Episode 2

“Miss, you absolutely cannot go anywhere! I’ll be right back!”

“Mmm, okay. Go ahead.”

A few hours later, the table was already crowded with empty wine bottles. Violette, who had gotten properly drunk for the first time in a while, sat there with her head half-buried in the table, absentmindedly nodding.

Even as Hurein went to the restroom, she kept glancing back several times, clearly not at all convinced that her mistress could be trusted alone. But the moment Hurein disappeared into the restroom, Violette’s head suddenly snapped up.

“Oh, right! I have to get the whiskey from Helln, too…”

The whiskey she had won from a bet at the casino a few hours ago suddenly flashed through her mind. The despicable Helln would obviously pretend it had never happened once today was over.

“He’s probably still at the casino, right?”

In the end, Violette completely forgot Hurein’s desperate plea to stay put and staggered toward the casino. And she did so while clutching the bottle of wine she had been drinking and an empty glass in her hands.

“Huh? He’s not here?”

But even after searching every corner of the casino, there wasn’t so much as a glimpse of Helln. Thinking he had run away because he didn’t want to give her the whiskey, Violette frowned and left the building. She then started walking aimlessly in search of the whiskey—or rather, Helln.

The garden connected to the casino was quiet and deserted. Of course, there was absolutely no reason for Helln to be in a place like this, but Violette was already far too drunk to think that clearly.

“Helln! Where did you go!”

Violette was looking around with an irritated expression when her steps suddenly came to a halt.

A man was sitting in a corner of the garden, staring blankly up at the night sky.

His silver hair fell to his shoulders, shimmering beautifully beneath the moonlight, while his snow-white skin looked almost translucent, as though it were glowing.

Having encountered such a beautiful figure for the first time in her life, Violette approached him as if hypnotized.

“What are you doing here?”

“Eek!”

Startled by the sudden presence beside him, the man let out a short scream. Violette paid no attention to the embarrassment written across his face and plopped herself down beside him.

“W-Who are you…?”

“I’m Violette. But what are you doing here?”

The man scanned Violette with a wary gaze, only then realizing that something was strange about her.

That silly, dopey smile. Her short, repetitive way of speaking. And, on top of that, the overwhelming smell of wine radiating from her entire body.

Even from a hundred meters away, it was obvious that this woman was completely drunk.

“You seem to be intoxicated. Are you not with anyone? It could be dangerous to wander around alone…”

“Hurein’s over there, so I’m fine. I asked what you’re doing here.”

Violette pointed somewhere and tilted her head again.

After hesitating for a moment, the man apparently decided that she wasn’t going to leave him alone and answered in a quiet voice.

“I just have some things on my mind…”

“What is it? Want me to listen?”

“No, it’s all right.”

Despite his refusal, Violette’s eyes sparkled.

She seemed genuinely excited at the prospect of listening to someone’s troubles. With a bright smile, Violette picked up the wine bottle she had set down beside her and thrust it right in front of his face.

“It’s okay! We have plenty of time!”

“Ah…”

A woman shoving the bottle of wine she had already been drinking straight at him.

He let out a deep sigh, thinking that he had really gotten himself into something troublesome.

“Here. Talk while you drink.”

Violette ignored his reaction and poured wine into a glass before handing it to him. He stared at her for a moment.

Her eyes are completely gone.

There was clearly no point in making excuses and refusing.

Reluctantly, he accepted the glass she offered and took a small sip of the wine. Surprisingly, considering it was a bottle someone had already been drinking from, the aroma and taste were quite decent.

“Tasty, right?”

“It’s not bad.”

Before he knew it, he had been swept along by her pace. He emptied every glass Violette poured for him, and by the time he came to his senses, the bottle of wine was already completely empty.

“…I want to become a mage.”

With the alcohol making him pleasantly tipsy, he suddenly let out what had been buried deep in his heart.

He spoke about the dream he had cherished for so long, his family’s opposition to it, and the sense of responsibility he carried.

“Do you know that three years ago, a huge crack appeared in the barrier near the coast of Ayr?”

At his question, Violette shook her head.

Three years ago would have been right around the time she had just possessed this body. She had been too busy trying to keep herself alive to care about what was happening in the world.

“What happens if the barrier cracks?”

“Things from other worlds would cross over. Monsters, for example. If things had gone wrong, the entire continent could have been destroyed.”

At the frightening words—monsters, destruction, the end of the continent—Violette’s eyes widened.

“Fortunately, it ended without anything serious happening, but it caused quite a stir. People’s trust in the Magic Tower was severely shaken. Anyway, I personally investigated the incident and wrote a report about it. I guess one of the high-ranking officials of the Magic Tower liked my report, because he offered to write me a letter of recommendation to enter the Magic Tower. As his assistant, no less.”

