17.
‘Cola. Ah, Cola.’
Lancel suddenly remembered that invention of the civilization he had forgotten for centuries, and now he couldn’t bear his thirst any longer.
In this world, the only carbonated beverages were bottled fruit wines and beers.
When chilled properly, they were tolerable, but they still fell far short of a cola’s throat-tingling crispness and refreshing lightness. As for plain carbonated water, it was utterly unpalatable and thus irrelevant.
Yes.
Come to think of it, his memories of the battlefield were defined by two cravings:
The first was for salty, savory meat, and the second was for something refreshing to quench his parched throat.
These desires had constantly filled his mind as he struggled through the knee-deep mud of the battlefield.
A thirst for glory and honor? A desire to end this regression? Loyalty to the First Princess?
He wasn’t the kind of hero who could think of such things on a battlefield where blind blades flew.
Salt and thirst.
It was paradoxical how these two always existed simultaneously, yet only intensified the craving for the other.
Yes.
Perhaps Lancel’s feelings for Marigold were like that too. The desire to make her happy, the longing to end this endless regression.
Filling one side only tipped the balance to the other, and filling the other side only tipped it back again. Equilibrium between the two seemed impossible.
Satisfy the cravings for salt, and thirst grows.
Quench the thirst, and the craving for salt intensifies.
As if they were destined to chase each other endlessly.
“…Mary.”
The stable reeked of straw and hay.
Light and shadow split across Lancel’s face, seeping into his features.
Behind him, countless mercenaries lay unconscious, sprawled on the ground. There were at least thirty of them.
Shredded straw filled the air, a clear indication of the recent carnage.
“Monster… Mo-Monster…”
Several terrified men cowered on the ground, inching backward.
Lancel paid no attention to those who had lost their will to fight and collapsed.
“So that’s what you were writing.”
His long bangs fell over his eyelids as he gazed at the worn notebook.
“Mary… you really are Mary.”
A bitter smile.
‘I’m thirsty.’
Today, more than ever, he craved a cola. He wanted to gulp down endless buckets of the dark, sweet liquid.
18.
“Get in quickly! Don’t you want to see His Highness the First Prince?”
Blonde women were climbing into a carriage.
Though a few with nearly brown hair were also being taken in, it seemed they were just loading everyone they could find.
“What in the world is this?”
Lancel felt like he’d seen every ridiculous sight imaginable in his long life.
No matter how desperate they were to find someone, it seemed like too crude a method to resort to gathering women that way.
“Who are you?”
“Just looking for someone. Mind your own business.”
Lancel ignored the mercenary’s shout and began examining the women in the carriage one by one.
He even grabbed the chin of a woman who was looking down and lifted her face to check her features.
“She’s not here.”
“You bastard!”
Lancel caught the mercenary’s arm as he raised his fist, twisting it down with force.
“Ugh!”
“So you’ve gathered women here? Where are you taking them?”
“What the hell is this guy doing? Hey! There’s a weirdo here!”
The mercenaries scattered around the area swarmed toward them.
“What’s going on? Who is this?”
“Who do you think you are, drooling over the women we’ve gathered? Get lost right now!”
“Leave him be. He’s just looking for someone. Probably some guy whose woman ran off and he’s been poking around everywhere.”
“Again?”
For a mercenary, this was a surprisingly sharp analysis. It seemed there had been quite a few men like Lancel before.
“Hey, buddy. If you’re looking for a runaway woman, you’re better off heading to the capital. Haven’t you heard? All the rejected women are sent there.”
The mercenary shoved Lancel’s arm away and grumbled.
“How many women would willingly seek an audience with the Prince? What makes you think your woman would be any different?”
Lancel watched the mercenaries’ carriage disappear into the distance.
‘Marigold would never go to the First Prince…’
Not just anyone—Marigold, the regressor. The one who still vividly remembered being killed by the First Prince’s hand.
Yet Lancel had been stirring up trouble among the women seeking the First Prince’s attention because…
‘There’s no way she would go…’
The image of Marigold drawing her sword and charging toward the First Prince kept replaying in his mind.
Lancel desperately wanted to believe his fears were unfounded.
‘She’s not the type, but what if he’s gone mad like me and now thinks nothing of attacking the First Prince with a sword? What would I do then?’
Revenge for the previous timeline?
Lancel’s head throbbed.
Surely not. He wanted to believe that that hadn’t been the case.
Lancel couldn’t bear the thought of Marigold burning at the execution ground.
‘She couldn’t have gotten far yet.’
Marigold was a conspicuous figure in many ways.
In this region, where blond hair and green eyes already drew attention, finding news of someone matching her description wasn’t difficult.
“I saw a woman with a sword loitering around, arguing with the knights.”
“Her swordsmanship was incredible. She took down that huge mercenary in a single strike!”
“Where did she go? I have no idea.”
In fact, rumors of a sword-wielding woman had spread widely throughout the villages.
After wandering between towns and cities for about a week, chasing elusive leads about Marigold…
“Lancel?”
At a tavern he stumbled upon, Lancel unexpectedly encountered his eldest brother, Leo Dante.
19.
“Are you also searching for a woman, brother?”
“I have to. It’s an order from His Highness the First Prince.”
In a quiet tavern, Lancel listened to Leo Dante recount his recent adventures: settling in this region under the First Prince’s command, searching for a woman, the brawls between Knight Orders, and the battles against bandits and traitors along the way. It seemed quite eventful for such a short time apart.
“Lancel, you should leave this region before it’s too late. Get as far away as possible, to a safe place.”
“……?”
“The Empire’s situation is precarious. War will break out here soon.”
He grimaced at the strong liquor, continuing,
“At first, I thought we were just looking for a woman, but that wasn’t the case.”
“If that isn’t the case, then what is it?”
