Orin Alpheratz (15 years old) Location: Solaris  Date: Year 873 / Pegasus Cycle (1) / Sage's Day (19)

Orin felt as if the world had stopped.

His heart thudded painfully in his chest, and his breathing became shallow. He stood there, face-to-face with Hector, yet his body felt miles away. The answers he had longed for... the ones he'd chased for so many years... were finally within reach. And now, he wasn't sure he had the strength to face them.

Hector waited. His gaze, though calm, held a flicker of impatience.

And Orin, driven more by instinct than resolve, slowly nodded.

"...Five years ago," Hector began, his voice quiet but steady, like the beginning of a story long buried in the dark. "You met a girl named Andromeda. A girl who claimed to be the Princess of the Empire."

He paused. Orin said nothing, only listening with bated breath.

"When I began my investigation," Hector continued, "I started with that one piece of information. Do you know why?"

Orin furrowed his brow. "...I don't know. What's so important about that?"

Hector exhaled deeply and shook his head, as if the answer was obvious.

"Don't you remember what Professor Aldulfin explained in class?" he said. "Royal heirs don't reveal their identities until they turn fourteen. Until then, their existence is hidden, even from other nobles. So how could this girl... how could anyone just walk up and say she was the Imperial Princess? It didn't make sense."

"Maybe..." Orin murmured, trying to grasp something solid. "Maybe she trusted us. She had no reason to fear, Huxley was there to protect her—"

"That's exactly what made it suspicious," Hector cut in. "And that suspicion led me to something I didn't know back then: to protect the true identities of royal heirs, many noble families adopt orphans... train them to act as decoys. They grow up believing they're royalty, until the moment comes for the truth to be erased."

The color drained from Orin's face. He didn't need Hector to say it. He could already see where this was going.

"You mean..." Orin whispered, "...Andromeda..."

"Yes," Hector said flatly. "She was a decoy. A false heir. A shadow created to protect the real bloodline."

Orin staggered back a step, the words like a blade to the chest.

"I don't deny that you met someone," Hector continued, his voice gentler now. "A girl who truly believed she was a princess. But I do deny the existence of a Princess Andromeda in the official records. There's no such person. Not then. Not ever."

"Do you really believe that?" Orin asked, his voice low, trembling with frustration. His eyes locked onto Hector's, filled with a painful mix of disbelief and defiance. "Do you honestly think she was just a decoy? An expendable piece in some royal scheme?"

Hector didn't flinch. His reply came cold and certain.

"It's not about what I believe, Orin. It's about facts. The girl named Andromeda doesn't exist in any imperial record. And if she had been real... if she truly were the Princess of the Empire, her identity would've been revealed last year when she came of age."

He looked away briefly, as if trying to suppress the weight of his own words.

"I'm not dealing in fantasies or childhood dreams. I'm telling you what the records say. What history says."

"But you were there!" Orin's voice cracked, his emotions threatening to spill over. "You and Huxley... you were both there with her! Why am I the only one who remembers? Doesn't that strike you as... wrong? As unnatural?"

Hector's gaze didn't waver. "It doesn't. Not anymore."

He stepped closer, his tone firm, almost clinical.

"Your memories... they've been shaped by trauma. The shock of losing someone... someone who believed herself to be a princess, twisted what was real and what wasn't. Andromeda, if that was even her real name, was trained to become a princess. Everything she said, everything she did, was part of that illusion."

Orin staggered slightly, overwhelmed, but Hector pressed on.

"And Huxley? Back then, he was a palace guard. Maybe not her personal protector, but to a child spinning tales, his mere presence would've been enough to complete the fantasy. She likely used that to fuel the illusion. And you... you believed it, because why wouldn't you? You were young. You trusted her."

Orin opened his mouth to argue, but Hector cut him off with a piercing glare.

"Let me ask you something," he said, his voice now sharper, more pointed. "Did she ever mention having a fiancé? Someone she'd marry when she came of age?"

The words hit Orin like a hammer. His breath caught.

