With a “ssring,” a longsword was swung in front of my nose.
Rhodnes cut off the front of my neck that Rossi was holding and pulled me towards him.
Rossi snorted.
“You’re quite the liar. I’ve known Blie for years, and yet you dare lie to me like that.”
The pieces of my clothes that remained in Rossi's hands instantly turned to ash and scattered.
“Blie Acacia... was your disciple?”
“Blie, Acacia? You’ve even given her a cute last name. She’s not really the cute type.”
Rossi's face, whose smile had already disappeared, was covered by Rhodnes's back.
“Stop talking nonsense and tell me everything you know.”
Rhodnes hid behind me and warned me.
“That cheeky thing Blie said this to me before she suddenly left.”
I quietly stepped behind Rhodnes and listened to Rossi's words.
“If the moment comes when I come back to you...”
Rossi's eyebrows furrowed for a moment as she recalled that time.
“That was only when I died.”
“!”
“She died, but how can she come back... I didn’t know what that meant back then. You’re a cute blonde girl. I know now when I see you.”
“Blie said something like that...”
“Do you understand now? It’s you, young lady, who has to tell everything you know, not me.”
Bang!
Knock, knock! Knock!
The window was open and the front door closed by itself. Rossi slid in front of me.
“Blie, where is that kid now?”
“In the coffin.”
I answered, hugging my trembling body.
“I’m on my way here to put Blie in the coffin where the dead go.”
Rossi's eyes became bloodshot. Her confused eyes quickly turned to anger.
“But she's alive.”
"What?"
The eyes, where anger had been vaguely scattered, now radiated a light of suspicion.
“I am not Blie Acacia, but Adrienne Piretta, the Princess of the eastern Piretta territory of Ronta.”
“...Piretta.”
A subtle voice cut through the air.
“If you want to hear the story of my life as a Blie, please help me.”
“Why me?”
I braced my trembling legs, straightened my body, and lifted my chin.
“One for one.”
"What?"
“I will follow your ways, Lord Rossi. If you want to listen, please help me.”
***
Between us, in a standoff, Rhodnes stood like a judge, glaring as if he would cut down Rossi at any moment.
I briefly explained the situation from the moment I opened my eyes to now.
I wondered if the legend that she lived for over 1000 years was not just a rumor, as she listened to everything I said without moving an inch.
“It’s a big story to hear in a cabin like this. So, what can I do to help?”
“Please tell me about the Mana Stone Pavilion I just mentioned.”
I took out my mother's necklace and showed it to her.
“How can the pebble-sized mana stone contained in this necklace be the key to the mana stone coffin? If so, why can only I open it and not others? I’m sure Rossi can answer.”
“...”
Rossi took my necklace without saying a word. Then, without opening it, she closed her eyes for a moment and opened them again.
“Have you ever been to a mana stone mine?”
"No."
“Mana Stone is a large lump of raw stone like a rock. Long ago, in a time when the power that is now called sorcery was proudly called magic. The coffins of the ancient royal family were all made of that mana stone. So that they could not be easily opened by physical force from the outside. Objects made from the same lump of mana stone were made into coffins and keys using the characteristic of recognizing each other and breaking boundaries.”
Rossi's eyes narrowed as if she was reminiscing about old times.
“That’s the story that has been handed down. The key is only symbolic. The key was given to the dead in the hopes that they would open the coffin lid in Abadelia and come out and live forever, and it was placed in the coffin with treasures. It was meant to be opened by no one outside. There is only one reason why it won’t open in the hands of others. The ancient royals who had magical power would put their magical power into the stone that would become their coffin before they died. So a mana stone with magical power will only react to a coffin and key with the same magical power, and to the owner of the magical power.”
“Then, did you plan to obtain the Mana Stone Coffin and fill it with magical power knowing that Blie would become like this? Does that mean Blie has magical power?”
“Didn’t you know? She had magic. That’s why she came to me to ask for my teachings. However, even if the stone of the coffin and the key are the same if it contained magic, it would only react to the owner of that magic, so that’s not why you were able to open the coffin. Magic responds to its true owner. There’s no way she wouldn’t have recognized that you were in Blie’s body.”
“Anyway, it seems certain that Blie planned something to save me. Although I don’t know why the coffin and key reacted to me, who has no magic power.”
Blie from beginning to end.
Only by assuming that it was all planned to save me can the questions about this absurd situation be resolved.
That fact alone made me want to collapse and give up on my legs.
“If you want to sit, sit. Judging from the young lady’s reaction, I can tell that you didn’t kill Blie, who was just sitting there, and put her in a coffin.”
Rossi's legs must have been giving out too, as a chair slowly slid behind her legs.
“So, does that mean your body is very healthy now?”
“I haven’t had a checkup, but I’m not sick anymore. I don’t feel weak either.”
