Chapter: 29
Laurent held a sword faintly shimmering with aura.
Jeanne, startled out of her wits, questioned him sharply.
“How did you get here? Didn’t you receive Iris’s message?”
“I did.”
“Then why did you come here? If everyone is here, what about the Plage coast?”
“Other Masters went to the coast, so don’t worry.”
“…What?”
She hadn’t expected an answer at all, let alone one like that. Her eyes widened in disbelief.
“Other Masters?”
“I heard that the viscount’s estate recently reinforced their forces, including two Masters.”
Was this what people meant by a blessing in disguise? If there were Masters present, there was no need for Laurent to go himself.
Just as she was sighing in relief, a monster’s roar thundered behind them. Both fell silent.
Laurent glanced at Jeanne’s side, then called out to Iris, who was standing behind them.
“We’ll talk later. Miténar. Take Jeanne and fall back.”
“Yes. Sir Jeanne, this way…”
At his command, Iris stepped closer to Jeanne, and Laurent moved past her.
His arrival was reassuring. Somehow, the coordination between the fishermen and the knights wasn’t bad either.
But enemies still remained. With only Laurent and Jeanne able to use aura, retreating wasn’t an option.
Jeanne whispered softly to Iris, who had grabbed her arm, that she was fine, and followed after Laurent.
“No. I’ll fight as well.”
“What? You’re going to fight in that condition?”
“It’s just a graze.”
Jeanne lowered the hand pressing against her side and stood up straight, pretending nothing was wrong.
Laurent stared at her blood-soaked uniform with hardened eyes, then shook his head.
“Our young master’s like this too, but all children of the Goddess seem stubborn and deaf to reason.”
“……”
“Fine! Then let’s get rid of those flying scales together.”
From the moment Iris noticed, Jeanne knew it was only a matter of time before her identity as a child of the Goddess was revealed. She had expected Laurent to make a fuss—but contrary to expectations, his reaction was surprisingly subdued.
Whether it was because he’d already dealt with Claude once before, or because he was prioritizing the subjugation, she couldn’t tell. One thing was certain: there was no time for a long conversation.
The megalodons were still attacking without pause.
“Yes, sir.”
As she acknowledged the order, Jeanne slashed at the scales flying toward their allies. With a thunderous crash, the scales vanished, and the knights of Loren and the fishermen joined forces to hunt the megalodons.
Driven to the brink of annihilation, the remaining megalodons tried to flee back into the sea. But under the combined strikes of Laurent and Jeanne, they were reduced to chunks of flesh that sank beneath the waves.
The harbor and the waters before it were stained red with blood.
But unlike in her previous life, the monsters were the ones being slaughtered.
The history Jeanne remembered had changed.
* * *
“The knight order led by Sir Fynes has just finished exterminating all remaining megalodons.”
As Claude listened to Viscount Laches’s report reflected in the communication orb, he finally let out the breath he’d been holding.
“Good work. Tell Laurent to give me a full report when he returns.”
Immediately after returning to Castle Loren with Jeanne, Claude had begun planning Pascal’s assassination scheme. At the same time, anticipating the Cassis disaster, he ordered Laches to reinforce the troops.
[Recruit Masters? Your Grace, as you know, they’d have nothing to do here. It’s a waste of manpower—and money.]
[I’ll pay the costs.]
[What? No, why go that far…]
[You’ll understand when the time comes. For now, don’t ask—just do as I say.]
He had deployed them early purely in preparation for two years later. If they grew familiar with Cassis’s terrain before the disaster occurred, he could entrust them with field command.
Even Claude hadn’t expected that “time” to be now.
If he had known, he never would have sent Jeanne to Cassis.
Pascal didn’t matter—Claude had deliberately twisted that outcome. But events he hadn’t touched were changing and veering off course as well.
It had changed again. This incident, too.
I want to live differently.
Jeanne’s path had changed as well.
When he returned to the past, Claude had planned to take Jeanne with him by force if necessary. He didn’t care if she hated him or cursed him as insane—if it meant saving her life, it was worth it.
But Jeanne never joined the Royal Knights. She had walked away of her own volition.
At first, her completely altered attitude left him stunned.
What had happened? Could reversing time affect an individual’s will as well?
His thoughts grew tangled, but he couldn’t ask her. Jeanne wouldn’t know about the erased time. Forgetting it all would be happiness for her, so he chose not to dredge it up—and since he had saved her, he tried not to care.
And yet—
[Send the knights under your command to the Plage coast, and have Laurent lead the Loren Knights to Cape Claret.]
[Understood.]
[The megalodons have evolved a stage further, so don’t charge in recklessly. Their weaknesses are—]
[Sir Leclerc already informed us of several precautions.]
[……What?]
[Their scales have hardened, the gills are their only weakness, and they now possess ranged attacks. He seemed to have a precise grasp of the evolved megalodon’s traits.]
It felt as if someone had struck him hard on the head.
Aside from his previous life, this was the first time the megalodons had evolved. And yet Jeanne knew.
