Even after hearing the worrisome discussion of the conflicts between the Elven kingdom and the Oni empire, I wasn’t particularly too worried about it.

After all, conflicts between Cielle and Naraka often happened from time to time, ever since I was still living my first lifetime. It was honestly nothing new and nothing too big. It was like waves that would often come and go.

So I thought as I reassured myself.

But apparently…

This time, I was wrong. This time, it was an exception. An anomaly.

 

If normally, the correct term to illustrate the conflicts between the two countries was ‘wave’, this time, it was more like a seed, as it continued to grow bigger.

The first thing that I noticed was how my parents seemed to get busier and would often be outside rather than at home. When they were at home, I saw their expressions not as relaxed as they were before. They unconsciously frowned more often than before, but whenever one of us, their children, caught them in that expression, they immediately softened it so that they wouldn’t worry us.

I wanted to bring it up and ask what was happening from time to time, but it was awkward as I could clearly see they didn’t want to tell us so that we wouldn’t be anxious. While I wanted to know about the current condition, I also didn’t want to waste my parents’ consideration.

 

Therefore, I decided to come and ask Alt-nii, who sometimes went along with Dad, as he would be the next head of the family.

“Alt-nii, you know about what exactly is going on, right? Mom and Dad wouldn’t tell. Can you tell me? I am also an adult now, right? I’ve had my coming-of-age ceremony.”

There were only the two of us in his room, so I asked without any hesitation.

Alt-nii looked at me with a helpless look on his face as he answered, “Well, you just had your coming-of-age ceremony, no wonder our parents still thought of you as a child. Moreover, no matter how old we become, they’re bound to still consider us as children. And with your size…”

He stopped, perhaps noticing that my expression turned ugly when he mentioned the last sentence.

“Never mind. You’ve always been a serious child, more than me, so they are afraid you’d just get worried unnecessarily. It’s not like we can do anything to this situation.”

“Even so, at least knowing the condition will put my heart at ease.”

“Hmm… Well, I understand where you’re coming from. I bet Dad wouldn’t let me know a lot about the current situation if I weren’t the eldest son of this household and the heir apparent,” Alt-nii shrugged his shoulder as he whirled his seat.

 

Then, he stopped with his chin resting on the head of the back of the seat as he looked at me with a serious look.

“Listen, Lyra. I’ll tell you, but you’d better not tell the others or even our parents that I told you. Promise me you won’t fret or show anything that you feel about the current situation. Can you do that?”

I was surprised at his words, but I could guess that he said such thing because the situation wasn’t as good as how it usually was. I thought very carefully in my heart.

In my previous life, I could keep up a calm appearance no matter what came my way. As I live as my current self, I didn’t really use that skill of feigning ignorance towards everything and sometimes would wear my heart to my sleeves. But could I do it one more time?

Yes.

I knew I could if I tried.

So, I nodded solemnly.

 

“Alright. Let me tell you then,” Alt-nii said as he took a deep breath.

“The reason that we’re all getting worried to the current situation is because it seems to develop in a bad direction. You know that usually, Naraka would become the one to provoke Cielle often, and they usually would just defend, right?”

I nodded.

“Well, the provocation this time seems to be going too overboard, as Cielle suddenly declared that if Naraka dared to attack this often, why couldn’t Cielle attack back in retaliation? The Elven kingdom’s pride is actually quite high and they feel like they’re being bullied by Naraka. They aren’t willing to be bullied like this! So, they rationalized their action of attacking back.”

I widened my eyes in surprise, my jaws almost gaped unconsciously.

“Then, at this rate…?” I didn’t dare continue my words.

“Yeah. This conflict will definitely implicate our country as the war between them would affect the borders of Riviera at the very least.”

 

Riviera’s situation was so strategic it was ironic.

To the South, defended by the Fumitsuna family, there was a neutral land which would often be disputed by the countries. To the east was Naraka, to the west was Cielle. The Fumitsuna family must have had it hard, as their area was the only area that bordered with the two other countries.

Meanwhile, our Hartmann family in the East bordered with Naraka empire, so… No wonder my parents were getting really busy.

And to the West, governed by the Grabberton family, the area was bordered with the Cielle kingdom, and since Cielle kingdom planned to attack in retaliation, I’m sure the Grabberton family didn’t have it easy, either.

The Loera family had the laxest area as they didn’t border with any other country. But just to the north of their Northern Area of Riviera, there should be the Northern Lands, unknown to any of us as the ocean leading to the Northern Lands was too severe to even cross by peacefully. The Northern Lands were often dubbed as the Dragon’s Heritage. Maybe I could ask Carbuncle more about this area, as she should theoretically come from there.

I guess if the dragonkin came attacking, the Loera family would be the first one to get doomed, so it wasn’t like they had it really easy, either…

 

Alt-nii showed a wry smile, different from the usual relaxed smile he had pasted on his face.

“Just rest assured and believe in our parents and the king. Oh, and maybe pray to Aion-sama that we’d be protected, I guess that’s all we can do for now,” Alt-nii chuckled.

