Chapter 41
Chapter 41. A Divergent Future
“Ugh!”
Vante groaned as he got up from the floor where he had been tossed.
The knights who had suddenly surrounded him dragged him somewhere without any explanation.
‘I can’t reveal my identity. It could cause trouble for Sister…’
Vante’s mind raced, wondering if he should seek help from his uncle to resolve this situation if things got worse.
A moment later, Vante arrived in a luxurious room and looked around. A lavish chandelier hanging high caught his eye. The room seemed to be for receiving guests, furnished with only two long sofas and a table.
“You.”
At the chilling voice, Vante hastily turned around. His face lit up when he recognized the person.
“Sister!”
It was the sister he had missed so much. As he tried to approach her, he hesitated and touched the ring on his left index finger.
‘Oh right, Sister won’t recognize me now…’
Vante tried to remove the ring he was wearing. However, Vinea was quicker in taking it off his hand.
As soon as the ring was removed, a small burst of light swept over Vante’s hair and face.
The brown hair disappeared, revealing soft platinum blonde hair, and the freckles covering his face vanished, unveiling smooth white skin.
His blue eyes widened.
“How did you know about this, Sister?”
“Look inside the ring.”
Vinea tossed the ring, and Vante caught it lightly. Inside the ring, someone’s name was engraved in intaglio.
“Gartan?”
It was his uncle’s name. Vante looked up with a puzzled expression. Vinea continued, arms crossed.
“The ring’s function doesn’t work on its true owner. It’s one of the imperial treasures Father passed to Uncle when he abdicated the throne, considering his safety.”
Vinea took a step closer to Vante.
Only then did Vante notice Vinea’s sharp demeanor and swallowed hard.
“This means that no matter where you hide wearing this, at least Uncle can find you.”
Vante’s face turned pale. When he received the ring, his uncle had said that even he wouldn’t be able to recognize Vante. He had even acted that way.
Vante hadn’t suspected a thing, even when his uncle handed him shabby clothes and a hat to wear pulled down low, telling him to blend in with the servants.
He had said he would remain vigilant after receiving the letter, but he never expected to be caught off guard like this.
“You must have received my letter, yet you crossed the border with that uncle?”
Flustered, Vante hurriedly explained how he had come this far.
Just in case, he had packed the artifact his mother had given him earlier and followed Nexior’s plan to hide among the delegation, and then the story after that.
Vante had no intention of simply staying cooped up in the carriage as Nexior had instructed.
The excessively lax security.
Unlike Nexior, who had dressed ostentatiously, none of the servants questioned him despite wearing a thick cloak pulled low.
Even his uncle’s servant, who turned away nobles knocking on the carriage door saying that the young master wasn’t feeling well today.
‘Uncle knows that I snuck into the delegation instead of Nexior.’
Soon that suspicion became certainty, and as soon as the carriage carrying the nobles passed through the magic circle and reached the border, he took off his cloak and got out during a brief stop.
Among the surprised nobles, there was one person with a stern expression – Uncle Gartan.
The majority opinion was that he should return for his own safety, but only his uncle opposed this view.
He said that there was a scheduled time and since they happened to have an artifact that could change appearances, there wouldn’t be a big problem if everyone just kept their mouths shut.
He even volunteered to take full responsibility.
‘Is he trusting me, or is there a reason he must bring me to Tessibania now that my face has been revealed?’
Still, they managed to arrive here safely somehow.
Just as Vante was about to take a step closer, unable to hide his joy, Vinea spoke with a cold face.
“Since you don’t seem to know what will happen if you die in Tessibania, I’ll tell you myself.”
“Sister…?”
Vinea listed the horrific futures she had experienced in a cold voice, as if simply stating facts.
“Uncle will secretly bring your corpse to our parents. Claiming you were killed by an assassin’s attack here, your mutilated body will cause Mother to collapse and Father to lose his reason, unable to make proper judgments.”
Vinea firmly pressed her thumb against Vante’s heart.
“Uncle will incite Father to start a war. The resentment of the people who suffered due to the foolish prince’s outing will be directed entirely at Father, and the rebel army, which was barely dissolved after the war, will regroup faster thanks to Uncle’s financial backing from behind the scenes.”
Just before the rebellion succeeds, Uncle will cut off all funding and ostentatiously suppress the rebels.
Then he’ll push Father aside to regain the throne and kill our entire family to prevent the same thing from happening again.
The 25th regression. When she was fighting for her life, poisoned by the toxin on the dagger of an assassin sent by Uncle, this is what happened when Uncle delivered the news to Veshnu.
Vante’s hand holding the ring trembled, seemingly able to guess what would happen next without being told.
