Lumidia

At that moment, an unnatural fact I had been accepting as natural flashed through my mind.

I hurriedly looked around.

The lettering on the shop signs.

The voices of the merchants reaching my ears.

They were all exactly as I remembered.

According to my memories, the languages of the neighboring countries had definitely differed subtly from one another.

Yet every language and written character here was perfectly identical to what I remembered, which had allowed me to adapt to this life relatively easily.

Why had I never thought of that simple possibility?

And that rumor.

Lumidia's full-scale invasion, and the kingdom pushed to the brink of collapse.

The soldiers left behind and isolated, just like me.

Yet the kingdom I was living in now appeared completely fine on the surface.

Now that I knew Lumidia had invaded, one miserable reality was being forced upon me.

I had not been born in another world.

I had gone back in time and into another body.

I had returned to the past, before all the tragedies began.

The battlefield.

Death.

And those deep-blue eyes looking down at me.

Everything would happen all over again.

In an instant, all the noise of the marketplace vanished as though it had been a lie.

Only the holy knight's mocking laughter filled my ears.

Noah seemed to be saying something beside me, but I couldn't hear a thing.

Only the blood-soaked battlefield and those cruel deep-blue eyes looking down at me were all that existed before me.

My body swayed violently back and forth.

“Ella!”

My knees hurt.

I could feel sand grinding beneath my kneecaps.

An apple was rolling across the dirt.

The apple, now still, looked like my heart.

When I raised my head, I saw Noah kneeling through my blurred vision.

At some point, I had slumped to the ground.

Both his arms were gripping my shoulders.

“Because now... I have someone to protect, someone I have to return to.”

I muttered it as though making a vow to myself.

The war would begin again.

And this life was different from my previous one.

I had Father.

This time, I could not give up on my life so easily.

“Ella...? What does that—”

“It’s nothing.”

I saw an apple crushed beneath the foot of a passerby.

I would avoid that future at all costs.

I had to stockpile provisions and prepare to face the enemy.

The best option was to seek asylum in another country as soon as possible.

But I didn’t even know where this village was located, and the map that could tell me was absurdly expensive.

With my mind pushed to its limit, I couldn’t come up with a better idea.

If I wanted merely to survive, I had to stake everything on luck and leave as soon as possible, before the city was sealed off.

I had to start making plans to leave tonight.

When I stopped that train of thought, I saw Noah watching me with concern.

‘Should I tell that guy everything?’

He might dismiss it all as a delusion.

But I had no confidence I could persuade Father on my own.

If I had Noah, whom Father liked, at my side, there was a chance.

And in this village, the only person I could trust—and who would trust me—was this pathetic man.

“...Whatever. You’re the only fool who’d listen to this crazy nonsense. So keep your mouth shut and listen, even if I sound like I’m spouting gibberish from here on out. I’m not joking.”

“If it’s you... I’ll listen to... anything.”

The fact that he trusted me this much, despite us sharing no blood and never having entrusted our lives to each other, weighed heavily on me.

Even so, I had to tell him.

Despite what I felt inside, my words came out in a harsh rush, driven by anxiety.

“War is definitely going to break out. Those Lumidian bastards—the barbarians—will sweep straight into the capital in an instant.

This backwater city? Those walls will become a coffin. How long do you think a dithering man like you can last?

If you keep dawdling here, you and your family will all end up as ash together. So... run away from here with my dad and me.”

I kept talking without letting him interrupt, as though I had no intention of hearing him out.

I had spoken fiercely, but I couldn't bring myself to look at his face.

“I’m sorry.”

His gaze was directed toward his house.

It was only one word, but its meaning was unmistakable.

Rejection.

Unlike me, he would remain here.

“… Why? Didn’t you understand what I said?”

The fate of those who remained here had already been decided.

Blood soaking into the earth.

Death.

Noah would die.

I could no longer continue speaking.

One of the few friends I had, and someone who had always been there for me.

Although I would have welcomed distancing myself from this burdensome man, I didn’t want him to die.

“Th... That’s not what I meant. I have a family too, and this isn’t something I can decide on my own.”

Perhaps flustered by my reaction, he continued more quickly than usual.

The shame of realizing I had misunderstood him made both my cheeks feel as though they were burning.

“Tomorrow. I’ll definitely give you an answer tomorrow. Just wait until then.”

“You’d better have an answer by tomorrow morning. ...It doesn’t matter if you don’t come. Father and I will leave on our own anyway.”

