“Ah, then you should throw your birthday party in the capital too, Ruby. You can’t let the Emperor’s brat of a son outdo you.”

“He’s, he’s royalty, though.... Huh, but if I throw a birthday party, would anyone even come?”

“No one?”

“Hmmm, let’s see. Titi, Jerdin, Licht, Olivia, um, and then......”

What kind of people would you meet, and what kind of adult would you become?

Looking down at Rubian as she excitedly folded down her fingers one by one, Leviathan felt anticipation and regret at the same time.

“And last is... Dad!”

She jerked her head up and beamed.

It was then.

What was that?

A strange sense of déjà vu passed through Leviathan.

“......”

He faltered for a moment, but only for an instant. Then, with an entirely composed face, he tugged down the slightly hitched cuff of the child’s «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» thin sleeve.

“I’ll be there no matter what.”

As he traced the words over her palm like signing his name there, Rubian let out a little laugh.

...Why did that dream suddenly come back to me?

Leviathan kept walking as he thought.

Lately, he had often been plagued by dreams he couldn’t identify.

A dark night, beneath dim moonlight.

A dream in which he faced someone, and then died.

When he woke, he never remembered anything clearly, but the sensation of a blade cutting through his heart remained, cold and vivid for some reason.

“You shouldn’t have stood against my father.”

When Rubian gets bigger... will she be about my height?

The thought came to him so suddenly that he flinched and shook his head.

What are you thinking?

It was only a dream.

The kind that should vanish like a mirage the moment you open your eyes...

nothing more than a simple nightmare.

*****

Again, Rubian’s diary!

This one is a diary that really only I get to see. (Probably, right?)

Since the diary my family scribbled all over was homework anyway, I just turned it into our household exchange diary.

And this time, I bought a new diary!

A diary with a lock, you ask?

Of course not. Muahahaha! Come to think of it, I don’t really need one.

Because I’m a mage!

A high-rank mage from Arcadia, the Magic Kingdom, the land of mages that has now vanished without a trace.

Because of that identity, I ended up joining the human-demon war, became a fugitive, and wound up a child with rather too many secrets, but...

in the end, it let me meet Dad and the rest of my family like this, so I’m glad I didn’t give up.

Of course, one reason I was able not to give up was because I realized I’d been reincarnated into this “novel.”

Hmm... so, sometimes.

No, actually, fairly often these days.

I wonder where this body was born.

Will the day ever come when I find out?

And if it does, will something change?

Hmm, I don’t know.

For now, I should just work hard on writing my diary!

*****

I came to the capital!

Licht’s birthday party was incredible. Truly the absolute height of splendor and extravagance.

More than anything, there were so many people. He works hard at the Academy, and since traveling all over the Empire is practically his hobby, he has a ridiculous number of friends!

From the look of it, this seems to be around the time people started talking about him as the next Crown Prince, so I think they might have thrown it partly as a show of force to keep the other princes in check... Hmm, though honestly? He seems to be doing just fine on his own.

Ah, separate from how impressive Licht’s birthday party was, I almost died.

My heart is still far too tiny to endure all those eyes and all that attention....

If Khalid hadn’t been next to me, I might really have run away ages ago. He kept people off me to a certain degree and found places for me to rest every now and then.

Of course, the magic he secretly shared with me little by little was a huge help too!

*****

Wow, my birthday party, wow......

Are we even allowed to make this much of a fuss? Won’t somebody report us?

His Majesty the Emperor actually said to me, “I thought a new Imperial holiday had been created without my knowledge, Princess.” (Now that I think about it, who in the world handed an invitation to His Majesty the Emperor?)

Anyway, this year too, with great noise and fanfare...

I turned fourteen!

Ah, right! Khalid undid his fourth bracelet and gave it to me.

Waaah... Dad left for a suppression campaign.... (tears)

Uh, is it okay to write something like this?

Well, I’m the only one reading it anyway, so it should be fine, right?

So...

I’d had no energy since morning, my head was throbbing, and I felt awful. I was gloomy for no reason too...

At first I thought I might be coming down with something, and then all of a sudden my stomach started hurting terribly.

At first I panicked and thought it was the mark growing again. But...

in the end, it wasn’t.

So, um.

It started.

That thing.

Once a month.

