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The Tale of the Wizrain Kingdom

To Each of Their Own Night

Translated by: S3

Treat me to a Ko-Fi to give me more motivation!!!

*****

「Well, things are going to get busy tomorrow.」 Elna said as she gave a long stretch.

Cross was already gone. He had tried to leave through the window, but she had forced him to use the door, telling him she’d had quite enough of that. Cross had grumbled about how troublesome it was to worry about being seen, but she had snapped back that walking on the roof was no different. She hoped her words had actually reached him.

She had spent much more time than planned before going to bed. She really needed to get under the covers quickly, but there was one more thing she had to check.

「...There is one more thing I need to confirm.」

Elna stared at the door where Cross had departed, but her eyes flicked quickly toward the side chest by her bed. Something small and brown had been moving restlessly there, and there was no way she had missed it.

「I am sleeping, I am sleeping, I am sleeping...」

Submerged in its own bed with only its backside sticking out and muttering fake sleep-talk was, of course, the hamster spirit. Elna crept closer to it.

「...Hey, were you watching?」

Specifically, the part where Cross almost kissed her. The hamster spirit’s short tail shook violently.

Elna looked down at the tail in silence. Had the creature realized its own mistake? The backside was pulled into the bedding, and she could see a small lump moving under the cloth. After a moment, the movement stopped.

「Sleep...」

Elna waited in silence, as if telling it to say whatever it wanted to say.

「I am a sleeping hamster. My round eyes saw nothing at all... I am sleeping soundly.」

「It’s obvious you’re faking it!」

「Since I am a sleeping hamster, I didn’t see anything with my little eyes...」

「I’m sorry for making you worry! Cross just showed up so suddenly, didn't he?」

Usually, it was quick to hide, but it seemed it hadn't made it in time. To be honest, Elna had also completely forgotten she had a roommate.

「I’ll be more careful next time...!」

Elna apologized profusely to the hamster spirit as the early summer night deepened.

***

At the same time, Cross stood alone, sighing as he looked out at the nighttime garden. This was the corridor that Elna usually cleaned with such care. He had made it this far without being seen after leaving her room, so he figured he was safe now. He leaned against a pewter-colored arch and sighed a second time.

Although the heat was gradually approaching, the night was still cool. With every breath of wind, the trees were gently brushed, and the breeze vanished as it lightly lifted Cross’s bangs. This revealed his cold, handsome features, stripped of the expressions he usually showed only to Elna.

「If only I had more power...」

He couldn't afford to show weakness. Cross only expressed his inner feelings when he was alone like this. Spirits gathered quietly around him, huddling close in concern or offering comfort, but since he lacked the sight to see them, he didn't notice. He was completely alone in the dim night. Feeling that isolation, he let out a heavy sigh and looked up at the sky.

He wanted to see her right now.

「Don't be a fool. You just saw her.」

Cross frowned, as if disgusted by his own emotions. Being with Elna naturally brightened his spirits. But that feeling was fleeting; like a bag with a hole in the bottom, it wouldn't stay full, and as soon as they were apart, anxiety swirled in his chest once more.

A single decision of his could shake the nation.

It was simply too heavy.

(And am I even making those decisions correctly, reaching conclusions as my own thoughts...?)

He could hear the voices of past kings. It was the voice of a hero who knew no fear.

—Come now, what is there to fear? This entire country—all of it—is mine. Why should we be threatened by other nations? Marls, the Empire... we should just take it all into our hands. It's as simple as that!

(Shut up...)

No. Vaid was not such a man. He knew that. And yet, he was being misled by the mingling memories of the past and their phantoms.

This country belongs to me. No one can complain about how I handle it.

Cross immediately rejected the terrifying emotion that welled up. It was a lie. No, these were memories of the past. There was no way he would think such a thing. But could he truly stand tall and swear that he hadn't thought it, even in the slightest?

