Verifying the Verified Answers

Translated by: ME

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*****

Unlike the journey there, the carriage ride home was oppressively quiet.

Even when Gerald spoke to them, his wife and son seemed somehow miles away. Realizing they likely needed time to process everything, he decided to stop trying to force a conversation.

We have time.

All they could do now was listen to them as much as possible and explain what they could. By the time they reached the estate, perhaps there would be a slight change in their hearts.

In any case, while he was worried about his daughter, who had been born burdened with a cruel destiny, he was equally concerned for his son, who required constant vigilance.

***

Gazing at the tranquil scenery of Azenda—often called the land of forests and lakes—Gerald reflected on the events that had transpired in that territory.

His father’s "granddaughter fever" was expected, but seeing it in the flesh was... more than he had imagined. If it were anyone else, it might have been amusing, but seeing a family member writhe and swoon so blatantly was a bit awkward to witness.

(Claude is incredible for being able to brush that off with a completely straight face...)

Perhaps it was simply years of practice.

His brusque younger brother, whose default setting was a sullen scowl despite his handsome face, surprisingly turned out to be the caretaking type. He had been looking after his niece with fussy, devoted attention.

And then there were the magic items on his daughter’s head and chest. Just how much had those two poured into those? Their level of commitment to "protecting" her was terrifyingly extreme. Since the mere thought of the price tag was frightening, Gerald chose to look away and pretend he hadn't noticed.

***

After a while, Gerald closed his eyes. This time, he began to trace his older memories.

Around the time the discussion of Servas moving to the territory arose, a vision of an unbelievable future was projected before him through the power of Farsight.

The daughter to be born a few years later would grow up foolish. She would fall in love with a prince and force her way into becoming a candidate for Crown Princess. The Royal Family, coveting the Gilmore family’s wealth and military strength, would attempt to push forward the marriage with Magnolia. However, the prince himself would come to desire marriage with a different woman.

Initially, because he saw images of her receiving Crown Princess education, Gerald broke into a cold sweat thinking she would actually become the Crown Princess. However, it didn't take long for him to realize that wasn't the case.

Gerald had immediately sprung into action.

To distance himself from the Royal Family—about whom he already had certain reservations—he scrapped his plans to join the administrative department and become Prime Minister. As long as he held that position, he would be unable to move freely due to obligations, political situations, and various other entanglements.

Though the pressure from the sidelines had been quite significant... if he were to accidentally be talked into it, it would be nothing but trouble, which was entirely undesirable.

A few years later, a daughter was born, exactly as he had seen in his Farsight. She was strikingly beautiful, a vivid reflection of the Haltia Royal bloodline.

Things that Farsight alone couldn't reveal began to come to light. He also realized the situation was far more serious than he had initially thought.

Matters he believed could be easily resolved when he saw them in his visions turned out to be completely impossible to address or solve due to troublesome circumstances.

*What is the meaning of this horrific situation?* If there were someone in charge, he felt like tracking them down to demand a serious discussion.

The reality was almost exactly as Magnolia had described.

(How on earth did that child learn of this...?)

She called it "speculation," but if so, her powers of observation and deduction were terrifying.

In that future vision, even as the daughter received her education, she learned the prince had another he loved. Consequently, she would go on to cause a wide variety of pointless troubles.

The woman who was the object of the prince’s affection was also a girl who, for some reason, was loved by everyone (mostly men)—a veritable mass of storybook convenience.

(I have plenty I’d like to say about that girl as well, but getting involved seems like a headache...)

It was probably best to stay away. In many ways.

(Why, in that Farsighted future, were both I and my son so captivated by her?)

If such a young lady actually existed, the only three logical options would be to caution her, avoid her, or ignore her.

Furthermore, Gerald was a perfectly normal gentleman. He couldn't imagine harboring romantic feelings for a girl the same age as his daughter. Even now, the idea of falling in love with a girl attending the Academy filled him with nothing but revulsion. Would he really change so much in a few years?

That was terrifying in a completely different sense. He couldn't help but scowl.

Ultimately, the prince would become engaged to the woman he desired, and his daughter would be imprisoned for life in a convent. Taking responsibility, the House of Gilmore would have a massive amount of wealth confiscated.

This was the extent of the flow Magnolia had predicted. A future almost exactly as the child had surmised.

However, though he hadn't spoken of it, his Farsight had shown him a bit of the "aftermath" as well.

That daughter—unfortunate on the inside but exceptionally beautiful on the outside—would capture the heart of an Imperial Prince during her Academy days.

(As for this prince... etcetera, etcetera.)

Upon learning of her imprisonment, that prince would declare war in order to seize the girl for himself.

And around the same time, Servas and Claude, hearing of her imprisonment, would suffer some sort of breakdown. They would re-establish Azenda as the Duchy of Azenda and raise an army in rebellion—

Yes. Troublesomely, the curtains of war would be torn open once again.

While life imprisonment was bad enough, this outbreak of war was catastrophic. He had racked his brain for years on how to avoid it, but...

(I wonder... who is that child, really?)

His daughter was now a completely different person. Though her outward appearance remained the same, the inside was someone else entirely. She had become an average person, just as he had always wished—no, she had become far more than average.

She had become an exceptionally brilliant, reliable child with a very promising future.

(But is that child truly 'Magnolia'?)

Whenever he remembered the tiny, original Magnolia, something faintly scratched at the back of his heart.

***

While it was necessary to continue watching the political situation carefully, she would probably never make those mistakes again.

The debut he had initially seen was gone, replaced by something else. She was living freely and vibrantly in Azenda, becoming a person desired by the people, and standing firmly on her own two feet as someone who could respond to those needs with actual contributions.

One could say the future was already traveling down a different path.

But he could not afford to be careless. Not until he was certain that the power of Farsight had truly missed its mark for the first time. The political situation was always in motion. With a moment's lapse, the rug could be pulled out from under them.

Yes. Until the happy vision he had seen in the coin Magnolia handed him became reality, he had the duty and responsibility to continue watching over her from afar.

Gerald slowly opened his eyes.

Listening to the sound of peaceful breathing, he saw that both his wife and son were sleeping soundly. He readjusted the lap robes that were slipping off each of them and returned his gaze to the passing scenery.

Before he knew it, the carriage had left Azenda and was traveling the roads of the Ascald Kingdom.

Where, exactly, was this road that was supposed to lead to the future headed?

The future that had been fixed had transformed, as it should be, into an undecided one.

(Let it be a happy future, if such a thing is possible.)

He offered a quiet prayer to the sunlight peeking through the gaps in the clouds.

*****

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