However, there was no time for explanations or comfort.
With at most a year given, after which she would regress again, Vinea had no intention of focusing on such matters other than ending the regression.
Stimulating Vante like this was only for the peaceful life she would face with Tetar after the regression ended.
“You must be confused. You probably came to confirm the authenticity of that letter with me.”
Vante shook his head vigorously.
“No! I believe you, Sister. That’s why I came to hear a more detailed explanation, and to tell you that Uncle seems to be plotting something!”
“Is that so? Then you’re saying you could plunge a sword into Uncle’s heart when the opportunity arises?”
At those words, Vante hesitated and averted his gaze.
No matter what, how could he easily do such a thing?
He was family he had known since childhood. Even if it were true, he wanted to deal with it by gathering evidence to detain him or confine him to the mansion forever.
Vinea was not one to fail to guess such thoughts of Vante.
‘How foolish.’
Even when she sent reinforcements to preemptively stop Uncle’s rebellion, the results of leaving his custody to Father and Vante were not very good.
How they complicated things every time, unable to kill one person because of mere family ties.
Imprisoning him in the mansion or jail did not quiet Uncle’s forces.
She had no intention of making the future after ending the regression difficult by directly bloodying her hands, so all that remained was to borrow the hands of others.
For that, it was necessary to fix Vante’s weak mindset as quickly as possible.
“Let me give you one piece of advice, Vante. Tonight, try to share a room with a servant somehow. And make the servant wear your ring.”
“Sister…!”
“If you can survive and face me again, we’ll talk then.”
Vinea coldly pushed away Vante’s hand that was grabbing her and turned around.
Leaving Vante standing blankly in the room, Tetar, who had been standing in front of the door, approached as she came out.
“He must be quite shocked. That kind sister of his has become so cold.”
“I have no intention of teaching him gently. The sooner he realizes that those by his side can stab him in the heart at any time, the better.”
“What if he really dies like that?”
Vinea looked up at Tetar.
She didn’t like his face with that indecipherable smile. She had a vague idea of what answer he wanted, which made her dislike it even more.
“The order to increase the guards at the annex included this incident as well.”
“…Normally you would have left him to die or live on his own. You’ve changed.”
He knew the cause that made her change like this. Hope. Because of that insignificant thing.
“If you do nothing, nothing changes. It’s obvious.”
“Yes. You’re right.”
He lightly brushed Vinea’s cheek and ear with his thumb and took a step back.
Just then, as the sun outside the window was covered by clouds, a shadow as dark as night fell over him.
“If you do nothing, nothing will change.”
Only his lips, not covered by the shadow, showed that he wore no smile.
“See you in the evening.”
He turned around. Vinea also turned without lingering.
Lineue, who had been waiting for her at a distance, approached but quickly bowed her head upon seeing Vinea’s cold expression.
“Bring Deron to my office before dinner.”
“Understood.”
Vinea clenched both fists as she walked away, her heels clicking.
Deron’s reports, which had come up every regression, had suddenly stopped in this one. Since the regression hadn’t ended, Tetar’s abnormal symptoms wouldn’t have disappeared either.
“Keep it a secret that I called for him. Even from His Majesty.”
* * *
Returning to his office, Tetar habitually started to loosen his neck but stopped.
Turning his head to look at the small mirror hanging on one side of the office, he saw that the cravat Vinea had tied was still neatly in place.
“If you do nothing, nothing changes…”
Tetar kept mulling over those words.
“I wonder.”
He tilted his head, looking at the shadow that appeared behind him in the mirror.
“Is this the problem? Is it because I see this, that the Empress keeps trying to move forward, leaving me behind?”
What does it matter if I see some hallucinations? What if I kill someone in anger, or if I do nothing, paralyzed by lethargy?
What if we desire only each other, go mad together? What does it matter if we fall into chaos and sink into an abyss?
Why does she keep pulling new things to her side, leaving me behind?
Balak and Vante, even Haksya village. If nothing had been done, none of them would have been involved.
If protecting them, saving them, keeping them close, and creating new relationships are necessary for the future―
“―Unfortunately, that’s not the future I want, Vinea.”
The black shadow in the mirror began to strangle his neck. Although he knew it was just a hallucination, the pain felt real.
He picked up the vase on the desk and threw it at the mirror.
Crash―
A loud noise echoed through the office. Shattered glass pieces rolled across the carpet floor.
Only then did the hallucination strangling his neck dissipate, releasing his airway.
But this would only be temporary; soon, hallucinations would find him again anytime, anywhere. Forever, as long as this regression doesn’t end.
And if that happens, she would have no choice but to stay by his side forever.
