CHAPTER 2

"You can check here. Well then, Sir Gray. Do your best!"

Leaving the librarian's small cheer behind, Adel frantically began searching through the materials.

She checked documents until the sun set and all the lamps inside the library were lit, and continued until the sun rose again and the lamps were extinguished.

Yet even after reading this much, she couldn't find anything noteworthy. Because the king had wanted to erase his traces.

From the remaining materials, Vincent had followed a typical noble's path, successfully entered the academy—an ordinary, ill-tempered person. Though he hadn't graduated.

For a villain's past, there was nothing particularly unusual.

Except his upbringing was somewhat extraordinary.

'He was abused...'

In this society, a certain degree of discipline toward children was permitted. But the House of Rogato had crossed that line.

He wasn't even a prisoner of war—how could they do such things to their own son?

The contents were so horrific that even reading them was difficult.

Naturally, Adel's expression crumpled as she read. She had thought she'd become numb to violent situations after experiencing war.

But the terrible abuse the child had suffered made her stomach churn. The wounds visible through his torn clothes hadn't been from the war.

'So he met the queen while enduring those times?'

Only then did Adel feel she could somewhat understand Vincent's twisted heart. He had fallen in love with a kind count's daughter, but she was already the prince's fiancée.

The enraged Vincent assaulted the prince and was suspended. He went straight to an enemy nation and invaded the kingdom.

From that point onward was what Adel remembered clearly. War, and more war.

'So love was the cause of that long war. How utterly cliché.'

Thinking that life was surprisingly trivial, Adel left the library.

At last, the conquest war was drawing its long curtain.

Adel understood now why, four years ago, the king and queen had so adamantly prevented her retirement.

It was because without her, they would never have been able to win the series of battles.

"Hah... This is the last one."

The war was won. Even without her, even if anyone else had come, this fact couldn't be changed. Before long, the kingdom would change its title to an empire.

But it no longer mattered to her. Adel was losing sensation in her body.

She thought she might actually die this time.

Even as her vision blurred, Adel still thought of Vincent Rogato.

His wet eyes swollen red from too much crying, and yet even in that state, his still-beautiful pale skin and ashen hair...

And the expression on his face as he crumbled upon seeing Queen Laila over Adel's shoulder.

Holding that beautiful man in her heart, Adel breathed her last.

At that moment, letters slowly began to appear upon Adel's deceased body.

Thus, Sir Adel Gray fell in the conquest war for King Rohaid and Queen Laila.

The sentence written in a calm hand glowed brightly and did not fade for a long time.

"Damn it. So I was a supporting character."

Since she was already dead, no one could hear her voice, but Adel cursed and fumed.

The sentences written after her death weren't the end. After Adel was gone, a love story that couldn't be watched without tears from King Rohaid and Queen Laila was written out in full.

Reading that story, Adel had no choice but to realize.

That she was nothing more than a supporting character in a novel.

No wonder her past had been so hazy, even excessively so. Even when the queen called her a close friend.

To those two, she was just a passing figure, and so her story had flowed to match them, the protagonists.

The truth that she had been nothing but a chess piece for their love angered even the usually stoic Adel.

She didn't even bother thinking about the earlier parts. Since her exploits were written so sparsely, surely her screentime had been minimal even before.

How hard she had lived!

But even if she trembled with rage...

"Sigh, is this really the end? Am I just forced to wait for their ending..."

If her predictions were correct, the end wasn't far off. The villain Vincent was dead, the conquest war was won, and only the happy scenes of those two would remain.

What a complicated feeling it was.

During two wars, she had fought tooth and nail. Through training that felt like cutting through bone and flesh, she had gained power that no one could challenge.

While the protagonists laughed and loved, she had struggled alone, gritting her teeth and working hard.

And all of it had been futile. Dying in the conquest war had been her predetermined fate. Even the refusal of her retirement was merely a stepping stone for victory.

'If I'd known, I would have lived leisurely and died old. I should have retired no matter what.'

Adel only realized after death that everything had been meaningless. Since she would disappear leaving nothing behind anyway, she should have ignored superiors' orders and just lived happily for the rest of her days.

She hadn't enjoyed a single thing until the moment of death—only worked. She wanted to scream at her past self for being excessively unambitious and tell her to get a grip.

Perhaps even that helplessness had been influenced by the original story. That was why her mind was only now starting to function.

'So death finally allowed me to have thoughts? Pfft, how tearfully grateful I should be.'

But what was the use of all that? She was dead after all.

After calming down somewhat, Adel sighed and surveyed her surroundings.

She didn't know where this brightly glowing place was, but there were so many large glass marbles scattered about that it was hard to move. Some marbles would suddenly appear out of nowhere.

"What are these?"

As Adel muttered and picked up a glass marble, someone else's life flowed into her mind.

It was the childhood of Vincent Rogato—the one who had constantly bothered her.

〈What is this nonsense! Do you want to die?〉

〈I-I'm sorry, Young Master Vincent. I'll clean it right away.〉

The voice filled with anger echoed in her head.

Also vividly depicted in her mind were the gathered crowd, the angry Vincent in their midst, and the begging maid. And everything that would happen afterward.

"Ugh!"

The problem was what came next.

Perhaps because of the massive amount of story suddenly flooding her mind, a splitting headache struck.

Clutching her head, Adel dropped the glass marble, and...

Thud— Ting— Tang— Crash—!

The fallen glass marble moved about on its own and shattered over twenty marbles by her estimation. It all happened in an instant.

"...Wh-What was that?"

Strangely enough, the marble containing Vincent's childhood remained perfectly intact.

The broken or cracked glass marbles turned to ash and vanished into thin air. Only that despicable glass marble that had given her a headache remained, brazenly intact.

"What on earth is going on..."

Adel glared fiercely at the glass marble. Even though it was just a marble, it somehow felt like Vincent.

'Ah, come to think of it.'

During her lifetime, even when she had no other distinct memories, Vincent had been clear in her mind. Hadn't she thought of him right up until the very end?

Recalling that fact, Adel felt something was off.

Why did she keep being entangled with Vincent Rogato, both in life and now?

That was when.

RUMBLE—!

The tremendous sound made Adel cover her ears.

Perhaps because several marbles had shattered, anomalies began appearing everywhere with a roar. The brightly glowing space gradually darkened, and at the same time, the floor beneath her began to collapse.

"Aaah!"

Trying to escape was useless.

Adel tried to flee to safety from the suddenly collapsing floor, but the lingering headache made her stagger, and she eventually lost her balance. She flailed, trying to grab onto something, and as a result, she seized the marble that had given her the headache.

"This isn't helping at all! What kind of trouble is this even in death!"

Adel saw Vincent's childhood inside the glass marble once more, then lost consciousness and fell.

When she came to, she was near Vincent, who was screaming and threatening someone. After muttering among the crowd, her mind cleared, and Adel looked around.

'What is this... right now?'

The situation before her eyes was exactly the scene she had seen inside the glass marble.

Vincent, enraged over a stain that was barely visible even with squinted eyes. And the maid crying and kneeling, pleading. No one stepping forward.

'... So this is a predetermined event. I'm just a passerby, nothing more.'