——In the next run... So long as I get another chance... none of you will die.
To begin with, it was never Ilya’s secret. What Liselotte chose to make of her brother’s final message was entirely up to her, and Ilya had no intention of guiding her toward any particular conclusion.
All he could do was tell her exactly what he had heard and leave the rest for her to piece together.
Liselotte remained silent after hearing everything he had to say. She tapped a finger lightly against her chin as she sorted through every detail instead of rushing to a conclusion, and after several moments, she finally looked back at him.
"So... you’re telling me that Brother Siegfried is... somehow... immortal?"
"I don’t believe I ever said that, Your Imperial Highness."
"Liselotte," she corrected with a smile. "Please, call me Liselotte."
"...."
Ilya looked at her for a moment before letting out a breath. The insistence was strangely familiar, reminding him of another Bismarck who had stubbornly demanded the very same thing.
It seemed the Imperial siblings shared more than just the same surname.
"...Very well. Liselotte."
He shook his head.
"You’re free to interpret my words however you wish, but isn’t immortality rather far outside the scope of what I told you?"
"I’m not saying he’s immortal," Liselotte replied. "I’m saying... perhaps Brother is still alive somewhere... just not in this reality..."
For the first time since the conversation began, Ilya nearly raised an eyebrow.
The notion should have been impossible. This world had no concept of regressors or parallel realities, yet from nothing more than Ilya’s account, Liselotte had somehow arrived at almost the same conclusion he had reached.
Even if she lacked the terminology to describe it, the direction of her reasoning was alarmingly close.
"Could it have been... time magic?" Liselotte murmured. "If that’s the case... perhaps the condition for activating the spell is Brother’s death... That would explain why he threw himself into danger... because he already knew dying wasn’t truly the end."
Ilya remained silent, allowing her train of thought to continue uninterrupted. After all, she was the one piecing together the puzzle from pieces that should never have fit together in the first place.
Even he found himself curious to see where her reasoning would lead.
"Is time magic even possible?"
"It is," Liselotte answered with a nod. "Time magic already exists, although only in very limited forms. Self-repairing pendants are popular among nobles, pocket watches enchanted to never lose a second are considered luxury items, and there are even preservation boxes that slow the passage of time for whatever is stored inside them."
She paused before shaking her head.
"But magic that directly affects a living person... I’ve never heard of such a thing... At least, not in any historical records..."
Then, her eyes widened.
"...Unless it wasn’t created in this era."
Ilya looked at her without interrupting.
"If Brother came from a distant future..." Liselotte continued. "Then perhaps that kind of magic already existed in his time... He dies in that future... the spell fulfills its condition... and he returns... not just to another place, but to this very era..."
She fell silent once more, staring blankly at the untouched meal before her.
"If that’s true..." she whispered. "Then the Brother I knew... may have already lived this life once before..."
"Wow..."
The Imperial Family’s education truly was no joke.
"Then..." Liselotte said, her fingers tightening around the edge of the table. "T-There might still be a way to reach him."
Ilya frowned. "How?"
"Like this."
Before he could process what she meant, Liselotte reached for the table knife beside her plate.
———!
Without even hesitating, she turned the blade toward herself and thrust it at her own neck, as though the thought had become conviction the instant it crossed her mind.
"Liselotte!"
Ilya moved before he even realized it himself. Ice spread from his fingertips, freezing the knife in place just before its tip reached Liselotte’s neck.
Only after everything had stopped did he realize how quickly his heart was beating.
Liselotte looked down at the knife caught in ice before slowly raising her eyes to him. She remained silent for a moment, scrutinizing the frost covering the blade as though something had suddenly clicked in her mind.
"...You’re a wizard?"
"I am."
He frowned immediately afterward, setting the frozen knife back onto the table before looking at her in disbelief.
"More importantly... what in the world were you trying to do?"
"I thought... if Brother truly returned after dying..." she said, sounding as though the conclusion were perfectly reasonable. "Then perhaps... if I died as well... I’d wake up wherever he is..."
"...."
Ilya stared at her in complete silence.
The Imperial Family’s education really was exceptional. But unfortunately, intelligence and common sense did not always go hand in hand.
Perhaps telling her the truth had been a mistake.
He had accounted for countless possibilities before revealing Siegfried’s final moments, yet somehow, the possibility of the Third Princess attempting to test the theory by stabbing herself had never crossed his mind.
Even for someone like Ilya, that line of reasoning was impossible to predict.
"...Don’t ever do that again."
Liselotte lowered her head without offering a single excuse.
"Yes. You have my apologies. That was rather... thoughtless of me."
An awkward silence settled between them.
After several moments, Liselotte glanced down at the untouched dishes covering the table before cautiously looking back at Ilya, as though nothing unusual had happened only moments earlier.
"...Should we start eating?"
* * *
After dinner, the two of them walked side by side through the capital’s broad avenues.
"You really didn’t have to accompany me home, Lord Ilya. I had attendants waiting nearby. They would have escorted me back safely."
"I figured Your—" Ilya stopped himself before correcting his words. "Ahem. You chose that pavilion because it was close to where you live. Most nobles wealthy enough to live independently purchase residences in the Highrise Quarter, don’t they?"
Liselotte slowly turned her head toward him.
"...Are you suggesting I was being lazy?"
"No."
"You answered that rather quickly."
"Because that’s not what I said."
Liselotte looked at him from the corner of her eye before letting out a hum. Whatever conclusion she arrived at, she merely nodded to herself instead of pressing the matter any further, a small smile gradually returning to her face.
"I believe you."
The two eventually came to a stop before the wrought-iron gates leading into the Highrise Quarter. Several attendants who had been waiting from a respectful distance immediately straightened upon noticing the Third Princess’s arrival, though none of them approached without her permission.
Liselotte turned to face him, her smile carrying far less of the playful teasing from earlier and far more genuine sincerity.
"Thank you, Lord Ilya, for accompanying me today... and for answering my questions. These past few weeks have been... difficult for both my family and me since Brother Siegfried’s passing..."
She lowered her gaze for a moment before looking back up at him.
"But today... you’ve given me something I thought I’d never have again." A gentle smile bloomed across her face. "Hope. Hope that... perhaps... somewhere out there... I may see my brother again..."
Ilya remained silent.
He couldn’t tell her that her conclusion was correct, nor could he tell her that it was wrong. The only thing he knew was that Siegfried’s final words had never sounded like those of a man bidding farewell forever, and perhaps that alone was enough to keep her moving forward.
"...I hope so as well."
Liselotte’s smile reached her eyes.
"Then... until we meet again, Lord Ilya."
"Until we meet again, Liselotte."
Just as Liselotte was about to leave, Ilya called out to her once more. There was still one matter he had yet to bring up, despite having intended to do so from the beginning.
Whether it would amount to anything anymore was impossible to know, and although he had no idea what had become of Helene, there was still one thing he wanted to do before it was too late.
"Liselotte."
She paused and looked back over her shoulder.
"Yes?"
"May I ask you for a favor?"
"If it’s within my capabilities, certainly. Although, if you’re about to ask for my body just because we shared a meal together, I’m afraid I’ll have to decline—"
"Could I ask you to mobilize a group of men?"
"Eh?" She tilted her head. "...I beg your pardon?"
"A group of trustworthy men," Ilya clarified. "The fewer people who know about it, the better."
"Oh, my..."
Liselotte stared at him in silence, seemingly processing the request one word at a time. Then, for reasons known only to herself, a rather peculiar expression slowly spread across her face.
"...I was under the impression that Lord Ilya preferred women."
"...?"