Why had she returned to an age and with abilities she never wanted?

Her revenge was already complete. Though she hadn’t finished it with her own hands, she had no regrets about her life, and certainly no lingering attachments.

She had abandoned her life the moment she escaped from the Archipelago, determined to take revenge on Luten. So why had she returned to this point, seemingly directed to choose Jens instead of Luten?

“The final…”

There exists a special magic called “Wish.” Secretly passed down only to direct descendants of the Imperial family, it’s magic that can grant any wish to another person in exchange for the caster’s life, regardless of how much magical power remains. However, for this to work, the magic caster’s condition must first be met.

Aira had used her final life force to cast this Wish magic on Jens.

The magic would have activated from the moment Jens voiced his wish, taking her life in the process.

And Jens would have erased everything of Luten’s, just as she wanted. Thoroughly. He certainly would have fulfilled the conditions. He had the ability, the justification, and the contract with her.

Once Jens fulfilled the conditions, the Wish magic would have granted his wish, completing the spell. That’s how everything should have ended.

So why am I still alive, having returned through time?

Perhaps Jens’s wish, which she couldn’t remember, was to turn back time? Did he have regrets?

BOOM!

The sound of naval gunfire from the battle progressing according to Jens’s plans echoed from outside. Aira snapped back to reality and shook her head.

Why would Jens, who had accomplished everything, choose to turn back time? Abandoning all the achievements he had built up. The man she knew lived without a single regret.

Besides, if Jens had wished to turn back time, he alone should remember all these circumstances.

If he regretted something from the past and wished to turn back time, Jens alone would remember and work to fix the world; there would be no need for her to remember the past. Additionally, the Wish magic required her death as an activation condition. It didn’t make sense.

“Unless…”

Having connected these thoughts, Aira clenched her fist. She no longer even heard the cannon fire outside.

“Unless his wish could only be fulfilled by turning back time…”

Aira stared at the bed headboard she had bent and then easily straightened.

Her magical power that had frozen as though she didn’t deserve to die. An impossible miracle. And a returned life. Yet all these events felt to Aira like pressure to complete something unfinished. Like carving a new puzzle piece with a knife to complete an incomplete jigsaw puzzle.

Wish magic is powerful. The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that her magic couldn’t fulfill his wish back then, so she had returned to the past in this state. This was the only way to complete the magic.

Aira watched the swaying lamp again. One, two, three. The amplitude was much smaller than before. She could feel the Nautile gradually slowing down. The battle was coming to an end.

With her intelligence, all the chess pieces on the board had been revealed. Once the identity of the chess pieces was known, Jens would lead black to victory without any problems.

Not by playing chess as one of the two sides, but by standing beside the board like a third party and simply removing the white pieces. With tactics that transcended the rules.

“What is your wish?”

He was a man who lacked nothing. The reputation of being the Republic’s hero. The honor of being the youngest admiral. The sole heir to a prestigious family. Outstanding abilities. A beautiful wife. He had everything.

How desperate must he have been to join a mad princess’s revenge with his overflowing abilities?

Ah, did he have some weakness?

But he took it lightly. She didn’t think eliminating that weakness would be his wish.

Jens’s unknown wish couldn’t be fulfilled in that era, so she had traveled back in time to complete it in a new life. With her magical power frozen instead of disappearing.

If Aira discovered his wish and fulfilled it, the Wish magic would finally be established and immediately take her life.

But what if she couldn’t?

The “Wish” magic had rarely been used in history. Not only was its existence unknown, but no royal would sacrifice their life to grant another’s wish. And since conditions were attached, it was impossible to force a royal to use it through threats.

But Aira, born as the Emperor’s child and educated about magic from birth, had a vague idea.

Magic always moves toward completion. If she had returned in this form because of Jens’s wish, then if she died without realizing his wish, she would return again. Right to this moment, just before choosing Luten.

The Wish magic must have determined that this moment was the most suitable for fulfilling that unknown wish. The evidence was that she had died in the initial explosion and immediately returned.

Aira bit her lip. If so, she would have to live forever in trapped time, unable to die until she granted Jens’s wish. Probably.

Click, clack.

The door to her cabin opened. Though the rocking had stopped, the person who broke into her cabin approached with staggering steps, like someone walking on a swaying ship.

“Imperial Princess.”

The man had large bandages on his stomach and shoulders, and was missing one arm. The bandages were soaked with blood, useless. Judging by the amount of blood seeping through the bandages and his eyes rolling back, he seemed close to death.

“Empire.”

He pointed a gun at her, not bothering to hide it. Despite his serious condition, unlike his staggering footsteps, the gun aimed at her was steady.

“Die.”

He must have suffered severe injuries in this attack and, judging he couldn’t survive, wanted to take her along as company. Aira looked at the black gun barrel with an expressionless face and muttered.

