Chapter 18 · The Taboo (2)

“Kalisa’s magic isn’t very different from Santra’s.”

He added to the blackboard.

4) Mental magic such as mind control, hallucination, memory loss, and the forgetting of pain

5) Curses

“Except for these.”

Just looking at them, they were clearly black magic that deserved to be taboo. Now I finally understood Count Ellenoa’s mockery.

“But half of the princess’s blood is, you see… That wicked blood that covets curses and magic that manipulates people will one day call out to the princess. There is a greater magic, you know.”

If I had actually learned such black magic and enslaved or killed a few people, that would be one thing—but I had died mauled by beasts without even properly learning basic magic, so it was enough to make me want to jump up and down in indignation.

Was there some powerful prejudice built into the people of this country that anyone with Kalisan blood would inevitably covet such magic? Driven out of the royal family, I had ultimately been seized by the Santran people, enraged by all manner of calamities, and burned at the stake.

‘Not a single drop of Kalisan blood ever ran in my veins… and this brand can’t be erased without revealing who my real father is!’

What would happen if I revealed it?

Paeon would be excommunicated on the spot. Excommunication from the Great Temple wasn’t simply being cast out. One would have their body mutilated so they could never use divine power again, be cast down to a status lower than the lowest commoner, and live out the rest of their days reviled by all. In truth, most take their own lives before any of that, unable to bear the shame.

Ugh… And with Paeon, he would absolutely do it…

For now, he was lucky enough to be hiding it, but if the truth came out, he would choose death without hesitation. I would be left alone in the Santran royal family, and the fact that I was the royal family’s stain wouldn’t change, and Aquila would send me to ruin again this time.

For now, it was better to endure. Just hold out until I was twelve, and then leave for Eldina, that earthly paradise.

“Princess, are you listening?”

“Ah, I’m sowwy.”

Having been lost in sudden thoughts and not properly listening to Roktania’s explanation, I flinched and hastily made an excuse.

“It’s too hawd… Asha didn’t know Kawisa used such demonic magic.”

“It was their wicked greed that split Tranquillum in two. Moreover, the Kalisan dynasty is said to pass that dangerous magic down to the heir to the throne. Their scheme is to oppress the people with black magic.”

Originally, Santra and Kalisa had been one nation belonging to the continent of Tranquillum. Tranquillum, meaning land of peace. But now, after centuries of enmity and war, that meaning had long since faded.

“But what was the result? They suffered a crushing defeat. Though Princess Beatrice did fall victim to a curse…”

He paused for a moment, then let out a deep sigh.

“The princess’s death was… a very unfortunate matter. Very unfortunate… Ordinarily, she would never have been caught off guard like that.”

He stared blankly into space, then turned his head sharply to look at me and spoke firmly.

“The princess must never take an interest in Kalisa’s magic. It is forbidden by national law.”

“Yes! I won’t evew take an intowest in it.”

When I nodded vigorously, he seemed satisfied and stepped back from the blackboard to sit down.

“Then today, let’s begin by studying category one. I’ll need to see how much you know of the runic script. Ah, Princess Stella, let’s also see how much you’ve learned.”

Stella, startled by the sudden test, hurriedly pulled out parchment. She kept glancing anxiously at me the whole time she was writing. Roktania marveled at every moment as I wrote out the runes without a single mistake.

‘He doesn’t seem like a bad person.’

For the next few years, I would squeeze this old man dry and absorb his knowledge. If I truly took after my mother, becoming the strongest mage within eight years might not be such a wild dream.

◇ ◆ ◇

Gasp.

I woke up to find myself in someone’s arms. How did this happen? Whose firm chest is this?

Half-asleep, I pieced together my memories—I must have run around the training grounds until I collapsed and fell asleep. This chest couldn’t belong to Sierra or Rosa…

It’s Paeon.

‘Held like this, it really does feel like he’s my real father…’

Feeling the still-somewhat-cold spring breeze brush softly across my face, I snuggled close against his warm body, and it wasn’t so bad.

‘Does having divine power raise your body temperature or something?’

I felt something trickling down my chin, and when I raised my head, I discovered that the part of his shoulder my face had been resting against was damp.

“Eek!”

I let out a startled cry. Oh no…! I drooled! And a lot!

“…Are you awake?”

“How… on Papa’s shouldew, on youw shouldew… I dwowled again…”

I wiped at his shoulder frantically in a panic, but it was no use. In the process, some of his golden hair hanging over his shoulder was matted with drool. Eeeek! How embarrassing!

“It’s all right.”

He answered flatly. Just get annoyed at me instead, boo hoo.

Whether or not he knew I was internally screaming, he set me down on the bench in front of the priestesses’ quarters as if nothing had happened and looked around.

“We’re here. Sister Sierra was supposed to come meet us, but she doesn’t seem to be here yet.”

An unbearably awkward atmosphere. Was I supposed to wait here awkwardly until Sierra came?

“Papa, don’t stand, sit hewe.”

When I patted the spot beside me, he hesitated, then sat down at a distance. Then he crossed his arms and fixed his gaze silently on the clock tower. I gazed at his profile.

