That night, Rishe headed for her field with her guards in tow, as always. She wore a deep blue dress that was easy to wash and didn't show stains, her long hair tied up in a ponytail. As she silently harvested her medicinal herbs, she considered her newest worry.
If I meet Lord Lawvine at the party, he'll expose "Lucius's" identity. I knew I'd need to make an apology after the training period is over, but I'd hoped to keep it a secret until then.
Rishe wanted to learn about Galkhein's knights; she wasn't participating in the training just to toughen up and build stamina.
This will help me get closer to understanding just what Emperor Arnold Hein plans to achieve in five years' time…
With a sigh, she thinned out the sprouts budding in her field and steeled herself for what she needed to do.
I have to welcome Kyle, fool the count, and avoid stoking Arnold's suspicions. I'll use a proven technique at the party. It's tiring, but the lessons I learned in my fifth life will come in handy!
She dusted the dirt from her hands and stood, basket in hand. A night breeze caressed her cheek. Spring on this continent ended with a brief rainy season—the wind tonight was a pleasant precursor. The fireflies would come out soon. Maybe she could find a place on the palace grounds to watch them.
While she was considering this, several lights flickered to life in a distant tower. She'd never seen it lit up before.
One of the knights followed Rishe's gaze and said, "The scholars from Coyolles are staying in that tower."
"Oh, that's where they are?"
Rishe was acquainted with a few of them—although in this life, it was only one-sided.
I wonder if Gideon is here. Greg hates traveling by ship, so I assume he stayed in Coyolles.
As she recalled the familiar faces, her mind lingered on one in particular.
This should be the era when Master is traveling all over to seek out books of medicine.
In her life as an apothecary, she'd met her master around a year and a half from the current moment. Rishe had caught her eye as someone whose knowledge of medicine was self-taught, and the woman had bestowed even more upon her. Rishe was with her for two years, but there was still so much she could have learned.
I'm sure Master's not with the group from Coyolles, but…if I could see her again, there's a lot I'd like to ask her.
And not just about Kyle; she wanted to make other medicines in the future. Her problem was her low supply of medicinal herbs. She had asked the Aria Trading Company to procure what they could, but some would be hard to get outside of Renhua, the medicinal capital of the world.
Still, Prince Kyle is my priority right now. I'll have to convince his scholars to let him try my medicine for at least a few days.
The difficulty lay in how absolutely terrible it tasted: The concoction was bad enough that it would be hard to convince them it wasn't poisonous.
I must get it into him, though. If I don't, he won't even be able to stand up five years from now.
She had crossed paths with Kyle in her first life as a merchant. She'd traded in gems, giving her an opportunity to do business with the king of Coyolles. Kyle found working with Rishe convenient, and they continued to make deals, but his condition only worsened with time. Within half a decade, Coyolles gave up on its first prince and named its second prince—only five years old at the time—the king's successor.
Come to think of it, Prince Kyle's half brother will be born this year. I think his birthday is in the seventh month, like mine, so…next month. In Coyolles, the kind third queen was likely enthusiastically preparing to have her first child.
Rishe remembered how Kyle had spoken to her, voice hoarse, unable to even sit up in bed.
"I have no interest in ascending to the throne. There's no point. My only fear is my inability to repay my country and the people who have respected me as their prince for so long."
I must ensure Prince Kyle recovers.
Rishe knelt in the corner of her field, picking herbs for Kyle's treatment.
I wonder if Kyle ever visited Galkhein around this time in any of my previous lives. Has it happened in all of them? Or is this a first?
Kyle was here to celebrate Arnold and Rishe's engagement.
This is a departure from my previous lives, and it means everything's going a little differently.
If that held true, she had hope.
There's meaning in my decisions. I'm reordering things. Okay, I'm even more motivated now!
She wanted to change the world, to squeeze out even one more second of life than her last. Her ultimate goal was to sleep a solid ten hours every night, read books in the morning shade, and enjoy tea in the afternoon. She imagined the bliss of reclining in a hammock on her balcony at night, eating fresh fruit while her hair dried from the bath.
As she was indulging in her fantasies, one of the knights called out to her, "Lady Rishe, step back, please." His voice was laced with tension.
Rishe caught on at the same time.
"…I'm surprised." Came a man's soft voice.
Recognizing it, Rishe felt herself rising to her feet. The speaker stood in the shadow of a nearby building. She couldn't see his face, but she could make out his white robe and the armband marking him as a citizen of Coyolles. That was the only reason her guards hadn't drawn their swords.
"I figured the person tending this field would be in a profession like mine. To think it would be a noblewoman important enough for a two-knight watch."
"You're…"
The man ambled over to Rishe. When the moonlight illuminated his face, Rishe gasped.
He tucked his long blond hair behind one ear with graceful fingers, his robe undone far enough to dance in the breeze. When he smiled, his beautiful, almost feminine features made it difficult to guess his age.
There's no way he's here with Prince Kyle right now. There's no grounds for it! I have no idea how he spent his days before I met him, but—!
The man held a lit herbal cigarette between his fingers, thin and fragrant, containing none of the toxins of a cigar. It just spread a sweet, flowery scent around him. Rishe knew that smell well. She'd learned it a long time ago at this man's side.
"Good evening, my assumed colleague. What, precisely, are you planning to do with those herbs?"
Professor…
The man Rishe had once called her teacher, Michel Hévin, stood before her eyes.
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