episode_0156

blood.

Blood was pouring from her nose.

And that too with unusual momentum.

“Ugh, hmm… … !”

As he continued speaking, gaps appeared in his words, and until the end of his words became blurred, I thought it was an act to avoid suspicion.

Since there were more than one guy trying to deceive investigators like that, I thought I would never be fooled.

However, the moment I saw her start having a nosebleed at the same time as me. I felt my mind becoming dizzy.

“If you forget, don’t… … Okay! Herr, Mel. festival… … . Off… … !”

As soon as she remembered Princess Hermel, she complained of a headache, and as if thinking about the princess had triggered it, she immediately began to have nosebleeds.

At that moment, a hypothesis popped into my head.

What if he distorted the princess’s memory and intentionally erased her alibi? What if she isn’t the real culprit? Memories, curses, alibis, triggers.

“Miu! Go and knock the princess out! Right now!!”

“Yes? Ah yes!! Sorry, princess!!”

The junior ran up to her and knocked her out by hitting the back of her neck with the blade of his hand.

Her eyes, which were becoming blurry, were looking straight at me. No, it was facing me, but it was looking somewhere far away, not at me.

“Hermel… … .”

She muttered the princess’s name until the end, then collapsed, leaving her body to her junior. The junior started to stop the bleeding from her nose.

The nosebleed had stopped before I knew it, so I wiped the blood away with my sleeve and walked over to her.

“Senior… … . How did this happen… … ?”

“Be quiet, bastard, I’m thinking about it too… … .”

What I just figured out was that the trigger was thinking about the princess. These two things mean that the closer the person is to the princess, the worse the symptoms become.

However, my mind was filled with many more questions than I had figured out. All the evidence pointed to her, and all the circumstances were suspicious of her.

The board that had been set up until now was overturned in an instant. The tower that we worked so hard to build collapsed. All the numbers that came to mind became meaningless. The fact that sat on top of the questions that filled my head made my headache even worse.

“Damn… … .”

“Sir, wouldn’t it be better to move the princess to the health room first? … ?”

“I guess so… … . No, that’s right.”

I said that, picked her up, and started running towards the health room.

If this caused confusion at the academy, follow-up measures would become considerably more difficult and it would be a nuisance to the academy and the Rochelle family, so I followed the hand signal of the junior ahead of me and headed down the deserted road to the health room.

“Now we are there!”

The junior who arrived before me said that and opened the door to the health room. I went straight into the health room.

There, a woman who appeared to be a health teacher was sitting there eating a sandwich. She must have been startled by our sudden entrance, so she swallowed her sandwich and pounded her chest.

While the health teacher was freaking out, I laid Princess Charlotte on the bed and told my junior to watch her condition.

“Who, who are you!?”

“Are you a health teacher?”

“Uh, yes… … . But suddenly――uh… … ?”

The public health teacher, who had been blinking, saw the blood on my clothes and his face turned bright blue.

Could it be that he is an immature person who is not used to seeing blood? Just as I was about to open my mouth to see if anything, the public health teacher’s eyes turned sharp and he put down the sandwich he was holding and stood up.

“Please wait a moment. I will come after disinfecting my hands.”

“What… … ?”

“No, wait a minute… … . You too, please follow me. That way! You are inside! Immediately have the patient sit upright and point their head down!”

After shouting like that, she came towards me with considerable force, gestured with her chin to tell me to follow her, and dragged me to the water where I could wash my hands.

I was taken aback for a moment by the energy that was completely unsuited to the position of a health teacher, but after seeing the various scars left on her hands while she was washing them, I was able to understand how she had that energy.

“I see you are a person holding a public office in the kingdom. What brought you here to the academy, and why did you end up like that, princess?”

“I cannot tell you the details as you are not involved. However, I will tell you why the princess became like that.”

“… … Yes, that’s enough.”

I left out all talk about the investigation and told her why Princess Charlotte ended up like that.

While quietly washing her hands and listening to the story, she frowned when she heard that her nose started bleeding when she remembered the princess.

“You got a nosebleed as soon as you thought of a specific person?”

“That doesn’t necessarily seem to be the case, if you get a nosebleed just because you think of a specific person. You and I, who are here right now, must have had nosebleeds.”

“That’s true too. I don’t know the exact activation conditions or the intensity of the damage, but if it’s a curse that activates like that… … . I’ve seen it a few times.”

