Chapter 214.5, [Side Story] Cinnastar

Translator: Hedge

Editor: Lizzz

 

They say that in Secritia, too, people hold funerals with flowers.

 

During the day, it is a white, round flower, but when night comes, it becomes a star and flies away.

 

Isn’t that amazing, older brother?

 

* * *

 

The flawless was poisoned.

 

The pure was poisoned.

 

A cruel, harsh, and severe matter.

 

A malicious, extreme, and severe matter.

 

It was desolate. Barren and hopeless. And thus, ultimately lonely. Unable to protect even one thing, he was immersed in thoughts more lonely than hell, simply and solely lonely.

 

“Plants.”

 

Immersed in a fragrance more extreme than loneliness.

 

Now finally left alone, at last completely lonely.

 

“Plants. You should answer. What are you thinking so hard about?”

 

Only a week after a Prince of a nation had ended his own life.

 

A banquet was held to celebrate the Queen’s well-being, having safely survived the vicious plan of the Third Prince, which was difficult to even speak of.

 

“You almost arrived too late. If you knew that child was learning magic, you should have told me too.”

 

Was it truly the Queen’s well-being being celebrated?

 

“Why didn’t you consider that, even if you cover that child’s eyes, he cannot escape from the Mages’ sight?”

 

Or was it successfully preventing the Prince resembling Syspanian from nearly gaining the backing of the Arcane Enclave?

 

“There’s still a long way to go. Plants.”

 

Not allowed to be under anyone’s feet,

 

Yet because the path for him to climb on his own is complicated and rough,

 

In the end, those footsteps tried to put him forward instead.

 

Whether he was truly there at that end.

 

If asked,

 

Should he give the honest answer that ‘You won’t be at that end, either’?

 

“So always stay alert. You must not stop.”

 

The smell of blood permeating the intense Reunieri Flower fragrance was thick, thick. Though he had not taken even one life with his own hands directly, how could such a disgusting fragrance emanate?

 

[Do you yourself know this? Is that why you lived buried in this increasingly thick fragrance day by day?]

 

“I’ll leave first.”

 

Plants spoke because his fingertips ached from the fragrance like salt placed on cut skin, unable to put anything in his mouth.

 

“…Because it reeks.”

 

The sound of a fan opening with a flutter echoed through the banquet hall.

 

Without pondering whether it was to cover Plants’ words or to cover her expression, Plants stood up.

 

Evan’s face was as rigid as Sillike’s, and Lannen, not understanding the situation, quietly sniffed to see if his clothes smelled.

 

* * *

 

That flower, it’s called Cinnastar.

 

I like flowers that become stars and go to the sky more than flowers that follow the river to the sea.

 

I like that flower called Cinnastar more.

 

* * *

 

He thought it felt like it would swallow darkness.

 

Plants didn’t like that darkness that illuminated nothing.

 

So he refused.

 

“But, Prince. If you knew what this was, you would be surprised.”

 

“Leave.”

 

If that utterly foolish Lannen had first explained what it was, Plants would never have refused that great gift.

 

If he had first explained why the dark gray metal reflected nothing. That it was a fragment of a star that had fallen from the sky, that it was like ash remaining after burning a star, a stone that reflected nothing.

 

If he had done that, he would have welcomed and accepted it instead.

 

Though if that had happened, he wouldn’t have met that other bastard who had truly been there.

 

“Are you saying you will attend the auction in person?”

 

In truth, there were many doubts about the Third Prince’s death.

 

Though no one said it was murder, no one regarded it as suicide either.

 

Siegfried.

 

Except for them.

 

No one knew why those Elephants with no connection to the Third Prince were stepping forward. Plants made vague guesses about the reason, but Plants didn’t know the exact facts either.

 

What was known was that Siegfried had summoned a single Archmage, and through him, the Arcane Enclave began to move. However, regrettably, because that Archmage’s country was not Cyries, the investigation of the Arcane Enclave, which had gathered without a center point, concluded before long without any particular results.

 

“Since when have you had such a hobby of choosing difficult paths on purpose?”

 

“Shut up.”

 

Only in appearance was there no result.

 

Rmain began moving together with Siegfried. Quietly, without anyone knowing. He prepared a Mage force that could swallow Beurisen in one gulp.

 

Moreover, Rmain sent Mages to Chermil Palace under the pretext of preventing the two remaining princes from becoming agitated with each other and seeing unnecessary bloodshed, who would take on surveillance and protection of the two princes. On the condition that he would no longer ask how his youngest son died, he sent Mages who would protect both remaining sons.

 

Though he noticed all these circumstances as if drawing them before his eyes, Plants kept his mouth shut.

 

“If you simply wanted to go out, there’s no need to go to such a place. What would a prince who can’t even use Aura do with a sword made from meteorite iron?”

 

But the blue-haired Mage who came to both surveil and guard Plants hardly kept his mouth shut.

 

“I told you to shut up. Mage.”

 

The meteorite iron that Lannen Beurisen had brought was put up for auction.

 

Evan already possessed a better, older sword, and Plants had refused to receive it as a gift. Thus Lannen put it up for auction and spread rumors throughout the entire continent.

 

“Going out is dangerous, so request that the Beurisen Trader’s Guild cancel the auction. If you do that,”

 

Because it was a fragment of a star.

