#22
‘Of course not.’
The Second Prince was someone who would be dealt with eventually anyway.
So there was no way they would abandon their friend and rush to save Ersen.
The same went for Skyle.
‘This little one probably doesn’t know any better.’
Sercil seemed like a decent guy, and Theodore cherished him enough to keep him close, but since they hadn’t known each other long, it was impossible to tell if that worried expression was genuine.
After briefly looking at Sercil, he checked for signs of activity inside the secret chamber again.
For now, he could only sense the High Priest and the Crown Prince’s presence, with no signs of a rampage.
…So where was the Second Prince right now?
His brow furrowed at what felt like genuine concern.
‘Well, I suppose he’d be useful in some way or another.’
Just as Marcus was trying to force himself to dismiss this unpleasant feeling with such thoughts, Skyle flinched.
The moment he saw that face contort sharply, Marcus immediately pushed Sercil into a corner and headed inside.
Overwhelming aura silently collapsed the entrance leading to the secret chamber.
Following Marcus who had slipped inside like a shadow, Skyle also moved.
“Wh-what happened…!”
Sercil urgently grabbed him and cried out quietly.
Skyle hesitated for a moment, then answered without even looking at Sercil.
“…Everyone should be safe for now.”
Yes, they would be safe.
They had also secured evidence to arrest the High Priest.
However.
“Ha.”
Something that couldn’t be overlooked had occurred.
Marcus would probably notice it the moment he entered too.
“You…”
Marcus’s voice, coldly seething with anger, could be heard faintly.
Skyle quickened his pace.
And then.
After glancing at Marcus, who was gripping Ersen by the collar and suppressing him with just enough force to keep him from dying, Skyle first tended to Theodore.
“Your Highness. Are you alright?”
“…Yes.”
Theodore nodded with a suspicious expression.
He didn’t seem injured and his consciousness appeared intact.
It was hard to believe this was the state of someone who had just suffered from a curse.
Skyle gritted his teeth briefly before speaking.
“…I’ve dealt with all the witnesses for now, but the problem is that records remain.”
Sometimes mana of a different caliber could overwhelm inferior mana through sheer quality alone.
Skyle was an archmage of unparalleled level in terms of mana purity alone, even in his cursed state.
Therefore, the moment he entered, all the half-demons inside collapsed with a thud.
While holding recording spheres.
“We need to erase everything, even if it means overexerting ourselves. Those can’t fall into the hands of half-demons.”
Yes, that appearance of the Second Prince…
At the Crown Prince’s resolute words, Skyle nodded with a cold expression.
“I’m handling it now.”
Clusters of light were beautifully embroidering the air in the dark secret chamber.
They would hear complaints from the half-demons about their dead, but nothing was more important than this matter.
‘Fortunately, the Elder was away.’
It seemed the incident had occurred while the Elder had briefly left his post to carry out the final work of disposing of the Crown Prince.
“Ugh, hck…”
At the short groan, Skyle slowly turned to look at Ersen.
The face that turned around was no longer gentle or soft.
‘…Nullification.’
The Second Prince Ersen possessed unique magic.
If it had just manifested, it would have been obvious. The way he used it as soon as the Crown Prince rushed at him looked very skillful.
‘So he’s been hiding it flawlessly all these years, only to reveal it now.’
“Your Highness!”
Just then, Sercil came running in to support the Crown Prince, but stopped when he sensed the strange atmosphere.
“Uh, Your Highness Ersen…?”
After entrusting Theodore to him for the moment, Skyle slowly approached Ersen, who was dangling in the air, held up by Marcus gripping his collar.
Blood at the corner of his mouth.
Was that the source of the blood scent that had been bothering him all along?
‘Why is he coughing up blood?’
If he had unique magic, he shouldn’t have been easily affected by poison. If he had overexerted himself, he should have fainted…
‘What else is he hiding?’
An inexplicable sense of betrayal and unbearable euphoria at the fact that he could lift his curse alternated in surging waves.
But Skyle was skilled at suppressing such things.
The curse he had been suffering from was precisely the kind that made such impulses explode.
Yes, his curse…
Skyle said in a low voice.
“You’d better answer well, Your Highness Ersen.”
“Tch.”
Thud. Marcus, having calmed down somewhat, clicked his tongue and dropped Ersen as if throwing him down.
“Ugh, cough, cough. Mmgh…”
Even in this situation, his drawling response held no tension.
As if he had been expecting this.
“What do you want?”
A devil, or perhaps hope?
Ah, even if there’s no answer, that wouldn’t be so bad.
