Project Necro is an official initiative by Re:Library.

I cannot help but imagine it, but if the ruler of Astra at the time had realized that Giovanna was a woman—or at least suspected it—then the nuance of his words, *“If I must hand you over to another…”* changes quite a bit.

The ruler’s name is not written in the memoir, but it says that although he was still young, he was quite sharp. Duke Vasily was probably in his late twenties at the time, and the ruler of Astra may have been around the same age. Two young men of status and ability fighting over a cross-dressing genius beauty, Giovanna… Someone, please turn this love triangle into a movie!
…That means this world needs to invent movies first, though…

In any case, while Giovanna ultimately succeeded in escaping from Astra and making her way to Jurnova, it was no easy matter.

A fully armed group of guards began to accompany her everywhere she went. Officially, it was to protect the inventor Giovanni di Santi, but in reality it was surveillance to prevent her from escaping. Since the inventor was constantly running around supervising multiple sites such as aqueduct restoration projects, she was not forbidden from going to those locations, but all other outings were completely prohibited.
She was forbidden to meet with Duke Vasily’s envoy. She was allowed to exchange letters, but their contents were inspected.
Even under such conditions, she managed to escape thanks to the unexpected appearance of a “wild card.”

Her brother Giovanni appeared before their father and offered to act as an intermediary with Jurnova. He demanded payment, saying he was short of money—but when Giovanna finally made her escape, he suddenly appeared again and drew the pursuers in the opposite direction.

*“I am grateful to my brother… Although, knowing him, I think it is probably true that he really was short of money.”*

Giovanna’s feelings were complicated, but thanks to her brother buying time, she managed to escape beyond Astra’s walls and rendezvous with Jurnova’s envoy and the party sent to bring the inventor back.

And the moment they met up, she was hoisted onto a horse by one of the men from the escort, leaving the envoy and her father behind, and the two of them took off at a full gallop.

*“We did not know when my brother would be exposed as a decoy and the pursuers would come after us, so it was the right decision. It was nothing short of madness, however!”*

…Whenever this incident comes up, Giovanna always sounds irritated.
But if it really went like this, then yes, it was insane.

Apparently they covered in one day a journey that normally took seven.

Seven days in one day.
I thought it had to be a mistake in the records, so I asked Forli, but he casually stated that it was true. It was possible.
Normally, seven days meant letting the horse walk at a relaxed pace with frequent breaks. At top speed, it was a two-day journey. But even then, you would change horses multiple times and never ride double. That would still take two days at best.
And yet, although they took shortcuts here and there, they rode the same horse together for the entire distance and finished it in a single day.
That means that horses capable of such a feat exist in this world.

The Magical Steed of Krymov.

Forli could say this with certainty because he had been a close friend of Grandfather Sergei and knew his magical steed, Zephyrus, very well. Zephyrus was apparently capable of similar feats.
Like Grandfather Sergei, Duke Vasily had also been given a magical steed by the Count of Krymov.

In other words, the man who came from Jurnova to retrieve the inventor was Duke Vasily himself.

Giovanna, you are right. That was madness!!
He was Duke of Jurnova, one of the Three Great Dukes of Jurgrahn, what the hell was he doing there?!
Apparently, Duke Vasily was the embodiment of efficiency. If he judged something to be efficient or effective, he would casually discard precedent and common sense and do it anyway. That was precisely why he left achievements great enough to be remembered in Jurnova’s history as a wise duke—but to the people around him at the time, he was often a very troublesome man.

Up to then, Giovanna had hardly ever ridden a horse.
Even normally, riding a horse for the first time is frightening: it is high off the ground, and even walking, the motion is more unsettling than expected.
From that, to a full gallop.
A magical steed can apparently maintain a speed comparable to an ordinary horse’s top speed indefinitely, and the scenery seemed to tear itself apart as it flew past. A horse’s top speed is around fifty kilometers per hour, give or take? And unlike me who’s used to traveling by car or train in my previous life, that experience must’ve blown her mind. She was held tightly from behind, but it was still terrifying. When they leapt over a wall as tall as a man, she screamed; when they jumped across a river in a single bound—

*“Yes I passed out, so what?!”*

Even years later, when recounting this to the chief of the forest folk, she was still irritated—no, outright angry.
You are not at fault. …Ancestor, what were you doing?
I understand that being captured was not an option. Around Astra at the time, magical steeds would surely have been condemned as heretical or impure. They probably disguised it to look like a normal horse, but once they started sprinting like that, it would be obvious, so they had no choice but to keep going until they reached a safe area.
Still, it was awful.

Giovanna soon regained consciousness, and by then the magical steed carrying them had slowed to a relaxed trot.
They stopped, and Duke Vasily said:

*“You are a woman. Where is the real inventor?”*

The moment he said it, Giovanna reflexively slapped him.

*“I am not a fake! I am the inventor. I am Giovanni di Santi! I repaired the aqueduct. I invented the hoists, the cranes, the tools—all of it was me! Me! Whether I am a man or a woman makes no difference to what is inside my head!”*

All the frustration, exhaustion, and stress she had accumulated burst out, and after shouting that, she broke down in tears.
At the time, she had no idea that the man in front of her was a duke. Of course she wouldn’t. Who would?

