Bibliophile Princess, page 21
I gradually began to realize that she was strange. There was a series of hauntings in the library, and the child solved them one after the other. For example, there was a painting done by an anonymous painter hanging by the landing of the northeast staircase. It depicted harvest time. Sometimes, skeletal faces appeared on the canvas, and it was said disaster would befall anyone who glimpsed them. The child thought a little about the mystery and solved it.
The person in the painting always looked like a skeleton on rainy days. Light shone in diagonally from the window onto the landing, and small animals would come and go on the trees outside on rainy days, but not when the sun was out. She discovered that the shadows caused by the animals in addition to the kind of paint used by artists in that era created the phenomenon. The residents of the fiefdom were impressed.
Another example occurred at night, when a woman’s crying could be heard from the back of the library. There was a crack in the barrel that held the rainwater, and the leaking water ran down and bounced off the wood and metal that had been added to patch it, making a sobbing sound. The noise resounded well at night when there weren’t many people around. A musician who was visiting to study the precious sheet music the library owned was impressed by her deduction.
One ghost did not appear at night, but during the day. A girl’s spirit would appear in dim light, and if you disrespected a book or made a fuss in the library, it would always appear and curse you. The curse was that whenever you tried to enter the library, she would chase you out and never let you in again. That was a big deal since this place was such a source of pride for the people here. However, there was a cure for this curse. If one offered it sweets, it would let them in again. I thought I’d heard that somewhere else before.
As a final example, stories about monsters that sucked human blood were in vogue at the time. People rapidly traded rumors about whether these monsters would appear in the library and when. It caused a bit of an uproar among the children, who argued about whether they should chant some sort of dubious spell, carry silver, or wear garlic to repel the creatures.
The girl exterminated the bloodsucking creatures—a large number of leeches that had been inhabiting the swamps in recent years due to the climate—that had been causing damage to livestock such as chickens and pigs in the territory. She discovered the cause of their appearance, an extermination method, countermeasures, and so forth, all by using knowledge she’d gained from books.
And thus her reputation as the Bibliophile Princess only grew. Only I, however, knew about the experiments she conducted to test the extermination methods.
First, she tested for control methods. The children tried to smoke out the creatures, and during the course of the experiment, the lord’s mansion overflowed with soot. All the residents had to leave the mansion and sleep in an inn for a while.
Next, she recalled that every creature and insect found certain odors unpleasant. She thought perhaps this type of monster wouldn’t like herbal smells, which were also used to exterminate pests in the kitchen. After reading about it in books and learning from the mansion’s cook, the child invented a new anti-insect odor. She named it “Sweet-Smelling Lure.”
There were certain sweet scents popular with boys for catching insects. She mixed that with something that had an insect-repellent effect. In other words, it had an extremely pungent odor. She was aiming for the creatures to be lured in by the sweet smell, then be overwhelmed by the pungent odor when they reached the trap, but when she actually mixed it together, the odor became so outrageously strong that it was basically a biological weapon.
The child was scolded over this incident, so next she decided to conduct her experiments near the library. This time she succeeded in driving out the people inside the library and the residents nearby.
Hmm, I have a feeling she’s going to earn a different nickname soon enough, but I’ll pretend not to notice.
She finally discovered how to exterminate the pest through various experiments such as these. Bloodsucking creatures had an aversion to sound waves using water and odors. Combining the two, she exterminated animals that attacked humans at the same time as livestock. Furthermore, as a by-product, she got rid of the bats that roosted in the library.
I would like to say a word as someone who witnessed the truth behind these incidents and who got dragged into them. Just who do you think cleaned up every time?!
My orders were to stay by the child’s side and eliminate any threats or dangers around her—and sometimes send information. That should have been it. However, even though I was just protecting her, I’d somehow gotten involved in a strange ghost story based on a painting. I had taken the lives of others without any emotion, and now I was trying to appease ghosts by making offerings to them. It was a strange feeling.
The territory was so calm and inconsequential that one could take a nap without being targeted by anyone. But if I indulged in too many naps, I would end up becoming an outrageous criminal—a thief who stole offerings or a crook who destroyed pest control products. That didn’t include all the harmless things that resulted from the child’s experiments.
Even though I was wondering how I got into this position, I realized I was happy. I was living a completely different life than I ever had before. I had no idea a place like this existed in the world. Every time I got involved in one wild scheme after the other, I would hear a voice calling me—a voice below my waist, from a line of sight I no longer had. A long time ago, when I was little, I looked up at others like this.
Coming back to my senses, I blinked at the sight of the sparks. What was I looking at now?
During the middle of the day when the blizzard began to blow, I launched a surprise attack. It was our last chance.
“This time...” That was all the wounded man said, all his plans and thoughts now ruined. His words were a murmur that resembled a curse.
“If only we could get rid of her.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. I would do what he said. It was a sacrifice for him after he had come this far obsessed with one mission. Wasn’t that what I’d always done? I’d obediently fulfilled the orders from above, and I was about to make his wish come true now that the end was in sight.
