―The game is over! Moonlight Palace wins! But, is Gunter okay? Healer!
The flustered voice of Lau echoed.
The wizards handling the familiars projected the battlefield onto the crystal in real-time.
Even the face of the emperor, who was watching the mock battle in real-time, was clouded.
“What happened?”
Ambrosia reported the information that came in through the communication sphere to the emperor.
“It seems that His Highness Gunter used a forbidden spell. It appears to be a curse from the Sorcery Branch…”
“Did Gunter use something that dangerous?”
“Thanks to Doctor Gothberg, the initial response was successful. We are taking him to the Inner Palace.”
“Is Gothberg treating Gunter?”
“Due to the aftermath of the mock battle, Gothberg also collapsed, so Livio is handling it.”
“How is the condition?”
“It’s not good. It’s a miracle he’s still alive…”
“Hmm.”
The emperor pressed his forehead.
Livio was worried. It would have been better if Gothberg were the one treating Gunter.
How did it come to this?
At that moment, the emperor felt for the first time a doubt about whether his choice to pit his children against each other was a mistake.
“Let me know when I can visit. I’ll go see him.”
“Understood.”
Ambrosia politely bowed her head.
*
“After finally winning, what the heck is this?”
As a selah complained while lying on the hospital bed.
“Uh, s-stress will only make your healing take longer….”
Chloe trembled as she applied ointment to Acelia’s hand.
Acelia is indeed scary. I understand the mood.
For some reason, she has been feeling less intimidating lately.
There’s a bit of familiarity.
Is this the kind of affection that comes from being a little annoyed?
“If it weren’t for the prince, I wouldn’t be so upset.”
I was lying in the bed next to Acelia, also receiving treatment.
Acelia noticed that I had ultimately collapsed under the weight of the heavy armor.
I had been given a forced working ban.
Thanks to the brooch, my stamina was steadily recovering.
“Well, everything turned out well.”
The probability of a magic explosion has returned to normal.
“What do you mean ‘well’?”
“Hey, think about it. If Gunter continued to go berserk, the royal princess and the knights would have fallen, and Moonlight Palace would have lost, not to mention Gunter would be dead.”
“Who knows? I’d rather he dies than the prince and me getting hurt.”
That was a cold statement from Acelia.
Merciless to enemies. She cuts off anything that isn’t beneficial without hesitation. She probably learned that from the current emperor.
Thinking about her mindset, am I certainly an ally now?
I’m a little grateful to have been put in the category of people who shouldn’t get hurt.
In the future, if it’s beneficial, the hero party would be discarded without hesitation.
I was really surprised when the teleport gate suddenly disappeared.
‘It worries me that it’s a bit too excessive.’
After almost completely healing the burns and wrapping myself in bandages, Acelia glared at me.
“Prince, I’ll punish you for disobeying orders once you’re discharged.”
“Ouch, I’m scared.”
“Don’t even think about running away.”
That was a genuine threat. Recently, it seemed they wanted to keep me pent up in the palace.
It seemed they wouldn’t hurt me physically, but would torment my mind.
In the evening, I returned to the Moonlight Palace with Acelia after leaving the Inner Palace.
“Come here.”
Just as I was about to head to my room, Acelia grabbed my arm with a fierce expression.
I slowly became genuinely scared.
Did she prepare a torture Iron Maiden inside or something?
―Bang!
Once I was dragged into Acelia’s bedroom, she slammed the door shut.
There were no knights or attendants inside, just the two of us.
Only a few candles lit, casting shadows on the dark walls.
“Don’t move.”
Acelia shoved me against one wall. It was a wall easily visible from her bed.
Wondering what she was planning, I tried to figure out the situation when suddenly clink.
Handcuffs were secured around my left wrist.
“What’s the meaning of this, Your Highness?”
“You keep ignoring me and wandering around. I’ll fix your temper.”
Clink, clink. No matter how much I pulled at it, my wrist was firmly secured and wouldn’t budge.
The handcuffs were connected by a chain firmly attached to the wall.
When did she prepare such a menacing thing in her room?
“Your Highness, just a moment. I’m no dog to be tied up like this.”
“Dogs at least listen to commands.”
“Max walks around the Moonlight Palace freely. This is just wrong.”
“File your complaints in writing. Oh, but you can’t write since your hands are tied. Give me your other hand instead.”
“If you tie that one up too, I won’t move at all.”
“Yep. Just as I pictured. Stand there and reflect all night. I’ll keep an eye on you.”
“Wait, you’ll really be watching me from the bed all night?”
“I have good night vision. If you try to escape, I’ll stab you with an ice spear.”
That was completely insane.
I realized that I should have tightened the loose tension I felt recently.
Right. The woman in front of me was the continent’s worst wicked woman.
Even if she cares for me and becomes my ally, it’s unpredictable where her thoughts will lead.
“Not going to give me your wrist? Want me to stab you?”
Feeling a sense of danger in resisting her any further, I extended my right hand.
As Acelia was about to grab my wrist to secure the cuff on the other side…
“Yah!”
I swung my wrist around and broke free from Acelia’s grasp, reversing the handcuffs onto her wrist.
―Click!
Acelia gaped, possibly caught off guard that her one hand was now locked.
“Hey!!”
“Both of us need to be punished. How dare you jump into a fiery pit in front of the attending physician.”
