Outside Sylviane's cabin, Kaede watched as light flurries of snow drifted down from the heavens.

Dusk was approaching. Most of the soldiers had retired to the larger cabins and open tents. Even with the gloom of loss and defeat surrounding the whole encampment, Kaede could still hear the rowdy banter of assembled troops. They celebrated this holy day with prayers chanted out loud, with festive music and chorusing songs as they drank away their anxieties and sorrow.

Meanwhile, Kaede could only watch from afar as she knelt on a flat rock outside the cabin door. After five hours, the snow had begun to accumulate on her hair and shoulders.

How much longer was left? Even she didn't know. Her legs were already numb from the pain, to the point where she could barely even feel them beneath her. The rock had a few uneven ridges that really hurt at the beginning.

I really shouldn't have tried after Pascal left, her regrets came with the benefit of hindsight once more. Given Sylviane's emotional state at the time, all she ended up doing was draw the Princess' ire like a lightning rod.

"Reynaud, what are you doing? You can't..." Kaede heard the voice of Sir Robert as the two royal armigers made their way up the nearby dirt path.

"I can't?" Reynaud spun around to challenge Robert face-to-face. He then pointed at the kneeling Samaran girl. "Do you call this justice? Is that why you're unwilling to act?"

"You are a royal armiger, Reynaud, sworn to obey and serve the Princess," Robert stressed. "I may not agree with Her Highness on this matter. However you cannot simply do as you please just because you don't like it!"

"This has nothing to do with whether I like it or not!" The short redhead almost shouted back. "This is about Basic. Human. Decency! One does not punish an innocent just to make a point! And if you have no morals to nag you then get out of my way!" Reynaud then shoved Robert back before striding over to Kaede.

"You'll be stripped of your title and rank if you oppose Her Highness like this!" Robert cried out as he gave Reynaud one last warning.

"If she wants my title over this, then she can have it!" Reynaud spat out.

The red-headed armiger then stepped up to Kaede and offered her a hand.

"Can you stand? Let's get out of here already."

The Samaran girl couldn't help but return a bittersweet smile. After all the times Reynaud had sexually harassed her since her arrival in this world, after all the jokes he had made at her expense, she would have never thought that he would be the one to help her during a moment like this.

He's even willing to throw away his dream of being an Oriflamme Armiger to do what he considered as the right thing, Kaede thought as she truly appreciated just what Reynaud was trying to achieve.

Nevertheless, the familiar could only shake her head in rejection of his offer, which left the redhead flabbergasted. It was true she couldn't stand, as her legs had been glued to the rock by a spell. But while Reynaud could easily dispel such magic, what the armiger had not considered were its repercussions.

"Thank you, Reynaud. I really appreciate your gesture. However I cannot leave here," Kaede said in a pained voice. "If I do, then Her Highness' anger will fall solely upon Pascal. It would only escalate the conflict between them, leading to results that could spell disaster for the entire war. That would be something that not only Pascal would regret, but countless other people would be negatively impacted by it."

Kaede thought of the columns of refugees they saw on the road yesterday, or the thousands of injured soldiers that the army had to relocate. Any enmity she created between Pascal and Sylviane now would affect all of these lives.

"I cannot be the cause of that," she firmly declared before offering a brave smile. "Besides, this isn't that bad."

Kaede wasn't sure how long she'd have to suffer before the Princess released her. However none of this was comparable to what she had feared at first. When Sylviane dragged her out of the cabin after declaring her actions tantamount to treason, the Samaran girl had sincerely feared for her life.

It was another reason why she'd rather suffer here than leave and risk escalating the Princess' ire.

Besides, compared to the historic punishments she had read about on Earth, this really wasn't that severe. Even Japanese school teachers occasionally used seiza on a hard floor as a form of punishment. She just wished someone would bring her a plate of that alluring chicken which she could smell wafting from the camps, since thanks to Pascal, her stomach hadn't seen a proper meal since lunch yesterday.

"Now do you understand the gravity of the situation?" Sir Robert voiced as he stood beside Reynaud once more. "Even Kaede understands the repercussions. I applaud your integrity, Reynaud. But you should not allow momentary self-satisfaction to stand in the way of your duty to Rhin-Lotharingie!"

With a frustrated look, Reynaud looked Kaede in the eyes as though asking 'are you sure?' It took another nod from Kaede before he could be convinced.

"Fine," the armiger retorted. He reached into his pocket and pulled out three chicken croquettes wrapped in a napkin. He then shoved it into Kaede's hands before striding away back towards the camp. "Don't mind me. I'm just the dumb soldier."

