About Things That Haven't Occurred Yet
Chapter 7
At last, Anton spared Adelheid’s life.
Instead, he declared he would take her already-dead brother’s death as the price for her life.
Willingly, she plunged the sword into her dead brother’s chest. There was no room to think of anything else. That was how she survived.
On the journey as she was being dragged away, she displeased Anton and died again.
Adelheid opened her eyes right after her brother’s death, begged, and survived.
This time, she did not displease the King on the journey.
Upon arriving in Genomes, she displeased Anton and died again.
Adelheid opened her eyes right after her brother’s death, begged, and survived.
This time, when she arrived in Genomes, she did not displease the King.
Anton shoved Adelheid into Mont Palace and handed her an unidentified vial.
‘U-Um… Your Majesty, what is this?’
‘It is a medicine to make you barren. Take it diligently. Before my eyes.’
‘Barren…?’
‘My consort, I do not care for the things I cherish giving their hearts to anything other than me. No matter what it is.’
Even after that, she died often. She regressed endlessly.
The time she stayed alive grew longer and longer. She came to know Anton better.
How to avoid displeasing him, what kind of appearance he favored, what tone of voice he liked, what behavior pleased him…
Because of that, Anton cherished Adelheid quite a bit.
He might not love her, but it was at least that much.
Adelheid was young and beautiful, understood Anton’s heart well, and accommodated his every whim. There was no reason for him not to dote on her.
Yet Anton detested boring women.
He also despised women who were purely devoted.
Once some time had passed, he killed Adelheid, declaring that she was no longer amusing.
She opened her eyes beside her dead brother’s corpse.
Once more she begged, smiled, humored him, and survived like a dog.
Not boring, yet not too devoted either…
Adelheid thought blankly as she watched the guard stationed staunchly at the door.
Her mind refused to work properly.
Snapping flower stems one after another, she thought and thought and thought, until at last she found a way.
When Adelheid flirtatiously cast smiles at the guards, only to come and flutter around Anton in an incomparably more coquettish manner, he found it thoroughly entertaining.
He took pleasure in punishing the guards who fell for her charms.
Even if they didn’t fall for her, he found fault and punished them anyway.
Thus, many guards left the palace in disgrace.
Then Dominic Legenon arrived as her guard.
Anton inwardly anticipated that Adelheid would captivate the rigidly unyielding Dominic.
Yet the only emotion Dominic harbored for Adelheid was sheer contempt.
That feeling never changed, no matter how much time passed.
Shut inside the palace and ignorant of the outside world, Adelheid learned only after considerable time had passed that he was the Slayer who had killed a dragon.
Her heart surged.
A dragon. A dragon. He can kill a dragon.
He could end this damn Blessing bestowed by the dragon. He could end this curse.
Adelheid tried to question Dominic about it, but with his revulsion only deepened from the start, he refused to even entertain her.
In the end, without receiving a single proper answer, time flowed by helplessly.
Then, one day, Anton killed Adelheid, and Dominic stood before the door as she died.
Adelheid thought that Dominic’s expressionless face was crueler than Anton’s blade.
She opened her eyes beside her dead brother’s corpse.
Again, she survived like a dog.
This time, she had to hear his story.
How he killed the dragon. How it could be killed.
Because Adelheid had forgotten how to treat people in any way other than how she treated Anton, even now she did not understand why Dominic despised her.
Perhaps long ago she might have known, but no longer.
Even so, since they were still meeting for the first time in this life, she believed she would be able to hear it.
“Sir Knight.”
If not this life, there was always the next.
If not the next, then the one after that.
If she changed things bit by bit and accomplished them step by step, then someday…
Someday. Wouldn’t it work out someday?
“May I come in?”
“……Who are you?”
“I am the master of this palace.”
Someday.
It felt so distantly far away that she could hardly bear to think of it.
She did not want to think about how many more times she would have to repeat it.
For now, she merely gave the man before her a practiced smile.
“No one knows when the King might arrive, yet you all seem so carefree.”
A heavy silence settled over them.
Watching the maids whose cheerful chatter had vanished into tight-lipped silence, Adelheid commanded coldly:
“All of you, go inside.”
As she watched the maids hurry away and turned her head, her gaze met Dominic’s.
He was looking at Adelheid as if he could not understand her.
She smiled out of habit, but her mood had plummeted to rock bottom.
“……Do not associate with them. I believe I told you before…… Captain Legenon, you are my guard.”
The maids never spoke unnecessary words to Adelheid.
Anton had ordered it so.
By keeping Adelheid suitably isolated, he ensured she would cling desperately to him alone.
The maids watched Adelheid’s every move, immediately reporting anything that might displease Anton.
It was not entirely the maids’ fault, but she could not help resenting them.
Adelheid was terrified that Dominic might inadvertently slip up while speaking with the maids.
Because it would surely reach Anton’s ears.
He was a man who would gladly kill Adelheid at any time, for any reason.
“I am Your Highness’s guard, not Your Highness’s property.”
“I never said you were my property. But shouldn’t my guard protect me?”
“Are you telling me to protect Your Highness from Your Highness’s own maids?”
“It is an order. Do not converse with anyone in this palace except me.”
She could not explain it. Nor did she want to.
Though she had long forgotten the feeling of misery, moments like this left her suffocated by bleak despair.
“……I do not, understand.”
“You do not need to understand. Did you come to Mont Palace because you understood the King’s orders? No, you didn’t. It is the same. Even if you do not understand my orders, obey them.”
“……Understood.”
She had gotten too worked up.
She shouldn’t be like this.
Lately, unlike before, her patience kept wearing thin.
Adelheid quickly smoothed her rigid expression, softly apologized, and sat on a nearby rock.
The palace gates were in plain view before her. She asked in a low voice,
“……Do you think the King will come today? It has been quite a while since his last visit.”
“He is likely busy. It has not been long since the war ended.”
She wished he wouldn’t come.
“Then…… do you think he will not come by for a while?”
“I do not know.”
“Has he found another woman, perhaps?”
Yet he had to come. There could not be another woman besides Adelheid.
Because the moment Anton lost interest in her, he would kill her immediately.
The tightly shut gates seemed to weigh down even her heart.
When would she be able to open these gates and go slay the dragon?
She had attempted to escape several times in previous lives, but the end was always the same: death.
Just thinking about it felt like plunging off a cliff.
“……What order did you receive from the King, Captain?”
“To guard the door.”
“Meaning no one may leave and no one may enter, except the King.”
“…….”
“There are no outsiders who would enter this place. So you only need to keep watch over those inside, Captain.”
“…….”
“There is a sizable library inside. If you enjoy reading, you are welcome to use it whenever you like. At night, the palace itself is locked, so there is no need to guard the door.”
Feeling Dominic’s gaze on her, Adelheid thought to herself.
Did he despise her even now?
Did he find her displeasing even now? Would he still stand there with an utterly expressionless face when Anton killed her?
Of course, it was something that had not happened.
In this life, it did not exist.
After death, everything prior to death became as if it had never occurred.
In this life, Anton had not yet killed Adelheid, Adelheid had not yet died, and Dominic had not yet looked upon Adelheid’s death like that, with such a face, with such eyes.
He had not stood there wearing such an indifferent face.
“Because this place is quite dull.”
Yet Adelheid hated everything that had not happened.
