looked down upon Noah, who continued his confession without raising his head.
“Until now, I have relied on Her Highness’s mercy and remained here by your side under false pretenses.”
Of course, both of them had likely known. Volkhard and Karlheinz were not men so easily deceived. For reasons of their own, they had permitted Noah’s continued presence within Avianoia.
And yet...
Noah lowered his head even further, baring the back of his neck to the men before him, as if to say that they might take his head, if they so willed it.
“I am a member of the royal family of Lemilsia, cousin to the current king, Sieghart, who now seeks to bring war upon this kingdom.”
He had never forgotten the events of ten years ago—or so he had believed.
When he looked back now, he realized just how many gaps existed in his memory.
“I fled here from my homeland, coming to Avianoia by teleportation.”
Noah felt his heartbeat begin to pulse in his chest.
“I came here on the very same day... I now believe that it was the very same moment that Her Highness regained her memories.”