Side Story: Ed’s Perspective
MY doubts were confirmed while using locating magic to search for the Magic Stone the princess lost.
“Again? But why?”
This object was important enough to the princess that she’d risked going to town alone after dusk in search of it. But who had given that Magic Stone to her?
I’d seen the stone before and even touched it, so it should have been easy enough for me to locate. But the only thing my spell drew a response from was the Magic Stone I’d created myself. Whenever I had a free day, I would walk around the spot where the princess said she lost her Magic Stone and cast locating magic over and over in search of it. But every time came up with the same result.
I couldn’t fathom why this wasn’t working.
I crossed my arms and thought hard about it.
Magic Stones are incredibly precious items. Whoever creates a magic stone is said to put half their soul within it. And a person can only ever create one Magic Stone at any one time. Each Magic Stone is as unique as an individual fingerprint. No two in this world are alike.
Or at least, that was how it was supposed to be.
I did a lot of research on the issue, but there was only one answer that I could find.
Namely, that the princess’s Magic Stone and my own Magic Stone were of the same composition. I’d thought they looked similar, but that was a mistake. They didn’t look similar. They were identical.
“Father. Did I have a twin who was taken away at birth or was stillborn?”
I eventually asked my father about it, unable to understand why such a thing would be happening. But Father only stared at me blankly and replied, “What a nonsensical notion,” with a look of annoyance on his face.
When I finally located her stone one day in town, it was brimming with magical energy. When I picked it up, it felt so familiar to me. As a test, I attempted to absorb it, and it instantly melted into my skin, becoming one with my body.
I was shocked.
A Magic Stone, being absorbed into the body of any but the one who had created it—this was an impossibility. It was an absurdity.
“Who could have made this thing?” I muttered to myself as I produced the stone anew from within my own body, just as if it had been originally mine. It sat, glinting on my palm.
The red jewel sparkled in the light of my room, as if it had secrets to tell.
The following day when I presented the stone to the princess, her joy was boundless. Tears glistened in her eyes, proving just how much it meant to her. I felt my chest burn with jealousy toward whoever had made it for her.
Whenever I asked the princess who had crafted that stone for her, she only repeated that it was “someone very special.” I figured it wasn’t someone in close proximity to her, but perhaps someone she never expected to see again. And yet, from the brilliance of the stone and the amount of magical power within it, it was clear to me that the crafter was still alive.
The princess sometimes referred to me as “special” too. She probably wasn’t aware of it herself, but she kept doing and saying things that made me, in my hubris, think she had feelings for me.
What did she mean by “special?”
The princess fervently gripped the Magic Stone in her fist. Seeing her like that caused jealousy to swell within me, making me want to ask stupid questions like: “Who’s more special to you, me, or the one who made you that?” But just then, Charles—Prince Charles, I mean—walked into the room, and the question died on my lips.
I gifted her that chain for the Magic Stone, partly just to see her reaction.
Only the one who had forged a Magic Stone could easily absorb and reform it, and only the one who had forged it could set it magically onto a pendant. I wanted to show the princess that I could do something which, by any right, I shouldn’t have been able to do.
But the princess had only watched with sparkling eyes as I drew out the stone and set it onto its chain. It appeared she didn’t know that only a Magic Stone’s creator could do such a thing. Or perhaps she had expected me to be able to do it all along.
Then, when I fastened the chain about her neck, she had seemed so happy and blushed so deeply.
I felt my chest swell with pride—with a feeling of superiority.
It wasn’t my Magic Stone that she was wearing. But it was an exact match for my own stone, and it was by my hand that it now dangled on a chain about her neck.
It can’t be overstated how vital a Magic Stone is to its creator. Anyone who receives a Magic Stone accepts it with the full weight of what it represents. Seeing the princess with the red stone glittering below her throat…made me feel as happy as if she’d agreed to accept my own Magic Stone.
And seeing her get so jealous over what she thought was going on between me and Eileen—that made me feel so tender toward her.
At first, I saw her only as my country’s princess…the little sister of my good friend Prince Charles.
But over time, things had changed. The way she paid special attention to me. The way she said my detestable red eyes were beautiful. The way she’d innocently assumed my weak sword skills were worthy of praise.
The way she focused all her efforts on trying to improve her terrible magic skills.
The way that, sometimes, she got mad just like any other girl. And the way she laughed, so loudly—so utterly without inhibition.
And, yes, the way she tried her hardest to pretend to be an adult when all the while, her childish tendencies kept showing adorably through.
The more time I spent around her, the harder it became to bottle up my feelings.
I knew my own social standing well enough.
If I had my family’s dukedom to inherit, then I might still have had a chance. But I had nothing. A knight would never be worthy of the hand of the princess.
I knew that my chances were almost nonexistent. But I was filled with an urge to try. The same question tugged at my heart yet again.
Princess...who gave you that Magic Stone?
The man who had given the princess the Magic Stone that now dangled on a chain about her neck. The man who, even now, lived on in the princess’s heart. I couldn’t help wondering—would the day ever come when I could surpass this unknown man in her eyes?