But then came a sound and an impact that knocked me to my senses, followed by a pungent odor. It was the custom of our target to do this, but it was a desperate attack, and she wore a mask to hide her appearance.
Our target confronted us on horseback then jumped down from the horse. She did not run away; she was trying to stop the cavalry.
At that time, I saw that she took something out of her pocket, but she was a powerless girl. No matter what she did, she didn’t stand a chance against anyone.
It was then that the shock hit us. Perhaps she’d mixed the smokescreen used in emergencies with another pungent odor? It smelled familiar—a spice unique to the northern regions that remained unpleasantly on the tongue.
I coughed before I said anything. The irritating odor penetrated my eyes, blurring my vision. This girl had accumulated experience since childhood and created an even more outrageously repellent smell! No, wait... Wasn’t the girl choking as well?
The pungent odor was merciless even through a mask, choking our target and us. It was accelerated by the fact that a gusty blizzard wind was blowing.
I couldn’t blame myself for yelling, “Are you an idiot, m’lady?!”
The other party, who was coughing and coughing, seemed to have something to say but couldn’t put it into words. I couldn’t help but feel more and more that she was a complete fool.
Then there was someone else, who had refocused on his target due to my shouting. I realized that he was still bleeding even though his wounds had been tended to. They must have been serious, but so was his will to kill the target. If he didn’t succeed, he would have nowhere to go. He was no longer a Royal Shadow. If he didn’t produce results, he would no longer have a home.
But what about me?
“Jean,” a voice called to me in memory. It was the man who had rescued me from the brink of death in the midst of that filth. That was the only thing I listened to as I followed orders. That was enough for me.
But...
During hot summer afternoons, I frequently had to give water to the child who was so absorbed in books she forgot to drink. I convinced her to read in that cool place that I’d secretly found. And for some reason, other people began to gather, creating a place of relaxation.
In autumn, when there was a lot of fruit, there was always excitement in the air about all the sweets that would come about, like steamed sweet potatoes. We would split chestnuts like it was some kind of game. It was not a particularly fertile land, so sweet things were not that abundant, yet the girl always offered me the sweets first.
In the winter, when the view was completely white, and in the spring, when soft greenery sprouted... The same seasons, the same times, the same events... We shared so many things. Even though the feelings were different, they were irreplaceable.
I moved at the exact same moment my comrade did, probably quicker than the voice in my head calling my name.
~.~.~.~
“I want Jean back.”
In the Ralshen Region, in an inn room in the town of Modzth, a device was emitting steam using heat stones. A heat stone had been set in a candleholder, and water would periodically drip onto it from a receptacle. I’d come up with this setup; it was one of the precautions against the Ashen Nightmare. It was the loudness of that sound, the hiss of water hitting heat, that made me say those words.
“Lady Elianna,” Mabel said sternly.
Everyone assembled in this room was deeply involved in the matter. Lord Alexei was making an awful face, but Lord Alan, who was beside him, quietly waited for me to continue, albeit with a somewhat trying expression. Lord Alan was the one whom Jean had wounded, and when I watched him take off his sling, I collected my feelings once more.
Mabel, who was by my side, had been the first person to gather in this room. We had discussed matters of the town and Ralshen with the earl and other influential people, setting our sights on detailed points such as policy, countermeasures, and future guarantees. Then the outline was decided. At first, I’d had no intention of leaving until the town had settled down, but when the matter came up, Lord Alexei had convinced me otherwise.
“You should return to the royal capital, Lady Elianna.”
I’d looked back in amazement, meeting Lord Alexei’s unyielding ice-colored eyes and posture.
“You came to this town to quell the riots that broke out in this land. You gave relief to the sick, their families, and their victims.”
“No, but—!” one of the influential people had said. “Please wait! If the fiancée of the crown prince is here, first aid will be extended. Lady Elianna was the one who came up with this hypothesis. If the illness spreads, the discrimination against Ralshen will only get worse, and it will grow more difficult to obtain aid! If Lady Elianna leaves now...”
It had felt like the painful voice was stabbing me in the chest.
“Wouldn’t that be the third time the royal family has abandoned this land?” he’d added.
Carl Ralshen, the young earl who’d belatedly come to the town of Modzth had refuted that claim. “That’s not true. Ralshen was twice abandoned by the royal family, but the Ashen Nightmare occurred again. Lady Elianna stood up for us, even when she heard about the outbreak. Because of her, we found a cure and closed down the mines, which are believed to be the source of the disease. And she did so in the name of the royal family. The rest is up to the people who live here.”
“Besides,” the earl had continued, “we will benefit from Lady Elianna’s return to the royal capital.”
I had blinked, wondering what he meant, and he had responded with his usual strong gaze.
“By returning to the royal capital and having your position restored, we anticipate that more support will be given to Ralshen.”
