#93
When was it.
Right, it was a night when very many stars had risen.
After Sercil had become like that, around the time the half-demons began to move in earnest.
“It’s been two whole days since Lady Illinore’s child went missing. If it’s those bastards, already……!”
“Calm down.”
“……Sercil is overexerting himself trying to find the child.”
The stronger the curse, the more and more cruelly the ‘materials’ used had to be prepared.
In the end, it was the powerless people who were dying.
During that time when the imperial authority had fallen to the ground, even the son of Lady Illinore, the Crown Prince’s wet nurse, had gone missing.
And Theodore hyung had no power to find the child.
‘In the end, Sercil stepped forward.’
Without even having time to practice handling fairy power, Sercil had been afflicted with the half-demons’ highest-grade curse. Even so, he had tried to use fairy power to find the child.
‘Did he go almost to the point of death before finally stopping?’
That was actually something I should have done.
But all I knew how to do was lift their curses……
Nothing else was of any help.
At that time, I was completely under suspicion of being on the half-demons’ side for having lifted Sercil’s curse in front of everyone and revealing that he was a fairy, so whatever I did was under surveillance. My movements were like disasters to them.
Still, the fact that the half-demons had begun to move brazenly and openly, ignoring the imperial family, was ultimately due to what I had done, so I had to do something.
“I, I’ll do it. If it’s exploring the half-demon territory, I’ll be more advantageous.”
From then on, I began drinking mana potions like water. I knew that behavior would accelerate the progression of mana depletion syndrome, but that wasn’t a problem at all.
“I have to lift the curse, so I need to stay alive…… If I just move enough not to die……”
Like a madman, I muttered while cleaning up the blood I spilled and repeatedly cast detection magic. The work was done alone in secret because it looked unsightly and I was afraid of being misunderstood as casting curses. Even so, by the time I found the child’s location, I was caught because I didn’t have the strength to clean up the last blood I had spilled.
“What are you doing right now……”
To him.
“……I found them……”
What kind of face was the Archduke making then?
I couldn’t see properly, but he was probably disgusted.
His words after a long silence were very cold.
“What’s the reason for going this far?”
“……Huh?”
“……What did you promise to receive from them, no. Never mind.”
A small gesture of turning his head away as if annoyed.
“……Whatever your ulterior motive is, you’d better hope the child is safe for now.”
With those words, he distanced himself from me.
Among the four people, he was under the strongest curse, and the progression had been forcibly accelerated by the half-demons, so he wouldn’t have had any leisure.
Even so, the Archduke brought the child back himself without even bringing Marcus hyung along.
Fortunately, the child was safe.
Having been kidnapped while unconscious and regaining consciousness when returning, it seemed there wouldn’t be much trauma left.
I looked in turn at Theodore hyung’s relieved face, Marcus hyung’s large back as he held back tears while looking at the sky, and Sercil smiling with a haggard face.
Then I approached the Archduke, who looked more worn out than usual.
“The, the curse……”
I wanted to lift his curse.
I didn’t care that there were other people’s gazes in that place. It was fine if I faced some misunderstanding because of having to shed blood.
As long as he could be freed from the curse, honestly, honestly it wouldn’t matter even if I became unable to lift others’ curses.
Even with dying Sercil right in front of me because of me, having such feelings was disgustingly unbearable even to myself, but I couldn’t stop my heart from flowing that way.
“I can lift it. So.”
“Your Highness.”
However, he rejected my proposal.
As if he knew just how disgusting a human I was.
“Do you know why I only rescued and brought back Martin?”
Martin was the name of the kidnapped child.
Unable to read the intention of his words, I hesitated, and he continued softly.
“Because there were no other survivors besides Martin.”
A face without laughter, a tone soft but dry.
I knew that he was greatly angry now. Not at the half-demons, but anger directed solely at me.
His words gradually began to make sense.
