[Episode 24] - Pandora’s Box (1)
Snap. I heard something inside me break. And I knew at once that it was the sound of my patience snapping. Had I expected too much from a beast that wasn’t even human?
No, even a mere beast doesn’t abandon its own young. Then what in the world was I supposed to call the thing inside that room? One thing was certain: he was worse than a beast.
At this point, I no longer cared what state the king was in, or whether the First Queen was alive. I simply could not stand the sight of that pathetic shut-in, holed up in his room and causing harm to everyone around him, any longer.
“...Take the princess to her room. And don’t let so much as a single ant come near this place. Not until I leave.”
“B-but...”
One of the knights who had been looking after the princess looked at me with an anxious expression, as if he could guess what would happen if he left this place. But I had no intention of backing down either.
When I glared fiercely at the knight, another knight bowed ninety degrees, apologizing, and took the princess away from here. I found myself thinking that Vivian’s notoriety was useful at times like this.
I could no longer stand by and watch the tyranny of that unemployed shut-in. I felt as if I wouldn’t be satisfied until I grabbed the thing inside that room—worse than a beast—by the hair and dragged him out.
Despite the knight’s worried attempts to stop me, I walked up to the door of the room where the king had shut himself away and forcefully turned the doorknob. However, the firmly locked door showed no sign of opening.
Clack! Clackclackclackclackclack!
The lock, which was designed to be locked from the inside, had no intention whatsoever of opening from the outside. Clack, clack—each time the handle in my palm went down, only my wrist grew more painful.
Bang!
The irritation that surged all the way to the top of my head every time I turned the knob drove me mad, so I kicked the locked door. If I’d had my way, I would have kicked it with the intention of breaking it down, but all I did was hurt my toes.
“Ah... damn it, my toe.”
Perhaps the pain rising from my toe cooled my head a little. I let out a long sigh and raised my head to look at the firmly shut door. Even after I’d kicked it that hard, there wasn’t so much as a scratch on it.
As I steadied my rough breathing, Ainsel’s trembling voice reached my ear. As if she had been badly shocked by the princess’s state, she rambled incoherently and burst into tears.
—Ah, ugh... I, I’m sorry... If I hadn’t been put under the “contract”... If I had at least told “that side” first... This, this wouldn’t have happened...
“......”
—It was a picture the princess worked so hard to draw... The first time... the first time she drew me...
I felt as if my insides were burning from frustration, but I couldn’t blame Ainsel. Ainsel was a victim who had been forcibly silenced. She had a reason she couldn’t speak.
Ainsel broke down sobbing as she looked at the pieces of what had once been the drawing, scattered across the floor. I remembered how genuinely happy Ainsel’s voice had sounded yesterday, when the princess had drawn her.
I took off the earring and placed Ainsel on my palm. Reflected in the mirror, Ainsel wiped her tears with both hands and cursed herself. She called herself a fool, said she was so stupid, and berated herself.
I let out a small sigh of frustration and mimed stroking Ainsel’s hair with my finger. Perhaps it had an effect, because Ainsel slowly began to stop crying.
“...It’s not your fault.”
—...No, it is my fault. If I, if I had told “that side” first, at least... this wouldn’t have happened. So... so...
Having stopped crying, Ainsel looked up at me with an expression as though she had made up her mind. As if saying she would no longer run away, no longer avoid it, Ainsel clenched both fists tightly.
—I have to take responsibility.
“...How?”
At my question, Ainsel gazed steadily up at me. Then she said she could only say this once and told me to listen closely. I brought Ainsel a little closer and began listening to her story.
—...The “contract” placed on me is a contract that prevents me from “harming” the First Queen. Of course, that contract also includes keeping secrets related to the First Queen.
“So that’s why you couldn’t say anything about the First Queen.”
—...Yes, that’s right. I was forced into this contract. Because someone stole my “main body.”
“Main body?”
At my question, Ainsel gave a small nod.
—Yes. In truth, within an area about the size of this royal castle, I can make every mirror in the castle my “avatar.” A mirror made into my avatar becomes a “path” that allows me to come and go as I please. Using that “path,” Vivian gathered every piece of information in the royal castle to herself. That was one of the reasons Vivian was able to become the Second Queen with only me at her side.
In other words, Ainsel with her main body could turn mirrors into CCTV cameras. Hidden cameras, at that, ones no one else would notice. Did that mean Vivian had used that to dig up the nobles’ filthy secrets?
—...But my main body was taken from me, and only two “avatars” remained. This earring here, and the “replica” in your room, are the last avatars I have left.
“...Then where is your main body now?”
Ainsel let out a small sigh and glanced at the firmly shut door before me. When I looked at that door, Ainsel continued speaking as if to say that was the answer.
