Chapter 4 :

Chapter 4 — The Axis of Evil (3)

 

“Do you have something to say to me? Or perhaps, something to say to others?”

 

On his face, which held obvious mockery, there was also confidence that I would not be able to do anything.

 

“Something to say.......”

 

I slowly uncrossed my legs and stood up.

 

“Isn’t that dangerous? Speaking like that.”

 

At my words, Sein widened his eyes as if he truly did not understand, then asked back.

 

“How could the sincere admonition of a loyal subject be dangerous?”

 

There was no way he did not know that I was not referring to something like the words he had come here to say. Even so, he maintained a face that said he had no idea what I meant.

 

“Really?”

 

So that’s how it is…..

 

Muttering, I approached the three maids, who still could not raise their faces, and spoke coldly.

 

“Hey.”

 

“Y-Yes……yes, Your Highness.”

 

I could feel Sein glancing this way, perhaps expecting me to start taking my anger out on the maids.

 

“This isn’t something the likes of you are allowed to hear, so all of you, cover your ears. The day you’re caught having overheard even a single word, you’ll have to work without your fingers.”

 

After confirming that all of them had gone pale and were tightly covering their ears at my words, I turned back to Sein.

 

“Sein.”

 

“.....Your Highness.”

 

Sein looked at me as if puzzled.

 

“As you know, I’m not an eloquent speaker like you.”

 

“What do you......”

 

“So I have no choice but to show you through action. Shall we start with knocking?”

 

To Sein, who looked as though he was asking what nonsense I was spouting, I jerked my chin and ordered him.

 

“Go out and come back in. This time, like a proper aide. Enter when I give my permission.”

 

“......Ha!”

 

Realizing that I was trying to discipline his manners, Sein snorted as if he found it ridiculous.

 

“After all that thinking, the best you came up with was dog training?”

 

“If necessary.”

 

I shrugged and answered.

 

“I shall obey your words, Your Highness. Though I do not know whether you will be able to teach me properly no matter how many times you repeat it.”

 

He stomped outside.

 

If he properly asked for my permission and entered, I planned to let this time pass.

 

But he probably would not.

 

As he had just warned, it seemed clear he was determined not to listen no matter how many times I repeated this.

 

Well, with that pride of his, he would not want to be the one who picked a fight first and then obediently backed down.

 

Especially not in front of the employees.

 

Still, hoping he would make a wise choice, I toyed with the handle of the porcelain teapot.

 

Knock. Knock, knock.

 

Bang.

 

After knocking on the door in a disciplined manner, he opened it and came in without my permission, just as before.

 

He looked at me for a moment with eyes that seemed to say, ‘What are you going to do now?’ But that did not last long.

 

After checking my hand, horror appeared on his face.

 

Crash!!!

 

“Aaagh!!”

 

Because he soon had to crouch down with his whole body curled up.

 

The teapot that left my hand brushed past his left side and struck the wall, shattering with a loud crash.

 

The warm tea inside splashed everywhere.

 

“W-Wh…what is this all of a sudden......”

 

He raised his eyes, trembling with fear.

 

“I taught you because you couldn’t understand words. With your body.”

 

I answered with a crooked smile.

 

I patted his faintly trembling shoulder.

 

“Do you understand now how dangerous an action it was?”

 

I added, but he did not seem to be listening.

 

“Go for today. Come back anytime if you need repetitive learning.”

 

When I grabbed his arm and helped him up, he staggered to his feet like a paper doll.

 

“Though next time, if my hand slips, I don’t know where it’ll fly.”

 

Sein quickly disappeared, dragging his pale, trembling legs.

 

That should be enough.

 

Thinking it would be quiet for a while, I approached the three maids, who were still tightly covering their ears.

 

When they saw the tips of my feet, they slowly raised their faces.

 

When I made a gesture of removing my hands from my head, they all awkwardly took their hands off their ears.

 

“Clean this up and leave.”

 

Watching the three of them move even more stiffly than before, I sat back down.

 

With this, the rumor would spread again that the Seventh Imperial Prince was still a lunatic who threw dishes at people.

 

* * *

 

Sein became quiet after that incident.

 

Though the servants, who disliked Sein for swaggering around as if he were the owner of the castle, became somewhat noisy over the matter.

 

A small commotion also arose in the maids’ quarters after they finished their day’s work.

 

“Even after this, do you still think His Highness has changed a little these days, Anna?”

 

At the words of an older maid who asked as if teasing her, Anna’s lips puffed out.

