"Really… you've went quite far for this, haven't you?" Julien's mother, Elise, sighed though the communication crystal, "I'm glad you're all safe, but what of the assailants?"

"It was unfortunate, but they managed to escape. I couldn't just carelessly chase after them either because of the danger it would pose to Duchess Nora and Lady Valerie." Julien reported, "I attempted to track them down as well, but… it seems whatever spell they used to escape also managed to hide their trace of mana. I wasn't able to identify it properly in time." he sighed, "Sorry for acting so suddenly."

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Valerie beside him, looking at him with a smile. He reciprocated the smile, but truth be told, he was quite tired right now, he'd expended a large amount of mana not only to get here, but also to protect against the ridiculous explosion spell that Lilith had set off.

He was glad that there were no towns nearby, but the damage was still huge nonetheless. At least they were safe, that was the only good thing they had going for them now.

"I understand why you did it, so there's no need to apologize. I was just worried. Then, I'll send some mages to pick you up, it ought to be dangerous there, after all." Elise said, then she looked towards Nora who was beside Valerie, "Nora, I'll count on you to protect my son in the meantime."

"Although I had barely been able to protect myself lately… I will do my best, your majesty." Nora said, bowing to her. "Who will you be sending?"

"I checked the area and luckily Xanis and Leiah are nearby. They should be arriving there in an hour." Elise said, "Now, is there anything else?"

Julien looked around, and everyone shook their heads, he then turned to Elise through the magic crystal, "Mother, about those people coming here… can I show it to them?" he asked, and his mother stared at him.

She had a frown on her face, but after a while she shook her head, "No, it's too early. Practice caution with what you show for now, don't use any unique magic unless the situation really calls for it, understood?"

"Understood, mother." Julien nodded, releasing a breath. For a moment he nearly fell, but Valerie was beside him so she managed to catch him with her arm around his shoulder.

"Your highness, please be careful…" Valerie said, looking at him worriedly, "May we be excused, your majesty?" she asked Elise through the communication crystal,

"Please, I have much to talk about with Duchess Nora." Elise nodded, "I leave my son in your care, Lady Valerie."

"I shall do my best." Valerie said, bowing her head slightly, before looking at him, "Are you okay, your highness?"

Julien sighed, "Valerie… you don't have to keep up the formalities." he said, looking at her, "Thank you, but I would like to lie down."

"Understood." Valerie nodded, and they went outside of the temporary tent and headed towards the carriage. Thankfully, it wasn't all that far, and as they happened to pass by Lorentz on the way there, Julien was passed onto him, while Valerie called for one of her maids.

Julien closed his eyes when he eventually managed to lie down, but groaned after a while.

"Is there something wrong?" Valerie asked beside him, taking care of him herself with a warm towel.

Julien opened his eyes and saw her looking at him in worry, this made him smile, "No, but… I just wish there was a better pillow to lie down on." he said, laughing at his own tiredness.

Was he really that exhausted? Well, yes, mana exhaustion wasn't a joke, after all.

Valerie just smiled, looking almost nostalgic, "Understood." she said, carefully raising him up and sitting beside him, allowing his head to lay on her lap. "Better?"

"Much better." Julien said, looking up at Valerie's face as she looked down at him. They stayed silent like that for a while, Valerie just carefully patting his face and arms with the warm towel as his body was taking the brunt of the sudden lack of mana. "Doesn't this remind you of something, Alicia?" he asked after a long while, eyes closed as he reminisced about their past life.

Back in a much much simpler time.

Playing around the fields, leaning against each other after they tired themselves out… it was a time when they were children. Things seemed so much simpler back then.

So much brighter.

Julien felt drops of water on his face, making him open his eyes, frowning as he saw Valerie's tears dripping down. "... Alicia?"

"I'm sorry… I-I'm sorry—I just can't help but remember—I can't help but regret it all… I never wanted to separate from you, no more than that, I-I couldn't keep my promise. M-My promise to you and to Melissa… I'm sorry, I—" she had her hands clenched as she started crying.

Julien just raised his hands to cup her face, "Alicia." he said softly, wiping the tears that were trailing down her cheeks, "I don't mind it. In the first place, did you really forget your promise?" he said, smiling as he lowered his hands to her own, as his arms were still tired. "Remember, Alicia. What did you promise to Leone?"

"Promise me, we'll meet again someday, right? Alicia?"

"Yes… I promise!"

Valerie looked shocked at that, but as the realization suddenly dawned on her face, she couldn't help but smile and grip his hands tightly, "Idiot…"

"If I had to say who was the idiot here, wouldn't it be you? In the first place our promise never specified when we would meet again." Julien said so while laughing, "And as for my mother from back then… she doesn't mind, you know?"

"She… didn't?" Valerie said, surprised and doubtful, "But—"

"Alicia. We don't blame you for what you did. More than that, I'm happy because you were safe. Neither I nor Melissa would have wanted to drag you into that whole conflict." Julien smiled, closing his eyes as he was starting to feel peace in his mind. Now, he could be satisfied with his life as Leone. "Really, it was my fault to have never reached out to you when we were older."

Valerie giggled at that, it seems Alicia's old habits didn't fade even now, "What are you saying? Weren't you quite busy, Mr. CEO of a billion dollar company?"

"You weren't so bad yourself, Ms. Revolutionary Inventor of the 21st Century." he chuckled, "Did you have a good life?" he asked suddenly, opening his eyes to see her face.

"I…" she had a conflicted look on her face, "N-Now that I'm finally with y-you again… I'm satisfied with leaving that old life behind." Valerie declared, a determined look on her face.

