The Discussion is Losing It's Way

Translated by: ME

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*****

After dinner, a meeting was held in the drawing room. Servas watched Magnolia with a worried gaze; it was rare for her to have so little appetite.

While it was customary for the hosts and guests to dine together, they had opted for separate meals to avoid the mutual awkwardness of the situation.

「Are you all right, Magnolia? If you're too exhausted or feeling unwell, it's perfectly fine for you to go rest, you know?」

「...No... there are things I must ask Father.」

Seeing her shake her head weakly, Servas and Claude exchanged a look.

「This seems like it’s going to be more troublesome than I thought,」 Claude remarked.

「...What have you been thinking about so intensely all this time?」 he asked Magnolia with genuine concern.

「It's still just speculation... and not the sort of thing one should speak of lightly, but I wonder if Father will speak to me plainly, without trying to dodge the questions.」

「...That man hates showing his true heart, after all... Regardless, it is certain he is hiding something.」

Magnolia and Claude both nodded at Servas’s convinced tone.

***

Since children were involved on both sides, the discussion was convened immediately after the meal.

As he walked silently down the dim corridor, Brian rehearsed the words he needed to say over and over in his head, swallowing the sighs that threatened to escape.

Normally, one would apologize, the other would accept it, there would be a lecture on self-reflection, and that would be the end of it. However, Brian was terrified in his heart of what Magnolia—with her sharp tongue—might say to him.

Gerald had instructed him to apologize without talking back, no matter how much anger might well up. Brian knew this well, but he was desperately worried that he might lose his temper again and say something he shouldn't.

Wisteria, too, had been warned not to say anything unnecessary, and for once, she had simply nodded in silence.

Magnolia nodded at the apology delivered with stiff expressions.
「Understood. I accept your apology.」

The members of the main Gilmore house were all taken aback by the swift resolution, but they let out a breath of relief, glad that things hadn't turned more complicated.

「...In exchange, Father. Please tell me everything you know.」

With a strong, certain voice, Magnolia met Gerald’s gaze head-on with her ibis-colored eyes.

***

Gerald maintained his usual poker face, but he stared at Magnolia with searching eyes.

「...Everything I know?」

Gerald repeated the words as if to confirm them, and Magnolia gave a firm nod.

Sensing the atmosphere, Lily and Gai, who were waiting by the wall, bowed silently and left the room.

Gerald looked away from Magnolia and glanced at Servas and Claude.
(…So this isn't on their orders...)

Both men seemed content to watch the events unfold, but seeing Magnolia's strained intensity, they appeared—uncharacteristically—a bit tense themselves.

「I don't particularly know anything, though?」

He wondered what Magnolia meant by "everything you know."

「That cannot possibly be true, can it? What is it you are aware of?」

If it were the intuitive Servas, he might have suspected something, but since the ability of "Farsight" was riddled with flaws—other than the fact that its visions always came true—Gerald had never told anyone except for a brief, vague mention to Wisteria.

(…Could it be Victor?)

He thought of his old acquaintance, recalling their interaction earlier today, but quickly dismissed the idea.

The girl before him was not the Magnolia of the past. She was wise, rational, and sharp-witted. He had to respond carefully to avoid saying too much and accidentally revealing his hand. He must not let her know the reality—a reality far too cruel, involving life and death.

「I do not know the reason, but you know my future, don't you, Father?」

「...Future?」

Seeing that Gerald’s stalling wasn't getting her anywhere, Magnolia apparently decided to jump straight to the heart of the matter.

(…How did she come to believe I know the future?)

This was a first.

The power of Farsight didn't allow one to see exactly what they wanted; the eras and scenes appeared in fragments, making it difficult to understand everything. The longer the timeline one saw, the more gaps there were—things unseen. A large part of it relied on using one's existing knowledge and information to speculate and judge.

However, the things he *did* see were futures that inevitably occurred. Until now.

He had spent his life wishing he could be certain that a vision had missed the mark and that a different future was possible... but now, just as signs of that change were appearing, he was being cornered and told to reveal everything.

***

Magnolia, for her part, was struggling with how to convey her thoughts and how much she should actually say.

Likely, the content would be shocking to everyone. It would be a painful truth for Servas especially. He would learn the reason why he lost his mother and his wife.

How would they all feel if they knew that the deaths of their kin were brought about by Magnolia’s very existence? Normally, they would find it eerie. They might even feel the fear that they could be next.

Likely, Gerald feared exactly that. And he was trying to prevent Magnolia from being deeply hurt by the knowledge.

—However, she felt that unless she broke through from that angle, he would only continue to dodge and weave around the truth.

