LP 3.6 The Prince’s Rebellion

“Were you two very close? In that filthy village.”

The hand that had been groping his lower abdomen over the thin fabric of his pajamas slid slowly downward. Kosha shook his head urgently.

“No, Your Highness…. Ngh. We, we weren’t close. Not at all.”

“And yet she made you a strange potion? Wasn’t she hitting on you?”

“What? Merda, to me?”

“In a rural backwater like that, men and women usually just pair up as long as they’re around the same age.”

Isn’t that right? Lucian whispered. His voice was sweet and his pronunciation precise, but in contrast, his choice of words was vulgar. It felt as if the person behind him wasn’t Lucian, but someone else entirely.

Kosha trembled at the breath brushing against the nape of his neck. The hand groping his body from behind began to slowly push up the hem of his pajama dress. Sensing a sudden surge of crisis, Kosha spoke quickly.

“I-first of all, Merda isn’t that kind of person. Though I don’t know why she’s acting like that there now.”

“Who is ‘that kind of person’ from the start?”

His voice was calm. Unlike his sexual touch, there was no excitement in his tone.

“People all change. Especially in a place like this.”

“That… that might be true, but.”

Kosha struggled to turn his head to look at Lucian. Every time he tried, Lucian’s lips pressed against him with annoying persistence. No, really, this was the kind of conversation that should be had face-to-face. Taking advantage of a moment when the lips shifted toward the corner of his eye, Kosha spoke.

“Still, for now, I… I don’t think I’ve changed yet….”

“And?”

“I… I mean, I’m the type of person who can’t do those, those kinds of things with someone else when I already have someone I like.”

And then, the hand that had been gripping and pulling up Kosha’s pajamas stopped. For some reason, the breath that had been continuously settling on the nape of his neck vanished in an instant.

“Y-you might have forgotten because things suddenly got so busy, but it hasn’t been that many days since I c-confessed….”

What kind of mindless man would turn his gaze to someone else just a few days after some guy confessed his love?

Just as Kosha was about to argue that the accusation Lucian was trying to pin on him was absurd—

“Do you like me?”

“I recall that being the nature of my confession….”

“Strictly speaking, you didn’t say it exactly like that.”

Did he not? Kosha searched his memory. However, he couldn’t remember precisely. In Kosha’s memory, every word uttered that day was equivalent to saying he liked him. It was practically the same as repeating that he liked him over and over…. Kosha pouted.

“I even gave you flowers.”

Were they just flowers? It was an entire tree. After going that far, did he really have to say it in words for him to understand?

“I left the flowers behind.”

The answer came back somewhat anxiously. Suddenly, Kosha wondered what his expression looked like, but it wasn’t easy to turn his head while being completely bound from behind.

“That’s… it’s okay.”

Flowers aren’t gifts given with the expectation that they’ll be kept forever, anyway.

“…Then say it in words.”

“Say what?”

“That you like me.”

In the face of a mage’s generosity, human greed knew no bounds. Having been forgiven for the sin of not taking proper care of the flowers, Lucian unabashedly added another unreasonable demand.

Kosha licked his lips awkwardly. It wasn’t that he was particularly shy at this point, but putting his feelings into words always made his throat dry.

However, Kosha was a man who knew how to take responsibility. For the words he spoke, for the flowers he bloomed, and for the heart he had moved. He swallowed hard.

“…I like you. Lucian.”

Was it okay to call him by his name now? Strictly speaking, they weren’t in the middle of sex, but….

“I don’t do things like this with other people either. Though I like doing it with Your Highness. So….”

Kosha cautiously gauged his reaction.

“E-even if we’re going to do it, could you please untie this part?”

“…….”

“It hurts. I think my feet are about to cramp….”

Kosha fidgeted with his toes, which were strained on tiptoe. The handcuffs’ chain, hooked to the candlestick, rattled clink-clank. This was the office; if someone suddenly walked in while he was hanging like this, he wouldn’t be able to hide…. Kosha mumbled a list of reasons why the handcuffs needed to be removed.

Lucian remained silent for a while. Did he say something wrong? Just as Kosha was frantically trying to read the room—

Suddenly, Lucian let out a deep sigh and wrapped his arms around Kosha’s waist. However, this contact wasn’t particularly lingering or seductive, despite their bodies being pressed together.

Strength surged into those thick arms, and soon Kosha’s toes lifted off the ground. Lucian pulled him down as effortlessly as he had hung him on the candlestick. Then, he sat down with Kosha overlapping him in the nearby chair.

It was the chair at his office desk. A very solemn chair that looked as if one shouldn’t be doing something as casual as sitting overlapped like this.

“Does it hurt a lot? Let me see.”

But Lucian didn’t seem to care. Seeing this as an opportunity, Kosha nodded vigorously.

“Yes, yes. My whole body hurts. As you know, Idelma Gold is a mage’s magic power—”

“Not that. Is your skin chafed?”

Completely ignoring Kosha’s words, Lucian rested his chin on Kosha’s shoulder and lifted his wrist.

