The First Trial (4)
Assassins belonging to the Breath of the Angel learned from an early age how to tell truth-tellers apart from liars.
Because of that training, it took only a single glance for me to know Sage was speaking the absolute truth.
“When you reach my age, you can tell just by looking into someone’s eyes,” the old man said, his pale, clouded gaze settling on me. “Whether the lad’s got what it takes to make something of himself, or whether he’s destined for nothing. And that boy was meant for greatness. That’s why it’s such a crying shame.”
Meant for greatness. What was I supposed to do with that?
My life was broken from the very moment I drew my first breath anyway.
I rose from my seat without a word. Hypocrisy made my stomach turn, but earnest, heartfelt sympathy was even harder to stomach. Standing there under his gaze felt like walking barefoot across a bed of red-hot coals.
“Stop dawdling and let us make haste,” I said, turning away. “We need to depart before sundown.”
“What in the blazes is the rush! I have to pack my things, and I’ve got medicine to hand out!”
“Medicine?” Edwin turned around, his eyes lighting up at the word. “A cure? But Leo said he couldn’t make any more…”
“It isn’t a complete cure,” Sage grunted. “Still, if you administer it in small doses over a long period, it can halt the disease in its tracks. Though the scars will remain, of course.”
The reason for doling out the medicine gradually rather than curing them all at once was obvious enough. If every single villager suddenly showed miraculous signs of recovery at the exact same time, it would draw unwanted attention.
“I’ll hand out the medicine myself,” a voice cut in. “Just get moving, old man.”
Leo stepped out from the inner room of the shack, a thick bandage wrapped around his arm. Thanks to Sage administering the antidote before it was too late, the venom coursing through his veins had been neutralized long ago.
“And you,” Leo said, his expression hardening as he grabbed Edwin by the wrist. “Come outside. You and I need to talk.”
Sage watched me stand by idly and gave me a baffled look. “What’s this? You aren’t going to stop him?”
“He hasn’t gone far. There is no need.”
“You truly are an odd one. You must be the only attendant in the entire empire who lets an imperial prince run wild like free-range livestock.” Sage chuckled at my flat reply, his lips curling as if he had already deduced my true identity. Though of course, there was no way he could have.
“Spare the idle chatter and pack your belongings. Unless you would prefer I knock you unconscious and carry you.”
“Good heavens, listen to you! Threatening an old man. Bloodthirsty thing, aren’t you, despite that pretty face? I shudder to think whether I’ll live out my natural lifespan following you around.”
“Would you prefer I keep only your head alive on the journey?”
“Fine, fine! I hear you! I’ll pack my bags, alright?!”
I offered the grumbling sage a cold glare, then turned my eyes toward the doorway. Through the half-open seam, I could see the two boys standing face-to-face in the dim light.
“Are you completely out of your mind?!” Leo roared the moment they were out of earshot.
Edwin blinked, caught off guard by the sudden fury. “What?”
“Who told you to pull a suicidal stunt like that? What the hell was I supposed to do if you died trying to save me, huh? Spend the rest of my miserable life choking on guilt?”
“No, I just—”
“What if that magic beast killed us both?!”
“We didn’t die, did we?!” Edwin shouted back, his own voice rising. They were alive, weren’t they? So why was Leo screaming at him? “If I hadn’t done that, we both would’ve been slaughtered right there on the rocks!”
“And even with you doing that, we still would’ve died if our luck had been an inch worse!” Leo barked, jabbing a finger toward the cabin. “If I hadn’t managed to call that woman you brought along for help! If she had arrived even a second later! If Master had found me a minute slower, we’d both be corpses right now!”
Edwin opened his mouth to argue, but the words withered on his tongue. His eyebrows drooped in sudden dismay.
At the corners of Leo’s eyes—the eyes of a boy far taller and broader than himself—tears were glistening.
“Who the hell asked you to save me?” Leo sniffled, his voice cracking with raw frustration. “If you died on my account, you think I could just stretch my legs and sleep at night?!”