“I’m a princess, so I can do that. And if I get hurt, the prince will heal me.”
“Even I can’t revive the dead. Your Highness should reflect on this opportunity and not do it again.”
“This is ridiculous.”
Acelia’s face flushed with anger as she stabbed me in the side with her free arm.
“Ouch, that hurts! It really hurts!”
“I was worried it wouldn’t hurt, but thankfully it does. How dare you cuff your lord!”
With every swing of Acelia’s arm, the chains clanked.
Each of us, with one arm bound, stared blankly at each other.
“Seriously, this is frustrating…”
After shaking her bound arm a few times, Acelia tilted her head slightly.
Maybe it’s been a while since she got angry, her breath was hot as it puffed out.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“…It’s just that it feels… no, it’s nothing!”
She reacted quite strongly to a simple question.
It was strange to see her face flush.
Is she not feeling well?
‘Diagnosis.’
―――――――――――
Symptoms: Excitement
Injury: ■■ – Intermittent ■ abdominal pain
Injury Condition: Curse ■■
……
―――――――――――
‘It seems she’s really angry since she fell into the diagnosis.’
Even if it’s a punishment, putting the patient under great stress is a no-go.
I began to pet Acelia’s back in an attempt to calm her down.
“Heeek.”
Acelia trembled and made a strange sound.
What the heck is this?
Her reactions have been getting increasingly unpredictable.
“Calm down.”
“Will I calm down…”
I wondered if talking might help smooth things over a bit.
I bowed my head slightly to Acelia.
“…What is it?”
“I haven’t thanked you for the brooch yet. Thanks to it, I’ve been feeling a lot better. Thank you.”
“Uh, well…”
Acelia turned her head away, avoiding my gaze, and fell silent.
A moment of silence followed.
Acelia rested one arm over her heart and took deep breaths, looking just like a cat that had fallen into water.
Perhaps she was starting to calm down. After a little while, I broke the silence.
“Well then, let’s stop this nonsense. Please release me.”
“Uh… the key is next to my bed.”
“What? Then call the attendants.”
“I ordered no one to enter until morning.”
I unconsciously squeezed my eyes shut.
“Do you have a hairpin?”
“Eh? Why do you ask?”
“Can you lend me one for a moment?”
Acelia handed me the pin she had in her hair.
Before long, click, I freed my wrist and was free.
“What? How did you do that?”
“I’m quite dexterous, you know.”
It was a skill I learned while trying to escape when captured by the demon king’s army.
Real combat experience is indeed helpful.
“You can do the oddest things. Now let me go.”
“Like this?”
“What? Are you pretending not to understand? My wrist hurts.”
“Me?”
“Stop joking around.”
“Why?”
“Prince!”
Acelia glared at me and began to draw a magic circle.
I thought I’d have a hole in my head if I kept teasing, so I obediently released her.
Thinking back, wouldn’t it have been better if she just smashed it with an ice spear herself?
It seemed Acelia still didn’t want to get along well with me, so she immediately chased me out.
*
The next day, Tanya delivered a document to me.
“Report on the movements of Priest Livio.”
“Did we catch something?”
“Bruno confirmed contact with a suspicious individual. We’ve also got evidence footage.”
“How did he manage to hide such a big frame? Thank him for me.”
I checked the video recorded on the crystal.
In the dead of night, Livio, wearing a hood, was heading somewhere.
When Livio entered that place, he tightened his clothes even more when he returned.
As he walked down the road, he checked something and subtly pulled it out.
It was a bottle containing something.
“That’s it.”
“Yes. It’s the sorcery used by Prince Gunter.”
“Hugo, how’s the analysis of the remnants of the sorcery?”
“It’s finished. By comparing the residual mana, we can determine whose hands it passed through.”
“Good.”
At this point, it would be solid evidence.
Now that things have escalated this much, there would be an imperial decree coming down.
Once I report to the higher-ups, Livio cannot refuse the mana comparison.
“But that means the curse was distributed from here.”
“I was a bit surprised too.”
Tanya said this without any sign of surprise at all, in stark contrast to her words.
Livio had received the curse from no other place than George’s Togin Palace.
Since George wasn’t there now, there’d be no reason for outside nobility to be coming in.
Instead, there was one witch confined there.
“Camilla.”
Camilla, who implanted the spirit of the great witch together with her talents into Acelia.
If her curse was originally based on bestowing talents rather than a price due to that talent, then…
“Was she a black magician from the beginning and not a sorcerer?”
I thought she had only acquired some knowledge to create Acelia, but if she could use high-level curses repeatedly, her understanding would be quite extensive.
“She still hasn’t given up on her ambition.”
In the original history, Camilla had died before Livio took over, so there was no way they would cross paths.
Could it be that Camilla, desperate to break free from her confinement in the palace, got to know Livio and decided to make a move?
“I can’t allow her to touch Acelia.”
If she won’t comply, I’ll have to kick her out.
Since the emperor was hostile to black magic, if he found out she was a black magician, he would immediately eliminate her.
“Let’s move right away. First, let’s capture Livio and make him kneel before the emperor.”
“Working hard is always enjoyable.”
Tanya took the lead with an active attitude.
My site has received a lot of DMCA notices, lol. From now on, I will update the MTL on https://darkmtl.com/.
The site is fast and lightweight because there are no ads yet. However, the theme is different from Cybor-TL, so take some time to familiarize yourself.
Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.