Don't Concern Yourself With That Book
Chapter Side Story 3-3

Side Story 3-3

Translator: yun

Being unlike herself, Rebecca stared back at him with her eyes widened in surprise. 

“I merely wish to have someone I can talk to comfortably, someone I won’t fall in love with or hate, someone who isn’t my family.”

This had only been their second encounter. The boy whom she always thought of as timid was now suggesting something preposterous. Regardless, Rebeccca was an aristocrat in the Empire.

“I accept.”

As long as the prince desires it, unless she had lost her voice, she had a duty to obey his command. 

In spite of her unchanging expression, Ferdinand smiled wordlessly as though pleased. 

“Thank you.”

Actually, at that moment, Ferdinand had foreseen a fate that he could never escape. 

I will be devoured one day. 

That was his inescapable fate. He would die at the end of the future Crown Prince’s sword. He was utterly incapable of going up against his immense powers with his measly ones. 

He did not struggle against his fate. He knew that he could not change his future. 

“You are not my son.”

No, actually, it was because no one had ever taught him that it was alright to be angry or how to fight. 

“I have only given birth to the 6th Prince and I am the 6th Queen. Could you please turn back?”

Having already been abandoned by his mother from birth, the prince had accepted his fate calmly.

“It’d be enough for me if even one person leaves flowers on my grave.”

And that was Rebecca’s second and last meeting with Ferdinand. 

*** 

“Your stubbornness resembles Marissa.”

Rebecca recognised the name that the vassals spoke of in hushed tones. And who that name belonged to.

She knew that the adults merely did not want to tell her anything yet… Rebecca had long been aware that the name belonged to her aunt. 

It all started from a lower Templar’s slip-up. That was how Rebecca gradually gathered clues to finally discover her identity. 

Marissa. 

She used to be the Head Templar of the Sword a long time ago. 

A head templar who was unrivalled by her peers. A beauty befitting the name of the god she served–one who was said to be honest and strong. 

That was all Rebecca knew about her.

“… Do you need this?”

Just as Rebecca found herself lost in thought, the voice disturbed her once again. 

What on earth was this voice? 

The voice that kept asking her what she needed. Curiously enough, as time passed, the voice gradually became more muffled. Recently, she could not even tell who the voice belonged to if she knew. 

Nowadays, Rebecca would often see her parents fight–arguing over Rebecca’s potential marriages as she had just turned 16. Their arguments were particularly a result of the duke not agreeing with the duchess’ wishes. 

“Isn’t this too soon?”

“But honey…”

“I don’t want to hear anymore of it. Did you just mention the Head Templar of Spears and Shields? That man is over 30! He is too old for Rebecca!”

“… Everyone knows what a gentle and affectionate man he is. Besides, she will be moving into a longstanding estate. If not there… well, how about the Temple of Strength? No. How about the Temple of the Eye and Owls?”

“Leah!”

The duke always left their quarrels looking exhausted. 

The duke was a man who could always understand his wife and loved everything about her. He even understood her trauma. 

His duchess was the last survivor of a temple that had long perished. Their temple had been eradicated for treason. 

Leah had also witnessed her friends, the 1st Princess, being forcefully sacrificed to the crystal, and the 2nd Princess who had been cursed to never be able to leave the capital for the rest of her life. The latter had been married off like a peacock sold in shackles by a poacher. 

Another one of her friends, Marissa, had lost her fingers which meant everything to her. 

The last of her closest friends was forced to marry the emperor, the one who killed her husband. The lives of all those close to her had ended in misery. 

That was why Leah was willing to do anything for her daughter’s happiness. 

“H-honey… But what if His Majesty suddenly comes to take Rebecca? That’s why we have to hurry, hurry and marry her off. To someone who will protect her so that no one can bother her!”

“Leah… I understand your concerns! But our child is still too young. She hasn’t even had her Coming-Of-Age Ceremony. And I will do anything to protect our Rebecca until she is an adult. Please… Can you not trust me…?”

The duke tried to understand his wife. But he couldn’t bring himself to force his little daughter to do this. 

It was known throughout the lands that the emperor would kidnap exemplary templars and templar candidates to make them his queens. Even if there was a huge age difference or if they already had a partner, he would drag them away to make them his queens. 

Leah thought that the only way for Rebecca to escape was to quickly marry her off so that she could become an outsider no one could touch. 

“More importantly, our child is not a templar.”

“Ah… Ah… you’re right. She’s not one, is she?”

“…..”

“She’s not a templar… You’re right. She will not end up like Eris or Marissa. Right?”

“… Yes. She won’t. Leah. So, please calm down.”

Leah was a calm and refined duchess but she would occasionally have these panic attacks. 

And on that day, the moment the couple’s fight was just about to lull. 

“… Is… it not needed?”

As she secretly watched her parents fight, the 16-year-old Rebecca heard the mysterious voice again. 

“You can become my heir.”

The voice that had been muffled thus far was now austerely clear. Rebecca could then feel another presence in the air.

“… Who are you?”

“I am a sword. The one who eliminates evil with loyalty, the guardian who preserves justice.”

Till that point, no one had taught Rebecca anything about divinity. It was all because of Leah.

“Do you have anything to protect?”

Rebecca knew of the myths and had learned general theology but knew nothing about templars and divinity. Still, she recognised who that voice belonged to. 

“Do you want to carry a sword? Do you have ambitions?”

Rebecca stared into the air before speaking. 

“Who knew a heartless god who had not answered me for a decade could be so bothersome?”

Rebecca was startled by the hand that suddenly appeared on her shoulder. The woman approached her and curled her eyes as she smiled.

