Chapter 119 · Farewell (2)

“The port of Salamis?”

Paeon’s heart began to pound violently. The dream he had just had flickered before his eyes, vivid enough to grasp. No matter how he thought about it, it was no ordinary dream.

An ominous premonition seized him in an instant.

“The Estevan family’s ship demonstration is being held there.”

“The princess was attacked only days ago, and the royal palace let her leave?!”

He cried out in fury.

“You know as well as I do, sir—the princess is silver-tongued… I don’t know how she managed it, but in the end she wrung permission from His Majesty.”

Rosa made a flustered excuse.

“Sister Sierra and Yuz went with her, along with escort knights, so she should be fine.”

Paeon was trembling, unable to shake off the aftermath of the nightmare. Anastasia’s desperate screams still echoed in his ears.

Rosa tilted her head and examined him.

“But are you feeling unwell? Your healing should be complete, yet you’re trembling so badly.”

He suddenly remembered that there had been a problem with his divine power. Carefully gathering prana, it moved without any pain, just as before.

“Who… healed me?”

“The princess did it. Sir Parsiel, you were cursed. She negotiated with Kalisa to obtain the method to break it, and it took nearly three hours of attempting to break the curse before she succeeded.”

Paeon threw off the blanket and rose. Perhaps because he had been lying down for so long, he couldn’t keep his balance and staggered. Even so, he threw on his outer clothes roughly and tried to leave the room.

“Sir Parsiel! You need to lie down more. The High Priest said you must rest for a month! If you leave like this, I’ll be scolded!”

Rosa, at a loss, grabbed hold of him. Because the sleeping incense had taken longer than usual to wear off and she had ended up waking Paeon, she might be reprimanded by the High Priest.

But he shook her off roughly.

“I have to go!”

He spoke so fiercely that Rosa flinched and backed away.

She had been afraid of him from the first time she saw him, but over the past few years, caring for Anastasia together had made her think they had grown somewhat closer. It had been a long time since she had seen Paeon with such a terrifying air.

In the end, she could not stop him as he ran out of the room, and could only watch him with worry.

Paeon ignored the people whose eyes went wide at the sight of him and quickly ran to where his horse was. Then he felt something cold touch his chest and fall away.

“…?”

He stopped walking and fumbled below his neck. Something bulging was caught inside his clothes. When he pulled it out, a locket necklace he had never seen before came into view.

Flustered, he examined the necklace, then urgently opened the lid. A small stone and a rolled-up piece of paper fell into his palm.

Afraid it was too small and might drop, he put the stone back into the locket and carefully unfolded the rolled paper. His hands were trembling so much it was hard to unfold.

“…”

And the moment he read what was written on the paper, his face went pale. His heart raced, and the sky turned yellow before his eyes.

“Commander, Commander! Are you awake?!”

Shellman was running toward him. A strange sense of déjà vu washed over him. As if he had been through this just a moment ago.

“I… an urgent report has come in.”

He had no prophetic ability, yet he could predict the next words.

“Princess Anastasia has disappeared.”

◇ ◆ ◇

Outside, the sun had not yet risen, and it was still the dark hours before dawn. Far off, he could hear the waves crashing.

This was a high-class inn near the port of Salamis. Because we had arrived late at night, I had not seen the sea, but the salty scent carried on the wind and the cries of seagulls told me the sea was nearby.

I quietly rose from my seat. Sierra and Yuz were asleep in the very next bed, so I had to move very slowly and quietly.

I slipped an envelope under my pillow. And I gathered my things. My belongings amounted to the letters Leo had given me long ago, a copy of the image stone from when I first summoned my divine beast, a communication stone, and the fox doll Paeon had won for me.

I suppressed my nervousness and glanced at the next bed.

Seeing the priestesses sleeping soundly, unaware of anything, made my eyes sting for no reason. My feet would not move easily, but there was not much time.

I tiptoed to the door, grasped the handle, and just as I was about to open it—

“Princess, where are you going?”

Eeeek! My heart nearly leaped out of my mouth.

Yuz was sitting up, rubbing her eyes and looking drowsy.

“Um… I-I wanted to pee…”

In the end, I gave a humiliating excuse.

“Then you should have woken me.”

“I can go to the bathroom by myself…”

“I’ll go with you.”

She took my hand, puzzled.

“Were you planning to take a doll to the bathroom?”

“Y-yeah… because it’s my friend.”

I stammered. My conscience pricked sharply.

“Khh. Princess, you’re so, so cute…”

I had put the other belongings in a pouch tied to my leg, so Yuz seemed not to have noticed anything.

My heart pounded with tension.

‘Do you have any idea how hard it was to get here!’

The king had absolutely refused to permit it, but I had insisted desperately that if I could not even attend a demonstration, how would we hold the Foundation Day Festival? And so I had made it this far. If not today, there would be no chance again, so I absolutely had to succeed.

“I’ll wait here.”

When we reached the bathroom, Yuz smiled kindly and spoke.

The moment I went inside and closed the door, I hurriedly cast a sound-blocking spell.

“Seclúsĭo.”

A transparent barrier formed around me. After confirming that the sound only echoed inward, I fumbled in the pouch tied to my leg and took out the communication stone.

