Chapter 13. Crisis and Opportunity (10)

I didn’t expect the treatment to end in just one session, so after administering holy power to Faina, the princess, we decided to observe her for a while.

“Hoo.”

Faina, who received my holy power throughout her body, exhaled lightly and smiled brightly.

“I feel like my body is a little lighter.”

“Holy power has the strength to fix all the bad parts of the body. If you were feeling a bit tired, that sensation might disappear.”

When I replied like that, Faina murmured, “That’s the kind of power I wish His Majesty would receive too,” and tilted her head.

…….

Come to think of it, wasn’t marriage between siblings not that strange in ancient Egypt?

Seeing that the King himself said it was “before the wedding,” perhaps this sister’s groom might be the King.

Even if the groom is disliked, it wouldn’t be strange to act a little, but-

Even if the princess likes someone else, there’s nothing I can do about it. If I step one more inch into this, I’ll be caught up in the political affairs of another country.

The King probably wouldn’t want that either.

I didn’t ask any further and stood up from my seat.

Suddenly, my eyes met with one of the maids.

The maid, who had been observing Faina, quickly lowered her head as soon as our eyes met.

I didn’t feel anything suspicious from that.

The maid was quite close to Faina, even to the point of pointing out her mistakes with a glance last time. Last time, I encountered her in the hallway, not in the room, and she was the maid accompanying her then.

Unlike Faina and the King, whose ears were perked up, the maid generally had cute, puppy-like ears that were slightly drooped.

As I stared at her, her ears twitched slightly, which I found a bit cute-

“Please don’t tease her too much.”

Faina said with a smile.

“Anna.”

And Ria also subtly came up beside me and spoke as if warning me.

No, I wasn’t really planning to do that.

Ria seemed a bit more tense since coming here, so she reacted more sensitively to my every action. She didn’t even do this in the Dwarf Kingdom.

Well, our relationship now is a bit different from our relationship back then.

…….

It’s a bit vague to explain how it’s different, but still.

I bowed slightly to Faina and returned to my room.

*

Still, I’m gradually becoming more comfortable bathing with Ria.

I trust Ria. This is completely sincere. What would Ria do just because I’m by her side?

That trust was also an intellectual trust, separate from my emotional trust. In the original work, Ria was a character who liked men, which also meant she wasn’t particularly attracted to women sexually.

“Hoo.”

As I submerged myself a little deeper in the water and let out a long breath,

“You seem to be deep in thought.”

Ria said, turning her body slightly towards me. She rested one arm on the edge of the bathtub and looked at me, so the water was precarious. Her left armpit was even clearly visible.

The power of whether a single strap passed over that armpit or not was quite significant.

I forced my gaze away from where it was trying to fixate. Still, I’m confident I succeeded in looking away nonchalantly. This is also thanks to adapting by being next to Ria for the past few days.

“Because even after pouring holy power for several days, nothing has changed.”

“Well, that’s true. No matter how I think about it, it looks like acting, doesn’t it?”

“What about knowing information you didn’t know?”

“You can have maids gather information.”

“Have maids gather it?”

“Maids of direct royal lineage are never people of low status. Moreover, the King of this country is not a descendant of God but is revered as God himself. The people who assist such a person wouldn’t just be from a peasant background, would they?”

“Ah.”

“They could be descendants of people buried with the King inside the pyramids… No, even if they say it’s the old dynasty’s tomb, the records inside wouldn’t not have been stored elsewhere, would they?”

Ria’s words seemed to have merit.

“If she’s pretending to be crazy, the reason would be marriage, right?”

“That’s right. She might want to marry someone else, or for some reason, she absolutely doesn’t want to.”

The King didn’t seem like a bad person, but well, can’t people love someone else?

However, no other man entered the princess’s bedroom.

I learned a little more about this world, and it seems that virginity before marriage is not considered very important. After all, there isn’t even a word like ‘virgin’.

The rule of this world is to have free love, but to be faithful only to your spouse after marriage.

That means, if Princess Faina wanted to date someone, she could easily have a lover. And if there was such a person, there’s no way no one would have entered that place.

“……A woman?”

“Huh?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”

Ria responded to my mumbling, but I quickly changed the subject.

It’s still speculation.

