Chapter 13 :

Episode 13 — The Bystander’s Choice (1)

Mentil looked into my eyes with an expressionless face.

If she wanted to confirm whether my words were true or not, there was nothing in particular I could do.

I also did not open my mouth and quietly met that gaze.

Her blue eyes did not let me go.

"Have you been exchanging letters with your mother all this time?"

I shook my head.

She stopped speaking again and looked at me.

Perhaps she was thinking about the 7th Prince’s mother.

Ran Abiran’s mother was quite famous, after all.

The current emperor has many children.

I have over twenty siblings, and there is no way all of them have the same mother.

I know that, excluding the empress, he has quite a few consorts.

The reason my mother is famous is because she is the only woman among them who fled the imperial family.

There is no detailed description.

Because the 7th Prince is not the protagonist.

In the original work, she, who fled the imperial family, appears briefly in passing conversations or is used to insult the 7th Prince, and then she is never mentioned again.

Putting together the small clues that were described, she seemed to be the last remaining royal of a foreign people with black hair like Ran’s.

Not long after the 7th Prince turned twelve, she vanished from the imperial family forever.

Some said she returned to her homeland.

But most people said that after giving birth to a half-baked black-haired prince who did not possess Manis, she became ashamed and afraid, abandoned her young son, and ran away.

When such words reached the 7th Prince’s ears, he immediately went berserk, so the number of people who spoke of it openly decreased greatly.

Well, there are still guys like the 8th Prince who say it openly.

In any case, she is a character who does not appear even by a strand of hair until the novel ends.

That is why I can use her as an excuse with such peace of mind.

In front of the princess, who had crossed her arms and was waiting for me to speak, I slowly opened my mouth.

"For a month, every day around sunset, I saw one hawk fly toward the east."

The question, So what? appeared on the princess’ face.

"They say that in the far eastern country where my mother lived, when a royal dies, they call in one bird each day for a month."

The princess was listening to me impassively.

Because she did not cut me off, I continued speaking impassively as well.

"When a king or queen dies, they call a peregrine falcon, and when a prince or princess dies, they call a black hawk."

Mentil still only looked at me quietly.

"That was how I knew. That the last remaining princess of the east had, fortunately, fallen asleep in the east, and not somewhere else."

Even after I finished speaking, silence lingered between the two of us.

Since I also had nothing more to say unless she asked me, I closed my mouth.

"The window......."

She opened her mouth briefly, then swallowed once.

"....Did you look outside the window every day?"

Well, I do not know whether the 7th Prince really did that.

Personally, I hope he did not.

Hiding those inner thoughts, I answered.

"There is a window by my bedside with a good view outside."

My eyes merely went to it on their own sometimes.

At my continued answer, the 1st Princess closed her mouth again and covered her forehead for a moment.

Then she leaned her body back and fully rested against the sofa.

".....I see. So….did your remaining blood relatives suddenly become precious to you?"

"As if."

I answered with a faint laugh.

"I only realized that everyone around me is someone who will live longer than me."

"......"

It took quite a long time before the 1st Princess removed the hand from her forehead and raised her head.

"You may leave now."

She said to me with the same kind smile she had worn at first.

At the thought that I could leave this suffocating space, I bowed my head and rose, heading toward the exit.

Though just before leaving, I remembered my original purpose and had to turn back.

"I heard you were keeping my horse for me."

"Ah."

Only then did she seem to remember, letting out a short exclamation before smiling very brightly.

"They say it is resting very comfortably in the stable of the 7th Prince’s palace. You have a very clever horse."

I clenched my teeth, bowed my head once more, and stepped outside.

The 1st Princess truly is someone there is no benefit in meeting.

* * *

I came out of the tent and walked while leading the horse tied beside it.

The wind blew in, sweeping over me along with the scent of grass.

Even though I was not inside the warm tent, it did not feel as cold as the wind I had felt inside.

The 1st Princess probably will not completely believe my words, but she will not think they are entirely false either.

Because she is the only one among the imperial family who places great meaning on blood relations.

Of course, she also becomes endlessly cruel to those unrelated to her.

What I told her was not entirely false.

It was a lie that I had watched a black hawk pass by for a month, but things like the funeral customs of a far eastern country really do exist.

If I had lied even about something like that, it would obviously have been exposed quickly.

As for the answer to the question of whether he looked outside the window every day…. I do not know.

Personally, I truly hope he did not.

The books on the culture of foreign peoples that occupied one side of the study, and the unusual insistence on placing the bed and chair by the window, too... I hope they did not hold any great meaning…. I hope so.

Boooo—boooo—boooo—

The sound of a horn announcing the end of the hunting competition echoed through the forest.

I shook my head once and led the horse toward the altar.

To complete today’s true mission.

* * *

As soon as Tollin returned to the duke’s tent, he was sent to the attending physician who had been waiting.

"Good heavens, you tripped over a stone while passing by and hit your head on another stone?"

The doctor, who showed an expression as if he were looking at the stupidest man in the world, looked at the shape of Tollin’s wound and, without asking anything more, applied medicine and wrapped a bandage around it.

"Next time you fall, why not take out your anger on the stone that tripped you? Kick it, step on it, that sort of thing."

Toward the middle-aged doctor who muttered that, Tollin laughed awkwardly and answered inwardly that if he did that, only Tollin’s head, not Tollin himself, would arrive here.

"Stay here. Jack and I will go finish the hunting competition."

The duke said as he looked at Tollin, whose head was being wrapped in bandages.

"Pardon? No. This treatment only looks dramatic. It is just a light wound."