「...Would you speak to me if we were alone? Or, if there are people here who should not hear this, would you like them to leave the room?」

Alarms blared in Gerald’s head. He didn't know why, but Magnolia knew something definitive. And she knew it with absolute certainty. He took a deep, conscious breath to calm his shallow respiration.

(The one I most want to keep this from is you, Magnolia.)

That being said, since he didn't know what she knew or didn't know, he couldn't make the first move. He had no choice but to let her show her cards—Magnolia’s hand.

If she truly knew everything, he wouldn't be able to deceive her.

He hesitated over whether he should at least have Brian leave the room, but he decided to let him stay. It was an almost unbelievable story, and he likely wouldn't have many opportunities to explain it.

「...The power of Farsight—it is the power of the spirits, isn't it?」 Servas murmured with conviction.

「The power of Farsight?」

「The Haltia Royal Family is said to have the ability to cause mysterious phenomena using the power of spirits and fairies,」 Servas explained to the tilting Magnolia.

「Originally, it seems many people could use it, but they say that over time, as bloodlines mixed, almost everyone lost the ability. The Haltia Royal Family is said to have retained a relatively large amount of that spirit power. That blood flows in us as well, but we lack the power to influence spirits or fairies; at most, we can only feel a faint glimmer of ability.」

「...So, Father used this 'Farsight' to either predict the future or see through things?」

「............」

As Gerald remained silent, Servas glanced at him.

「Most likely, he cannot do it intentionally. We, who aren't even genetic throwbacks, shouldn't have that much power. Something is shown to him at the whim of the fairies, regardless of his own will.」

「...What a troublesome power,」 Magnolia sighed with genuine distaste.

Gerald remained silent, seemingly lost in thought. Wisteria and Brian, faces filled with disbelief, stared at Gerald in unison. Claude sat with a grim expression, finger to his chin as he pondered.

「My guess is... that you probably saw a future that was quite unfavorable for 'me,' and you've been acting to avoid it.」

She explained her belief that it likely involved the Ascald Royal Family. Something bad was going to happen because of that—and depending on the situation, it might not stop with just Magnolia—so he was acting to avoid that future.

「Otherwise, it doesn't fit your original personality or actions, Father. Not becoming the Prime Minister, not debuting me, the way of life at the main estate... it was all part of 'avoiding something,' wasn't it?」

She spoke with conviction, but Gerald merely listened in silence. He said neither yes nor no.

「...If it were just a matter of avoidance, was there really a need to take such extreme measures?」

Claude’s question was perfectly reasonable.

However, even if she were to say, "This is a fictional world, or a reality that mirrors one," she wouldn't be understood at all. It would only end with her being thought of as insane or a pathological liar.

To Magnolia's knowledge, she had no memory of a light novel or game set in the Ascald Kingdom. She had only skimmed them to kill time and didn't play many games (she thought), so she had next to no knowledge of that sort.

(Ugh! Why did you reincarnate someone like me?! If I don't have any knowledge, I'm completely useless!!)

If it were *just* a world that reflected a general aesthetic, there would be no problem. Because it would just be a "so-and-so style world."

But what if this place, like a fictional world... was trying to move history and events forward in the same way? What if reality was moving according to the original plot?

「...This is just a guess, but it’s because a 'Compelling Force' occurs, and you are resisting it.」

「A Compelling Force?」

Magnolia nodded. Except for Servas and Claude, no one knew that Magnolia was a reincarnator (or a transporter). Telling them that now would only make things more complicated.

She struggled to explain in a way they would understand without using light novel concepts or terminology.

「Supposing there is a future with a strong binding force. Things move straight toward that future. For one, things are set up conveniently to progress toward that future. Secondly, if you try to change it, things shift or nudge themselves back to the original path.」

「...You mean the future is already decided?」

Everyone except Gerald wore expressions of bewilderment. (Well, of course they are...)

The future is something you create to some extent through your own actions. That’s why people put in effort and work hard. That is normal.

(Darn it... I don't feel like I can explain this well at all!)

Not even slightly!
She furrowed her brow and pulled her mouth into a frown. It was the exact same expression her habitually grumpy uncle made.

「For example... well, until I was three, wasn't I a gloomy, idiotic dunderhead?」

「...Dunderhead...?」
「「「「............」」」」

Gerald couldn't help but repeat the word. Servas and Claude thought she had finally started being blunt because the roundabout explanation was getting tedious. Wisteria and Brian blinked at Magnolia’s harsh self-criticism.

Amidst the awkward atmosphere, Magnolia continued her explanation.

*****

Note: The whole Gilmore Gang is in the room.

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