#115
While Sercil was making a resolution by himself, the Prince moved gracefully and stood before the Archduke.
“We haven’t decided where to be after pretending to die yet. That’s fortunate.”
Seeing him suddenly become energetic, though it was frustrating, purification certainly seemed to be a very useful magic.
Could fairies use purification too?
Searching through memories, something similar seemed possible.
“Tsk. Are we really going to do this.”
Having apparently come to his senses, Sercil naturally came to stand beside him as Lord Marcus muttered.
Their gazes were directed toward His Grace the Archduke and His Highness.
“What can we do? We have to help. We made a contract too.”
Sercil answered grumpily and recalled His Highness the Prince’s hand that had held his.
“……His Highness’s hands are really pretty, aren’t they?”
At Sercil’s unconscious murmur, Marcus looked back at the fairy bastard with a horrified expression.
The human he’d thought was just a cute puppy had become a charming spy, and now had the expression of a rookie fisherman enchanted by a siren.
“Are you crazy?”
“Huh, why? They really were pretty. The color is pale, a bit pallid so you can see some veins, but the shape is so lovely. His fingers are long too. His nails are also a very pale pink like a baby’s fingernails,”
“Ah, shut up, shut up.”
Sercil glared at Lord Marcus with a sulky expression, then looked back at the Archduke with a cold gaze.
The Archduke who was very naturally holding both of Ersen’s hands.
“Hah?”
Lord Marcus also let out an incredulous sound, apparently noticing what that attitude meant.
Sercil twisted his lips once.
Though he understood since doing them one by one might burden His Highness, it was still true that he wasn’t pleased with only one person holding both hands and performing nullification while facing each other.
‘But seeing that, His Grace must have done the same!’
Damn it.
Seeing that Lord Marcus also immediately noticed the meaning of that scene, it probably wasn’t much different.
‘Since we decided to go with His Highness’s plan anyway, moments like this will repeat for several days.’
It was clear as fire that from now on, there would be psychological warfare over the last person’s position each time.
‘Tch, my alone time has decreased.’
He had been planning to enjoy our Prince’s mana by himself for a while.
Though the situation of having to share was resentful, it couldn’t be helped.
“Let’s decide on an order?”
“……What nonsense are you trying to say.”
“Holding both hands. Now that the bizarre thing in your chest has disappeared too, you’re in the same position as us!”
“Fairy, speak human language. Stop saying bizarre things.”
“Don’t pretend otherwise?”
“……If there’s an order, naturally we two would……”
“Hmph, I won’t just be taking it from you two anymore, you know? I could beat you up.”
“Hah? This one’s lost his mind?”
“Sir, you saw those wings come out just now, right? That’s a shield that ordinary humans can’t even pierce. But looking at memories, if properly reinforced, it can even block a sword master. Uhahahaha~!”
“……? Ho. I just don’t kill spirits, but I can do everything else, so come on, let me help you grasp reality?”
“Try it, try it!”
While those two were creating conflict over something trivial.
“So, a room was made for me in the Archduke’s estate?”
“I prepared it on the top floor.”
Skyle smiled affectionately and quietly held Ersen’s hand.
Rather than holding it, it was closer to Ersen placing his hand on top of his like displaying a precious treasure, but Ersen didn’t release that state as if it were being held.
As expected.
Skyle wore a deep smile on his lips.
“Top floor? If it’s the top floor, that’s the same floor as the Archduke.”
“That’s right.”
As expected, the Prince held the four of them particularly dear.
Perhaps even more than the gray treasure.
Thinking that way, the Prince’s actions that had seemed strange were understood all at once.
But still, laughter kept trying to come out.
Seeing the Prince who had easily decided on the insanely reckless action of simultaneously lifting the curses of three people, something that would be called crazy.
Though he was covering their eyes by mentioning his purpose – the gray treasure – in various ways.
To interpret it that way, the part about pretending to die and infiltrating the half-demon territory was mentioned in a lumped together way, which somehow sounded like saying that part wasn’t important.
Though he himself seemed unaware of it.
“I feel comfortable when Your Highness is nearby.”
At the casually added words, the Prince went “hmm” and lowered his eyes.
“……Then it can’t be helped, I suppose?”
“Would there be any problem?”
“Mm.”
And he pressed his lips tightly shut as if lost in thought.
He looked troubled.
Even so, now he could guess what was being contemplated.
‘He’s probably thinking about the impact of an exiled cursed prince staying at the Archduke’s estate.’
He observed closely from nearby.
The forehead that looked cold, past the shadowed eyes, to the straight nose that was pretty every time he looked and made his gaze linger, and the pale lips with a faint reddish tinge.