"It is true that it is a wound that will be fine after taking medicine and resting for about a week, but saying that only the treatment is dramatic is a bit irritating."

At the doctor’s grumbling, the duke put on a firm expression.

"You have to rest for an entire week? It is a serious injury, a serious injury. Now, lie here and take a nap until the closing ceremony."

"What do you mean, nap! Before this, no matter how hard things were, you never gave me even one vacation!"

Tollin shouted at Duke Feedus, who used force to lay him down on the medical bed.

"Yes, yes. Let us settle all your resentment from that time with this."

"No, what kind of daylight robbery is that….."

"Tollin, no matter how light the wound is, you did bleed a little, so if you make such a fuss, you may feel a little dizzy."

"Ugh."

"See?"

Just as the doctor said, Tollin clutched his head at the ringing sensation, and the duke patted his shoulder.

"Rest. If you do not want to make my heart feel even more uncomfortable."

Tollin met the sunken eyes hidden within the duke’s playful tone, and since he could understand that the duke did not want him to face the 7th Prince at all, he nodded with an unsatisfied expression.

"Consider this as covering your vacation until next year, so rest well!"

The duke left the tent while making an absurd joke.

Muttering that it absolutely had to be a joke, Tollin lay down on the hard patient bed.

And he sank into a deep sleep.

* * *

"Hey."

He had been about to sink into it.

Some voice screaming in his head that he must absolutely not forget did not seize his fading consciousness.

When he opened his eyes, he saw black eyes looking down at him.

Tollin immediately tried to rise and show proper respect.

"Gasp! I greet Your Highness the 7th Prince, guh!"

But a hand gripping his shoulder stopped him from springing up like a coil, so he had to lie back down while making a strange sound as if his airway had been blocked.

"If you get up that suddenly, the blood will rush and you will feel dizzy."

"Y-Your Highness, why are you here…."

Surely he had not come this time to smash his head entirely.

To Tollin, who was trembling, the 7th Prince said something unexpected.

"How is your head? It seems like you will be fine if you rest for about a week."

"Yes…. That is correct. I am truly fine, Your Highness."

Tollin was astonished by the creepily specific and accurate period chosen, but he tried not to show it.

….Could it be that he deliberately sets periods and throws stones at passersby?

This guy I hit this time gets one week of recovery, that guy over there gets three weeks of recovery, like that?!

As if he had no interest in what Tollin was thinking inwardly, the 7th Prince stared at him intently before speaking.

"Good. While resting, make sure to have the doctor prescribe antibiotics….no, olive leaves."

"Yes, yes, Your Highness."

Thinking it unexpected that someone who seemed like he would only beat others and never get beaten himself knew about wound treatment medicine, Tollin answered.

He did not know what the prince’s goal was, but if he was trying to pressure Tollin so he would not carelessly run his mouth, he had already succeeded long ago, so Tollin wanted to beg him to please leave.

Compared to the rumors, the 7th Prince was taciturn and expressionless, making him even more uncomfortable.

"You listen well."

Tollin remembered the 7th Prince sarcastically calling him loyal in the forest, and his expression stiffened.

Was it the same this time too?

Tollin subtly examined the 7th Prince’s expression.

Unexpectedly, he was looking at the slightly open tent entrance without any emotion.

"Well, let that be only until today."

At the 7th Prince’s voice suddenly directed toward him, Tollin was startled and quickly lowered his head again.

"Rest starting tomorrow. For now, it would be best for you to go watch the closing ceremony immediately."

"Immediately?"

"Yes. Immediately."

"Do I have to make it an order for you to listen?"

At the prince who muttered that, Tollin quickly answered.

"N-No! I will run there immediately."

He again smiled with only one corner of his mouth tilted up, said he would be going, and turned around without lingering to leave.

That sight felt strange, and Tollin opened his mouth without realizing it.

"Did you come here just to tell me that?"

Even after asking cautiously, Tollin blamed himself for having done something fearless, but the 7th Prince turned his head, let out a faint laugh, picked up one medical bandage from the table beside him, and headed back toward the tent entrance.

"No, I came to get a bandage because I needed one. Everywhere else was empty because they all went to watch the closing ceremony."

Tollin could not understand his bizarre actions, but in any case, he could not fail to carry out words spoken by a member of the imperial family, so he immediately left the tent and headed toward the altar.

And that was both the most regrettable choice and the most fortunate action in Tollin’s thirty years of life.

* * *

As he approached the altar, Tollin realized that something was different from usual.

It was too quiet.

There was no murmur of people, no cheering.

Tollin pushed through the strangely silent crowd, and only then was he able to discover a single blue sphere floating beyond the cliff, with the dizzying height below it.

And inside it was….

"Your Grace!!!"

Without any more time to think, Tollin shouted and rushed forward.

Though he soon tripped over someone’s foot and fell forward.

Fortunately, perhaps because the duke had heard his scream, the duke’s gaze reached Tollin, who had fallen.

Those gray eyes widened for a moment upon discovering Tollin, and then relief and satisfaction soon spread within them.

Tollin had many things he wanted to ask.

What was going on, why was he there, could he not come back?

But they could not become words and only lingered inside Tollin’s mouth as it opened and closed soundlessly.

Time was not merciful to Tollin.

Soon, a cruel voice rang out.

"The summary execution of the criminal Agony Feedus shall be carried out."

And the water that had been enveloping him vanished in an instant.

As if time flowed slowly only for him, Tollin took into his eyes the duke’s body slowly falling below the cliff and his eyes closing tightly.

And when he came to his senses, nothing remained.

Not the duke, not the gray eyes that had looked at him, nothing at all.

Tollin lost consciousness just like that.