Chapter 58. The Vanished Past

Iella returned to Ailexia’s body after spending three more days at the old woman’s house. Fortunately, she had already finished sending a message home the next day.

Thanks to this, unlike at the previous inn, Iella accepted the change with a somewhat more comfortable mind. She wasn’t greatly surprised like before. Rather, she seemed quite excited at the thought of returning quickly to share Ailexia’s whereabouts. After all, there wasn’t much time left until she returned to her original body for good.

Instead, it was Vanessa who was deeply disturbed by this change.

“Huuuung, I was so worried……”

Iella comforted Vanessa, who was hugging her tightly and sobbing. She had been like this for a full day and a half since the moment she returned.

From what she heard, after collapsing at the tea party, Ailexia had remained unconscious for a while, and after regaining consciousness, she had refused to let anyone into her bedroom and caused havoc.

Sharp sounds of things breaking and dull thuds of objects colliding continuously alternated from behind the firmly closed door, with Ailexia’s frantic screams interspersed between them.

But no one in the secondary palace was hurt or troubled. This time, even the Emperor had ordered that no one should enter the bedroom until Ailexia’s tantrum was completely over, and that nothing she requested, not even a sip of water, should be provided.

‘Still, everyone seems more afraid now.’

She had seen a maid turn pale when she went out to call Vanessa after waking up.

Since she had been worried about her poor acting before collapsing and had avoided facing anyone except Vanessa, she naturally hadn’t seen the servants behaving this way, so she wondered what had happened.

‘Well, fortunately they seem to think I’m the real Ailexia now.’

She had been worried they might be suspicious of her, but this incident seemed to have put those concerns to rest. She had left quite a strong impression.

Iella nodded and then detached Vanessa from her. She wiped her face, which was covered in snot and tears, with a tissue and handed her some water.

Vanessa caught her breath while obediently accepting her care.

“Because of the Emperor’s orders, I couldn’t check directly, but it was so obvious it wasn’t you that I contacted Nix. But I don’t know if he received the message since there was no reply… Ailexia kept throwing tantrums, and there were eyes watching, so I couldn’t go in against the Emperor’s orders… I thought I was going to go crazy.”

Vanessa’s face looked quite exhausted, as if the ordeal had been quite distressing.

Her bright and cheerful expression when she had told Iella she had entered the secondary palace to observe the protagonists up close as soon as she realized it was from the novel she had written had now darkened gloomily.

“Nothing bad happened. Rather, I gained a lot of necessary information.”

Iella comforted her with practiced ease. Vanessa, who had been blowing her nose vigorously with a tissue, looked up with her reddened nose and asked for a detailed explanation. Iella conveyed everything in detail, starting from the first moment she opened her eyes in her original body with the old woman, and also talked about the days she spent there.

“I think I stayed there for about three days before returning. During that time, I looked at the forest from near the fence, but I couldn’t go inside. That person also discouraged me, and I could often hear wild animals howling at night.”

Even in broad daylight, the inside of the forest was as dark as midnight. It was clearly visible even from the outside, and if one went inside, it would only be worse, not less so.

So she tried to examine the forest superficially at least nearby without going far, but had to give up. The old woman also strongly discouraged it, saying that someone unfamiliar with the forest might suffer needlessly if they entered. She added that Ailexia had been lucky to meet the old woman unharmed.

“Didn’t the old woman ever go into the forest?”

“No, she got food ingredients from there too… Huh?”

“Would it have been difficult to go in together? It would have been good to look around just the shallow perimeter, even if not going deep.”

However, Vanessa’s casual question gave Iella pause. As Iella’s voice trailed off while answering without much thought, Vanessa voiced her doubt.

“……So.”

Why hadn’t she thought of that? Iella pondered while agreeing with Vanessa’s words.

Was it because she didn’t want to burden the old woman further? But the old woman had gone to the forest once briefly in the meantime. Then she could have gone along at that time, so why had she simply stayed inside the house?

“I only thought I shouldn’t enter the forest.”

As if that idea alone had been deeply planted in her mind.

Seeing Iella confused, Vanessa, who had brought up the topic, became flustered and comforted her.

“You said it was dark. Maybe you were scared? Well, anyway, it’s fine since you found out roughly where it is! We were tracking Ailexia’s whereabouts, not trying to explore the forest, right?”

“That’s true.”

Since it wasn’t wrong, Iella accepted it. In fact, there was no point in thinking about it now. She had already returned to Ailexia’s body.

“Did you contact Nix?”

“Yes. I sent another message, but there’s still no reply… Ah. Finally.”

Just then, a bird flew to the window and pecked at the glass with its beak. At the light tapping sound, Vanessa got up, opened the window, and checked the note attached to the bird’s ankle.

