episode_0037

“Sister. I have something to ask you.”

“… Do you want to ask?”

What question are you trying to ask again?

I felt burdened by the curious gaze of my younger brother.

“Say it.”

As soon as permission was given, my younger brother quickly asked a question.

“What on earth is the relationship between you and your sister?”

“… What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”

“You’re too close.”

Are you close?

“If you say priest, are you referring to Arthur Priest?”

I expected him to ask me some weird questions, but my brother always goes beyond my imagination.

“That must be right, because that priest is the only one my sister meets.”

Is there anything that can be explained by the relationship with Arthur Priest?

“Therapist and patient. What else is there?”

“Lies!”

“???”

Why is this a lie? We are the parties involved.

“Actually, I’ve been guessing for a while now. There must be something between you two. Can’t you be honest with me, not someone else?”

“Honestly, I have nothing to say. What else is there besides a therapist and a patient? He’s a priest, and I’m just a patient.”

My younger brother, who asked again if it was true, seemed to be guessing at something else.

“At this point, I want to ask you in return. What on earth are you suspecting about me and the priest?”

“My sister is so close to a guy who isn’t even her subordinate! She’s become so close to him and they’re laughing and talking. Is this normal? I’ve never had anything like this before.”

“… … .”

“She was the ice flower of the social world, and I saw her not only talking friendly but also laughing, so how can I believe that they are not on good terms?”

Listening to my brother’s words, I do think that there was some misunderstanding.

It was comfortable talking to him, you know.

Still, it was unpleasant that my younger brother had such an absurd misunderstanding.

“Can’t I have a normal conversation with a person? He’s not an imperial noble I have to be wary of, he’s a priest who heals my body. It’s bound to be more comfortable than the people I’ve met so far.”

“Don’t I know my sister? We’re so close that it’d be excessive even if we were priests.”

… you say we’re too close?

Since we only communicated with him in the hospital room, I don’t think we ever thought about how other people might view us.

“Anyway, we’re really not related, right?”

“Yeah. That’s not true. So don’t go around saying things like that. You’ll get punished by heaven.”

The younger brother who had been causing me trouble passed away.

I was left alone in the hospital room, lost in thought.

I never thought of being too close to a priest until now.

‘Do we look that friendly?’

Thinking back to the past, I think he often makes me laugh when he comes over these days.

‘How did it end up like this?’

I think this happened because the priest didn’t just treat the patient but chatted for a while before leaving.

When I was wary of him, I wondered why he was acting like that, but later on, I could understand the reason without even having to ask.

‘I guess talking to me was also part of the therapy.’

He is constantly under mental attack due to the curse.

The priest was performing ‘psychotherapy’ through conversation.

At first, it may start out as a normal conversation, but as the conversation progresses, you will often hear tips on how to deal with hallucinations or auditory hallucinations.

Moreover, as a priest, he knew very well how to appease people.

‘Because talking makes me feel better and makes me feel at ease.’

I think I’m holding up well, but I’m not completely unshaken.

Hallucinations and auditory hallucinations frequently shook my mind, and it would have been very difficult to endure them alone.

There is no denying that his treatment was of great help.

Even after I finished organizing my thoughts, my worries about my younger brother didn’t subside easily.

That feeling of unease continued until the arrival of Priest Arthur.

“Did you eat well?”

“I’m sick of patient food. I want to eat a big piece of meat. I can’t even remember when it was.”

In fact, as my brother pointed out, it was not common to have trivial conversations about things like whether I had eaten, how my health was, or what I was thinking about today.

I’ve probably never had a conversation like this with any of my family members, except for my younger sibling.

“It seems like you have a favorite food. I recommend patient food, but I didn’t completely forbid you from eating meat.”

“I don’t really like other meats. There’s a dish that they sell at a restaurant I often go to, and I want to eat that meat.”

“You had a favorite restaurant.”

“Yeah, there’s no place that suits my taste as much as that, but I didn’t know that eating there back then would be the last time.”

Does this priest really know that?

You probably don’t know.

So, wouldn’t it be better to try to have a casual conversation with me without hesitation?

If the kid pointed out that our relationship was weird to others, then do we really need to change it?

I don’t feel comfortable changing my relationship with him because of what other people think.

“So, are you going to tell me a story today?”

I don’t hate the everyday things he tells me when he comes.

I would restrain myself after hearing such words from my brother, but I didn’t think my relationship with Priest Arthur would change much.

