“Here is Lord Karlheinz’s report, Claudia,” Sieghart said.
Having teleported to his hideout after catching Leonhard off guard, Claudia took the sheet of paper Sieghart proffered to her.
“Thank you.”
Her hair was still damp from her recent bath. Wearing the jacket Sieghart had conjured over her nightdress, Claudia sat on a chaise lounge and read through the report.
“Still, I didn’t expect you to be able to use magic. Much less that you’d find my hideout so easily and teleport straight in.”
“Tee hee! With just a little bit of my magic back, something like this is trivial.”
“Trivial, you say...”
Rather than respond, Claudia merely smiled, her eyes scanning the final lines of the report.
There, written in Karlheinz’s familiar hand, was the following:
“We have found the statue you described in the ruins of the desert kingdom—Sharavia.”
So, the statue of the goddess exists in this world as well, she thought.
The statue she had ordered Karlheinz to locate was the one she had seen just before entering her enchanted sleep, in the kingdom ruled by King Ashbal.
Noah had discovered it first, reporting that it bore a resemblance to Claudia.
Noah surmised that it might have been modeled after my mother, Dorothea.
And indeed, the statue was of someone connected to Claudia. Unfortunately, Noah’s conjecture had been slightly off the mark.
That statue was modeled after Adelheid.
They had also learned that the statue had been brought to the Sharavian royal palace by the same person who brought with her a cursed artifact.
The one responsible for these curses has set their sights upon me, just as I suspected.
She had suspected it for some time. But when she laid eyes on that statue, her suspicion had become certainty. She hadn’t told Noah. She hadn’t wanted him to act rashly while she was in her slumber.
It seems that it’s no different here than in the other world. Whether that statue was intended to function as a wanted poster or a declaration of war...it’s of little consequence.
Claudia gently folded the report and rose to her feet.
Either way, I must soon wake up and ask them myself.
With that, she fed the parchment to the fireplace flames.
“Leonhard refuses to call me Claudia,” she told Sieghart.
He looked confused at the sudden change in topic.
“I always thought it was some sort of petty defiance—or disinterest. But thinking on it now, even you, Sieghart, called me Adelheid—and you hardly seem the stubborn type.”
“Well... It’s just that...”
“It’s all right. I believe I understand now...” Claudia smiled softly. “In this world, I was named Adelheid, wasn’t I?”
“You were, Claudia.”
There was care in the way he answered, and Claudia nodded, quietly satisfied.
Then the name Claudia was something my mother gave me...
There was a reason she believed this.
In this era, in lands like Avianoia and beyond, Claudia means “bright.”
But to Claudia, the reincarnation of Adelheid, it carried a different meaning.
In the land I lived in five hundred years ago, it meant “something that is lacking.”
The fact that her mother in this life had chosen that name which, in her homeland of old, had such a meaning... Could it truly be a coincidence?
And if my mother was also a reincarnation from five hundred years prior?
The meticulous plans that were laid to protect Claudia weren’t something that could be explained by her mother being a brilliant conjurer alone.
If my mother was the reincarnation of my mother from five hundred years ago, and she knew she was going to give birth to me once again...
Then maybe the name Claudia was always meant to mean “lacking.”
Perhaps it was a message to those who pursued me... A message that said, “This is Claudia, who is not quite Adelheid.”
Claudia gently brought a finger to her lips.
I had thought the faint warmth I felt there was Noah’s magic.
When she awoke, and again when she regained a small portion of her magic, she had sensed that warmth.
Now, Claudia realized its true nature.
It isn’t just his. It’s a blend of both of our magic...
Like how one cannot perceive the heat of their own body, what was always there had gone unnoticed. She had mistaken it as foreign—when in truth, it was shared.
Ah. I see now.
Claudia recalled the nature of the contract she had forged with Noah when she was only six years old.
I left a part of my magic with him that day. It mixed with his...and turned into something this warm.
Elation bloomed into her face, which drew Sieghart’s curious gaze.
“What is it, Claudia?”
“I think I’ve just realized there may have been a seal on my memory.”
“A seal...?”
“I’ve begun to remember things I had forgotten, and come to understand things I never knew... Perhaps something is happening in the other world... I wonder... I wonder if, perhaps, my father and Noah are remembering things too...”
This was likely a matter of little importance to Sieghart, yet he still asked her earnestly.
“Would that be because of your mother’s magic?”
“I’m sure of it. She cast it to protect me,” she said as she watched the fire crackling in the hearth. “To protect me from the one who secretly controls Leonhard from the shadows... The chief conjurer of Lemilsia.”
Sieghart inhaled sharply, then spoke, carefully choosing his words. “So, you suspect it too?”
“In the world I came from, it wasn’t Leonhard who was being used. It was you, Sieghart.”
“Well, that’s quite the thing to hear...” He gave a strained smile and rubbed his forehead. “So Lemilsia is being used by the chief conjurer...? Then perhaps my father was being used... Leonhard’s uncle, that is,” Sieghart said.
“I heard that both of your fathers were deeply at odds with each other. I wonder... Perhaps even that was orchestrated all along.”
“Damn it!” Sieghart cursed. She could see the frustration etched on his face. “Why us?! Why the obsession with our family?!”
“I don’t think it’s an obsession,” Claudia said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
A theory had begun to form in her mind.
“Perhaps...they had no other choice.”
“Claudia...?”
She turned to him with a thoughtful expression. “Have you ever wondered why the royal family of Lemilsia tends to possess such powerful magic?”
That caught Sieghart off guard. The question was so basic that even a child could answer it.
“Because a conjurer’s magical strength is greatly influenced by lineage. We, the royal house of Lemilsia, descend from Reinard.”
“Reinard...”
It was a nostalgic name for Claudia.
“The Legendary Witch Adelheid’s first disciple,” she continued. “He possessed a dazzling charisma, strong leadership, and extremely powerful magic...and eyes the color of obsidian.”
One’s eye color reflected the nature of one’s magic. Eyes like black obsidian, deep and consuming, were the mark of dark magic.
“In truth... You resemble Reinard more than Noah does.”
“Surely you jest.”
“I’m sure that, like Sewell, he would’ve waited for me... Waited for me to return to this world.”
When she was eight, Claudia had encountered Sewell, another one of her former disciples. For five hundred years, he had desperately clung to life, hoping to one day see her again. He’d wormed his way into the royal family of a distant kingdom under the assumed name Lewis as he searched for her reincarnation.