“He says he’ll come within a few days. He’s asking if there’s urgent business to write briefly and send back?”

Since there was a limit to conveying content through notes, she had looked for him first as soon as she returned. But it seems she should have included the purpose when sending the first message.

Vanessa, who had given a handful of feed to the bird, returned with the note and a blank piece of paper. Iella took it and wrote down just the key points as concisely as possible.

After drying the ink well, she folded the note and approached the bird, which was resting after diligently eating and drinking water like its owner.

‘I wonder if the message sent from the forest arrived well?’

As she tied the note to the bird’s ankle, she recalled doing the same thing in the forest. If it had been sent well, it would have arrived by now.

Iella thought that perhaps Nix might hear this news from her father first, or in more detail, as she released the bird.

Soon, the bird with the note attached rose into the sky again.

* * *

Nix, who had been moving through the darkness as his path, stopped. As he turned around and went to the entrance of the alley, unlike the pitch-black inside, bright light was shining in a little from outside.

It was a light he once thought would never suit him.

‘There were such days.’

Abandoned by his parents and falling into the hands of a back-alley slave trader, every day was hell for him.

Not getting proper meals was commonplace, and his clothes, torn to rags, couldn’t even provide warmth. It was the harsh reality given to the weakest young slaves among slaves.

Whenever he thought he might die here, the peers who shared the room and despair disappeared one by one. They were being sold.

Sometimes he even wished to be sold first. He had thought there couldn’t be a worse cesspool than this. Looking back now, that was something to regret.

‘If I had been sold then, I would be living a different life now.’

Not long after, the slave trader was caught by knights. At the center of it was Viscount Shua. Nix grabbed him, who was about to send all the children, including himself, to an orphanage, and begged to be taken along.

Because he felt he could live a different life under the man who had ended his hell. He felt he could live a proper life.

Even after being freed from slavery, as a commoner, he would eventually serve someone. Even if he opened his own shop, he would have to serve a superior who accepted his deliveries, and he would have to bow his head to the lord of the territory.

If that was the case, it was better to bow to just one person for life. That’s what he thought then.

Of course, it wasn’t different now.

[“Does Iella remember when she was young?”]

Suddenly, the conversation he had with the Viscount last night came to mind. It was when he had stopped by the Viscount’s house while tracking Ailexia’s whereabouts.

The Viscount had asked him with a worried expression. Although he had answered no, he couldn’t completely shake off the worry. Nix fully understood that feeling.

‘It was quite a mess….’

He still remembered clearly. He had almost lost her at a place he had visited for Iella’s sake, so the Viscount, as her parent, must have been devastated. Moreover, she had developed trauma from it… The entire family had been in an uproar every day trying to comfort the young girl.

But at some point, she had suddenly lost her memory. The deeply concerned Viscount’s family faced an unexpected situation. Fortunately, the accident became as if it had never happened, and the trauma disappeared as well.

‘So it was buried. Thoroughly, to prevent her from ever recalling it.’

Since she rarely went out of the territory anyway, there would be no problem if only the family members kept quiet about it. That’s what they believed.

‘Who would have thought Miss would return to the imperial palace in this way.’

Hmm, Nix, letting out a groan, rubbed his forehead with his hand.

Miss still seemed unaware of anything, but no one knew how long that would last. If she continued to stay at the imperial palace where the accident had occurred, she might suddenly remember that time.

Then the trauma would resurface, and she might show severe seizures like back then. How much trouble they had gone through when she had fallen so ill with high fever at that time.

Huh. It was then that Nix, who was sighing with worry, heard a thin flute-like sound in his ear. Raising his head, Nix reached out toward the entrance of the alley.

Soon, a bird flew in with a flutter. It had a note tied to its ankle. When Nix stroked the bird’s head, a pleasant flute-like sound flowed from its beak. Nix stroked it a few more times, then took out some feed from his pocket, placed it on the back of his hand, and untied the note to check it.

{ Ailexia, northwest forest, old woman’s hut in the west. }

It was brief, but roughly understanding the meaning, Nix’s ash-gray eyes took on a different hue.

He carefully folded the note and put it in his pocket, then released the bird, which had already finished eating, back into the sky. Later, when he needed it, he could blow a flute that made the same cry to call it.

‘Let me resolve this first.’

Pulling up the hood of his robe, he went back into the alley. Since he was already near his destination, Nix soon arrived at the appointed place. He entered the mansion avoiding people’s eyes and headed to the back of the garden where no one passed by.

When he finally reached there, a man was already waiting for him.

As Nix approached, the man turned around as if he had keenly sensed his presence, even though Nix hadn’t made any noise.

“It’s been a while, Your Grace.”

Under the evening sunset, black hair fluttered gently.