We continued to chat until we had more or less exhausted our supply of stories. We covered the time between my first encounter with the Voices of the Gods to the ball in late autumn, when what was supposed to have been a battle against the Witch of Yore ended with the Goddess of Creation begging on her knees. We also reminisced on the Festival of Gratitude at the royal palace, which was the day I had to say goodbye to my two friends for quite some time.
“Dang, a lot happened, huh?” Lady Kobayashi said.
Lord Endo, Lieselotte, and I nodded firmly. There really had been a whirlwind of events leading to this auspicious day.
“Oh, I was wondering,” Lord Endo said. “What happened after we lost the ability to see into this world? Were there any big changes?”
“Ah, yes,” I said. “I believe the first major event was Miss Fiene and Baldur’s formal engagement. It was right after the late autumn ball.”
“Oh, we heard about that!” Lady Kobayashi said. “From Liese-tan—or the Liese-tan doll, I guess? Well, it really was Liese-tan!”
It wasn’t the surprised reaction I was expecting. A Lieselotte doll...?
Before I could inquire about the doll, Lord Endo said, “It happened quickly, huh? I thought it’d take longer with those two... Well, mainly Fiene. She has a pretty complicated situation because of her trauma, so it wouldn’t have been surprising if she wasn’t ready for a while.”
His response gave rise to a new question.
“Fiene...has trauma?” Lieselotte appeared to have picked up on the same word as me. She looked extremely serious, likely because she was concerned about her younger sister.
“Hey, Aoto, should we tell them?” Lady Kobayashi asked.
“I think it’s fine if it’s them,” Lord Endo said. “Actually, I think it’s better if they know.”
“Oh, maybe. It seems like Lirenna’s the only one in this world who knows everything, but she’s pretty useless. She was saying she didn’t know what to do about it.”
The two briefly exchanged eye contact as they spoke.
Finally, Lady Kobayashi seemed to have made up her mind. “Um, Lirenna told us that Fiene’s trauma is related to her life as Eve.”
Eve was the mother of our world’s human race. On the day of the ball, we had learned that Fiene was her reincarnation.
“Eve watched her husband, Adam—the father of humankind—get killed right in front of her eyes by the evil god Kuon, who was in love with her,” Lord Endo said. “What’s more, Baldur’s the reincarnation of that murdered husband.”
“Oh my,” Lieselotte said.
“Baldur...” I murmured, shocked.
That the two had reunited and come to love each other again was indeed a touching story of fate. However, in their past lives they had experienced a horrible tragedy. One was murdered, leaving his beloved behind, while the other watched her beloved die in front of her eyes. How much pain had been inflicted on their hearts and souls?
Lieselotte and I gulped, unable to say anything.
Lady Kobayashi made an awkward expression. “Lirenna said it’s ’cause of the trauma that Fiene sought power and became as strong as she is now. Well, she also said Fiene’s starting stats in the game were low for balance reasons. That, and Kuon’s condescending mindset. He figured a cute girl could only be so strong.”
“Even the gods were surprised by how maxed-out Fiene’s stats were, and it’s all because Eve’s wishes manifested in her,” Lord Endo said. “She thought, ‘I want to protect him this time. I don’t want to let him die. If we meet again, I swear we’ll survive together.’ When I heard this story, I felt bad for calling Fiene a gorilla.”
“Yeah.” Lady Kobayashi smiled weakly at Lord Endo, then cleared her throat. “Well, anyway, that’s how much Fiene’s been influenced by Eve. Lirenna was worried she might be afraid of loving someone, and that she might wanna distance herself from Bal in particular, since he’s Adam’s reincarnation and extra special to her.”
“The love of her life was murdered before her eyes,” Lieselotte said. “That could certainly make one feel hesitant to love again. Since Kuon killed Adam out of jealousy, she must think her beloved wouldn’t have died if he hadn’t loved her.” She sounded deeply sympathetic.
