Healing (1)
Ricardo being in the Imperial Palace today was no accident.
“Just go to the palace today, in case something happens.”
“...What?”
That morning, Lobelia had made the request out of nowhere.
“Why the palace? I don’t have any business there. Why would I need to go?”
“I heard this from somewhere too, but I got a tip that Cartesia woman might be heading to the palace.”
Lobelia gave a helpless shrug, wearing an expression that said she honestly didn’t understand it herself.
“You know how Her Highness has been following our brother around like a dog lately, right? Letitia said that if Cartesia goes to the palace, there’s a chance our brother will tag along too.”
“...That low-born scum, in the palace? What the hell would he even be there for?”
Ricardo’s mouth turned ugly at the mention of the name he hated hearing from Lobelia’s lips.
At that, Lobelia’s face hardened, and she shot him a sharp glare.
“Ricardo, no matter what you say, Sian is my brother. And I’m Sian’s little sister. Don’t you realize that when you insult Sian like that, you’re dragging me into it too?”
“You’re not the same as someone like Sian, Lobelia. You don’t even share blood with that bastard in the first place.”
Ricardo sounded dismissive, but there was real conviction behind the words.
Sian and Lobelia, for all appearances, didn’t resemble siblings in the slightest.
From their faces to the atmosphere they gave off, there was nothing about that lowly bastard Sian that could compare to his foster sister.
Besides, unlike that vermin Sian, Lobelia has tremendous spirit affinity.
Long, long ago, the first emperor who founded the empire had taken a nonhuman “someone” as his mate, and that bloodline had been passed down through every member of the imperial family to this day.
Because of that, those who could truly be called direct imperial descendants each possessed some special ability, even if the type and scale differed. In Ricardo’s case, he had been born with the ability to summon spirits.
Unfortunately, Ricardo’s spirit-summoning ability was by no means strong enough to show off with confidence in front of others.
Ricardo himself had given up on developing it quickly enough and shifted his focus to refining the sword.
That must have been why he’d decided to make Lobelia, who had tremendous spirit affinity, his lover—and further, intended to make her the crown princess.
For the sake of his future, and for the child Lobelia would one day bear him, Ricardo had regarded her as his equal. And precisely for that reason, he had come to despise the contrast that was Sian even more deeply.
By now, he no longer needed Letitia or Lobelia to fan the flames; he had long since learned to hate Sian on his own.
“Fine. If you put it that way, going to the palace once doesn’t sound too bad. It has been quite a long time since I last had an audience with His Majesty, anyway.”
He didn’t know what business Sian and Cartesia had at the palace, but if the information was reliable, then interfering with them wouldn’t be a bad use of his time.
With that lighthearted thought, the moment Ricardo entered the palace, he somehow ended up face-to-face with Cartesia and Sian.
And then—
“Shut your mouth.”
“...What?”
“I said shut the hell up, Ricardo.”
For a split second, Ricardo wondered if he’d imagined it.
After all, in all his life until now, there had never been a single person anywhere in the world who had spoken to him like that.
But only for a moment. Once Ricardo realized what Sian had just said, rage surged through him for real.
“Ha! You’ve completely lost your mind, you bastard! To dare spit that kind of filth at me, the Crown Prince of the Empire, inside the Imperial Palace where His Majesty resides—and still think you’ll get to walk out of here unharmed—”
And then it happened.
“...Ah.”
All at once, Ricardo realized he couldn’t breathe properly.
The reason was simple. The air around him had begun to grow heavy, as if it possessed weight.
.....
The sky stretched endlessly high. The horizon expanded without limit, and everything around him lost meaning in an instant.
In Ricardo’s world, drained of all color, only one thing remained fully intact: Sian.
And the moment he met Sian’s eyes, Ricardo felt fear.
Because something in those eyes awakened the primal terror of human beings.
It felt as though some enormous monster had opened its jaws right in front of him.
That horrifying sensation was Sian’s killing intent aimed directly at Ricardo.
“Ugh, ah...”
Language collapsed in Ricardo’s mouth and scattered into the air as useless noise.
Cold sweat ran down his spine. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t breathe.
He was scared. Terrified. He wanted to run away from that gaze right this second—anywhere, anywhere at all—
Just as Ricardo, unable to endure any longer, was about to crumple to the floor in disgrace and scream for help—
BOOOOM!
A massive explosion suddenly thundered behind them.
Of everyone there, the first person to realize where it had happened and what had caused it was Cartesia.
“Arieta!”
Cartesia let out a cry that was almost a scream and immediately turned toward the only hope left in this place.
“Let’s go, Sian. We don’t have time to waste arguing with my brother any longer. Arieta—Arieta is in danger. Something must have happened to her, I know it!”
Sian, after glancing once at Ricardo, who was still on the floor and looked ready to piss himself at any moment, gave him a contemptuous look and quietly nodded.
“Yeah. Looks like we don’t have time to stand around here. Let’s hurry.”
At Sian’s contemptuous words, Ricardo felt as if he had been slapped awake.
Could it be... I was afraid of him?
Him, the only Crown Prince of the Empire, the man who would one day rule it all, cowering before a lowly bastard and collapsing onto the floor?
The very same Sian he’d always looked down on and called worthless?
Had he really not only been beaten down by him in a duel, but also come to feel fear?
“Stop right there!”
When Sian shot him a look and turned, Ricardo had to squeeze out every ounce of strength in his body just to keep himself from sitting back down on the floor.
“Where exactly do you think you’re going? The palace isn’t some place outsiders can wander in and out of whenever they please!”
“That’s none of your business, brother. This is our affair, and I think you’d do better to focus on your own.”
Cartesia’s icy reply twisted Ricardo’s face.
She was right, of course. He had forced them to stop simply because he couldn’t rein in his emotions, so he had no justification for holding them here.
But that didn’t matter.
Ricardo simply wanted to obstruct Sian—however he could—for the terrible fear and humiliation he’d just been made to feel.
“From what I’m hearing, it sounds like you’re headed to the palace where Arieta is staying. I’ll allow Cartesia, since she’s related to that thing, but I absolutely cannot allow Sian to go there. A mere low-born nobody, not even a noble, daring to step wherever the imperial family resides without permission. What business could he possibly have there, and whose approval did he get?”
“W-well...”
At Ricardo’s pressure, Cartesia bit hard into her lower lip.
Whatever else, there was no way she could reveal to Ricardo why she and Sian were heading to Arieta’s palace.
Above all, if Ricardo discovered Sian’s ability, the worst possible outcome could become reality.
“Ha! This is laughable. There’s no way you snuck into the palace like rats, so clearly some idiot gave him permission to enter... What a lunatic. To let someone like that into the palace so casually. I swear I’ll find out who it was and have him thrown out of the palace—”
“Is that so? That’s a very frightening thing to say, Ricardo.”
Step.
Footsteps approached from behind.
And as if by agreement, everyone present turned toward the sound.
They all froze in place.
“Sian, was it? The boy standing next to Cartesia.”
He was a middle-aged man with the bearing of a lion.
Simply by walking, he commanded everyone’s attention; merely by existing here, he dominated the room. He was the kind of man for whom standing above others seemed as natural as breathing.
“The insane fool who granted that boy permission to enter the palace was none other than me.”
It was, in fact, the Emperor of the Empire.
“So... what was it you just said? Ricardo, was it? You personally... were going to drive me out of the palace?”