That made a lot of sense. They would certainly take me seriously when I told them about what I had experienced in this land. The influential people who had raised their voices earlier had also been looking at each other as if they’d been convinced, saying they agreed.
Raqqa Arkto had spoken next. He had been responsible for causing the riot and was therefore a criminal, but he was also an influential person who could understand the town’s situation and gather opinions.
“The town has a lot of support now. I believe we are no longer in a crisis situation. If you keep the princess here, the people in the town will be relieved...but it’s not just our town that you want to save.”
His gaze could detect the severity of a situation no matter how pleasant it appeared. That had done wonders to assure me about the town’s current situation.
“More people in these parts have heard of the Lady Saint than the crown prince’s fiancée. Even if you return to the royal capital, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you can regain your position. Do you understand that?”
I could stay in Ralshen and work hard for reconstruction. His eyes had been telling me that that was one way to increase my notoriety and trust, but I’d known that wasn’t what I was supposed to do.
I had made promises to Grandpa Teddy. One was to find a clue about the disease, which had led me to the discovery and production of the cure. And now was the time to think about what to do next.
What should I do?
“Lady Elianna Bernstein.” I’d felt my resolve strengthen when I’d heard Raqqa call my name. “Just like you saved our town, now I want you to save the people of other towns. As a citizen of Sauslind, that’s what I want from you. If anyone should save the people of this kingdom, it should be you, Lady Elianna.”
Earl Ralshen and the other influential people had nodded their heads. “You saved this land. Now it’s our turn to support you, even if we can’t do much.”
It had been more of a boost than anything else—support and trust from a land that was said to have been forsaken by royalty and country. There was nothing more encouraging than that.
Reconfirming my resolution and my promises, I had answered in the affirmative and moved on to the next conversation, which was the discussion I was currently having with Mabel and the others.
We needed to decide the shortest route to return to the royal capital with the smallest number of companions. The escaped assassin might show himself again. We needed enough guards to protect me, but we also had to be discreet. I had to get back to the capital before my assailant came up with a new plan.
Horse-drawn carriages would take too long, so we had no choice but to go on horseback. For that reason, we decided that my female companions wouldn’t be coming along. Lilia immediately expressed her dissatisfaction, but Rei silenced her with one merciless sentence: “You’ll only get in the way.”
Now that that was decided, I announced my intent to find the other assassin who’d gotten away. Mabel was the first to say no.
“You mustn’t, Lady Elianna.”
We were having this meeting about my return to the capital in a corner of Modzth’s town hall. The office, set up in the town square and visible to everyone, was becoming the headquarters, with all the meetings and informal talks mainly being held here. Gathered here were all the members that had come up with the cure back at the inn.
Of course, Lady Gene was absent, because she was still working tirelessly to produce more of the cure. Lord Alexei and Lilia were here in her stead. Mabel was neglecting her duties both as a nurse and as my attendant.
“He destroyed the clues you were looking for and even tried to kill you. No matter what his circumstances were, the actions he took are unforgivable,” she said firmly, and then stopped, her voice choked with emotion. I felt myself getting emotional as well. “The moment he betrayed you, he lost his right to live. Doing that to someone he had served for many years means he has about as much loyalty as a slug!”
“Yes,” Lord Alan agreed. “If you sprinkle salt on him, he’ll melt.”
“Mabel...” After this situation, I was once again grateful for the loyalty of those who always stuck by my side.
“But most of all, it’s unthinkable! How could he have served you for so many years and not understood your way of thinking? It’s just impossible! He’s a fool! If anyone should be taken care of first, it’s him!”
“Wow,” Lord Alan said. “I might help you do that.” It seemed he was also angry at Jean.
Lord Alexei sighed at this exchange. He tapped his fingertips on the map that was spread out on the table, and I returned my attention to him. “I understand that you want Jean back, Lady Elianna, but for now, let’s proceed with our plans to return you to the capital. We don’t have much time.”
With those words, everyone switched gears and focused back on the journey. And, after various compromises...
I used a prototype smoke screen, thinking that if Jean and his leader had managed to escape, they might be riding on horseback from Ralshen, aiming for one last chance to target me. And this was also my last chance. However, this smoke screen was a little too spicy.
As I fell to the snow while coughing, I saw a blade come straight toward me.
Getting Jean back was my own selfish desire. That was why I had asked Prince Irvin and my companions not to interfere. The owner of the approaching blade had tenacity and a determination to kill me no matter what, rather than murderous intent. I knew that if he succeeded, he would not only take away my life, but also my reunion with His Highness and everything else along with it. But for some reason, I was not afraid.
I heard the sound of metal striking metal—the impact of a sword being knocked away. I fell on my back, buried in the snow, and when I looked up, I saw a shadow blocking my way. But it wasn’t one of my companions; I had asked Prince Irvin and the others not to intervene until the last minute. Instead, it was the slender back I had grown so accustomed to seeing in front of me.
