Silver Wish

She could spend all her days cuddled up when Kiryu returned from his patrolling, talking, and eating. However, Lila knew that things were no longer that simple. So after he fell asleep, Lila decided to investigate. There was something about this castle that looked familiar to her. It felt like she saw something like this somewhere before. Maybe from a book?

That seemed highly likely. Since Lila returned from New York, she has read more and more books.

Lila crept down the corridors silently. It was the middle of the night, so she knew nobody else was awake. But one could not be too careful. After walking for a few minutes, she decided to enter a random room. It was the largest in the hallway judging from the large double doors.

She crept into the room and fiddled around for a light switch but then realized something. This is an old castle; of course, there would be no light switches. Lila could tell from the rooms she saw with switches, Kiryu must have renovated those areas.

It was not too dark, the windows were drawn, so light filtered through the room. But it still made her feel slightly uneasy. Lila quickly shook her head and took bold strides across the room. She found a desk and several shelves on the right. A study, huh? But it belonged to a dead person. It felt like she was intruding, but how many years has that person passed away now? Centuries ago.

Still, Lila looked at her surroundings properly. This place is made for ransacking. Look how many shelves of documents and scrolls there are. It seems like paper was only just invented later on the years, judging from how there are more scrolls.

Lila is confident that she could read any language, but she was not sure how far back she was looking. She took a deep breath and picked up one of the scrolls on the desk - it was slightly fatter than the other ones.

There was a drawing of a beautiful lady.

Name: Lyn

Status:

Princess - Year 4000- Year 4015

Queen - Year 4016-4023

Empress- Year 4024

Death- Year 4040

Lila tilted her head, puzzled when she saw the year date. Huh? The year four thousand and something? That did not make any sense at all. It is only the year 2036. How is it possible? Lila checked several more scrolls; these ones were reports with the dates on the corner. She bit her lip once she saw more evidence.

This was very strange. There is a castle here supposedly from the future? Or maybe the calender was weird then. From studying history, she knew that the Japanese calendar went through several changes, but even then...

She looked down at the scrolls again with Lyn's profile and then the drawing. A very beautiful lady. So she was the second daughter and still got the throne? Now that is a tale people usually would not hear.

"I found the thief."

It was Kiryu, of course. "I see you found the study."

Uh-oh...

Kiryu walked over until he stood directly in front of her. A deep sigh crossed his lips. "I planned to show you this place when I knew you felt better." He squeezed her hands, which he took in his just seconds ago. "It is late, Lila."

She understood what he was getting at. It is like that. In the next few minutes or so, she will be throwing up blood randomly again. The pain in her stomach subsided, so she thought this would be an excellent opportunity to do whatever she wanted.

"Kiryu, why is this castle here? The dates on these scrolls." Lila had to stand up so she could face Kiryu properly.

"It was a different calendar system. I believe this happened more towards the end of the nineteenth century."

Lila blinked. "But by that time--"

"From what I learned, there were many discoveries of hidden islands. No hidden countries. Explores found many places." Kiryu trailed off. "This castle ended up mysteriously disappearing at the death of the Empress. People said the current King then made it disappear before he ended his own life."

Married - King Kazuya (Year 4015-Year 4024)

Lila pointed to the blurred section. "She had another husband?"

"The First King of the Mist Kingdom passed away shortly after she became the Empress. The country needed an emperor."

So it was something like that? A political marriage, huh? Now that she thought it through, her engagement with Kiryu is for such purposes too. An engagement that she has yet to cancel. She was getting to it despite what it looked like.

She is already married, so being engaged to another person now felt very strange. "This person reminded me of you; she had two people whom she loved so very dearly."

At that comment, her cheeks burned red—a mixture of shame and embarrassment. No matter how sweetly he said it, it does not change how it sounds like in her head.

Kiryu took his hand in hers again and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Unlike them, Haruka will not die or leave you anytime soon, so I probably don't stand a chance."

Lila felt very uncomfortable whenever he spoke this way. She could handle the moments where he would flirt with her. Or even those strangely addictive kisses. But when he conveys how much he misses her using actual words, Lila did not know what to do.

Her thoughts broke off when he leaned forward and brushed his head against hers again. "You are getting hotter again. Let's go back?"

Lila nodded. She turned to the scroll in her hand. "Read me this before I sleep?"

"Sure." He led her out of the room and out into the dimly lit hallway again. The moment they arrived, they hear a crashing sound not too far from where they were.

Kiryu sighs deeply and curses a name. It was the same name Kotori-chan said earlier. So Lila guessed it belonged to that man who scared her before. She turned to Kiryu.. "Introduce me."