Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 242
Never Mind the Heir, I’ll Focus on Healing — Chapter 242
“Yeah…?”
Freyania, who had been cheering, froze with her arms raised high and scanned the mansion.
Something about the atmosphere felt off.
It felt strangely deflated, yet tense at the same time.
Freyania sheepishly lowered her boldly raised arms and carefully surveyed her surroundings.
‘Could my teacher have been… injured?’
…That seemed to fit too, but it felt strangely different from the atmosphere Freyania sensed.
And then…
*Perk.*
Freyania focused all her attention on her pointed ears.
“The young master has woken up, hasn’t he?”
“I suppose so, seeing as the family head just entered the recovery room.”
“That’s such a relief! I was afraid he’d fallen seriously ill again, like before…”
“No. I heard rumors that it might be Mana Growing Pains.”
“Huh? I heard it was motion sickness.”
Judging by the situation, it seemed her teacher had indeed been unwell.
But the atmosphere was one of relief now that he’d regained consciousness.
So what in the world was this tension?
At that moment.
Salamander, who had been standing majestically on Freyania’s soiled hat, suddenly shrank back and slithered *shhhk* into its owner’s arms.
“Salamander?”
Freyania looked at Salamander with a puzzled expression.
Strange. No matter how intimidated it was, it never hid itself this much.
Since it was strange, she had to check it out for herself.
“Th-they said he’s in the recovery room, right…?”
Freyania dumped the bundle as big as herself in a corner of the hallway and crept toward the recovery room.
As she passed through the long corridor and drew closer to where her teacher was, Freyania came to an abrupt halt when the tension intensified.
Now she understood.
This wasn’t tension at all.
“Th-this is…!”
It was an intense sense of presence beyond words.
She had experienced something similar, though not the same.
It was back when she’d been kidnapped by Elvia and woke up in the Asteri basement.
But the aura was different from that.
One she had never felt once in this mansion.
No, a crushing intensity she’d never experienced in her entire life!
*Gulp.*
Freyania swallowed hard from the tension.
‘One of the servants definitely called it Mana Growing Pains…’
Mana Growing Pains were a kind of growth pain mages experienced when they surpassed their limits and entered a new realm.
If that was the case, then this had to be her teacher’s aura.
‘Wh-what exactly happened while I was away?’
Freyania was horrified.
She couldn’t even dare to properly assess it.
No, she wasn’t even sure she could endure it if she opened this recovery room door.
Based on pure instinct, it felt comparable to the dragons she’d read about in fairy tales back in the Elf Country.
A primal sense of awe and fear rose from her deepest instincts.
“H-haaaah…!”
No. Still, there was no one as kind and good as her teacher.
Even if she was crushed by this aura, that didn’t mean he was no longer her teacher!
‘A-and besides, considering his abilities, it’s only natural he would emit this kind of aura…’
Freyania composed herself and clenched her fist to knock on the recovery room door.
At that moment.
“Little one.”
“Eeek!”
Startled by the voice from behind, Freyania jumped and flattened herself against the wall with a *slap*.
“As timid as ever, I see.”
Elvia raised one corner of her mouth in a smirk at the sight.
‘Has she grown a little?’
Before leaving the mansion, she was barely as tall as a cane…
“You’ve grown taller than a cane.”
“I was always tall!”
“Ho. You’ve learned to talk back too.”
Guess I’m not that scary anymore, huh?
Freyania’s face turned pale at Elvia’s words.
In truth, even though she talked back like this, Elvia was one of the most terrifying presences to Freyania.
“W-why are you here…?”
“Didn’t I tell you last time? When you speak, you must do so clearly.”
Before Freyania could pout and talk back, Elvia continued.
“If you’ve come to see the young master, go and make yourself presentable first.”
“Excuse me?”
“Since you’ve come to the recovery room, you must be aware. The young master is not well at the moment. Appearing in that state is not appropriate.”
“Ah…!”
Freyania finally looked down at herself.
She hadn’t paid it any mind, but now that she thought about it, the witch was right.
Moreover, even if her teacher was perfectly fine, she shouldn’t meet him in such attire.
It was simply a matter of manners!
“If you understand, then go back quickly.”
At Elvia’s firm words, Freyania couldn’t even reply and trudged back dejectedly.
“You wouldn’t be able to endure it if you went in right now anyway.”
Elvia muttered to herself while watching the small, squat half-elf kid retreating.
That half-elf kid would pass out the instant she entered the sickroom anyway.
‘Though Petrick and I are keeping it in check.’
The dragon’s aura emanating from the puppy’s body was quite strong.
Judging by how it was slowly weakening, it seemed it would naturally subside after some time…
‘No need to make her faint unnecessarily.’
Of course, that would have been quite an amusing spectacle, but she could consider it a reward for her long-awaited return.
And truthfully, there was already plenty of entertainment unfolding inside.
‘I should go back in and catch the rest of the show.’
Imagining Petrick’s speechless face from a moment ago, Elvia chuckled and opened the recovery room door.
A lively commotion leaked out through the small gap in the door.
“Grrrrr!”
“Squeak! Squeaaak!”
Pooch growled toward the window with its fur standing on end, while Nature flapped its wings as though urging an attack.
“The kids say they’ll accept it if you become a minion.”
And over there somewhere was the puppy conversing with a dragon’s soul.
—M-Me, a minion? That’s absurd!
“Haaaaaah…”
Finally, the sigh of Petrick, who had allowed all of this and couldn’t bear to leave his beloved grandson behind in this mess.