“With his head templar getting along in her age, he is getting impatient finding another heir.”

Her hair was as red as Rebecca’s.

“Hello, child.”

Rebecca glanced at the woman’s dress but there was no place for her eyes to comfortably rest upon. The thin fabric the woman had donned, revealed the skin beneath, exposing her thighs and collar. Rebecca would never have imagined seeing such an attire in Aventa. With every movement she made, the bangles around the woman’s wrist rang. 

“You seem to be wondering who I am. I am Marissa. Someone very relevant to you.”

Marissa spoke in a slightly lower register with a husky voice for a woman. 

“I know.”

“Hm?”

Marissa stared at Rebecca who replied her elegantly. 

“I said that I know you.”

The moment Marissa stared into Rebecca’s black eyes and was about to say something.

“Marissa!”

Leah scurried over.

“Y-You, how did you come? I thought you couldn’t leave the palace?”

‘Damn it,’ Marissa muttered under her breath before quickly turning around. 

“Hello, Leah? You’re right. It was hard since I stated no special reason for leaving.”

“…..”

She soon turned to face the Duke of Aventa who had been staring at her silently. 

“How are you doing , little brother?”

“… Sister.”

“Don’t look at me like that. Am I not allowed here?”

“That’s not the case. I’m just worried something bad will happen to you because you came…”

“Ah. Right. It’d be bad if I get caught. I had left secretly.”

“What? Sister!”

Marissa waved him away with her hand. 

“I couldn’t help it. God was being such a bother.”

“Huh? How could you say that…”

“He rushed someone who used to be his heir all the way here.”

Marissa, someone who used to be a head templar, spoke. Even though the Duke of Aventa had taken over her office in her stead, he was not the head templar in its entirety. 

A powerful templar selected by the God of the Sword as his ‘heir’. The Duke of Aventa had never received this title. Despite the fact that Marissa no longer served him, the fact that the god continued to rush her…

“Is there a new heir?”

Marissa stared into the other Aventa’s wary gaze. Her gaze shifted elegantly to finally face Leah.

“… Yes. There must be one here.”

Marissa had been hesitating to mention this but she had no choice. 

“Your daughter is a candidate to be the new heir.”

Marissa deliberately emphasised the official title.

“No!”

It was Leah who exclaimed sharply. Lean frantically ran towards Rebecca and embraced her before shaking her head aggressively. 

“No. No. No, no. You can’t take this child, Marissa… No, you can’t. Please? Marissa, please do something. I can’t let my daughter end up like y-you or Eris. I-I can’t. No, I will not lose her…”

“… Leah, I understand how you feel more than anyone else. But this is not up to you or me.”

Parting her lips, Marissa turned her head around coldly.

“It is up to your daughter.”

As soon as she finished her say, Rebecca could feel the gazes turn to face her. 

“N-No. No!”

Leah raised her voice.

“R-Rebecca, you can’t. No. Rebecca, you can’t!”

It was evident from her throaty screams that Leah was desperate. The hand that had been captured by a strong grip around its wrist was released. 

‘… Mother.’

Rebecca looked past Leah to stare at her own hands. Her pale white hands were as unsullied as a newborn baby’s. That was how her mother raised these hands to be. 

“Do you want to carry a sword?”

To imagine these hands carrying a sword? Could she handle it? 

… No, she wouldn’t be able to. 

When she awakens, she will learn why she was chosen as a sword. But Rebecca couldn’t bring herself to believe that she could. 

The Templars of the Sword Rebecca had watched from afar and her own father were all devoted people. 

At this point, Rebecca did not believe that she could ever be as good as them when it came to handling the sword. It was ridiculous to even imagine.

“R-Rebecca. You cannot. You can’t. Hm? How can I bear witness to something like that! I! How…”

More importantly, she could not ignore her mother, Leah’s, pleas. Staring at her crying mother, Rebecca made up her mind. 

But that voice never stopped talking. 

“Raise the sword. Child. You have the ambition to be strong. The desire to protect not just you but the world and uphold justice.”

Rebecca stared into the air wondering if she really did feel his presence up there.

“… No. I will not raise one.”

For a moment, she could no longer hear the voice. 

“… Do you not need a sword?”

“No, I do not.”

“Do you not have anything to protect?”

“… I do.”

Rebecca looked at her mother whose hand she was holding. 

“Rebecca, get married and live under your husband’s protection. Become the world’s happiest bride.”

From back when she was still a child until now, there had only been one thing her mother had ever wanted from her.

“As long as you are living happily, I will have no regrets.”

Rebecca loved Leah. She did not want a power that forced her to lose her mother.

“I will ask you once more.”

But for some reason, the god’s voice at that moment sounded disappointed. 

“You can do many things as my heir. And yet you will not raise your sword.”

Nonetheless, Rebecca shook her head. 

“… I am just someone who will one day get married and end up an ordinary woman. So, I will not raise one.” 

Perhaps Rebecca had been raised to see no other path than the one she was currently taking but she had no idea back then. 

‘It is only right for me to obey my mother.’

She should keep her promise to her mother. She should get married to whoever she chooses to reassure her. 

The girl who had been raised like a doll believed that everything her mother did was out of love and did not think otherwise. 

That was why the 16-year-old did not choose to become a templar. 

Soon, after everything was over, Marissa approached her. 

“Child. Being 16, this will be your last chance. Now, god will never come to find you again.”

At the end of her sentence, Marissa flashed a sad smile. 

“You might be being used by adults as a sacrificial sheep.”

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