Ersen Mayer was still within their grasp…
Ersen silently caught his breath, then quietly—with what looked like a very greedy smile—answered.
“…Not to lose anything.”
* * *
They say that before death, your life flashes before your eyes.
That’s how it was with the first death.
Back then, I thought it was the end, so that’s probably why.
My life flashed before me.
From the moment I was abandoned as a baby—which I couldn’t possibly remember—all the way to the end when I was stabbed to death by that damn bastard from the place where I was adopted.
But the second death wasn’t like that.
Then, I just saw that person’s face.
“It’s still not enough.”
That emotionless voice. Even in that unstable situation, his golden mana had been endlessly beautiful.
Perhaps the desperation in his touch as he healed me was just my memory romanticizing it.
“Not yet…”
I thought you were right.
Having ruined you all like that, I couldn’t close my eyes so comfortably.
No matter how much I endured those lengthy tortures, I felt the punishment wasn’t sufficient.
It was far too little.
I—I could still see you through it all.
“You’d better answer well, Your Highness Ersen.”
Ah. That person is shining.
For just a moment, I fell into the illusion that after walking a long road, that person from back then had returned.
Nothing was left because of me, yet ironically, only he and I remained to remember their happy times…
Perhaps the Archduke back then, who couldn’t bring himself to kill me.
Yes, perhaps in that moment that could have been my third death, I thought of you from before my regression.
“Ugh, cough cough, mmgh…”
Something somewhere in my body broke when Crown Prince Theodore rushed at me. My stomach was bleeding from the wound I’d been stabbed with earlier, and mana depletion syndrome was explosively manifesting from the excessive concentration of mana in that space.
I might have sustained irreversible injuries.
But that wasn’t important.
I had to live and do what I needed to do.
Fortunately, revealing my unique magic ‘Nullification’ now wasn’t a variable that would ruin what I had to do going forward.
I trusted that the current protagonists would thoroughly deal with someone like the High Priest, and the Elder hadn’t returned yet.
If it was a situation where only the protagonists found out, it wasn’t bad timing.
While calculating all of this in my head, I gave it my all.
I used my strength to a degree where dying would be fine, and thought about it.
The third death.
No, about you whom I left behind, who couldn’t even accept my taking out my anger on you…
So when he—who still hadn’t lost everything and whose eyes were full of vitality, whose face bore a firm smile—asked me.
“What do you want?”
The hesitation and anger in that voice, even something like possessiveness, were all so dazzling.
On the other hand, my chest ached as if being torn raw again.
“…Not to lose anything.”
I ended up speaking my true feelings.
…Ah. I should have answered that I wanted to devour the half-demons!
* * *
“…”
Skyle Rodias stood like a statue, staring at Ersen.
In his disheveled state, the Prince briefly smiled as if blooming.
A very greedy smile, as if he wanted to place everything under his feet.
And he said.
‘Not to lose anything?’
Did the Prince have anything to begin with?
The premise of the answer was fundamentally wrong.
But he had seen the utmost sincerity.
Skyle tilted his head slightly and observed the Prince with strange eyes.
The eyes that dimly met Skyle’s were no different from when he would throw trivial flirtations at him.
Despite being in a state practically soaked in blood, it was irritating that not a trace of pain showed in his eyes.
Hazy yet clear.
Those contradictory words suited his ash-colored pupils.
‘Why is he looking at me like that?’
Skyle thought while suppressing his curse that kept trying to stir.
But when those eyes soon closed and he could no longer see that ash color, he unconsciously took a step forward.
“I’ll carry him.”
“…”
Perhaps interpreting Skyle’s expression in some way, Marcus quietly stepped forward.
He looked at Ersen with a briefly complicated expression, then frowned sharply and lifted the tattered Ersen into his arms.
Perhaps because it had become a situation where Ersen couldn’t die, his touch was careful.
Marcus, who naturally became cautious in front of his friends when the topic of curses came up, said quietly.
“Hah. Let’s move to somewhere without people first.”
“…”
Seeing Ersen in Marcus’s arms, it was clear how serious his condition was.
Perhaps because he was held in the Sword Master’s broad embrace, his thinness was more noticeable.
That thin body hung limply.
Like a corpse.
…Skyle nodded once and resolutely turned around.
“Good job answering. I’ll deal with the Elder and then go, so head to the Crown Prince’s palace first.”
“Alright.”
“Will you be fine, Your Highness?”
Crown Prince Theodore waved his hand once. It meant to handle it themselves.
Even though he looked fine, he was clearly mentally exhausted.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
