Clatter, clatter…
The carriage, which had left the imperial palace after many twists and turns, rattled as it sped down the slope.
And I, enduring the awkward silence that lingered inside the carriage, continued to avoid Meredia's gaze, which was fixed on me.
'I never managed to answer in the end.'
The reason for this prolonged silence was, in fact, simple.
I had yet to provide an answer to the question Lady Meredia had asked me just moments ago.
'Why am I going this far for Lady Meredia?'
Of course, I had a few reasons in mind.
The fact that my family was still in a dire state, and without maintaining my engagement with her, we would inevitably fall into ruin.
The fact that if I had chosen the emperor's route earlier, I would not only have ended up being manipulated and killed but could have also triggered the event that turned Meredia into the final boss.
The simple fact that she was my favorite character, and I felt sorry for her.
If I had just taken those reasons, refined them, and given an answer, I probably wouldn't be sitting here in silence, anxiously watching her reaction.
'But still…?'
For some reason, that simple answer refused to leave my lips.
Ever since I saw the anxious, restless expression Meredia had on her face.
'Why am I acting like this?'
It wasn't just because I was caught off guard by her unexpected expression.
That look of hers stirred something deep in my heart, something I had buried away—but I wasn't even sure what it was.
No, thinking about it, isn't that exactly why I was at a loss for words?
"Haa."
"The one who should be sighing here is me. Unbelievable."
As I let out a deep sigh, frustrated by my tangled thoughts, Meredia's cold voice snapped me back to reality.
"You're not planning on answering me, are you?"
"No, that's not it…"
"Do you need more time to think? Then answer this question first."
Yet, as I watched Lady Meredia's face return to her usual guarded expression, I oddly felt more at ease.
"How much do you know about the curse I bear?"
"…What?"
"Did you approach me already knowing about it from the beginning?"
That was before she suddenly decided to expose her most fatal weakness.
"Haha, what are you talking about…?"
"Please, don't pretend you don't know."
I was caught off guard, never expecting her to bring this up herself, and my awkward attempt to brush it off only earned me a sharp warning from her.
"Do you have any idea how desperately I've been searching for a way to break this damn curse?"
I had no idea why she suddenly brought this up, but as someone with memories of my past life, I knew exactly how much she had struggled to escape her curse.
She had tried everything she could without revealing her identity and without betraying her beliefs.
Yet, even after secretly recruiting white mages and seeking help from priests of the holy order, there was no cure for her curse.
And as the main storyline progressed, her suffering only deepened—until she finally lost her faith, leading to her becoming the final boss.
"To be honest, I had almost given up until recently."
"In the end, I thought I would be forced to carry this wretched curse with me for the rest of my life."
"…I see."
As she spoke, her voice sinking as she absentmindedly rubbed the back of her hand, I nodded, understanding at least a fraction of her pain.
"Yes, that is—until someone showed up at the perfect moment and proposed an engagement."
Her next words made me doubt my own ears.
"…Me?"
"I'll give you one last warning—stop pretending you don't know."
Meredia's cold warning came once again, but I was still too stunned to do anything but stare at her blankly.
"You can ease the pain of my curse just by tying a handkerchief around my wrist. You can suppress the curse on my hand just by channeling your mana into me for a few seconds."
"…I can?"
Because her curse was something that even Saint Hestia herself could barely purify.
If it had been possible, Meredia wouldn't have become the final boss in most routes.
'But now she's telling me that I can fix it?'
Me—the one who, in the original story, never even appeared and was only mentioned as someone Meredia had killed.
Me—the one who, despite being a white mage, was always mistaken for a dark mage because of the suspiciously gray mana I emitted.
Was I actually the only key to breaking her curse?
'Wait, now that I think about it… Alfred said something similar before.'
I had been skeptical at the time, but now that I recalled it, something clicked in my mind.
The day I realized my past life's memories and escaped my poisoning attempt.
That day, Alfred had told me something in the mansion.
'According to the information my father gathered, the key to normalizing my white magic lies within the Embergreen Ducal House.'
I had never once considered that my white magic's abnormality and Meredia's curse might be connected.
