The Prince's True Face
The sleeping Princess Canaby was still beautiful. Her coldly hardened form exuded a chilling fear, and approaching her felt as though it would be a grave sin.
“Sister…”
Unlike me, Princess Reciel approached Princess Canaby without hesitation. My suggestion to visit her together had been accepted as a matter of course, and I had been certain she would not refuse.
“Her body is cold. The air around her is cold too. Can we not warm her?”
“Her body is cold likely because her physical functions have ceased. A low temperature may be necessary for a body in stasis. I believed it best not to alter the environment, as there would be no way to respond if a problem arose from doing so.”
“…I see. I spoke out of turn.”
“Instead, I will bring a thicker blanket to cover her.”
“Yes. I would appreciate that.”
Princess Reciel watched the sleeping Princess Canaby for a long time. I suspected she was drawing strength from the sight of her once more.
“Come to think of it, there was something I wished to ask.”
“Something to ask?”
“The potions you took with you. Have the results come back?”
“You were concerned about that?”
Princess Reciel looked startled, then smiled as she spoke.
“Not all the results are in yet, but every one of them had horrifically dangerous effects.”
“Then none of them could have saved the princess.”
“Still, I will not give up. There are still some results pending. Moreover, I expected potions from three hundred years ago to be inferior, but they say the efficacy is actually superior. The medicinal herbs of the past must have been far more potent than they are now.”
It was not on the level of comparing it to my previous life, but this world too had its share of environmental pollution. It was only natural that herbs from three hundred years ago would show an enormous difference.
“I am considering whether we might create a medicine to save my sister using those ancient potions.”
Of course, the simplest method was always to slay the monster responsible. But since we could not know what the changed Labyrinth’s terrain would be, we could not devote everything to finding the monster. I felt a sense of admiration that Princess Reciel was wisely considering multiple possibilities and managing the situation accordingly.
“Sister, I will come again. I will bring good news next time, so please wait for me.”
She whispered in a small voice, but the space was so quiet that every word reached my ears. Why did that earnest voice tug so painfully at my heart?
“Ah, and I do not know if you would be curious, but just in case, I should mention that Prince Loras returned safely.”
“Ah! So he managed to escape when the Ice Castle collapsed.”
“Yes. I thought he would at least be injured, but he came back without a single scratch, which rather dampened my spirits. The soldiers, on the other hand, were all in terrible shape.”
“Were the soldiers badly hurt?”
“Yes. They are all very grateful to you. They said that if they had remained there without receiving treatment, more than half of them would have died.”
“Was it that serious? Well, that giant spider was certainly ominous.”
Princess Reciel paused for a moment before speaking.
“Would you be willing to treat them again?”
“Treat them myself?”
We were not even inside the Labyrinth, and there were plenty of priests here. It was bewildering that they would specifically request treatment from me.
“Some of the soldiers asked to be treated by you. Of course, I ignored the request so as not to trouble you… but I felt I could not simply dismiss their wishes without asking.”
“Please send all of them who wish it to the temple without stopping them.”
“I knew you would say that.”
The fact that they specifically wanted treatment from me felt significant.
Is there a reason behind it?
Even if there was no particular reason, it did not matter. They might simply have spoken that way because they had experienced my skill firsthand. If that was the case, then it was all the more reason to step forward and treat them. There was nothing wrong with being acknowledged by patients for one’s abilities.
“Greetings, Priest.”
“Please come in.”
Strangers entered the temple and walked straight toward me, which startled me—until I looked closely at their faces and recognized them.
“We heard from Princess Reciel that you would be willing to treat us.”
“Yes… We hesitated a great deal, thinking we would be a burden. But we heard you accepted gladly. Thank you so much.”
“It is only natural for a priest to treat patients. I am rather proud that you trusted me enough to make such a request. Ah! But this is not the time for talk—everyone must be in pain, so let us begin treatment. You received emergency care, I assume?”
“No. We did not.”
“What?”
They had not even received emergency treatment?
“If it would not be too presumptuous, may we speak with you in private?”
“…This way, please.”
As I suspected, they had not come purely for treatment. Since I had intended to use the intensive care room anyway, finding a place to guide them was easy. Once inside the room, I had the patients sit down.
