Chapter 188 – Remaining Behind (2)
Celos Abiran hurried toward his castle while experiencing a filthy feeling he could not put into words.
The faces of the people surrounding that tiny light in the darkness refused to leave his mind.
His heart felt unpleasantly soft, yet part of him also felt strangely buoyant.
Celos did not realize that this sensation was excitement.
He had never once been praised for his abilities, and he never imagined that praise from a few insignificant insects could please him.
He concluded that it was all because the servants had been so ridiculous.
Yes, that had to be it.
They had practically fallen over in amazement merely because he had lit a single candle.
“They worked under the powerless Seventh Prince, so naturally, even something insignificant would amaze them.”
Celos, who had habitually muttered an insult about the Seventh Prince, suddenly paused.
It felt strange that there was no longer anyone to answer him with a mocking remark. At the same time, his pride was wounded because he had flinched after speaking ill of a dead man.
No, he was not yet certain that the bastard was dead, so it was too early to call him a dead man.
Celos turned toward Anna, who had been following silently behind him.
Anna, who had struggled to carry Ran’s books, jumped in fright and anxiously studied Celos’ expression.
“Did you bring everything that was nearby?”
“Yes. I-I brought everything with ‘east’ in the title….”
Anna’s voice steadily diminished as she answered Celos while entering his room.
Celos suspiciously furrowed his brow at her response.
“Do you even know how to read?”
“Y-Yes. A-A little….”
The rest of her answer—“I know how to read”—was so quiet that he could not even hear it.
“Damn it. Can none of the people who worked under the Seventh Prince even answer a simple question properly?”
Unfortunately, Celos was not considerate enough to account for the circumstances of a terrified child.
“I-I-I-I’m sorry.”
His response did nothing to ease Anna’s tension.
When her condition instead worsened, Celos irritably raised his hand before slowly lowering his arm again.
It was not because he pitied the trembling Anna.
Her appearance, as though she might faint again at any moment, had reminded him of an unpleasant memory.
—You knew she was so frightened that she was about to faint.
Celos clicked his tongue as he remembered the calm yet reproachful voice of Ran Abiran, who had stupidly burned to death.
Even that quiet click of his tongue made Anna flinch, but Celos ignored her and opened the topmost book in her arms.
It looked far dirtier than it had inside the dark room.
The Eastern Nation had fallen long ago, so the books concerning it also appeared to have become thoroughly worn.
Celos repeatedly brushed his hands as though touching something filthy, yet he did not stop searching through the books.
“Hey, do you know why that bastard ordered you to find these?”
“N-No. I don’t know. I-I’m sorry.”
Anna had calmed down enough to stutter only once as she answered.
“B-But the Seventh Prince’s mother….”
“I already know about that bastard’s mother!”
Celos raised his voice.
He knew a great deal about Ran Abiran’s mother.
He also knew himself extremely well—the person who had eagerly sought out every way Ran was inferior to him so that he could compare them.
Their abilities, environments, treatment….and mothers.
Ran Abiran, who was inferior to him in every respect, had been the person who barely kept Celos’ shattered self-esteem intact. At the same time, he had been a shadow that concealed Celos’ own powerless and shameful existence.
As long as Ran Abiran existed, Celos’ own lack of power remained hidden.
The bastard had recently begun acting somewhat strangely, but his mere existence had still brought Celos peace of mind. He could not endure the fact that Ran had disappeared.
It felt as though he had been dropped unarmed into the middle of a battlefield.
His nerves became strained again.
“Damn it! There’s no way that bastard died so absurdly. He must have left something behind!”
Celos stopped while frantically flipping through the books.
[They possess an unusual tradition of summoning a single hawk to mourn whenever a member of the royal family passes away.]
Having discovered the passage he sought, Celos buried his face in the book.
[Their method of mourning the dead is simple, but the inferior history and culture concealed within that simplicity make the entire process remarkable.]
Thinking that the author’s digression was excessively long, Celos quickly read onward.
[When a king or queen dies, they summon a peregrine falcon. When a prince or princess dies, they summon a black hawk. Judging by this practice, their obsession with animals is both barbaric and mysterious....]
Celos lifted his eyes from the page and looked toward the sky outside the window.
“They aren’t all dead yet, are they?”
“Y-Yes?”
Anna stammered in response to Celos’ muttering.
She immediately remembered that such a response was not permitted from her.
“N-No, you’re correct, Prince. I heard that members of that clan still remain in the east.”
Celos had been preparing to shout at Anna again, but her quick response made him swallow his breath pointlessly.
He looked down at Anna as she nervously shifted her eyes and broke into a cold sweat.
“Get out.”
There was nothing more he could obtain from this young and simple-looking maid.
He had never expected her to serve as anything beyond a porter in the first place.
That meant Anna’s fear as she followed Celos, trembling over what punishment she might receive, had been entirely pointless. However, Anna was simply grateful.
There was no reason not to be grateful when he was allowing her to leave unharmed.
