Hey Guys, Aidka's here!
The last two chapters were a bit controversial, with many of you wishing Ysnay happiness, and others of you hoping she dies.
I like it, it means you are immersed in the story, so I feel a bit proud of that.
About Ysnay, her plans run deeper than you think. Much deeper. So deep I'm sure many of you will be surprised when you find out at the end of the novel. But I have said it a lot of times before. She loves Claus, a lot, so she will never do anything that harms him... I guess? I will not say much more about her plans, because that is a strong spoiler.
Now, some of you wrote that Claus should forgive Ysnay... Mmm, that is complicated.
Let's put it this way. A man is married, but one day he discovers his wife cheated on him. Several months later, they are in the process of divorce, but the wife doesn't want to divorce. She begs the man to forgive her, telling him that it was a mistake and she has never and will never do it again. However, the man refuses to forgive her.
Is it wrong for the woman to ask for forgiveness? It's not. Everybody makes mistakes, and there is nothing wrong with wishing for a second opportunity.
Is it wrong of the man for not forgiving her? It's not either. He was betrayed. He has the right to hate her and try to remake his life with another person.
Thus, neither Ysnay nor Claus are wrong, but Ysnay was the one to err, so now she is just reaping what she sowed.
Enjoy the chapters, Aidka :p
...
By the next morning, it was as though nothing had happened.
Ysnay did not make any strange action nor she touched the topic of us again. She continued behaving as usual, as though her determination of last night would have been a lie.
However, I knew she had already started to move.
In a certain sense, last night could be considered as Ysnay's declaration of war.
And although I'm not one hundred percent sure of Ysnay's plans, I was lucky, so I learned a lot.
I never expected the fate clone, though. That trick was new.
It was a pretty good trick. So good that it managed to outwit most of my previous preparations.
It's not strange for immortals to create clones. It's pretty easy, in fact. But Ysnay's fate clone was rather special.
If it would have been a normal clone, with my abilities over souls I would have been able to notice that part of her consciousness was being used to control another body.
But this time, I noticed nothing.
It was as though her main body and her clone were two completely separate entities.
Furthermore, she used her real body as a veil to hide the actions of her clone away from my sight. That way, while I was distracted keeping an eye on the actions of her main body, her clone would be moving behind scenes, completing everything she needed to complete.
Such a set up was amazing. Worthy of her reputation as one of the best users of fate in existence.
But unfortunately for her, lady luck smiled at me this time.
Ysnay didn't know, but before she arrived at this world, I did something to Alice's soul.
I took a small part of her soul and kept it with me.
And through that, I can know anything Alice does.
Moreover, because Alice is also a user of fate, I hid my actions from fate to stop her from finding out what it was what I took. It, however, also means that this was hidden from Ysnay.
It was something I did in a whim due to my wariness towards users of fate. But I never expected it would bring me such a surprise this time.
In other words, I know everything about her deal with the gods last night.
Of course, I'm not naïve enough to think her plans are just that. Ysnay is a genius plotter, someone able to turn even the most certain defeat into victory just by twisting certain small facts. Seeing through her plans is not so easy.
Even now, I'm not exactly sure about what her end goal is.
But the fact I know she is planning something will allow me to do more targeted preparations.
I'm not sure how useful they will be, though.
But there are some things I can't understand.
Firstly, why did Ysnay show all of this to Alice?
Could it be that she wants to prove me wrong? Does she want to prove to me that any seer will make the same choice when faced with the temptation of power?
Or perhaps there is another hidden meaning behind her actions?
The second thing I don't understand is that Ysnay should know that acting this way is not going to win points with me.
Quite the opposite, it's going to make me even warier of her actions.
What in the hell is she planning then?
What does she want to achieve?
… Sigh, dealing with seers is so tiresome.
I really don't want to do this.
But at this point, there is no going back.
I'm determined to accomplish my goal. And accomplishing my goal means leaving Ysnay behind.
As for Ysnay, she is determined to insert herself in my life again, even if it means going against me.
Suppressing the urge to heave another long sigh, I arrived at my destination of today.
I'm leaving the capital tomorrow to go to the frontline against the daemons. Thus, there are some things I need to do before leaving.
And one of them is to visit my fiancée, Clara.
I have not seen her since when we flirted during the funeral of Bryan.
That is the reason I'm here.
In the headquarters of the church.
Calmly, I descended from the carriage and walked inside the church. The guards on the entrance looked at me strangely, but none of them stopped me.
Once inside, I was led by a nun to a guest room deep inside the headquarters and told to wait there for a while.
After waiting fifteen minutes, the door of the guest room opened and Saintess Safelia entered the room together with two church knights.
I raised an eyebrow in the direction of Safelia.
"I thought I was going to meet Clara today."
Safelia snorted. "She is a bit busy right now so she will be late. Before that, though, there is something I want to talk with you."
Oh?
Putting on an expression of interest, I looked at the guards accompanying her.
Safelia understood my meaning and glared at them.
"Leave us alone."
"But saintess, that is–"
"It's an order," Saintess said coldly. "Wait outside."
The two guards put on complicated expressions before nodding helplessly.
But before they left, I spoke up to them.
"Right, when Clara arrives, tell her to come in. Alone, of course."
The guards frowned. But as Safelia did not refuse me, they did not have reason to refuse me either.
Once the guards were gone, I looked at Safelia with interest.
"… How interesting. To think you would take the initiative to be alone with me."
Safelia said nothing. She instead bit her lips for a few seconds and an expression of hesitation flashed through her face.
Finally, she sighed.
"… I think I need your help."