Chapter 37 · The Princess's Choice (2)

Everyone gasped and froze in shock at Anastasia’s bombshell.

“K-kill? Your words are far too harsh! Why on earth would I have any reason to harm the princess?!”

Alter’s face went deathly pale as he shouted, spittle flying.

And seeing Paeon, standing behind her, also start in alarm and fidget, it was clear this was not something someone had put her up to—the princess had done it all on her own.

“Anastasia, what on earth do you mean by that? You may still be young, but you must learn to distinguish between things you may say and things you must not.”

The king also rebuked Anastasia, looking flustered.

No matter that it came from a young child, an accusation of attempting to kill a member of the royal family was a grave matter that could not simply be brushed aside.

“Asha doesn’t tell wies. The Commander of Dinitas poured his mana into Asha. That’s why Asha vomited bwood!”

“What did you say?!”

Mana must never be carelessly sent into another person.

Very occasionally, when a mage is in a critical state from mana depletion, mana may be shared.

But just as one must choose a compatible blood type when giving a blood transfusion, mana of incompatible nature causes a violent rejection reaction, and can threaten the recipient’s life.

“Even though Asha was in pain, the Commander didn’t stop. Not until I vomited bwood.”

The council chamber filled with murmuring.

“If that is true, then I understand why Sir Parsiel was so furious.”

“Of course. There’s no way he would have acted like that without reason.”

“Then does that mean the princess is not suffering from an incurable disease?”

Alter glared at Anastasia until veins stood out in his eyes.

‘That cunning bastard girl is trying to make a fool of me like this.’

“Count Alter! Are the princess’s words true? Why did you do such a thing?!”

“That is…”

Under the king’s pressure, he had no choice but to play the card he had intended to save for later.

“That is because I suspected the princess might be a Polyops.”

“!”

“P-Polyops?”

“You mean dual powers? That cannot be…! I understood the princess could only use mana.”

Everyone was thrown into confusion as twist followed twist.

Moreover, Polyops was a word that had all but vanished from the world, treated almost as an obsolete term.

That a five-year-old could use magic was already absurd—and now a Polyops as well?

“No. I sensed the aura of prana within the princess. I confirmed that Princess Anastasia has also manifested divine power!”

“Th-that is truly so?”

The king sprang to his feet in alarm. His hands were trembling.

“Yes. Of course, at first I was not certain, and I believed verification was necessary, so I used mana on the princess.”

“But… but if the princess truly were a Polyops, she could not possibly be as fine as this… Anastasia, tell me! Is this true?”

Anastasia looked at Alter with contempt, then spoke calmly, as if it were nothing.

“Yes, that’s wight. Asha has divine power now.”

“Th-that cannot be…! A-are you all right? You don’t feel pain?”

“Yes. I’m fine.”

“Lies! That is impossible! Every Polyops, even when several priests poured divine power into them all day long, writhed in agony and died!”

Count Caesar shouted.

It was an extremely rude thing to say, but no one blamed him; rather, several murmured as if in agreement.

“If that is true, we must inform the temple immediately and have measures taken. The princess must be moved to a place cut off from both mana and prana!”

“Everyone seems to want Asha to be in pain.”

Anastasia let out a sigh and quietly murmured a holy word.

Then white light rippled in the air, and with a pop, a divine beast appeared.

It was a small fluffball that looked insignificant, but it clearly had form.

It began to drift softly among the astonished nobles.

“Good heavens! A divine beast! The princess summoned a divine beast!”

“How is such a thing possible…!”

She did not stop there; she recited an activation word as well.

Then snow crystals fluttered down from the air and settled gently on the nobles’ heads.

“Sowwy to disapppoint you, but Asha is fine.”

The nobles, suddenly covered in snow, started in surprise and hurriedly brushed the snow from one another’s hair.

“She even used natural elemental magic… Now I truly have no choice but to believe it. That the princess has become a Polyops.”

“Even after seeing it with my own eyes, I can hardly believe it…”

“How can she be fine after using two powers in succession? That makes no sense…”

“My thoughts differ.”

Alter, who had been quietly watching, strode toward Anastasia.

“The princess is not fine. She is merely averting the crisis temporarily thanks to Sir Parsiel.”

Paeon rushed in front of Anastasia with a tense face and shielded her.

He looked as wary as if facing a duel opponent.

“Sir Parsiel, let me test her for a moment. If the princess is in a stable state, this much should not be greatly dangerous.”

Mana crackled from Alter, but Paeon did not relax his blazing vigilance and raised a powerful barrier around them.

