#19
“A strange sensation?”
When I asked back with a deep smile, a frightening gaze returned.
“Ah, ahh, I understand. I’ll stop joking around.”
At that look telling me to stop pretending not to know, I confirmed that they had begun overlaying the image I wanted onto me.
A mysterious villain.
Someone useful since he wasn’t cooperating with half-demons, but still untrustworthy.
And one more would be added later.
‘The medium used when cursing them.’
This should be revealed a bit later…… when it wouldn’t matter to their happy ending even if they killed me.
Before then, I’d disguise it as healing with unique magic.
“But I’m really asking because I don’t know…… this is really just to confirm, so don’t get excited, okay?”
“Speak.”
“Hyung, what exactly was that sensation you felt at the temple yesterday? Smell? Hearing? Or maybe, intuition?”
“You ask strange things…… If I had to say, it was a scent.”
Though his tone was cold, it was a completely different reaction from when he first crushed my proposal as worthless.
I inwardly sighed in relief at this and drawled “hmm.”
And when the eyes of those gathered narrowed, I casually said.
“Hyung. Are you perhaps under a curse?”
Ignoring the instantly murderous atmosphere in the room, I continued speaking.
If they thought I shouldn’t know, they would have cut my throat right here.
“No…… what the elder gave me was poison.”
“What?”
Marcus hyung ground his teeth in anger.
“……? Why are you suddenly angry, hyung?”
The Crown Prince’s eyebrows twitched for a moment.
“Crazy bastard.”
Regardless, Marcus hyung hurled harsh words at me.
Why again.
What’s the problem?
“Knowing it was poison and drinking it like water, of course you’re a crazy bastard.”
“……What kind of poison was it?”
Ah. He’s disgusted.
I roughly understood Marcus hyung’s reaction and nodded, when the Archduke who had been silently staring at me asked.
His blue eyes were coldly frozen.
Was he also disgusted with me for the same reason?
I ignored the chilling sensation in my heart and nonchalantly wiggled one finger, looking toward Crown Prince hyung as I spoke.
“When someone under a curse smells it, it gives off a sweet scent. If not, it’s somewhat serious but……”
“It gives off a scent? From where?”
“What’s the serious case?”
The Archduke and Crown Prince hyung asked in turn.
I gently brushed off Sercil’s gaze observing me with somewhat eerie eyes and answered them.
“From my body! More precisely from my blood. And the serious case is when the curse is unusual.”
Slowly, while making an eerie expression.
“I mean cases where it’s a curse that reacts to blood. Hyung, that’s why I asked.”
Are you perhaps under a curse?
The Crown Prince had no answer to my quiet question.
And after some time passed.
He slightly closed his eyes and nodded.
* * *
The next morning.
We gathered in Crown Prince hyung’s office, having changed locations.
In my case, I came pretending to go to the temple, though I’m not sure what meaning that has.
“They’ll know I didn’t go anyway. The High Priest would have checked. Why bother with such disguises?”
“Will you just shut your mouth?”
“Hyung, hyung. Do you know, hyung? You won’t answer me so that’s why!”
“Huh……”
A sigh leaked from Marcus hyung.
Perhaps because they decided to include me in their affairs, the rejection is less than before.
‘Yes. Going smoothly.’
Look. Marcus hyung’s current expression was quite different from the expression I endured before regression even though I was dying of dislike.
Back then, he smiled more often instead. They were very businesslike smiles, and even those quickly changed to expressionless, but.
Isn’t it worlds apart from when he wouldn’t even try to exchange words?
“You really need to be quiet. We’re going in disguise as Your Highness said. And don’t worry about the temple side.”
“Oh my, don’t tell me.”
“You catch on right away, as expected.”
The Archduke smiled pleasantly.
He seemed in a good mood, but that was actually wariness.
The fact that the Crown Prince could apply disguise to others, not just himself, was top secret.
I shrugged and smiled mysteriously, then fluttered back and forth between them, continuing to whisper.
“I need to know at least this much to work together trustingly. Right?”
While brushing off Marcus hyung’s words that lowering your voice wasn’t everything.
* * *
The Archduke followed Ersen with a strange gaze as he smiled mischievously and walked like a cat.
“Why.”
Marcus noticed that subtlety and asked quietly.
The Archduke shook his head silently.
Since the prince had little martial prowess, their conversation wouldn’t be heard, but it was good to be careful since there was much to hide.
