Every Morning, My Mirror Saves the World - Chapter 58

Ruiyin had repeatedly cleared the humiliating battle-report dungeon in this little garden, but this was her first time triggering a hidden quest.

After quickly eliminating the obviously multiple-choice options listed above, she decided to find a way to obtain the hidden item.

Ruiyin took off her shoes, gathered up her cloak, and stepped into the pond’s shallows. She carefully approached the floating body, summoned her courage, and prodded it lightly with a long branch.

The human-shaped object gave no response. It merely drifted away with the ripples.

…W-was it really a corpse QAQ?

She stood frozen in the water, clutching her cloak. After a long and violent internal struggle, she suppressed her revulsion and slowly dragged the body ashore.

It belonged to a young woman. She wore a dark-blue cotton dress that must once have looked innocent and lovely. Wet hair clung to her face. Her body was icy after soaking in the water, yet her feminine curves remained slender and enticing.

Ruiyin had no experience handling a body discovered by accident. Calling the police was not exactly a reliable option in this world either.

At a loss, she sat on the grass. After hesitating, she slowly brushed the hair from the corpse’s face.

A fair, delicate face.

Playful freckles dotted skin smooth enough to break beneath a breath. Long lashes lay closed with frail helplessness. Even as a corpse, the woman radiated the pitiful purity of a flawless white lotus.

She looked somewhat familiar.

…Hey, wait!

That familiar physical description! Wasn’t this… Wasn’t this Evelyn?!

Ruiyin lunged back onto the body and stared up and down in disbelief. Once she confirmed the dead woman’s identity, she nearly lost control of her cold, aloof image and started wailing.

Her daughter-in-law had finally returned after disappearing for so many chapters… How could she die the moment she reappeared?! More importantly, why had she died in the pond behind Juvina’s palace?! Corpse preservation was terrible these days! Even if Lars came home determined to begin a human-corpse romance, their appearances would never match!

Hands trembling, Ruiyin reached once more toward the body of the daughter-in-law she had so thoroughly despised. She desperately hoped to feel some sign of life in Evelyn’s pulse.

She pressed the cold wrist, pinched the stiff neck, then held a finger beneath the woman’s nose.

Just as Ruiyin prepared to lift an eyelid and check the pupil, those butterfly-wing lashes trembled. Azure eyes as blue as the sky opened hazily onto Ruiyin’s finger.

Miss Floating Corpse slowly sat up, looked around in confusion, yawned, and rubbed her eyes.

“Mmm… Your Highness, is it morning?”

“…I’m Ruiyin. You… What are you…”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Evelyn scrambled to her feet, lifted the sides of her skirt, and bowed in apology. Looking a little embarrassed, she said, “I seem to have fallen asleep by accident. Thank you for waking me.”

“…You’re welcome.”

Though what Ruiyin wanted most at that moment was to push her back into the pond.

Drained of strength, Ruiyin sank onto the grass and watched the girl deftly arrange her disheveled braids and clothes. When Evelyn finished by tying a bow on her plait, Ruiyin had to admit that even as a corpse, Evelyn could utterly defeat her future mother-in-law in both looks and figure. (Hey.)

“How did you end up here?” Ruiyin asked casually.

Evelyn smiled shyly. “His Highness is away, and I was a little bored by myself, so I went walking in the garden. But I seem to have fallen asleep… I’m very sorry for troubling you.”

Ruiyin had met plenty of lunatics, shameless people, and teammates who sold each other out since arriving in this world. The girl before her was not exactly normal either, but such sincerity and courtesy still made Ruiyin uncomfortable.

She coughed softly and awkwardly looked aside. “It’s fine.”

“I made some food. Would you like to try it?” Evelyn smiled gently and pulled a box from the fireproof, waterproof spatial pouch on her body.

Inside lay neat rows of beautiful pastries.

Ruiyin eyed their excessively cute shapes with distaste. At last, she reluctantly picked one up and stuffed it into her mouth.

Then, even more reluctantly, she discovered it was delicious.

Her gloomy *It tastes good, but I still can’t surrender to the enemy, damn it* expression made Evelyn giggle.

The girl stood at the finest season of her youth. Her already exquisite beauty blossomed like spring flowers when she laughed, and every line of her face held an enchanting loveliness.

Educated and well-mannered. Gentle and kind. Young and beautiful. An excellent cook. Born to an illustrious family…

Ruiyin truly did not want to acknowledge this woman as her daughter-in-law.

But… every damned quality screamed perfect wife and mother! What was she supposed to do?!

Black smoke practically rising from her, Ruiyin crouched on the grass and tore at roots for ages. Finally, she asked sullenly, “Hey. Do you like Lars?”

“His Highness?”

“…No. Lars. The handsome knight who saved you that day.”

Evelyn tilted her head and thought in confusion. Then she shook it readily. “I don’t know him. I only like His Highness.”

Her delicate face looked exceptionally bright and pure when she smiled. A young woman boldly declaring her love for the man in her heart was captivating from every angle.

Ruiyin studied her in bewilderment and could not resist asking, “You only saw him once when you were young, didn’t you? Why do you like Juvina so much?”

“It wasn’t only once,” Evelyn said softly. “I’ve been watching His Highness ever since I was very small. I watched his childhood, his adolescence, and his youth. No one in this world could ever love him the way I do.”

The emotion in her voice was so intense that even Ruiyin stared blankly.

It took her a long moment to catch the important word.

“You said you ‘watched’ him?”