“Annéxĭo.”

At the activation word, the communication stone lit up with a sparkle.

“Cyrus, it’s me. You calculated the coordinates as I instructed, right?”

—Yes, yes. I’ll send them now. Uwaa, but are you sure my voice is coming through?

He still seemed unable to believe he was using a communication magical tool.

I had given him the first communication magical tool I had made as a prototype. Like the image magical tools I had sold to Brilia, it was something even people without mana could use.

There were still many incomplete parts, but I would have plenty of time to research after arriving at my destination.

“N34, E27…”

I calculated the coordinates he called out in my head and focused all my attention. It was my first time using a sound-blocking spell and portal magic simultaneously, but I was confident I could do it.

“Spatiális ōs.”

Because it was far farther than the distances I usually traveled, an enormous amount of mana drained away.

“Goodbye, Yuz… I’m sorry.”

Before stepping into the portal, I said my farewell, though she wouldn’t hear it.

“Goodbye, Sierra. Goodbye, Rosa…”

I felt like crying. But I had to concentrate. No matter how much of a genius I was, losing focus while casting a spell that demanded such a high degree of concentration would be dangerous.

Whoosh!

The world shook. It was hard to breathe, as if submerged in water, and my whole body felt pressed from all sides. After a few seconds that felt like minutes, I tumbled onto unfamiliar ground.

“Princess!”

Cyrus’s voice fell over my head.

‘It worked.’

I scrambled up and looked around. It was a secluded alley that seemed unlikely to have passersby. All the more so because it was dawn.

Cyrus rummaged through the bag and pulled something out. He draped a very worn outer garment over me, wrapped my snow-white hair tightly in a cloth and piled it on top of my head, and smeared a little mud from a small bottle onto my face.

I became a perfect little beggar child.

“Hurry. There’s less than fifteen minutes until departure.”

“R-right.”

Cyrus took my hand and led the way.

He had arrived here a few days before me. He had already quit his interpreter work in Santra well before that. Because King Ferdinand would not let him go, he had made the excuse that his father was critically ill and he had to return to Brilia.

In the end, the king gave him a generous sum and asked him to return to Santra anytime.

“Phew, I thought I was going to die of fear alone for days, wondering if Princess Aquila might send an assassin.”

“Aquila won’t be able to move easily. She knows she’s caught the king’s eye.”

“Still, you never know. Really, being with the princess, I won’t die a natural death.”

I ignored Cyrus’s grumbling and stared blankly at the sight before me.

I was so amazed by the sea I was seeing for the first time that I couldn’t take my eyes off it. The sea was truly big, big, and big again. There was no way to express it except that it was big. It was incomparable to the river I had seen in Letitia.

“I think that’s the ship.”

The vessel that would carry us was preparing to depart. Perhaps because it was a cargo-passenger ship, it was enormous.

Cyrus hurried to the front of the pier. The official checking the passenger list confirmed his ticket.

“Keven Vispar.”

To escape the risk of being tracked, I had swapped his name with that of a traveler who had recently left Santra.

“Mr. Vispar, you’re in first-class. But that one…”

The official’s gaze lingered on me.

“Ah, a slave… obtained at auction.”

Because slaves are not treated as human, their price is paid but they are not recorded on the list.

Cyrus was sweating profusely with a troubled face. Having to treat me as a slave must have been difficult for him.

‘You little brat! We just need to get through here, so do it right!’

Fortunately, the official seemed to be rather oblivious, because he laughed heartily and winked at him.

“A good choice. Slaves are the finest souvenir one can buy in Santra! Haha.”

Cyrus’s face now went white with insult. I quickly pinched his waist lightly.

“Ow! W-we’ll be going now.”

The moment we boarded, Cyrus scowled and grumbled.

“The princess has turned me into a real piece of trash! Making me a child slave trader!”

“Slave trading is legal in Santra. It’s not like Cyrus is a uniquely terrible person.”

“Did you just naturally call me trash?”

There were quite a few passengers on board. Not long after the king began trade with Brilia, tourism was permitted as well, so wealthy Brilian nobles and merchants came to see Santra. Perhaps unused to Santra’s chilly weather, they were all bundled up tightly.

Booo!

The ship’s horn sounded three times. Did that mean departure?

It was my first time on a ship, and I was so excited that I dragged Cyrus to the bow.

“Ohh, it’s moving! It’s moving! Cyrus, the ship is moving!”

Cyrus looked at me as if dumbfounded.

“Times like this really make me realize the princess is a child. Who would look at that face and know there’s a pitch-black demon inside?”

“Isn’t Cyrus amazed?”

“I’ve been on ships until I was sick of them. And seasick until I was sick of that too. Uh oh… you’ll fall if you do that!”

Because I couldn’t see over the railing at my height, Cyrus ended up lifting me. From his arms, I watched the astonishing scene of the ship cutting through the water.

‘I’m really leaving Santra.’

It was the moment the wish of ten lives came true.

“You seem surprisingly unaffected.”

Cyrus said abruptly.

“About what?”

“You’re leaving your homeland—doesn’t it feel like anything? Was Eldina really that desirable?”

“Well…”

I looked at him and grinned.

“Because I’m coming back.”

“What?!”