“By the way, I’m curious, wasn’t it difficult to adapt to this world? It’s a completely unfamiliar place. Is it very different from your world?”
“Well, it’s not that different. There’s no magic in my world, but if you exclude that, my world feels like the future of this one. Anyway, adapting wasn’t that hard.”
Still looking at him with half suspicion, I spoke.
“Sir Simone, I… ”
“You can just call me Simone, Seraphina.”
See? It’s not just my imagination. The wall between us has truly come down.
“Ah, unless you prefer to be called something else?”
“Seraphina is fine. After all, I am Seraphina now.”
“Got it.”
“I have more to say about Princess Eva. The original Seraphina ran away from her because she was terrified, but I can’t understand what kind of invention could be so terrifying that she fled this world.”
“Exactly. Even with the power to cross worlds, instead of fighting back, she chose to run.”
“I just can’t grasp it. No matter what invention it was, it couldn’t have been so scary that she’d flee the entire world.”
Upon hearing the words ‘fleeing from this world,’ Simone’s face turned even more serious.
“No matter how terrifying it was, going to an unfamiliar world would be even scarier. For fear to overcome the dread of an unknown world…”
“That kind of being is tracking me! I’m going insane!”
As I said that, Simone’s voice softened as he tried to soothe me.
“It’s okay, Seraphina. I won’t ever hand you over to Princess Eva.”
“…That is truly comforting to hear.”
“I promise I will help you.”
Simone’s attitude seemed to have changed. As I tilted my head and looked up at him, he let out a sigh as if there was no helping it.
“Why? Do I seem different?”
“…….!”
“…Your emotions show clearly on your face, Seraphina.”
As I blushed with embarrassment, Simone began to explain.
“I can’t say I fully understand how it feels to be thrown into an unfamiliar world, but I think I understand your feelings to some extent.”
“What?”
“There was a bit of a succession dispute when I inherited the Marquess of Monteverdi.”
Ah, this was mentioned in the original story.
“I lost the fight in the family, was cast out, worked as a servant in the Magic Tower, became a mercenary, hid from my family’s pursuit in the slums, and even worked like a slave on a fishing boat.”
“Oh…”
It seems the situation was worse than how it was briefly described in the original story.
“I know what it’s like to be an outsider. Wherever I went, people would push me away because I was different, but I had to pretend not to notice and try to fit in. Being an outsider is not pleasant.”
“Yes, I completely agree…”
After falling into this world, I couldn’t open my heart to people like Count Viviana, who treated me kindly, or Abigail, the automaton maid.
On the outside, I acted as if I cared for them, but inside, I was terrified that they might discover who I really was.
Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I decided to follow the male leads and track down Aurora.
The only time I felt at ease while with them was because they had no previous connection to the original Seraphina.
Especially, as I built new bonds with Arkhangelo in this unfamiliar world, it was the first time I truly felt like I belonged.
“Feeling like you have nowhere to return to is the worst…”
Simone’s face twisted slightly as he said that.
“Perhaps I’m the only one among us who truly knows that feeling. Even though Raffaelo, Arkhangelo, and Ghieuspe have rebelled at times, they always had somewhere to return to.”
“Oh…”
“But I, with no place to return to, wandered as an outsider until I finally reclaimed my place. It was a difficult path in many ways, but I made it through.”
“I think you’re amazing, Simone.”
I continued speaking in a small, hesitant voice.
“It’s not easy to keep going when you think you’ve lost everything…”
“That applies to you as well, Seraphina.”
“What?”
“You lost everything you built in your original world, yet you’re starting over here. That’s why I think you’re amazing, and I want to help you.”
“Simone…”
My voice was filled with emotion as I spoke. Since arriving in this world, no one had ever understood me like this before.
The caution I had initially felt towards Simone vanished completely, and now I relied on him entirely.
“Seraphina, let’s do our best from now on. I’ll help you a lot.”
“Yes, Simone…”
I smiled brightly as we shook hands.
Finally, there was someone in this world who truly understood me.
***
As soon as our conversation ended, Arkhangelo appeared, looking annoyed.
“Damn it, this is really determined to ruin my mood!”
He spoke in an angrier voice than ever as he approached us.
“I saw a hallucination where my family told me opera was garbage. That’s never happened before, so it’s clearly slander!”
“Yes, of course it’s slander. It’s just a hallucination meant to target your insecurities…”
Worried that Arkhangelo might be hurt, I spoke cautiously, but he quickly fired back.
“Calling opera garbage? How could they say that?! Opera is a gift from the angels to enrich the human soul!”
“I… I see.”
“The voices of opera singers are blessings bestowed by the angels!”
“Arkhangelo seems to balance good and evil quite well. If angels gave him his voice, then surely demons gave him his personality.”
“You’re getting bolder with your insults every day!”
Though I was astounded by Arkhangelo’s shameless declaration that his voice was an ‘angelic blessing,’ I decided it was fortunate that he hadn’t been affected by the hallucination.
“Then why are you so late?”
“I was busy arguing with those hallucinations! It took a long time to refute the idea that opera is garbage.”
“I… I see…”
I realized that instead of worrying about Arkhangelo, I should have been more concerned about the hallucinations themselves.
Next, Raffaelo appeared, walking towards us with an unusually serious expression.
Unlike his usual sly smile, this time he looked as though he could easily kill someone.
As I glanced between the two men beside me, wondering what was going on, Simone shrugged, and Arkhangelo spoke to Raffaelo.
“Why are you so late? We’ve been waiting for a while.”
“Well, Arkhangelo just arrived too…”
“Sure, hallucinations can be annoying, but I didn’t think someone like you, Raffaelo, would be so bothered by them. Was I wrong?”
“Well, completely.”
Raffaelo replied in an uncomfortable voice.
“A memory from when I first enlisted came up.”
“Oh… okay.”
I responded half-heartedly. I wasn’t interested in military stories.
Military talk in a romance fantasy? How boring. Who would even want to read that?