But if what she said was true, then my abilities had clearly been interacting with her curse all along.
Even a fool like Prince Kendrick—no, even Princess Katarina—would have a hard time denying the connection now.
"…Hah."
As the scattered puzzle pieces finally came together, I couldn't help but laugh.
If I really was the key to Meredia's fate, then the entire story of the original game had already gone off the rails.
"And the one who appeared so suddenly… is now shamelessly acting like he knows nothing."
"…Ah."
"Whitney Lingard, stop pretending and admit it already."
Snapping out of my thoughts, I turned to face her once more as she spoke in a chilling voice.
"You knew about my curse from the very beginning, and you approached me already knowing the solution."
She spoke as if she had already uncovered the truth, her lips curling into a smirk as she waited for my response.
"…Will you allow me to explain myself?"
"Hah, sure. By all means."
As I finally decided to clear up her misunderstanding, her gemstone-like eyes suddenly glowed coldly.
"But no matter what excuse you give, you won't be able to deceive my eyes."
With her gaze piercing through my every move, lying would be meaningless.
"If you still refuse to be honest with me now, I don't care if it ruins my reputation—I'll annul this engagement right here."
Of course, I had no intention of lying to her in the first place, so this only worked in my favor.
"I truly did not know that my white magic had any effect on your curse."
"..."
"But if my power can help you, then I swear—I will do everything in my power to assist you."
The moment I spoke the plain truth, Meredia's expression twisted in frustration.
"…Why?"
Her gaze, now filled with incomprehension, once again carried that same anxiety and hesitation I had seen earlier.
"Well, if I don't maintain my engagement with you—"
"You're afraid your family will fall into ruin? Nonsense. If that were true, siding with the emperor, even with a time-limited contract, would have been the more logical choice."
I tried to offer another justification, but before I could even finish, she cut me off with a cold rebuttal.
"…With all due respect, Her Majesty is a terrifying person."
"And yet, knowing that, you still rejected her hand, risked your life, and gambled everything just to save me? That doesn't add up."
For the first time, I could sense a faint trace of fear in her voice—something uncharacteristic of her.
"…Honestly, I just don't understand you."
Somehow, I felt like I knew the reason. She couldn't trust me. That was just the kind of character Meredia was in the game.
"If you really wanted to save your family, there were plenty of better ways than relying on me. Yet, you deliberately chose to use someone as risky as me."
"..."
"Even just now. Even if you truly didn't know about that strange ability of yours, that was still an opportunity, wasn't it?"
Arrogant, cynical, and always needing to keep her opponent in the palm of her hand to feel at ease—a villainess. A woman so twisted and pitiful that she couldn't even trust Parsha, the one who remained by her side until the very end in the game.
"It was a perfect chance to turn me from a simple business partner into nothing more than a powerless subordinate."
That was the essence of her character—the woman known as Meredia Embergreen from the perspective of a player.
"But our contract—"
"A contract? A business relationship? That doesn't matter anymore. That only works when both sides have equal bargaining power."
So, to her, the one-sided kindness I had been showing was nothing but an impurity—something suspicious and incomprehensible that only made her more wary. An impurity that, because she couldn't understand its intent, she would eventually want to remove entirely.
"But despite having something you clearly want from me… even though you could have easily taken advantage of me and gained it immediately…"
"..."
"You've only ever acted in a way that benefits me. Without once revealing what you really want."
And as if my thoughts had been correct, Meredia clenched her teeth for a moment before asking me again, her voice full of anxiety.
"So answer me now. What do you truly want from me?"
"Haha…"
"I don't understand at all. Say it yourself. Right now."
She was afraid—afraid of a person she couldn't see through, even with those proud gemstone eyes of hers.
'What should I say now?'
Honestly, all I wanted was to give her a satisfying answer and put her at ease as soon as possible.
But for some reason, ever since she first asked, I hadn't been able to get the words out.
Because… she wasn't wrong.
My ultimate goal right now was to survive the dangerous scenarios ahead and ensure my family's safety so I could live a peaceful life.
Helping Meredia, my favorite character, should have been nothing more than a secondary wish.