“Uh… are you crying?”
“Who’s crying! Dammit, I’m just pissed off!” Leo snapped, whipping his head around to hide his face.
He stared into the distance for a long, silent moment, his chest heaving as he fought to rein in his emotions. Finally, without looking back, he muttered, “…Hey.”
Edwin kept his eyes wide, waiting anxiously for what came next.
“…Thanks.”
It was an unpolished, clumsy word of gratitude, but it left Edwin’s jaw hanging slack. He could hardly believe that the very boy who had been blistering his ears with curses only moments before was now thanking him.
“Huh?”
“What do you mean, ‘huh’?! I’m alive because of you, so I’m thanking you! A guy’s gotta pay his debts, alright?!”
Leo still kept his head turned, but the tips of his ears had flushed a brilliant, burning crimson. It was impossible to tell whether he was embarrassed, furious, or both.
“Whatever! If it weren’t for you, I’d be on the fast track to the underworld by now! So… thanks!”
“…Really?”
“Hah! Of course really! You think I’m making it up?” Leo spun back around, glaring at Edwin with a face that was every bit as red as his ears. “And wipe that idiotic look off your face! You’re making it look like I’m bullying you!”
“What do you mean, idiotic?! I’m not an idiot!”
“I didn’t say you were an idiot, I said stop making an idiotic face!”
“That’s the exact same thing! And while we’re at it, why don’t you fix your own glare? You look terrifying!”
The two bickered back and forth like squabbling alley cats until they finally ran out of breath, panting heavily in the cold air. Leo was the first to break the standoff.
“Whatever. Just take this!”
He thrust a heavy burlap sack toward Edwin, who tilted his head in confusion. “What’s this?”
“The magic stones you mined today. Take them.”
“What?” Edwin took the sack in both hands, nearly dropping it under its sheer weight. It was packed to the brim. Judging by the bulk, it contained well over half of everything they had excavated together that morning. “You want me to take all of this? Are you sure?”
“You dug them up with your own two hands, didn’t you? Who else is going to take them?” Leo waved a dismissive hand. “They’re useless rocks in this village anyway. If you take them outside and put them to good use, it’ll be a better fate for the stones too.”
Edwin held the sack tightly against his chest. “…Th-thank you.”
After murmuring his thanks, the young prince pressed his lips together, hesitating as if weighing a heavy thought. “Um, Leo?”
Leo glanced at him, hearing the imperial prince address him by his name for the very first time. “What?”
“Well… you see…” Edwin fidgeted, then took a cautious breath. “Would you… like to come with me?”
The sudden offer caught Leo off guard. He froze for a beat, his brow furrowing in contemplation, before asking, “You’re asking me to go to the imperial palace?”
“Wait, you knew?” Edwin gasped, his eyes widening. “That I’m a prince?”
“Found out a little while ago. Old man Sage told me while he was patching up my arm.” Leo raised his bandaged right limb, gesturing loosely toward the dressing.
Edwin’s expression fell at the sight of the wound. “…I see. Then I guess you wouldn’t want to come with me after all.”
“Huh? Why the hell would you think that?”
“Well… because you don’t seem to like highborn nobles very much…” Edwin’s voice trailed off into a meek mumble, prompting an incredulous scoff from the older boy.
“Are you stupid? What does that have to do with anything? Imperial royalty or not, you’re still the guy who risked his neck to save mine. Why would I hate you?” Leo narrowed his eyes, putting on a menacing scowl. “What about you, then? Since I’m just a lowborn peasant from a quarantine settlement, are you going to pretend I never shielded you from that beast?”
“What?! That’s absurd! If it weren’t for you, I would have died long before that!”
“Then it’s the exact same thing.”
Edwin drew in a sharp breath and fell silent, unable to argue. Watching him deflate, Leo let out an exasperated chuckle.
“Man… it sure would be nice if other nobles and royals were more like you. Not that they ever could be. Even I can tell you’re an oddball.”
