[Episode 26] - Pandora's Box (3)
"Cough! Cough!"
I lifted the mirror that was Einsel's main body and looked at the red handprint clearly remaining on my neck. Seeing the dark red handprint stamped on my pale neck, goosebumps rose all over my body.
'She said she didn't want to kill me, and yet...'
I thought that if I had called Silpi even a moment later, I truly would have died. Still feeling as though my neck were being squeezed, I stroked my throat and got up from the floor, looking at Silpi.
—My child, are you unhurt?
"...Thank you. I survived thanks to you."
—Huhu, I promised to help you once without price. I merely kept my promise.
Silpi fluttered over and perched on my shoulder, breaking into a bright smile. Truly, if I hadn't recalled the promise Silpi had made in my fading consciousness......
To shake off the unpleasant imaginings, I shook my head and stopped thinking. I got up and looked around the room that had been thrown into chaos by the wind, but as expected, Aurora was nowhere to be seen.
Now I thought I understood a little. Why Vivian had 'failed' the ritual and died. It was probably because what resided in the first queen's body was not the first queen's soul, but the king's.
Then I could more or less understand what Silpi had meant by calling it a 'ritual wrong from its very premise.' Still stroking my throat that felt as though it were being squeezed, I looked at 'Your Majesty' sitting in the chair.
'......What should I do now?'
Suddenly, the thought I had before came to mind. That this room was Pandora's box, filled with things I could not handle. The moment I thought that, a bitter smile formed on my lips unbidden.
Truly, wasn't it exactly as I had thought?
'What on earth am I supposed to do here?'
It was fine that I had opened and entered the room where the king had confined himself, but in fact, the king was no different from dead. That desiccated corpse on the bed was unmistakably the 'king's' own body.
I felt like I could go mad with just this, but the 'king' was not the only one in this room. 'First Queen Aurora,' who had been thought dead, was alive and keeping vigil beside the dead king.
Screaming that she herself was the 'king.'
What would others think if they saw this situation?
That the first queen, thought to be dead, had assassinated the king?
Or, that their love could not be divided even by death?
Wouldn't it probably be the latter?
After all, it was already a famous rumor among all the kingdom's people that the others could not see the 'fairy,' and that the first queen and the king acted as though they could not live without each other.
Whatever the truth was, the story would clearly flow toward the latter. There would be no good in rumors spreading that the king had been assassinated by the first queen.
In a situation like this, they simply had to make it like a fairy tale.
If one made their story into a fairy tale, wouldn't this be the final line?
'Their love could not be divided even by death.'
But reality was not as ideal as the final line of a fairy tale.
Slowly, I approached 'Your Majesty,' who was staring blankly at the canvas from her chair. I knelt on one knee, took her dry hand, and looked up. The pupils of her clouded red eyes were dilated.
"Your Majesty."
Still, the king did not answer my call. But I held the king's hand tightly and called once more, asking what I had wanted to ask all this time.
"Your Majesty, do you remember the child you bore?"
This was a question directed at both the king and the first queen.
Ironically, the body of the person whose hand I held was the first queen's, but the soul was the king's. I thought there would be no reaction, but the king's hand twitched and he turned his head to look down at me.
"Child...?"
"Yes, the child you bore with the person you love."
At the word 'child,' the king burst into a scoff.
"Aah—whether I remember or not, you must mean the child born because the Council of Elders made such a fuss. Why, has that child died? Is that why you have come to find me? To receive my seed?"
"...A child born because they made a fuss?"
The king cackled, shook his head, and began to ramble. I was no longer reflected in those cloudy red eyes. He was simply continuing his 'delusions.'
"Yes, the Council of Elders kept urging that the royal line must continue, so it was a child born from their insistence. Is that not why you married me? Hm? Why did you marry me? Aurora died...? No, Aurora is always by my side..."
The king turned his head, searching the room as though looking for something. His eyes grew wide, and his breath quickened. Then soon, he let out a shriek and collapsed to the floor.
"Ah-! A-again, where have you gone leaving me behind, Aurora! Ah!! Aack!! Aurora!!!!"
He clawed the paintings scattered on the floor into his embrace, floundering among the pictures of Aurora. He was just like someone screaming for help in a swamp from which they could not escape.
'...In the end, you abandon that child until the very end.'
Deciding that talking any further was meaningless, I got up and turned my back on him. Then Silpi asked me, sounding slightly worried.
—Will it be alright to leave like this? I know that humans serve one called a king, a figure of authority... If left like this, he will, just as you think...
He will die.