There’s no evidence, nothing concrete, and I’ve only seen her a few times, so she’s just someone I’ve seen.

But.

Ria might not be able to imagine it at all, but the fact that I can immediately think of it.

…….

Huh.

Isn’t my way of thinking becoming more and more dangerous?

What if Ria gets a boyfriend later and I get hurt and hide in a corner?

No, just imagining it made me feel bad immediately.

“Well, don’t dwell too much on problems you can’t solve right now. Shall we go rinse off soon?”

Seeing Ria say that with a smile, I deliberately let out a sigh and stood up.

I still covered my body with a towel.

But somehow, I was looking forward to the time when we would go out of the water together with Ria.

…….

This is really getting dangerous.

*

The next day.

Still, I decided that since I came here on a request, I would definitely resolve at least one matter before leaving, and I went to see the King again.

“Magic stone. I understand what you’re thinking, but the magic stone mine is quite far from here.”

The King said, shaking his head.

“Our priests haven’t just stood by. They’ve thought about how to resolve the situation.”

“So, you’ve concluded that a spirit has possessed her…?”

“Well, it seems to have some effect.”

The King said with a slight smile as he looked at me.

“At least, my sister hasn’t had another seizure while you’ve been here.”

“……Is that so?”

I tilted my head and replied.

The King offered us a few words of praise, and I responded to the compliment with conventional words. However, as I turned to leave the room, I felt a great sense of unease.

If the princess is acting, and the King brought me in to give her a warning, it wouldn’t be entirely illogical.

“Controlling people with magic is very difficult.”

Just in case, I asked Gloria, who was part of our group.

“You saw it yourself, didn’t you? In the Dwarf Kingdom. If you use that much magic, your appearance is bound to be revealed.”

“Then, as expected…”

“It might be a troublesome political incident.”

Gloria’s judgment was similar.

In the end, I had no choice but to return to my room that day with the same lingering unease.

*

Just in case, I went around and poured holy power to purify the magic, but apart from the essential parts, there wasn’t much magic lingering.

Beastmen don’t blindly worship magic. Their basic physical strength is quite considerable, so they seem to worship strength more fundamentally.

Eventually, as I was wondering if I would have to return without uncovering anything, someone visited us.

“You are…?”

“……I, I’m sorry. I seem to have forgotten to change the water here… Could you postpone your bath while I go get more water?”

It was that maid.

The maid who was with Princess Faina.

A maid directly assisting the princess would certainly not be of low status.

We both agreed, and the maid diligently went around and resolved the situation with magic.

……It seems I broke something while carelessly pouring holy power everywhere for my own comfort.

After fixing it, the maid returned to us and bowed, seeing the water trickling into the bathtub.

“Thank you-“

“S-Saint-nim.”

As I politely greeted her and was about to send her away, the maid suddenly spoke to me.

“Yes?”

“C-Can’t you, just leave the Princess as she is?”

“…….”

Even if the maid has a high status, such words would not be permitted.

“The, the Princess, the Princess…”

The maid’s eyes darted around, and she finally opened her mouth.

“The Princess, anyway, won’t live that much longer.”

“…….”

What is she talking about?

Ria and I looked at each other blankly.

“Shall we sit and talk first?”

“Ah, I, I…”

“You came to me to explain the Princess’s situation directly, right? If I don’t hear the story properly, I can’t do anything for you. I can’t just overlook the fact that the Princess has little time left and not tell His Majesty.”

“…….”

“If it’s inconvenient to take too long, I can break this device one more time.”

“Ah, no, you don’t have to…”

Finally, the maid sat down in front of us and managed to speak.

“Royalty, they have a few unique diseases.”

Generally, to handle magic means to change a part of the world by moving external magic with weak internal magic. That’s called ‘using magic’.

Dwarves are slightly different from that; they can accumulate magic within their bodies.

And beastmen are the same.

“……But, you all see relying too much on magic as dangerous, right?”

“Yes. That’s because our bodies can easily become addicted to magic.”

The maid swallowed hard, glanced around cautiously, and then leaned slightly towards me and said,

“Our bodies, they say, have demon blood flowing through them.”

“…….”

Ria and I looked at each other again.

And with serious expressions, we looked at the maid and said,

“Please tell us in detail.”