It was an absurd deduction, perhaps completely wrong. Yet something remained fundamentally strange. When Fafnir first appeared, she had tried to draw Dianna in, never to harm her. A dragon powerful enough to overwhelm even Tarascus could have captured or killed Dianna with ease. Instead, Fafnir had never inflicted the slightest injury upon her. As though reluctant to lay a hand on her directly, she had merely commanded the undead to restrain her. Even when Dianna threw hersel

The battlefield quieted as the solemn hymn resonated over the corpses of the fallen and the re-killed undead. The survivors stared at a single point in the center of the massacre, listening as the requiem echoed again and again. There stood the king who had fought valiantly at the vanguard, and the queen whom the kingdom had deposed and abandoned. As the requiem faded into silence, a breathless stillness fell over the field. No one dared to speak, as if any mortal word would

[Taras] "Leviathan, grant us your aid." [Leviathan] "You have a lot to say for someone who caused our predicament, Tarascus." The dragons were exhausted. None of them had broken the covenant. Despite Tarascus' indirect persuasion, they glared at him with resentment and refused to budge. Dianna bowed low. [Dianna] "I beg of you. Please help us." [Leviathan] "Why go to such lengths? Do you fancy yourself a hero saving the world? Word has it you were banished. Couldn't you save

Rewind to one hundred days ago. Dianna had not gone to Panborough. Instead, she arrived at her grandfather's merchant guild headquarters in the Kingdom of Lodbrog. Anders crossed his arms and tried to peek into her room, but Alexa pulled him back. [Anders] "Look at the state of her!" His missing granddaughter had finally reappeared. He wanted to rush to her side immediately, but Dianna refused to see him at first. She insisted that any association with House Brienne, mortal e

Throughout the winter months, Guiscard could do nothing but pine for Dianna. [Dianna] "Guiscard." Her radiant face and gentle smile filled his mind as she reached out to him. Yet he couldn't bring himself to hold her hand. They had never once strolled hand in hand through the streets. And so, he remained shut away in Dianna's bedchamber. Inside her room, her scent faded far too quickly. He traced the bedding where she had once lain, caressing the pillow where her small head h

Initially, he had no intention of driving her away so miserably. Guiscard, too, had envisioned a future with the woman he loved. When she—a woman he believed would never open her heart to him—finally yielded her affection, he felt as though he held the entire world in his hands. Yet his brilliant intellect ultimately dragged him straight into hell. Had he known nothing, giving up might have proven simpler. If their hearts had failed to align, if no possibility of mutual love

She stared at his receding back for a long moment, then buried her face in her hands. She lowered her arms and quietly composed herself. All expression faded from her face, leaving a fragile mask on the verge of crumbling. [Dianna] "Very well." She resolved not to betray her emotions, even as her heart lay in ruins. Humiliation, resentment toward the man who had unilaterally cut her off, and a crushing sense of betrayal tore through her. [Dianna] "Guiscard." Yet as she watche

No, surely not. That can't be. This was not confinement. Though the maids had grown quiet, they remained polite, unlike in her past life, and Lady Kragel was on her side. The knights genuinely worried for her. Yet why did no news of palace events reach her? Before she realized it, more than a month had slipped by. Her mind turned cold as her heart pounded against her ribs. Trying to deny reality, she opened the chamber door to step outside. Mable blocked her path. [Mable] "Th

[Dianna] "How... did you know? Did Tarascus tell you?" He shook his head. [Adelheit] "Strictly speaking, he only told me half of it." [Dianna] "..." [Adelheit] "While tracking the rift back then, he spoke of various matters regarding the world, explaining how this world was repeating itself from a certain point in time." [Adelheit] "At first, Tarascus believed you were the rift itself, Dian, and intended to kill you. Furthermore..." [Dianna] "..." [Adelheit] "Furthermore, you

She had once assumed nothing changed in this life. The inevitable had happened anyway. Guiscard Lodbrog had claimed Dianna Brienne as his wife once more, Panborough had fallen, and her own house had crumbled into ruin. As foretold, the rivers of blood couldn't be stopped. Yet now she understood. It was not the work of immutable fate. It was the product of unyielding willpower, a chain of cause and effect forged by human actions under distinct circumstances. Though unchanged i

Fafnir? Fafnir was targeting Dianna? Color drained from her face as she recalled the sinister look the dragon had cast toward her. [Tarascus] "Indeed, the prophecy. I failed to ask about the prophecy you received. Divine prophecies almost always come to pass, for they come from an entity that has directly witnessed the future." [Dianna] "Why... would Fafnir target me? I have never encountered her before, neither in this life nor the previous one." That was the absolute truth.

Levian was not pregnant. Her claim had been a lie from the start. Royal physicians reported she had ingested a specialized herb to mimic pregnancy symptoms. Dianna had not taken the life of an unborn child. That realization might have offered some solace. Yet she reached a far more chilling conclusion. Levian had faked a pregnancy. She had possessed the audacity to claim she was carrying the King's child. This meant she had the twisted nerve to fake a pregnancy in the first p