Episode 205
- Rattle, rattle...!
I am currently crossing the empire's streets, where cold air lingers, riding in a carriage.
"Hehe."
On either side of me, pressed close, are Lulu wearing clothes she recently received as a gift, rubbing her cheek against my arm, and...
"......."
Irina, who is linking arms with me while looking at me with an anxious expression, her ears perked up.
- Beep, bebeep!
Just as I was feeling relaxed in this now all-too-familiar daily life, a call came through.
"...Mm."
Thinking it was Cania whining about wanting to see me or Serena during the day, I took out the crystal ball, but the caller was none other than Isollet.
"Hello."
- Frey.
With the memory of a week ago still fresh in my mind, I swallowed hard as I answered the call, and her voice came from the crystal ball.
- Do you... remember the promise we made last time...?
Her voice somehow sounded quite exhausted.
"Well? I don't really know?"
Thinking this was an opportunity, I brightened my eyes and began the conversation in earnest.
"But sister, you look really tired? Did you do some training or something?"
- Haa... Th, that's true but.
"Hmm, I see. In the old days, you wouldn't be tired at all even after training for hours, but seeing how tired you are, sister must be past her prime too."
At those words, the rough breathing coming from the crystal ball suddenly stopped.
"In the first place, sister, you said you were sick, right? I don't want to receive training or anything from a toothless weak tiger..."
Thinking I might be able to skip training, I raised the corner of my mouth and said that, but then...
- You insolent brat.
When Isollet's voice changed to that sinister voice from when she grabbed my neck a week ago, I flinched involuntarily.
- It seems training will have to be postponed until tomorrow.
"W, why...?"
Soon, when I unconsciously asked the reason, her sinister voice flowed out from the crystal ball once more.
- I've been waiting only for today, but my body isn't controlling itself well.
After those words ended, a deep silence flowed for a moment.
- Because of the evil deeds you committed, too much anger has built up... I might end up killing you if I'm not careful. So let me cool my body a bit, and we'll proceed tomorrow.
"At, at that point, it would be better to just not do it..."
When I said that with a desperate voice at Isollet's message that came again soon after.
- If you skip without permission, I will exercise my authority as an instructor and make a home visit.
Her answer came back immediately.
- And at that time... you'd better be prepared.
Her voice, somehow accompanied by rough breathing, ended, and the light of the crystal ball went out.
"".........""
The girls who were pressed close to me began to quietly look at me.
- Aria said.
[Oppa, what exactly did you do to Professor Isollet?
Why is the professor asking me for your photos!?]
Come to think of it, I received such a letter from my younger sister a few days ago.
Both her affection level and what just happened - among the sub-heroines excluding Lulu, Isollet's condition seems to be the most serious.
"F, for now, please go, Master. I'll be by your side."
Lulu whispered quietly while clinging to me as I made a serious expression thinking such thoughts.
"...You heard that, girls? It's an emergency. Have the spirits on standby."
And Irina suddenly took out a communication crystal bead and started contacting somewhere in a hurry.
"Mmm..."
I, who was shivering at the inexplicable creepiness felt even with two people pressed against my side.
"We've arrived...!"
When the coachman announced that the carriage had reached its destination, I straightened my mind and began to prepare to get off slowly.
"Frey, are you sure it's okay to go alone?"
Then Irina cautiously asked me a question.
"All the ice mages in the world have terrible personalities. It's a long-established fact acknowledged by all magicians."
"...Really?"
"Yeah, just think of that Ice Witch who was a great mage from a thousand years ago and a member of the hero party."
At those words, I nodded involuntarily.
A significant portion of the grievances written in the prophecy book by the ancestor was about the great mage Irina mentioned.
"Anyway, be careful. If it's dangerous, scream right away. Ice can never defeat fire. I'll melt it all."
"Mm."
"Do you really need to call? If you get hurt again and just come back? I'll bite you."
"I understand."
"The fragmented bird inside your body might temporarily activate when meeting her, so be careful. If something like that happens, I'll resolve it..."
"I said I understand."
Nodding repeatedly, I reassured Irina and, leaving behind the completely stopped carriage, began heading to the meeting place.
"Mm."