 

For that reason alone,

 

“I. Will do it.”

 

He stubbornly insisted on obtaining it with his own hands.

 

“…Understood. I will prepare and escort you.”

 

He thought there was no longer any special guilt remaining about that child, but just.

 

A fragment of a star.

 

Truly for that one reason alone.

 

* * *

 

“Prince, your hair color stands out so much, absolutely do not remove your hood. It’s dangerous if assassins follow you.”

 

“I know.”

 

He went to the auction house with one blue-haired Mage. And he obtained what he wanted.

 

There was one bastard who stuck to the end, but Plants was a prince of Cyries, so there was no reason to lose at an auction.

 

For the first time since birth, and for the last time, he committed such a reckless act. Until then, Plants believed that such a reckless act would be the last, so until then, it was correct that it was the first and last.

 

Yes,

 

Because until then, he didn’t know that he would commit far more reckless acts in the time that followed.

 

“Prince, your hair color stands out so much, so absolutely do not remove your hood. It’s dangerous if assassins follow you.”

 

Of course, he didn’t know he would overhear the same conversation at the place he went to either.

 

“If they follow, I’ll just kill them. Might as well see Cyries bastards’ swordsmanship too.”

 

“Prince. Your words are a bit…”

 

“Don’t scratch at me. I’m already annoyed.”

 

The hair color glimpsed under the hood literally stood out very much. Because of this, Plants frowned slightly upon seeing it.

 

‘Secritia’s Second Prince.’

 

Bern Secritia.

 

The sharp-edged madman whose only reputation was infamy.

 

“I wanted it. The fragment of a star.”

 

He met that bastard. More precisely, only Plants noticed, but he met him like that.

 

And passed by like a fleeting moment.

 

Plants believed that too would be the first and last.

 

Several days passed like that, and the hair color resembling starlight was gradually erased from his memory. Thus, when that starlight no longer rose properly to mind,

 

“Have you decided on a name?”

 

The blue-haired Mage asked this.

 

In fact, Cyries swordsmen liked to name their swords.

 

Harts-ara’s influence was significant. He who had attached a pathetic name like ‘My Pani, the Most Fearsome in the World’ to that beautiful and strong sword with constellation engravings that he had used.

 

“If you tell me the sword’s name, I will have it engraved.”

 

Of course, Plants, who still hadn’t even given a name to his black horse that he had spent a year training with difficulty, had never thought of attaching a name to something like a sword.

 

“…Cinnastar.”

 

So it was a decidedly un-Plants-like, extremely impulsive action.

 

“Cinnastar. I will engrave that. And they say they can make one more sword. What would you like to do with the remaining one?”

 

“To Siegfried.”

 

The remaining sword he had no use for anyway was sent to the Lesser Duchess of Siegfried. With the meaning that if she wanted revenge against the Royal Family, she should come directly.

 

Because it seemed the Lesser Duchess Dmirea, who was said to be different from the Duke, might come for revenge. Sending it with the meaning that if she came, he would receive her however she wished.

 

Thus, many days passed again and many years went by.

 

Since the time he gave a name to the dark gray sword, the pale green eyes that had once held a feeble vitality had withered, fading little by little with each passing day.

 

Many things had happened during that time, and in the end, he could not stop them all.

 

* * *

 

When night comes, will that flower become a white star?

 

A blue star?

 

Or a red star?

 

* * *

 

A pale green glass orb, cracked in every direction.

 

Eyes that couldn’t even feel the stench emanating from his own hands, worse than the smell of blood from those who had fallen.

 

The being with two eyes that had changed to match well with his sword, the one that emitted no light, stood before the catastrophe he had finally committed with his own hands.

 

“Even if this is not a war waged for any one person, this is a one-sided invasion. If Your Majesty does not forget that, I will go together with you.”

 

No matter what reason was used to dress it up splendidly, tragedy was simply tragedy.

 

The two pale green eyes, buried in sins that would not be forgiven even after a thousand years and fallen into the abyss, looked up at the top of the spire erected within the royal castle.

 

Whether his eyes met with someone who would be standing there.

 

The lightless eyes that briefly imagined this quietly closed and opened again.

 

The hand of the blue-haired Mage standing far away bid the last farewell to the one Knight who had held out until the end.

 

The Mad King silently watched the long hair resembling starlight submerge into the pool of blood and moved his feet.

 

*Step, step.*

 

He stepped on the land of Secreta, which had become one giant tomb, walked forward step by step,

 

And stood before the one who had already stopped breathing.

 

Though he did not recall the brief memory of that day, just,

 

[I just wanted it.]

 

Because that thought from that day suddenly surged within a mind that never learned to forget, he placed his dark gray sword upon the corpse of the Knight who had closed his eyes in this one giant tomb.

 

[Now you too, now I too, no longer need it.]

 

Though late, he would yield even now.

 

To the Prince who had been a Knight until the end, to the Knight who had lost his sword, he gifted a sword.

 

Cinnastar.

 

Yes,

 

A sword with such a name.

 

* * *

 

I hope it’s red.

 

If a red star resembling me flies to the sky, I think I would be truly happy.

 

You said

 

You dislike red, older brother.

 

But still, I hope the flower for me becomes a red star and flies away.

 

If that happens, I think,

 

Wherever I am and however, I will be happy.