That there were no more survivors meant that all the missing people had died. Everyone had suspicions that the half-demons were the culprits, but there was no physical evidence so they couldn’t be touched. Still, if the imperial family had solved this massive disappearance case, the situation might have improved a little. The imperial family might not have been criticized to that extent. But the imperial family had saved no one.
Ah, no, before the imperial authority, this was something that had to succeed.
“There was Eris’s relic in that place. That item the half-demons themselves had struggled to find because they didn’t know where it was.”
“……How?”
“That’s what I want to ask.”
My breath caught.
“Do you know that detection magic is high-level magic? It only becomes easy when there’s similar mana in the seeker or their surroundings. Otherwise, the success rate of the magic becomes very low.”
I couldn’t believe that all of this had happened due to my blunder.
Because in the end, it was me who had provided the opportunity for the half-demons to move like this.
I was……
Confused, I belatedly understood what he was saying.
“But you succeeded in one try.”
No, thinking about it, I was slow to understand everything.
I only realized that day that he had never properly gotten angry at me until then.
“Your Highness.”
The man’s gaze was like a blade.
“Don’t forget this incident. Because you must, without fail, pay the price.”
After that day, he threw away the medicine I had been secretly obtaining and taking to somehow endure longer.
Though it was medicine more precious than gold for someone with depletion syndrome, there had been opportunities to steal it because I was in the imperial palace.
Medicine that couldn’t cure but could temporarily slow the progression of depletion syndrome.
Though the effect had become meaningless from taking mana potions, I had held small hope that eating it again now might extend my lifespan even a little.
But after that, I couldn’t steal that medicine anywhere. Because I became unable to access places where such medicine might be in the first place.
I was surprised that he knew I had mana depletion syndrome, but my heart sank at the measure that came across too directly meaning ‘die quickly.’
Because I could feel how angry he was, and because I knew all too well that this was just the level of venting compared to what I had done.
Dying quickly wasn’t scary.
I was scared of dying without being able to lift their curses.
And honestly, what was scarier was that the Archduke……
That you were very angry at me was more frightening than anything else.
Why was that? I knew you had never not disliked me even once. Was it because I felt that you were angry beyond recovery?
Even after taking such measures, you still treated me with a gentle smile.
Though it was cooler than before and you spoke more directly without reserve.
Even so, from that time on, seeing his smile no longer brought me comfort.
And.
“You don’t need to pretend to be considerate.”
“Arch, duke. That’s not what I……”
“……Whatever you did in the first place, we’re the ones who failed to protect them.”
One day after some time had passed.
When I saw him speak so calmly, I rather wished he wouldn’t smile at me.
Because he, who rarely showed emotions, looked very sad that day.
It was from then.
That I truly began to want to kill myself.
* * *
When I opened my eyes, a high ceiling greeted me.
“……Strange.”
When I muttered without realizing it, someone answered.
“What is, Your Highness?”
“……?”
When I turned my head, I saw him.
That person who looked like an angel wherever and whenever he was.
I answered him with a faint smile.
“Archduke. This place is.”
“My office. Is this your first time here?”
I slowly blinked and repeated what he had said.
His office?
‘……I’ve never been here even once.’
Including up until before the regression.
“Then, did I leave our Crown Prince hyung’s palace, cough?”
“How could that be? You didn’t give permission, Your Highness. This is my room located within the Crown Prince’s palace.”
“Ah.”
Only then did I understand.
It wasn’t exactly an office but rather the Archduke’s own space separately prepared within the Crown Prince’s palace. Having such a thing prepared revealed that he was deeply involved with the Crown Prince in work matters too.
‘Thinking about it, it’s natural that such a place exists.’
I was always so busy with various incidents that there were still things like this that I unexpectedly didn’t know about.
“Your Highness.”
As I was blankly continuing my thoughts, I met his eyes at the sound of him calling me.
Facing his outwardly affectionate face, his picture-perfect lips moved slightly.
“Now that you’re conscious, may I ask you a few things?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
