Priscipe returned to the dorm with Malia, and they had many conversations, most of which were about Vanessa.
Malia always added the title "Ms." after Vanessa's name, but she smiled nervously as if she found that unusual.
It's been years since she was caught committing treason and executed, so what do titles matter now?
As if she had read what was on Precipe's mind, Malia smiled and opened her lips to speak.
“When she was in this village, she was known only as Vanessa, but as soon as she left, the nickname was added to her.”
“But she was gone a long time ago, even dead.”
“That is why you never returned to this village.”
In other words, to Malia, Vanessa will forever be “Ms. Vanessa.”
She said this while smiling bitterly.
According to Malia, Vanessa was born and raised in this village.
“I believe she had barely reached adulthood when she caught the attention of the late Emperor.”
This was during the “Hunting Festival” as well.
That cursed event.
“Every time the Forbidden Forest Hunting Festival was held, the nobles would stay in this village. Although it was a backward area, and they would complain about it, it was the only village nearby, and they had no other choice.”
There was nothing special about it.
A poor border region, suffering from recurring famines, and constantly overrun by monsters.
A young woman raised in poverty and misery, destined to become a mere concubine thanks to her youth and beauty.
An ordinary story, even a very common one.
“After the Hunting Festival ended, His Majesty returned to the capital first, while Lady Vanessa stayed in the village preparing to move to the Imperial Palace by order of the Emperor. I think it took about a week. On the day of her departure, the Imperial Knights came to take her away.”
But as Malia recounted the details of what happened before Vanessa left, she seemed a little hesitant.
"Did something special happen? To my mother?"
“Two days before she left for the palace, she was found unconscious in the Forbidden Forest.”
At that moment, Precipe remembered Ivan's speech.
He had stated that anyone who entered the Forbidden Forest had to have their name entered in the records, whether they left it alive or dead.
And Vanessa, before she became a concubine, had her name on that register.
“It made a lot of noise, which is normal. She was going to be an imperial concubine, so what if she got hurt or died there? She struggled all her life, and finally got a chance to get out of this misery.”
But why?
Why did you go there?
What led her to enter that dangerous forest?
“There is a small path on the western side of the village that leads to the Forbidden Forest. No one uses it anymore... but it was found there.”
“Did she say something when she woke up?”
"I don't think so. I think she was just crying."
Malia said that entering the Forbidden Forest was incomprehensible, but perhaps she suddenly became frightened when she realized that she was leaving her hometown for the Imperial Palace, so she burst into tears.
But Precipe didn't think so.
Maybe Vanessa had another reason.
Maybe it was her father, Preseppe's father.
“The day before she left, she called me and asked me for a promise.”
"…a promise?"
“Yes. I still remember it well because it was a bit strange.”
Malia shook her head in confusion, then continued.
"If anyone comes asking where she is, I have to tell them she's dead. I don't have to say anything else, no matter what. It may come today, or ten years later, or even decades later, but no matter what, I have to do it."
But who would ask about it?
“You know, Lady Vanessa was an orphan. She lost her mother here, and her father left in search of money and never came back. That's why I found her request strange. There was no one to ask about her.”
True, there may be “no one” to ask about it.
But what if he's not human?
“When I heard the news of her execution, I thought for a moment...”
Malia spoke cautiously, hesitating as she looked at Presibe.
“She wondered if the person she expected was a man she loved.”
But she quickly shook her head no.
“No, I don’t think so. If she had a lover, he wouldn’t have needed to come here. He could have gone to the Imperial Palace to find out about her. Everyone was talking about her when she became a concubine.”
Yes, this is correct. She was not a noblewoman, but a poor girl who became an imperial concubine.
"Even if she was truly guilty of treason, Omar Preseppe reveals the truth. She became pregnant the year she became a concubine."
"…This is correct."
“Which means she met a man in this village. But in a small village like this, if she was in a relationship with someone, word would have spread quickly. And I would have known about it for sure.”
“…”
"But there was no evidence of that even once. I never saw anyone coming or going from Vanessa's house."
Malia seemed to not believe Vanessa had committed treason.
She just thought that poor Vanessa, who had no background to support her, had made the other wives of the Emperor and the Empress jealous, so the charges against her were fabricated and she ended up like this.
Precipe didn't say anything.
Because she felt bad about Malia's feelings, she continued to use respectful language when talking about Vanessa until now.
"Although this does worry me a bit, she's probably just confused by everything that happened, right? In fact, Vanessa has always been an eccentric person in some ways."
Malia said this while recounting her memories with Vanessa.
Stories that she wasn't that special, just like she became the emperor's concubine because of her beauty.
Before she left, Malia finally said:
“Presippi looks a lot like Vanessa.”
And despite her audacity to say this, she is grateful that Preseppe was raised so well.
“So, now Vanessa can rest in peace.”
“……”
Presibe sat on her old, creaky, rickety bed, and seemed lost in deep thought.
“It is clear that she committed treason, and it is also clear that her partner was not a human being.”
No, it's not. If we look at the details, it is likely that she hid her pregnancy and was forcibly dragged to the imperial palace to become a concubine.
Prisippi muttered to herself, “But I don’t understand why you asked me to go to the Forbidden Forest.”
If she meant her hometown, she would have told her to go to the village.
She couldn't have sent her only daughter to such a dangerous place, even if she was such a weirdo.
“Did she want me to go find my father, since he was a monster…?”
If so, perhaps she was at least hoping he would protect me?
Prisippi tilted her head to the side, puzzled.
“Damn, this doesn't make any sense.”
So far, things had made sense in a way, but the bigger problem was something else entirely.
How does Precipe's true background relate to the male hero of this story?
"She couldn't have said that in vain. It must have been a hint or something."
However, according to all the evidence so far, there was no real hero in the capital or the imperial palace.
So, is it possible that a real hero is... a monster?
“Such ridiculous talk.”
Prisippi laughed sarcastically to herself.
“If I had known it would come to this, I would have paid attention to what Siegfried was saying when I was trying to get closer to him.”
He was saying that he killed a dragon just three years after joining the Knights, and that he received a holy sword because of it...
“That idiot, he was talking nonstop, and I wasn’t even listening to him.”
In Siegfried's path, Priscipe always listened to him with a blank stare.
Of course, from Siegfried's perspective, it didn't seem like that.
“What a bad coincidence, we always miss things when we need them.”
Oh, maybe this expression is not appropriate here?
Anyway, you useless crazy man.
Prisippi was humming and fiddling with her hair, lost in thought, when...
“……Excuse me, but do we really have to use it as medicine?”
Fenric's voice suddenly rang out.
When she raised her head in astonishment, she saw Fenric leaning against the doorway of the room, staring directly at her.