CANNA returns a short while later with the manor’s servants in tow.
At a quick glance, there’s about ten. That seems to be about everyone I’ve kidnapped. Yep, I’ve sure got a problem, making off with ten people by age fifteen.
And see, everyone looks paler than a ghost. Their expressions are grim and tormented… They must be angry. Yeah, I get how they feel. But, uh, what now? Could this be a Bad Ending where they take their revenge on me here and now?
The Grand Magi killed by the people she abducted before the saint ever gets to her. Now that’s a real disgrace to the Grand Magi name!
I’m shaking in my boots when Canna comes forward.
“Lady Elle, I called upon every servant you brought from Gaea.”
“Y-You’ve done well to come here today,” I say through quivering lips. “There are some things I must tell you first—”
“Lady Elle! Please do not say you are going to send us back to Gaea! We will do anything to stay!”
“Say what…?”
I had been trying to apologize, holding on to the measly hope that they might forgive me, but the words of a middle-aged servant stop me short.
How do I interpret that? They don’t wanna go home?
His plea is followed by the other servants’ desperate begging to not be sent away. They launch into long-winded stories about their lives even though I didn’t ask.
After hearing them out, I realize every single person I whisked away from Gaea had lost their families, jobs, and everything dear to them like Canna had, and were taken away from dire circumstances by me.
Yes, I had kidnapped people with the best of intentions.
I know what I did was really arbitrary and disruptive, but I abducted them believing they would be happier living here. That’s why I always chose unfortunate people who looked unhappy at a glance.
But my selection process was based on little more than gut instinct, which meant I abducted on impulse, not because I knew about their woes. I simply snatched up whoever I came across that looked down in the dumps… My instincts, however, seemed to have been spot on.
“Um, lemme get this straight. You’ll all stay with me…? You aren’t mad at me?” I double-check after hearing each servant’s story. They break out into watery smiles and nod repeatedly. “Thank goodness!”
I accidentally let my true feelings slip out with a smile, causing the servants to react with “Lady Elle’s so cute!” “Too cute!” and “I’ll happily die for Lady Elle.”
Thank goodness I’m cute! Is this that “law of cuteness” I often heard about in my past life coming into effect for me? I’m so lucky…! It’s not too late for me yet. I can still avoid my fate as the first Grand Magi slain by Saint Aela!
I’ve received forgiveness from the people I kidnapped, so yeah, I’ll stop snatching people left and right. Luckily, I somehow managed to pick only miserable people, but there’s no guarantee it would stay that way.
As it stands, it’s Elle’s kidnapping spree escalating to abducting entire villages that brings Saint Aela’s wrath down on her.
…I don’t wanna die. Worst of all, my death won’t be mourned, but mocked as a disgrace!
Agh, but Analia is currently at war with Gaea, so as long as I’m a member of the Grand Magi, I’ll be stuck fighting Gaea’s saint at some point…?
Hmm. Meh. I’ll think about it more later. Today exhausted me, and I’m hungry.
Relieved to have evaded the first big obstacle leading to my eventual death, I seek out some warm baked sweets from the kitchens.
✦ ✦ ✦
SEVERAL days have passed since my past life’s memories invaded my mind. My relationship with Canna and the other servants is excellent now, and Canna is currently combing out my hair for the morning. It feels so nice.
Those foreign memories confused me at times, but I’ve gotten used to them now. Though I call them memories from my past life, they’re full of nothing but the scenes from my favorite manga. I think I went to high school, but all that daily stuff is a vague blur. Probably has something to do with me thinking about the story right before I died.
While my memories related to everything but the manga are sparse, there’s enough there to make me vaguely aware of how strange this kingdom is.
I mean, it’s got a few—okay, fine, it has a lot—of oddities to it…I think?
“Lady Elle, you will be dining with Lord Julius Eldorad Griffith today,” Canna cheerfully informs me in the middle of my brooding.
“Oh, that’s today? Dinner with Julius…”
“It certainly is, milady.”
Julius is a member of the Four Grand Magi like me. But we haven’t said a single thing to each other before. Granted, that might be more because I only recently joined the Grand Magi, and Julius is the most powerful of the Four and someone not just anyone can see.
But I know a lot about him. More like everyone in Analia knows of him.
I mean, he’s the strongest sorcerer among the Grand Magi and is reputed to have godly good looks and a dreamy face. Before I regained my memories, I had a tiny crush on him.
But I feel nothing positive toward him now. How could I, when he’s going to call me the disgrace of the Grand Magi when I die?! Me, his fiancée if only in name!
Granted, Analia has absolutely no concept of love, and marriage partners are chosen by the Demon Lord based on the couple’s magic and strength affinity.
So manga Julius likely didn’t love Elle at all. I get it. It’s only the natural course of things for this world. Still, I won’t stand for it.
Besides, I don’t want Julius of all people to call me the disgrace of the Grand Magi! He’s the one who gets saved by the heroine of the manga in the last half and ends up falling in love at first sight with her. He didn’t know his savior was Saint Aela, but even after he discovers the truth, he continues to love her until he eventually changes sides to join Gaea.
Yep, he’s basically a traitor.
Wouldn’t that make him more of a disgrace than me?!
Elle dies fulfilling her duties in battle, but you betray the Grand Magi! Who’s the real disgrace here, huh?! It’s you! Isn’t that right?!
“L-Lady Elle, is something troubling you?” Canna asks, worry in her voice.
The fury coiling in my belly had me huffing and harrumphing
“It’s nothing. I was just getting worked up thinking about a buncha stuff,” I say and have Canna bring out a dinner-party dress.
✦ ✦ ✦
DINNER with Julius is happening now.
Julius and I sit at a claw-footed round table with seats for four. I steal a peek at him as I eat a spread of Analia’s specialty: nasty food that reeks worse than the strongest medicine.
To my dismay, he’s spitefully beautiful. Perfect blond hair without a single strand out of place falls in just the right places around his piercing blue eyes. His flawless white skin reminds me of a porcelain doll, and though he looks slender at first, finely chiseled muscles push against his starched shirt.
He’s a genius who had total possession of the title of Analia’s strongest sorcerer at twenty-two. Classiness exudes from him as he elegantly dines with a fork and knife.
I’ll acknowledge it frankly: he’s as cool as they say. I raise my glass in genuine approval of the fine specimen of handsomeness in front of me.
I was very fond of his character in the manga, too. Julius, the cruel villain who falls in love for the first time with the enemy kingdom’s saint. I even cheered on his heartrending feelings.
But that was the me of the past.