Chapter 262, I Am a Prince (4)

Translator: Hedge

Editor: Lizzz

 

Perhaps there were not as many whales as one might think.

 

Plants was not particularly curious anymore, but such a thought just occurred to him. Having watched what Kalian had been doing all this time, he had expected it to some extent, but now he became a bit more certain.

 

Perhaps he was not as old as one might think.

 

Plants did not know how much time had been traversed or how many years’ difference there was with Chase, so he just estimated appropriately and then simply turned his head to look only at the sea where moonlight crumbled.

 

What the Prince from the neighbouring country who would have lived on this day in the past might have been doing, what he might have been thinking, what he might have been suffering from. He just estimated appropriately and looked only at the sea.

 

He listened to the sound of crying while looking at the sea.

 

He listened until the salt smell no longer felt unfamiliar. He listened until the seawater that had wetted the tops of his feet rose to his ankles. Until the rippling moonlight was carved into his mind, the sound of crying from one person who was now simply sixteen years old.

 

He listened for a long time.

 

“Kalian.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Right.

 

In the end, he came to the sea like this and heard the whale’s cry.

 

“Let go.”

 

“Yes.”

 

And in the end, like that, he gained one younger brother.

 

* * *

 

Truly beautiful Secritia.

 

Kalian had introduced Secritia like that.

 

“I haven’t actually travelled to many places in Cyries, so I don’t know it well, but in Secritia, wherever I went, it all seemed good.”

 

A moment ago.

 

The moment Kalian removed his hand from the collar without a word, the smell of blood disappeared. Because he had been lowering his head, leaning against the hand gripping his collar, when the black back of his head that had been covering the clothes was removed, only white clothes that had already become clean were visible.

 

[His ankles are still submerged in water, so he could have gone out of the water to clean it, but he stubbornly cleaned that blood before walking out splashing and sat on the sandy beach…]

 

Plants thought…

 

[My little brother is incredibly embarrassed right now.]

 

So, he just went and sat next to him without saying anything else. Then, remembering that he had not put anything in the uniform Kalian was still wearing, he took out a handkerchief and handed it to him.

 

After that, he began listening to Kalian, who had received the handkerchief and rolled it up in his fist, produce rambling words. It seemed he should wait until those bright red eyes returned to their original red.

 

“Of course, what I like best is the sea.”

 

“I suppose so.”

 

“Ah, thinking about it, I’ve entered the sea a second time. I thought I wouldn’t enter it twice.”

 

“…You seemed to long for it so much.”

 

He said he had only entered the sea he had so wanted to visit twice.

 

If wetting his ankles was only the second time, had he not even come near the waves before? While thinking this, he recalled that even after coming to this place, Kalian had only stood far away and hadn’t come before the waves.

 

“Why?”

 

“Because I nearly drowned. once”

 

Plants looked at Kalian intently.

 

Kalian raised his hand and pointed at the horizon where the moon was setting.

 

“There was a day when I took a boat somewhere beyond there, and I can’t forget being thrown outside the boat. At that time, Crown Prince Chase jumped in with me and suffered for quite a while, so I can’t erase that memory and couldn’t enter.”

 

“You mean you were nearly assassinated?”

 

“No.”

 

He shook his head and then clenched his fist.

 

“I don’t know if I should call it a test of sorts, but I was being used to confirm.”

 

Plants, who had been thinking about the meaning of Kalian’s words while looking at him for a moment, made a laugh of disbelief.

 

“…Forget it. It’ll soon disappear.”

 

“Yes. I should forget it. Because it’s a person who will soon disappear.”

 

“Speak informally.”

 

“You let it pass earlier.”

 

“Repeating.”

 

“We’re still the same age, older brother.”

 

“Barking.”

 

Kalian burst into small laughter.

 

Then, he pushed the sand a few times with his toes and continued speaking.

 

“Anyway. During the year I was away from Secreta, I travelled only to places as far from Secreta as possible, places I wouldn’t visit twice again, and they were all good.”

 

There was no period when Secritia’s Royalty had to be away from the palace. The coming-of-age ceremony like Roselita only existed in Cyries. So, if a Royal had spent their entire life in the Palace, there would be no special reason to be away from the Capital, Secreta.