After shaking the water off her hands, she turned around and headed toward the health room.

“Could you please open the door?”

At her request, I opened the door to the infirmary, and she slightly bowed her head to express her gratitude, then entered the infirmary and headed straight for the bed where Princess Charlotte was lying.

As she approached, the junior guarding the princess blinked at her. She said, looking down at her junior.

“Please get out of the way.”

“Ah, yes.”

The junior trembled, wondering what kind of expression he was making, and quickly got out of the way.

When she stood in front of the princess, the first thing she did was make her sit up straight and wipe away the blood that covered half of the princess’s face.

“The amount of bleeding is significant… … . The good news is that there is no bleeding now. Did you provide first aid?”

“Ah, yes. I did it.”

“Well done. Thanks to you, this will make things easier. Then, I will examine you from now on, so you can leave.”

After saying that, she looked at me and told me to get out.

“… … All right. Hey junior, I’ll be out, so you stay next to me.”

“Yep. I understand.”

After seeing Princess Charlotte lying down for the last time, I turned my back and left the infirmary.

“… … .”

Feeling the smell of blood and the unpleasant feeling in my mouth later, I headed to the place where the public health teacher had just washed her hands and washed the blood off my hands and mouth.

Drop, drop… … .

I stared blankly at the soft red water dripping from the corner of my mouth, sighed, and covered my eyes with one hand.

I was too complacent. With only the evidence in front of me, I assumed she was the culprit and moved on.

No, normally this would have been enough. If it had been an ordinary incident, from the moment this much evidence was gathered. It must have already been clear that she was the culprit.

Yes, if it was an ordinary incident.

‘Hermel… … .’

From a memory beyond the black darkness, the princess’s eyes, which had become blurred, came to mind.

And then someone’s figure appeared overlapping it.

‘I’m not… … . Trust me… … !!’

“Fuck… … .”

I know it isn’t. I know it’s different than back then.

Is it really different?

The moment that question settled in my head, I took water in my hand and washed my face.

The moment the bone-chilling cold water covered my face, I felt as if my confused mind had cleared up.

“Phew… … .”

Wake. Don’t be swayed by your emotions.

It’s different from that day. Even if it’s the same, she’s still a suspect. You can’t free a prime suspect just by being swayed by memories of the past.

Yes, because of the events of that day, this investigation was also conducted secretly with a very small number of people. There is no way she would die because she was accused of being a criminal. It’s different from back then.

Above all, she… … . Because I’m not a commoner.

“… … .”

After regaining my composure to some extent, I brushed my bangs, took out my notebook, and slowly read its contents.

Why did I feel suspicious? Why did I start to doubt her?

I began to redirect my doubts toward situations rather than people.

“Curse, physical evidence pointing to Princess Charlotte, memories, disappeared alibi, her strangely suspicious actions… … .”

I added the existence of Princess Hermel to the suspicious activities of Princess Charlotte.

Then, all the suspicious activities became the daily life of an ordinary academy student.

Again, I excluded the princess’s presence and looked at her movements. Then, all the evidence and circumstances began to point accurately to her.

“… … .”

As I slowly looked through the princess’s movements again, I was able to find out that she had stopped using curses at all at some point.

The starting point was right after the argument with the Crown Prince during the Spring Festival.

Why? Why didn’t I use the curse from that moment on? According to what we researched in advance, she is a person who can use advanced curses that erode the mind, such as hallucinations and auditory hallucinations.

There is no way that humans who have tasted the convenience of curses would forbid their use just because they changed their minds. So, the story is that something triggered it.

“What is it?”

What is the difference between before and now? What is the difference between then and now?

I blinked, opened the first page of the notebook, and re-read the information about Princess Charlotte from the beginning.

“Red hair, red eyes… … . no. This is enough. Excellent grades? no. He is good at handling most cold weapons. This has nothing to do with it.”

Curse, part related to curse… … . Habits that changed based on the events that occurred that day. Changed behavior patterns.

find. Find it.

“When in trouble, cover your mouth with a fan… … ?”

The moment I caught that sentence, the image of Princess Charlotte throwing her fan on the floor during the Spring Festival came to mind.

no way… … . I guess not. While thinking that, I started walking in search of someone who might have picked up the fan that Princess Charlotte threw that day.

To where the crown prince is.