Chapter 9: Prediction/Bloody Diary

"Hehehe..."

Mia wore a bright smile as she chuckled softly to herself.

"Did something good happen, Princess Mia?" asked a curious Anne.

"My, how did you know?"

Ever since returning to her room, Mia had been in good spirits. Great spirits, even. After all, that miserable four-eyes — Ludwig, rather — had called her brilliant.

Brilliant... He called me brilliant! Me! Oh ho ho ho!

She was in seventh heaven. Or cloud nine. Whatever was up there, she was in it. Her mood was fantastic, and it wasn't likely to change for a good long while.

"Ah-hah! I need to write down the events of this memorable day in the diary so I don't forget..."

As soon as the thought crossed her mind, Mia grabbed her diary and dove onto her bed. She rolled her tiny body across her duvet, brimming with energy. Finding it rather enjoyable, she kept rolling back and forth, feeling the gentle embrace of the moonfowl down that filled the high-quality mattress. With her face buried in a soft blanket, she kicked her feet up and down as though she were being tickled. The fluttering motion flipped up her skirt, exposing the smooth skin of her young legs. It was, all things considered, a rather un-princessly look.

"Oh he he. Ohhhh ho ho."

"...Princess Mia, please. That's indecent."

Even Anne's admonishment failed to have any effect. Mia looked at her with the same delighted grin and said, "Oh ho ho. I'm the empire's brilliant princess, didn't you know? Her Brilliant Highness Mia sees no problem here."

It was the kind of brattish comment that would have irked most people, but Anne simply smiled as if she'd just heard the most adorable thing.

Oh, look how she beams! She must be so happy to have been complimented by that gentleman she's fond of!

Anne was in the midst of her own misinterpretation of Mia's actions. As a result, she felt in every way the older sister watching over the blossoming of a younger sister's first love, and she saw Mia's every action through a lens of kindly affection.

As the Tearmoon saying goes, a single misplaced button messes up the whole shirt. Misunderstandings, once ingrained, can be fiendishly difficult to undo.

Meanwhile, Mia was still beating at the bed with her feet as she wrote a new entry into her diary. She began with making Anne her personal maid-in-waiting and continued through all the events that led up to today, adding a few bells and whistles here and there to enhance the reader's experience.

My, how quickly I'm writing! It would appear that I have a talent for literary composition! Perhaps I should be a poet or playwright!

Her pen flew across the pages with an ease that spoke of her good mood. When she finished writing the final word and closed the book, a thought crossed her mind.

Ah-hah! Since I've changed the contents of this diary, I wonder what has happened to the diary from the future?

A bout of curiosity led her to place the two diaries side by side. One was still pristine, while the other was blood-soaked. If both were the same item, what would happen now that she'd written something different into one of them? Without expecting anything in particular, she flipped open the bloody diary.

"Wh-What in the world?!"

The words in the old diary blurred and twisted into misshapen blots before reappearing as new lines of text that mirrored what she'd just written in the other one. Furthermore, the phenomenon did not stop there. It continued into further entries, each of which warped in similar fashion and reshaped their contents accordingly. It looked like the future was being rewritten before her eyes.

It doesn't just look like it... The future is being rewritten!

Suddenly, it all clicked. She realized that by gaining Ludwig's support and having him begin his efforts earlier, she'd caused significant changes to the course of history.

Could this mean that...

She quickly sat straight up on her bed. Then, she reached toward the bloody diary with one trembling hand and flipped through it. Upon reaching the final page, a short, sad sigh escaped her lips.

It... still didn't change... After all that...

The final entry, cruelly unchanging, yet foretold of her execution.

How... does it come to this...

Her whole world seemed to darken under a cloud of despair. Faced with the unforgiving fact of her tragic end, panic gripped her heart. She felt a sudden and overpowering desire to run far away. To escape it all.

It's all right. It's all right. I still have time.

She took a deep breath to calm herself. Then, she read through the diary a second time. There were entries that detailed how, after gaining Ludwig's help, the empire's financial difficulties did see a turn for the better. However, it was a mere droplet of water upon the empire's blazing wildfire of woes. Ultimately, there were too many problems that couldn't be solved. From the outbreak of a plague in the capital's slums to the revolt of a minority tribe in the Outlands — along with much more — the empire had no shortage of crippling issues that threatened its existence. And Mia hadn't the slightest clue how to solve any of them.

Th-This is no good at all! This is no time to be letting Ludwig's compliments go to my head!

Feeling like she'd just had a bucket of cold water poured over her head, she leapt to her feet.

"Miss Anne!" She addressed her personal maid. "I must think!"

Then, in a voice that rang with command and purpose...

"To allow my brain to work better, I request that you bring me some sweets!"

She asked for so little...