Having to spend all day in a hospital room bored, isn’t it too much to lose this kind of fun?

If God were watching over me, I only hoped he would show me this much mercy.

◎ ◎ ◎

“I can’t do this, Priest! Help me!”

“Yes? Are you talking about me?”

Princess Rasiel came to me right away and asked for my help.

“I feel like I’m almost there, but I can’t make a decision. So I just need you to help me with that!”

Princess Kanabi also knew that as the path of the labyrinth changed, the situation changed completely and the difficulty of finding monsters increased significantly.

However, it is an unavoidable situation, and allowing Princess Rasiel to enter the labyrinth was a different matter.

“Wouldn’t you like to wait a bit and make a decision on your own?”

However, Princess Canabi will have no choice but to accept Princess Rasiel’s proposal.

Who else but Princess Rasiel would desperately search for monsters in that vast labyrinth as if it were her own business?

“How long do I have to wait? The road is so long. I can’t waste time like this. I’ve already waited a long time!”

From the perspective of Princess Rasiel, who was impatient, it seemed like she was on the verge of going crazy because of Princess Kanabi’s frustrating behavior, which made it difficult for her to make a decision.

It was only natural that I was heartbroken as my beloved older sister’s health was getting worse.

He said that he was struggling with the idea of doing it on his own, but eventually decided it wasn’t possible and asked me for help.

“If I had enough time, I would have persuaded my sister by myself. I had no choice but to save time.”

“I’d like to grant you a favor, but do you think Your Highness will listen if I try to persuade you?”

It’s wrong to ask me to do something that my younger sibling can’t persuade me to do.

“You too, like your sister, couldn’t grasp the situation?”

“Yes?”

Are you saying I don’t understand the situation?

“Can you explain what I don’t know?”

“It can’t be free.”

“???”

This isn’t like I’m going to open my eyes and cut off my nose.

I’m dumbfounded, as if I’ve been struck by lightning out of nowhere.

“Maybe it would be easier to live without knowing?”

There is nothing that makes people more upset than someone who stops talking.

If the girl in front of me wasn’t a royal, I would have given her a good scolding.

I’m saying that you shouldn’t act so rudely.

“It has nothing to do with work right now, so I’ll tell you later when I see what’s going on. The important thing right now is to convince my sister! You’ll do it, right?”

You’re asking me to make a fool of someone in an instant and then convince them?

He was truly a royal, with an extremely cruel personality.

What’s even more surprising is that, to this extent, he can be considered relatively docile for a member of the royal family.

“… You made me so curious, but you didn’t say anything.”

“Tell me whether you’re going to do it or not!”

“You came here to ask me a favor, right?”

“I’m not asking you to do it for free.”

Ah… why am I a priest?

I want to give him a hard slap.

“I prepared this considering the compensation I promised you last time and the price for asking you to do this. If it were someone else, I would have just given them money, but you said it’s rude to give money to a priest? That’s why I was very careful!”

I accepted what was presented to me with a confident smile.

“What is this?”

“Take it out without hesitation.”

When the golden bundle was unwrapped, simple items emerged, contrary to the princess’s confidence.

As I looked at the princess in bewilderment, she began to explain the object.

“The fundamental reason you are reluctant to enter the labyrinth is because of safety concerns, right? That’s why you brought a means to protect your body.”

A stone bracelet that appears crude at first glance.

But the stone bracelet seemed to be nothing ordinary.

“A protective bracelet that activates a protective shield when subjected to strong external impact. Although it is a consumable item that can be used about 10 times, it is also an overwhelmingly preferred item in the labyrinth. There are more than a few people who have saved their lives thanks to this protective shield.”

They say that these days, there is so much demand that there is no stock, so even if you bring a lot of money, you can’t get it.

“We plan to continue to provide additional support after the protective measures are used up, so please use them without any worries.”

If the princess says it’s expensive, then I guess it must be an unimaginable price for me.

Things that had seemed cheap just a moment ago began to look shiny and shiny when I heard the explanation and checked them again.

“What kind of thing is this?”

The expensive stone bracelet wasn’t all that Princess Rasiel had given.

Something long, reminiscent of a walking stick.

However, looking at the silvery shine and the antique lettering engraved on it, it seemed like this had a separate function like a stone bracelet.

“This is actually a really valuable item, a tool that reduces the burden of using abilities. Any power can be applied, so even divine power is possible!”

A tool that reduces the burden of ability?