Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? Chapter 111

“But you tried to make that go wrong. You shouldn’t have done that.”

“……”

“That’s why I was only trying to put things back the way they were. Why do you think it’s called a prophecy book? It’s called that because if those things don’t happen, the world will go off course and fall apart……”

At that moment, Ehit’s laughter came from beside me.

Sonya, who had been speaking leisurely while looking at me, suddenly furrowed her brows.

“Why are you laughing, Colonel?”

“Just because. I was wondering how such a prophecy book could exist.”

“I definitely received it. Since you’ve already brought me here and arrested me, you must be investigating my house and shop by now. You’ll find that book soon, too.”

“I’m not questioning whether the book exists.”

“Then what exactly are you trying to say?”

“It’s just that calling it a ‘prophecy book’ seems a little strange. I can’t really understand it.”

“That book clearly contained things that had to happen.”

“Let’s say that’s true. But hasn’t the future already changed?”

“……”

“Since the things you’re talking about never happened, the future that followed them has already disappeared, hasn’t it? So I don’t understand why you went around committing those terrible acts just to force things to fit.”

Ehit was right.

The moment I, a character in that book, learned about the ‘future’ Sonya knew, the foundation of everything had already changed.

I had spent countless hours worrying and suffering because I was afraid the future from the original story would unfold exactly as written, but most of those things had eventually become events that never happened.

As Ehit spoke, Sonya’s face grew more and more rigid. She remained silent, but the calm composure on her face was gradually disappearing.

Then, as if she could no longer hold back, Sonya murmured coldly.

“Don’t speak so arrogantly. The future that has been decided must not be changed. If you change the future like that……”

Her voice had been rising with excitement, but then she stopped.

She continued, barely suppressing her anger.

“Everything gets messed up because your family changes the future over trivial things like that.”

Her voice was filled with cold anger.

“Because you act with the arrogant belief that it’s nothing important and that you can change the future whenever you want, all that chaos happens.”

For some reason, there was even sadness in her voice.

Sonya muttered a curse and fell silent. And until the interrogation time in the room was over, she did not say another word.

 

 

****

 

 

 

 

When we came out of the Investigation Bureau, a man was waiting in front of us.

An officer with orange hair. Mendel Ritterner.

“I’m sorry.”

The moment Mendel saw us, he bowed his head.

After hearing the fortune-teller Sonya Ritterner’s name, I had already guessed.

Mendel Ritterner, the officer who had been in Ehit’s fleet.

He shared the same family name as someone who had been kind to me several times.

Mendel told Ehit and me everything he knew.

He said it was part of his atonement.

Regardless of whether I could accept his words as atonement, I was able to better understand what Sonya had meant.

‘Everything gets messed up because your family changes the future over trivial things like that.’

Those words.

 

 

****

It had already been more than twenty years ago, but apparently, Sonya and Mendel’s mother, Heria Ritterner, had worked for the Cloyden family back then.

“I was young, so my memories are pretty hazy now, but I don’t think that was the case for Sonya. She was already old enough to understand and remember everything.”

It seemed that Heria often told her children stories about the Cloyden family.

She told them like old tales, using the other name, the ‘Ashula Ducal Family,’ but Mendel said that both he and Sonya knew they were stories about the Cloyden family.

“My older sister, I mean Sonya, seems to have had a lot of fantasies about Cloyden back then. She was always begging our mother to take her to the Ashula Ducal Family.”

The incident happened one day when the people of Cloyden had left the mansion for several days.

Heria took advantage of that opportunity and decided to give Sonya a tour of the ducal estate. She had felt sorry for Sonya, who always wanted to visit the Cloyden mansion.

“How did she give her a tour?”

“She disguised her as a maid and took her inside. Since the owner of the mansion wasn’t there anyway, and many of the servants didn’t know one another, she probably thought she could get away with it.”

The tour itself went well.

Many servants had accompanied the ducal family to serve them or do odd jobs, so the mansion was even quieter than usual. It must have been easier to avoid people’s eyes, too.

Besides, there were still two days before the people of the Cloyden family would return.

Heria felt even more at ease and showed her daughter around the vast estate until nightfall.

“The Duchess has returned.”

So when the bell suddenly rang that night to announce the Duchess’s return, it was easy to imagine how startled Heria must have been.

