SILHCN 39

“You, too. You could have been the first one to be torn apart by that magical beast.”

“I have to be able to handle that much of a gamble. But I was certain. That the princes would be in more danger than I would.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because I thought it would first attack those who were older, stronger, and closer to the throne but not officially crowned.”

No matter how I think about it, it’s a trap an emperor, who fears that a civil war might reach the palace or that his siblings might stage a rebellion right in front of his eyes, would set. I don’t know if someone who has been officially granted the title of Crown Prince would be included in the attack range. The current emperor has not given anyone the title of Crown Prince. In other words, the emperor’s two sons are his main rivals for the throne.

It’s a little strange that the magical beast in the maze garden attacks other intruders but doesn’t kill me, while the magical beast hidden in the Hall of Glory attacks imperial bloodlines first. It must have been installed during the time of the first emperor, but didn’t the imperial family back then use the power of light strongly? They wouldn’t have been easily defeated by a magical beast… It might not be that it kills other members of the imperial family for the emperor, but that it attacks all members of the imperial family, with a prohibition that it cannot harm the emperor and empress. That might be the right answer.

“And, it could have attacked Prince Adrian as well, not just me or Prince Brian, couldn’t it? It’s the same for you, Your Majesty, taking on a risk.”

“I just realized once again that if you try to lose nothing, you might lose everything.”

The empress looked at me with inscrutable eyes.

“You, too, are very calm. Adrian and Brian at least learned to use a sword, but you’ve never even swung a sword, and you almost died from a magical beast attack last time.”

My expression stiffened. In fact, I wasn’t worried, and I did borrow something just in case it attacked me.

“…”

I couldn’t hide my troubled expression as I looked at the pure white cloth wrapped around my shoulders. The <Gloriana’s Insignia>, of all things… It must be an item that has endured for an immeasurable amount of time, but like a divine weapon (though the insignia doesn’t look like a weapon), it was pure white and shiny. It looked like a decorative cloth to hang on a wall, or a simple cloak that could be worn on the shoulder. The thin white cloth was just big enough to wrap around my shoulders. The golden tassels at the end of the cloth sparkled every time I moved.

The emoticon sword kept talking about some kind of test, so I really didn’t want to touch it. No, in fact, I thought I would be ignored if I asked for it, or get a response like, ‘I thought you were just joking when you said you wanted to borrow this precious item.’ What am I supposed to do when I ask if I can borrow it and she just hands it over to me?

Anyway, I saw in the book I borrowed that this weapon seemed to have the function of protecting the wearer, even if only a little. It seems to be for ‘those who have awakened the power of light,’ but I thought it would be better than nothing, so I borrowed it.

I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I just trusted in the stupidity of Prince Brian, who has never been in a crisis like this before.”

Of course, Prince Brian’s side also had informants planted by the empress or the Castraine Ducal family. Prince Brian was very easily swayed. If someone said let’s go hunting because the weather was nice, he went hunting, and if someone said let’s go drinking because the prey wasn’t good, he excitedly went drinking. Empress Cleo, who intended to bring a high priest to the empress’s palace to identify, purify, and heal me from the curse, usually didn’t include her son in her affairs. After all, Prince Brian was not as smart as Empress Cleo. He tried to please the emperor, but he was so clumsy that if the emperor didn’t have his rose-colored glasses on, saying, ‘Oh, my dear, my lovely child,’ his true nature would have been exposed long ago. Also, Empress Cleo planned to deal with any problems by herself so that it wouldn’t affect her son.

‘That’s not how it should be.’

She’ll use every trick in the book, but she’ll make sure her son doesn’t get hurt? That’s ridiculous.

Here’s what happened to Prince Brian today.

Because Empress Cleo told him to have a quiet day, Prince Brian was planning to rest in his room today. However, as soon as morning came, a hunting buddy arrived and excitedly told him, ‘I saw a wolf with a incredibly beautiful golden mane. No one has ever seen a prey like that. But it was injured and escaped from a hunting ground near the palace. It might have hidden inside the palace.’ The story was full of holes.

Logically, does that even make sense? Well… yes. The palace is big. A beast could sneak in at night, avoiding people’s eyes, climbing walls and roofs, and hiding in a garden somewhere. But the informant properly fanned the flames of Prince Brian’s desire, saying, ‘It’s a shame that it disappeared near the palace of all places, and people who are passionate about hunting are very sad. No one can use a weapon inside the palace, can they?’

A unique color and shape that might be mixed with the blood of a magical beast, and someone had already inflicted a serious injury. It’s a prey that other nobles, who are only allowed to hunt in the hunting grounds, can’t dare to covet because it hid near the palace. If he could just catch it, it would be something to be truly proud of to the emperor. Yes. If he could just catch it. So Brian fell into the trap.

Thanks to the informant’s added line, ‘It’s a pity that such a beautiful prey would just be butchered if a guard or a knight saw it, as they wouldn’t know its value,’ Prince Brian secretly took his weapon and wandered inside the palace without telling any of his knights or the soldiers guarding the area.

I chose the time when his pre-planned route would be closest to the Hall of Glory and had the empress release the magical beast (I had already run far away). The magical beast immediately ran towards Brian. When the wolf with the golden mane appeared, Brian was happy and gripped his sword. However, unlike what he had been told, there was no sign of injury, and its aura was too strong to be a normal wolf. Brian couldn’t even swing his sword properly.

This was the same Brian who, to hunt, would bring a bunch of people, shoot arrows, intimidate the prey, corner it with traps, and then take its life. Hunting a magical beast that was approaching him alone? It was impossible. Brian was instantly terrified and ran away. Of course, there were soldiers and knights who saw Brian yelling in fear, ‘Is anyone there! Someone save me! Please! Aaaaaah!’, and ran towards the magical beast. The elite guards that Cleo had personally assigned to Brian found him, who had disappeared from his post, and rushed towards the magical beast. Brian ran away, leaving his elite guards behind to sacrifice themselves for him. However, the magical beast was very strong and dealt with the elite guards in an instant before chasing after Brian. Terrified, Brian forgot the way and everything else and ran until he fell into the maze garden (I had actually calculated his route beforehand and subtly blocked his escape).

Because the Castraine family was desperately repairing the barrier and fighting on the front lines against the magical beasts, the major cities and the imperial capital were relatively safe from them. You could tell just by looking at how the nobles leisurely enjoyed hunting in the forests and how the ladies held banquets outdoors. However, this doesn’t mean there are no magical beasts at all. There are often magical beasts with weak power that are usually killed by law enforcement. They are often no different from wild beasts, and they aren’t even called magical beasts—their cores are not even worth mentioning. So, would Empress Cleo or Prince Brian truly be afraid of magical beasts? They were bold enough to bring an item with the power of darkness into the palace to fabricate a curse. There’s no way they would know.

The people of the Castraine family, generation after generation, learned how to deal with magical beasts through painstaking effort, know-how, and experience. It was the same for power and ability. They knew how to use what in what way to reduce civilian casualties and what kind of magical beasts they could kill. So the reason the Castraine family could hunt down magical beasts, analyze them, and sometimes even use a strategy of using one magical beast to kill another, is because they are, quite literally, specialists.

I don’t know what kind of people Empress Cleo had made a deal with, but they probably hadn’t accumulated as much know-how as the Castraine family. But Empress Cleo made a deal with dangerous people with the sole purpose of attacking me. The Castraine Ducal family quickly confirmed the identity of the ‘cursed evidence’ that Empress Cleo had obtained. To be more precise, they speculated. And they concluded that it was ‘very dangerous.’ It was no different from an explosive condensed with the power of darkness.