However.
‘There was a blood scent yesterday.’
After last night when Ersen seriously brought up a deal with that eerie expression.
Skyle hadn’t gone straight to his quarters but headed to Elder Hascal.
“You must have known we were monitoring. Inflicting such injuries on royalty’s body. Are you in your right mind?”
“……I was careless. I apologize.”
Because he couldn’t completely erase his memory, he had to visit and warn him.
It was also to give assurance that they hadn’t heard the conversation between them.
If he had heard that suspicious conversation about treasures and such, there was no way the Archduke would let it pass by common sense.
But he didn’t mention it, and the elder was relieved by this point and obediently accepted the rebuke.
The problem occurred on the way back.
‘His condition was strange.’
Prince Ersen the 2nd……
That man whose reasons for action were impossible to fathom had definitely experienced something harsh today.
‘He was definitely trembling.’
Being terrified…… wasn’t that natural?
Yes, in fact not only the Archduke but Marcus and Theodore too, all knew about what was happening in this palace.
Though it wasn’t a situation they had led, they judged it a good environment to observe Ersen and were watching.
They also knew violence was being inflicted on the prince.
But they knew he had never experienced violence this severe, nor should he have.
Because Ersen Mayer had never yet killed anyone or cursed anyone.
Regardless of what he could or couldn’t do.
So he intervened.
Because it seemed the 2nd Prince might die if he wasn’t careful.
But even after experiencing such a situation, the prince……
‘Did he hide his emotions because he couldn’t trust us?’
He could understand if that were the case, but why did he show himself enduring that level of violence with familiarity?
Since only Skyle had monitored while listening, Marcus and Theodore wouldn’t know, but he knew.
How he talked back to the elder as if that level of violence was nothing, yet helplessly crumbled in fear.
But how he held his breath and endured screaming.
……Definitely, the prince had never experienced such violence. Never, and yet……
‘If he had.’
There was only one thing about the prince that he couldn’t investigate.
What happened until the prince turned seven.
Since all the palace servants from that time died and were replaced, and even the prince himself lost his memories, no one could know……
Memories of only Eris and Ersen.
“Wow, Your Highness. The office is like a palace. That’s a sofa, not a bed? ……Does Sercil the fairy sleep here by any chance? No, right?”
Skyle’s clear eyes turned toward the black hair making jokes.
Between carelessly grown strands of hair, Ersen’s profile was occasionally visible.
He looked too thin to have much cheek fat, but the visible cheek looked very white and clear.
Confident and leisurely gestures, expressions, and speech as if he had never experienced such violence.
Words that lowered himself despite not suiting him.
……It seemed the 2nd Prince had grown into an interesting person to get to know.
“……”
Skyle smiled quietly.
And naturally removed a thin strand of hair from the bandage wrapped around the 2nd Prince’s neck.
“Mm! Ah, Archduke.”
He doesn’t say thank you.
He tries to hide his flinching reaction.
“Archduke, it’s troublesome if you keep touching me with those fine fingertips. I keep mistaking this place for heaven.”
His languid murmur was quite sweet.
Like cotton candy melting away, but with an unexpectedly long aftertaste.
Skyle smiled with his eyes slightly curved.
“Eeek!”
At the comical pose of covering his eyes saying it was dazzling, Sercil burst into laughter as if absurd.
“Oh, Sercil fairy, don’t laugh. Just laughing makes me feel good! Right now I need to be very solemn!”
“No, Your Highness. Scolding someone for laughing is a bit much. And stop adding ‘fairy’ to everything!”
“I don’t want to! You’re a fairy to me!”
“St-stubborn……”
“Everyone can hear you, you know?”
Perhaps because he was a refreshingly honest person rare to see in this neighborhood, he seemed to quite like Sercil.
Theodore didn’t seem to like him much though.
Skyle exchanged glances with his close friends, then silently closed the door.
Lowering the lock mechanism so no one could enter from outside, making it a sealed room so no one could escape.
During the time the double was holed up in the prayer room at the temple.
“Good. Then it’s decided.”
During that short time, they made one deal targeting Foundation Day.
“At the ball, Sercil does as the High Priest said. I’ll handle the dropping. Your Highness says yes if invited to a private room but doesn’t go. Archduke and hyung…… you know, right?”
It was the beginning of the so-called great undertaking to deal with the High Priest.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