“…Yeah.”

On the way home, the cool air gently brushed across my face.

In contrast, my head was unbearably hot.

The greatest ordeal still lay ahead.

‘How can I make Father believe me?’

Even with Noah on my side, there was no telling whether Father would believe me.

Then should I at least negotiate?

I looked at Noah’s face as he walked beside me.

Father wanted me to get married.

If I told him I wanted to marry Noah and leave for somewhere else...

The moment that thought arose, I shoved it into a corner of my mind.

“No. Absolutely not. Let’s keep that as a last resort.”

I still hadn’t decided anything for myself.

I didn’t even have the confidence to go through with a sham marriage to him.

Time passed without any progress, and before I knew it, we had arrived in front of my house.

“I’ll definitely give you an answer tomorrow.”

Without looking back at his words from behind me, I gave a slight nod and went inside.

Father was whittling wood with a small carving knife.

It was a wooden figurine he made whenever he was alone.

Four roughly carved wooden figures, connected to one another, rested in his hands.

He always remade the figures without ever managing to finish two of the four.

I watched him for a moment, then decided to try bringing it up.

“I heard a rumor at the market. They say the Kingdom of Lumidia has invaded our kingdom. They’ll reach our village soon. We kept reassuring ourselves it would be all right, and we lost everything anyway. Just like then, something has already begun this time too.”

Father’s hand holding the carving knife stopped.

It was not merely his carving that stopped; it felt as though every movement he made—even his breathing—had ceased.

Thinking that he was focusing on my words, I continued.

“I don’t want to face what I’ve lost again amid the ashes.”

The instant I said it, I saw Father’s shoulders twitch faintly.

The knuckles of the hand gripping the carving knife had gone white, his grip frozen in place.

” This time, it will never happen. I won’t let it. So leave the village with me. As long as I have you, Father, I don’t need anything else. Please.

Once I had made my plea, my throat tightened.

I went behind him and embraced him.

When I placed my hand over his, a chill seeped from his hand into mine.

Yet Father never looked at me.

Father covered the wooden figurines he had been carving with a cloth.

“I’ll look into it, so don’t bring it up again.”

At his firm words, I could not say anything more.

Before I knew it, the sun had set and night had fallen.

A lot had happened, but I could not go to sleep just yet.

I had to make a plan.

I began drawing a map of the village on a shabby piece of parchment.

A place to obtain food.

A place to hide weapons.

And the one path that would get Father and me out of the hell that was about to descend upon us.

Failure was not an option.

Charcoal smudged across the parchment.

The candle wick sputtered and went out.

Only the traces of the village map remained in the darkness.

Drawing on my memories, I estimated the height and material of the walls dimly visible outside the window, along with the guards’ shift-change times.

Six drainage grates at the north gate.

The two on the left were bent.

A three-minute gap between shifts.

The instincts of a soldier, honed again after losing my family, awakened throughout my body.

_____

Dawn came, with even the moon hidden behind clouds.

The city could not sleep that night.

A soldier keeping watch atop the battlements began to see a dark mass.

Ding, ding, ding

The sound of bells traveled along the walls and into the watchtower.

“You! Go find out what’s happening right now! The rest of you, arm yourselves!”

The guard captain’s groggy voice, still thick with sleep, swept through the watchtower.

One soldier swallowed hard while tightening a leather strap, while another hurriedly dropped his armor on the floor with a loud clatter.

Before long, the watchtower was filled with tense breathing and the metallic sounds of people gathering their weapons.

“Captain! Suspicious people are approaching! I think you should see for yourself!”

“You two guard the gate. The rest of you, follow me now!”

When they hurried up onto the wall, they saw countless people.

Bare feet.

A woman carrying a wet bundle on her back.

A man with a nursing infant tucked beneath his arm.

People carrying luggage, not bladed weapons.

“This is Lugdonum. Identify yourselves. If you do not respond, we will consider you enemies.”

The guard captain quietly raised one hand.

One by one, bows were drawn.

“The Lumidian army has invaded!”

“The village! The village is burning!”

Voices filled with despair flooded the open ground before the wall.

The taste of soot lingered on the tongue.

Each time the wind blew, the smell of half-burned straw drifted over the wall.

“No wonder those religious fanatics have been so busy these past few days. So this is what they were up to.”

The arrowhead held by the soldier standing right beside the quietly muttering guard captain began to tremble.