—My “main body” is inside there right now. That is why I know “who” is in there. Until now, I couldn’t do anything because I was afraid of the “contract,” but...
Ainsel smiled softly and looked at me.
—I told you, didn’t I? That I would take responsibility.
At that moment, a sharp crack rang out from the small earring, and a fissure began to form. As if refusing to allow her to say any more, the mirror began to shatter with a piercing sound.
“...Are you really going to be all right?”
—...Yes, I’ll be fine. And besides, I have you, don’t I?
The edges of the mirror slowly began turning into grains like sand. As I stared at Ainsel, not knowing what to do, Ainsel smiled brightly at me even as she was turning into sand.
—I’ll open the door from the inside with magic. If I sacrifice an avatar, I should be able to avoid the “contract” directed at my main body for something of this level.
Crack, craaack.
Pieces of the small mirror began to break off and fall. The fragments that fell onto my palm instantly turned to sand and scattered, as if becoming powder.
At the very end, Ainsel looked at me and said,
—I’ll be waiting inside. Vivian.
Clack!
At the same time as the mirror in my palm turned to sand, I heard the sound of the firmly locked door’s mechanism coming undone. Then, with a creak, the door dragged open, very slowly.
The door, opened only wide enough for air to pass through, seemed to whisper for me to come in quickly. At that whisper, I slowly turned the doorknob and pushed my body inside.
*
The moment I opened the door and stepped in, I had no choice but to hold my breath against the horribly foul stench. The smell of something rotting mixed with the nauseating odor of paint, filling the room.
The floor was covered with countless paintings, leaving no room to step. With every step I took, the sound of paper being crushed echoed through the room. I frowned and raised my head.
The room was so dark I could hardly see, but in the corner I could make out a figure that seemed to be painting something on a canvas. Surely that person was “His Majesty,” the shut-in of the room.
“Your Majesty.”
I spoke in a low voice to the thing shaped like a person. But that person said nothing. They simply stared silently at something and continued painting.
I lowered my head again and looked at the paintings piled on the floor. They were all pictures of a woman with black hair and red eyes, smiling, crying, getting angry—her face bearing all sorts of emotions.
The floor, the walls, even the ceiling were filled with paintings. I realized that the paintings said to be in the detached palace and the main palace were nothing compared to the ones here.
“Your Majesty.”
Tearing my gaze away from the pictures that made me feel as if I’d lose my mind the moment I saw them, I turned my head and addressed the person I presumed to be His Majesty again. But there was still no answer.
It was so dark that the light leaking in through the window was not enough to make out the room. As time slowly passed, my eyes began to adjust to the darkness, and I could be certain that the figure was a person.
Slowly, ever so slowly, I approached that figure.
Hair grown long after two years without being tended to, hands and feet so gaunt they seemed to be nothing but bone, skin stretched tight against the back, thighs starkly exposed in their emaciation. I couldn’t see the face properly, but it was like looking at a mummy.
The moment I saw that sight, emotion surged up within me.
Could not even the smallest fraction of that heart that thought of the First Queen have been directed toward the princess? Did he hate the princess so much that he would tear to shreds the picture she had drawn?
“Your Majesty..!”
I reached out to the person painting on the canvas. His dry, black hair brushed the back of my hand, sending goosebumps over my skin, but I did not stop and grabbed his shoulder.
“Please! Just stop already..!”
When I seized his clothes and pulled him up from the chair, my eyes widened in shock. Because the person was light. Far too light. So light I wondered if this could truly be the weight of a human being.
I grabbed him by the collar with both hands and forcibly lifted him. I tried to force him to stand, but with legs as thin as chopsticks, he looked as if he could no longer even stand.
When I pulled aside the blackout curtains that had been darkening the room, sunlight poured in, and only then could I properly see his face. I gazed down at him and checked whether he was truly alive.
Unkempt black hair that reached down to the waist.
Red eyes that had lost their light.
And... the swelling of a chest that should have belonged to a woman.
“...What are you?”
I knew this person’s face.
Because in both the detached palace and the main palace, portraits with this face numbered in the dozens, even hundreds. I grabbed him by the collar and shook him as I shouted, demanding that he hurry up and explain this utterly incomprehensible situation to me.
“What the hell are you?!”
At my shout, he rolled his eyes slightly and looked at me. When he grasped my wrist with his bony hand, the chill I felt from his touch made goosebumps rise over me. This was simply no different from a corpse.
“You ask... who We are?”
A voice terribly cracked.
“Second Queen, have you forgotten Us already?”
“What..?”
Held by the collar in my grip, he chuckled and introduced himself.
“We are Edric Snow White.”
The “woman” who called herself We smiled madly.
“Your husband, are We not?”