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Chapter 10
I moved the handkerchief from his forehead to his cheek.
Even through the damp cloth, I could feel the heat radiating from his skin.
“Hiding your condition has its limits. I understand you wanted to appear healthy at the banquet, but if you collapse, it’ll only make things worse.”
“……”
Karsiel looked up at me with a stiff expression.
“You have trouble enduring the midday sun for long periods, don’t you?”
“……”
“If you thought being indoors would make it fine, you were mistaken.”
Taking his silence as confirmation, I continued.
“What’s fatal to Your Highness’s illness is light and heat. The banquet hall is filled with countless chandeliers and candles. But even more dangerous are the decorations powered by magic stones. If you stay near them, you could collapse within minutes.”
“……Are you saying you know the name of my illness?”
Karsiel asked quietly. A sharp wariness that hadn’t been there moments ago flickered in his eyes.
And understandably so. At this point in time, very few people knew not only the name of Karsiel’s illness, but even the fact that he was sick at all.
Swish—
When I didn’t answer immediately, he reached out and grabbed my arm. His grip was so firm I couldn’t move an inch.
“Speak.”
A murderous intent bled through his voice like the edge of a blade.
“Tell me everything you know.”
In my first life, I never met Karsiel even once. He died on the battlefield from an illness no one could identify.
After that, the imperial family was struck by the curse of an evil god foretold in an ancient prophecy, and nearly half the empire fell into ruin. Baltazar, who suffered the curse directly, lost his sanity.
Fortunately, I had fled the imperial palace at just the right moment with as much wealth as I could carry and escaped to the southern continent, beyond the curse’s influence. There, through various means, I multiplied my family’s fortune again and again.
Had time not suddenly reversed and begun my second life, I might even have rebuilt the empire around House Apelemeon.
The first and last time I met Karsiel was during that second life.
It was the day I collapsed while wandering snowy mountains gathering information about monster hunting.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself wrapped in someone’s cloak inside an abandoned cabin.
The moment I realized the haggard man sitting by the brazier, tending the fire through the night, was the crown prince, what I felt was not gratitude or awe, but irritation.
‘Lady Apelemeon. I’ve finally found you.’
‘Apelemeon is a name that no longer exists. People must be worried about you, so go back.’
‘……Let me help you.’
‘Did you go through all this trouble to ease your guilt? You saved my life, so you may leave now.’
‘……’
‘Go back and tell them this: the debt has been repaid, your goal was achieved, and now you can cast aside whatever guilt remains.’
‘It’s not like that.’
‘Then what do you want? My forgiveness? My acknowledgment that what the imperial family did was the best choice? I can offer none of th—’
‘……I want to follow you.’
‘What?’
‘……Forgive me. I misspoke.’
‘……’
‘I understand your wishes now. I’ll return from here. Since I can see there’s no way to help you.’
‘……’
‘You asked what I wanted a moment ago, didn’t you?’
‘……’
‘I want you to live a life worthy of being called life. I want you to watch landscapes change with the seasons, to meet countless people and feel countless emotions.’
‘……’
‘I want you to enjoy every beauty this world has to offer.’
‘……’
‘I’ll leave the cloak behind. The one you had was too worn out to use anymore.’
‘If you leave your cloak behind, Your Highness will freez—!’
He disappeared before I could finish speaking.
And strangely enough, the words he left behind lingered in my memory for a very long time.
I tried to convince myself it had all been hypocrisy, but in the end, I failed.
It had been so long that I could barely remember the last time someone had given me such a pure blessing for my happiness.
Even if those words had come from nothing more than pitiful guilt.
I only learned much later that Karsiel had continued searching for me after surviving the snowy mountains by some unknown means.
Back then, the cabin had been dark, and the distance between the brazier and the bed was considerable, so this was effectively the first time I had seen him this closely.
“Speak, Iris Apelemeon.”
Karsiel commanded in an icy voice.
I swallowed dryly.
In the North, they called him the Angel of Death.
They said the nickname came from how anyone who met his gaze would be granted death.
Seeing the razor-sharp intensity in his eyes, I could finally imagine how those who crossed swords with him must have felt.
“It’s Thornspike Poison.”
I spoke carefully.
“A deadly toxin that rapidly raises body temperature and dries out the body’s moisture. I’ve seen it once before.”
“Thornspike Poison…?”
Karsiel frowned.
“Yes. You’re poisoned the moment a Thornspike Bat bites you.”
“I’ve heard of it. There was once an epidemic caused by it in the Eastern Continent.”