There was only one implication.
You remembered too. Just like me.
At last, the answer to the mystery he’d tried to ignore revealed itself. Her words about wanting a different life meant she didn’t want to die again.
His fingertips went cold. His stomach churned as if he were sick. His head felt too heavy to lift.
Of all people… why did it have to be you?
He had wished for her to forget everything. To forget it all and walk the peaceful path he laid out for her, living happily. After such a harsh previous life, it was only fair.
She didn’t need to understand. He had shaped this path arbitrarily, using love and guilt as his materials.
“Are you all right?”
When Gaston spoke cautiously, Claude lifted his head, exhaling a breath steeped in despair.
“I’m fine.”
“You look quite unwell.”
“I just relaxed a little too much.”
Claude straightened up from the desk and absently touched the silent communication orb. Laurent was the type to report immediately after receiving orders.
Knowing that didn’t ease his anxiety.
Is she okay? Was she hurt?
“You shouldn’t be like this. If you wait in the reception room—”
“Out of my way! Do you know who I am?!”
No report came—only an uninvited guest causing a ruckus outside. The noise grew louder before the door burst open, and Alexis stormed in, seething.
Bang!
Alexis slammed both palms onto the desk and glared down at Claude with trembling, bloodshot eyes.
“Is this how Loren treats its guests? You spewed nonsense without knowing what you should or shouldn’t say, and now you openly disrespect me? What—are you trying to start a war?”
The documents piled on the desk collapsed, and the communication orb toppled with them.
“…….”
Claude struggled to maintain his usual expression, but inside, he was boiling.
No—if anything, his fury surpassed Alexis’s.
He had no desire to place his anger on the same level as that foolish prince, who raged simply because he felt slighted.
Kill him.
A pitch-black shadow whispered in his ear.
Didn’t you spare him only because you thought that woman might suffer?
The boiling rage scratched at the murderous impulse he was barely restraining.
The woman you love no longer has any attachment to him. So kill him here and now—take your revenge. She might even thank you.
Claude clenched his fist tightly beneath the desk.
It was a tempting thought—but he shut his ears to it.
If he killed Alexis here, war with Brienne would break out, and judgment from the Golden Dragon would be unavoidable.
Either way, those who would suffer were the people of Loren, the knight order—and Jeanne.
“Oh dear. I sincerely apologize, Your Highness.”
With a genial smile and a bright voice, Claude crushed his killing intent. Rising from his seat, he set the fallen communication orb upright.
“An emergency arose in the southern territories, and I had to step away briefly. Since you will soon be ruling Brienne yourself, I trust you can understand.”
“What? Understand?”
Alexis grabbed Claude by the collar with reddened eyes and threw a punch.
“Your Highness!”
“My lord!”
In an instant, Gaston and Philip went pale, and the knights of Brienne and Loren guarding the door drew their swords.
The air around the office turned icy, like midwinter.
Only Alexis continued to fume, red-faced.
“You said you’d rip out my tongue, that you didn’t care if war broke out—you drove me insane with cryptic nonsense, and now you’re telling me to understand?!”
Claude slowly straightened, lightly brushing the spot where he’d been hit.
He could have blocked it—but he’d let it happen deliberately. When Alexis threatened him, there had been no witnesses. Now there were many.
It hadn’t even hurt that much.
And he calls that a punch.
That was surely what the witnesses would think. They might not know what had transpired between the two men, but they’d clearly see that Alexis had lost his temper and struck first.
Claude had no intention of responding with violence.
“Though I have been under great strain lately, I acknowledge my mistake. I apologize for my rudeness.”
He gestured for the Loren knights—faces grim with fury—to sheath their swords. Reluctantly, they complied.
“As a token of apology, I will gift Your Highness fifty horses from the Chatel region—something you have long desired. Of course, this is separate from the engagement gift.”
“I don’t need your damn horses! Give me Jeanne! Hand Jeanne over!”
The knights attending Alexis briefly brightened—then darkened again. The prince had just thrown away the chance to receive the fastest and strongest horses on the continent for free.
Claude deliberately put on a troubled, puzzled expression.
“As I said earlier, she came here of her own will and joined the knight order through her own merit. There is no reason to dismiss her.”
“There is! She graduated from the Royal Military Academy under my patronage! I spent a fortune to raise her as a royal knight!”
Claude’s eyes narrowed.
“So you’re saying you want her back to recover your investment?”
“Y-Yes!”
It was laughable. Claude knew perfectly well that wasn’t the real reason for Alexis’s obsession with Jeanne—yet he treated unconditional patronage, born from noblesse oblige, as if it were a debt.
If that was the game Alexis wanted to play, Claude would indulge him.
“In that case, there’s an even simpler solution.”
With a dry expression, Claude took out a blank check from his drawer and held it out to Alexis.
“Write it.”
If he could erase every last trace Alexis had left on Jeanne—
“I’ll repay it. Every coin you invested in Jeanne Leclerc.”
Nothing was too precious to sacrifice.