 

Lin, who was beside her, grabbed her shoulder and said,

 

“Why are you teasing the kid? No, Anna. You were right. He really has changed.”

 

“You think so too, don’t you, Big Sis? A little…...”

 

“He’s become terrifyingly scary.”

 

The maids who were preparing for bed burst into laughter and booed at her words.

 

“Hey! You said not to tease the kid!”

 

“No, but I’m serious. I was there too when things went crazy with that aide this time. He was violent before, but now…..he’s calmly violent.”

 

“What’s that supposed to mean? Are you prettily ugly?”

 

When the colleague beside her teased her as if she had heard all sorts of nonsense, Lin glared at her.

 

“.....I’m never changing meal duty with you again. Hey, Anne. You know what I mean, right? You saw it with me back then!”

 

Lin asked the other maid who had served the problematic lunch together with Anna.

 

Anne raised her gaze slightly from where she had been lowering it to sew her apron, then focused on the repair again and tossed out a comment.

 

“His accuracy seems to have dropped a little. Seeing as he couldn’t hit that jerk’s head.”

 

At her calm reply, another burst of laughter broke out.

 

Soon, once the lights in the quarters went out, silence slowly settled over the noisy room.

 

While everyone slept, Anna lay still and recalled.

 

The gaze of the Seventh Imperial Prince, who had briefly checked their hands as they tightly covered their ears right before he threw the teapot.

 

As expected, it’s strange, a little......

 

“I think he’s become kinder….”

 

Muttering softly, Anna quietly closed her eyes.

 

‘Still, in a way, I think he’s become scarier than before.’

 

The reason Anna had ended up working in the imperial palace at the youngest age was partly because there were no people willing to work under the Seventh Imperial Prince, but the biggest reason was that she was quick-witted.

 

‘Since this incident made it clear that His Highness wanted to appear rough, I really have to watch my mouth now.’

 

Making that resolution, Anna gradually fell asleep.

 

Ran’s performance ended after achieving only half of its initial goal.

 

* * *

 

Sein no longer opened the door rudely. In fact, he did not come this way at all.

 

Fortunately.

 

Although I had never heard anyone say I had a good personality, I still did not have a hobby of hitting people in the head with a teapot, so I was a little relieved.

 

On top of that, after the incident with Sein, perhaps because the employees had become even more frightened, there were no longer any people who stepped into my bedroom or office without orders.

 

Aside from the times they came for cleaning or laundry that truly had to be done, everyone tried to stay far away as if this place were a haunted house.

 

Thanks to that, I had free time.

 

Enough that I could sit in a tree like this, enjoy the breeze, and rest.

 

Flap my wings a few times.

 

Polish my beak a little......

 

Yes, right now, I had transformed into a crow and was sitting on top of a tree.

 

To be exact, on a branch of an oak tree beside the office window.

 

Even after the first time I transformed into a crow, I had tried turning into a crow a few more times as an experiment.

 

Not many times. Just about once or twice.

 

This was also part of the reason I had stopped people from entering the office or my room.

 

This was the thing that bothered me the most.

 

Why could I turn into a crow?

 

‘Dark Header’ was an old fantasy novel.

 

Powers like magic existed, and frightening monsters and non-human races appeared as well.

 

In this world, there was something called Manis, and people who possessed it could use special powers.

 

Only an extremely small number of people were born with Manis.

 

The reason the Seventh Imperial Prince was treated this badly was also because of that.

 

Because he was the only imperial family member who had not been born with Manis.

 

It was a setting that contributed to making the owner of this body into such a bundle of complexes.

 

—But no matter how I look at it, the fact that I can transform like this seems to be because of Manis.......

 

“Caaaw— caaaw—”

 

I could not get used to this damn cry.

 

In any case, Manis manifested as a different ability for each person. All the abilities that appeared in the novel were related to nature.

 

For example, the Emperor used the ability of fire, the First Imperial Prince used the Manis of water, and the Second Imperial Prince used fire.

 

Then what was this supposed to be?

 

Manis that transformed someone into a crow was an ability I had never seen in the novel.

 

Or perhaps the crow whose nape I had grabbed on the first day had cursed me—I considered that too. But it was not as if I turned into a crow and could only return to being human with a princess’ kiss. Seeing as I could turn into a crow and back into a human whenever I wanted, that did not seem to be it either.

 

I did not know why I had gained this ability, but one thing seemed certain.

 

No one must find out.

 

Because I wanted the current situation to proceed according to the novel’s development.

