449 She's Lived Through Them

It has already been a day since we rescued Tiara from that demon dimension.

I'm currently seated beside her bed while she still remained unconscious even after the sun had risen up from the horizon.

I sat beside her bed, watching over the princess wondering when she would finally wake up.

"Mistress, there's no need for you to watch over her," Katsuki informed me for the third time today.

"Mmm… I know, I just want to. Could you bring me some sweets from the kitchen, Katsuki? Enough for two so that she has something to eat when she wakes up?"

She bowed, "Of course Mistress. I will be back as soon as I can."

My Inugami maid left the room, leaving me alone with the princess.

On the way out, I saw her conversing with Aria, Tiara's personal maid, who was standing guard outside diligently.

From what I knew, Aria was still blaming herself for allowing the princess to be taken under her watch.

No one blamed her though, since these were demons we were talking about, and a normal Mahun wouldn't be able to beat one by themselves.

The door closed and I idly entertained the thought of kissing her to wake her up but of course decided that was a dumb idea, especially how kissing was viewed in this World.

The King might have said it was fine if I wanted to marry her but I worry more about what Tiara thought about it than the King.

I poked her on the cheek, "How long are you going to sleep, Tiara? Aren't you supposed to wake up the moment we rescued you?"

Of course, there was no response from the unconscious princess.

Hmm… I still have some cookies that I kept in my Pack of Folding… I wonder if… You know what? Let's try it~

I dug through my bag to look for the cookies in question and found it easily enough.

They were wrapped up in a paper packaging so I brought it over to Tiara's side before unwrapping them.

The sweet smell of the cookies wafted into the air, still fresh as though they had just been brought out of the oven.

I peeked at Tiara, fully expecting her to leap out of bed at the smell of the cookies, only to see no response from her.

I sighed in disappointment before taking one of the cookies up to have a bite. If she wasn't going to wake up to eat one, then I might as well eat them myself.

Nom~

Mmm~ Still as delicious as I remember~

"Nom~"

Hmm?

I looked down to see Tiara munching on the cookie that I was holding in my hand, the princess looking up at me with flushed cheeks as though she was embarrassed that I caught her in this position.

We just stared at each other for a few seconds before I recovered enough to speak.

"Good morning, Tiara."

She blinked a few times at me while her mouth stayed latched on the cookie in my hands, "Mnnn… Gworf morfwing?"

I giggled, "Ehehe~ You might want to talk only after taking your mouth off the cookie."

She did just as I suggested, her eyes still locked on my face, "Aster?"

That was when I realised I wasn't wearing my mask and this should have been Tiara's first time seeing my face.

I had a slight panic attack since I just revealed my face to Tiara. The King and Queen were not a problem since they were apparently aware of the existence of Off-Worlders but I'm not sure if I should be revealing my face to the Princess.

"Umm… Umm… I… I don't know--"

She interrupted me by placing her hand on my cheek, which surprised me since I didn't expect Tiara to be so forward like that.

Then I realised that the look in her eyes was comparably different from the Tiara that I was used to.

She spoke before I could ask, "I saw everything, Aster… When the demons captured me… I saw everything."

I blinked at her, "You… Were conscious the whole time?"

Tiara shook her head before looking back down at the cookie in my hands and pointing at it, "Can I have that?"

I wordlessly handed over the cookie to her and she began nibbling on it cutely.

As though realising that what she had was a cookie, her nibbles quickly changed into taking big bites out of the sweet and the cookie disappeared almost instantly.

Her face also changed into one of pure bliss as she took a minute to soak in the sweetness of the cookie.

Oh, I know that feeling so I simply smiled at her when she just sat there basking in the sweet afterglow.

Tiara then jerked herself back awake and turned to me, her face blushing up to her ears, "Err… Err… Where… Where did I stop?"

"You told me that you saw everything," I reminded her.

She nodded, "Ah, that's right. I remember the demons attacking the carriage. Aria tried to protect me but they overturned the entire carriage and she shielded me with her own body so that I wasn't hurt. But I think they started throwing the carriage around which knocked her out… The last I remember from that was the carriage door being torn open and a demon snatching me up."

I tilted my head at her, finding the behaviour of Tiara being quite weird especially since I don't remember her speaking like this.

"Umm… So you don't remember what happened after that?" I asked.

Tiara pursed her lips, "I… Did not see out of this body… If that answers your question."

It only took me less than a second to understand what she meant and gaped at her, "No… You mean…"

"Yes… I saw through the eyes of the other versions of myself… Experienced what they experienced, felt what they felt, including…"

Her words trailed off and I did not need to ask her to know what she had wanted to say.

She felt herself die multiple times, including the one where the older Tiara had stabbed herself through the throat and those times she got decapitated or bled out to death.

"How… How long…" I asked, already fearing the answer she might give.

"I'm… Not sure… It felt like I had lived multiple lives from start to finish. All of them felt real but also like a dream… Except when I felt pain, I did not wake up from the dream… Only when they died did I 'wake up', but in another version of me instead… I saw their Worlds, Aster… I saw how their Worlds burned and the people around them died. I experienced their pain when they were the last to be left alive… I felt their suffering when they crawled through the mirror to try and kill… Me... Just so that they can free themselves from the suffering."

I didn't know what to say to that. What could I even say?

Her hand then reached out to lay on top of mine, "But… I also felt the warmth of your magic… When you saved me from turning into a demon. How you held me even when others have given up on me… There were others in those dimensions who left me or stabbed me in the back. But you did not, even when you thought that was not the real me. Thank you Aster."

I held her gaze, "That… I just treated her like another you…"

"And I thank you all the same."

I giggled, "You really don't sound like a little girl anymore."

She blinked, "Ah… That's right. How old am I here? Actually… That doesn't matter anymore… I don't think I can go back to the past me… In fact… I wish to stop being a princess…"

"Eh?! Wait, I understand the first part but why the second part?"

She looked away, "Did you know… How many of those versions of me ended up needing to sacrifice themselves and everyone that they cared for because it was 'expected' of them?"

"... Was that because you were the princess of those dimensions?"

Tiara nodded, "I was just a sacrifice in all of them… Just because I was the princess. In one, I was married off to some slob I hated as a peace offering… In another, I was exiled and left to fend for myself to take the blame for someone else… In another, I was betrayed by my own family because of their fight for the throne… I know that those were different dimensions but… I don't wish to be a part of that anymore…"

I scratched my cheek, "Then… What do you want to do? You're not even of age yet right now."

"Mmm… I suppose… I will just continue to get stronger… Then when the time comes, I shall renounce my claim on the throne and live my life as a commoner. I'm sure Father… Daddy… Will understand."

She then turned her gaze back to me, "Aster… No… Can I… Can I still call you Big Sister?"

I smiled at her, "Didn't I tell you before? You can call me whatever you want."

That also brought a smile on her face, though the smile was one that was filled with years of pain and regret, something that you would not want to see on a child like her.

I felt that it was such a waste that she had lost that innocence that she had before, I still quite enjoyed our time eating sweets together.

I then realised I was still holding some cookies left in my hand.

I lifted up the rest of the cookies, "So do you still want the rest of the cookies?"

"Me want!! Nom~" She squealed, her attitude completely doing a one eighty as she lunged for me and munched on the offered cookies.

She then started munching on them with a blissful smile on her face, the melancholy from earlier completely disappearing without a trace.

Ah…

So that old Tiara is still there, you just have to bring her out with cookies.

Got it~