Between Courage and Lingering Regret (1)
Selos, his face contorted with rage, barked an order at Anna. "You there. Bring that filthy rodent to me this instant."
Anna knew she should rip off her apron and hand the squirrel over to the Eighth Prince immediately. She knew all too well that if she didn't, the enraged prince might take her life on a whim. Yet, whether her brain had short-circuited from sheer terror, or whether the bond she had forged with the squirrel while feeding it had grown too deep, she blurted out words that completely betrayed her survival instincts.
"I-I-I'm t-terribly s-s-sorry, b-but the S-S-Seventh Prince t-treasures this l-l-little o-one very much..."
Her voice was already barely a whisper, but she was trembling so pitifully that she couldn't even finish her sentence to say she couldn't give it to him. But soon, her shaking stopped entirely. The moment she met the gaze of the Eighth Prince, who glared at her as if ready to spit fire, Anna felt her heart turn to ice. Her trembling, and even her breath, seized.
"What did you just say to me?" His pride deeply wounded that a mere maid dared refuse him a simple squirrel, Selos spat the words at her. But there was no way she could answer.
"I asked you a question!" At his roar, Anna finally gasped for air, her body betraying her as she burst into helpless, ragged sobs. "Ugh... h-hic..."
Finally, her mind began to function again. What have I done? I'm going to die. I'm going to die just to save a squirrel. Why was I stupid enough to defy a member of the imperial family? If I die here, will my family even receive my death compensation?
The greedy face of Sein flashed before her eyes—the man who, long ago, had drastically cut the compensation meant for the family of a servant killed by the Seventh Prince, pocketing the rest. Since the Seventh Prince has been quiet lately, a decent amount of money should make it back to my family. At least I can find comfort in that. Watching the imposing figure of the Eighth Prince loom over her, Anna squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the terror.
"When do you plan on learning basic door manners?" At that moment, a familiar, if slightly rough, voice cut between them. Anna snapped her eyes open. Catching sight of the black hair that now brought her far more comfort than any blonde hair ever could, the girl lost consciousness.
"Hey! Why are you fainting out of nowhere? Huh? Did I hit you or something?!" Selos Abaran threw a tantrum at the limp, unresponsive Anna. Apparently, a commoner fainting at the mere sight of him wasn't a particularly unusual occurrence.
"Tsk, whatever. That piece of trash isn't worth my time." The brainless rooster waved his hand dismissively, turning his gaze away from the fallen Anna to look directly at me. "I came because I have something to say."
"Doesn't look like it."
"What nonsense is that?"
"..."
He stared at me with a puzzled expression as I watched him in silence. Then, as if finally realizing, he nodded and spoke again. "I came because I have something to say...?" Glancing at my reaction, Selos rolled his eyes when I remained silent. He scowled and forced out the next word. "Brother...?" Though he practically spat it out.
Unfortunately, that wasn't quite the answer I wanted either. At this rate, we'd be here all day. Uncrossing my arms, I gestured with my chin toward the collapsed Anna. "Bring the maid you just fainted inside. Carefully."
"What? Why should I? If we leave her there, someone will clean her up later." Selos spoke as if he truly couldn't comprehend why he should do such a thing. As if. The Seventh Prince's Palace was always short-staffed. If we left a fainted child on this cold stone floor, who knew when anyone would come by?
"Unless you want to be called a birdbrain everywhere you go from now on, just bring her in." Despite his clear reluctance, his past experiences had taught him that I wouldn't offer any further explanation. Grumbling, he walked over to Anna.
Taking my eyes off the back of the giant idiot's head, I turned back into the room. Perhaps he really did have urgent business, because despite his muttering, he carried Anna inside with relatively gentle hands. Of course, "relatively gentle" was highly subjective; it was by no means a soft touch, and Anna's limbs dangled limply over his shoulder like a sack of luggage. The fact that she didn't wake up even through this showed just how deep her shock was.
"Lay her down there." Selos was about to toss Anna onto the worn-out sofa I pointed to, but after glancing at me again, he managed to set her down like a human being. As I checked the child's breathing and peeled back her eyelids, he watched me with a disgruntled look, brushing off his clothes.
"If you want to mess with me, use another way. Don't make me do this disgusting stuff." The birdbrain still didn't seem to understand why I had made him carry Anna. Terrifying a child under fifteen to the point of fainting and then leaving her on the floor was probably just a normal day for him. He'll regret that later.
I turned my gaze from the short-sighted brat to check on Anna. At any rate, thanks to this girl, Selos had been prevented from entering my empty room at a critical moment. Fortunately, she didn't seem to have any injuries other than losing consciousness. She didn't seem to have hit her head when she fell, either. She's surprisingly lucky.
