Chapter 279: A Date? (Celestine’s Arc)③
The method to unlock the entrance was surprisingly simple once it struck me. It was elemental symbols, specifically the phrase “Suihei Riebe.” I had learned about it in middle school, but since I had worked myself to the bone for high school entrance exams in my previous life, the memory lingered on.
(With the combination of “Water” and “Clark,” it was clear right away… I had a bit of trouble with “Berry,” but that refers to “Beryllium.”)
Fortunately, the problem could be solved as long as one knew the elemental symbols up to the nineteenth. It was likely that Shoko Sanada had also memorized the mnemonic. Just like the last time at the villa, this puzzle was crafted as a riddle only a Japanese person could decipher.
(With how she keeps throwing problems at me whenever there’s a chance, maybe Shoko really enjoys puzzle games… I can’t help but wonder if she could have come up with a more challenging one.)
“I read about how to decode this cipher in a book long ago… probably,” I said.
“Is that so?”
Celestine replied with a disinterested tone after hearing my vague excuse. She probably didn’t believe me at all, but the fact that she chose not to press me further made me think she was truly a remarkable Young Lady of Nobility.
(Goodness… A woman like her is rare to find. Rodel, you really missed out.)
Muttering to myself about my late rival, I opened the door to the mansion.
As I swung the entrance door open, a musty odor assaulted my nostrils. How long had it been closed? After years, the outside air finally flowed into the mansion. The interior was quite ordinary in terms of decor. It wasn’t ransacked or messy; if anything seemed out of place, it was the numerous frames hanging at regular intervals along the hallway from the entrance.
“Are these… paintings?”
“They certainly appear to be,” I nodded in response to Celestine’s inquiry.
The frames contained various artworks—some oil paintings, some watercolors, and even colorless line drawings. A multitude of paintings lined the hallway.
“Could it be that she had a collection of paintings? The signature reads… ‘Sanada Shoko’?”
“Perhaps these were painted by the Queen Dowager herself…”
Not only the signature, but the landscapes depicted also felt familiar. The scenes portrayed were all reminiscent of Japan. Many of them overlapped with the images I had seen in her mental world before. While there were paintings of nature like the sea and forest, there were also road signs, cars, and airplanes—things that didn’t exist in this world—interspersed throughout.
“I had no idea the Queen Dowager had such a hobby… Where could this peculiar townscape be from?”
“Who knows… I’ve never seen it before; it might be an imagined creation.”
As I answered Celestine’s words, I admired each painting hanging on the wall. Why had the Queen Dowager… Shoko Sanada left behind such artworks? The reason was likely the same as that of the diary.
(She probably wanted to preserve memories and recollections of the world she once lived in…)
Though Shoko was a Reincarnator like me, there was a significant difference. She had led a happy life in her previous existence.
In my past life, I had endured a harsh existence due to toxic parents. A father who loved gambling and drinking, who even dipped into his child’s school fees, and a mother who fled, abandoning her children after growing weary of him. While I had a few people I could call friends, no matter how I looked at it, my life was far from blessed.
In contrast, Shoko lived a mundane life in a rural town, harboring a strong yearning for the city. However, she seemed to have been blessed with family and friends, never truly unhappy. Rather, her misfortune began after her reincarnation. She was forcibly made a consort by a tyrant who had taken a liking to her, and in the process, her family was killed. For the Queen Dowager, who dedicated her second life to revenge, those happy days of her previous life might have been the ideal world she envisioned.
(So, she must have secretly painted the landscapes of her past life. She probably visited this mansion from time to time to gaze at the paintings of Japan, soothing her homesick heart…)
Thinking of a friend who shared the same hometown, I felt a twinge of melancholy.