“I think Sonya believed the Duchess had returned early because she had seen the future through Precognition. She thought it had happened because someone had changed the future that was supposed to be set.”

“If that was the case……”

Mendel paused for a moment, as if gathering his thoughts, and then continued.

Since the Duchess had suddenly returned, Heria had to hide Sonya somewhere. If they were caught bringing in someone without permission, they would obviously be thrown out immediately.

The place the two of them hid in was the annex.

It was the last of the five buildings at the Cloyden residence in the capital, a building that was rarely used at the time.

“Apparently, there was some kind of strange magical device in the room they entered. A mirror that showed illusions.”

Ehit and I looked at each other as we listened to Mendel’s story. He was talking about the mirror in the room where I had been trapped.

I recalled the moment I had looked into that mirror.

The feeling of sinking into endless, deep, black water. And the illusions and visions that had appeared before my eyes.

Ehit said that if it had been about twenty years ago, the device must have been left somewhere in the mansion, rather than being tightly hidden away in a secret room like it was when I entered.

But that object had been said to be extremely dangerous.

‘It’s a relief you weren’t trapped in that illusion.’

‘Were there people who got trapped?’

‘That’s why they put it in a room like that.’

Looking back now, the sensation that had wrapped around my body at the time, the feeling of being lifted out of those deep waters, might have been the divine power I possessed.

In other words, I had been lucky, but that didn’t mean everyone could escape those illusions without anything happening to them.

“Our mother saw the illusion through that mirror and went mad.”

His voice was calm, as if it were already a distant memory, but there was sadness beneath it.

“Sonya thought it was all because of Cloyden. She believed that if the Duchess hadn’t known the future and changed it, none of that would have happened.”

I remembered Sonya’s eyes as she said that what was meant to happen had to happen.

Her eyes had been firm, as if she believed it was the law and order the world had to preserve.

Mendel looked at me.

“I don’t think Sonya hated you, Lady Alietta.”

“……”

“It’s just that, from that moment on, Sonya had always believed that a foretold future must never be changed. Then, about one or two years ago, she obtained a book she called a ‘prophecy book.’ It seems that the book said you would be killed by the Colonel, Lady Alietta, and that the Colonel would die later as well.”

Ehit’s brow furrowed. He had already heard this during Sonya’s interrogation, but it still seemed to be something he did not like hearing.

“Sonya said the contents of that prophecy book had to come true. She said it was like a divine revelation from God. I told her that she believed it because of her hatred for Cloyden, but she didn’t seem willing to listen.”

As Mendel said, I thought Sonya’s belief that the prophecy had to come true might have been driven by her desire to take revenge on Cloyden.

Perhaps she wanted to ease her guilt by blaming the things she intended to do on a prophecy from God.

“When Sonya asked me to help her, I knew it was something I shouldn’t do, but I couldn’t bring myself to refuse. Since that day, Sonya had been the one who had to take our mother’s place. To me, she is both a sibling and a parent.”

After saying that much, Mendel paused for a moment.

Did that mean Mendel had helped her in some way, too? He always seemed cheerful and playful, so I couldn’t even imagine what he might have done.

As I was thinking about it, Mendel spoke to me.

“Lady Alietta, during the first battle in the Northern Strait……”

“Yes?”

“When we went to the ship behind us, I cut the rope because of the pirate attack. I told you to go to the safer ship farther back.”

I knew exactly when he was talking about.

Back then, a huge wave had crashed over us, and I had nearly died before I could even reach the ship behind us, but I had barely survived.

“The truth is, I could have handled things differently without cutting the rope.”

“What do you mean……?”

“It’s true that we were attacked by pirates then. But there was only one of them. I could have defeated that person and helped you aboard, or I could have gone back down to the ship and accompanied you to the one behind us.”

Mendel, who had been speaking calmly the whole time, clenched his teeth.

“But I didn’t do that. I couldn’t stop thinking about Sonya’s words that she would survive only if you disappeared, Lady Alietta. But I couldn’t bring myself to do it with my own hands, so I simply left you to the waves.”

Mendel bowed his head once again.

“I’m sorry.”

After finishing his story, Mendel walked into the Investigation Bureau on his own.