What?! A chill ran down my spine. She sounded like a pervert enjoying voyeurism... No, that was far too disrespectful a thought for a young girl. Yet, against my will, I instinctively pulled back, overwhelmed, to put some distance between us.
“Hee hee, in a way, you’re my nephew,” she giggled. “I wouldn’t actually attack you.”
Her nephew in a way...? So Lady Robur was indeed Princess Beljeanne... The thought suppressed my flight instinct, allowing reason to take hold as I focused my awareness back on Lady Robur.
“Anyway,” she said, “if the princess were suddenly to experience passion for the first time, wouldn’t it be unsurprising if she were driven by emotion to strip her legal father, the king, of his royal qualifications? It would hardly be strange if the target of that passion extended to the whole of the royal family, and the Four Great Ducal Houses, even invalidating every pact-bearer bound to a sacred beast in this country at the time. After all, the princess had the magical power and talent, as well as the knowledge to do it.” She wore a cold smile. “But it would be simplistic to assume the princess harbored resentment toward the royal family or the Four Great Ducal Houses. To her, such thoughts themselves would be utterly presumptuous. For example, would you nurture hatred or resentment at a tiny insect like a mosquito for sucking your blood? Impossible. It’s the same principle.”
That comparison made several of my lingering questions about Princess Beljeanne suddenly make sense. For a princess overflowing with talent, it seemed nothing in the world had stirred her emotions enough to matter.
“Then why did the princess not conceal her gifts?” I asked. “Would it not have been easier to live like you do now, keeping her claws hidden?”
“It was simply because there were some special beings. She acted purely out of concern for them, solely to grant them true freedom. The result merely led to seeking the best for everyone. Any adult with long life experience would recognize the princess’s actions as misguided. Yet, in a world where no one teaches human hearts, it was a conclusion she reached on her own. So even if she later realized other, better paths, had existed, she harbored no regret for her choice.”
“Even if all her fame and achievements were stripped away, and she was vilified both in life and in death?”
“Indeed. The princess left behind many great achievements. Among the major ones were establishing a barrier around the Poison Box Garden, pacifying disaster-level magical beasts, suppressing epidemics, and maintaining harmony with neighboring nations whose relations were deteriorating.”
“There were many others too,” I said. “She laid the foundation for nurturing commoners, significantly contributing to our nation’s strength. She also developed fireworks and the copy pen, didn’t she? Everything the princess accomplished has become someone else’s achievement. Wasn’t that truly frustrating?”
“Does it really matter who brought about those achievements, or how the truth was distorted? What matters is how long it takes to accomplish them—or if they’re even accomplished at all.”
“Because of her devotion as royalty?”
“Devotion?” Lady Robur burst out laughing.
“What part of this conversation were you listening to?” I said. “You’re not just indifferent. Wouldn’t all that normally bother someone?”
She kept laughing for a moment before she responded. “Normally, yes. Most people possess at least some desire for self-expression. However, since she possessed so few of the emotional fluctuations one would naturally expect in a human being, the majority of ‘normal’ values simply were not present in the princess. If she claimed credit for herself, she’d have to deal with the queen consort and even the king himself getting in the way. It was more convenient to have it look like the queen’s own child, someone always shielded and protected, had done it, since that would be accepted more readily. She thought it was rationalism prioritizing practical gain, but perhaps she was already broken by the time she came to that conclusion. She felt absolutely no regret about it. Above all, she was so busy she never had time to question it, and before she knew it she died, just like that.”
“Just like that?” I couldn’t help but repeat her words, taken aback by how lightly she treated her own death.
Lady Robur cast a soundproofing spell to ensure absolutely no one could eavesdrop, likely worried that even the sacred beasts might overhear. “That’s how little her own life meant to the princess,” she said. “And those who were special to her? She always protected them, ensuring no harm came to them, didn’t she?”
“What about her mother, the concubine?” I asked. Records stated that the concubine fell ill after giving birth to the princess, remaining bedridden for a long time before eventually passing away. However, the exact date of her death had never been recorded. Yet it was the very existence of the late king’s concubine that was the root of the royal family’s transgression.