The skin of the wrist was slightly swollen. A mage’s skin is weaker than a human’s, and because of the Idelma Gold, he couldn’t even cast a magic barrier, so it was inevitable. However, Lucian clicked his tongue and frowned. As if he hadn’t expected this.

He pulled a key from his trouser pocket. The mage’s eyes instinctively gleamed. Ah, even the key to these wretched handcuffs was made of Idelma Gold. Magic doesn’t work on it. He couldn’t just take it as he pleased….

Ah, what a waste….

Just as the mage was unconsciously smacking his lips, Lucian popped open one side of the handcuffs, opened a desk drawer, and took out a few handkerchiefs. Kosha snapped back to his senses.

A neatly folded handkerchief was wrapped around Kosha’s wrist.

After tying it skillfully like a bandage, Lucian fastened the handcuff over it. He repeated the same process on the other side.

Adding a single layer of cloth wouldn’t make the power of Idelma Gold vanish. The skin might swell less, though. Feeling his strength drain away, Kosha let his body slump.

“Is there really no way to unlock the handcuffs?”

“No, it’s a punishment for wandering around as you please.”

For a punishment, his tone was sweet. Kosha grumbled again, unable to take his eyes off the key returning to the trouser pocket.

“Then how long do I have to receive this punishment?”

“I wonder….”

Lucian kissed Kosha’s temple.

“Until the castle becomes a bit safer.”

“I’m a mage. There’s nowhere dangerous for me.”

“A mage? I thought you were a gooseherd once.”

Kosha’s mouth fell open at the wordplay that seemed intentionally designed to act like a wall. Lucian laughed softly and pressed his chin closed.

“There is a departure ceremony for Brother Bastian this afternoon. His army will leave the castle today, station for a day at the northern gate of Osterbelt, and then march north.”

He began to explain in a low voice. It was the precise pronunciation and calm, elegant tone that Kosha liked.

“You can deceive everything else, but you cannot deceive the movement of an army. We will send scouts along, so I expect his intentions will be clear within about ten days. Then we can respond from our side, and the situation will improve significantly.”

“…….”

“So, just stay quiet until then.”

I don’t want to increase the variables any further, you understand, right? Lucian whispered, taking Kosha’s hand and kissing the back of it.

The slight curl of his lips and the curve of his eyes looked excessively beautiful. Just as the eyes of men fluttery with first love usually do when looking at their partner.

And so, Kosha could only nod helplessly.

---

Kosha was left in Lucian’s office.

He was still wearing the handcuffs. And two guards were stationed outside.

‘I think I’ll feel much more at ease if you stay here quietly.’

Lucian had said that, but honestly, it was no different from confinement. Depending on the circumstances, it could be felt as quite insulting.

However, the mage who had suffered such a fate didn’t feel particularly bad.

Because… he had had breakfast with the person he liked. Actually, it was an ambiguous time between breakfast and lunch, but regardless, it was their first meal together. It consisted of a simple appetizer salad, cream soup, bacon, and roasted vegetables. It wasn’t grand, but it had everything necessary.

Kosha usually picked at his first meal of the day, but thanks to Lucian finely chopping the vegetables and bacon and popping them into his mouth, he ate a bit more than usual. Eventually, the very full and drowsy mage slumped limply into the armchair.

After rolling around on the sofa of the empty office for a while, Kosha suddenly sat up and slowly looked around the room.

The mere fact that he was alone in this office made the mage feel good. Wasn’t this a place where security was paramount? To be left alone in such a place—somehow, it felt like he had earned trust.

Can I look around just a little? He had no intention of peeking at important documents. Just, how he worked, what ink he used, what quill he preferred, things like that….

It was just as Kosha stepped lightly toward Lucian’s desk.

“Goodness, what on earth is this sight.”

Kosha jumped at the voice that suddenly sounded from behind him.

Clutching his heart, which was pounding hard enough to leap out of his chest, he turned around to find a silver-haired woman sitting in the previously empty armchair.

“Your presence vanished, so I wondered if you were dead or alive, but I see you’re wearing such a hideous thing.”

She muttered, clicking her tongue as if she had seen something unsightly. Kosha looked back and forth between his handcuffs and the woman with a dazed expression.

She was dressed in the same white upland attire as before. The only difference from that night was that she wore a red cloak over it.

“…How did you get in here?”

When one is too surprised, words don’t come out easily. Kosha, his mouth agape, asked slowly. She snorted.

“Is there anywhere I cannot go? Especially when ‘you’ are in such a state.”

She smiled obliquely and gestured with her chin toward Kosha’s handcuffs.

“Those geese alone are a bit too much to expect to stop me.”

“…….”

“Well, even if you were fine, you wouldn’t have been able to stop ‘me’.”

A boasting mana could be felt prickling against his skin. The expression gradually vanished from Kosha’s face. He took a wary half-step back.

“I’m going to scream and call for help. There are guards outside.”

“Go ahead and try.”

She chuckled.

“Though I wonder if they’ll even hear you outside. If you’d like, shall I scream for you instead?”

A brief silence filled the room. In the end, it was the silver-haired woman who first waved her hand to soften the atmosphere.

“There’s no need to be so wary. I came because I was truly worried. I thought that Callot hybrid had killed you and buried you where no one would know.”

