Translated: Blushy
Editor: SenjiQ
Prompted by Isma, Cordelia curtsied lightly at Earl Clydereine while smiling.
“I am the fourth child of Elvis Pameradia, Cordelia Enna Pameradia. I am pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Earl Clydereine’s face distorted slightly because he had compared Cordelia’s greeting to Shelley’s. But Shelley spoke before the Earl could reply.
“You―――.”
“It’s been a while, Shelley-san.”
“Why are you―――? I definitely won’t lose!!”
“… Huh?”
Cordelia tilted her head at the sudden declaration.
For a second, she thought it was because of her greeting, but judging from Shelley’s threatening attitude, that didn’t seem to be the case. Isma and Earl Clydereine looked at Shelley in surprise, but she didn’t notice their gazes and revealed her hostility towards Cordelia.
“I know because I saw it in my dreams! You’re willing to do anything just so His Highness would look at you, right? Don’t you feel ashamed chasing after His Highness for so long?”
Cordelia widened her eyes at Shelley’s sudden remarks.
It was difficult for Cordelia to understand what Shelley had said since reality was different, but Shelley hadn’t recognised her as important before.
“Shelley-san, what do you mean?”
“Don’t act like we’re friends!”
“I’m sorry, but I’ve rarely met with His Highness. I’ve met the young ladies who come to the Queen’s tea parties more times than I’ve met him.”
Cordelia had only started visiting the castle, and it was easy to tell that Shelley’s statement was wrong. At least, Earl Clydereine should know that what Shelley had stated was different from fact. Still, she would be troubled if someone misunderstood because they had heard that and spread rumours about her, so she firmly denied Shelley’s accusations.
However, Shelley didn’t stop.
“You’re lying. You’ll definitely get in my way! Even now, you’re desperately trying to get into His Highness’s good graces, aren’t you?! If you have free time, then you go to see His Highness, even though you’re bothering him!”
“Even if you say I go to see him… As I said earlier, I’ve only met His Highness twice. The first time was by chance, and he summoned me the second time, so we haven’t met in private.”
“But, you appeared in my dreams…!”
Cordelia clicked her tongue inside of her mind at the word ‘dreams’.
(It’s useless. She doesn’t listen to anything that relates to her dreams.)
But weren’t her dreams infallible? It would be acceptable if she was talking about the future, but I don’t go to see Sylvester-sama right now. Her dreams have already made a mistake.
“Even though you saw it in a dream, it’s not very pleasant to be falsely accused,” Isma said, and Earl Clydereine looked slightly bitter.
“She’s been busy the past few days, so she might have been imagining things because she’s tired. Shelley, we’re going home.”
“But Otou-sama!”
“That’s enough, we’re leaving. Excuse us.”
After the two of them were out of sight, Isma sighed and shrugged.
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, I was just a little surprised.”
Yes, I was just surprised at first.
But she couldn’t laugh and lie when she remembered Shelley’s words, since the Cordelia who Shelley was talking about was like the in-game 『Cordelia』.
(What does this mean?)
It’s impossible to ask Shelley about it.
If so, the only hint that comes to mind is the story of the first Saint that Clarice-sama was talking about in the Big Bookcase; the diary of the evangelist. Their diary might not mention anything, but that’s the only clue I can come up with now.
“Can you keep this a secret from father? It’ll probably become a hassle if he finds out.”
“Okay. Earl Clydereine also looked like he knew that what she said wasn’t true, so I don’t have to worry about it spreading straight away.”
“Yeah. Earl Clydereine knows that you don’t visit His Highness… or rather, he should know that you’re not a queen candidate anymore, so he should know better than anyone that you don’t go to see His Highness. That girl says strange things.”
Even though Isma had said that, Cordelia felt that he was a bit irritated. His voice was calm, but it was also sharp. However, she couldn’t think of anything to say to him, and only wanted to get to the Big Bookcase as quickly as possible.
