“…I…”
I reached out as well, but my hand was trembling too much to take his.
That was when King Glenreed got a pained, sorrowful look in his eyes.
“…I know I’m asking something awful of you. Here I’ve pressured you to take my hand for the good of this country and its people, all while I know you have a man in your homeland that your heart yearns for.”
“…Uh?” I accidentally let out a very inelegant response to His Majesty’s words.
A man in my homeland I yearn for? I couldn’t imagine who he was talking about.
“You don’t need to hide it anymore. I already know. His name is Jiro, isn’t it?”
“Excuse me?!”
What did he just say?! Who exactly does he think Jiro is?!
“N-No!! Jiro is—”
“There’s no need to lie. Your feelings for Jiro are—”
“Jiro is a dog! An adorable Shiba Inu!! He’s not a person!!” I shouted with all my might.
“…He’s a what?” King Glenreed seemed to completely freeze up. “But…you’re always calling his name so longingly…”
“You’ve misunderstood! Those are normal emotions toward my beloved dog!!” I could hardly believe how badly he’d confused things.
The king stiffly wrenched his lips apart to speak. “…No, wait a minute. I had you and your family investigated before you came here to be my queen, but they never came across any dog named Jiro.”
“That’s because…”
It was only natural. I’d loved that dog in my past life, before I reincarnated into this world. As I tried to figure out how to explain this, I realized something.
Keeping secrets is wrong.
That was one of the reasons I’d hesitated to take King Glenreed’s hand. All this time, I’d never once opened up to anyone about my past life. I didn’t want to upset people, nor did I think they’d believe me in the first place.
While I didn’t think that was the wrong decision, if I wanted to keep walking the same path in life as King Glenreed…
I shouldn’t keep such a big secret from him. That was the honest opinion I arrived at.
“…I don’t know if you’ll believe me…” My voice was shaking. I’m so scared. I don’t want to do this.
I didn’t think King Glenreed would refute me before I gave my explanation…
But I was still so terrified when I imagined him rejecting me.
“Laetitia?”
I mustered up whatever courage I could, and then I revealed my secret to him. “Jiro was the name of my pet dog, one I had in Japan long before I was born.”
“Before you were born? ‘In Japan’…?”
“Yes. That was my past life.” I finally brought my eyes back up to look at King Glenreed. “You might not believe me, but I have memories of a life I lived before this one.”
It was the greatest confession of my life. His answer came in the form of…
“?!”
A glint of light came out of nowhere.
And then…
“I see. So you’re someone who needs to die.”
King Glenreed’s blade was pointed straight at my exposed neck.
“…!”
I gulped.
The blade was real. It wasn’t a prop.
King Glenreed was pointing his glinting, deadly sword at me.
“What…?”
I didn’t understand what was going on. Rational thoughts weren’t connecting in my head. All I could do, with my throat now dry as a bone, was call out his name.
“King Glenreed? Why…?”
He heard my hoarse cry, and the corners of his lips curled upwards.
No. Something else is going on. I can sense it.
This wasn’t King Glenreed at all.
“What…are you…?” I asked.
“‘What,’ you ask? Haha! You have sharp instincts.”
The thing taking the form of King Glenreed spoke to me. His smile was gentle, but frigid to its very core. This was the exact opposite of the King Glenreed I knew—a cold exterior hiding a warm heart underneath.
“My name is Silverio. Would it be easier to introduce myself as this country’s very first king?”
“Silverio…” I repeated the name, completely dumbfounded.
That was the name of the kingdom’s founder—long before Wolfvarte had taken its present-day form.
“What is someone who died ages ago doing here? Where’s King Glenreed?” I asked.
“How rude. Isn’t it obvious? I’m no different than you.”
My heart skipped a beat. My bones creaked. I squeezed my fists tight.
Silverio flashed me an elegant, inhuman smile. “I reincarnated. I have the same soul as King Glenreed, but from many generations ago.”
“You’re King Glenreed’s past life…?”
“Wrong. His past, past, past life, or even further back. I was the very first incarnation of my soul in this world.”
“Incarnation…”
The word had an inhuman sound to it. I shuddered. That bad feeling inside of me only got worse.
“Your hunch is correct. …All right, I think it’s time I fulfill my role.”
Fwish! I heard the sound of the blade cutting through air.
He swung the sword down and—
“Ngh…!”
There was no pain. Still holding the sword above me, Silverio—no, this was King Glenreed. His face was contorted in agony.
“King Glenreed?!”
“Nnngh, damn it…! Get away from me!!” He screamed at me, his entire body shaking.
I could practically see Silverio—his face so similar to King Glenreed’s—looming over the king’s body.
I froze. I couldn’t just leave King Glenreed behind and run away. But then…
“Enough. It’s not your time yet.”
“Argh!!”
Lord Featherio appeared.
I didn’t know where he’d come from, but he placed his hand on King Glenreed’s body and a faint glimmer of light appeared. The light grew stronger before disappearing, revealing Lord Featherio was now holding an elegant sword he didn’t have before.
“Lord Featherio! What are you doing…?!” I shouted as I steadied King Glenreed on his feet.
It was almost as if he couldn’t comprehend the situation either.
Lord Featherio looked at the sword, then at us. He nodded.
“I see. I’ll explain. I’m not good at this, so I will switch. …I’m sure you’re confused as well, but try to calm down and listen to everything I tell you, okay?”
“Huh? Lord Featherio? I didn’t know you could talk like that…”
I was completely bewildered by this new, fluent way of speaking.
“I’ll explain that too, so just listen for now. It all started six hundred years ago…”