Chapter 298, As Though Without Reason (2)

Translator: Hedge

Editor: Lizzz

 

He had not planned to bring Hina.

 

From the start, had this not been a journey Kalian had been more or less dragged into by Plants? Kalian, who had barely managed to bring the blue-haired mad Mage and Rachel along, had been in no position to arrange the personnel himself.

 

Even if Kalian had been the one to decide who came, Hina would not have been among them. Louise’s condition had not been so severe at the time, and both Kalian and Plants, who never spared themselves from danger, had the power of Syspanian’s Blessing.

 

When Kalian had noticed Eila among the party, there had been a heaviness in one corner of his heart. [So she did end up coming with us.] But it had been nothing more than that. He had not once thought that Eila was simply carrying out, diligently, the instruction Kalian had given her, ‘stay at Hina’s side.’

 

If he had known from the outset that Hina would be coming. Setting out on the road in this winter, with her, worrying whether the wind might blow her away, whether the snow might bury her, whether her hands might freeze in this cold, whether her feet might freeze, whether the salt air of Secritia might dry even a patch of her skin… he would not have had a single moment’s peace. He would be consumed entirely by worry over their dear, precious Hina.

 

And so Plants simply said nothing.

 

By the time Kalian, who had been finding it odd that Coco, having left Arsene’s arms, seemed especially attached to one particular Knight, noticed something was off, the border was already right in front of them.

 

He could hardly grab his dear, gentle new Crown Prince by the scruff of the neck a second time. He had thought about having a spar when they got back. And so, they came together to Secritia, with Hina in tow. He had tried hard not to pay too much attention to her. It would look strange to fuss too obviously about this one Knight. And he had done his very best to swallow his tears.

 

Here one ought to pause and note that Hina was actually older, by two years, in fact.

 

Still, regardless.

 

She did not know what the Princes were going off to do this time, but it was clearly going to be somewhere dangerous, and so Hina had stepped forward. She had persuaded Plants that she could borrow Eila’s curious disguise magic tool.

 

Hina, who now thought it the most fortunate thing in the world that she had come along…

 

‘What would have happened, if I hadn’t come with you?’

 

was scolding Kalian thoroughly.

 

“Hina. I think I’m almost recovered. From tomorrow, I…”

 

‘Even if it takes longer, I’m going to treat both of you together, so please don’t say anything. If you say something like that one more time, I won’t talk to the kind Prince anymore.’

 

And on top of everything else, she said the most terrifying words in the world.

 

‘Do you even know how upsetting it is, to other people, when you walk around, hiding how much you are hurting?’

 

It was not Plants alone who had much to learn. Kalian, someone who had passed his entire life without ever once having the leisure to think deeply about such things, and had not yet shed all the habits of it, simply smiled.

 

‘Even with that face, won’t work. I won’t look.’

 

He felt sorry for himself. There was now one more person in this world immune to a pretty face.

 

“All right. I’ll be careful. I’ll really be careful, Hina. I’ll tell you when something hurts.”

 

It was Hina who had, in the end, drawn those words from Kalian’s mouth once more. She gave a nod.

 

In any case, Hina could not push herself any further or treat more wounds than she had, and the situation was not one in which she could rest properly. Treating two people simultaneously was a first for her as well. She could not stay in Louise’s room for a long, uninterrupted stretch. And beyond all that, no one knew what might yet come, so it was not possible to spend all of Hina’s energy now.

 

And so Hina decided that, whatever it took, she would come to Louise each day and treat her. Kalian agreed without protest to receive a little treatment himself, each day as well.

 

*Knock knock.*

 

And then, at that moment.

 

“It is Crown Prince Plants of Cyries. What shall I do?”

 

Taillan came forward to ask.

 

Hina was still in the middle of treating Kalian and Louise, so Chase said nothing. He only nodded.

 

Shortly the door opened, and Plants walked in with his unhurried steps.

 

Hina’s head turned toward Plants. She looked again at his colour, and a small sigh escaped her.

 

[Another patient.]

 

Hina, who had decided for the time being to treat all three of them only to the extent that none of them were in immediate danger, conserving her energy, turned to Plants and signed.

 

‘Come here.’

 

Fearing she might otherwise decide to treat all three at once, Kalian, who felt he could move somewhat more easily now, made room for Plants. On Kalian’s face as he did so sat a smile of quiet satisfaction.

 

[Oh, you’re going to get scolded too, Crown Prince.]

 

That was what the smile said, and it said it plainly. Plants narrowed his eyes slightly upon seeing it, but what choice was there. Plants went to the seat Kalian had been sitting in. His wrist was taken quietly by Hina, and, as ever, Hina’s hands grew busy.

 

Kalian listened without much investment to Plants’s stream of ‘all rights’, which had a different flavour to his usual wilting or pickled expression. Then, once he saw Hina begin her treatment again, turned his head. He gave Chase’s shoulder a few quiet pats, then pointed toward the terrace.

