6 - The Crown I Will Take From You
Episode 6
"You know. The current King’s only sister, who is said to be so full of curses that she devoured even her parents.”
“A curse?”
“Was it ten years ago? The Late King and his wife were on their way to see their young daughter when they died. The King died, and the war they were about to win fell through. For a while, everyone was saying it was all because of the Princess.”
The man snorted.
Baldina was renowned for its small but valiant military, but it seemed they weren’t particularly intelligent.
To make such a fuss over a child.
“You believe that?”
“Well, not really, but the timing is too coincidental.”
Gallo shrugged.
“I thought idiots were only in Baldina.”
“That’s too much.”
Gallo clutched his chest as if wounded and feigned distress.
“A curse…”
A figure was reflected on the windowpane.
A shadow against the sunlight stretched long across the floor.
“You’ve never even seen a real curse, yet you talk so much.”
The edge of the shadow flickered slightly.
“Your Highness, no, Boss. I-”
Gallo’s mouth, which had been curved in a smile, froze like a stone statue.
The man lowered his head. His fingertips were turning blue.
“Your Highness, what should we do?”
Three years ago, Cesare, the First Prince of the Kazen Empire, annihilated the Kiqueque tribe, a group on the outskirts of the Empire.
He was in the process of annexing the small kingdoms that encroached on the Empire’s southern border.
“Those Kiqueque bastards are completely insane. They were summoning some unheard-of evil god and sacrificing people left and right as offerings. They even roasted and ate the sacrifices after the ritual was over! Said they had to absorb the resentment properly.”
There was no mercy to be given to those who had lost even the slightest dignity as human beings.
“Burn them all.”
Crimson blood was smeared thickly on silver swords and shields.
The power of the evil god the Kiqueque people blindly believed in could not evade spears and swords.
Fields, villages, temples.
Flames soared from every place where murder and cannibalism were commonplace.
“Aaaargh! Black and wicked one! Even demons are not more heinous than you! The vast Primordial Darkness will not forgive you! Are you not afraid!”
The tribal chief screamed with bloodshot eyes.
“Not black and wicked, but Cesare. Tell your god not to forget the name of the owner of this land.”
Cesare sneered from atop his prancing horse.
His words, which placed even the evil god of the Kiqueque under his command, were utterly arrogant.
But no one could deny it.
That this magnificent young man, like the sun, would become the master of this vast empire.
“Cesare! The blood in your body will cool as blue as your eyes, and your heart will harden as black as your hair. Even if your brilliant talent and ambition fulfill all desires and cut down all enemies.”
The black smoke that the tribal chief conjured wrapped around Cesare like a whip.
“It will not stop your fading flesh!”
“Your Highness!”
And when Cesare awoke, the tribal chief’s curse had come true.
The sword that had cut down enemies faster than the wind had slowed. His beast-like Sense of energy had become noticeably dull.
Occasionally, when he had seizures that caused him to vomit blood, his entire body would harden like stone, and he would lose consciousness.
When the third seizure occurred, Cesare finally had to admit it.
That something had changed in him since the day he annihilated the Kiqueque.
The Divine Physician said.
“Your Highness’s body is Petrification. At this rate, you have at most three years.”
But he didn’t believe it.
He sought out the most skilled physicians in the continent.
“A disease where the whole body gradually cools and hardens… I, even I, who am called the Divine Physician, have never heard of such a thing.”
Everyone shook their heads.
Cesare went to the Holy Kingdom.
And sought out the priests who were said to possess the most powerful holy power.
“A very terrible curse. I sense the Primordial Darkness from Your Highness.”
“I am sorry. Even if you kill me and start a war with the Holy Kingdom, it is impossible. It is on a different level. No amount of powerful holy power can work against something Primordial.”
It was an answer obtained with a sword held to the Pope’s chin, so it couldn’t be a lie.
While searching in every way to eliminate the Primordial Darkness, the Kiqueque’s curse progressed slowly but steadily.
“Long live the First Prince!”
Another seizure occurred at the triumphal return ceremony.
“Your Highness!”
Rumors spread throughout the Empire that the First Prince had become terminally ill with a disease he had contracted during the war.
The Emperor suspected his son’s intentions, wondering if it was another scheme.
His brothers rejoiced at the downfall of their most powerful rival.
“Pathetic.”
A curse should at least be that.
It had to be capable of toppling a sky that had soared endlessly high to dare to be called that.
“Actually, it’s true. There’s a reason why Baldina is still in this state, even with those excellent cavalry.”