His answer sounded uncertain, as though he still couldn’t fully understand.
“But that makes no sense. Thornspike Bats have almost never been found anywhere in the Western Continent, let alone the Empire. And for the past two years, I’ve been stationed only in the northern region of Kakhnav.”
“It doesn’t fit common sense, no.”
I nodded.
“Thornspike Bats can’t survive in cold climates.”
Back when I devoted myself to monster hunting in my previous life, I had researched all kinds of magical beasts. Thornspike Bats were one type of small monster, so I had at least seen illustrations and poisoning symptoms recorded in books.
“But, Your Highness, it’s possible artificially.”
“Artificially?”
“Did you know Thornspike Bats hatch from eggs? The mother incubates them for a year before abandoning the nest, and two months later the eggs hatch on their own. They emerge already fully grown.”
Karsiel’s eyes slowly widened.
“The mother requires special conditions to incubate the eggs, but during the final two months before hatching, the eggs can withstand most temperatures and movement. Which makes transporting them from the East to the cold North entirely possible.”
“……The East.”
He repeated quietly.
As though he had found the answer, a bitter smile touched his lips.
“If it’s the East, then that would be the territory of Marquis Rudes, father of the Empress.”
“……”
“I’d heard his son had a hobby of collecting monsters, but I never imagined he’d use them as weapons.”
The murderous aura pouring from him moments ago faded away, and the grip on my arm loosened.
I placed the handkerchief back on his forehead.
As though his body instinctively welcomed the relief, his eyes drifted half-shut.
Ironically, while discussing his own poisoning, he looked gentler than before.
Like a sculpture carved sharp as a blade had suddenly become human.
“You didn’t expect it?”
“A little. It isn’t the first time.”
“If it isn’t the first…”
“Poisoned wine, assassins, absurd accidents… They hid the evidence well every time, but I wasn’t ignorant enough not to know the Empress was behind it. Though…”
He glanced at me before continuing.
“I hoped they’d at least leave me alone on the battlefield. If my direct unit and I all die, the Kakhnav border will collapse immediately. Tar will target the Rudes Marquisate right after the Duchy of Serbe.”
It was an astonishingly accurate analysis.
In my first life, one of the reasons the cursed empire fell into ruin was because the war with Tar escalated on a massive scale.
The Emperor and Empress had originally tried to stop it using Baltazar and Marquis Rudes’s influence, but failed miserably, leading to countless deaths.
The damage rivaled even the war against Yulkan during my second life.
“……Are your soldiers suffering the same symptoms?”
I asked.
He nodded.
“Among the fifty or sixty men under my direct command on the battlefield, several showed similar symptoms. It progressed to the point where fighting during the day became impossible. That’s partly why I returned this time—they need time to recover. I used excuses like a temporary truce and reinforcements, but…”
“And the physicians?”
“The imperial doctors don’t know the illness, so naturally they don’t know the treatment either. My father insisted it was probably heatstroke and warned me not to let anyone know about my condition. Though I already intended to keep it hidden.”
“In other words, don’t become troublesome—recover on your own and return to war.”
I thought of Emperor Aleik IV, a weak-willed man who hated responsibility.
Now I understood why the final war in my first life had ended in such catastrophe.
“So then.”
Tilting his head slightly, Karsiel asked me,
“Do you know how to cure it? Or should we all start writing our wills?”
Surprisingly, his tone was calm.
His gaze had softened considerably compared to before.
It was hard to believe he was speaking about death at all.
“I would appreciate honesty. Is there truly a way to treat this poison that should not even exist in the Western Continent?”
“When were you poisoned?”
“Probably around three months ago.”
“And you can still fight at night?”
“Yes. Even now.”
Just as I suspected, the poison had not yet reached his heart.
“Then listen carefully from now on.”
Instead of replying, Karsiel nodded again.
“Take Twilight Grass three times a day. It slows the spread of toxins from small monsters.”
I began reciting the knowledge I had memorized in my previous life.
“Avoid sunlight and flames as much as possible. Magic stones that generate heat are even more dangerous. Keep cold water nearby at all times, and whenever things become dangerous, soak cloth in water and place it on your face like this.”
“That’s not difficult… but if it only slows the poison’s progress, then complete recovery is impossible after all?”
“I’m not a physician, so I don’t know the cure.”
“……So there’s no answer beyond prolonging our lives?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
Just as disappointment crossed his face, I smiled faintly.
“I mean you should go find the doctor who can cure it.”
