Chapter 34
-Aieee, eeeeek, kyaaaaaaaagh!!!
The scream was clear, even hearing it again!
Zap, crackle!
Furthermore, Miriam felt a sensation like lightning striking her fingertips, causing her to scream and let go of the sword. As a result, the blade, which had been pulled completely from its scabbard, was sent clattering onto the floor.
-Contractor!!! Contractor, oh my god! Thief, thief, thief! A shameless thief!!! ૮( ᵒ̌▱๋ᵒ̌ )ა!! You, you were after me! Me, who is beautiful, noble, and devoted to my Contractor! You were going to sell me off and dismantle me into a mere lump of metal! That was your plan, wasn’t it! Titania-nim, where are you! Your cutie is in danger!!!
Vrrr, vrrrrrr, vrrrrrrrrrr…!
Had Titania been present, the racket would have been so unbearable she’d have had to cover her ears.
Miriam was scared out of her wits. The sensation of someone shrieking inside her head had vanished, but now the perfectly normal blade was vibrating. Of course, Miriam couldn’t hear the sword’s voice properly.
She had simply gripped the sword as if possessed, only for someone to scream in her mind and electricity to surge through her fingertips. On top of that, the sword was now humming and vibrating like it was haunted. That alone was terrifying enough.
As if it were asking who dared to break into this palace!
As if it were declaring it would judge the sinner who coveted what did not belong to them!
’N-no way, surely not. Even if that were the case… the Imperial Princess’s door is wide open. No one is paying attention. There’s no sign of a break-in… This is…’
‘Could it be that this sword has devoured everyone like me? Were the rumors true? Am I cursed?’
Panicked, Miriam’s thoughts spiraled in a wild direction.
In reality, the situation was exactly as Miriam had first expected.
The Rose Palace was simply empty because no one cared about it. The guards, who had been notoriously derelict in their duties, had incurred the Emperor’s wrath and were locked in the dungeon. No new guards had been assigned yet.
With the existing household of the Rose Palace fleeing left and right, who would remain in such a broken, ominous palace? Since the Duchy of Castline was involved in this mess, the ordinary palace servants—who feared both Imperial Consort Cleo and the Duchy—didn’t even dare approach the place.
Thus, Miriam, who was bold and daring but only quick-witted in the worst ways, was the first maid to break into the Rose Palace to steal.
And among them all, Miriam was particularly brazen to decide to touch the Imperial Princess’s room first…
Vrrr, vrrrrr, vrrrrrrr, vrrr…!
The sword now buckled and surged more violently than before, as if it were enraged. Miriam was seized with sudden terror. The exposed blade glowed with a particularly eerie, white light.
‘Is it going to move on its own and cut my throat?!’
“H-h-h… Help! A haunted sword is trying to… to… kill a person! Aaaaagh! I’m sorry!”
Scared out of her mind, Miriam finally ran out screaming and crying.
This was exactly how, in just three days, an absurd rumor spread to everyone: ‘There is a cursed sword in the Rose Palace. Imperial Princess Titania’s fall was also due to being possessed by that cursed sword. Now that the Rose Palace is empty, it’s a demonic sword that tries to possess and devour passersby! Only by disposing of this sword will Imperial Princess Titania wake up!’
The day after I sent Bibi and Raymon away, telling them to ‘stop interfering.’ A day when not a single member of the Castline family visited the palace. It was the fourth day since I had woken up but continued to pretend I hadn’t.
From early morning, Prince Adrian came to visit with an indescribably ambiguous expression.
“They say a ghost has appeared in the Rose Palace?”
I froze while chewing on a soft-boiled egg served for breakfast. The yolk trickled down the corner of my mouth.
“…Pardon?”
“Yesterday, a maid who went into the Rose Palace came out in a total frenzy, crying and screaming that a haunted sword tried to kill her. Everyone watched as she was arrested by the guards and dragged away.”
“And then?”
“Her Highness Imperial Consort Cleo took that maid in and declared this a serious matter, saying the Rose Palace must be formally investigated.”
A cold sweat suddenly ran down my back.
Ah, right. The Emoticon Sword…
I’d forgotten about it!
But since I’d been reluctant to tell the Castline family about the sword’s existence or ask them to move it, I probably would have just ignored it even if I had remembered. But of all people, Imperial Consort Cleo—the very person who gave me that sword—insisted on an investigation?
It was suspicious. It was suspicious even if you looked at it upside down while riding a horse. I swallowed the runny egg and spoke.
“…And so?”
