Aurora (2)
To the Vergil who had just transmigrated, the world felt unreal.
A novel brought to life. A world he had only ever read about now spread before his very eyes.
A character he had never even properly met in the story was suddenly alive in front of him.
And not only that, but he had been tasked to personally guard her.
“So you’re Sir Vergil?”
“Y-Yes. That is correct, Princess Anneliese.”
Fake it or make it.
The Vergil who had never once held a sword in his past life had no choice but to adapt.
To abandon the role forced upon him would be seen as a form of treason. There was no path of retreat.
Yet strangely, during the days he had to test the sword before formally meeting the Princess, something unexpected happened.
Despite having no memories of the original Vergil, the blade felt natural in his hands.
It was as if the muscle memory of his predecessor had never truly left.
“What’s this, Ivette? Wasn’t he supposed to be some brute? W-Why does he look like that?”
“Like what, Princess?”
“Y-You know, t-that… h-handsome…”
“I truly question your standards, Princess. He looks quite ordinary.”
“You just don’t get it, Ivette…!”
Vergil could hear the Princess and her maid whispering behind him. Even so, he forced himself to ignore it as if he had heard nothing at all.
Naturally, at that time, Vergil harbored no such intentions toward Anneliese.
He intended to follow the plot as it was meant to be.
Anneliese was destined to marry the protagonist, Noah Johannes von Liebert.
And eventually, she was meant to die at the antagonist’s hands to set the entire story in motion.
At least, that was how it should have been.
“Look at this, Vergil! The children made me a flower wreath. Hehe!”
She lifted the wreath above her head with delight.
Her smile was bright, the kind that made the air feel warmer than it should have been.
Time passed like that.
She would wave at him from across the garden when she spotted him on patrol.
She would save small sweets from her meals and hand them to him when no one was looking.
She would ask simple questions with genuine curiosity, as if the world was still something new and exciting.
And each time, Vergil told himself it was nothing.
Yet little by little, he found his eyes wandering toward her without meaning to.
He found his steps slowing when she was nearby.
He found himself listening for her voice even when he had no reason to.
This was not part of the plot.
But the warmth in her smile was real.
And against his will, Vergil found himself drawn toward it.
He was no stranger to such subtleties.
Even if he thought he might be overreading the situation, there was no princess who would act like this toward a knight without reason.
And yet, Vergil was the only knight Anneliese treated this way.
She never called for the others.
When she wished to stroll through the inner gardens, she would ask for him.
When she grew bored of court lectures, she would glance toward his post.
When she laughed, her eyes would seek him in the crowd before anyone else.
At first, Vergil tried to dismiss it as coincidence.
Then the coincidences kept piling up.
“Vergil.”
“Yes, Princess.”
“Will you stay a little longer today?”
“Then… only until your attendants return.”
“That’s fine.”
She walked ahead with slow steps.
The golden light shone down through the clearing, illuminating her hair with an ethereal glow.
Anneliese asked.
“Do you dislike guarding me?”
“No.”
“Do you find it troublesome?”
“No.”
She stopped walking and turned back to face him.
“Then why do you always look like you’re about to disappear?”
“......”
The question caught him off guard. Or perhaps, deep down, he had already seen it coming.
Vergil knew there were boundaries that should never be crossed.
Because of that, he kept his distance from her as best he could.
“I’m only doing my duty.”
Anneliese observed him in silence. Then she smiled again, a bitter one.
“I wish you would lie to me once.”
From then on, things only grew worse.
She began waiting for him after her meals.
She began sharing small stories meant only for him.
She began pulling him into a world that was never meant for him to touch.
Somewhere along the way, the roles they were meant to play had started to lose their shape.
It should never have happened.
“Do you really have to go, Vergil? I… I can convince Father to assign someone else.”
Vergil went down on one knee and gently took Anneliese’s hands in his.
It was not the gesture of a knight before his master, but of someone afraid to cause the other any pain.
“Princess. If I could stay, I would.”
“...I don’t like the thought of you getting hurt.”
He looked up at her and gave a smile, one she rarely ever saw from him.