“It seems you have something you wish to tell me. Would you speak slowly?”
“Well, you see…”
Their story was as follows.
“The Queen Spider was unimaginably large. We should never have destroyed the eggs… The spiders themselves did not react when we killed them, but the moment we touched the hatchery, the Queen Spider began to move.”
After destroying the hatchery, the party had been unable to withstand the enraged Queen Spider’s assault and fled desperately.
“When we emerged, we learned that His Highness the Prince had gone missing. We had no choice but to return to the Ice Castle where the Queen Spider was rampaging.”
Their faces were filled with terror as they recalled that moment.
“We did not want to go, but if we had simply fled, we would have been held accountable and executed upon returning. We had no other option.”
“There were massive casualties there. The only reason we managed to escape at all was because the priest watched over us. It is not easy to receive such luck twice.”
“The one fortunate thing was that His Highness the Prince was found unconscious in the Queen Spider’s lair.”
“We barely managed to bring him out. The Queen Spider was occupied killing the others outside, so it paid us no mind. We thought the gods were helping us.”
The real story began from there.
“It was not easy to say this. I hope you will not think it a lie and will hear us out.”
“Speak. I will not take it as a joke.”
Gulp.
The thoroughly tense men lowered their voices and began to speak.
“We are not certain whether the prince we rescued is truly Prince Loras.”
“…Pardon? Are you saying you brought back the wrong person?”
These were people who had lived in close proximity to Prince Loras. They would not mistake someone who merely resembled him.
“No. His appearance and voice are definitely those of the prince.”
“Then what is the issue?”
“He has become… strange. We have no concrete evidence, unfortunately. But we know. We can tell that something is wrong.”
“Could you explain in any way?”
“He has become extremely cruel. We understand that a person can change after being left alone in shock, but even taking that into account, it is too strange.”
Without concrete evidence or a detailed explanation, there was nothing I could do. As I was pondering how to handle this, they finally seemed to recall something and spoke.
“He has become gloomy!”
“Ah… gloomy.”
At this point, it seemed like nothing more than a misunderstanding caused by him stopping his usual act…
“Um, well…”
At that moment, a young-looking man hesitantly raised his hand, drawing everyone’s attention.
“I saw something. It was such an unseemly sight that I thought I must have been mistaken and was going to keep quiet. But since I was not the only one who felt something was off, I thought I should tell you what I saw.”
“What? What did you see?”
The others looked surprised, as if this was something they had not discussed among themselves.
“Well… His Highness the Prince…”
“Oh, just spit it out already!”
“I’m afraid you won’t believe me because it sounds too absurd.”
“We will decide that after hearing it, so hurry up!”
“He was… controlling monsters!!”
“!!!”
“!!!”
Everyone fell silent, stunned by the bombshell statement. It was a claim that crossed far too many lines.
“You really do tell the strangest jokes.”
“Haha, y-yes? I must have seen it wrong after all.”
“Could you tell us in detail?”
The memory of Sister Melody paying close attention to Prince Loras surfaced in my mind, and the claim suddenly seemed plausible. When I showed interest in what they had thought I would dismiss as nonsense, their faces turned ashen and they trembled. The fact that I was taking it seriously must have made them realize it could actually be true.
“Th-that is all. I was so terrified that I ran away. I thought I would die if I was caught.”
There was much more I wanted to hear, but it was clear their lives had been in danger, so I spoke.
“You did well. You were not discovered, correct?”
“He probably does not know.”
“Do not drink any alcohol for the time being, and do not tell anyone else. You must keep your mouths shut, even for the sake of your families’ lives.”
The word “family” seemed to strike them deeply; their faces turned deathly pale, as if they had seen a ghost.
“…Yes.”
“Everyone will keep quiet if they want to live.”
“Yes. You came to me knowing this was no light matter. That means you must never speak of it elsewhere.”
“We will erase the memory entirely.”
“Yes. We will erase it completely.”
“What were we talking about just now?”
“We came here for treatment, so we must have been talking about treatment.”
“Right, right. That is it! That is it.”
“Aigoo, my whole body suddenly hurts, Priest.”
The sight of them suddenly groaning in pain was so comical that I could not help but laugh.