“Yes...! Thank you!”
For the first time, Anna answered without stuttering and bowed.
Celos watched the child bow and retreat before impulsively speaking.
“Hey.”
“Y-Yes?”
“Was what you said earlier true?”
Anna’s eyes shifted at the unexpected question.
Celos’ expression had suddenly changed after the others committed the disrespectful act of surrounding him.
Therefore, his question had to concern one of two things.
Was it truly their first time seeing a member of the imperial family use Manis, or had they sincerely thought the Eighth Prince’s light was beautiful?
She could not understand why he would suddenly ask such a question or how she should answer.
Should she apologize again?
Anna was uncertain, but she did not possess enough courage to hesitate any longer before Celos, so she hurriedly spoke.
“Once again, I-I sincerely apologize. W-We had never seen such a small and beautiful light before, so….we lost our senses while admiring it.... No, of course, I don’t mean that we dared to stare at the Eighth Prince….”
The longer she spoke, the more tangled her excuse seemed to become.
Just as Anna tightly closed her eyes, too afraid to check Celos’ expression—
Knock, knock.
As if it were a lie, someone knocked on the door.
* * *
Celos pushed Anna aside and tightly gripped the door.
Anna barely avoided falling and looked at him in confusion, but he did not care about that.
He had ordered that no one be admitted until he gave further instructions.
There was only one person who could order someone to ignore him and knock on his door, and only one person likely to visit him at this hour.
Celos broke into a cold sweat as he imagined his cold and beautiful mother.
The number of times the Empress had personally visited him instead of summoning him could be counted on one hand.
He looked at the books and papers scattered across his floor, then at Anna, who stood there awkwardly.
“Why are you standing around? Hurry and clean all this up!”
Celos ordered Anna.
Anna felt wronged because he had told her to leave and was now scolding her for standing there, but she obeyed without complaint.
It was an order, but Celos also appeared remarkably desperate.
Anna still mistakenly believed that Ran and Celos had shared a good relationship, so in her own childish way, she felt a small amount of gratitude toward the Eighth Prince.
After all, Celos was the only member of the imperial family who had personally visited Ran’s castle after his death.
Anna had no idea who was visiting, but she put all the experience she had acquired while working as the Seventh Prince’s maid to use so that she could help Celos out of his predicament.
She quickly gathered the books and pushed them beneath the sofa in the middle of Celos’ room and under the bed.
The child straightened the bedsheets and carpet until not even a single scrap of paper remained visible.
Her movements were swift and tidy.
“I-I’m finished.”
The moment Anna spoke while catching her breath, a voice came from beyond the door.
“Prince, Her Majesty the Empress has arrived.”
Even though Celos had anticipated the visitor’s identity, he jumped in surprise as violently as Anna had.
Now that the room was clean, only one thing remained to be removed.
Growing desperate, Celos pointed out the window.
“Hey, you! Jump out the window.”
It was an ignorant and cruel order.
At that moment, Anna’s favorable opinion of Celos diminished considerably.
“F-From here?”
Startled, Anna looked out the window.
Looking again did not change anything.
The fall would kill her instantly.
Her mind turning blank, Anna repeatedly gripped and released the windowsill before shaking her head.
“P-Please withdraw that order.”
It seemed to be the first time she had ever openly refused an order, and Celos’ eyes blazed.
“Are you saying you refuse to obey me?”
“I-If I fall from here, I’ll truly die...!”
“Who told you to die? I only told you to jump outside. If you’re lucky, you’ll merely break an arm.”
Ignoring the possibility that bad luck might instead break her neck, Celos grabbed Anna’s shoulders.
He was clearly about to do her the great honor of personally lifting and throwing her outside.
Trembling in terror, Anna desperately searched for a solution.
“P-Prince, I’m a maid. E-Even if I remain here, I’ll merely look like someone who was working.”
Anna desperately pointed toward the maid’s uniform she was wearing.
Her argument seemed reasonable yet again, causing Celos to hesitate briefly.
It was an invaluable opportunity for Anna.
That brief moment saved her life.
The Empress, who could no longer wait for Celos, opened the door and entered.
Clack.
The door opened impatiently, revealing a beautiful middle-aged woman.
Celos threw Anna aside yet again.
Thanks to that, Anna unnaturally collapsed onto the floor, where she could immediately bow her head and greet the Empress.
The Empress’ gaze swept across the room, Celos, and Anna, who was kneeling on the floor.
“Y-Your Majesty, what brings you here at this hour?”
“What is that?”
The Empress ignored Celos’ question.
Realizing that “that” referred to Anna, who had curled up like a pill bug, Celos glared at the girl who had disobeyed his order.
“....She’s a maid cleaning the room.”
“Cleaning?”
The Empress looked at Anna’s empty hands, which held no cleaning tools.
“Yes. She was cleaning the window….”
Anna bowed her head even lower while regretting that jumping out the window might have been preferable.
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