“Then don’t think of it like that. Think of it as me borrowing a little courage from you. That way, I can come back properly.”
“You always say things like that when I’m trying to be serious.”
Vergil squeezed her hands just a little.
“Then be serious and wait for me.”
As Vergil prepared to depart, he crossed paths with a lone figure draped in black robes further down the halls.
At once, Vergil narrowed his eyes.
“Cardinal.”
“You’ve been treading dangerous ground, Knight Vergil.”
It was Cardinal Richelieu. The man who would one day stand as Noah’s greatest obstacle.
The one who would dismantle the Empire from within.
“It would be wise for you to disappear quietly into the north while you still can.”
Vergil did not avert his gaze.
“If you called me here just to offer advice, you wasted your breath.”
“Advice is only useful to those who are able to listen.”
“And threats are only meaningful when they come from someone I fear.”
For a brief moment, the air between them tensed until Cardinal Richelieu stepped aside.
“Survive the north, Knight. If you manage that, we may speak again.”
Vergil passed him without another word.
Behind him, Richelieu’s baritone voice followed.
“Do not mistake silence for mercy.”
The frontal defense and counterassault lasted six long months.
It was a collective campaign carried out by Humans, Dragonoids, Elves, Beastfolk, and Orcs alike.
They fought side by side against a common enemy, pushing forward through endless losses.
Countless lives were claimed on that battlefield. Ultimately, however, the coalition emerged victorious.
Vergil had led the charge alongside the other commanders on the human front, and from that war, he was named a war hero.
To everyone else, it seemed only natural. To Vergil himself, it was nothing short of shocking.
After all, this was only his first year since transmigrating into this world, and he had already accomplished far more than he ever expected.
‘Can I really do it? Can I really save Anneliese and defeat Richelieu at the same time?’
Expectations, however, were far from reality.
“Seize him at once!”
“What? What’s going on—hey, Knight Chiron! What the hell do you think you’re doing?! Unhand me!”
“Well, be damned, Knight Vergil. I always knew you were fishy from the start!”
It was an order from the Emperor himself.
The accusation claimed that Vergil had harbored lecherous intentions, and worse, that there were even several photographs of him involved in suspicious activities with the Princess.
“P-Princess, tell them! It’s not true! You know me better than anyone. Please!”
“......”
However, he was met with silence.
Those eyes no longer held the warmth he once knew.
They looked at him as if they no longer believed a single word. When Vergil turned his gaze to the side and met Richelieu’s calm stare, the answer became painfully clear.
Richelieu had already turned her against him.
Everything they had shared had been reduced to nothing.
All the days, all the smiles, all the trust she once placed in him were crushed by a single fabricated lie.
And Anneliese believed it.
The hands gripping his arms tightened. Chains clinked as they were drawn around his wrists.
And just like that, the knight who had once stood by her side was sent to exile.
Vergil desperately wished he could tear Anneliese’s thoughts apart and see what had changed.
For someone who had once seemed utterly smitten with him, she had turned on him so easily, as if everything between them had been nothing more than a lie.
“Princess…”
“D-Don’t talk to me…”
On the day he was cast out of the Empire for good, Vergil made a single decision.
If he was going to fall, then Richelieu would fall with him.
It was not for justice, not for honor, and not even for Anneliese.
It was for revenge.
"......"
But even Richelieu had foreseen the assassination attempt.
The area had already been flooded with guards, and it didn’t take long for reinforcements to come once the commotion broke out.
Before Vergil realized it, he was surrounded once again. This time, up against fellow commanders who had once served on the frontlines with him.
Nevertheless, he managed to escape.
But as he fled, Vergil had solemnly sworn to himself that he would return officially one day.
And when he did, the Empire itself would fall.
“I’m pathetic, aren’t I?”
When Vergil asked, he did not look at Seris, who was staring at him intently.
“You did your best.”
“Foolishly.”
“To fight even when you know you might lose is not foolish.”
“It is when you lose everything anyway.”
Seris frowned.
“Self-deprecation doesn’t suit you. I will not have my knight beat himself up over another woman, especially in front of me."
Vergil could only chuckle bitterly at her words.