◊♦◊♦◊♦◊
Cordelia met with Ronnie at once after she separated from Isma at the Big Bookcase, then she headed to the corner where the books on the Saint were gathered alone. The story about the Saint was popular as plays and wasn’t just a part of history, so there were more scripts than actual facts.
Among those scripts, the book that Cordelia was looking for had a plain binding and was stuffed in the bookshelf.
“Found it.”
Cordelia pulled out the book that only had『Evangelist』written on the cover, and turned the pages on the spot.
Now that she had the book in her hand, she felt like it was a waste to move to a chair.
『This is a record written for me. So, I’ll write in it diligently.』
The diary, which began with an informal sentence, seemed to be a copy of the Evangelist’s diary.
The sinister end of the Saint that Ghost talked about, and Shelley, the girl rumoured to be the second coming of the Saint, and her misguided dream. Even if Shelley didn’t have as much power as the Saint, Cordelia might be able to find a hint to that power in this diary.
The diary, which was written in the ancient language, was a little hard to read, but she could still read it.
The diary began with when the Evangelist’s met the First King. If what they wrote was true, then the Evangelist teased the First King a lot. It seemed relatively disrespectful.
Aside from that, a woman who seemed like the 『Saint』suddenly appeared in the Evangelist’s diary. There were no specific descriptions, but one day, the word 『Mysterious Woman』suddenly appeared more frequently in the journal. After that, the word 『Mysterious Woman』eventually changed to『Dreamer』and『Saint』.
They wrote their impressions on the 『Saint』such as she dreamt that a calamity fell on the First King in her dreams, so she took countermeasures and become one of the founders of this kingdom; this was also written about in history books. As for the personality of the Saint, they wrote that she was a calm woman who put others before herself, and didn’t seem human. This could be interpreted as them respecting the Saint and worrying for her as a comrade. Cordelia could tell that they were good comrades. They also wrote a lot of personal things such as what they ate for the day, and what they did in town.
However, the second half of the diary was dark.
Cordelia thought that the Evangelist wasn’t going to write about the Saint for a while, but the next time they did, the content was completely different from the previous entries.
『It might be better if the Saint doesn’t mention her dreams anymore.』
After that short sentence, entries about the Saint stopped again.
Then, the Saint was mentioned again a month later.
That entry was written in a language older than the ancient language. Cordelia needed a dictionary to decipher the entry, so she carried a dictionary and the diary with her to a nearby table. The translations weren’t accurate, but she roughly understood what the Evangelist had written.
(I wonder if they wrote it in an older language than what was used back then because they didn’t want others to read it.)
And, as if to support her guess, the words the Evangelist wrote out weren’t positive.
『Recently, the Saint has only been making predictions about herself. I’m not going to say my opinions, no matter how she uses her powers. Rather, I think it’s strange that she hasn’t used her powers for herself until now. However, it sounds as if she’s purposely trying to trick people, since her predictions sound too erratic and inconsistent.』
Is this the beginning of『The ominous end of the Saint』that Ghost was talking about?
Cordelia felt nervous as she continued reading while being careful not to mistranslate anything.
After that, the Evangelist wrote in the same characters again after several days.
『At first she had said that her power was for making ‘people’ happy. But did she include herself in ‘people’? 』
『Of course, they may not be impossible futures. However, those broken logic predictions also seem like she’s escaping, since she can’t accept the reality. ‘I saw a future I didn’t want to see, so I want to pick at the seeds of anxiety,’ she says as she closes her eyes to reality.』
『The people that she has saved still only think of her as the Saint. However, the sounds of friction have started.』
『She made a lot of people happy. Therefore, she should let go of her power and be happy.』
『Her treatment has been decided. They will tell people that she is resting because of a disease.』
Cordelia didn’t know what the Saint’s dream was nor what she had wanted because the Evangelist hadn’t written this down. However, 『what the Saint wanted』wasn’t important to Cordelia.
The important thing was: that the Saint hadn’t seen a dream about what she wanted, that there were people who suffered inconveniences because of her predictions, and the situation became so complicated that it was hard for her comrades to protect her. But, the most important thing was ―――.