Whenever his thoughts stopped there, he felt that he should perhaps disappear from this country. It was a question he had repeated since he was a child. But one day, on a night like this, he would hear a single voice.

—Just do your best! As a wise king, not a foolish one, continue to strive to protect this small, precarious nation!

His vision, which had been as murky as mud, had changed into the quiet twinkling of the night. The sound of insects chirping could be heard occasionally, vanishing into the wind.

Elna didn't know. She didn't know what those words meant to Cross, or how they had changed this heavy, dim world into something bright.

There was one more woman who had significantly changed Cross's life.

She was a woman with a robust physique and heart, nothing like Elna. She, who looked like a mirror image of him, was his biological older sister. After their father and mother died in quick succession, she had married into another country to protect the nation and Cross, who had become a king in name only, providing a foothold to gain assistance.

How many people could truly deny that she had been a human sacrifice? It was an event so far in the past that young Feliol didn't even remember her face, and Cross had even less power then, with no way to stop it.

He could pile up excuses forever. He could look away, saying there was no other choice.

Still just a boy, Cross hadn't been able to look into her eyes on the day she left the country to be married. However, his sister had firmly grabbed his cheeks.

「I don't know what it is.」

His sister looked just like him. However, her eyes were a deep green, just like their mother's.

「Cross. I can tell you're carrying something heavy, something beyond your position.」

He had never told anyone about the past memories. At the time, he felt a fear of being seen as a heretic, thinking the memories of Vaid he held might just be a delusion. He had tried to pull away, but his sister wouldn't allow it.

「I'm not trying to interrogate you about it. It might not be me, but it could be Feliol or Commonwald. Someday, you will meet a partner or a friend who can share your suffering.」

Gripped with enough force to make his cheeks turn red, he wasn't allowed even a twitch; he could only stare at the woman who shared his face. Strangely, those forest-deep green eyes seemed to be burning fiercely.

「Listen. I'm not going outside the country just to be a hostage. I'm setting out to be loved. I will surely win the love of the King, my husband. Even if that wish doesn't come true, it will only be because my own efforts were lacking. Never, ever make me one of your burdens.」

「That would be unpleasant.」 his sister had spat out irritably.

They weren't the words of a kind sister who didn't want to be a burden to Cross, but rather the words a knight would speak on the battlefield to protect his pride.

If it hadn't been for those words, Cross might have fled from his position as King long ago. He had gritted his teeth, at least until he could raise a successor, but even those feelings had been seen through by Elna. Now, he had decided in his heart to continue serving this country, even if he had to work himself to the bone.

He had heard rumors that his sister and the King she had married were now called a devoted couple and were on very good terms. His sister had successfully seized that outcome with her own strong hands.

「That's right. If I keep striving, I'll be able to see ahead eventually.」

A cool breeze brushed against Cross's cheek. The scent of deep greenery wafted by. When he took a deep breath and let it out softly, he saw a small white speck in the sky. It grew larger and larger, the faint sound of wings flapping echoing in the silence of the night. It was a single white pigeon.

The pigeon slowly came to rest on the tip of Cross's finger.

Cross blinked his long eyelashes for just a moment, and the pigeon was gone. In its place was a single letter. There was only one person who could have sent it. Looking inside, he found the usual troublesome phrasing—the kind that Elna would misunderstand if she saw it.

It felt strange to think that his sister was the one coming up with this text, but perhaps the same mischievous blood flowed in both of them. However, Cross vowed to complain and ask her to stop next time.

The text appeared playful at first glance, but it could be read differently if followed by a certain set of rules. As he confirmed the contents, Cross's face twisted into a deeply troubled expression.

「The Empire has begun to move...」

The hand holding the letter naturally tightened. Cross took a deep breath and narrowed his golden eyes.

「It's likely still only a possibility... but we need to be prepared so that we can move at any time.」

He immediately accepted the situation calmly and looked forward. Then, to draft a reply to his sister, he hurried through the nighttime castle and vanished.