“An oddball?”
“Means you’re different from the rest. Peculiar. In a good way, I mean.”
An oddball. Different from the rest. Peculiar.
It was the first time anyone had ever described Edwin in such terms. Yet, rather than feeling insulted, a strange warmth bloomed in his chest. In fact, he found he quite liked the very first nickname he had ever been given.
“Then… you’ll come with me?”
“Nah. I’m staying.”
The refusal was so swift and definitive that Edwin’s face dropped in disappointment. “Why?”
“Why ask why? You gave me the answer yourself.”
“…I did?”
“Yeah. You told me I was someone this village couldn't afford to lose, remember? That’s why I had to live.” Leo shrugged his shoulders lightly. “And I reckon you were right. If Old Man Sage leaves and I take off too, this place will fall completely to ruin.”
For the very first time, a faint, mischievous smirk broke through the perpetual scowl on Leo’s face.
“So go on ahead with the old man and do your best out there,” Leo said, resting a heavy hand on Edwin’s small shoulder. “So that one day, I can walk out of here and come see you on my own two feet.”
Slipping out of Luxen Village proved remarkably easy.
Just as Sage had claimed, the quarantine gatekeepers possessed shockingly poor observation skills. Their incompetence, paired with the universal preconception that holy clerics would never stoop to telling lies, made passing through the heavy stone gates almost trivial.
“Your Highness, it would be wise for you to rest inside the carriage,” I said as the wheels rattled against the dirt road. “It is dark, and the open box can be dangerous.”
“Master’s snoring is so loud I can’t sleep a wink.”
Complaining that the interior had become an acoustic nightmare, Edwin had crawled out of the cabin and taken a seat beside me on the driver’s bench. According to him, Sage’s snoring had transcended mortal limits.
“Shall I tie him behind the carriage and drag him along the road instead?”
Edwin stared at me, his eyes wide. “…You’re joking, right?”
“I am always entirely serious.”
He shuddered, grimacing as he shook his head vigorously. “Um… Rachel? There’s something I wanted to ask you.”
He twiddled his thumbs over his knees, his expression suddenly turning solemn.
“What would it take for Leo to be able to come see me?”
Leo. He was calling the boy by name quite naturally now. Well, surviving a life-and-death ordeal had a way of forging bonds faster than years of pleasantries ever could.
“He already declined Your Highness’s offer to accompany you to the imperial palace,” I replied in an even tone. “Why do you ask?”
“Just… because I’m curious.”
It was a delightfully simple reason. I thought it over for a brief moment, then offered an equally straightforward answer.
“If you wish for him to be able to leave and visit Your Highness freely, there is only one way.”
“What is it?”
“You must abolish the plague village.”
Edwin gasped, letting out a sharp cry of protest. “It can’t just disappear! That’s Leo’s hometown!”
“Your Highness, that is not his hometown. In fact, it is no one’s hometown.”
“Why?” Edwin knitted his brow, thoroughly confused. “Isn’t the place where you’re born and raised your hometown?”
“Your Highness, a prison can never be called a hometown.”
And that was precisely what Luxen Village was: a prison. Not a single soul resided within those stone barricades by their own free will.
“Mm…” Edwin went quiet, turning my words over in his head. After a long pause, he asked, “Then… what would have to happen to abolish the plague village?”
“…Why do you ask such things?”
“No reason. Just… curious.”
Always ‘just curious.’ The boy certainly has no shortage of questions.
I stole a sideways glance at him as he avoided my gaze, then spoke plainly. “There are two methods to dismantle the plague village.”
First, distribute a complete cure for the epidemic across the empire.
Second, the Emperor of Ventrum grants an unconditional decree freeing every patient confined within the settlement.
“However,” I added, “both solutions are practically impossible.”
“What? Why?”
Looking into the naive, wide eyes of the young prince, I delivered the cold, unvarnished truth.
“Because attempting either one would plunge the empire into a civil war—or ignite an unstoppable rebellion.”