The day of Fran’s wedding had arrived.
The ceremony was to be held in a cathedral within the Hubert domain, the land she would marry into. From the royal capital, the journey by carriage took roughly three hours.
For her attendance, Alicia relied not on her parents’ household, but on the assistance of her grandparents. She had no wish to inform her family, and in any case, they would hardly have provided a carriage for her sake.
Looking back now, it seemed to Alicia that Thomas and Deborah had always harbored an excessive aversion to her forming relationships with anyone at all.
Among the assembled guests, there was not a single familiar face. There were likely graduates from the academy present, yet no one approached her or spoke her name.
No one, save for a single exception.
“Well, if this isn’t Miss Wellston. What a coincidence.”
“Lord Rosner. It has been some time.”
She had run into one of Joshua’s school friends, and the encounter left her disheartened.
No doubt he would report her presence to Joshua. It might even reach Mariabelle’s ears.
What a nuisance, she thought.
Unaware of Alicia’s inward turmoil, Samuel wore a bright, open smile.
“Please, call me Samuel.”
“Very well, Lord Samuel. Then you may call me Alicia.”
As Alicia moved to take her seat, Samuel followed her for some reason.
“Is it all right for you to stay with me, Lord Samuel? Are there no others you wish to greet?”
“Not particularly. I arrived yesterday. Fran and I are related, though only distantly.”
Though timid by nature, Alicia occasionally spoke with unexpected directness. Samuel, however, showed no sign of taking offense.
“I see.”
She exchanged polite words with him, yet her thoughts wandered elsewhere.
Fran herself had meticulously designated Alicia’s seat in advance.
That single seat had been left open expressly for her, and Samuel regarded it with faint suspicion.
Alicia did not wish to sit beside someone so close to Joshua, but Samuel settled himself next to her as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Perhaps noticing her glance, he answered lightly, smiling all the while.
“I hardly know anyone here either.”
With his fair hair, blue-gray eyes, and clear-cut features, he possessed a calm, refined beauty. His friendly smile was disarming, the sort that invited trust without effort.
Samuel carried himself like someone well accustomed to society. Watching him slip so easily into another’s personal space stirred a quiet sense of unease in Alicia’s heart.
The vows were completed, and the guests rose as one, offering their blessings. Flower petals danced through the air, and Fran looked radiant with happiness.
As the bride and groom clasped hands, the doors of the cathedral burst open with a violent crash.
A young woman stood beyond the threshold, her hair in disarray. At the sight of her, terror froze Alicia in place.
“If it weren’t for you, I would have been happy!”
Gripping a blade in reverse, the woman lunged toward Fran.
Alicia felt her skin prickle with dread.
This was exactly the future Fran had described.
“No… why?” Alicia cried out despite herself.
You said the future could be changed.
Patrick, the groom, stepped forward to shield Fran.
The woman plunged the knife into Patrick’s back as he embraced his bride, then fled in shock.
Bright red drops stained the floor as the groom collapsed.
Fran screamed.
Samuel chased after the fleeing woman.
The scene unfolded like a living nightmare.
Alicia tried to reach Fran, but shrieking guests, those fainting, and others scrambling to escape blocked her path.
Then Fran lifted her face and looked directly at Alicia.
Their gazes entwined.
Fran, who had been sobbing moments before, curved her lips upward the instant she saw Alicia and slowly spoke.
No sound reached her ears, yet from the movement of Fran’s lips, Alicia understood.
See? I told you.
“How could this happen…?”
Fran had said to her, “The future may be changed. Especially for you, since you’re several years ahead.”
She had also said, “That woman will storm into Patrick’s and my wedding. But it will be all right. I won’t let it happen. After all, I know the future.”
And yet…
She never said it would end in such tragedy. Or was it that the future truly could not be altered? Had changing it only made everything worse?
“Alicia, are you all right? That was frightening, wasn’t it? The culprit has been apprehended.”
Samuel was suddenly beside her, his arm around her trembling shoulders.
I will never… fall in love.
Alicia’s vision narrowed rapidly, and her consciousness slipped into darkness.
When she awoke, she found herself in an unfamiliar room.
A maid stood at her bedside and informed her that this was a guest chamber in the Moore household, Fran’s family estate. Fran herself was no longer there.
The maid said she would inform the others that Alicia had regained consciousness, then stepped out into the corridor.
Alicia watched her go in a daze, unable to move.
