Silver Lining Yesterday - Chapter 12
If Gemma, known for her ghost-like swordsmanship at the front, had to retreat due to injury, it could have had a detrimental effect on the morale of the troops.
At that moment, a message arrived from the enemy requesting a brief ceasefire.
It was a period filled with church holidays, and the troops’ morale had hit rock bottom after weeks of relentless snowfall.
If the kingdom’s army that had lost Satin needed to stabilize the northern front, the revolutionary forces had to reorganize their tangled supply lines in the rear.
A ceasefire of five days was agreed upon.
As the artillery fire at the front ceased, Jean led her closest comrades and secretly made her way to Satin.
It was the end of the year, just days before Gemma’s birthday.
Despite one of the church’s three major feast days, the Feast of Saint Aurelia, being only two days ago, Satin felt like a ghost town.
The poor citizens, who had faithfully served the Heidegger family their entire lives, were unsure whether they should rally for the distant Cornelia or bow to the future lord, the young duke.
Even the lonely steel fortress standing beneath the cliffs seemed desolate and pitiful.
Jean was deeply shocked by the stark reality of the fortress, which seemed to have been hardened by centuries of cold.
Fortunately, Gemma was expected to recover after about fifteen days of rest, but in such a grim place, Jean felt new illnesses might arise. She could not let Gemma’s twenty-second birthday pass like this, gloomy and forsaken.
After much contemplation, Jean made up her mind.
She would give Gemma the best birthday, despite the injury.
* * *
“…Do you really have to do it like this?”
“Yes, I have to.”
Nix glanced at the passenger seat with a skeptical expression.
Since they first spotted Satin in the distance, Jean had been chattering excitedly and covered her eyes with her hands.
“First impressions are everything, whether it’s people or places. The first impression I had of Satin last time was awful. So, this time, I’m determined to leave with a beautiful first impression.”
“That’s unnecessary…”
“Unnecessary? If it’s Gemma’s hometown, it’s as good as my home too.”
Jean hummed a tune and smiled broadly.
“I’m going to fall in love with Satin. Just like I loved my hometown, I’ll make a connection with this city too.”
Do as you please…
Nix, now giving up on the argument, leaned his head and absentmindedly tapped the steering wheel.
As they passed the leading vehicle, a police officer approached, waving a baton.
“Please stop, stop.”
The officer, dressed in a blue uniform, flipped through his notebook and asked,
“What is your business in Satin?”
“Mother’s birthday.”
“Your mother? Please present your ID…”
The officer raised his head, and after recognizing Nix’s face, his eyes widened in surprise.
Nix, peering out the window, slid his light sunglasses down his nose and made brief eye contact with the officer.
In that moment, his red eyes glinted with a mischievous light.
“May I enter?”
“…Yes, have a pleasant trip.”
The officer gave a stiff salute.
Nix raised his sunglasses back up and smoothly drove off.
Jean, who had paused, tilting her head in confusion, then asked.
“Nix, did you use magic?”
“I used the magic of money.”
Nix shook his wallet, which had been lying around on the driver’s seat.
When the clinking sound of coins didn’t seem to satisfy her curiosity, Nix promptly grabbed her hand and lowered it, pulling her attention away.
Surprised, Jean opened her eyes and was confronted with the expansive view of an intersection.
The wide avenue was bathed in bright winter sunlight.
Stone buildings, washed clean by the snowfall during the night, stood grandly along the street, while a tram slid noisily down the rails in the distance, accompanied by the clanging of bells.
Pedestrians strolled leisurely along the neatly paved brick sidewalks.
In a street café with green tents, customers enjoyed the sun and warmed themselves by the fireplace. Through the glass windows of a restaurant, citizens were seen enjoying a generous lunch, with a staff member frequently wiping the fogged-up windows.
Jean couldn’t believe it. She rolled her eyes again.
Ivory-colored hotels, arched windows, and meticulously landscaped trees…
Each building proudly displayed the Heidegger family’s golden flags, and in the distance, the sound of a grand bell echoed.
Jean raised her head high in surprise. A flock of pigeons took off, following the sound of the bells as they flew away.
White clouds drifted lazily across the sky, and her blue eyes, which had been wandering dizzily, suddenly fixed on a distant bell tower.
Jean blinked.
Her focus shifted, and as the bell tower blurred, the cliffs, which had seemed like a faint background, became sharp and clear.
….The crimson cliff that had been carved by the dwarfs’ chisel, Miss Hildegarde crying by the steel fortress.
The song that the northern children loved to sing, was revived. However, as the hallucinations in her ears grew louder, the scene before her became more vividly clear.
No matter how much she rubbed her eyes, the lonely steel fortress beneath the cliff no longer existed.
Instead, there stood a castle that descended gracefully like a swan with wings spread wide. Jean simply gazed at it blankly.
“…What happened?”
She whispered softly, and Nix caught every word.
He stopped on the side of the road, leaned over the steering wheel, and stared at the distant pure white castle.
“The Satin I know is always like this.”
The pearl of the Aisendor mountains, the heaven of ballet and opera, the city of eternal winter.
It was Alderon’s second city, following the capital Orsant, and a dreamland admired by countless artists.
The 23 years had shed the rust of steel and replaced it with gleaming white marble, reassembling the city into a swan.
The poor and shabby steel city had vanished, as if it had been nothing more than a delusion.
“…What? Don’t you like it?”
Nix glanced at Jean with a strangely unsettling look.
Jean, still looking around with wide eyes, seemed to struggle to suppress her shock.
Did she not like it?
Jean thought back to the city she remembered that was still vivid in her memory.
A small, humble rural town beneath a setting sun, with fathers struggling to make a living by mining in the sunless pits, and children who long lost their smiles, crushed under the weight of the city’s decay.
Among them was Gemma, locked away in the coldest, darkest place, groaning from injuries.
Compared to that, this place was a paradise. It was an utopia with all the shadows of the past wiped away.
Jean forced a smile. Confusion seems to be a luxury, she had to be genuinely happy.
“…No way. This is the Satin I dreamed of.”
Just then, the sun was covered by a cloud, and the shadow of the building dominating the avenue deepened.
In the shadowed car, Jean’s smile faded, but the fine movements of the lines and muscles that had flown in the light became even clearer.
Nix watched closely, observing the faint trembling of her smile and the swirling chaos in her eyes. As the hallucination of the whirlpool in her body expanded and swallowed her whole, Nix instinctively reached out and gripped her shoulder.
He then cut off the spiraling thoughts and offered a polite smile.
“You can’t step into the ballroom looking like this.”
Jean blinked.
Nix, who had been staring at her hand clenched tightly around the heavy coat, withdrew his hand without hesitation.
“Let’s go. If the Miss covered in soot wants to become a princess, she needs to start with a transformation.”
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