His straight nose bridge, his long golden eyelashes, his blond hair sparkling beneath the red sky, mingling with the sunset glow and swaying like flame. Even seeing it with my own eyes, it was an unreal appearance.

Did my mother look at this man like this too?

There were, in fact, so many things I wanted to ask him. The more new information I learned, the more my curiosity only grew, one thing leading to another.

How did you come to fall in love with my mother?

How did you hide everything so perfectly?

Were you happy when I was born, or did you regret it?

When you left me in someone else’s hands, did it not weigh on you? Were you not worried at all?

Were you very sad when my mother died?

Questions that never became sound drifted quietly through my mind. Questions that would never reach him, and answers I would never hear. Somehow it turned bitter.

But… this one question, surely I could ask it.

“Papa… do you know my mom?”

He flinched and looked at me. He gazed at me with wavering eyes, then answered quietly.

“…I do.”

“How weww do you know her?”

“…Only as much as the time we spent together hunting monsters.”

“Papa and Mom went awound hunting monsters togethew?”

“That’s right.”

“Then…”

A bleak evening wind swept around the two of us. I shivered for a moment. A trembling I couldn’t tell was from the cold or from tension.

“Then do you know how Mom died?”

“Why do you want to know that?”

“I heawd Mom was fiwst in wank among the Nawitas.”

Roktania’s words kept bothering me. That thing about how ordinarily she would never have been caught off guard. Did it mean her condition at the time had been different from usual?

“And yet she died… I guess that Demon King was weally, weally stwong.”

At my words, he clenched the fist resting on his knee.

“Princess Beatrice’s mana was greatly unstable before she passed.”

Paeon was no longer looking at me. He had his head bowed, glaring at his own feet with blazing eyes.

“Because of a certain person…”

The low voice mixed with deep hatred made my heart drop. And in that moment, I understood instinctively.

‘…It’s because of me.’

When one suffers mental shock or goes through something physically taxing, one’s mana becomes unstable. My mother had lost her mana giving birth to me. And because of that, she hadn’t been able to avoid the curse.

‘So that’s why… that’s why…’

It felt as if I had been struck on the head with a hammer.

‘So that’s why Paeon hates me.’

The reason he had left me unattended for nine lives. The reason he had so desperately avoided me in this life when I tried to approach him. To realize it only now…

‘Perhaps this man can never love me.’

That thought plunged me into yet another shock.

Was it love I wanted, then? After resenting him so and vowing never to forgive him, in the end was I just a weak human craving affection?

“Oh my, you’re already here. Did you wait long? I’m sorry, I finished late…!”

Thankfully, Sierra rescued me just as self-loathing was about to turn my stomach inside out. Even after I parted from Paeon, I stayed silent and lost in thought for a long while, and Sierra asked with concern.

“Princess, you seem to have no energy. Did something happen?”

“No… I’m just tiwed…”

“Oh dear, our princess. Eat dinner and go to bed early tonight. I’ll sing you a lullaby.”

Sierra, you’re completely tone-deaf… At her kindness, I barely managed to lift the corners of my mouth. And I forced my troubled heart to calm.

No, the more I think about it, the angrier I get. Compared to me, who was born knowing nothing, Paeon’s fault is a billion times greater. And yet he hates me? That’s nonsense.

‘Just you watch. I’ll use you thoroughly and nothing more.’

◇ ◆ ◇

“Wizen, I have a favow to ask.”

The next day. While Ark still hadn’t arrived, I pulled Rizen behind the large tree at the training grounds.

“It’s something onwy Wizen can do.”

At my solemn words, Rizen swallowed hard and asked.

“Wh-what is it, Princess…?”

“In two weeks, at the New Spwout Festivaw in the capitaw, take Asha thewe.”

“What?!”

This festival, with the cute name ‘New Sprout Festival,’ was an event to give thanks for and celebrate the coming of spring, when life stirs. Even in the capital Salus, which strictly restricted the entry of outsiders and merchants, on this day alone people could come and go freely.

“Why do you want to go there?”

“It’s Asha’s once-in-a-wifetime memowy. To see the festivaw.”

“How about asking His Majesty the King? Formally getting permission from the royal family would be…”

“Then I’d have to go with ten escowts! I wouldn’t be able to weally wook awound. Asha just wants to wook awound nowmally!”

“B-but… if we get caught, it won’t just end with a scolding…”

“Wizen, you sweared to obey Asha absowutely.”

When I glared at him, he hemmed and hawed in a bind, then subtly asked,

“But why are you asking only me and not Ark?”

Heh heh, you cute boy. Feeling a little proud right now? Like you’re special?

“Awk is wewiable, but no. The calm, mature Wizen is just wight.”

His face turned peach-pink. Rizen cleared his throat a few times and spoke with serious eyes.

“Understood! I will escort the princess at the cost of my life.”

‘So easy to handle, really.’

Now that everyone knew I could use magic, there was no telling when I might be falsely accused again on mere suspicion of being a bastard of Kalisan blood. I intended to prepare for that by preventing the disasters that would befall Santra in the future.

As Lord Lux’s ‘child of God.’