'No matter how dangerous the emperor's route was, was it really something worth risking my life over?'
After all, my life would be in danger whether I chose the emperor's path or stayed engaged to Meredia.
If I were thinking rationally, I would have sided with the emperor, only to betray or escape at the right moment.
Entrusting my fate to Meredia so easily—it wasn't something a logical person would have done.
'It's like… my small desire to help Meredia completely flipped my priorities…'
As that strange feeling of unease settled in, I found myself lost in thought, mumbling the question to myself.
"…Ah."
Then, like a hammer striking my head, realization hit me.
'That's right…'
I finally remembered.
Before Meredia became my favorite character, before I had any real attachment to the game—I had no dreams or hopes to begin with.
'The reason I played the game so obsessively… was because, stuck in a hospital room with nothing else to do, it was the only thing I had.'
Yes. I had forgotten about it as I lived this new life, but now, the dark memories I had blurred out were resurfacing.
And with them, I finally understood what had been weighing on my mind all this time.
'Saving Meredia isn't some secondary goal…'
A boy suffering from an incurable illness, abandoned by both family and hope—how could he not feel a connection to the tragic villainess of a game?
'…It was my dream itself.'
Unlike himself, who had no future, she—at least in the game—had a faint possibility of being saved.
So he made it his life's goal.
"First, you make some weird sound, and now you're just silent again."
...
"So, in the end, you're not going to—"
And now, even though the game had become reality, that boy's wish hadn't changed.
"No, I'll say it clearly now."
To prove that to the very person in question, I forced down the habitually rising corners of my lips and cut off Meredia's trembling words.
"What I truly want from you…"
Honestly, I was a little afraid.
Wouldn't it be better to make up some plausible excuse right now?
Saying something that could break our current relationship—it was practically idiotic.
"…is to see you happy."
But after taking a deep breath, I spoke my words without hesitation, allowing the smile I had been suppressing to surface slightly.
"…Why?"
Meredia, who had been staring at me with blinking, jewel-like eyes, seemed unable to find any signs of deception in my expression. She asked in a dazed voice.
"Hmm, who knows?"
Lowering my voice, I scratched the back of my head and murmured hesitantly.
"…Maybe because I've liked you for a long time?"
And then—
"—?!"
Instead of rebuking me for lying, Meredia froze in place, wearing an expression that was shockingly uncharacteristic of her usual demeanor.
Seeing her reaction, I chuckled awkwardly.
"…Hah. I guess I can't even call it a joke anymore, huh?"
°°°°°°°°°
As time passed, the sun had nearly set.
—Creak…
As the sky darkened and a light rain began to fall, a carriage slowly pulled up to the Embergreen duchy's estate.
"Well then, take care, Lady Meredia."
As Meredia silently stepped out of the carriage, Whitney Lingard, still seated inside, waved at her with a strangely relieved smile.
"Make sure to write me a letter later!"
But without sparing him a glance, Meredia walked toward the mansion with tightly sealed lips.
"My Lady! You'll get wet!"
One of her maids, turning pale, hurriedly ran to her with an umbrella.
Meredia briefly glanced at her before speaking.
"I have a question."
"…Pardon?"
"…What do you think the chances are of someone truly liking me?"
The maid's mind momentarily blanked.
"U-Uh… Th-That is… well… um…."
"..."
"I-I suppose there aren't many people who would dare to hold such feelings for someone as incredible as you, my Lady! Haha…"
As the maid floundered for an answer, she straightened up immediately upon seeing Meredia's narrowed gaze.
"So, you think it's impossible too."
"A-Ah, my Lady!"
"Forget it. Go prepare my bath."
Her gemstone eyes flashed for an instant before she stepped out from under the maid's umbrella and walked into the rain, her voice cold.
"B-But… Hic."
The maid trailed after her, but upon receiving a single icy side-glance, she stopped in her tracks.
"…She's really mad."
Watching her mistress's retreating figure, the maid murmured in a hushed, trembling voice.
"…But, um. Her ears and the back of her neck are completely red."
Had she seen Meredia's face—burning hot as she desperately tried to cool it down in the rain—she wouldn't have said something so foolish.