As Aurora had said, he truly seemed to have little time left. Probably within a day, or at most a week, he and she would undoubtedly be found as corpses in this place.
Arriving at the door, I turned back briefly to look at him floundering on the floor. Hugging the painting of Aurora he had drawn tightly to his chest, he curled his body into a ball like a baby.
"It's fine."
I opened the firmly shut door again.
And stepped out of the room without looking back.
"He is not my king."
The door to the room closed firmly again with a thud.
There would surely be a great commotion in the royal palace before the week was out.
A great commotion caused by the king's death.
*
Coming out of the room where the king had confined himself, I left Einsel's unconscious main body in my room and headed straight for the princess's room. The knights asked if I had entered the king's room, but...
I made the excuse that 'how on earth could I enter a locked room?'
When I said that I had merely shouted in front of the king's room, lost my temper, and banged on the door, the knights nodded as if convinced and resumed their watch in front of the room where the king had confined himself.
Without even knowing that the king was already dead.
When I arrived in front of the princess's room, Ellie was standing guard in front of the door with a worried expression. Ellie, spotting me approaching from the end of the hallway, hesitated for a moment before coming up to me.
"Y-Your Majesty the Queen... The princess is currently asleep..."
"...I see. I must just see her face for a moment and go."
Opening the door and entering, I saw the darkened room with the curtains drawn. And along with it, the sight of the princess lying in bed with the covers pulled up over her head.
Watching the princess lying rolled up in the blankets like a caterpillar, I slowly approached her side. And gently lay down on the bed, looking down at the princess...
"Stop pretending to sleep. Do you think I don't know your sleeping habits?"
"Ah! Ahaha! I-I'm sorry! Th-that tickles...! Ahaha!"
I tickled the princess's sides over the blanket just like that.
The princess, who had truly been wriggling like a caterpillar, poked only her face out from the rolled-up blanket and looked up at me. Though she was laughing from the tickling, I could see that the rims of the princess's eyes were slightly red.
"...Were you crying?"
"Ah, no... I wasn't crying..."
The princess shook her head and denied it, but the sniffling and the redness around her eyes made it clear that she had been crying under the blanket.
I slowly lifted the princess and placed her on my lap, still rolled up in the blanket like a caterpillar. The princess, instantly finding herself in my embrace, flailed about not knowing what to do.
"Princess."
"Y-yes...?"
...Could I tell the princess?
No, there was no way I could say it. That your father, the king, is already dead. That inside that room, it is not only the king but also the first queen.
That the ones you had longed for love from had even forgotten you were here. That you were merely a child born because they needed a successor. That you had never once even been loved.
There was no way I could say it.
"...Next time, let's draw a picture on a bigger canvas."
"B-but..."
"This time, instead of giving it to His Majesty, how about we keep it just between us? Let's draw a cat like last time, and a cake, and the princess, and me, and Einsel next to us too."
Holding the shoulders of the princess in my embrace, I slowly continued. That even if there was no love from them, there were many people around who loved her.
"It would be nice to draw us standing in a flower garden like last time. Let's draw Ellie too, and yes, let's draw Baengsyo as well. I'm sure Baengsyo will be easy to draw since he has no hair."
The princess giggled at my joke. It seemed even the young princess knew that Baengsyo's hair was quite a sight.
"And let's frame it in a big frame and decorate the room with it. No, how about hanging it in the hallway this time? It wouldn't be bad to let everyone see it."
Smoothing the princess's disheveled hair, I spoke to her in a gentle voice. The princess looked at me as though she might burst into tears again, then smiled brightly and nodded.
"Do you feel a little better now?"
"...Yes. But... there is one thing... I wish to ask of Your Majesty..."
The princess continued speaking slightly hesitantly. Then she lifted only her head slightly, cupped both hands around my ear, and whispered. Even though there was no one in this place but us who could hear.
"Hanging it in the hallway... is embarrassing. Can't we just hang it in my room...?"
Hearing the request full of bashfulness, I smiled down at the princess. The princess tried to smile slightly as she looked at my laughter, but...
"No can do. This time, I'm going to hang the princess's picture in the royal hall so everyone can see it together."
"Ah, ack...!"
Naturally it was a joke, but the princess's face began to turn pale. Watching that, I chuckled and embraced the princess in my arms.
The princess squirmed as though slightly out of breath, but I wanted to hold her close, even if just for a moment, just for a very brief moment. Because if I didn't, I felt the princess would notice my anxiety.
For the first time, I made the resolve to leave a person's death unattended.
The anxiety caused by that choice felt as though it were constantly squeezing my throat.
Just as Aurora had strangled my neck.