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s not like we can do anything about this situation…,” I said with a forced smile on my face.

Afterwards, the two of us didn’t speak too much as we both had our own thoughts.

And that night, I couldn’t really sleep well despite me promising Alt-nii that I’d pretend I never heard anything from him.

Normally, the Cielle kingdom would just defend. If the situation evolved into one where they wanted to attack, then it was definitely a bad situation.

Could Riviera quell the two countries’ anger and hatred towards each other?

…I honestly doubted it.

 

Actually, I didn’t need to pretend I didn’t know anything for so long. Fortunately or unfortunately, a few days later, there was a big change that caused almost everyone to be aware of the dire strait we were in.

Riviera country had officially become the middleman who was involved more in the war between Naraka and Cielle, as my country tried to dissuade the conflict.

The tense atmosphere was contagious, and even the atmosphere in Harmonia Academy was getting tense.

Though luckily it didn’t evolve so badly as us needing to postpone all school activity and us needing to evacuate, but there was a new regulation that only emerged in the times of need.

The strict academy rule actually allowed any of the students to be absent for a period of time due to the ongoing war.

Why was it so?

There were various reasons.

Some students were actually called or volunteered to join the forces, be it because of their family calling or to protect their family that was living in the affected areas. Some were also called back home as their parents and siblings joined the force and the house would need the said students’ presence to be protected or managed. Some families were so paranoid that bad things might happen, so they called their children back.

The school was very understanding, and I bet other schools applied the same regulation.

For the students who had to return home, they provided a means of home schooling or remote learning, thanks to the technology we had. For the students who were directly involved and couldn’t attend to regular schooling, the academy would provide them with special lessons later after they could join, or they could opt to repeat the year altogether.

There were some that had to transfer schools to a closer one or just hire private tutors due to various reasons.

Even so, the schools were still open. Harmonia Academy also didn’t close, and the dormitory was still functioning as it was before. They understood that some of the students weren’t that lucky enough to be able to go back if they were closed, and it became their duty to protect them. Some of the students’ families thought that the academy would be able to protect their children better and asked their children to just stay in the academy dormitory instead.

 

Since the situation had evolved like this, both my parents and the school had no choice but to try to explain the situations to us.

Freyr and Freyja seemed a bit confused by my parents’ explanation, but they didn’t seem to really understand the gravity of the situation as they were still very young. They just knew that their parents were often not at home for a longer period of time and that the school was somehow less crowded, and the atmosphere seemed to be gloomier.

I guess this was also good. At least, they wouldn’t be unnecessarily afraid of the situation.

Because Alt-nii would often go along with Dad, I would be the only relative the twins had, left at home. As such, I tried my best to not let them be afraid of the situation.

As their eldest sister, I had to keep my composure and not to let them detect the anxiety I felt towards the situation.

Even so, the sharper one of the pair, Freyr, seemed to detect it either way. But he didn’t really show his anxiety, only that he became more sensible than usual. If not for the energetic Freyja, we might not be able to laugh.

 

“Let’s pray to Aion-sama so that the conflict outside can be resolved quickly and so that our family and friends can spend more time with us,” I suggested to my younger twin siblings at night, before we went to sleep.

The two of them obediently nodded their heads like chickens pecking on the rice.

Ever since I knew that Aion-sama was the one who reincarnated me, I trusted the gods more than before. Before, I was really skeptical if they even listened to our prayers, if they even existed at all.

But I knew that Aion-sama definitely existed and that they definitely heard our words. 

 

***

 

*Third Person POV*

Meanwhile, in a distant area, in a small and simple house…

Two girls were watching the news of the growing conflict as they were eating. The seemingly younger one had her apricot eyes wavered upon seeing the news. Her head unconsciously bowed down and her long magenta hair flowed down naturally, slightly covering her face.

The other girl which seemed to be older, noticed the magenta-haired girl’s change of attitude and immediately turned off the news.

When the magenta-haired girl noticed that the news was turned off, she lifted her head and met the other girl’s emerald eyes.

 

“Fiona…,” the magenta-haired girl called out with a low voice.

“Out of sight, out of mind,” the green-haired girl which was just called, Fiona, said as she continued to eat as if she didn’t care at all.

But deep down, the magenta-haired girl knew that Fiona was definitely affected by the news. Just as she was.

The atmosphere between them turned a bit awkward after that, until the magenta-haired girl decided to break the silence.

“I’m sorry…,” she said with her head hung down.

“Didn’t we agree not to talk about it anymore? Do this again and I won’t let you have your dinner,” Fiona averted her sight from the other girl and pretended to sulk.

“Aaaah, threatening with food, not fair!!”

“No matter how much food you eat, you aren’t growing at all, the food’s gone to waste!” Fiona said teasingly.

“Hey, watch your words!”

 

The two bickered before they eventually looked at each other and laughed.

With that, the tense and awkward atmosphere from before was gone, as if it never existed at all…