He remembered.

He remembered it all too clearly.

The day he first met Princess Andromeda was as vivid as if it had just happened. The reason behind that encounter was simple: Hector had gone to the palace to meet his fiancée. Orin, still just a boy, had been training with him that morning and had waited in the garden, staring up at the towering palace windows.

But the one who appeared wasn't Hector.

Instead, it was a girl... a beautiful girl with soft, almond-shaped eyes and light brown hair that shimmered like golden silk in the sunlight. She introduced herself with a voice like spring wind.

Andromeda. The princess of the empire. And Hector's promised bride.

He had been there. He had seen it.

"You remember, don't you?" Hector said quietly, reading the look in Orin's eyes. "That's the reason you were so sure I knew her. Because in that story she created... I was part of it too."

Orin clenched his fists. His voice, when it came, was almost a whisper.

"Then what was she to us...?"

"A shadow," Hector replied. "A beautiful, carefully constructed shadow... made to protect the light."

Orin clenched his fists, trying to steady the storm building inside him. Everything Hector had just explained... it sounded logical. It fit together too well. The decoy program. The erased records. The Empire's secrecy. It made perfect sense.

And yet...

It didn't match what Orin felt. It didn't match the warmth of those days, the weight of her words, the way her smile had made the world stand still.

Even if she wasn't a true princess... 

Even if everything had been a lie...

She existed. She was real.

"What happened to her?" Orin asked, his voice low but unwavering. "Is she safe? Is she still somewhere in Solaris?"

Hector blinked, clearly caught off guard. For a moment, his expression faltered, eyes widening, lips parting as if to speak, only to close again as the weight of Orin's question settled in.

Then, with a sigh as heavy as lead, he replied:

"Even knowing she wasn't the true princess... you still want to keep searching for her?"

There was bitterness in his tone now. Not anger, pain.

"You're chasing a ghost, Orin. Someone without a name, without a family, without a place in this world. If she's even still alive."

He looked away, jaw tight.

"No one knows what happened to her after that day. And no one will say anything. Do you really think the Empire would speak openly about its decoys? About the pawns they raise and discard like broken weapons?"

He turned back, his voice now sharper.

"You need to stop this. You need to face the truth. What you're looking for... it's a dead end!"

Every word Hector spoke only deepened Orin's unease. It was as if a puzzle sat half-finished before him, each piece placed with deliberate care, yet something... something vital was missing.

Hector had said it himself: the Empire would never speak openly about matters as delicate as the existence of decoys, least of all about one specific girl, now long erased from the records. Information like that had to be buried deep, sealed within the inner sanctum of the Emperor's most trusted circle.

And yet... here Hector was, speaking of it with certainty. Speaking as if he had read the sealed pages of imperial history with his own eyes.

Orin's breath left him in a slow sigh.

So not everything was a dead end. There were still truths waiting to be uncovered.

"How do you know all this?" Orin finally asked, his voice calm but steady with suspicion. "Earlier, you said someone gave you the answers you were looking for. But who? The Emperor? Andromeda herself? Or... someone else?"

Hector frowned, lowering his sword slightly.

"What are you talking about?" He replied, tone cool. "You should know I can't reveal that. Especially not to someone who's clearly still hell-bent on chasing after a memory."

Orin narrowed his eyes. So Hector had no intention of helping him, unless he forced him to.

He glanced toward the rack of weapons nearby. Without another word, he strode over and grabbed a training sword and shield, the weight familiar in his hands. He turned to face Hector, steel in his gaze.

"You said you wanted to check something, didn't you?" Orin said flatly. "Well, I do too. Right here, right now. One-on-one."

He raised his sword, its tip pointing directly at Hector's chest.

"If I win... you'll tell me who gave you that information."

Hector's surprise lasted only a second. Then a slow, confident smile spread across his lips. He raised his own weapon, his stance sharp and unwavering.

"Very well," he said, voice firm with challenge. "But if you lose... I want you to withdraw from the knighthood."