There were more non-humans here than humans, yet it smelled so vividly of life.
‘You really do live long enough to see everything.’
Elvia stifled her laughter and closed the recovery room door.
* * *
Meanwhile, having heard the report from Rickshel and Marquis Bydantis, the Second Prince crooked one corner of his mouth upward.
“‘There are witnesses to the death, but none who have seen the corpse.’ Is that so.”
Interesting.
The Second Prince’s eyes were utterly cold as he said this.
“That is correct.”
…
It had begun as just an ordinary disappearance in the imperial palace.
Calling a disappearance ordinary was a ridiculous thing to say, but in truth, people disappearing and being covered up in the imperial palace was a common occurrence.
Marquis Bydantis and Rickshel had only intended to dig up this incident to cover the Second Prince and Lion’s absence of a few days.
But this case—
was strange.
No, it bordered on bizarre.
As stated earlier, there were multiple witnesses to the murder scenes.
‘More precisely, the circumstances.’
Rickshel recalled the report he had organized and submitted in his head.
The two had decided to dig into the most recent disappearance and immediately put their plan into action.
Coincidentally, it involved a lady-in-waiting newly selected by the Empress.
It was a suitable commotion for the imperial palace, just enough.
So, while gathering evidence, an old attendant gave his testimony.
‘No, they made him testify.’
Money and power.
There was nothing they could not accomplish when backed by physical force, and Rickshel never hesitated to use them when he deemed it necessary.
He had softened a lot lately thanks to his brother, but Rickshel was still the heir who would one day lead the Asteri family.
The attendant said that he had
witnessed a lady-in-waiting die.
To be precise, she had followed a person presumed to be one of the Empress’s people, moved away, and was never seen again.
—Since there were frequent cases of people dying after running their mouths in the imperial palace, he had wanted to at least recover the unfortunate lady-in-waiting’s body…
—That’s a lie.
—M-My apologies. The truth is, if he recovered the bodies of the missing ladies-in-waiting, their families would show him a token of gratitude…
Rickshel skimmed through the contents of the report in his mind.
This wasn’t the important part.
The final interrogation of this attendant. That was the core of the case.
—But… there wasn’t even a trace.
—Normally, when making someone disappear in the imperial palace, at least a minimal trace of blood or signs of a struggle should remain. At the very least, the lawn should be damaged.
—I was someone who erased such traces and returned the bodies.
—But there was no body, and no trace. It had truly evaporated.
—All the recent missing persons have been like this.
—Isn’t something… strange about this?
All the recent missing persons.
“And these ‘recent missing persons’ have been occurring since I became a prince?”
“Yes.”
“Ha.”
The Second Prince let out a cold, mirthless laugh.
“I’m finally getting an outline of how that dim-witted First Prince managed to pull his spiteful trick on me.”
“This trick… are you referring to that curse?”
Marquis Bydantis, who had been silent until now, slowly opened his mouth.
“If it is that curse, the cost doesn’t add up.”
“Could you explain?”
At Rickshel’s question, the Marquis nodded.
After all, there was probably no one among them who didn’t know what had happened in the Bydantis family.
It didn’t matter.
Thanks to Petrick Asteri’s consideration, the information would only have been released after the matter was concluded.
“A curse demands a large amount of blood and flesh, but if it was merely a curse for ‘spite,’ the blood and flesh of a few humans and animals would have been sufficient.”
In short, the effect was far too insignificant compared to what had been paid.
“…”
The Second Prince furrowed his brows for a moment but soon had no choice but to concede.
The spiteful trick the First Prince had pulled was quite an annoying curse.
If he had never been cursed even once before, it was highly likely he wouldn’t have been able to function properly from this alone.
However, it didn’t kill instantly.
For all the missing persons in this imperial palace to have been used, the curse was definitely too weak.
“Demons do not use numbers without a corresponding price.”
If anyone knew, it was Marquis Bydantis.
If they wanted power, it was exactly the amount of power they received.
If they wanted a curse, it was exactly the curse they received.
“…That means.”
“It means someone else is preparing something.”
“Or pinning it on someone else.”
The three didn’t speak, but they all simultaneously thought of one person.
The Empress.
There were plenty of possible motives to guess at.
But—
“It’s strange.”
Rickshel said, looking troubled.
“The Empress has many cards she could play. So why use the most dangerous method of all?”
The moment he finished speaking.
*Knock, knock.*
With a light knock, an attendant entered and hastily opened his mouth.
“Your Highness, my apologies for interrupting, but right outside…”
“Haha. I’m sorry, but I must intrude for a moment.”
Before the attendant could finish his sentence, the door opened and a man with a benevolent face entered.
He wore a pure white clerical robe that clashed with the imperial palace.
“Forgive me for entering unbidden while you were conversing with your dear friends.”
The Archbishop stood before the three of them with a leisurely smile.
*Glance.*
At the Second Prince’s signal, the attendant broke into a cold sweat, closed the door, and disappeared.
It was a matter where the attendant couldn’t be blamed.
It was unusual for a priest to enter the imperial palace.
Even if they did, it was only at the Emperor’s palace.
And moreover, this man wasn’t just any priest, but the Archbishop.
He had even deliberately avoided meeting the Second Prince.
It was likely that he wished to avoid tying politics and the temple together because of this curse.
Yet here he was…
“To think you would honor us with your visit.”
Since he didn’t seem like he’d leave anyway, I might as well hear his reason.