“Ooh. Being an executive’s assistant sounds really good, doesn’t it? That’s great.”

“Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? My parents are against it. They want me to become the heir.”

His expression grew troubled again as he said those words.

The Magic Tower was a closed organization that was difficult enough to enter in the first place, and opportunities to skip the apprentice stage and immediately become the assistant of a high-ranking official were incredibly rare.

He knew just how precious this opportunity was, which only made his feelings more complicated.

“Fortunately, he said he would wait for me, but I have to make a decision by next year’s recruitment exam at the latest. But I really don’t want to let this opportunity slip away.”

“Have you talked to your parents seriously? Told them you really want to become a mage? You can’t possibly be the only person who can inherit the family. Can’t they appoint someone else as a representative?”

Violette thought of her siblings, who fought every day over the position of heir.

The children of House Rascal were practically desperate to become the young marquis, while this man was trying to avoid becoming the heir altogether.

She didn’t know what family he belonged to, but it really was a shame.

“I’ve told them countless times. But they insist that the heir must carry the Kegrainer bloodline. If I really want to enter the Magic Tower, they even told me to get married. They said my wife could take care of the estate until we had a child.”

“Kegrainer?”

Violette slightly furrowed her brow, as if the name sounded familiar, but that was all.

She had drunk far too much for her mind to be working normally.

“But that doesn’t make any sense. I can’t do something that selfish just because I want to.”

Violette fell silent for a moment, thinking over his story.

Some idea was slowly wriggling its way to the surface of her foggy, alcohol-clouded mind.

“Oh, then do you want to marry me?”

“What?”

“I can’t tell you the details, but people keep trying to pair me up with some man. It’s not as bad these days, but anyway, I have to avoid him. If I become a married woman, there’s no way they’ll keep trying to pair me with him, right? It’s good for both of us!”

Violette smiled brightly as she looked up at him.

Of course, it had been a long time since Violette’s reputation had hit rock bottom, but there were still a few persistent nobles constantly waiting for an opportunity to pair her with Terso.

At this very moment, Violette genuinely believed this was a brilliant idea.

“You really mean that…?”

He ran a hand through his hair, looking as though this situation was genuinely weighing heavily on him.

His slightly furrowed brows, the soft strands slipping between his snow-white fingers, and those violet eyes that seemed to sink into an abyss all captured Violette’s attention.

“Of course…”

Entranced by his appearance, Violette answered almost reflexively.

At that moment, words like Terso and the aristocratic faction simply couldn’t enter her mind.

One thing was absolutely certain.

Even if she searched the entire Empire—no, the entire continent—there was no man who could compare to his beauty.

“Fine. Let’s just get married, then!”

With the corners of her lips curling upward, Violette suddenly grabbed his hand.

At her sudden action, the man’s face instantly flushed red, and he sprang to his feet.

“B-But I don’t think this is right…”

“Why?”

“Sorry. I’ll pretend I never heard that…”

“Pretty boy! Where are you going! Pretty boy!”

Despite Violette’s desperate cries, he hurriedly left the area.

Suddenly left all alone, Violette let out a disbelieving laugh.

“Hah. So what if you’re pretty, seriously.”

She had even gone so far as to propose to him, and this was the rude attitude she got in return?

Violette glared briefly in the direction he had disappeared before pulling a cigarette from her clothes and lighting it.

What a rude man.

“Fwaaaahm—”

About a month later, Violette finally got out of bed when the sun was already high in the sky and let out a long, lazy yawn.

She pressed her throbbing temples and stared blankly into space.

“How much did I drink yesterday, anyway…”

For nearly a month, there had hardly been a single day when she hadn’t drunk.

The moment she opened her eyes, Violette headed for the balcony and put another cigarette between her lips.

“Hmm. Pretty boy showed up in my dream again today.”

Violette rummaged through her hazy memories, trying to recall the dream she had throughout the night.

For the past few weeks, there had been a mysterious man who appeared sporadically in her dreams.

She couldn’t remember his features in detail, but his delicate atmosphere and graceful figure had left her with the impression that he was an incredible beauty.

She had started calling the man who appeared in her dreams several times Pretty Boy, smiling contentedly whenever she thought of him.

But a dream was only a dream, and Violette didn’t think much of it. Whenever he happened to appear in her dreams, she simply felt pleased that she had had a good dream.

After stubbing out her cigarette in the ashtray, Violette stretched her arms high above her head.

It was a peaceful morning, just like any other.