He looked into her eyes, looking for any signs of doubt and found nothing. Then he closed his eyes again, sighing in relief, "Good. Then you wouldn't mind being together with me now? Even now that we're already different people entirely?"

"You are you to me. I don't mind if it's Leone or Julien. As long as I know it's you, I'll gladly stay together even if the world turns over. No, even if I have to turn the world itself over."

"Oh so we're going to start with these ridiculous statements again?"

They both laughed, continuing to talk with each other leisurely like that. Julien didn't know when, but he was finally able to sleep.

As exhaustion took over him, he finally got some rest, with his hair being gently caressed by Valerie and his hand holding onto hers.

"I'm glad… I'm glad we could be together at last…" Valerie whispered those words to him, but he didn't hear it.

Even still, he smiled at just having her nearby.

---

Valerie let out a sigh as she saw Julien finally fall asleep in her lap. She couldn't help but look at him with soft eyes as she saw his face that looked to be peacefully sleeping. This was… a rather familiar scene to her.

She chuckled, Leone always did like her lap pillow. It seems it hasn't changed one bit even after one lifespan.

… oh, now that she thought about it, they could make those jokes about waiting their whole life just to be together at last, huh? However, she couldn't help but feel that there was something wrong about this life that they were pulled into.

A visual novel—more accurately, an otome game. What was even more peculiar were who they ended up becoming. She'd become the villainess of the game, Valerie, while he'd become one of the main love interests in the game, Prince Julien. Fuu, she couldn't do much about that, really, but there was something else that was peculiar about the situation at hand, why these two specifically?

She could understand Prince Julien, but just like Valerie, he wasn't a very fleshed out character in the game. At least, there wasn't much revealed about the two other than how Julien had a monstrous mana pool and Valerie could literally slice magical attacks with her strength alone (something she was having a hard time developing still, considering just how ridiculous a thing it was to accept for others right now). The main thing about these two characters, as well, they were only ever relevant in the game for the first and second part…

After all, Julien died in the game after that. Valerie didn't seem to stay as a villainess in the game after that point either, since everything went to chaos so quickly that apparently she didn't have time to deal with the heroine.

For some reason, for Alicia, it felt as though there was something suspicious going on, especially after seeing that one of the main love interests, Johann, was apparently working with the actual antagonists in the story. She blinked as she remembered something, however, something incredibly important.

Wasn't Johann's backstory within the game being a villain that defects to the other side after being romanced by the heroine?

At the time, she thought that it was just some political faction thing since that was revealed before the third part of the game, but no… didn't it make more sense for him to have been an actual antagonist? If the heroine didn't clear his route by that time, then he'd have just simply disappeared from the storyline beyond that point.

The unnamed swordsman that had been gossiped about in the game, so it was him?

Even if she knew all of that, it wasn't like she could do much about it presently. Right now she just had to protect herself and Julien if any attacks came. Her hand went to grip her sword as she felt someone coming close to the carriage, before loosening her grip as she recognized who it was.

A knock came to the door, "Lady Valerie?" it was her maid, Faril. "I've prepared the things you've asked for."

Valerie called out, "Enter. Try to be quiet when you do so, please."

"Then please excuse me." Faril said, opening the carriage doors, looking stunned for a moment as she saw the intimate scene between Valerie and Julien. It was even more surprising for her as she wasn't aware of anyone that her young mistress would allow to be this close to her who wasn't family. Having her sword be placed beside herself instead of being on her lap was also significant.

Valerie understood Faril's look and just smiled, "I couldn't exactly just leave my savior unattended now, can I? Especially not if it's his highness."

Faril nodded quickly, "Y-Yes, I'm sorry for prying." she said, bowing as she placed down some pillows and blankets inside the carriage. She paused however, looking between the Prince and her young mistress, Valerie.

As if knowing that look, Valerie replied, "In due time, Faril. I'll tell you about it after we get some rest."

"F-Forgive me, my lady." she bowed, then left the carriage in a hurry, closing the door behind her gently.

At that scene, Valerie couldn't help but chuckle. "It's not everyday something like this would reach their eyes, I suppose." she said to herself, looking down at Julien once more, "Sleep well, my prince charming." she muttered so, leaning down to kiss his forehead before taking the pillow which she'd asked from Faril and carefully moving Julien's head as he slept, replacing the pillow in his head with an actual pillow this time, as opposed to her lap.

She extended the seat that Julien was lying down in with how large the carriage was and then placed a pillow beside him as well.

Valerie hesitated for a moment but just decided not to think too much about it for now.

She was tired, and, most of all, she didn't want to leave his side.

So, she went to lie down beside him and then placed the blanket around them.

She was sure that she was already breaking quite a number of laws here with the things she was doing with the Prince, but it didn't matter.

She was his fiancee after all, and he was her fiance. It will work out somehow.

Wrapping herself around him, Valerie—more importantly, Alicia—finally got to sleep as she closed her eyes.

Needless to say, it was a shocking sight to see for Nora when she went back to the carriage, but seeing how peaceful the two children looked, she couldn't help but just smile.

Having the communication orb in her hands still connected with her majesty as well, she saw it too.

"Our sweet little angels…" Nora whispered as she saw that scene,

"I pity those who would dare to get in between them." Elise said, with a small laugh, "They'll have to get through us first, after all."

Nora couldn't agree more. But, this all happened unbeknownst to either Valerie nor Julien.

When they woke up, they were already in the capital.

---