Gallo’s face returned to its usual lively self as if nothing had happened.
“Anyway, it seems the Princess, who was hated both inside and outside, has Awakened this time. She has momentum, but I wonder if she can suppress the Head Maid to the end?”
A mischievous playfulness rippled over Gallo’s dark brown eyes.
“Boss, should we put some eyes in the Royal Palace too? It’s been a while since we’ve had something interesting to watch.”
“Are you that bored?”
A cool question. Gallo shrank back without realizing it.
“Did you find the shaman?”
“Ah, still tracking her. But the last place she stopped was definitely here in Baldina. The trail ended near the border.”
Around the time when all methods of removing the curse had failed, a certain priest left a word.
“If it’s a Shadeia shaman… she might know how to eliminate the Primordial Darkness. It is said that they can read ancient texts written with the Primordial Light.”
Was this what it felt like to grasp at straws?
But it was the only remaining possibility.
Cesare traveled around the continent disguised as a weapons dealer to find the Shadeia shaman.
“That’s all?”
“That’s too much. Do you think it’s easy to find traces of people who went extinct a long time ago? Even the Pope and the Late Emperor couldn’t find her in the end and gave up.”
Gallo’s cheeks puffed out.
“You talk too much.”
“Damn it, I’ve been scouring every inch from the Baldina border, so I’m sure she’s in this royal city! I can bet my neck on it. Okay?”
He shouted back. Cesare’s eyes narrowed as if he was being noisy.
“You better be. If not.”
Keep your neck clean. Cesare’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“Ah, I got it! I got it!”
Gallo hurriedly got up from his seat as if being chased by the ominous threat.
“And Boss, you know you’re entering the palace this week, right? Don’t forget the mask when you leave.”
Gallo tapped the table as he left. There was a silver half-mask on the round table.
“It’s a hassle, but you can’t forget it. If Ciseo finds out Boss’s identity, he’ll try to cut us in half, old friendship or not.”
Cesare glanced down at the mask.
“Do you hate covering your face that much?”
“……”
When the silver plate was put on, he was no longer Cesare, the First Prince of Kazen who made the entire continent nervous, but just a mercenary of the weapons dealer Facade.
Why did he feel a sense of freedom, yet it was not welcome?
“Boss, you actually think your appearance is the best, right? You want to show it off, but you hate that it’s covered by a mask-”
“Too long. Still.”
“Alright, I’m going! I’m going, I said! Ack!”
Gallo, who had finished his last words, hurriedly closed the door. With his tongue firmly hidden between his shapely lips.
A well-honed dagger flew and pierced the closed door. It was at the height where Gallo’s mouth had been a moment ago.
The dagger remaining in Cesare’s fingertips spun around in an elegant arc.
\ \ *
Royal Palace.
“So you’re saying you just watched the Princess leave?”
A woman’s shout echoed through the palace.
“Well, she suddenly rushed out so-”
The Maids stood in a row, heads bowed, listening to her tantrum.
Her fiery crimson hair resembled a burning branch due to her tightly scrunched, dainty features.
Mariu. Medeia’s closest Maid.
Perhaps because of the latest fashion dress that tightly constricted her upper body, she looked more like a noble young lady who had just returned from a ball than the Princess’s Maid.
‘I’ve been longing to meet him again so much! If you were hurt, you should have stayed lying down, why did you get up again!’
The more she thought of the Princess’s foolish face, the more her anger boiled over.
“I told you to figure out where I’m going right away and report it, didn’t I!”
An enraged hand repeatedly slapped the cheeks of the Maid who had bowed her head.
“Huh?! Do you all want to be kicked out?! Aren’t you! Coming! To your senses?!”
The biggest reason why Mariu could act so outrageously was that she was the daughter of the nanny who had raised the Princess.
When the nanny passed away, she asked the Princess to take care of her daughter, and the Princess shed tears and personally closed the nanny’s eyes, saying that Mariu was like her own sister.
“What do we do? If something happens to the Princess, and it’s discovered that we all left our posts-”
“Shut your mouth!”
She was about to grab another vase and throw it, unable to contain her temper.
“Your Highness!”
The Maid, whose face was swollen, hurriedly shouted as she saw the approaching figure.
“Your Highness, where have you been! It’s so cold!”
Then, Mariu, realizing that the Princess had arrived, changed her expression and turned around. She trotted towards the Princess, but stopped in her tracks, her eyes widening at the shocking sight.
