“…Why the eyes?”
Do I have to close them? Like I know what you’re going to do.
Then he tilted his head. Hair as whitish and translucent as mist flowed smoothly to the side.
“Most people close them, at times like this.”
So what exactly is ‘times like this’?
Still, I closed my eyes as if humoring him. It was because I still didn’t feel like he would harm me.
A touch like a breeze slowly caressed my shoulders, the nape of my neck, my cheeks, and my ear. It was a leisurely yet gentle movement.
“I wanted to remain in your memory for a long time.”
A voice as close as that touch whispered.
“Humans remember this method more strongly. I’ve seen it often, so I can do it well.”
Soon our lips met. Something cool came over through the gap between parted lips. When I swallowed it with my eyes tightly closed, the gentle touch stroked my cheek as if in praise.
“Just one more time.”
“…Mmph.”
“There won’t be any traces left.”
After receiving what he passed over a few more times like that and opening my eyes, I saw golden pupils that had come much closer, staring at me with almost obsessive intensity.
While meeting that gaze, I asked bluntly.
“What the hell… are you?”
All I knew was that he wasn’t an ordinary human and that he was after my soul. So I couldn’t help but be curious. What exactly his identity was, why he ate souls, what this pure white space was…
I wanted to know, yet didn’t want to know, felt like I would know, then lost confidence in knowing.
“Who knows.”
The thing’s voice became distant again.
—I’ll come find you again soon.
“…”
—So wait just a little bit.
Darkness came in an instant.
When I came to my senses again, what arrived was a throbbing pain.
‘Still, it seems better than before I fainted?’
As if proving that thought of mine correct, a blue system window popped into my slightly hazy vision.
[Current Chaos Meter: 76%]
“…It went up?”
The last thing I saw before fainting was 68 percent, so this was a significant change. Moreover, for some reason, it was still gradually rising even now.
[Current Chaos Meter: 77%]
[Current Chaos Meter: 78%]
The headache that had felt like it was crushing my head also gradually improved. It seemed to be thanks to that whitish guy’s help.
‘I should be able to get up soon.’
I was certain that as long as I didn’t act absurdly docile, I wouldn’t pour out a nosebleed and faint like earlier. If worst comes to worst, I’ll just break a window or something.
So I was about to get up when.
“The possibility that the poisoning effect kicked in belatedly?”
“We can’t rule it out, but the timing is strange.”
At the voices coming from outside the door, I hurriedly lay back down. It seemed like I had to do that.
Sure enough, I heard the sound of the door opening. I could feel a gaze examining me as I pretended to sleep with my eyes tightly shut. Fortunately, the other party checked my condition without much suspicion and closed the door again.
“Seeing how he can’t easily regain consciousness, it might be the poisoning effect. They say he poured out a terrifying amount of blood from his nose before fainting.”
“Hmph. He must have been holding on with what little magic he had left? It would have been convenient for many people if he’d gone early like his mother.”
“It was definitely a lethal dose… If he’s dragged out time this much even after drinking that, he might be a mage with skills more impressive than known.”
“Even so, isn’t it all useless once he’s dead? You’re certain he drank the poison?”
“Yes. The annex attendants found it strange that he didn’t throw a tantrum that day. They said he ate and drank obediently whatever was given.”
Listening to their conversation, I recalled talking with my younger sister about <Pavane for a Dead Princess> long ago.
‘Oppa, Achille, you know. It’d be good to make him a mage. He has talent but couldn’t properly let it bloom. How about it? That’s why his personality became even more twisted.’
‘He’s a villain who’ll die at the appropriate time anyway. Does he still need such a setting?’
‘Of course! It’s weird if he just does bad things, right? Of course, having a backstory doesn’t make it natural to act badly but… if there’s something more, the story becomes more interesting.’
So the story I just heard was a kind of tragedy assigned to this body, Achille.
Achille Lowyn Fel Betius wanted to become a mage, not an emperor. His position as the Emperor’s half-brother may have made him wealthy and noble, but it didn’t make him happy or safe.
Just looking at right now, aren’t there people who put poison in his food and are just waiting for him to die? Perhaps throwing tantrums at meal times or being sharp with others was also part of the distrust stemming from past memories.
As I thought about it, there was one strange point.
‘Why on earth did he stay attached to the imperial palace when he didn’t know when or how he’d die?’
If the conversation outside the door was true, staying in the imperial palace annex was the worst choice. Nobles of the pro-Emperor faction were monitoring his every move and even attempting poisoning.
Couldn’t he live quietly in seclusion somewhere like a mage tower, as mages in this world usually do? If he lived as quietly as a dead mouse, people would forget him, and his name wouldn’t come up in the imperial succession struggle.
But I soon recalled what my younger sister had said most recently.
‘If I die, spread the news everywhere. So that even people who only know my name can all know.’
‘What good news would I spread rumors about? And I told you not to say things like that so easily. You’re still so young, what dying? You’ll recover and be discharged. If you go before me, you’ll be in big trouble.’
‘Everyone dies, oppa. They can leave faster than expected.’
‘…’
‘If I die, I want a lot of people to know about it. Otherwise, no one will remember that I existed.’
Did Achille, born from my younger sister’s fingertips, feel the same way?
His political enemies might not give up even if he went into hiding. They might even be pleased that they could kill him without anyone knowing.
So even knowing it’s dangerous, he stays right under his enemies’ noses. While making noise and causing chaos. With the mindset that he’d rather become a scoundrel than die quietly and be forgotten.
It was a puzzling feeling, one that seemed understandable yet completely incomprehensible.
“So, did I really eat poison?”
When I asked that because the words about not making a scene and drinking obediently kept lingering in my ears, a system window popped up.
[There was poison in the fruit wine that came out as dessert at the first day’s breakfast!]
[I dealt with the poison cleanly, so rest assured! (✪ ω ✪)]
You think answering cutely makes it okay? They said it was a lethal dose.
‘No wonder the aftertaste had a sharp kick…’
I just thought it was something like kombucha.
I had unintentionally done a poison evaluation. At this rate, I might personally verify the hypothesis that cyanide tastes like almonds.
“Is it okay if I eat it again?”
[To some extent!]
The system answered cheerfully.
[Using the guide’s authority, I can quickly heal fatal external and internal injuries. It’s also possible to nullify poison and magic!]
[But I can’t solve all problems, so please be careful of fatal losses!]
A lethal dose of poison is fine, but it’s not omnipotent. As I pondered the meaning of those words, I asked.
“As long as my head doesn’t get cut off?”
[┗|｀O′|┛!]
Why? What? I’m right, aren’t I?
I was half-heartedly soothing the system that somehow seemed offended when a creaking sound came from the doorway. Their behavior was cautious, as if they thought I still hadn’t regained consciousness.
Just as the murmuring sounds moved away, my eyes, as I sat up, met directly with the person who had opened the door about a hand’s width and was peeking inside.
The young man who had been looking at me with a displeased gaze from beside the Emperor the whole time. It was the Crown Prince.
“Did you come to visit the sick?”
Of course, he probably didn’t come with such good intentions, but I didn’t particularly care.
“I happen to have something to say, so come in and sit.”
I said with a glance at the chair by my bedside.
“Let’s talk.”
