The Price of Rashness
The Price of Rashness
Time that flowed peacefully moves slowly.
The faint sunlight lingering over Mother's head scatters, and her body... collapses down.
The sound of a teacup crashing against the floor and breaking.
The dull thud of a human body falling onto the ground.
As the scene unfolds beyond my vision, an instant feels as long as eternity.
Even as I watch Mother collapsing from afar, both of my feet are frozen.
While I am unable to move even a single fingertip at the unreal sight, Mother's body touches the cold floor.
Faint breathing sounds starting to scatter across the floor.
A chilly, heavy silence filling the room.
Right after,
"Kyaaaaaaak!!"
A scream.
"Mother!!"
Only then does my body move.
Acting didn't even cross my mind. The moment I saw collapsed Mother, I shouted a sound like a scream from my mouth and ran toward her.
Running right in front of Mother, just before my hand could reach her, the arms of knights blocked my path.
"What is this?! Why are you blocking me!!"
"It is dangerous, Your Majesty. You must not lay a hand on her."
"What are you talking about! Mother... Mother collapsed!!"
Despite my words, the knight blocking my way shakes his head left and right.
"It could be some kind of curse. We will move her first."
"Th-that...!"
I tried to say something, but words would not come out of my mouth.
It was true. Even I knew that having their trained arms support and move Mother was far better than my own small, panicked hands flailing helplessly.
However, I didn't have even a fingernail's worth of composure left right now to think about such things calmly.
"Then what are you doing! Move quickly then!!"
"...Please forgive our impudence."
When I shouted in panic, they nodded and lifted Mother up. Then they went out through the door that a maid had opened in advance. I also ran, following them.
There was no way I could keep up with the speed of a trained knight, far beyond even the difference between an adult and a child, but such things weren't inside my head.
The place where the priest is located is outside the Imperial Palace. Inside the Imperial Palace, even a priest's healing magic cannot be used. Even if we called a priest, there was nothing they could do, so we had to go there.
While sprinting down the corridor to the extent that my vision turned white and I couldn't see anything, I ended up bumping into someone who suddenly appeared.
Only after the other person's hand caught and stood up my body, which almost fell due to the collision, did I lift my head to see who it was.
"Are you alright, Your Majesty?"
It was the Lord Protector.
"Lord Protector! R-Right now Mother! Mother is...!!"
"I have heard of the situation. I have sealed off all exits of the Imperial Palace, except for the place Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager is going. Your Majesty should also return to your quarters for now."
What?
What is he talking about?
"Mother!! Mother collapsed, and you're telling me to...!"
"That is precisely why Your Majesty must return to your quarters."
I glared at the Lord Protector.
Only then could I see the face of the Lord Protector, which hadn't been visible through my panic.
He was looking at me without wearing any expression.
With dark eyes showing not a single trace of vitality, worse than usual, he slowly, very slowly scanned me from the tips of my toes to the top of my head.
A bizarre desire whose bottom could not be known. And hatred. Even while knowing the situation was urgent, I took a step back without realizing it.
The Lord Protector smiled.
"W-What are you talking about! Me, return?! I said Mother collapsed!!"
Overwhelmed by that appearance, I intentionally squeezed out my voice and shouted to shake off the fear. However, a trembling leaked from the voice that failed to erase its emotions.
"As I told you, it is precisely 'because of that,' Your Majesty. Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager has suffered a misfortune. In a state where we have not identified who committed such an act, we cannot predict what dangers might exist outside the Imperial Palace."
The Lord Protector said I must stay in the safest place. As if the Imperial Palace, as if my quarters were such a place. He uttered words I had never once thought of in that way until now.
I wanted to say something, but the breath spinning idly in my mouth failed to become words and merely leaked away.
There were no words I could say. What more could I possibly say here?
The Lord Protector's words were entirely correct. If I went outside the Imperial Palace right now, that could become an even bigger problem. No matter how much I worried about Mother, I could not leave.
"Do not worry, Your Majesty. I will thoroughly uncover every last detail of this situation, hunt down the rat lurking in this Imperial Palace without fail, and hold them accountable for their crime. On my honor as Maximilian, I will do so without fail."
At those words, I ultimately couldn't say anything and could only bow my head.
"...I understand. Please... please take care of Mother...!"
"Yes. Of course, Your Majesty."
I bit down hard on my molars. A fishy metallic taste lingered in my mouth. All throughout following the escort knight to head to my quarters as the Lord Protector instructed, it felt as though a sharp dagger was pressed against the back of my head.
