Chapter 22
The room was as neat as expected.
It wasn’t a luxurious feather bed,
but there was a single bed filled with a proper mix of straw and cotton,
soft enough not to be hard.
There was also a well-kept oak wardrobe
and a tea table for enjoying tea.
Through the window,
I could see the dark view of the village at a glance.
“Compared to the rotting prison… this is luxury.”
Yes.
Maybe not before my regression,
but after suffering humiliation and being locked in an underground prison,
even this felt like more than I deserved.
I roughly took off my outer clothes,
hung them on a chair,
and dropped onto the bed.
Around that time,
I heard the faint sound of Damian entering the next room.
Listening to the soft noise,
I fell into shallow thought.
“One and a half days without rest…
until the land of the mages.”
It would be nice
if I could persuade that person in a single attempt.
But… would that be possible?
Suddenly, anxiety rushed in.
Of course,
no matter how long it took,
I intended to make him my ally.
But the longer it took,
the closer the imperial family would come to catching me.
I bit my lips lightly,
then pushed myself up.
“Let’s not think about it right now.”
Everything would happen
after I arrived anyway.
Maybe because my legs were shorter,
even this low bed required a small jump
to touch the floor.
I put the cloak back on
from the chair.
“Now… shall I achieve the reason I came here?”
There was a reason
I chose Jeda as a stopover.
While training with Damian for the past ten days,
a thought suddenly came to me.
If Damian had become a Sword Master earlier,
would the fate of the Carter Grand Duchy
have been different?
At least,
if he had possessed the power
to protect the family and Carlos,
maybe they wouldn’t have collapsed so easily.
The title Sword Master
was not just proof of strength.
That position itself
was power.
How many Sword Masters existed
on the continent?
Only a handful.
If such a person belonged to the Carter family,
even the Emperor couldn’t treat them carelessly.
And in fact, that was true.
Before my regression,
after Damian became a Sword Master,
the imperial family’s open pressure clearly decreased.
Because the eyes of the people
and neighboring nations
focused on the Carter Grand Duchy.
“So I stepped in for the Emperor
and pressured the two of them more secretly.”
…Ha.
I really did many terrible things.
I shook my head.
Originally,
Damian was meant to become a Sword Master
two years from now,
just before turning eighteen.
But that was too late.
I knew
what the Emperor could do in two years.
I knew
how much more the Carter family could be destroyed
in two years.
“If things go well…
I can move it forward by one year.”
The youngest Sword Master.
Once that fact was announced,
the Emperor would no longer be able
to pressure them like he did now.
“I have to use every possible way to help.”
That was the meaning
of turning back time.
The information I knew,
the future I knew,
the methods I knew—
I had to use all of them.
No matter the means.
That was why
I chose Jeda as a stopover.
Because here
was a way to accelerate Damian’s awakening.
“First… let’s confirm it.”
I tightened my cloak
and opened the door.
* * *
Night in Jeda was quiet.
Maybe because it was a small city,
even in the center of town,
there wasn’t a single shop with lights on
at nearly ten o’clock.
Still,
instead of feeling eerie,
it felt peaceful.
Leaving the inn
was easier than expected.
The necklace Carlos gave me
could hide not only my appearance
but also my presence.
Damian was in the next room,
but after the sound of him entering earlier,
there had been no movement.
Maybe he fell asleep from exhaustion,
or maybe he simply didn’t notice me leaving.
Either way,
it was fortunate.
“He would have interrogated me
about where I was going.”
And what would I even say?
That I was going to the Moonlight Market
to buy a holy sword?
It would sound ridiculous.
I couldn’t explain yet.
I would tell him later
when everything was ready.
“It should be around here…”
I passed the main street
and entered an alley,
looking around carefully.
Beyond the completely dark alley,
I saw a faint shimmering light.
“Found it.”
So it existed even now.
I quickly crossed the alley,
pulling my cloak low
in case someone saw me.
The place I stopped
was a small door
stuck between two buildings.
A narrow, old wooden door—
barely wide enough for one person.
Light leaked through the gap.
After watching it briefly,
I turned the handle and opened it.
Despite the fragile exterior
that looked ready to crumble at a touch,
the handle turned smoothly.
And then—
“…Wow.”
My breath stopped without me realizing.
Unlike the tiny entrance,
the inside was vast and wide.
It was clearly a small door
between buildings,
yet inside stretched a space
so large I couldn’t see the end.
Spatial magic
was truly amazing.
Warm, gentle energy
wrapped around my body.
Golden light poured
from hundreds of candles and lamps
hanging from the ceiling.
Crowds of people
and loud shouts
filled the air.
“Magic potions! High resistance to demonic energy—
usable even near the capital!”
“Artifacts that can hold huge mana! Only 3 gold!”
“Young man! Don’t you need this subspace pouch?
You could move an entire mansion with it!”
“I’ll make it cheaper! One gold discount!”
The Moonlight Market.
This was a massive marketplace
where mages who couldn’t reach
the land of mages
gathered to trade goods
and find refuge.
Especially,
purification stones,
which were extremely expensive outside,
could be bought here
for a relatively lower price.
Because its existence
was completely hidden from outsiders,
no one knew the exact location.
But across the continent,
there were passages
only mages could perceive.
And Jeda
was the only western city
that possessed an entrance to this place.
Originally,
as a non-mage,
I shouldn’t have been able to find this entrance.
But now,
I was wrapped in mana
from the artifact Carlos gave me.
That allowed me to enter.
“I learned this trick by chance
when I was still a princess…”
…Back then,
under the Emperor’s orders,
I had led a crackdown
on the Moonlight Market.
Closing entrances across the Empire,
confiscating all purification stones.
It was a time
when I would do anything
to receive Father’s favor.
A bitter smile formed.
Back then,
I was truly a fool.
I shook my head.
Now wasn’t the time
to regret the past.
I removed the hood
that covered half my face
and quickly crossed the market.
Fortunately,
no one paid attention
to a small, ordinary brown-haired girl.
Everyone was busy with their own business.
After passing
through maze-like passages of the market
and entering a quiet alley—
A giant man
blocked my path.