“When did the young lady take the living death potion?”
“The most likely answer is that it was the medicine the family doctor gave me to swallow just before I died. It was unusually large and difficult to swallow...”
“That must be it. If it’s true that Blie stole my medicine, then that’s the medicine. She made it so big that it was stupid.”
“But the attending physician and Blie have nothing to do with each other.”
“That’s for you to find out, young lady. If Blie was trying to feed you that potion, it would be best to do it when you’re at your weakest, right before you die.”
Rossi drank the cold tea with a distraught expression. My mouth was parched, so I followed her lead. The bitter tea brought me back to my senses.
“...Why did Blie do that?”
“...”
“Why did Blie save me? More importantly, why did she sacrifice her body to show me the truth? I’ve felt so many emotions towards her since I came here, but now they all feel useless. I really want to know about her now, and I want to wake her up and talk to her.”
Rossi emptied his cup of terribly bitter tea and turned to me.
“I’ve been with her for years, but I don’t know much about her. She’s always been a secretive person. I have to admit, I can’t help but help you. But I’m the scholar type, so I can’t help being curious.”
We felt a sense of kinship for the first time and made eye contact. Rossi's eyes, once filled with anger, now began to sparkle with interest.
That was when.
A noise was heard outside the door that Rossi had kept firmly shut, and soon someone knocked on the door.
“Who are you?”
Rhodnes answered without taking his eyes off Rossi and me.
“Your Majesty! Someone has come looking for Madam!”
"What?"
In the middle of the night, in this huge forest of baobab trees, someone came looking for Blie.
Rhodnes and I froze at the same time and exchanged glances.
“Who did you say it was?”
“I won’t reveal it, because I’m afraid she’ll run away if I reveal it. She’s a woman.”
“...Olivia Lucia.”
Rhodnes muttered the name right away. It was a name that flashed through my head as well.
“If you’re looking for Blie, not the young lady, then I’d like to meet you too.”
Rossi allowed a woman to join us as we stood frozen.
Rhodnes glanced at me as if to ask if I was okay.
I nodded quickly. If she had come to this dangerous place in the middle of the night, it meant she was in a hurry, and it would be easy to get information from someone in such a hurry.
***
Neil, with permission from Rhodnes, opened the cabin door.
The area in front of the cabin was crowded with people who had arrived late.
Those who seemed to be in charge of the escort grumbled about coming to the spooky forest in the middle of the night but quickly shut their mouths when the black figure turned its head.
She was as small as Rossi.
As Neil bit his body, a black shadow slowly approached the door.
“Miss Blie...?”
A thin woman with grayish-brown hair, an aged but wrinkle-free face, and a somewhat stooped posture came in, leaning on a cane.
As soon as I confirmed the woman's identity, I took a step back.
“Blie...”
The voice of the woman who had been desperately calling out to me without answering suddenly stopped.
“Oh my God!”
The wooden staff fell with a thud, rolling on the hut floor, and the woman's eyes turned bloodshot.
Olivia Lucia.
She was my nanny who raised me.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh, my God...”
She covered her mouth with her wrinkled hands and opened her drooping eyelids. Her dark pupils were so dilated that if she hadn't been gasping for breath, you'd think she'd died standing up.
“Princess?”
Olivia recognized me immediately.
“Princess, Princess? Lady Adrienne? Is that right? Miss Adrienne! Miss Adrienne...!”
She hesitated with a face full of mixed emotions, and then she began to shed tears.
It seemed as if the purpose of coming to Blie had been burned into her mind. I leaned against Rhodnes and he grabbed my hand without hesitation.
“Do you know how shocked I was when I heard the news of the Princess’s death? This nanny cried and cried for 100 days straight until she fainted because she felt sorry for our late madam and the Princess who was always sick!”
"...Nanny."
At the word nanny, Olivia collapsed. There was no point in asking questions like how she got here.
“Blie, have you met Blie? Oh my God. Oh my God, this is so funny!”
I too was struggling to come to my senses with confusion and sadness, but I couldn't help but ask a question.
“Nanny. How does Nanny know Blie?”
“It is clear that the Madame took care of the Princess in Abadelia!”
“You have to answer my question first, Olive.”
I followed her as she sank to the ground, sitting on my knees and holding her shoulders.
My nanny, who had been searching for my mother while shedding tears like crazy, seemed momentarily surprised by my attitude and opened her mouth wide.
“No, Blie.”
The black eyes, filled with tears once again, began to shake without mercy.
“Miss Blie...”
At the same time, the face that was pouring out the suppressed sorrow was distorted as if desperately appealing to me.
“...She is the Princess’s twin sister.”
With those words, Olivia burst into tears, the sorrowful sobs she had been holding back in her dantian.
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