Kung, the door to my quarters closed.
Busy footsteps echoing beyond the door, shouts sounding like screams. Yet inside the room, it was quiet. While the entire Imperial Palace reverberated noisily, silence hung over my room alone.
With movements as if my soul had been drained, I slowly moved my feet and threw my body onto the bed as if collapsing directly onto it.
My mind spun endlessly in circles.
Why?
How come?
Why of all times right now?
An assassination attempt directed at Mother. There was no need to even think about who was behind it. Within this Imperial Palace, the only person capable of that was a single person, the Lord Protector.
If so, a question ultimately arises. Why Mother instead of me? The thorn in his eye is me. He should have had no reason to eliminate Mother.
If so then?
In an instant, a goosebump-inducing sensation surged through my whole body.
Grimus. The duel. The magic used and the severed wooden sword. The training ground cleaned up spotlessly without leaving a single trace behind. The vanished wooden training sword.
──It's me.
The breath entering through my mouth fails to reach my lungs.
I suffocate, and my vision blurs.
──Because I... used magic.
"Heok... heok... heok...!"
──That trace... moved the Lord Protector.
Gastric juice rises up to my throat. Overwhelmed by nausea, I wanted to vomit, but if I did something like that right now, the knights outside the door would hear the sound.
No matter how incredible the Lord Protector was, he couldn't have conclusively asserted that I used magic while ignoring the barrier maintained for hundreds of years.
Even if he couldn't be certain, that monster finally began suspecting me. That was why he tried to confirm it.
He pushed me to the absolute limit and tested me with Mother's life as the stake.
I don't know what he suspected. But he truly suspected me and was aiming a blade's tip at my neck.
All of it... all of it was my fault. There must have been another way. Accepting that match in the first place was a mistake. Even if the other children could have been incapacitated beyond recovery, I should have run to the Lord Protector that day. That was the right choice.
I had been arrogant. I was drunk on my newly acquired ability. I was swept up in a sense of omnipotence as if I had become the protagonist of a story.
This was the price of that childish folly.
Mother, who was completely blameless, drank the poison in my stead.
Reason collapsed under the pain of my guts being torn apart. I felt like going crazy right this instant.
It felt as if this world was telling me, 'You will accomplish nothing.'
It felt as if it was telling me that because I took action, everything was hurtling toward the worst possible outcome.
"...! ......!"
A scream that failed to become sound lingered.
...Not yet.
Not yet, Mother isn't dead. She couldn't be dead. If the Lord Protector committed such an act to observe my reaction, there was a high possibility he avoided extreme poisons of the instant-death variety.
I cannot be broken now.
If that's how you're going to play, I will play completely mad for you.
So that he will think even the Lord Protector's suspicion was merely a fleeting illusion. Even if I have to drink muddy water and lick his shoes, I will tenaciously survive.
Someday, without fail, I will tear open his throat with my teeth.
A night where not even the moon had risen.
I swore to myself.
From now on, I am starting not a fight to survive,
but a fight to kill the Lord Protector.
Like that, I swore.
And the next day.
The indifferent morning sunlight was falling down coldly through the window bars.
Sleep... I could not sleep.
Tok tok, a knock echoed, perhaps to check if I had woken up. When I said "Come in" in a lifeless voice, the door opened with a kkiik sound.
Lying down, I turned only my head to look over there, and the Lord Protector was standing there.
A neat, solemn, matte black uniform without a speck of dust. The Lord Protector revealed his plain appearance just as it was, without a single ornament he usually wore on his body.
Above those clothes, an emotionless face was looking at me.
I stood up powerlessly from my spot.
And looking at the Lord Protector, I offered a slightly bright smile.
Arriving mechanically right in front of me, he lightly bowed his head as he always did.
"Mother... what happened to Mother?! Has she gotten better?!"
I opened my mouth, filled with expectation.
Closing his eyes for a moment at my question and taking a breath, he spoke in a voice so dry it felt frozen solid.
"Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager,"
with brevity that could not be stripped down any further,
"has just passed away."
Ah.
"What... what do you mean by that?"
Stop it.
"It means Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager... has gone to God's side."
Please.
"So, you mean she was sick and went to a place with more priests to get treated?!"
I beg you.
"...No. Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager,"
Stop...
"It means you will never be able to see her again, Your Majesty. Soon, all the bells of the Imperial Palace will ring, so Your Majesty must also change into mourning clothes."
Kung.
The sound of something supporting me shattering into pieces without a shape could be heard.