A Day In The Grand Duchess’ Life (7)

As Alicia wondered how she was supposed to get home, the astronomical clock in her hand throbbed—thump, thump.

And just like when she had arrived at North Kaya, a fierce wind rose.

When the long wind faded and Alicia lifted her gaze, she fell into shock.

It was Haime—the Lilac Villa.

She was sitting in the chair just as she had been when she found the clock’s hidden feature.

The only difference was that the shoes she had used to circle North Kaya were smeared with the damp soil of Mount Kaip.

As Alicia tried to make sense of the unbelievable situation, a faint voice drifted in from beyond the window.

“Good, let’s try it once.”

It was Reichardt speaking to the Lusa.

“……”

Alicia quickly checked the astronomical clock in her hand.

It had stopped again.

She whipped her head around to look for a clock.

There was none in the room, so Alicia ran to the reception room and checked the hour hand and minute hand of the grandfather clock.

[11:19.]

After confirming the time, Alicia opened the pendant again.

She dragged the gold dot at the center of the astronomical clock’s black dial all the way to the same point as before.

Nothing happened.

“……”

Had she briefly dreamed it all?

She was confused.

Staring at the unresponsive astronomical clock, Alicia noticed the gold dot had returned to the center again.

When she set her fingertip on it, the gold light reacted softly.

This time, she moved the gold dot in a different direction.

If her guess was right, that direction was South Penz Castle beneath the Great Temple.

The next moment, a violent wind rose.

Hit by a gust so strong her eyes shut on their own, Alicia did not know what to do with her excitement.

When the wind cleared and she opened her eyes, South Penz Castle was spread out before her.

“What do I do…?”

Alicia murmured in awe and checked the astronomical clock’s dial.

The astronomical clock—suspicious in so many ways—faithfully told the time.

[11:09.]

A chill ran down Alicia’s spine as she confirmed it.

Watching the minute hand tick from nine to ten, she kept muttering, “Oh my god.”

She did not fully understand the principle, but Alicia could use the astronomical clock to move directly between the hell fortresses.

When she arrived here, she had come to a time ten minutes earlier, and it seemed there was a limit to how long she could remain in a hell fortress.

Since she had arrived ten minutes earlier, she suspected the time she could stay here was ten minutes.

Alicia checked the time and left the Dragon Lair.

The wide, empty hall looked the same as the last time she had seen it.

After hesitating briefly, Alicia opened the door to the underground labyrinth.

The Great Temple had decided to recognize even the entrance of the underground labyrinth as part of Alicia’s domain.

But the Great Temple—greedy and full of curiosity—would not leave a place with no owner and so much to investigate alone.

When she opened the labyrinth door, a faint light seeped in through the crack.

At deep night, light would not naturally be there.

“I think we should leave now.”

“It’s too late. Let’s go. The paths are complicated—we won’t be able to make a map easily.”

Careful voices happened to trade words.

Two young men—whether Great Temple priests or Priest-Knight Order knights—moved while retrieving the thread they had laid out.

There was only one path, but their thoroughness was worth learning from.

Tap.

Alicia picked up a small pebble and tossed it toward an empty stretch.

Thud, rrrrk.

At the sound of the pebble rolling through the silent underground labyrinth, the young men’s backs stiffened.

She could only see the backs of their heads, yet it felt like she could see their faces going pale.

Alicia threw another pebble she had gathered.

Thud, thud!

Perhaps the Great Temple’s training in propriety was strict—the young men hurriedly wound the thread back onto the spool and quickened their steps.

“A map? What map? Why are you drawing a map of someone else’s land?”

Alicia muttered at their retreating backs.

Their hurried footsteps stopped dead.

“Aaaagh!”

“Go—move!”

The Great Temple clergy had sharp ears.

The two young men flung the spools aside and bolted along the thread at full speed.

“…That scared me.”

Their extreme reaction startled Alicia more instead.

It did not seem like she would even need a serious discussion with the High Priest or the Great Temple about this.

Once morning came, a terrifying rumor would probably spread through the Great Temple.

As Alicia giggled, the astronomical clock in her hand throbbed—thump, thump.

Soon, a fierce wind rose around her.

The instant the wind withdrew, Alicia lifted her face and checked the grandfather clock.

[11:19.]

Alicia cheered silently.

This was the best!

She wanted to shriek in joy and run around.

The anticipation and excitement were so huge that she wavered for a moment, unsure what to do.

Alicia returned to the bedroom and sat in the chair.

She soothed her bubbling heart by eating bread.

Her heart pounded frighteningly hard.

‘Seriously. Oh my god. What do I do. This is the best. The best. The best!’

Alicia screamed her joy only inside her head.

There was someone outside the window who could hear even a small murmur.

After calming herself with a madeleine, Alicia took a breath and opened the astronomical clock.

Alicia’s finger dragged the gold dot at the center of the black dial all the way to the left.

On the left dot, the first letter of White West Alik was written.

Alicia’s face, as she stared at the astronomical clock, brimmed with a smile.

Reichardt, who had been training the Lusa in the rear garden, looked back toward Alicia beyond the window.

Alicia was sitting in the chair, staring at the astronomical clock with sparkling eyes.

Her excited face looked happy.

Even if it was broken, the astronomical clock was a beautiful heirloom in itself.

But did she really like it that much? He wondered.

Alicia only seemed to be smiling faintly on the outside, but in reality she was extremely excited.

Her heart was thumping wildly.

It seemed Alicia had been hovering around him cautiously all this time because of the astronomical clock.

