Noah slowly pushed open the doors of the chapel once more. A red carpet spread across the floor leading to a coffin. There, his princess slept unchanging, just as beautiful as she had been three years ago.
The conversation he’d had moments earlier with Ehrenfried, Claudia’s second-eldest brother, echoed in his mind.
“Claudia is the reincarnation of Adelheid,” the second prince had murmured, deep in thought. “It’s such a preposterous idea that I can’t wrap my mind around it. Yet, I can’t imagine you or Father would lie about something like this...”
“Prince Ehrenfried, I understand how difficult it might be to believe, but—” Noah had begun.
“But you don’t have time to convince me of it now. I understand.” Ehrenfried had chosen to set aside his disbelief, at least for now, and move forward based on the information Noah provided. “First of all, Lady Dorothea’s magic—erasing another’s memory and gradually restoring it according to certain conditions—is absurdly advanced.”
“However, that magic’s construction is why I believe that there must be some vital information hidden in the memories that His Majesty just recovered.”
At that same time, the other members of the royal family had been preparing to confront the invading Lemilsian forces. Joining them were foreign dignitaries, such as King Ashbal, who had answered Noah’s plea and rallied for Claudia and her kingdom.
“According to Lady Dorothea...Her Highness is incomplete.”
“Not a whole apple, but a bitten one—if she’s missing a piece, she can remain hidden, right?” Ehrenfried mused. He pressed his hand to his forehead, as if nursing a headache. “Three years ago, Claudia chose to fall into slumber, so she could remake her body into a vessel capable of wielding Adelheid’s power. Is that correct?”
“It is. However, I believe that Her Highness becoming a perfect vessel for Adelheid was precisely what Lady Dorothea wanted to avoid.”
“And that was because she feared that, as Claudia grew closer to Adelheid’s form, she would become vulnerable to the pursuers, correct?”
“Yes, and now I wonder if the magic that Lady Dorothea cast is actively preventing Her Highness from waking.”
Noah guided Ehrenfried’s reasoning step by step, never speaking out of turn, waiting patiently for the prince to reach his own conclusion.
But Ehrenfried’s expression only grew more tense.
“This is bad, Noah.”
“How do you mean?”
The prince bowed his head and clenched both fists tightly. “If what you’re saying is true, I fear the only way to wake Claudia is by restoring what she lacks.”
“What does she lack...?”
“She needs an infusion of her own magic...and a lot of it. It’s the only way.”
The words struck Noah like a blow to the chest.
Ehrenfried continued, his voice growing more desperate. “Such a thing is easier said than done. We can’t get her magic, nor can we return it to her. Claudia herself is the only one who possesses that magic, and she’s in a deep slumber.”
“But—” Noah had wanted to object, but he stopped himself.
“It’s hopeless. There’s nothing we can do...” Ehrenfried trembled. “I’m so sorry, Claudia...”
Noah knelt before him, quietly bowing his head in gratitude. “Prince Ehrenfried...”
“Yes...?”
“Your words have given me peace.”
“P-Peace? What are you talking about? I just said there’s no way to wake Claudia...”
“Your words have made it clear to me what I must do. Thanks to you, I am finally certain.” Noah rose to his feet, his eyes locked on Ehrenfried’s. “I will go to her now. It’s time I brought Her Highness back.”
And so, Noah had returned to this chapel where Claudia lay asleep.
Step by step, he moved toward her.
He closed his eyes just once, allowing his thoughts to coalesce.
Soon, Lemilsia’s forces will come to break the barrier.
Sieghart must have already realized that the royal capital itself served as a magic circle.
Most likely, he intends to shatter the array by destroying the city’s streets.
He would then send his elite troops against the castle’s gates to breach the final ward.
He would have to. His Majesty designed the capital so that no enemy could march on this kingdom without first shattering the defensive array.
King Volkhard had never neglected preparations for war—precisely because Dorothea had concealed within him a subconscious awareness of the threat to come. Over the course of nearly ten years, he had brought together the finest minds of the realm—chief among them Karlheinz—to refine and ready the nation’s magical defenses.
How much of this lies within Lady Dorothea’s design?
Noah stopped and knelt beside Claudia’s coffin.
The day I learned Anna was dead, the same day I escaped from the prison and collapsed in the forest, Her Highness saved my life.
