7 - The Protagonist Is Getting Off Here
Chapter 7
"My mom always wore this around her neck. She never showed it to anyone but me. She gave it to me that day."
If it was given to Leon in that urgent situation before he was hidden in the closet, it must be a very important item.
Something that people in the know would recognize, perhaps a token to find a specific person.
"Can I take a look for a second?"
"Yeah."
If Leon were just a few years older, he wouldn't have easily handed over such an important item to someone else.
Leon seemed to trust me completely now.
I stood up and held the pendant up to the moonlight coming through the window.
'There are no letters written on it.'
If there was a name written on it, Leon would have known who he was looking for.
What was engraved on the pendant wasn't a letter, but some kind of pattern.
'Wait a minute.'
I think I've seen this before?
While I was whispering with Leon, the <Comments> <Fairy>s, who had been quiet, suddenly started to get noisy.
└[No way, no way]
└[Huh?? Is it really going that way?]
'Is this it? The cliché the <Comments> <Fairy>s were talking about?!'
I looked at Leon with surprised eyes.
Leon's gray eyes, revealed by his disheveled bangs as he looked up at me, resembled someone vaguely in my memory.
'Crazy. To think he's really from the <Duke Clark> family.'
After sending the real Leon back to his room, I returned to my bed, but I couldn't easily fall asleep due to the shocking truth.
The pattern engraved on the necklace Leon had.
That was the crest of the <Clark family>, one of the <Duke> families in this <Develoa> Empire.
'Not just the family crest, but the crest that only direct descendants can use!'
The reason I know this is because before the <Regression>, <Count Torto> tried so hard to build a cooperative relationship with <Duke Clark>.
The aristocratic faction, led by <Count Torto>, had more newly emerging nobles and fewer prominent families compared to the imperial faction, so they did their best to win over <Duke Clark>.
'<Duke Clark> certainly wasn't in the imperial faction. If anything, neutral?'
He didn't seem unwilling to choose a faction, and he actually exchanged letters with <Count Torto> a few times.
He always had me bring him the secret documents instead of having his secretary do it, so I saw the crest stamped on them.
Besides, there was another reason why I remembered him so vividly.
'His name came up often in social circles.'
<Duke Clark> hadn't married or had an heir for a long time after inheriting the title.
So, it was inevitable that the young ladies would talk about it.
-<Duke Clark>, does he have no intention of marrying? I heard he recently rejected a meeting with the <Marquis Nayet>'s daughter.
-Oh my. The <Marquis>'s daughter must have been very heartbroken. She must have mustered quite a bit of courage.
One of the few <Duke> families in this country, an unmarried head of the family. The term 'marriageable age' naturally didn't apply to him.
He had a sharp impression but always maintained a neat demeanor, which attracted the attention of the young ladies.
-Seeing how little interest he has in women... could it be that he has a lover separately?
-If so, there would be no reason not to marry that person.
-It's just my guess, but that necklace.
Necklace.
<Duke Clark> sometimes wore a mottled necklace that didn't match his outfit.
It was naturally noticeable that he, who should only possess the most expensive and best items, wore an old and worn necklace, and there were many rumors about it.
-If he cherishes it so much, wouldn't it be an item from someone precious to him?
It must be a memento of someone, that someone must be a lover who passed away without being able to marry. The rumors grew as they passed through people's mouths.
The story that he was single-mindedly looking at his separated lover and commemorating her further shook the hearts of the young ladies.
'Is the one Leon has a matching piece to that necklace?'
Unlike the necklace that the <Duke> wore, Leon's necklace maintained a smooth silver color.
It's not a material that would easily change color.
└[Was it scorched by fire?]
……I was just about to reach that thought too.
The <Duke> who had no son. The blackened necklace. The future orphanage fire.
The scattered puzzle pieces began to form a single picture.
'Then Leon was also caught in the fire?!'
The necklace that was burned at that time went through some process and ended up in <Duke Clark>'s hands.
Wasn't he constantly longing for his dead lover and son while keeping the necklace?