*“I see. Then prove it through your work.”*

Without trying to comfort her, he waited for her to calm down and said so plainly. Giovanna, who had expected to hear accusations like “Do not lie” or “A woman could never do that,” looked up at him in surprise. He looked back at her as if to say, what is so surprising?

*“If a cat is good at catching mice, who cares whether it is male or female?”*

Later, after safely reaching the sphere of influence of the Jurgrahn Empire, Giovanna was told by the welcoming party that the man was in fact the Duke of Jurnova, and she fainted again.
My deepest sympathy.

Later, Duke Vasily is said to have described Giovanna at that time as “like a kitten with its fur standing on end.” Even the slap had been cute, like a kitten’s pawing. Such composure.

I wonder if Onii-sama would think that way if I slapped him.
No… I cannot even imagine hitting Onii-sama.
Instead, I will imagine patting his head. And hugging him. Ehehehehe.
What am I doing…

Despite such a journey, once Giovanna arrived in Jurnova’s territory, she was extraordinarily active.
Starting with aqueduct restoration, she invented and improved machinery and tools to streamline mining operations, enhanced blast furnaces, and even designed the transformation of Jurnova Castle from a former military fortress into the present elegant center of politics and administration. She incorporated underfloor heating, innovative lighting, supervised construction—the works. Versatile and tireless.
At one point, four scribes reportedly followed her around just to write down the ideas she scattered, running with their notes to the craftsmen in charge of prototypes. Geniuses are frightening.

Astra occasionally demanded that the inventor be returned, and even the Emperor at the time ordered that the inventor be sent to the imperial capital for the sake of the empire’s development, but Duke Vasily rejected them all.
In the process, he devised a patent system to protect inventors’ rights and first enacted it as territorial law in Jurnova. “We have gone this far for the sake of inventors. Astra and the Empire should try doing the same first—then we can talk.” That seems to have been the stance.
That’s quite impressive of him for implementing such advanced measures and skillfully turning them into bargaining chips.

Giovanna lamented that there were so many things she wanted to do and not enough time—she was a complete workaholic. Yellow card for death by overwork.
When she forgot even to eat or sleep, Duke Vasily would grab her by the scruff of the neck and throw her into bed to make her rest. He would pin her down and force her to sleep even as she protested that she wanted to work more.
Despite all that, it apparently took them quite a while to become a couple, and the chief of the forest folk often teased them about it.

“My spouse.”

Those were the words written on the back of the miniature painting.
Thinking about it again, for the Duke of Jurnova to use the word “spouse” carries great weight. Giovanna concealed her gender and there was a huge difference in their social status, yet Duke Vasily must have loved her deeply. It shows in that single word.

Near the end of the memoir, in his later years, after handing the ducal title to his heir, Duke Vasily proposed to Giovanna several times. Without marriage, she could not be interred in the Jurnova family mausoleum.
The imperial family and the Three Great Ducal Houses each had massive mausoleums, like labyrinthine underground tombs, divided into many chambers where successive heads and their families were laid to rest together. Duke Vasily wanted to be with Giovanna even after death.
It would have meant abandoning the name Giovanni di Santi and assuming the false identity of a noblewoman, and there were many practical difficulties, so Giovanna refused. Above all, she said it would be unfair to his wife, who had died young.

However, she designed Duke Vasily’s coffin herself and had a cat carved into it.
Beside the cat were words engraved in ancient Astraic:

“Together in life, and not parted in death.”

.

“…What an astonishing story.”

Staring at the memoir she had finished reading, Ekaterina murmured.

“The chief of the forest folk at the time, Lady Luciola, was truly Lady Giovanna’s close friend. To have someone she could confide in so completely must have been very reassuring.”
“At first, she must have been shocked by our way of life and our coexistence with Great King Bees. That would have been unimaginable in her homeland of Astra. Perhaps that is precisely why she felt a sense of freedom.”

Aurora smiled. Pride as the current chief of the forest folk seemed to color her words.

“I now truly understand how trustworthy a friend the forest folk are to our House of Jurnova. Such secrets were protected then and remain protected now. As a daughter of Jurnova, I wish once again to protect the Forest of the Great King Bees together with my brother and to cherish our friendship with the forest folk.”

That must have been one of the reasons she had shown me this memoir.
I had thought the forest folk were something like a ninja village or a shadow army to the Jurnova ducal house, but it is really a deep relationship of trust. I hope this relationship continues to be mutually beneficial.

“Speaking of which, may I ask you something?”

Ekaterina cleared her throat. As a Japanese person in her previous life, there was a phrase in the memoir she could not ignore.

“The forest folk… are familiar with the hot springs in the forest, are you not?”
“Yes. There is one in this settlement as well. However, it is not indoors, so I wonder whether it would be uncomfortable for you, my lady.”

So that means—
A natural open-air hot spring bath!