“Let’s find out.”

* * *

BANG!

Jens opened the cabin door with such force it nearly broke, his face pale. The petty officer examining the scene turned to him with a grim expression.

“…Dead?”

He had received an urgent message just before he could even savor the victory after finishing the battle.

The 17th Princess had died. What did this mean?

Blood soaked the cabin floor. Jens surveyed the scene. It seemed they had preserved the scene until his arrival, exactly as it was first discovered.

The severely injured petty officer from the gun room had collapsed covered in blood, and opposite him, the princess sat leaning against the wall. If not for the blood flowing from her chest, her serene face might have been mistaken for someone sleeping against the wall. With her ivory-colored long hair matted with red blood, the princess looked like a strange ornament.

“This.”

The petty officer handed him the gun used by the perpetrator.

Jens glanced at the gun briefly before looking away, gritting his teeth. While they were preoccupied with battle, a dying Republic soldier had killed her.

It was a mistake. No matter how short-staffed they were, they should have posted a guard.

But it was strange that there were no signs of resistance. Even though she was a young and small princess, couldn’t she have resisted someone so close to death?

In any case, the perpetrator seemed to have breathed his last after shooting her. The floor beneath him was also soaked with blood, just like where the princess sat.

Jens rubbed his throbbing forehead. Of all times, the princess had to die like this just when she had come under his jurisdiction.

How would he report this, and what would he say at the upcoming armistice negotiations with the Empire? Who would take responsibility for failing to properly manage the injured and prisoners? Ah, would it be me?

“Preserve the princess’s body as best as possible. We need to send it to the Empire.”

Thinking about the implications of this incident, Jens turned away from the troublesome corpse without lingering and left the cabin.

* * *

“Your Highness, we’ll set our course as planned.”

“Huh.”

Hearing the cold voice of the Empire’s 17th Princess Aira, who sat in the royal chair on the bridge, Captain Fletcher of the Girogssar turned around puzzled.

“Your Highness?”

Aira, who could only let out a small laugh, buried her face in her hands. Unlike her previous return after dying in an explosion from the Republic’s new weapon, this time both her death and the feeling of returning were vivid. It was certain she couldn’t die.

Should she surrender to the Republic again and live an ordinary life? But even if she could avoid any connection to Luten, the 3rd Prince and the Empire wouldn’t leave her alone. An ordinary life was impossible for her.

Perhaps even if she ran away and lived normally, she couldn’t die of old age since she hadn’t completed the Wish magic. She would return to this place again, whenever that might be. Forever, like hell.

“Fletcher.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Aira stared at the flag fluttering outside the bridge, emblazoned with her symbol, the purple iris. Then she tapped the small glass vial she always carried. Pills of various colors clinked against each other inside the medicine bottle.

“Are you good at acting?”

At this unexpected question, Fletcher blinked in surprise.

* * *

“Cough, cough.”

Jens frowned as he watched the small girl spitting out water. It was unbelievable. An Imperial warship had approached the Juhwe Reef where the Nautile was hiding. It was the Girogssar, the ship of the Empire’s 17th Princess.

Then there was a commotion at the bow, and a small figure fell overboard, pushed by someone wielding a sword. Before the Nautile could react, the Girogssar arbitrarily broke from the Imperial battle line and disappeared somewhere.

While he was considering whether to issue pursuit orders, a report came in from the sharp-eyed deck officer that they had spotted a figure believed to have fallen from the Girogssar.

The injured captain clicked his tongue and ordered a rescue. They weren’t in battle, and ignoring someone who had fallen overboard wasn’t something a seafarer would do.

The girl lay on the deck, coughing up water. After coughing for a while, she raised her head, and her purple eyes stood out in her pale face. Though young, she had ivory-colored hair that flowed long like a siren’s, entangling her entire body. Her appearance was unmistakable. Jens sighed and spoke in a voice that suggested he was asking merely as a formality.

“We believe you to be the Empire’s 17th Princess, Aira Merime von Tilrsimrod der Anarchia. Is that correct?”

Click.

As soon as Jens finished speaking, the Republic sailors, startled by the sudden situation, drew and loaded their weapons. But the thoroughly soaked girl replied calmly.

“That’s right. And you must be Republic Navy Lieutenant Jens Will?”

The girl staggered to her feet. Every gun barrel was aimed at her head. But she looked at only one person among them without showing any fear—the tall soldier with gray eyes who stood expressionless.

“Aira Merime von Tilrsimrod der Anarchia requests asylum from the Republic.”

The Republic sailors were dumbfounded by this unprecedented event. Aira continued without taking her eyes off him.

“There will soon be a surprise attack by Imperial and Archipelago forces.”