I was wiping away the blood by myself when Mom caught me right in the act. She said she’d had a feeling it would happen around this time.

I was a little embarrassed and tried to hide it, but Mom looked absolutely delighted and told me it was proof I was growing up healthy, so there was nothing to be ashamed of. She explained everything to me carefully too.

And I think...

I was probably even happier watching Mom.

Because in my past life, I hadn’t known what to do, so I’d fumbled through it alone for a while.

Hehe, I’m really glad I have a mom.

*****

I passed the Academy transfer exam.

This might sound a little boastful, but...

I took first placeeee! (joy) (cheers) (applause) (applause) (applause)

This feels like one of the happiest days of my fifteen years of life!

But the even more shocking part is that Khalid came in second. I thought he spent day and night doing nothing but swinging a sword, so when exactly did he even study?

Anyway, soon I’ll be attending the Academy together with my brothers and my friends! It’ll only be for a short while, but I’m going to enjoy it!

Today, Titi slept over at my house.

We put on pretty pajamas, got under the same blanket on the same bed, and secretly ate snacks together. Even though no one would actually have scolded us for eating snacks.

I was older than Titi, but we swore we’d be best friends forever anyway. To commemorate it, we exchanged one secret each, and...

would you believe it?

Titi said she confessed that she liked Jerdin. And she even got rejected!

Good heavens.

I was going to tell her about how I secretly disguised myself and went to the shopping district with my brothers...

Titi was more grown-up than me....

What exactly is this feeling called liking someone?

I’ve been seriously thinking about that a lot lately.

(By the way, what is going to happen to the fate of our trio now......?)

The investigation into the magic steles is already in its later stages.

One of the remaining places has a mark-breaking circle formula. Which one is it?

Ah, today Khalid gave me his fifth bracelet.

I turned sixteen!

Khalid had his coming-of-age ceremony before me and was knighted.

“Ohhh~ Sir Khalid~” I teased him about three hundred times, but he didn’t even twitch.

Hmph. Back in the old days, didn’t he at least get a little embarrassed?

The final candidates for the last location with a magic stele have been narrowed down to three places.

I’m still investigating the remaining one myself. No matter how much I tear through the Imperial Palace archives, nothing comes up! Where on earth is itttt?!

Anyway, of those three candidate sites, Dad said he’d go to one of them, and as for another one......

Khalid left without giving me his last bracelet.

Once again, he left behind only a single note and vanished like the wind! He even shut down the communication circuit so I wouldn’t waste magic. Ugh, I’m furious!

Of course I know he went to look for the magic stele for me... but still, leaving without saying goodbye is annoying, so I’m preserving this note as evidence.

< I’ll be back. When I return, I’ll give back all the bracelets along with your magic formula, so wait for me. >

Khalid Riorc! Do you think neat handwriting excuses everything? Just you wait until you get back, seriously! I’m going to @%!@^! you so hard!

.

.

.

Wow, so this is where this diary was!

It feels a little awkward writing in it again after so long, doesn’t it?

So... what was I going to write first?

Ah, right.

I’ve been a little busy lately!

I had to prepare for the Academy graduation exam, there was a funeral, and I also had to keep going to the Imperial Palace archives whenever I had spare time.

Licht and I are still investigating the last remaining place name together, but there’s still been no real progress. To be honest, that’s been making me pretty anxious lately.

I think tomorrow I should go see Professor Yuliope and look through the research materials on ancient place names again.

In just a few days, I’ll already be eighteen.

Unbelievable. I’m going to be eighteen!

Back then, I thought I’d end up leaving the ducal house before reaching adulthood... Hah, looking at it now, that was never going to happen.

Hmm, and Khalid...

since the note he left me two years ago,

still hasn’t returned my last bracelet.

.

.

.

Wait, wait.

My thoughts aren’t sorted out yet, so this might be messy.

How am I supposed to explain this?

While talking with Professor Yuliope today, a strange possibility suddenly occurred to me.

The final place with a magic stele.

Up to now, I’ve focused too much on the magic part, and I was so absorbed in finding the place names written in the documents that I never even thought of this.

But if I shift the way I think about it a little...

what if I narrowed it down simply by looking for places that have a special stele?

Don’t I...

already know a place like that?

I mean.

Our house in Zelox.

...Past the herb hill.