DYTDWSY - Epilogue

Epilogue

In the vision, my mother had been plotted against by my legal father and by my stepmother, who was already his mistress, to make her death look like an accident, and if she somehow survived that, she would eventually be poisoned and made to look as if she had died of illness.

To prevent that, I persuaded my mother and convinced my retired grandfather, the former marquis, as well as my sensible uncle, the Duke, and urged them to flee into exile together with my kind aunt and their cute nephews and nieces. Of course, only the trustworthy servants who had always protected us, beginning with the butler, would accompany us.

Huh? But since we aren’t actually related by blood, they weren’t really my uncles or nephews and nieces by blood, were they? Ah well, such details don’t matter.

Come to think of it, in the vision, my uncle’s ducal family had moved before the kingdom’s conflict to the western elf nation where magic was advanced. Perhaps the fairies who contracted with us sensed the danger and the higher spirits lent a hand through them.

But in this life, they safely remained in the Empire. Whatever the particulars, I was glad we could at least save the people we trusted.

Through my grandfather and those who fled earlier, and using the public story we’d prepared when we explained things then, we contacted His Majesty Emperor Linerlander of the Empire and my true father, His Grace the Duke Argentblanc, and requested asylum in the Empire. Though my grandmother, the former imperial princess, had supposedly died of a contagious illness in the story, the period of peace was long enough, and so they accepted our plea and we fled to the Empire.

“Mother, why did you believe me when I told you that the Spirit Kings showed me the vision?” 

“Hehe… actually, I too have been shown a vision,” 

“But when I was shown a vision, I was shown that if I became a Saintess, the surrounding nations in collusion with the Kingdom would abduct me, and I would be used up by the current Emperor and the cardinals and suffer terribly — the same as what you described.

“I begged the Spirit Kings not to give me power, because I didn’t want it. I wanted to live as an ordinary woman.”

“However, once I lost that power, all of my memories of the vision were sealed until you persuaded me. There had originally been the option of using the vision to become a Saintess within the Empire and wield that power skillfully to live happily, but because I begged the Spirit Kings to take the power away, there was no way to avoid war with the surrounding nations, and in the end a small war did happen.”

“Moreover, the Empire didn’t recognize me as an important person; though I wasn’t exactly sold as a hostage, I was handed over to the Kingdom as a kind of bargaining pawn.”

“Because of that, I left you behind and caused you to suffer…”

“Now, if we’ve fled, what do you want to do from here on?”

“I will use my power in the Empire — my grandmother’s homeland — to help the people. Of course, I won’t let myself be used again.”

However, during the escape, we were almost attacked by thugs apparently hired by my legal father and mother. The Spirit Kings used their power to create corpses so uncanny that they looked exactly like my real mother, me, the butler, and our faithful servants. They were more than happy to stage the deaths for us. 

With the protection of my uncle’s knights, elite soldiers sent by His Majesty the Emperor, and the favor of the Spirit Kings, we just barely escaped and slipped across the border.

And of course, by the time we reached the Empire I had restored my true hair color and eye color, so when I reunited with my grandfather and Havana. I also met the Emperor and the duke — who I should have been meeting for the first time, and yet, they inexplicably cried for us.

When my mother and I returned to the Empire, His Majesty the Emperor and my true father the duke were furious at how my legal father and his people in the Kingdom had treated us. If the powerful Empire publicly declared that the alliance by peace was no longer meaningful, then the surrounding countries and those alliances would have no reason to protect the Kingdom.

Knowing that the marquisate would inevitably fall into ruin and that the Kingdom would probably be destroyed no matter what, I took refuge in the Empire. By the Emperor’s arrangement, my uncle’s family — who had been granted count and viscount ranks and some modest lands — my grandfather, my true father the empire’s duke, and my mother, who in the restored timeline were now alive, together watched the Kingdom’s fall with grave feeling…

“Originally the alliance was supposed to be based on lending Cousin Cinnamon and Lilac to the Kingdom for a long time as a pledge,” Emperor SilverMartin Linerlander said, his shining platinum-blond hair bristling with anger, his golden eyes clouded with bewilderment and pity. “Princess Saten and Sir Fajilopp should have been united, but publicly forcing the Empire into marriage bonds over three generations was an affront to the Empire.

“Now that the bargain has been broken, no one can complain if we treat the alliance as if it had never existed.”

Moreover

Those people said that anything that doesn’t bend to their will, anything they dislike, should be killed without reason — that it ought to die.

If that is their way, then if one of our beloved children or someone they themselves disliked were to be killed or die without reason, would it not be only fair that they accept the same?

One who is willing to take life should be prepared to have their own life taken in return.

So spoke the Spirit King. They had scorned the very child they might have used to bring prosperity to the Kingdom in the future; they had misinterpreted, twisted the words of the fortune-teller (who in truth was the Spirit King in disguise), and offered her as a sacrifice and then abandoned her. Those people, seeing the future as useless, had even taken away their own ability to bear children.

Similarly, because the people of that nation had mocked me, they incurred the wrath of the Spirit King and the fairies: those who were pregnant suffered stillbirths or miscarriages, and for everyone else the ability to pass life on to the next generation was taken away.

I wonder how long it will take them to notice that new children will never be born to them again?

It will be amusing when those who left the country and married abroad are despised merely because their spouse is from that land and cannot have children.

Ah, but rest assured: I shall spare your beloved grandfather and the servants and the lawyer, and the family who were once dukes but are now counts in the Empire. I will protect them with my favor until their descendants lose their sense of decency.

The Spirit King laughed, and the retribution upon the people of the Lionhead Kingdom — except for the Silverfox count’s family — was terrifying. Yet having experienced that vision, I felt nothing; it was as if it happened to someone else.

You feel nothing not because you are coldhearted.

You were forced to experience the agony of having life taken from you without reason; your capacity for true feeling was killed.

You endured such horrific experiences that there is nothing to be ashamed of or sorrowful about.

So they comforted me.

By the Spirit King’s vengeance, there was no need to wage direct war; the Lionhead Kingdom would gradually decay on its own, so there was no need to exhaust people and troops in futile conflicts. However, should the Lionhead Kingdom ever attack seeking supplies, food, or new manpower, the neighboring countries were permitted to defend themselves.

Moreover, His Majesty the Emperor added small economic sanctions and cut off trade and the flow of merchants and goods, accelerating the Kingdom’s collapse.

Furthermore, because more humans had shown themselves willing to exploit the fairies’ beloved child, the fairies stopped revealing themselves and lending their power except to those with genuine hearts. Of course, in countries like the Lionhead Kingdom, where people had abused and exploited their fairy-loved child and sought only to take their blessings, the fairies disappeared entirely.

Author's Note

m(_ _)m — At first I thought I’d try another loop/return just on a whim for this story, but my pen barely moved and my motivation dragged on (sweat). Thank you very much for reading this clumsy piece of fiction to the end despite the time it took.

< Chapter 4 - ToC