“His Majesty the Emperor officially authorized the investigation yesterday…”
“…And?”
“He publicly declared that he would soon discover and execute the culprit who cast a private curse on Imperial Princess Titania and brought about this incident.”
“……You said the investigation only started yesterday? Is the curse already being treated as a fact?”
“The external injuries you sustained from fighting the demon beast would have already been healed by the High Priest’s treatment, and the adopted daughter of the Duchy of Castline, who was attacked with you, is perfectly fine without a single scratch.”
Adrian explained as he held a handkerchief to the corner of my mouth.
“There’s also the fact that Imperial Princess Titania previously fell and went into a coma in the Rose Palace. Since calamities keep occurring there, they say the Princess must surely be cursed… and that there might be something else hidden there.”
“Wow, what a mess!”
A total mess! This is driving me crazy!
I laughed hollowly and clutched my head. Adrian folded the handkerchief he used to wipe my mouth and gave me a bitter smile as he watched me.
Without a doubt, this was the Imperial Consort’s own production.
Wow, I thought I’d landed a blow by making the Rose Palace maids perform penance prayers under the guidance of priests. And she stabs me in the back like this?
“So, is there anything you suspect?”
“…That, um, that sword. Actually, it’s a sword Imperial Consort Cleo gave to me. She said it was a magic sword or a masterwork…”
“Imperial Consort Cleo? Gave you a sword?”
“She told me to deliver it to the Young Duke Raymon, and asked me to go to the Dedication Festival in her stead…”
“No wonder you suddenly volunteered to go to the Dedication Festival.”
Adrian clicked his tongue as if everything finally made sense. I felt the world go dark before my eyes.
I’d been staying at the Lilac Palace for quite a while now. While I had kept a reasonable distance from Adrian at first, since I was currently a patient and didn’t want to act entitled toward my host, I’d developed a thick skin and was living comfortably.
Adrian himself acted like he didn’t care what attitude I took, treating me like a real sister, which made things easy.
Well, never mind all that—just by staying in the Empress’s palace right under the Imperial Consort’s nose, I’d likely already been marked as a ‘useless piece to be discarded.’ I had no choice but to become an ally.
So, I explained by mixing facts and fabrications, omitting the suspicious contract or the fact that the sword spoke to me.
“No, well, I thought there was a problem with the sword, so I hadn’t given it to him yet. Then I had the accident and was bedridden. It’s not like the sword in my room grew legs, so why suddenly…”
“Do you have any idea how many servants break into empty palaces to steal? Some gutsy maid must have tried to rob your room.”
“…Head Maid Natalie is still on the Imperial Consort’s side, so if they fabricate evidence of a curse, it’ll work. But why bother framing someone for cursing the Rose Palace at this point…”
Ah.
My eyes met Adrian’s.
“…The Imperial Consort wouldn’t be crazy enough to push the Duchy of Castline as the culprit, would she?”
“She could forge evidence that the guilty Duchy tried to silence Titania before she woke up… but that would be declaring them an all-out enemy, so she probably won’t go that far.”
“Then? Surely not Her Majesty the Empress?”
Adrian said thoughtfully.
“She might not even reveal a culprit. Regardless, you’re the victim who almost died, so if you openly deny everything, the stories won’t match up.”
“And the Imperial Consort will never reveal that she was the one who gave me that sword?”
“Of course not.”
“True. Even if I brought it up, she’d just deny it, saying, ’Oh my? You have such delicate hands that have never even held a paper knife properly. Why would I give you a sword? Now, if it were our lovely Brian, that would be a different story…’”
“Wow, Titania. You really do a great impression of Imperial Consort Cleo!”
I became even more depressed at Adrian’s sincere admiration and drained my glass of orange juice in one go.
“Ah, but, that sword… I have to be the one to have it. It can’t fall into someone else’s hands…”
“Why?”
Because if someone else has it, it really becomes a demonic sword! Truly! If things go wrong, people will die! I couldn’t bring myself to say those words, so I just twitched my lips.
Adrian shrugged and said.
“But it seems that sword is indeed suspicious. I heard they couldn’t move it because anyone who touched it got an electric shock. They tried everything, and supposedly it wasn’t until a Sword Expert-level knight stepped forward that they could finally grip it.”
I don’t think the original sword had that function, but I guess it became like that because it recognized me as its master…
Does it react like that to everyone who isn’t the Contractor?
Either way, it seemed the sword had inadvertently solidified its image as a demonic blade. The more I heard, the more my head throbbed.