"Thank you..." Kaede muttered as she unwrapped them and took her first bite of proper food in over twenty-four hours. It reminded her of the croquettes her mother used to cook back on Earth.

I want to go home and see Ma and Pa again... A tear slid from her eyes and ran down the same trail as the countless others she shed when she could still feel her legs, when it felt like they were about to break.

Meanwhile, as a snowflake drifted down onto her lukewarm food, Robert muttered a few words which created an invisible force overhead that pushed the falling snow away from her.

"I'm sorry," the armiger noted with a sigh. "I'll stay with you until Her Highness relents."

"Thank you as well, Sir Robert," Kaede nodded at the man who had saved her life in Nordkreuz. However this time, he could only look guilty in return, as though it was his fault that she was in her spot now.

 

----- * * * -----

 

"No... stop...!" Sylviane heard a meek voice as she shifted in her comfortable bed.

"Please...!"

The Princess rolled over. She pulled the comforter up to cover her ears this time.

"No...!"

Her cabin was supposed to be soundproof. Yet why was she being awoken by this moaning and groaning?

"I didn't...!"

Sylviane grasped her silk casting gloves off the bedside table and waved it at the light. She then sat up in her bed while her thin fingers rubbed the blurry eyes in the dim illumination. Her eyesight soon focused, and it took no time at all to pinpoint the source of her disturbance.

In the far corner of the room, a small girl was curled up on the floor. Her only cover was the black-and-white pseudo-uniform she wore. Her only padding was a simple bedroll, the exact same type that common soldiers made use of.

"Kaede..." Sylviane muttered in confusion, before everything flooded back to her.

The stone ring. The encounters. The battle.

The caustic words she spewed towards Edith, towards her own officers and men... and worst of all, towards Pascal.

He had supported her through her worst moments. He had stood as the last pillar in her life, as the only person she could still rely on. Yet, she almost had him arrested, humiliated in public, and whipped to within a centipace of his life.

Mari had intervened in time to avoid that catastrophe. However neither of her armigers could persuade her not to take her anger out on the familiar who tried to defend her master.

Kaede had knelt outside in the snow, on an uneven rock, with her legs glued to the spot by a sticking spell, for ten hours. Then, with little regard to the girl who could no longer even walk, Sylviane dragged the familiar back inside to lay on only a thin bedroll.

"Stay away...!" Kaede jerked her leg, her body squirming to push herself even further into the corner.

Even the reasons Sylviane had ridiculed proved true. The Samaran familiar was relapsing into nightmares right before her eyes.

Oh blessed Father... What have I done...

The Princess' hands were shaking as she lowered her head into her palms. She had repaid kindness with ingratitude, rewarded aid with anger, and held back exactly none of her worst urges. Her envy, her apathy, her cruelty, and her wrath... They were traits more hideous than any scar or deformity, yet she flaunted them openly before the eyes of the world as though they were glittering jewelry.

It was no wonder why Hauteclaire hadn't returned the entire day.

With her palms pressed together, Sylviane bent over in her own bed as tears of regret and self-contempt spilled forth from her glassy eyes.

Oh Holy Father... please forgive me...

Perhaps the Holy Father would. The Lord was merciful, after all. But how could she ever face Pascal after today? How could she ever ask for his forgiveness? Or even apologize to Kaede?

"No...!"

Such words were no longer just the incoherent cries of a girl deluded by the subconscious. They were accusations against the Princess' cruelty towards an innocent, reminders of the compounding sins that would surely place her in eternal damnation.

I didn't mean it... I swear...

Sylviane's eyes were shaking. Her hands were trembling. She felt like she had woken up from some terrible dream, as though her conscience had returned after being possessed by a demon, except there were no such excuses to shield her from facing her own wickedness. She could still remember the satisfaction when she stuck the familiar's legs onto that torturous rock and walked away, leaving the horrified girl to suffer alone.

"It's not...!" Kaede twitched again.

This is my fault... this is all mine...

Unable to bear the terrified stammering anymore, Sylviane pushed off the comforter and stood up in her underwear. Half afraid and half rushing, she made her way over to the trembling girl on the ground. The Princess slid down next to the Samaran girl, then reached out gently with her hands and lifted Kaede's torso off the thin bedroll. She pulled the other girl close against her chest, before pressing her head into the other and crying tears of remorse as she pleaded for atonement.

"I'm sorry. I really am sorry. I didn't mean it."

The Princess never realized when the familiar woke up. She never saw how terrified those confused pink eyes were as Kaede found herself in the arms of the one responsible for her suffering mere hours ago.