 

Of course, the protagonist might go through slightly fewer hardships, and perhaps he could take a somewhat easier path, but I wanted things to proceed safely according to the original work I knew.

 

The reason I could stay this relaxed here was partly because I knew there was one year left before the original work began, and three years left before I would die. But more than anything, it was because I knew the entire original work.

 

‘Dark Header’ was a novel I truly loved.

 

That had remained unchanged since the time a fourteen-year-old kid first discovered the old fantasy novel series tucked away in the corner of the fiction section at the municipal library.

 

I wanted this novel, which I had probably read more than a hundred times, to end with the conclusion I knew.

 

Of course, if my body still did not return after about three months, I would immediately run away.

 

Listening to the sounds of people’s conversations coming from all directions, I flapped my stiff wings.

 

* * *

 

“What did you say they’re doing today?”

 

“T-The evening c-ceremony is being held. Your Highness must attend today as well.”

 

The attendant who had come to deliver the message instead of the aide kept watching my reaction as if I might shout at any moment, yet still tried to finish the task entrusted to him.

 

“I got it, so leave.”

 

“Yes, Your Highness.”

 

The young attendant must have thought that I, with my frowning expression, would throw the ink bottle at him.

 

Otherwise, there would have been no reason for him to be unable to take his eyes off the desk while busy walking out as if running.

 

“Damn it.”

 

As soon as the door closed, a sigh escaped my mouth on its own.

 

A gathering where the Emperor and my brothers and sisters came together.

 

Once a month, or sometimes more, the Emperor spent time in this sacred ceremony with his children.

 

They called it a ceremony, but it was basically a test for successors.

 

Naturally, the Seventh Imperial Prince could not even be counted among the successors, so he was nothing more than an awkward extra.

 

If that was the case, they could simply not call him at all, but apparently, the logic was that all direct children of the Emperor had to participate because it was customary.

 

Thinking of sitting for several hours in a place that was certain to be even more uncomfortable than a company dinner did not make me feel particularly good.

 

On top of that, even if I almost never met them, if they were my siblings, there could be someone who knew me well.

 

There might be someone who suspected my behavior was strange.

 

Because I had been an avid reader of ‘Dark Header’, I knew this much about the Seventh Imperial Prince. But in truth, the owner of this body was a minor extra villain with little importance, so his detailed habits, lifestyle, and all his relationships did not appear in the book.

 

I’ll have to frown as much as possible and only look at the floor.

 

I made that resolution while ordering the servant who had come to help me change clothes to leave the clothes and prepare digestive medicine instead.

 

Even though I had eaten nothing today, I was certain I would get indigestion.

 

* * *

 

The banquet hall I reached under the attendant’s guidance was so splendid compared to the dining room of the crumbling palace I lived in that it could be called radiant.

 

Perhaps not everyone had arrived yet, because there were empty seats here and there.

 

Naturally, the Emperor’s seat, the highest seat, was empty.

 

I walked as naturally as possible and took a seat at the very end of the long table.

 

Thankfully, this much was a setting that had been mentioned in the novel as well.

 

As expected, no one seemed to care about me.

 

I looked around a little.

 

In any case, they were the brothers and sisters I was meeting for the first time since my possession.

 

And my first impression of them was, first of all, “dazzling”.

 

Not in the idiomatic sense of “their beauty was dazzling”, but literally, my eyes hurt.

 

Because every single one of them had splendid blonde hair, it was hard to keep my eyes open amid the feast of light reflected by the chandelier.

 

Certainly, if he were among them, the Seventh Imperial Prince probably really would look like a crow.

 

From above, he might even look like black ink spilled onto golden silk.

 

Now all I had to do was sit quietly, pretend to do whatever the ceremony required, and go back to my room. Then things would probably be quiet for about another month.

 

So I only have to repeat this two or three times.

 

“The halfwit bastard has no shame, sitting there with his head held high.”

 

Do I have to come to a flashy place like this every time?

 

“Hey, are you ignoring me right now?”

 

At least a company dinner saves on food expenses, but this is.......

 

“Hey!”

 

Is he calling me right now?

 

I turned my head toward the displeased voice that had been faintly audible for a while.

 

It was a young man with blonde hair that had a strong reddish tint and red eyes.

 

The one who had spoken looked at me with a contemptuous gaze and sat down in his seat.

 

The Eighth Imperial Prince, Celos Abiran.

 

Though he looked half a head taller than me, he was my half-brother, two years younger than me.

 

Ah.

 

I had a strong feeling that this evening was not going to be very pleasant.