First Year Second Semester – J of Hearts (Part 3) Note: Please don’t read it in the little pop-up for the reader. For some reason it doesn’t reflect my later edits (which I often make a lot of after publishing), so please click ‘view original’.
“Sav… Achille-”
“Camille. You’re okay, wake up!”
“Sa…”
“Camille!”
Perhaps because the feeling of being shaken brought her consciousness back, Camille faintly opened her eyes.
“No… Save me-”
However, it seems that she isn’t fully awake yet. Tears spilled from the corner of her eyes.
“…Camille.”
I kissed her. I’m sure that just like me, she had an unpleasant dream.
“Nn’u”
Like that, I gently pat her hair, and she gradually calmed down.
“Don’t cry, Camille.”
“Nn… Achille?”
Camille was looking at me with a just-woken expression, but that for an instant, fear was mixed into that expression was not something that I missed. Does the fact that she was writhing in her sleep mean that she saw a nightmare just like I did? It couldn’t be… the same dream? What I did in the dream could surely be called the actions of a piece of sc.u.m. Camille’s actions in the dream were quite terrible too, but what I did in the dream went far beyond the realm of revenge. It couldn’t be, that that’s what she was frightened of?
“Achille, Achille… I’m sorry.”
“Nn…?”
The first thing that came out of Camille’s mouth was an apology, but why is there a need for her to apologise to me? …I don’t get it at all.
“Camille… What are you apologising about?”
After Camille raised herself into a sitting position, she began speaking to me with a deadly serious expression.
“You despise me, right? I was a liar after all, and I did something to you two that means it can’t be helped if you hate and curse me.”
“…”
Could it be…? I could guess what her words were implying. It seems that Camille was admitting what that schoolgirl said as truth. No matter what that girl said, Camille didn’t insert a single reb.u.t.tal… Even though I thought that woman’s contemptuous talk about Camille being a bodyswapper was just nonsense.
“Camille, calm down… Try speaking slowly. I promise that I won’t hate you no matter what.”
“…-”
It seems that she doesn’t trust my words. Camille averted her face to the side. Whenever something inconvenient happens, she’ll immediately run away… It’s a bad habit Camille’s had since we were young.
“…Camille.”
I turned her back straight at me. At first she averted her eyes, but eventually, she resignedly opened her mouth.
“I haven’t said this to anyone but… I wasn’t born Camille Rhodolite…”
I unconsciously held my breath. It’s an idea that I can’t believe no matter what. But, I stayed quiet, and waited for her next words.
“I was originally in another world, and I ended up becoming the three year old marquis’ daughter, Camille Rhodolite, in this world… When I met you, I was already the me I am now, so I’ve always kept silent though.”
“Camille…”
Thank goodness… Hearing her words, somewhere inside me, I felt relieved. It seems that the Camille I’ve always a.s.sociated with is the Camille in front of me now. Right, there’s no doubt that the Camille I love is her.
“I think that schoolgirl is from the same world as me.”
That Camille is a person from another world is something that I still can’t fully believe. I mean, no matter how you look at her, she’s a normal person. She’s just a little covered in tattoos.
“…Then, about you knowing about us?”
“Uu…”
Hearing my words, Camille’s expression, couldn’t get any more… any more uncomfortable. Like that, she opened her mouth reluctantly.
“…You’re similar.”
“To what?”
“T-, To… how do I say this, to a story in the world I was in. There were characters that were just like you and Royce-sama.
“A story?”
“…Umm, it was a romance-ey story that girls would probably like. You two were characters that appeared in the story. Achille was the friend of the protagonist, and Royce-sama was one of the protagonist’s lover candidates, and depending on how things went, he became the protagonist’s husband. And Camille played the villain who got in the way of that.”
“It couldn’t be, that dream…”
That revolting scene appeared in my mind. I did mentally back away a little hearing words like ‘lover candidates’ and ‘depending on how things went’, though… While I was thinking these things, Camille continued to explain.
“The relationship between you and Royce-sama was similar… and in the story where Royce-sama became the protagonist’s husband, they cooperated to save the protagonist from Camille, and eventually the protagonist went on to become queen.”
Like I thought, the story that Camille is talking about really does resemble the dream I had.