 

“Might we speak for a moment?”

 

“Sure.”

 

Chase nodded.

 

Kalian passed Louise asleep on the bed, passed Hina with her hand resting on Plants’s arm, passed Taillan standing watch at their side, and stepped out onto the terrace. Chase followed quietly behind.

 

It had not been planned that Kalian and Plants would receive Hina’s treatment, but it could not be helped. Arsene still had a little time before he arrived, so for now it would be enough to receive treatment as Hina said, then move quickly once that was done.

 

The brief window of time thus acquired gave them, for just a short while, room to stop. The dark curtains were drawn back and a single step was taken. They were standing on a terrace that opened onto a wide garden at a glance. In the distance, the annexe where Louise was staying came into view. It was small.

 

“Please sit, Chase.”

 

Chase’s room.

 

A long terrace within it. A glass table and black chairs. A place he had come to for the first time. Kalian surveyed the view without the slightest sense of unfamiliarity and walked quite naturally to the chair and sat.

 

“Hina is a child who heals things well, so you need not worry. Since we have agreed to treat things gradually, it will take a few days but she will be fully recovered before long. Please do not worry too much.”

 

“You did not tell me properly how are you right now.”

 

“I am.”

 

[What is the right thing to say. How to say it without causing worry?]

 

In the very next instant, already forgetting everything Hina had said, already thinking these thoughts, Kalian opened his mouth quietly.

 

“…A serrated sword tore through my side. The poison that seeped in through that wound spread near my heart, and my internal organs were damaged. There is also a stab wound on my back, where my spine nearly came apart. I was injured like that, slept through one night, and came here. The poison has been neutralised, but the wound remained as it was. My insides, which had been dissolving, were barely beginning to fill again with the power of Syspanian’s Blessing. Just now, Hina made it so I can eat again.”

 

Chase’s eyes closed tightly.

 

This was not a matter of asking whether he was all right. It was a matter of asking how he was still standing.

 

“It hurts a lot. If someone came at me now, I might very well die. Because moving alone hurts.”

 

“I see.”

 

Kalian, having stated his condition plainly and set it aside, smiled quietly.

 

“I was not the only one injured. Crown Prince Plants was hurt quite badly as well. But we came. Having handed over the seat of Crown Prince to Plants so that no assassins could come, knowing it would be dangerous, bearing pain enough to kill, we came. Not because we did not understand why you told us not to come. We came to save mother. We came because she could be saved.”

 

Chase’s head moved slowly, up and down.

 

Kalian, watching him for a moment, spoke again.

 

“I know as well that it is partly Crown Prince Chase’s fault that the interior of Secritia has festered to this degree. You seem to have been sorry enough for not seeing the situation properly. So please, ease that face of yours.”

 

Whether this was meant to comfort or to add to the burden of the heart.

 

Chase, despite himself, let out a soft sound of laughter at these words that Kalian, who had never learned how to give comfort, had offered in his own difficult way.

 

At any rate, deciding that Chase had collected himself somewhat, Kalian turned his head. The afternoon sunlight fell long across the garden, and in the far distance the small annexe where Louise stayed came into view.

 

“I did not think I would see it again. I had forgotten about this sort of thing.”

 

He had looked up at the spire from somewhere outside the inner fortress. He had entered the garden. He had entered the annexe, and Louise’s room in the villa as well. He had gone to the Royal Sea.

 

“…I did not think I would see Crown Prince Chase living in a way that quite did not suit him, either.”

 

One fireplace. One bed. A bathroom with a white bathtub. One sofa. One writing desk. One bookshelf. And nothing more. A dim room. A spare room. A room like the one at Diana’s villa. A truly empty room.

 

“Why were you staying here rather than in your own rooms?”

 

It was only now that he understood properly that Chase had kept that room exactly as it had been when Bern lived there, and had been living inside it, growing his hair out as Bern had done, until he made his way to Cyries.

 

“When I came to my senses, I was already doing so.”

 

Kalian nodded quietly, and Chase sat down opposite him without a sound.

 

But his gaze was not turned toward the garden, nor toward Kalian. It was toward the bed inside. The dark-coloured bed, and Louise lying upon it. Toward Hina, sitting at Louise’s side. Toward Plants.

 

After a long while watching this, Chase spoke.

 

“I watched your end. Mother watched mine. And Arianneu, it seems like she was the one who sent mother in that state away first… and the person who had caused all of that is now there beside mother. Looking at that, I find I have no other worry. With all that before me. what ought I say.”

 

“I wonder. Perhaps ‘strange’ would be fitting enough. But I myself have always said ‘interesting’.”

 

His mouth closed.

 

Quietly, as though finished. Or perhaps only paused.

 

“I thought there would never be another.”