Soon, what came into my view was a cafe of moderate size, neither too big nor too small.
Seeing that there were no people inside, it seemed they rented the entire cafe, but perhaps a princess is still a princess no matter how small the country?
- Creak...
Thinking such thoughts, I opened the cafe door and went in, and Aishi, who was sitting in her seat quietly drinking tea, came into view.
"".........""
I stood in my place with a slightly guarded expression, and soon our eyes met, and silence began to flow inside the cafe.
"Come in and sit down."
Soon, Aishi, who broke that silence, said so in a low voice.
"Alright."
Hearing those words, I was slowly heading toward her when...
- Shhh...!
From the seat where she was sitting, the floor began to freeze rapidly, and I frowned momentarily.
'What is this...'
It seems I need to figure out her intentions.
It would be difficult for an ordinary person.
But I have the System's 'Telepathy' skill.
.
- Crack, crackle...
As the floor began to slowly freeze from the seat she was sitting in, Aishi began to look at Frey with expectant eyes.
'Did it work? Did it work?'
Frey, rumored among the public as a foolish rascal. With him currently making a blank expression, it seemed very obvious that he would fall for her prank.
"...Gulp."
Thus, Frey, who was walking toward her, got closer and closer to the freezing floor. And finally, at the moment when the ice sheet reached right in front of his nose.
"Hmm."
Suddenly, Frey stopped in his place.
"Ah."
Because of that, Aishi, who had been drinking tea with her usual cold personality without revealing her expectations, let out an unintentionally hollow sound.
"".........""
And the silence that began.
'As expected, I...'
In that silence, Aishi, still wearing a cold expression, began to mutter to herself.
'...I shouldn't be doing this.'
When Aishi was young, she was quite famous as the royal family's prankster.
Born as the youngest among numerous royals and siblings, it was, in a way, inevitable.
"Oppa~! Let's play~!"
"Aishi, let's play a little later. I'm right now..."
"Is that all the stamina you have? You're completely hopeless, oppa."
"...But this is!"
And, Aishi's siblings had quite liked her.
Because a youngest sister with lots of charm, who was almost certain not to compete with them for the throne, looked quite good to them too.
However.
"This child... seems to be able to control transforming into a demon."
"...What?"
"She is... a perfect half-demon appearing for the first time in hundreds of years."
One day, after her parents, who questioned why she didn't transform into a demon, commissioned a great mage, and he declared her a 'perfect half-demon.'
Her life was completely overturned.
The royals of Aishi Kingdom valued hiding their identity above all else.
Therefore, it was only natural that Aishi, who could control transforming into a demon, instantly became first in line for succession to the throne.
"O, oppa? Won't you play today?"
"........"
"Already tired? Oppa, completely hopeless..."
"Get lost."
Her siblings, who became like dogs chasing chickens in an instant because of that, no longer accepted her pranks.
"Aishi, you are now the future queen who will lead the kingdom."
"Therefore, you must fix such a personality."
Consequently, the words her parents gave to her, who had received a great wound in her heart, were not warm comfort but stern advice.
"Sob, ugh..."
"You must not cry, Princess. A ruler is by nature..."
"No! I hate it all!!"
It was impossible for Aishi, who was merely a young child at the time and had been receiving lots of love ordinarily, to endure such a situation.
"I hate being queen, studying kingship, and power too! I just... want to play pranks and have fun...!"
Therefore, Aishi had no choice but to hate her ability, which had snatched away from her the sincere attention and love of others that was more precious than anything.
"Aishi has a limited time to live...?"
"It can't be helped. We have no choice but to return the succession order again."
When she was diagnosed and her 'curse of the frozen heart,' which she had congenitally, dropped her back to the bottom of the succession line.
"Princess? Over there..."
"Leave me and go."
As time passed, with her heart freezing cold, she had no choice but to close her heart to everyone.
- Everyone hates you, right? Then take my hand. I'll give you the power to pay everyone back.
"...Shut up!"
Thus, Aishi, who had locked herself in her room with her heart closed.
She desperately resisted the dark voice that started whispering in her head from some day on.
- Child, don't do that. Try entrusting your body to me once.
"N, nooooo!"