 

Therefore, Plants, who found this unexpected, looked to the side. Instead of a voice containing a question, the sound of waves was heard and the wind blew.

 

“I was driven out. Outside the Palace. So, I travelled.”

 

Kalian, who had felt Plants’s gaze, shrugged his shoulders and gave a small laugh. It was because memories of the injustice, sorrow, and absurdity he had felt on the day he was driven out of the Royal Palace came to mind.

 

“Who?”

 

“Crown Prince Chase told me not to enter the Palace and drove me out.”

 

“Why?”

 

A short sigh came from Kalian’s mouth.

 

“After he became a King from a Prince, I couldn’t sleep properly. It was the most on-edge period in my entire life. Even more so than before he took the crown.”

 

Plants, who had been listening to the sound of the waves for a moment, nodded.

 

He knew what the reason would be.

 

“Because I didn’t have a cat.”

 

“Right.”

 

Though it would be a very different reason from Plants, he understood.

 

It was probably because it seemed Debeullan would return alive. Even after death, the shadow of the person who had put that Prince in Hell while still alive clearly would not have disappeared.

 

Chase, who had not known what his younger brother had done, would have been frantic after ascending to the throne. If there had been no white cat and no black cat, no one to demolish a five hundred year old building without a care…

 

Plants believe he too would have collapsed.

 

Unable to escape from the Hell created by someone already dead.

 

“After spending three years like that, Crown Prince Chase banished me outside the Royal Palace.”

 

If that Chase had done that, Plants looked with eyes wondering just how much he must have lived like shattered glass shards. Kalian, ignoring Plants’s gaze, continued.

 

“I had nowhere particular to go, so I just drank for several days and then went outside Secreta like that and wandered about randomly for about a year. I travelled to many places here and there. As many things filled up inside like that, the things I’d seen before were gradually pushed back.”

 

Kalian released the handkerchief he had been holding in his hand.

 

“I just… thought it would be good if older brother did the same.”

 

The wound that had already stopped bleeding was visible. After looking once at the long scar that still remained behind it, Kalian looked at Plants with his mouth closed for a moment.

 

Certainly, Plants did not speak because he found it bothersome, not because he could not.

 

He had thought at some point that he did not swear, but looking back now, he swears quite well. It seems like he only knows two or three swear words, but anyway, he uses them well when necessary, rotating through them. Still, it seemed better not to teach him more swear words. If Kalian taught them, the only person who would hear those swears would be Kalian anyway.

 

Kalian, who had heard and seen everything that the person who found speaking bothersome but was not unable to do so had deliberately tried not to bring out of his mouth, opened his mouth.

 

“Instead of seeing lake fireworks in bonfire sparks, please also listen to the sound of wood splitting. Instead of feeling relieved while watching things that don’t get stained by rainbows, feel how cool the water mist that wraps around your fingertips is. Instead of standing at the edge of waves while thinking of sounds you can’t even hear, smell the sea scent that won’t reach Chermil Palace, and travel like that.”

 

*Swoooosh…*

 

The sound of waves filled the cool breeze.

 

“I know you’re someone who can’t forget, so please live while pushing things back little by little like that.”

 

Plants, who found speaking bothersome, sat there without saying anything else this time too. He was capturing in his eyes the moon gradually disappearing beyond the horizon as though sinking into the sea.

 

“I thought I hoped you would do that. On that day when I woke from the poison…”

 

Those green eyes finally closed.

 

Because he had understood that this was someone’s final story. His late younger brother’s final story…

 

Where the older brother no longer drowns in what he did, and starts moving on…

 

* * *

 

Truly diverse colours were placed on the round table.

 

Bread with eggs and milk was placed towards Kalian and Plants. Two well-cooked fried eggs as well. Likewise, they were placed only towards Kalian and Plants. It was their own consideration for visitors from outside.

 

And that consideration went exactly that far.

 

Well-grilled bell peppers and asparagus, various types of sautéed mushrooms, sandwiches full of figs and avocado, grilled bananas, a salad that seemed hardly necessary, and purple grape juice.

