The next morning.

The medical team had just left after taking away Remilia’s body. The royal guard was here too, along with the search team that was assembled last night, now complete with Remilia’s mother and father, who were not happy but not really sad about the entire situation. Liliana was also there, feigning shock and awe, but anyone could see that she was faking it. How did no one call her out on it?

Remilia was pronounced dead on the spot with no hope of recovery, even with light magic’s near-godlike levels of healing

Meanwhile, on the side, sitting on the stone foundation of the altar with his head in his hands, was Gerald. He was, for the first time ever, actually crying over this entire situation. The book next to him, however, revealed almost the entire story.

It was a book of ancient and banned spells that the Marquis of Stillblade kept in his library. In that book, there apparently was a spell for “making a person the best they can possibly be,” as it was described as. From this information, the knights and medics could assume that this spell somehow went wrong, and in shame, Remilia killed herself.

Remilia is, dead… all because I couldn’t save her…

I should have saved her right after that party! Or even earlier!

If he had known how the situation would have turned out, he might have gone to Remilia earlier. As it stands now, however, he did not do that, and suffered the consequences.

He was not satisfied by that explanation. For example, why would she write “Goodbye” in her own blood if she wanted to come back stronger than ever? What was the point of the bright sky beam? And, most importantly,

Some time later, the last medic left. The only people there were Gerald and the Knight Captain.

”Gerald, you’re up now.”

Gerald finally looked up. Now, it was time to figure out what really happened.

Gerald leaned down, gently placing both his hands onto the ground, and focused his magic into it.

The earth records everything that ever happened in or around it. This means that, with a highly skilled earth magic practitioner, they could access these memories and see into the past.

Show me… last night. Around the stroke of midnight.

The world goes dark.

Then, from nowhere, the forest starts creeping in. Then, suddenly, the scene clears up.

The wind is howling. Trees are flailing, plants are hanging on for dear life, and the stone altar laid there, undisturbed. Until Remilia came in.

Wearing nothing but a nightie and a small cloak, she walked in staggering a little, as her legs were bleeding. No, it was her… nether region that was bleeding. She was carrying two books.

As she got to the altar, she buried the first book directly underneath the closest and sturdiest tree nearest to the altar. Then her eyes opened wide, her face lit up in anger and determination as she strode up to the altar, intent on casting the spell.

She only made it 15 seconds into the chant before something terrible happened. The huge beam of light appeared from the sky, focused squarely on Remilia, and plunged through her.

Remilia’s pain was so intense that even the earth felt it. Her scream was so loud and high-pitched that she spooked birds over half a mile away.

When all was said and done, Remilia was sitting there, exactly the same as before. No evidence of her pain, no evidence of anything.

For a good minute, she just sat there, in awe.

Then, out of nowhere, she started wailing.

“Why does the world hate me so much!? WHAT DID I EVER DO TO DESERVE THIS?!?!??!?!??!

“First, you set me in the single WORST possible family in this entire bloody planet! Then, as if that weren’t enough, you made me weaker and uglier than literally everyone here!! And then… AND THEN, YOU TOOK IT ONE STEP FURTHER BY NOT EVEN LETTING ME CHOOSE WHEN I LOSE MY VIRGINITY?!??! YOU’RE JUST GOING TO LET THAT IDIOT PRINCE TAKE IT FROM ME WITH NO REPERCUSSIONS?!???!?! FUCK YOU, WORLD, AND ALL OF YOUR FUCKING PRECIOUS HUMANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
She was fully hysterical by this point, and her intense sadness could be felt by the earth itself, which seemed to grieve a little for this girl.

At this point, Remilia was just screaming incomprehensibly. It sounded weird, like it was somehow a different language. But Gerald was too busy focusing on Remilia, and not focusing on what she was saying.

After that, Remilia stopped for breath, wheezing heavily, before continuing:

“I… I… I-I… j-j-just… c-c-can’t t-take it ANYMORE!! If you’re g-going to play games with me, world, then I have the perfect solution for both of us!” She takes out the knife she keeps for self-defense and puts the blade next to her throat.

“I will not be your puppet anymore, world! Good Fucking Bye!!!”

And with that, the knife came across her neck.

It was like slow motion. Gerald could see exactly where the blade came over her neck and where the red started to show. In a matter of seconds, the blade was on the opposite side of Remilia, who had stopped breathing, as the red incision on her neck opened up, and fresh blood poured out.

Suddenly, she fell to her knees, arms by her side. It was almost complete silence. You could hear the body hitting the marble, and the pool of red accumulating, moment by moment, square inch by square inch.

At that point, Gerald had seen enough. He was ready to get out, until he noticed something.

In the time between the knife had come fully across her neck, Gerald noticed… an inconsistency. It was as if the picture suddenly jumped from one to the other. Going back through what he saw, he found many, many other little inconsistencies like this one.

Gerald was incredibly suspicious. What could have led to those inconsistencies? He resolved to find out in the coming days.

Coming out of it, as he had many times previous, Gerald got up, and looked at the knight captain. “It was almost exactly like you inferred, Captain.”

The captain was smiling. “Another one correct! Was there anything else that you saw? Anything we should know about?

Gerald thought for a minute, then answered carefully. “Yes. It seems Remilia was having an extraordinarily terrible family life, and was forced to bottle it all in. It also seems that, unlike what we thought, the blood in Remilia’s room comes from her nether region, as she was seemingly… raped by the first prince sometime between the party and last night.”
The knight captain was no longer smiling. In fact, he was quite horrified. “Gerald, do you know what you have just said? Accusing the first prince of anything is Treason!”
Gerald Replied, “Well, I’m the second prince. I can say what I want about anyone I want, whenever I want. Now, don’t you have a report or something to be writing.”

The knight captain was then reminded of his position, before bowing and saying, “Forgive me, your highness. I did not mean to offend you.” As he turned to leave, the Captain said, “You should be getting home to. Staying out here will not do you good.”

“I know,” Gerald replied.

Then, like that, the knight captain was also gone. As soon as he left, Gerald made a beeline for that tree. He had to see what was inside that book.

Digging it out was easy. It was stored in a little cubby hole that was easy to reach into and out of, perfect for a noble who rarely does any sort of labor.

Gerald stowed the book into a coat pocket and made his way back to the Marquis Stillblade’s house, which seemed to be unaffected by this ordeal, and then back to the Royal Palace, where he locked himself in his room.

Fishing the book out, Gerald finally got a look at it’s cover. It was unlike anything he had seen before.
The entire cover was made from some form of squishy paper. While paper exists, it is rare, so rare in fact, that the majority of the supply is owned by the royal family, which apportions paper only very rarely. To see a full book an inch thick made of this was appalling.

Next, was the design of the cover. It featured a sword on top of a shield, but with a red star on top of that, and what looks to be a smaller version of a hammer and some kind of curved blade weapon. Below that was a bunch of characters he could not recognize. The back and spine were blank.

Opening the notebook, on the left side, were two sets of characters. One was in the familiar language of the Germand kingdom, while the other was completely different. The Germand one read, “Property of Remilia.”

If he could read it, the second set of characters read “Property of Natalya. Slava Rodine.”

Very intrigued, Gerald flipped the page, and started reading from page one. Not knowing that this single decision would spare him in the future.