Sometimes she was consumed by the voice and caused accidents.
She was slowly rotting from the inside.
"The ship carrying the royals... has gone missing, you say?"
"Yes, that is correct."
For her to truly regain freedom for the first time in a long while, and to feel alive, was during the 'Slave Market Liberation Incident' that occurred a few months ago.
When she left the solitary cell where she had been locked up for a long time and headed to the Sunrise Empire, she felt liberation and freedom.
There, she met her siblings who had become demons trapped there and rescued them, feeling alive.
And above all, she was able to eliminate the 'curse of the freezing heart' that had bound her, if only temporarily.
Therefore, her frozen heart began to slowly melt.
Her personality from childhood was slowly returning, but...
"Princess, please act appropriately."
"...H, huh?"
What returned was not just her personality.
"Are you not the one who will lead this kingdom in the future? Indulging in such pranks can only happen once or twice."
"Y, you played along? Until now...?"
"Where in this world is there someone who would fall for such foolish pranks of the Princess? Please come to your senses."
The kingdom, thinking the curse was gone, returned to her the succession order and the sense of responsibility as a monarch, and the obligations.
They even took away the love of her siblings and people around her that had been somewhat restored through the successful rescue operation.
Moreover, due to the royal authority that had become as weak as it could be from this incident, she even had to watch the moods of her subjects.
"If you play one more prank, I will resign as your attendant."
"U, um... I'm sorry."
She had even heard such words with cold eyes from the attendant she had just played a prank on.
Of course, it was partly because the pranks of her, who had grown up like a hothouse flower, were of such a crude level that no one would fall for them.
It was also because the attendant, who slightly pitied her, had gotten tired after playing along with the pranks that no one else would even respond to a few times.
But no matter what, those were not words she should have heard from an attendant.
"Uu... u..."
Therefore, when even Frey, her only hope, didn't fall for her prank, she began to make groaning sounds with her head bowed deeply.
"I didn't want this kind of thing..."
With tears unconsciously forming in her eyes.
"I just... want to play pranks... and..."
Crushed under the weight of power and obligations she didn't want, and would never want in the future either.
"I just wanted to be loved..."
She began to repeat the words she had said while crying bitterly locked in her room in the old days.
- Child.
".....!"
And at that moment, an evil voice was heard.
- Are you sad?
"S, shut up..."
- You are sad, indeed.
The voice that kept coming even though the curse of the heart had disappeared, for some reason, sounded too soft and sweet today.
- Let's join hands.
"S, stop..."
- If you don't like that either, then just entrust your hand to me.
"Stop..."
Because of that, Aishi's eyes began to unconsciously glaze over.
- Like in the old days, let's have some fun playing.
"Ah......"
The tragedy of the Cloud Kingdom that occurred when she unknowingly fell for the voice as a child was about to happen in the Empire this time.
"Eek!"
".....?"
Until just now.
- Crash!!
Frey, who had been looking at Aishi with a blank expression, took a step toward her, stepped on the ice sheet, and fell spectacularly in his place.
"Ugh..."
Because of that, Frey, who fell in an absurd pose, tried to get up from his spot but fell again.
"........"
Aishi, who had been blankly staring at such Frey.
"W, what are you doing right now!?"
Seeing Frey protesting to her with a very aggrieved expression, she asked a question with a thought of 'could it be.'
"You... did you just fall for my prank?"
Then the answer came back.
"Can't you tell?"
Looking at Frey who answered like that with tears welling up in his eyes, Aishi was.
"Pfft!"
She burst into laughter unconsciously.
"You're completely hopeless~♡ Falling for such a prank~"
"W, what?"
"Fool~ Idiot~ Dummy~♡"
"T, this..."
She wiped away the tears that had been in her eyes without anyone noticing.
'He's more fun than I thought.'
And muttered quietly to herself.
'Well, he did those things to me before, and he's originally a bad person... so I'll play with him to my heart's content for today...'
With a mischievous smile.
'...I need to take the curse back.'
Hiding the inexplicable trembling that started to be felt throughout her body the moment she saw Frey making a crying face.
'...It feels strange somehow.'
She still didn't know the fact that a curse once transferred could never be taken back again.