└[Wow, you could write a <Romance Fantasy> just with the father's story]
The <Comments> <Fairy>s, who called <Count Torto> a <Count> bastard, became polite in their titles for the <Duke>, calling him 'Father'.
Yeah. The <Duke> is that great of a person.
'That <Duke>'s son is here!'
<Cliché>s are scary.
How did the <Comments> <Fairy>s know all this?
└[I'm feeling the reward of reading a lot here]
└[As expected, people should read a lot of books]
The books in the <Fairy> world seem to contain tremendous knowledge.
Anyway, the orphanage fire, which I had vaguely thought of as something in the future, suddenly felt real.
'A future that hasn't happened yet…….'
I had thought about it before.
If avoiding <Count Torto> was the only important thing, I could have <Regression>ed to just before he came, but what was the reason for coming back to this time?
If it wasn't a randomly selected point in time, but if there was something I had to do at this time that I came back to this time?
'Leon's family affairs, even the orphanage fire.'
I can change everything now.
And maybe that's the way for me to live as 'Rose'.
While the goal of my second life became clear, it also became more vague.
'……Isn't it too much of a responsibility to solve with a five-year-old's body?'
Of course, I'm not an ordinary five-year-old, and I have memories of the future, but.
└[Don't forget the <Comments> <Fairy>s]
……There's also a strange voice next to me that keeps encouraging me.
I was worried about whether I, who had already been burned to death once, could really overcome the fire.
It's not like I have any special superpowers like divine power.
└[Plot point]
└[<Saint> awakening]
└[Am I actually going the real <Saint> route?]
└[They mixed the <cliché>s like they're seasoning a salad]
Another <cliché> this time? After princess and <Duke>'s daughter, it's <Saint>.
'<Saint>s don't come out of the temple often, so I've only seen one once, really far away.'
└[That's a fake <Saint>]
……How can they be so blasphemous.
They matched Leon's secret of birth wonderfully, but they were still <Comments> <Fairy>s who just threw out anything they saw.
The lost trust had returned a little, but I couldn't completely believe them, so I decided to believe only half of what the <Comments> <Fairy>s said.
And by a fifty-fifty chance…… this blasphemous remark was decided to be ignored.
Only a day had passed, but my worries had increased considerably.
'I can't avoid death by adoption.'
It's not just the other children who are in danger because of the orphanage fire.
At that time, I was also close enough to the flames that the ends of my hair were burned.
Besides, if the orphanage burns down, the stingy <Director> who lost her job will wander outside and bring <Count Torto>!
"Sigh……."
My shoulders were heavy, and I sighed deeply when someone grabbed my hand.
"Rose."
Sharing a secret with a child is a very, very important thing.
It was no different from acknowledging them as your ally.
Perhaps that's why Leon, whom I met this morning, started to treat me kindly with a completely different attitude from yesterday when the cold wind was blowing.
"Leon. Did you sleep well? You didn't have any bad dreams again, did you?"
"Yeah. I was okay. What about Rose?"
"Me? Well."
Last night, Leon's nightmare seemed to have moved to me, and I had a dream of falling into a sea of fire…….
Still, I was glad that Leon, who had always kept his mouth shut, could now have a normal conversation.
"Hey! A boy is just sticking to a girl from the morning. If you're going to do that, why don't you just live in the girls' room?"
"……."
"Ugh! Frustrating!"
Hmm. He opens his mouth depending on who he's talking to.
Jeff, who was ignored by Leon again, stomped away. When will he realize that the more he talks to Leon, the more he gets ignored?
Leon was only looking at me as if Jeff didn't even exist.
"If I leave,"
"Yeah?"
Yesterday, I said I would help Leon as much as I could.
I found out that Leon died here before the <Regression>, so how could I just pretend I didn't know?
Leon seemed to have hope after hearing my words.
"Will Rose go with me then?"
"Hmm. I'm thinking of leaving here someday too."
"Then let's go together. With me."
└[Is this a proposal?]
└[I <Regression>ed and became the <Duke>'s family's daughter-in-law?]