“The princess didn’t protect the concubine until the end. That’s the answer. The concubine fell into a deep sleep immediately after the princess was born, but the princess did wake her once. The moment the concubine truly understood the princess’s existence, she was overcome with terror. She lamented her life and wept and wailed bitterly. It was then that the princess learned where the royal blood flowing through her veins came from.” Lady Robur was perhaps recalling that time. A faint smile touched her face, yet it held a hint of sorrow. “That’s precisely why seeing my mother cry out in anguish... Well, to say I couldn’t bear it might be the perfect way to describe it. So the princess put her mother back to sleep and made her vanish from the palace.”
From the diary, it was clear the late king had never directly protected Princess Beljeanne’s mother, the concubine, from his legal wife Sriarde.
Yet the late king had loved his concubine from the bottom of his heart. Because she’d been taken from him by unjust means before she became his concubine, and he could neither reclaim her by legitimate means nor possess her again in her true form, he became obsessed. As a result, he could no longer let her go, as his diary recorded. The only way it might have been possible for him to let her go... Well, perhaps if the family of the concubine had taken her back to her birthplace. But the Cherria family, originally a marquisate, had inexplicably begun to decline. It had started around the time Sharona Cherria’s aunt had gone missing. Whether the king had intervened then was impossible to know now.
What was certain was that Beljeanne Yevina Rovenia was born from the king’s mistake, bore the sins of the royal family and the Four Ducal Houses, and had perished while protecting everything in this country. And that the true sovereign of this land was an unmatched villainess.
That was a truth known only to me now, and one that must never be revealed unless the true mistress of that unmatched villainess desired it.
“So you needn’t think about the princess,” Lady Robur told me. “The princess’s legal father left something behind, didn’t he? You seem to know the truth better than your mother, the previous queen.”
“Ah...” I started to agree, but then noticed the silver holy seal visible at Lady Robur’s neck. Though the sun was setting, I also noticed her poor complexion. “What about that seal?”
“Proof that the princess became this kingdom’s ruler through underhanded means. I suppose I can’t really tell you more than what you’ve already figured out on your own. I’m in a contest of endurance with a certain sacred beast. If I lose, I’ll turn to ash again.”
A certain sacred beast... Undoubtedly the sacred beast that bestowed the royal family’s blessing-names.
“If I break it...” Immediately I made an attempt with my magic, but the moment I channeled magic to Lady Robur’s body, it was repelled.
“It’s useless.”
“Jilkaglim Sobel Rovenia earnestly pleads—grant this one all elemental blessings.” Ignoring Lady Robur’s words, I rose and cast an ancient spell in an archaic language. The flower I’d designated as royal, a deep purple iris, formed a crown above Lady Robur’s head, flickering and fading into a faint black-purple glow that enveloped her entire body.
Sensing the unnatural magic entangled with her soul, I channeled my magic toward suppressing it, using the robe she wore as a reference point. As if permeated by a faint light, the robe’s color shifted to deep purple. Soon, the sacred seal, likely present not just at her neck but across her entire body, faded away like ripples. It seemed to have worked.
Instantly I was overwhelmed not only by the drain of magic but also by the sensation of my own life force being consumed. I stumbled, dizzy, and collapsed to my knees.
If the sacred beast that bestowed my blessing-name was doing something to Lady Robur, I should have been able to interfere by linking it to my blessing-name. This ancient magic, long extinct, was the magic from the time that sacred beast had first manifested. And my magic held all affinities within it. It was balanced and even, just like Princess Beljeanne’s. I assumed I could interfere and suppress its process, and it seemed I was right.
“How foolish,” Lady Robur said. “That sacred beast warned your soul not to utter your blessing-name, didn’t it?”
“That’s right. Such a fierce...headache. Ahh. The warning is reaching me. I don’t think I could do that again.” Dizziness, headaches, and nausea all assaulted me like when my magic power was depleted, but I controlled myself to merely frowning.
“Of course. How reckless for a king. If you don’t want to end up like me, refrain from doing that in the future,” Lady Robur said reproachfully. There was a note of real danger in her voice, yet it also carried the gentle scolding of a grandmother reprimanding her grandson. “But thank you. I managed to say most of what I wanted to, and you spoke too. In any case, talking further won’t do either of us any good. I hope we never meet again like this.” Lady Robur stood up, approached me, and gave my shoulder a firm tap.
“Wait...” Despite my protests, the scenery shifted—we were now in the ruins of Princess Beljeanne’s Palace Retreat.