Chapter 77 · Cyrus's Choice (5)

“Since you’ve come to Santra, you should follow Santran customs.”

Under Paeon’s murderous aura, Cyrus trembled and nodded in agreement.

“Ah… I-I suppose so. I’ve been rude!”

No, it wasn’t really rude. Forcing the delegation to follow the customs of the country they’re visiting is the ruder thing!

I was dumbfounded, but if it could bring peace, I supposed there was no help for it, so I let it be.

Cyrus shuffled and said, “I’ll go change,” then vanished like lightning and reappeared. But the sight of Cyrus in Paeon’s clothes was so funny that I couldn’t hold back my laughter.

“Pfft-hahaha!”

“Wh-why are you laughing, Princess?”

The clothes were far too big for him and made him look silly, and because his face already gave off such a lewd impression, the modest attire seemed awkwardly out of place.

“N-no, it suits you, Cyrus!”

For the sake of peace, I’ll endure the laughter. I repeated this to myself and spoke cheerfully.

“Then shall we stawt the wesson, teacha?”

“A-already?”

“It’s an intensive couwse, isn’t it? Time is money.”

“Ah… understood. But is that gentleman going to be taking the lesson as well?”

“Papa, what will you do? We’we having a wesson, so awe you going to stay hewe the whole time?”

He frowned, seeming to have no intention of leaving.

“…I cannot leave the princess alone with that man.”

Good grief, why is he so extreme? He may look like a thug, but there’s no one as harmless as Cyrus.

“All wight. Then just wead this in the meantime.”

I tossed him a storybook from the bookshelf. Catching it, he looked wounded in his pride and tried to hand it back.

“This is too… for me to read…”

“It’s the one Mom wead, so be howowed and wead it swowly and cawefuwwy! Besides, Papa has nothing else to do until night anyway.”

At that, Paeon’s eyes wavered slightly, and soon he carefully took the book to another table.

‘I feel like a total tamer of wild beasts.’

Cyrus too seemed impressed by the sight of Paeon obediently following my words, and was looking at me with eyes of respect. It had taken an enormous amount of hardship to reach this point. Sigh.

And so the strange lesson began. We pretended to study while feverishly exchanging notes, and Cyrus was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

[I saw Princess Aquila’s eyes earlier, and I feel like I might die this very day?]

[That won’t happen. But just in case, I’ll install the barrier magical tools I prepared all around Cyrus’s room.]

[Barrier magical tools?]

[Yeah. I made them as powerful as I possibly could. Not only do they block intruders, but if they’re tampered with, a signal comes straight to me.]

Of course, if someone with an enormous amount of mana set their mind to it, they could break through in one blow, but the only one capable of that would be someone like Alter. And someone of that caliber wouldn’t act as an assassin in the middle of the royal palace.

[Wow, the princess really is amazing. I hear barrier magical tools are incredibly difficult to make.]

[When your whole life is nothing but a constant threat to your survival, you end up like this.]

[Isn’t it too early for an eight-year-old to be talking about life?]

[Oh ho, awe you awgumentative with youw own mastah?]

[…I apologize.]

The one whose complexion had improved a little at the mention of barrier magical tools quickly wilted again.

[But if Princess Aquila calls for me right now, what should I say? And what about the herb?]

[This is the hard part, but it’s something Cyrus has to pull off no matter what.]

I pressed my quill hard onto the paper and wrote firmly.

[Cyrus needs to become a double agent.]

Cyrus’s eyes went wide.

[A double agent?!]

[Yes.]

He shook his head vigorously, breaking into a cold sweat with a terrified look.

[I can’t do it! Didn’t you see earlier that my acting is terrible? I’ll be caught for sure!]

[I said it’s something you have to pull off. Think of it as: if you don’t, you die.]

Cyrus’s face turned almost the color of earth.

It wasn’t that I wasn’t worried. There were too many variables, and it was a plan that required taking enormous risk. But even so, it was well worth the challenge.

[Either way, Cyrus has to choose.]

I kept writing.

[If you choose me, give it your all. Then I’ll do my utmost to protect you as well.]

Cyrus swallowed hard. He set down his pen and spoke with a deeply tense face.

“All right. I’ll choose you, Princess.”

I grinned at him. The curtain had now risen on the counterattack.

◇ ◆ ◇

Lunchtime the next day.

Sure enough, Aquila summoned Cyrus. It was under the pretext of offering him tea, but Cyrus was certain the cup set before him was poisoned.

“What is the meaning of this unpleasant sudden behavior?”

She spoke in a low voice, suppressing her anger.

“With what state of mind did you say you’d become the princess’s teacher?”

“…There was a reason, Princess Aquila.”

At the unexpected answer, Aquila raised an eyebrow.

“I see. Then by all means, explain yourself if you have something to say.”

Cyrus took a discreet deep breath. The whole script had been prepared, but he wasn’t sure he could actually pull it off. He thought of Princess Anastasia again. A gentle, adorable face and a small body, utterly different from the sharp beauty Princess Aquila. When he first laid eyes on Princess Anastasia, a surge of pity had welled up in him.

