Chapter 11: The Facade of the Great Sage of the Empire

"M-My granddaughter? Y-You mean, like, the daughter of my, my child?"

Dumbfounded, she could do little but stare as her brain struggled to parse the word's basic definition. The girl's physical similarities to her were undeniable, but even so...

Normally, such a claim would be ludicrous, but Mia had seen too much to write it off as complete nonsense. After all, for Bel to be her granddaughter, she would have needed to accomplish a feat unheard of in even the most fantastical of fairy tales — a backward leap through time. But backward leaps through time happened to be something Mia had firsthand experience with. This couldn't be a ploy by the Chaos Serpents either; if Bel was one of their agents, she wouldn't try to trick her with such an outlandish claim.

It seemed unthinkable — a reality stranger than fiction — but the sheer absurdity convinced Mia that Bel was telling the truth.

"Then that means... Miabel, are you..."

"Oh, please call me Bel, Grandmother," she said bashfully.

"Okay then. In that case, you can call me by my name as well."

"Okay, I will, Grandmother."

Something between a growl and a groan escaped Mia's throat. In the previous timeline, she'd lived for twenty years. Now, post-time leap, she had almost another three years under her belt. Her maturity level notwithstanding, she was technically a woman of twenty-two or twenty-three. But that wasn't nearly old enough for her to stomach someone calling her "Grandmother." Mother, she might have reluctantly accepted, but the "Grand" part was just too much; it hurt her on the inside. She got to her feet and strutted — more like waddled, actually, due to being half-submerged in water — over to Bel. Then, without a word, she grabbed her delicate shoulders and smiled somewhat menacingly.

"If anyone asks, Bel, I am your sister, and you will call me Miss Mia."

"Huh? But, Grand—"

She leaned over Bel, bringing her face so close their noses almost touched.

"Sister. Do. You. Understand?"

"Huh? Huh? But— Ow! Ow! It hurts! Your fingers are digging into—"

"Let's practice, shall we? Repeat after me. You are my sister, and I will call you Miss Mia."

"Y-You are my sister and... I-I will call you Miss Mia."

Bel's voice trembled with fear, but she managed to finish the sentence. Only then did Mia release her.

"Good. Anyway, moving on to more significant matters... Bel, would you happen to have gotten your head chopped off by a guillotine?"

"...Eh?" Bel blinked a few times at the abrupt question before giggling. "Ahaha, that's such a weird question. You say that as if you can be guillotined and then keep walking around after."

You sure can! thought Mia, though she was smart enough to keep her dissent internal. Still, this tells me that being guillotined isn't a condition for leaping through time... Then again, now that I think about it, it's not even the same kind of time leap she experienced. Maybe this is something else entirely...

Just then, a memory flashed across her mind.

A while back, I wished for some guidance. Something like the bloody diary...

She'd stared up at the library ceiling, hoping to find a lodestar to guide her way.

Could this — could she — be it?

She regarded Bel, whose smile had turned sad.

"But... Maybe it's not that weird. Maybe... you're right," she said wistfully.

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"The truth is that I was on the run, and the last thing I remember is being seconds away from capture. I must have fallen unconscious right before it happened. That's why you might be right. When I wake up from this dream... I'll probably find myself on the guillotine." She cast her eyes down, and the bleakness of her words seemed to fill the ensuing silence. Then, she turned her face up and looked straight at Mia. "But... I'm glad that the last dream I get to have is this one. It's such a fun, happy dream... and I always wanted to meet you, Gran— I mean, Miss Mia."

She smiled. It wasn't a particularly pretty smile; too much lip and not enough cheeks — the awkward first attempts of a child trying to learn an unfamiliar skill, endearing in its charm and heart-wrenching in its significance. The next thing she knew, Mia had her hands wrapped tightly around Bel's.

"It's okay, Bel." Mia gazed back in kind. "It's okay. This dream won't end. I, Mia Luna Tearmoon— No..."

She paused and gently shook her head. Then, with a soft smile, she said, "The grandmother you always respected... She won't let it."

To reassure Bel, Mia lifted her chin ever so slightly in a gesture of confidence.

"So tell me," she continued. "What happened? Why in the moons was a member of the imperial family on the run?"

Bel took a moment to gather herself. Then she stood up, determined to tell her tale.

"It's because..."

"Because?" Mia gulped as she waited on her next words, but before they came...

"Ah... My head..."

Suddenly, Bel's body swayed sharply to one side. From there, gravity took over, and she collapsed into the water.

"Wha— Bel? Oh my, the heat must have gotten to you."

Mia rushed over and lifted her out of the water.

"Oh, you silly little thing. What am I going to do with you," she said, holding the girl in her arms like an infant. "Let's get you out of here."

As she rose, it occurred to her that she'd been in the tub for longer than Bel. Considering Bel was currently incapacitated, that seemed to imply...

"M-My?"

Her head felt light, and the room seemed to spin.

"I-I feel a little dizzy..."

The next thing she knew, she was flat on the floor with her face pressed against its cool tiles.

"Ah... The floor... feels so good..."

A few minutes later, Anne would walk in on two bodies splayed across the bathhouse floor, and it took every ounce of composure in her not to add a third one to the scene. The one silver lining of their disastrous bath trip was, perhaps, the fact that Bel — being the first to fall — had not borne witness to the inglorious sight of her half-conscious grandmother rubbing her heat-flushed cheek against the bathhouse floor. Her respect for Mia therefore remained unblemished, and the facade of the Great Sage of the Empire would live to fool another day.

All's well that ends well!