I nodded. That must be one of the reasons those two had second thoughts for a while despite clearly loving each other. It had been especially strange because their family circumstances made it so they could have gotten engaged much earlier.
Lady Kobayashi sighed. “That’s why I dunno if we should tell them or not. Telling them might provoke trauma, but knowing it’s okay now that Kuon’s sealed could assuage their fears. Lirenna couldn’t decide either. She thinks if Fiene’s lost the memory of her beloved husband being killed before her eyes, she’ll be happier staying that way. In that sense, jostling her memories and making her remember might be a bad idea.”
“They’d also feel pretty awkward if we just went, ‘You guys were married in a past life!’” Lord Endo added.
Well, it’s true. That aspect probably won’t be an issue now that they’re engaged, though.
“For now,” I said, “unless something happens—or one of them expresses their doubts—I don’t think you need to tell them. You wouldn’t want to bring back painful memories.”
“Since Baldur is with her now, I think Fiene would be fine even if she remembered,” Lieselotte said. “I’m sure those two would be able to overcome it. However, I agree there’s no need to push them into confronting it. If Fiene is feeling anxious when it comes time to get married, then we can disclose the reason and give her the encouragement she needs to get over it, I think.”
It took some meandering, but Lieselotte and I ended up with the same conclusion: maintain the status quo. There was no need to poke a sleeping dragon. If Fiene was very afraid of love, then we would have to reassure her by telling her the evil god was sealed. However, she didn’t seem to have reached that point yet.
“That’s true,” Lady Kobayashi said. “She agreed to the engagement even without us saying a thing! We’ll continue keeping it under wraps for now!” She smiled cheerfully and leaned closer to us, eager to move on to the next topic now that her worries had been assuaged. “Hey, Liese-tan, you talked a bit about it before, but do you know anything more specific about what it was like when those two got engaged?”
Lieselotte looked up at the sky, searching her memories. “Yes, Fiene and Baldur both reported it to me. I was told they had gone to the theater that day. It was a slightly upper-class one that also serves as a social venue for the nobility. There, they...”
────
“Sir Bal, I’m starting to think it’d be better if I got some experience with upper-class settings before going to the Festival of Gratitude at the royal palace,” Fiene said.
“Would you like to go to the theater with me, then?” Baldur asked. “It’ll give you the opportunity to have friendly conversation with whoever’s present before the curtain rises, but the main event is simply watching the show. There’s a formal dress code, but no one’s going to ask you to dance, so you can take it easy. Also...it’s a classic place to go on a date.”
“Compared to our usual dates, which consist of hunting animals and training at the mountains behind the school, the difference is probably going to make me dizzy, huh?”
The day after that conversation, Baldur brought Fiene to the theater for an evening play. It was a romantic drama that was currently popular with young women. Because of that, several of the people they exchanged greetings with were familiar faces from school.
Even so, Fiene was clearly very nervous, so Baldur wrapped up the socializing a little early and led her to their seats. They sat side by side on the sofa in the box, which he had reserved by using House Riefenstahl’s name.
After a few moments, Baldur muttered, “Honestly, I was surprised.”
“Huh?” Fiene tilted her head. “What was surprising? Oh, did I make some kind of mistake?”
“No, it’s the opposite. You didn’t make any mistakes at all. In fact, you greatly surpassed my expectations.” Baldur’s expression was serious.
Fiene gave an exasperated sigh. “Don’t you think it’s rude to call that surprising? I was raised by the Fae Princess, and Lieselotte has made sure my etiquette is up to par. I can do pretty well if I switch to pretend-princess mode.”
“Oh, no, I wasn’t particularly concerned about that. You have strong core muscles, so I knew your curtsies would be smoother than any other young lady.”
Fiene pressed her hand to her forehead as though she had a headache. “This is the problem with muscleheads. They dole out compliments without thinking... Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Well, what was surprising, then?”