Even now, her body lay as if untouched by time—her skin white as snow. She was dressed in white and lay in a bed of white lilies; only her lips, painted for death, bore any color—a vivid red.
That day changed everything. She taught me what it meant to choose how I lived.
Noah knew he would never forget that day.
But that wasn’t all that changed.
He looked down at his liege’s body as his mind raced.
I made a pact that day. Not the cursed slave contract forced upon me by my uncle, but a new contract—one forged with Her Highness herself.
In pain and torment, crawling through the forest, he remembered seeing Claudia smile down at him as she told him, “Choose a way to live, not a trivial way to end.”
In her small hand, she had held a dagger conjured from magic. Without hesitation, she’d raised it high and plunged it into her own left breast for Noah. Magical energy burst forth. Blood poured out. The sight had been almost unbearable, but moments later, the crimson that soaked the blade began to gleam with golden light.
“I’ll slice through these ugly chains, but I need you to endure the pain for just a bit. You mustn’t flail no matter how scary it might get.”
With that, she had taken his chin in her small hand, had forced his head up, and then drove the golden dagger into his chest.
His heart had slammed hard in his chest. A searing pain had torn through him, followed by a rush of feverishly hot magical power. However, the curse pulsing through his body had fought back, lashing out violently against Claudia’s magic. She had giggled at the curse’s defiance, her smile shining brightly on him.
“Oh my. Will you defy me, then? Alas, I can’t do what must be done with my cuwwent body, so I have no choice but to obawite your slave contwact,” she had said as a young girl, lacking the motor skills to properly enunciate her words.
“Overwrite...?”
Despite her childish lisp, to Noah, she had seemed like an adult woman soothing an infant.
“Don’t wowwy. I’ll undo the collar wight away.”
“Ngh...!!!”
And just like that, the curse eating away at him had vanished.
He also remembered their conversation from later that night.
“Is there a new slave contract between you and me?”
“Not quite. The magic is that of an acowyte contract, and it’s much stronger.”
“Acolyte... For a while now, I’ve felt some kind of huge, powerful magic swirling inside me... Here.”
Noah had pressed his hand against the left side of his chest, feeling the power now rooted in his heart.
“This is your magic, isn’t it?”
“Indeed,” she had answered with a gentle smile. He had wondered later if that had been the same smile that Adelheid had worn when speaking with her disciples. “Any acowyte of mine can use my magic.”
Noah thought back to what Ehrenfried had shared during the meeting with the foreign dignitaries.
He said that he detected a faint fluctuation in Her Highness’s magical energy beginning three days ago.
Noah had stood over the coffin and had extended a hand over Claudia’s still body after having spoken with Ehrenfried.
That day, I reached into Her Highness’s coffin for the first time in a long while. Even though the barrier’s rejection nearly tore off my nails, I made sure not a single drop of blood fell.
And yet, perhaps he had failed.
She is completely clad in white, but if the blood had fallen on her lips...then it would be possible that I’d never noticed.
Ashamed of his own carelessness, Noah reached forward again, slower this time.
Her Highness’s magic has been flowing through me ever since that day ten years ago.
The translucent veil over the coffin began to glow thanks to Noah’s presence.
At this point, it feels as natural to me as my own magic.
To him, the presence of Claudia’s magic coursing through his veins had long been the norm.
It was designed to feel that way.
Just how far ahead had Dorothea foreseen the future?
Her spell manipulates thoughts and memories. For a long time, it has obscured the truth, but Her Highness’s magic has certainly been “lacking” ever since that day.
That is to say—since the day Claudia regained the memories of her previous life, her magic had been incomplete.
When we forged the acolyte contract, she gave me a piece of her magic.
A fragment, like one might offer a cut of apple to a stray animal. She had given it to him without thought to herself.
He reached toward her. “Your Highness...”
A sharp snap rang out.
Noah’s hand had touched the barrier that sealed the coffin, which hissed in protest, crackling like lightning caught in thunderclouds, trying to throw him back.
“We are all waiting for you...”
Pain lanced through his fingers as he resisted the ward’s rejection.
His nail split. Blood dripped onto Claudia’s cheek.
It felt as though something had crushed the nerves in his arm—pain raced from his fingertips to his shoulder in a flash.
He forced his face to remain still, but sweat broke across his brow. His palm burned with heat, while an aching cold crept through his chest.