She had brought it up and he had handed her the Grand Duke of Tessen’s astronomical clock, but Reichardt was still a little worried.

He had most strongly suspected the marriage oath as the factor that transferred the Grand Duke of Tessen’s “punishment” to the Grand Duchess of Tessen, but he also held suspicions about the astronomical clock itself.

So even if he ended up marrying in this lifetime, he had intended not to hand the astronomical clock over to his bride.

When the astronomical clock suddenly broke, he had actually felt relieved.

Even when he sent Alicia the wedding gifts, he did not make any special effort to repair it and simply left it alone.

“She’s liking it a little too much.”

Alicia’s face was full of laughter as she examined the clock’s complex dial.

It looked like she could not possibly hold back the smile spilling out.

What was making her so happy?

Her delight was so excessive it only made him more doubtful.

From Alicia’s joy, a sweet, fresh scent spread outward and wrapped around Reichardt.

It was an intensity that resonated to a troubling degree.

Reichardt patted the Lusa’s shoulder in farewell and climbed in through the window.

The next day, Alicia and Reichardt saw Camille off as she went to teach students at the prayer house, then left Haime.

When the two returned to Baden, countless matters were waiting for them.

The moment Reichardt arrived in Baden, the Imperial Knights surrounded him and escorted him to the imperial palace.

Calling it an escort was generous—it was practically an arrest.

As if he had expected it, he planted deep kisses on both of Alicia’s cheeks and headed to the palace.

The vacation that had begun so suddenly ended, regrettably, just as fast.

Alicia, too, returned to the daily life of the Grand Duchess of Tessen.

Time ran tightly from morning to evening.

With her original schedule and the backlog of delayed work to handle together, she had not a moment to rest.

But lately, Alicia’s condition was at its peak.

Because of that, Reichardt’s suspicions only deepened.

Alicia was being crushed by her busy routine.

Yet for some reason, she was remarkably lively.

She brimmed with energy, as if she had just picked up a huge haul of mana stones.

Reichardt was summoned to the imperial palace from dawn.

Alicia watched him prepare with eyes sparkling brightly.

“……”

It was still early dawn.

Alicia, who should have been sound asleep, watched Reichardt put on his gloves, then greeted him.

“Rei, have a safe trip.”

Her face as she spoke was fresh and bright.

She did not look like she would fall back asleep.

Even before their trip to Haime, Reichardt had often headed for the palace at dawn.

Then and now, he moved carefully, worried he might wake Alicia.

But Alicia had ears just as sensitive, so she inevitably woke every time.

Back then, she would open her eyes, and once she realized it was nothing, she would either fall back asleep immediately or just wave a hand.

“Sleep more.”

Reichardt stepped close to the bed and kissed the face resting against the pillow.

“Yes. I’ll see you in the evening.”

Alicia answered dutifully, but she neither closed her eyes nor tried to drift back to sleep.

There was definitely something going on.

Reichardt added a little more certainty to his suspicion.

“I’ll be back.”

Reichardt shut the door, watching Alicia see him off without sleeping, his gaze subtly complex.

Click.

Seeing the door close, Alicia waited for his footsteps to move away.

Reichardt walked more slowly than usual.

When his presence had fully faded, Alicia opened the drawer of the bedside table.

In the velvet-lined jewelry case lay the astronomical clock.

Still leaning sideways on the bed, Alicia opened the astronomical clock.

With a hand not fully awake, she slid the gold dot at the center of the black dial to the left.

In an instant, a powerful wind blew.

When Alicia opened her eyes, which she had closed for a moment, and looked around, an elegant hall spread out before her.

White West Alik.

Alicia did not tremble with excitement or burst into laughter like the first time she had arrived here through the astronomical clock.

She did not have much time.

The time she could come to a hell fortress and remain there through the astronomical clock was ten minutes.

Already, the minute hand was moving.

She needed to organize her thoughts and move quickly.

Standing in the center of West Alik’s hall, Alicia turned and headed out.

She also did not forget to grab the club she had left propped beside the door.

Beyond the boundary of the gloomy castle lay the land of the scorching desert she missed.

For now, she had no intention of going that far.

As she approached where the red earth began, a dreadful sound rang out.

“Chk-chk!”

“Chweeeek!”

To Alicia, it was a sound she missed—and welcomed.

“Today’s yield is good.”

Alicia lightly spun the club she had brought from the hall in her hand.

In the trap Alicia had completed the other day, basels—drawn by the smell of bait—were thrashing.

There were seven of them.

“You won’t believe it, but I missed you.”

With light steps, Alicia sprang down into the trap.

At the same time, she swung the club and smashed the sides of the basels’ heads as they lunged with shrieks.

Thud! Thwack!

They looked like insects, but could not fly, and each monster was as large as a wolf—yet they shattered under the club.

Crack—crrrk.

As the basel’s hard shell broke, fingernail-sized mana stones fell onto the stone floor.

Alicia carefully scanned the stone ground and collected the mana stones.

If she broke the raw stones the basels left behind, bright yellow mana stones appeared.

Hehe.

Blowing dust off the gloomy raw stones with her breath, Alicia hopped lightly out of the trap.

She also did not forget to scatter more bait to lure monsters into the trap.

“Should I bring a spear and leave it here too? It’d be good to make one close by for Rusa as well.”

Alicia counted what she needed to do on her fingers and organized it.

Returning to West Alik’s hall, Alicia hugged the club tight against her chest and waited, as a test.

The astronomical clock in her hand throbbed—thump, thump.

Then a long wind blew.