“See for yourselves—why else would Sir Parsiel be this wary? The princess is in a state where even the slightest influence from another person’s mana can rapidly put her in danger.”

“Then that truly is dangerous.”

“It’s not as if only one or two people with mana come and go from the royal palace…”

As the nobles looked at her with concern, Alter raised his voice.

“However, the Alter family is researching a device that blocks both mana and prana! If you permit the adoption, we can accelerate its development for the princess. The princess will become completely safe from that curse!”

That research had been abandoned long ago because it showed little practical effect, but it did not matter.

For now, all he had to do was convince everyone that Anastasia could not live an ordinary daily life.

“…”

Alter looked at Paeon, who could not retort and only glared at him, and smiled triumphantly.

That girl clearly did not know how serious a curse a Polyops was considered.

That was why she had so boldly displayed her power.

She did not even realize how anxious and frantic Paeon was, how his insides must be burning.

Polyops, appearing perhaps once in a century, were all regarded as cursed beings.

At first people had tried to save them, but when they failed to endure the two powers and died one after another, people dismissed it as the result of greed.

They believed it was the punishment that came when humans were too greedy.

So in the end, the royal family and the temple either let them die or confined them so they barely clung to life.

“But it is true that Asha vomited bwood because of the Commander.”

Anastasia, who had been silent, spoke clearly to Alter.

“So that was to determine the princess’s condition precisely—”

“If you wewe cuwious about Asha’s condition, you could have asked fow a fowmal examination.”

She rebuked him as if she truly could not understand.

“But the Commander knew it was a vewy, vewy, vewy dangewous thing to do, and still didn’t ask Asha befowehand. Wight?”

“Th-that is…”

“Asha cannot accept as hew papa someone who puts his own cuwiosity befowe Asha’s safety.”

“…!”

While Alter was flustered, wondering how to answer, Marquis Laselles stepped forward.

“I believe so as well. Count Alter’s actions were unjust.”

He looked at Alter with stern eyes.

“And Count Alter, you are looking at this situation far too negatively.”

“Negatively? The princess is currently as precarious as a lamp in the wind!”

“If the princess had to endure this situation alone, then it would indeed be a curse.”

The marquis turned his gaze to Paeon.

“But Sir Parsiel is at the princess’s side. The one and only person who can help the princess adapt to the two powers.”

“Does that not mean the princess cannot survive without Sir Parsiel?!”

“Think of it the other way. It means that if Sir Parsiel is by the princess’s side, she can survive.”

“That is… that is…!”

“Moreover, the manifestation of the princess’s divine power is proof that she is a ‘child of God,’ just as the oracle announced by the temple declared.”

At those words, the king’s teal eyes trembled.

He seemed to feel some kind of thrill.

“As long as Sir Parsiel remains the princess’s guardian angel, the power that has until now been considered a ‘curse’ is not a curse for the princess. Rather, it will be a ‘blessing.’ She will be recorded in history as the first human to possess two powers!”

Marquis Laselles inwardly admired his own eloquent speech.

But all of this had been arranged in advance not by himself but by the princess, and the situation was unfolding exactly as she had planned and predicted.

‘Truly a terrifying little thing. No—perhaps not a little thing at all…’

“An angel… An angel, yes. Come to think of it, when I first met the princess, she also said she had a revelatory dream. That the angel most cherished by Lord Lux would protect the princess.”

When the king murmured softly as if he had realized something, everyone was surprised.

It was the first they had heard of the dream.

“If that dream and the oracle are true, then will the princess truly be recorded as the first ‘complete Polyops’ in history?”

“If that happens, Santra’s standing will rise beyond measure. It is something impossible unless it is the will of God.”

“Wait a moment! It is also dangerous to view the situation too positively!”

Alter, his handsome face heavily contorted, pointed at Paeon in his fury.

“Can Sir Parsiel take responsibility for the princess’s life? I am asking whether he can carry out such a grave duty while also performing his role as commander!”

As Paeon hesitated with a troubled expression, Anastasia shouted instead.

“Papa is going to stay by my side. We pwomised that he would nevew, evew weave Asha.”

Paeon’s pupils shook greatly.

Because he had never made such a promise.

But Anastasia ignored his visible shock and continued.

“Compawe to the Commander, who was about to hand Asha ovew, doesn’t Papa seem much mowe wike a ‘weal papa’?”

“Princess…!”

“If you want to become Asha’s papa, then fwom now on, please twy to make a good impwession on Asha. If you wowk at it fow a few yeaws, Asha might at weast think about it. But,”

She smiled brightly and drove the point home coldly.

“Wight now, I think you need to wowk on youw chawactew fiwst.”