This was such a silent night. The only sounds that I could vaguely hear were the soft rustling of the wind against branches, and the relaxing crackling sounds of our campfire. Besides those, neither the birds were flapping their wings, nor were the insects buzzing.
Once again, I was reminded of the sheer scale of my mishap. In a temperate forest like this one, a quick estimate would tell me that billions upon billions of insects and plants had perished. As for birds and mammals, we were probably talking about millions of deaths. Biomass-wise, what I had done to this forest was dozens of thousands of times worse than what I did to the humans near the capital. And yet, the antropocentrist that I was currently didn’t care about trees and insects.

I looked at Clair who was leaning against one such dead tree and was silently looking at the night sky, her knife in her hands.

“Why?” I asked her, confirming that Lune was sleeping. “Why did you want me to tag along? Your sister doesn’t know about me, but you do.”
"I’d like to believe it is some sort of trial from God. Maybe we have to earn our salvation and, for that, we need to help you atone."
"Good luck with that,” I scoffed. “I see that you gave up on me being the one to bring you salvation."
"I’m just trying to make sense of this absurd situation. I’d rather reinterpret everything I’ve believed in until now than acknowledge that God made a mistake."
“I’m sure there are hundreds of more likely interpretations than that. You come from the Wetrekha Empire, don’t you? Perhaps what I just did here in this kingdom will be beneficial to your nation soon, and that’s it.”

If so, assuming there was no such thing as a false positive, that would mean that Lune’s magic had predicted what I would do several months prior.
Perhaps there was some truth in saying that magic was mediated by godlike entities. That was the premise of what most elves believed in.

“Maybe,” Clair responded. “For now we're in a bit of a pinch, and we may need your strength very soon. What you did might be unforgivable, but it is at least proof that you’re powerful,” she said. “Just earlier, you managed to light that campfire as if it was nothing."
“You’re expecting too much from me. Didn’t I say I messed up badly while I was fighting?”
A faint smile appeared across her lips. "Who knows? Maybe you’ll someday prove me wrong and assume your role as our savior."

She’s really serious about me being related to their salvation, huh?
I honestly didn't know what to do about all of this. I felt like there was a lot they were hiding about this whole ordeal, starting from the reason they were forced to leave their empire, but I also felt like they were not lying about lacking an actual plan after they had found their target.

"I can’t promise I’ll stay with you two the whole time,” I said. “I may decide to leave you behind and return to where I’m from as fast as I can."
"Oh?” she arched an eyebrow. "And how do you plan on getting there faster than us? You don't look all that athletic, so sprinting for days is out. Even ignoring that, raising an arm makes you grimace. Would your back even be able to support the weight of bags full of supplies, in this state?"
"You can keep the supplies. I have the means to travel much, much faster, so my physical condition doesn’t matter as long as I can reach my destination."
She looked at me skeptically. "What is your magic even about?"
"... I'm not sure," I laughed to myself.
"You said you were fifteen, right? You must have awakened recently then…”
"I naturally awakened years ago, in fact. I’ve used my magic thousands of times."

She raised an eyebrow as if I were strange for still doubting myself now. Well, I did know one thing my spell could do, but not what it was. What I was lacking was the framework that would connect all the dots and unify everything.

I tried paying attention to the flow of my mana like it would trigger my ‘Eureka!’ moment by some miracle.
Maybe it could have if Clair hadn’t removed my ability to feel said flow. As things were, I was seemingly under the influence of the same affliction as earlier that day. Yet, it had been gradually disappearing throughout the day, starting around the moment I had reacted a bit to her sister’s mysterious magic.
Did she recast her debuff on me at some point?
It was bold of her to expect me to defend them when she was the one restricting my abilities. Hopefully, she could dispel the magic in a crisis without having to wait for it to dissipate on its own.
And if she could, I also hoped that she would unseal my magic if I ever told her that I wanted to part ways immediately. Without my magic, it was exactly like she said; I wouldn’t survive long enough to reach Phesiora. She could even prevent me from leaving by physically overpowering me.