Evelyn smiled and nodded. “Yes. I see many things when I sleep. His Highness, the knight, the Silver Knight, the dragon, the Dark Elves, the Orc King…”

She counted them off on her fingers one by one.

At last, one pale finger pointed at Ruiyin.

“Only… I don’t think I’ve ever seen you. Ruiyin, who exactly are you?”

Her blue eyes, ordinarily clouded with mist, seemed to become a sea whose fog had blown away in an instant. Floating shards of ice reflected a cold light.

Shandora was said to be one of the oldest surnames in existence, though it had almost completely died out.

Legend said members of the Shandora Family could foresee the future.

*I know you don’t think she looks like a prophet, but most real prophets are lunatics.*

The things Lars and Ruiyin herself had said rose in her mind at the same moment. No matter how seriously or jokingly she had spoken then, Ruiyin had never imagined she would become the subject of a lunatic prophet’s vision.

Those misty eyes were like the truest mirror in the world.

And Ruiyin’s reflection had never appeared inside it.

“I see.” At last, Ruiyin spoke flatly. “Then what did you see at the end?”

Evelyn showed her teeth in a smile.

“I saw… darkness.”

—That was probably your alarm clock going off.

If she had not feared making the atmosphere even colder, Ruiyin would nearly have blurted it aloud.

She shook her head hard and forcibly dragged the subject back to her original matchmaking attempt.

“But the future can be changed, can’t it? Even if you’ve seen Juvina, that doesn’t mean the two of you are the best match. Look at Lars. He’s taller, more handsome, younger, and has a better body. Both parents dead, promising future. He’s a little stupid… but his gentleness, consideration, and housework skills more than compensate!”

She gazed earnestly at Evelyn.

“So choose him!”

Evelyn shook her head. “No. That man is too terrifying.”

“…”

“When I approach him, it feels as though I can no longer see anything. There is only weeping, despair, and death,” Evelyn said softly. “He is like a flame that has run out of fuel. He can survive only by destroying everything.”

“You’re talking about Tio, right…?”

“The Dark Elf Queen represents the Dark Moon—war, conspiracy, and deceit. However chaotic it becomes, life still exists beneath it. But he is complete dead silence. He is the Moon of Exile from legend, which ultimately devoured everything in the world.”

Ruiyin crouched silently on the ground and chewed through an entire lollipop.

Finally, she stood, dusted off her hands, and said unhappily, “Fine. Don’t like him. But promise me that no matter what Lars says to you, you won’t respond.”

According to the prophecy, Evelyn would die before much longer anyway. As long as Lars never became involved with her, Ruiyin only had to hold out until Evelyn kicked the bucket and the mission would be safely complete.

Evelyn gave a graceful curtsy. She gathered the things scattered over the grass, lifted her skirt, and elegantly left the little garden.

Front-Line Report No. 83 remained tucked inside Ruiyin’s clothes.

She took it out and read it again. The writing, displaying an emotional intelligence clearly below middle-school level, remained exactly the same.

Through the handwriting, she could effortlessly picture Lars looking at her with sparkling eyes and wagging his tail.

How could this Lars ever become what Evelyn described?

Ruiyin was not completely unangered. Lars might be an idiot beyond salvation in her eyes, but the instant someone else criticized him, inexplicable fury nearly made her draw her dagger and slash the other person’s face.

So what if Evelyn could see the future?

Ruiyin herself had arrived here from beyond the boundaries of anything Evelyn could predict.

As long as Ruiyin remained, she would never allow Lars to suffer those things from the past.

She would shut every hurt and betrayal outside his world.

The world-destroying Holy Archmage would sleep forever inside the prophecy.

Something abruptly moved inside her cloak pocket.

Ruiyin frowned and pulled out *Lars’s Perverted Notes*, which had remained silent for a long time.

Beneath the final three lines from its previous appearance, new words had appeared in smaller writing:

*Evelyn. Light Calendar Year 389. Died when a Dark Curse activated on the third anniversary of the Orc invasion of Kandel Castle.*

*Juvina. Light Calendar Year 392. After the Dark Elves built Dark Moon Tower upon the Sea of Roses, rebellion broke out within the human alliance. Assassinated.*

*Galahad. Light Calendar Year 393. Accidentally lost his footing and fell to his death during a diplomatic mission.*

Perhaps encountering its fellow charlatan Evelyn had triggered it. The parchment booklet continued writing the things Ruiyin had always wanted to know: the characters’ pasts, the times and places of their deaths, and the causes.

Compared to Evelyn’s vague descriptions, this information could truly help her.

Except…

What the hell was with that last one?!

As expected of Galahad, even his manner of death had to belong to a completely different genre from everyone else’s! It made a person want to complain so badly!

When the Holy Archmage had told her the same story, his rich, low voice trembled with operatic fullness. Every character wore the battle robes of myth.

Reality was nothing like that.

This Lars was a little wolfdog who wagged his tail. Evelyn was a divine charlatan who could fall asleep anywhere. Juvina was a flamboyant narcissist. Galahad was a directionally challenged Lucky T.

His Majesty was still waiting in the study, crying for her return. A pack of lunatics still fought a guerrilla war against the Orcs on the front line.

Every person was completely different from the literary epic described by the Holy Archmage.

Every one of them was so abnormal.

So… vivid and alive.

That meant every one of them would also be different from those tragic prophecies.

Right?

Author’s Note:

Ruiyin thought in silence: I put so much effort into raising him, and you don’t even want him. Maybe I should just take him myself.

(That is absolutely not what you meant!)