 

There was no meat though.

 

Right, Kalian understood, but there was no meat. It was natural, but there was no meat. He was grateful for the eggs and milk, but there was still no meat.

 

“Excuse me for a moment, older brother.”

 

Since there were no attendants, he had no choice but to move himself.

 

Kalian, who had looked at the table and been quite dejected for a moment, reached his arm towards the mulberry jam that had been next to Plants. Plants’ eyes, which had been looking down at the fragrant yellow and red flowers floating on the transparent water bowl placed for washing hands before the meal, saw Kalian’s arm pass before them.

 

And he saw the flower disappear.

 

Plants smiled as he watched his Sword Master of a younger brother, who wasted his ability well by taking the flower floating on the water for washing hands and placing it before himself, begin his meal. Then, after washing his hands in the water bowl from which the flower had been removed, he ate a meal that would have been perfectly to his taste if only there were no bell peppers.

 

“I’m truly sorry about Elder Zher.”

 

Around the time that meal ended, Narjan, who had been sitting opposite, said such words. Kalian, who had been thinking that Narjan might have tested his temperament after seeing him laugh like that the previous day, nodded without much surprise.

 

“I hope you’ll reconsider relocating to Secritia.”

 

And Kalian finally began his own negotiation.

 

“Whether grapes or wheat, we also know there are many benefits thanks to the Mother Tree’s power. So, without lengthy exchanges, tell us if there’s anything inconvenient.”

 

Cyries permitted Elves to inhabit the large southern forests and preserve the trees there. In return, they received the Mother Tree’s power as a form of tax.

 

Thanks to the Mother Tree, whose ability to grow plants was excellent, there were hardly any crop damages bad enough to be called poor harvests even during considerable droughts or floods. While there could be no avoiding damage from things like locust swarms or already cultivated grain being submerged in water, the crops themselves always grew splendidly well. Moreover, there were no earthquakes in Cyries, and while there were hot springs, there had been no cases of volcanic eruptions.

 

Though they did not give visible compensation, if such a Mother Tree disappeared, Cyries would not be entirely in comfort either, so the previous day Narjan had also come out in a manner of ‘this is why we’re thinking of relocating.’

 

“Rather than being inconvenient, there is something rather awkward.”

 

“It seemed you met with Secritia’s King.”

 

Narjan nodded.

 

He did not know the reason, but Kalian resembled Secritia’s King, and seemed to quite dislike being told he resembled him. Narjan had also felt the killing intent that momentarily poured from Kalian. He knew that the Second Prince had stopped Kalian while spilling tea on his knee.

 

Thanks to that, Narjan, whose voice had become considerably softer compared to yesterday, answered.

 

“He came with a demand to send an Elf healer, but as you know, we don’t treat anyone other than our own kind, so we refused.”

 

“Anyway, it wasn’t as though they had any connection with us Elves, so it should just be a matter of refusing and that’s all, but I don’t understand why that’s an awkward matter.”

 

Hearing this, Narjan paused for a moment, and Kalian waited for an answer without saying anything else. In the meantime, Plants, who had finished his meal, took a sip of tea containing dried rosemary and lemon and put it down.

 

“In fact, there is one forest in Secritia where Elves live. But, Secritia has learnt of this fact and is demanding we send a healer as compensation for the Elves having resided there all this time, so it’s a difficult situation.”

 

[He must be referring to Brigit Forest.] Kalian, recalling the name of one forest he had recently remembered, frowned slightly.

 

“It’s a place where exiled Elves or Half Elves are, for various reasons. I think you might know of it too.”

 

“How would I know there was an Elf forest in Secritia?”

 

At these words, a question appeared on Narjan’s face instead.

 

Narjan looked at Plants and asked.

 

“Was your little brother too young to hear the story? Or perhaps do you, your brothers, or your King also not know the truth?”

 

“What?”

 

Hearing Plants’ low voice that was still calm but seemed to have swallowed all courtesy along with that tea he had just drunk, Narjan looked at Kalian again.

 

“Brigit Forest. Queen Freya Hwiteurin is from that place.”

 

Kalian’s brow furrowed a bit more.