“…….”

“I’m someone who fundamentally believes that mages should help each other. You’re a rare young mage with a good lineage. It’s only natural that I’d be concerned, isn’t it?”

She rose from her seat. As she walked across the stone floor in her shoes, there was no sound of footsteps, let alone the rustle of clothes.

“Are you a mage of the Gaikrux Tower?”

Kosha asked slowly. Walking in a circle around him, she came to a slow stop behind Kosha’s back.

“Well, yes. Most mages in this country are, aren’t they?”

“When I first saw you, I thought you might be a mage for another prince.”

“Another prince? Surely you aren’t talking about the second child?”

She frowned as if she had heard something disgusting.

“What an insulting thing to say!”

“…I’m sorry.”

Kosha apologized readily. At any rate, he could tell that even by the standards of an Izelant Mage, Bastian was not a particularly likable figure….

“But you keep speaking poorly of Prince Lucian, so I couldn’t help but misunderstand.”

“Poorly? What are you talking about? Ah, about him being a Callot hybrid?”

She chuckled, placing a hand on Kosha’s shoulder. Her hand was clearly touching him, yet strangely, he felt nothing.

“What else do you call a hybrid but a hybrid?”

“…….”

“Since his lineage has no root, it’s only natural he’d recklessly use a hideous thing like this.”

She cast her gaze over Kosha’s shoulder. Hmm…. She looked back and forth between the handcuffs and Kosha, tilting her head.

“Hmm?”

“…What is it?”

“Were you staying still on purpose?”

“What?”

“That.”

She pointed to the handcuffs.

“You can unlock them.”

Their eyes met closely. Her irises, so pitch-black that the pupils were indistinguishable, looked strangely alien.

Kosha flinched and pulled away, shaking his head violently.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“…….”

“These are made of Idelma Gold. Magic doesn’t work on them….”

“Well, yes. Idelma Gold….”

She nodded half-heartedly. Walking around Kosha again, she perched on the armrest of the armchair.

“Come to think of it. Did you know that in the Age of Myths, things like Idelma Gold didn’t exist? Do you know how that object was actually made?”

When Kosha shook his head slightly after a moment of thought, she smiled languidly.

“That’s understandable. It’s produced only in a specific region of Callot…. Now they call that place Idelma. But that wasn’t originally the name of the land, but the name of the race that ruled it.”

“…….”

“They were called the Idelma fairies.”

Fairies. Kosha blinked.

“I’ve never heard of them.”

“It was a very long time ago. Their numbers were few. Moreover, their habitat didn’t overlap with yours, so you likely knew even less. They loved hot, fertile jungles.”

Not your taste, right? she added.

Kosha was a ‘later generation’ mage who was far too humanized to use the word ‘habitat’… but regardless, a hot jungle sounded unpleasant just hearing about it.

“They were exceptionally beautiful in appearance, but they weren’t a strong race. Fairies are generally like that. However, what made the Idelmas special was that their bodily fluids possessed powerful mana resistance.”

“…Were they not magic-based lifeforms?”

“They were fairies, so they were beings closer to nature than we are.”

The woman nodded.

“When I was your age… no, when I was an even younger fledgling mage. Back then, the humans of the west used the blood of those fairies when fighting magic creatures. They would apply it to arrowheads or blades. It’s incomparable to something like today’s Idelma Gold. If you were even grazed by a blade coated in that blood….”

It’s practically a deadly poison. Something like a mage would have their body completely shattered and die— she murmured lowly.

“Despite having such blood, they were so powerless that the magic-based lifeforms protected them. To keep them from being captured by humans. The giant turtles, horned cattle, and winged lions that ruled the western lands were allies of the fairy race.”

The creatures pouring from her mouth were things Kosha had never seen in his life. Things that appeared only in the old stories read to him before bed. Like the ‘Love Potion,’ things that were said to have existed but which no one could remember anymore.

“But humans rose to power, and those allies were exterminated from this land one by one. All that remained were their human-shaped descendants, the ‘mages,’ and the humans preparing for war with the mages began by hunting the fairy race. To use them as weapons.”

“…….”

“The Callot royal family led that hunt. Yes, the maternal family of the fifth child you stay with.”

She looked straight into Kosha’s eyes and smiled meaningfully.

“Countless Idelmas were captured. Their blood was drained while they were alive, and they suffered terrible atrocities. The fate of their race stood at a crossroads. They agonized for a long time, but they had no choice anyway. In the end, they chose to go extinct on their own.”

“…Go extinct on their own? You mean they killed themselves?”

“Yes. Because if they continued like this, they would all be captured by humans.”

Kosha’s lips trembled, unable to find the words.

“Even so, how could they….”

“Their death is a bit different from what you’re thinking. It’s closer to being absorbed into nature. Or returning to where they came from.”

She murmured in a toneless voice.

“So they gathered in one place and ended their lives at the same time on the same day. As the jungle they protected withered away, the wetlands became a desert. By chance, I witnessed that event personally….”

And as her voice trailed off, she frowned slightly. Kosha quietly watched as the face, which looked like a hard mask of indeterminate age, blurred for a moment before returning to an expressionless state.