 

And then, after a long while, it opened quietly again.

 

“Watching Cinnastar rise into the sky. Looking at that sea. Climbing the spire. Sleeping in that villa. Coming to this room. Meeting mother. Sitting beside you and speaking together. I thought I would never do any of those things again. And yet here I am, doing them once more. So it must be right to call it ‘interesting’, for that alone.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Kalian nodded slowly, and then, as though something had just come to him, brought out one other thing.

 

“Once everything is over, he suggested to come back and live here again.”

 

As he said this, Kalian’s gaze moved to Plants, and then returned to Chase. Chase, watching that, asked in a soft voice.

 

“He said such a thing.”

 

“Yes. I heard him say it.”

 

What Kalian had answered Plants that day. What Chase might think of it. He said none of it.

 

“Your room is the one I am now using right now. Whatever are we to do about that?”

 

Chase only said this.

 

Kalian nodded, and laughed with him.

 

* * *

 

The reason Mother chose poison by the same method as I did was, most likely.

 

Because she hoped that Debeullan would at least not kill his own child by his own hand.

 

But… in the end…

 

* * *

 

Allan looked at Debeullan.

 

‘He would have known, seeing mother, who his son is. He would have thought it welcoming news.’

 

The last thing Kalian had told him before they arrived here, why Louise had made the choice she had, would not leave his mind.

 

‘But, whether that welcome would have held the meaning mother had hoped for.’

 

The moment he saw the gentle smile that sat at ease across Debeullan’s face…

 

[Ah. So it is not that kind of welcome.]

 

Allan understood.

 

[When I return, I must embrace my Disciple once, properly. I must hold him again with both arms, and pat him gently. Tell him it is all right now.]

 

That was what Allan thought.

 

[And while I am at it, I ought to embrace that one too, the one who has been having a thoroughly splendid time acting as a rogue on account of my Disciple. But that particular one, clearly having a fine time of being a rogue, would probably hate it.]

 

“Baron Manasil is more than I expected…”

 

“I once had occasion to meet the late King, Your Majesty’s father.”

 

Allan cut through Debeullan’s words and spoke.

 

“He had eyes much like those of Crown Prince Chase, though somewhat different. He had such a faint violet to his eyes that I had never seen anywhere else. I remember thinking, well, that is something rare.”

 

Having said this, Allan gave the teacup set before him a small tap. As he had always done before Rmain. The teacup, which had been radiating warmth, gathered a thin white frost as the tea cooled swiftly. Allan drank a long sip of the cooled tea, set it down, and continued.

 

“He was a man who could smile with genuine warmth. So I thought it a true honour, to have received a the Baron title from such a man. I believed Secritia will know its good fortune for a long time to come. That is what I believed.”

 

“It has been some time since I have encountered someone who knew my father. I suppose that is a cause for welcome.”

 

“It would have been some time indeed. When Your Majesty raised a sword against your father in order to take that seat, you would have done away with all of them. How could it not be cause for welcome.”

 

Debeullan made a sound of laughter.

 

“I thought you cared for your Disciple more than one might expect. The thorns in your words cut quite sharply.”

 

“When I think of how he must have felt, seeing with those same welcoming eyes, a father who looked upon him that way, it sets something burning inside me. So do not call a thorn this small sharp.”

 

Debeullan nodded quietly.

 

Though it meant neither agreement nor denial.

 

“I have understood well that you did not come here with good intentions.”

 

Allan nodded as well.

 

“So now, tell me. What is it I must grant you for you to leave without doing harm to this country.”

 

“I received word about my daughter-in-law and the child who had been helping me, and found myself wondering whether my ears had deceived me.”

 

“Whatever you heard, I imagine you received faulty information. They told me they would spend a short time in exchange with the Mages here and return today.”

 

“That would be a relief.”

 

Allan gave a short answer, and for a moment raised his hand to press lightly at his temple.

 

“To see you take such care…”

 

A headache was coming.

 

Allan paused, then looked at Debeullan and smiled slightly. The sharp lines of his eyes formed a soft curve.

 

“Your Majesty is not unaware of who I am.”

 

He drew a long breath, and brought the hand that had been pressing his temple up to cover his mouth. He coughed several times, then breathed in once more. He lowered his hand and set something on the table.

 

*Thud.*

 

Something small and round, dark, like compressed clay, came to rest on the table.

 

It was the poison that had just been in Allan’s tea.

 

“To keep people who play such severe tricks near you, without even knowing it while planning to bring your own son to heel first… whether it is Your Majesty, or whatever has crept into this country, one cannot imagine they are the sort who would mend themselves if told to come to their senses.”

 

Allan exhaled briefly and continued.

 

“I find I have nothing left in me but the desire to clear it all away. Bear that in mind.”

 

Debeullan’s eyes narrowed slightly at those words.