Actually, putting everything else aside and just following simple preferences, the Prince’s appearance had been perfect by his standards from the beginning.
Including the unexpectedly neat lip line and slender neck, the overall lines that held a strange frailty and fell precisely to the fingertips.
This part hadn’t given Skyle excessive emotion before, but today was strangely different from usual.
Just because he’d heard those brazen words about being honest in front of him, there was no way he himself would have changed.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
Right, thinking about it, that’s true.
The Prince was ultimately moving with the priority of the four people safely escaping from their curses.
If that was the original purpose, what would the Prince want after achieving that purpose?
Did he really want the gray treasure?
Though he seemed to want to get his hands on it, no matter how you looked at it, he seemed to lack greed.
‘Then indeed, having the half-demons is the second goal, and having us is the first goal.’
What a ridiculous and interesting Prince.
If what the Prince was trying to do was harm the four people, he had the ability to notice and stop it at any time, so Skyle could worry-free focus his interest on the Prince’s ultimate goal.
‘It’s a bit unexpected that it’s not unpleasant.’
He was just curious about what he intended to do after obtaining them.
It seemed a little exciting too.
‘If whatever happens doesn’t matter.’
Then, Your Highness, how far is ‘okay’ for you?
Skyle gazed steadily at the Prince without removing the smile from his lips.
“If there are problems, you should tell me in advance. Your Highness.”
“No. We’ll be leaving soon anyway. It shouldn’t matter~.”
His neat-shaped lips curve in a fox-like arc. This is why Skyle wanted to bring him into his home despite his uncertainty.
Too ridiculous to be wary of, useful, and good because the more you looked, the more decorative value he had.
Of course, the various impulses caused by his acceleration naturally had to be controlled, so he had no thoughts about this part. That was just desire that should disappear.
When the curse lifting was completed, that strange impulse that needed control would also disappear.
Skyle thought so carelessly.
Unless it was a curse, there was no way he would desire the bloodline of an evil spirit.
Ah, right. He hated his own desires.
And he felt that this Prince had detected that even slightly. Even so, the way he looked at him hadn’t changed.
Even people who knew about curses only showed fear when they experienced how curses could change Skyle.
‘Is that why?’
He suddenly understood the reason he had come to act so sweetly, even performing purification.
It was simply because he became greedy.
The pure greed to want to keep him close and watch that ending, that incomprehensible struggle.
“You might not stay briefly. You should enjoy everything I’ve prepared before leaving.”
The Prince wouldn’t know.
In the eyes of those who know the wickedness of Eris and the half-demons, what the Prince truly wants is far too transparent.
It’s just that recognizing it is delayed because of the fact that he’s the bloodline of an evil spirit.
Right, this interesting Prince loved the four of them.
Like someone who had lived their whole life in darkness and saw light for the first time in their life, he had fallen helplessly for the four of them.
He didn’t know what made him that way.
Or when it started.
Just.
“Preparations? What? Why?”
“When I conveyed that Your Highness has a small appetite, the head chef boasted that he would prepare so you could enjoy diverse flavors in small portions. There’s more than one or two such people.”
“……The Archduke’s people are strange. Makes me want to tease them.”
“By all means, Your Highness.”
Just, what was becoming a small pleasure for Skyle was.
Because among those four, the Prince’s favor that he revealed like this only when looking at him was starting to feel sweetly pleasant.
To find the favor of a half-demon’s bloodline sweet.
It wasn’t even friendship, and favor approaching with this meaning coming sweetly to Skyle was a very exceptional occurrence.
The Prince who trembled with faint fear underneath when his hand touched him. The enchanted-like affection that flowed out unconsciously, and yet getting shy in unexpected places – why did he keep wanting to see that?
When he timely caught and held the hand that had just been placed on both hands and gently shaken, showing pleasure, the Prince’s eyes shook greatly once.
“Hah.”
The Prince, who couldn’t hide his briefly tense and shy demeanor, started nagging that he was worried this beautiful human might act like this elsewhere too.
Even though Sercil and Marcus were looking incredulously as if wondering what he was worrying about, the Prince seriously muttered.
Skyle burst into soft laughter.
Ah, as expected.
He should keep this fellow close.
Skyle gently raised the corners of his mouth and gazed at Ersen like a benevolent statue.
Hoping to enchant him as much as possible and continue to please him in the future.
A few days later.
Prince Ersen was summoned by the Emperor.
And in their first proper face-to-face meeting, he said to the Prince:
“The Marsien family has requested an engagement with their young lady.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