After gently closing her eyelids, I pointed to a door for the boy who was standing there awkwardly. "Follow me." The small room off to one side of the office had a thick door but was extremely cramped, with barely enough space for two adult men to sit. In the first place, there was only one chair.
"What is this? Do we really have to talk in a place like this...?" As I naturally took the only chair, he complained while looking around the cramped room.
"Since you're the one who fainted her, you should at least show that much consideration so she can rest in peace." At my firm reply, his face crumpled. "What did I even do? She fainted on her own." I let out a dry laugh at his response. "You knew she was on the verge of fainting from fear."
"..."
He looked as if he agreed with my words but couldn't understand what the big deal was. In the end, I sighed and asked again. "Forget it. Why are you here?"
"Am I supposed to stand here and talk?"
"If you don't want to stand, you can walk out."
"...Damn it."
Though humiliated by the fact that he had to stand and talk like a student being scolded by a teacher, he didn't storm out. It really seemed like something urgent had happened. There shouldn't be any special events happening to him at this point in time, though. Or has the original plot accelerated again?
"I asked what happened."
"..."
Now that I had given him the floor, Selos bit his lip and looked down, unable to open his mouth. When I tilted my head at his timid behavior, which didn't match the aggressive way he had arrived, he flinched again, opening and closing his mouth repeatedly. At this rate, we'd be here all night.
"What's wrong? Did a ghost appear while you were sleeping and scare you?" I threw out a sarcastic remark to make it easier for him to react, and he snapped his head up. I expected Selos to fly into a rage, accusing me of making a fool of him, but he slowly raised his head. His face was a mix of shame and fear.
"...How did you know?"
What, really? I was just as taken aback when my random guess hit the mark.
"So, you can't sleep because of a ghost?" At my question, meant to confirm, Selos's face visibly flushed. Sure, it was a bit embarrassing for a seventeen-year-old to come seeking help because he was too scared of ghosts to sleep. In this world, though, there would be other reasons besides simple fear and shame. At any rate, I needed to make one thing clear. I spoke firmly. "You can't sleep here."
"Who said I wanted to sleep here?!" Selos finally snapped with his usual irritation at my teasing.
"You know you've come to the wrong person for help."
"Damn it, I know that too." As I stared at him blankly, the Eighth Prince scratched his head irritably, as if he knew it too. "I just wondered if... you, Brother, were experiencing the same thing."
On the surface, it sounded like a touching display of brotherly concern, but both he and I knew it was nothing of the sort. This was a world inside a book. The religious views here were pre-determined by the author's settings. To understand them, one had to go all the way back to the founding of the Abaran Empire.
In the beginning, Sierra Abaran was an unstable god. This great demigod, who descended from the heavens, was said to have pacified the chaotic continent with his mysterious power and wisdom, bringing peace. During the hundred years of Sierra Abaran's reign, the empire enjoyed unprecedented prosperity and development.
While stories of Sierra the Great's end varied among the common folk, the Temple's teachings were consistent. On a day with beautiful sunlight, Sierra, having become a perfect god, walked up a beam of sunlight in front of his family and ascended to the heavens. Having returned to his original heavenly realm, Sierra was said to have created a new world with his perfected power.
One of the three moons visible in the distance was that very world. Teritum, where only the righteous could go. Every citizen of the Abaran Empire wished to find eternal rest there after death. This was one of the reasons they swore absolute obedience to the imperial family. Those who couldn't go there had no choice but to go to Hodie after death. It was a place they literally wouldn't want to go even if they died.
In Hodie, which was said to have been formed from the remnants left after Sierra created Teritum and filled with all kinds of foul monsters, humans could never find rest, trapped in an endless cycle of being torn apart and hunted. That was another of the three moons.
Then what about those who went to neither Teritum nor Hodie? The Temple referred to them as Fugitives. What we commonly know as ghosts. It was also the Temple's role to send back those who, for whatever reason, failed to cross over to the world ruled by Sierra Abaran.
This is where the problem arose for Selos Abaran. The current imperial family were those who remained in the empire, inheriting Sierra's bloodline. They had lived lives of privilege and respect, using that bloodline as a pretext to trample on others for generations. In theory, there was no way a ghost could ever approach a member of the Abaran family. Indeed, there had never been a recorded case of an ordinary ghost threatening an Abaran. Whether such cases had been covered up was none of my business, though.
Selos Abaran must have been terrified when he first saw a ghost. From the looks of it, he was indeed scared of the ghost itself, but what he feared most of all was having absolutely no one to turn to for help. If he spoke up carelessly, people would ask how a member of the imperial family could be haunted by a ghost. He was probably terrified that if things went wrong, rumors would spread that a ghost had attached itself to him because his Manis was as meager as dust. Who could he reveal a secret he had hidden so desperately to? And then, he must have thought of me. The Seventh Prince, Ran Abaran, who already knew his secret and possessed not a single speck of Manis.