***

It was at dawn that we came upon a carriage full of what looked like bandits. Needless to say, dead bandits.

I sensed my body tense up. “We’re close.”

I must have walked past this cart as I walked toward the capital, but I had no recollection of it. That was certainly because my mind was in a wreck at the time.
That carriage had likely been positioned there to delay any reinforcements from reaching the actual attack site. No traveler who saw such a suspicious carriage in the middle of the road would dare to approach, so it was probably a smart move.
Was another carriage placed on the other side too?

This really was a planned assassination. Whether I had been caught up in the attack by accident or I was targeted as well, I didn’t know. What I did know was that the strengthening mage who was swallowed by the pseudo-annihilation sphere belonged to the Brangett family.
After giving it some thought the day before, I had recalled that Viktor was also part of that same family. I knew that the relationship between him and his family was tense after he gave up on inheriting the title, so he might not have been involved in that scheme. At least, he seemed like he did not care one bit about status or politics. I sure hoped he was innocent because that could otherwise implicate Serena by association as she used to report to him and even lived in a house he bought her.

Since Viktor was supposedly stationed in the capital as the official instructor for newly awakened mages, it was best to consider him dead. As for his brother who became a marquis in his stead, I couldn’t say for sure. That strengthening mage was supposedly from the family, but Isaac hadn’t referred to him as the actual Marquis de Brangett. Therefore, the real deal might have been out of danger. As far as I knew, no marquis estate was located near the capital.
I needed answers, so I certainly hoped the instigator of this assassination was still alive.

Eventually, we saw two carriages and what looked like several bodies lying on the ground in the distance.
We're here…

"That's where we were attacked," I said with a lump in my throat.
"W-wait," Clair said with a frown, "Aren't there like, way too many people?"
"Half of them are bad guys so we don't need to bury them all."
"Who's 'we'?" Clair shook her head. "I'm not letting you swing any shovel, just so you know. You'd only reopen your wounds."
"I can't even do that for them...?"
"You can come and give me instructions," she offered reluctantly.

Minutes later, we arrived at the grim scene. As soon as I looked upon the intense expressions of my first victims, nausea washed over me.
Maybe I shouldn’t have come…

Clair grimaced as she surveyed the corpses. "This is still going to take forever… Wouldn't it be faster to just cremate them with your magic? Some are already pretty well grilled."

Likely after seeing my face pale and my legs shake, her eyes widened. “I-I’m sorry… I’ll take care of everything, alright?”
“But… I need to–”
“I can tell by the outfits who were your traveling companions. Just rest.”

***

In the end, I passively watched Clair digging dirt while I sat on the grass not too far away. Several minutes had ticked by, so I had mainly regained my earlier composure. Well, considering my mental state out of late, I likely still looked pathetic.  

“I’ve been wondering,” Lune broke the silence, albeit cautiously. "Since your group was so huge and well-dressed, are you actually someone important, Alice?"
“You could say that,” I nodded, “I am a noble.”
"I-I had no idea!” she exclaimed as she suddenly straightened her posture. “I did notice that you had a refined face but… a noble? Why do you speak so informally then?"
"I just thought it was better to adapt my language. I have some commoner friends, so I'm still getting used to it."
Lune's gaze lingered on one particular body that Clair was struggling to remove from the Vallmonts’ carriage. "Was this body a noble too? Did you know each other?"
"We were quite close, I’d say," I admitted. "Although I never explicitly discussed it with anyone, I believe that his parents and mine were planning for us to get married someday."
"M-married?!" Lune yelled as a fierce blush appeared on her cheeks.
"It's just conjecture, really. I was never formally told about any engagement plans whatsoever."