Why go to such lengths to trample on this little girl? It seemed she couldn’t survive even without it being done.

But when he saw Princess Anastasia using divine power and mana at the same time, he understood.

Ah, so this is why she’s feared—because she has special powers.

‘But what good are powers like that? She’s destined to die soon anyway…’

He sighed deeply to himself, thinking of his own uncertain fate and the little girl’s fate. But after meeting her alone outside the banquet hall, his thinking was turned completely upside down.

Princess Anastasia was not someone who should be pitied or sympathized with. Her extraordinary mind and drive made her a worthy rival to Aquila. No—rather, she had something more meticulous and original than she did. He never dreamed that an eight-year-old could seem so impressive. And even more, that a grown man like himself would end up relying on an eight-year-old princess…

‘How is such a thing possible?’

That she could use both divine power and mana was itself hard to believe even after seeing it with his own two eyes. She was a wondrous girl, one who made him wonder if he should convert religions.

“Think carefully about this, Princess Aquila. Isn’t your goal to get rid of Princess Anastasia?”

Cyrus leaned in and whispered.

“…Watch your mouth. This is the palace.”

“I apologize. In any case, I am merely trying to help you achieve your goal.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Princess Anastasia possesses mysterious powers. A mere plague of this scale won’t bring down the title of ‘child of God.’”

Aquila ground her teeth quietly. She knew that herself, but hearing it from someone else’s mouth made it all the more infuriating.

“We must catch a more fatal weakness.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“For example, that the princess… coveted Kalisa’s magic, that is, black magic. How would something like that be?”

A silence fell. Cyrus grew anxious, wondering if something had gone wrong, and his stomach seemed to twist. Then Aquila began to laugh.

“Hahaha…!”

“…”

“Is that all you could come up with?”

She laughed for a while, then rebuked him sharply.

“That is a method I was already considering, even without you.”

Cyrus was inwardly appalled.

‘As expected, just as Princess Anastasia said.’

To think she was trying to kill her own niece by pinning such a horrific false accusation on her. Well, asking him to spread a false cure in the middle of a deadly plague already spreading had been chilling enough.

“I can make that somewhat easier for you.”

Cyrus continued calmly.

“Since I’ll be with Princess Anastasia nearly all day, wouldn’t I be a suitable witness?”

“…You’ll be the witness?”

She looked at him with suspicious eyes.

“I don’t know where this sudden courage came from. You, who were so terrified.”

“I decided that if I’m going to do it, I should help properly—that’s the way to preserve my life.”

“…”

Cyrus nervously waited for her answer. He felt as if his liver had shrunk to a quarter of its size in just a few days. If he kept going through things like this, he wouldn’t die of old age.

“You’re a far cleverer man than I expected.”

Aquila said quietly. She too had a plan but had been unsure how to execute it. It would have been easy if Anastasia had stayed in the palace within her grasp, but the girl had fled to the temple like a rat. Intentional or not, she had been thinking that Anastasia had an excellent talent for clinging to life.

But if Cyrus joined forces with her, things would become much easier.

‘Even if I end up sending him abroad after this is done, I’ll have to use him as a spy in charge of diplomacy.’

Normally she would have killed him the moment he outlived his usefulness, but Cyrus seemed like a man worth keeping around for a long while.

“Very well. If you succeed, I’ll double your payment. In exchange, handle the herb matter as originally planned.”

“Of course, Princess. Thank you!”

Cyrus let out a sigh of relief and rose from his seat. He had passed one hurdle, but another terrifying one still remained. The moment he left Ollentia Palace, he turned his heavy steps toward Ratio Palace, where the king was.

◇ ◆ ◇

“I hear Valherr has been breached.”

“They say the death toll is mounting.”

At that hour, the king was receiving one shocking report after another.

“Valherr is right before the capital… and it fell in a single day?!”

“The speed of the spread is too fast. If we don’t find countermeasures quickly, the capital is in danger as well.”

“They say five southern nobles and nobles in the western province of Lacria have been infected as well.”

The king bowed his head and rubbed his face. With the people’s resentment already running high, the disease had now reached the nobility—the worst possible situation. They would never stay quiet. The authority of the royal family and the temple could be shaken.

“Where is that interpreter that he’s so late? We must obtain the cure at once, even if it costs a fortune.”

“He has just arrived. Shall I show him in?”

The moment Cyrus was practically dragged before the throne, the king asked urgently.

“Well then, have you finished talking with the delegation?”

“Yes. But, um… I apologize, but could I speak with Your Majesty alone? Security is a matter of life and death, you see…”

“Alone?”

Something felt off, but the king dismissed all the knights and priests attending him. This was no time to be choosy.

Once the audience chamber was empty and the two were alone, the king pressed Cyrus.

“Now, speak.”

“I…”

Cyrus trembled all over, then with a deathly pale face, dropped to his knees.

“I have committed a crime worthy of death, Your Majesty! Since I was young I traveled through too many countries and deceived myself. Brilia has never had such a plague.”

“Wh-what did you say?!”