“House Marigold.”
Lancel froze.
Leo Dante poured more wine into his empty glass, casually uttering the name as if it were nothing.
“I heard that the seeds of rebellion still linger in this region. The woman we’re searching for is one of them. No wonder His Highness has been so desperate to find her.”
“How did you…?”
It was astonishing that Leo Dante knew this. The information was classified even within the Imperial Family.
There had been no rumors, nor any reason for them to spread.
“It seems everyone who needs to know who she is already does. I wouldn’t be surprised if whispers are starting to circulate even in the capital now.”
Leo Dante sank deeper into his chair.
“So, the First Princess, the Fifth Prince, and the Sixth Prince are all rushing their armies to this region, aren’t they?”
“……”
“I guarantee you, Lancel, this is war. A war that could determine the fate of the Empire… Don’t meddle rashly. Just quietly return home. This is something your older brother will handle.”
There were rumors that Marigold was still alive.
Lancel had found it suspicious from the start.
Why?
Because only two people in the world knew Marigold was alive:
Lancel Dante.
And Marigold herself.
Just the two of them.
Since Lancel hadn’t spread the rumor, that left only one possibility: Marigold herself.
It was hard to believe that she would spread rumors that could harm herself.
“At first, I thought it was just nonsense too. But the Imperial Family seems to think otherwise. They must know more than some knight commander stationed in the borderlands like me. What else can I do but accept it?”
Leo Dante chuckled.
“The sole surviving daughter of the fallen Marigold house… the last bloodline of the Old Empire? The princess of a ruined empire?”
He suddenly turned his head.
“But where’s your fiancée? Why are you wandering around alone? Did you two have a fight?”
Lancel rose from his seat at that point.
Without answering where he was going, he strode straight out of the room.
As he had predicted, the region soon became a battlefield.
Mercenaries clashed with mercenaries, knights clashed with knights, and skirmishes erupted sporadically across the land.
This was a silent civil war, a brutal power struggle among the Imperial Family, all in pursuit of the “Princess of the Old Empire.”
The era of civil war was dawning.
Marigold’s existence and the rumors surrounding her had accelerated the Empire’s discord with alarming speed.
It was around this time that Lancel finally tracked down the culprit’s trail.
Bang!
He kicked down the stable door and stormed inside.
“Agh!”
“M-monster…!”
From a mercenary band known for indiscriminately ambushing travellers like bandits, Lancel recovered the last possession she had carried.
.
.
.
“Mary, you really are Mary.”
Lancel smiled bitterly as he looked at the familiar notebook.
He already knew it wouldn’t contain anything significant, but the contents were even more trivial than he’d imagined.
It was exactly the kind of thing Marigold would write.
===================
1. Get married!
=> Success.
2. Spend a night at Sir Lancel’s mansion!
=> Success!
3. Spend a night at the Porland Ale Festival!
=> Success!
4. Spend a night at Firefly Village!
=> Success!
5. Spend a night at the desert oasis village!
=> Success!
6. Spend a night in Lizard Valley!
=> Unfortunately, it failed due to a sandstorm…!
7. Attend the Festival Ball together!
=> Somehow succeeded!
8. Spend a night watching the sunset at the Dotrin Estuary!
=> Failed due to constant rain!
9. Camp in the Dragon Mountains!
=> Nearly froze to death, but still a success!
10. Visit the rumored famous hot spring!
=> Absolutely amazing!
11. Finally see the anemone flower fields of Rikril Plains I’d only heard about!
=> Should have come sooner!!
.
.
.
68. See the famous cruise ship in the Meiran region!
69. Have a Proper Wedding!
70. Repay Sir Lancel!
===================
“It’s all just one night.”
No wonder she was always so eager to pounce on to the next stop.
Even Lancel, with his boundless stamina, occasionally complained of exhaustion.
By the halfway point of the seventy-item list, most entries were either marked as failures or left unrecorded.
“Can’t we keep it?”
“No. How are we supposed to travel with such a young puppy?”
“Please…!”
“No.”
“Please, please, please, please, please…!”
“No means no.”
For example, the thirty-first item on the list, “Get a Pet!”, was scrapped due to Lancel’s vehement refusal.
“We have a long journey ahead. Why would we get a pet now…?”
They were supposed to be searching for the Demon King, so how could they possibly travel with a puppy that hadn’t even been weaned?
Yet now, Lancel wondered if he should have just agreed. A wave of belated regret washed over him.
“…Why do you have so many things you want to do in your short life?”
A chuckle escaped his lips.
Only now did Lancel feel like he finally understood everything. A little too late, perhaps.
If he had been in the regressor Marigold’s position, he might have realized it sooner.
If he had seen Lancel through her eyes, he might have understood immediately.
In any case, that girl’s feelings for him were overwhelmingly heavy.
Whether it was attachment, obsession, or love, it was sometimes so burdensome that it was almost unbearable.
===========
—Don’t look for me.
To my Sir Lancel.
From, “Marigold Curtain Marigold.”
===========
This was the reason Marigold had left him his true name.
From the very beginning, she had been getting ready to leave Lancel Dante.
Whatever the reason, she must have intended this from the start of this iteration.
‘Who gave you permission?’
Lancel’s bangs fluttered in the wind as he stared at the notebook.
His coldly composed eyes gazed at Marigold’s countless wishes—her final travel list, not even half completed.
His throat was parched.
Today, more than ever, Lancel craved a cola.
damn
Always those with too little to spend are the ones that wants the most.
Looking through Lancels point of view you would think that Marigold wanted to experience all that her self. But it is the opposite for Marrigold, who thought it is a shame for Lancel to have too short of a life to do it all, and so the plan was actually for Lancel himself.
Finally, Marigold left her real name to actually discourage Lancel from looking for her. The trecherous house of Marigold.