I only started to question the intentions behind it all around the time I stopped taking lessons with Maximilian. If his parents' goal was to get closer to the King through my family, an arranged marriage would have been a much more effective strategy than just allowing me on their estate regularly.
Paving the way to an engagement by bringing me into close contact with Maximilian so frequently would explain why everyone made such an accommodating effort for those theoretical tutoring sessions, even though they were functionally useless to me.

Now that I think about it, was Elaina inviting me to travel along with them premeditated?
Taking Rachel’s spot even though this ceremony was so symbolically important would have certainly displayed my closeness with Maximilian and could have set the stage for an announcement shortly after.
… Have I been outsmarted? And here I was, only thinking about which shops I would be visiting in the capital…
Most likely, Maximilian had been perfectly aware of what this meant. Heck, maybe even Rachel knew. Was I the only one who didn’t have a clue?

That brought the question of why no one ever bothered explaining these things to me even once. It might have been because there was a huge conspiracy and everyone had unionized and agreed to trick me for years, or simply because it was so obvious that they all thought I knew and thus never felt the need to speak about it. Well, nobles did tend to prefer using figures of speech over saying things directly, but this was on another level.
There was also the embarrassing possibility that I had been reading way too much into this and no one actually ever thought of me as the future marchioness. Fortune- and mana-wise I was from a lower-tier count family, the general consensus was that my hair was unsightly, and I was so frail that some people apparently doubted I could even bear a child. Really, I was as bad a candidate as one could get.
In the end, whichever it was, I had been either dense or delusional.

"Did you… want a true marriage of love?” Lune asked, probably in reaction to my strange pause.
"Love?” I pondered. “Feelings hardly matter in these kinds of arrangements, unfortunately.”

I had already been prepared to be married off into some noble house I didn't know, so I had made peace with never experiencing true happiness. I had been conditioned for a good portion of my life to treasure things like stability instead.

"Becoming part of his family might not have been so bad, I suppose.” My gaze drifted to Maximilian, placed unintentionally in a macabre way next to his parents while Clair was still digging. “Everyone was kind to me, so I’m sure I would have been treated well."

But now, they’re gone.
For maybe the first time since the incident, it felt completely real. No shock nor exhaustion to make me hope I had in fact been dreaming. Just the plain and sad reality.
I was sure that I would eventually have to pay for everything but, for now, I ought to think about the short-term future in order to advance.

***

"Ugh..." Clair groaned as she wiped the sweat from her brow. "That was exhausting."

She had finished burying everyone besides the attackers right before sunset. Just placing the corpses as they were without any coffin was disturbing to watch, but I thought it was infinitely better than them remaining in the open air. I could always exhume the bodies later to give them a proper funeral.

Clair turned to me. “Um… is staying the night in that carriage a no-go?”
“I’d rather not…”
“Right…” she muttered, probably having expected my answer. “Well, let’s set up camp in the woods over there, then.”

Lune extended her hand to help me up, but I didn’t take it. “You two can go on ahead. I’d like to stay for a bit longer if you don’t mind.”

Without saying a word, Lune nodded in understanding and I watched the sisters disappear between the trees.

***

After having taken this opportunity to properly mourn the dead, I ultimately rose to my feet and followed the path Clair and Lune had taken.
I spotted through the trees the glow of the campfire they had set up. I was a bit surprised at first that they had managed to get it going without my magic, but they were probably used to camp since they had apparently been on the run for at least a few months.

I hope they’ve set it up near the river.
Not that I expected to find some fish, of course. I just needed fresh water.
As I closed the distance to the camp, however, something sounded off. I could distinctly hear a male voice over there.
When I emerged from the dark to see what was going on, I found Lune lying on her belly, her hands bound tightly behind her back. Clair was in a similar position, with a girl around her age who was in the process of tying her up.
Finding other survivors was certainly a good thing but, in this case, it smelled like trouble.

"I-I see you’ve got guests," I exclaimed, half-hoping that this jest would somehow loosen the tension and dispel any potential misunderstanding. “Gah?!–”

Instead of getting an answer, though, someone slammed me violently to the ground and knocked the wind out of me.