Chapter 185 - 2-67
He likely thought showing his blade would send me into a panic. Instead, I met Prince Faust's gaze head-on, refusing to look away.
"Do you truly believe you can lay a finger on me? I have been granted the protection of the Dark Spirit King himself. You, who possess less mana than your younger brothers and never bothered to hone your swordsmanship—what exactly do you intend to do to me?"
A short while ago, I might have trembled and wept at his threats. Now, however, I understood my own weapons and how to wield them. Theodore-sama, Prince Ricardo, and Nel-sama in the Spirit Land had taught me the fundamentals of magic from the ground up.
"I am stronger than you."
I had once possessed vast amounts of mana I couldn't control, but now I could wield it well enough to know that the man before me was trivial.
"Every last one of you... do not insult me!" Prince Faust gripped his sword tightly and swung it high. In that instant, I concentrated the mana within my body into a single point.
Just as I opened my mouth to trigger the spell, the door behind me burst open with a heavy thud. Simultaneously, Prince Faust's sword was knocked away with a sharp metallic ring, as if repelled by an invisible force.
"That's enough."
The voice startled me, and I turned immediately. There stood Louis-sama, his brow furrowed as he glared forward with a cold, piercing gaze.
"Louis-sama! Why..."
Louis-sama wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close from behind, pointing his sword at Prince Faust, who had fallen onto his backside from the impact of his blade being deflected.
"Don't move!"
As Prince Faust twisted his body to retrieve his fallen sword, Louis-sama swung his blade down in a flash. The wind pressure from the strike ruffled Prince Faust's hair, leaving him pale-faced and trembling, his teeth chattering in fear.
"Madam Banks visited me immediately after Rachel left for the ball. She informed me that Prince Faust might take suspicious action."
"And I'm the one who brought him here," a voice added.
"Theodore-sama too!"
Theodore-sama peeked out from behind Louis-sama. Seeing Prince Faust's state, he muttered a single word: "Pathetic." With a snap of his fingers, vines sprouted from his fingertips and nimbly coiled around Prince Faust's body. Theodore-sama expertly bound him with magic in the blink of an eye.
"What is this! Hey, take it off!" Prince Faust shouted, struggling against the vines tightly wound around his wrists, abdomen, and ankles. However, the more he thrashed, the deeper the vines bit into his body, stripping away his freedom.
"There, all done. What should we do with him? His aura is much darker and more turbid than when I saw him before. Did he ingest some kind of strange drug?" Theodore-sama clapped his hands and tilted his head, gesturing toward Prince Faust. Louis-sama let out a deep sigh.
"Has he become unable to maintain his sanity without resorting to strange medicines? How lamentable."
Strange medicine? Is he talking about Prince Faust?
"Drugs? What do you mean?"
In response to my question, Louis-sama approached the immobilized Prince Faust and pulled a small pouch from his inner breast pocket. Prince Faust stared at the pouch with a look of utter shock, his eyes widening in disbelief.
"Yes. I obtained information from a certain source regarding the drugs you've recently laid hands on. Carrying them on your person at all times... you lack even the basic sense of caution, don't you?"
"What could someone like you possibly understand! Someone who has enjoyed their position as a matter of course since birth could never understand my suffering! You've never been mocked as incompetent, despaired over as useless, or looked down upon as worthless!"
Louis-sama met Prince Faust's hateful glare with a sharp, mocking laugh.
"No, I suppose I wouldn't. After all, I am neither incompetent, nor useless, nor worthless."
"What did you say..."
"There is no value in someone who makes no effort to increase their own worth and thinks they can simply steal what they want from others," Louis-sama spat out, looking down at Prince Faust with cold eyes. "Of course, I will be reporting this matter thoroughly. Be prepared."
"Louis and I will both testify that you pointed a sword at Lady Rachel, the Dark Saint. And I'm sure Prince Ricardo will investigate the illegal drugs immediately. I hear the King of Orta is quite strict even with his own kin. I wonder what your punishment will be?" Theodore-sama added with a smirk, leaning in to provoke Prince Faust. Despite the smile, his expression held enough killing intent to suggest he might tear the man apart right then and there.
His face flushed red with humiliation, Prince Faust thrashed as if he were about to leap at them. Seeing this, Theodore-sama immediately wound the vines around him several more times.
"Damn it! Why is it always me! Why is it always him!"
"'Always him,' is it? I imagine you say that like a habit."
"Ricardo... that man who sucks away my happiness is a jinx. Why, why..."
As Prince Faust groaned with a voice full of resentment, Louis-sama took a step closer.
"Everyone has jealousies and inferiorities. I don't intend to preach the ideal that one should simply accept who they are. But was your misfortune having a talented younger twin? Or was it being unable to break free from your mother's abnormal obsession? No. It was because you stopped thinking."
Louis-sama's words resonated deep within me. Stopping one's own thoughts... so that is the beginning of misfortune. I, too, had a past where I was driven mad by jealousy, convinced everyone was my enemy because I was obsessed with my position as the Crown Prince's fiancée. I couldn't mock Prince Faust's actions as mere thoughtlessness.
In a way, he is a reflection of my former self.
However, Prince Faust had chosen the wrong way to escape.
"You surrounded yourself with people who whispered sweet words, drowned yourself in drugs and alcohol, and fled toward the easy path. Running away isn't always wrong, but if you were going to flee, you should have fled toward something that wouldn't kill your soul."
Louis-sama's steady voice reached my ears as I looked down.
"No one could possibly understand my pain..."
"Of course not. You are the only one who knows your own feelings. Others have no way of knowing what lies in a person's heart."
Why does no one notice my pain? Why do they take away the things I want? In the past, I had also thought like a toddler throwing a tantrum, letting go of precious things with my own hands. No matter how much Lady Minerva might struggle, after an incident like this, there was no longer any possibility of him taking the position of Crown Prince.
The past cannot be changed. Even so, life goes on. Even if Prince Faust can no longer lead the life he desired, he must continue to live within that suffering. Because that situation was created by his own choices. However, there is one thing that can be changed.
"It is about what you do from now on. Will you spend a hollow life envying others in a world of jealousy and hatred, or will you break away from that self? It will change depending on your thoughts and actions."
"Don't give me those platitudes! A life where I can't have what I want most is unnecessary!"
"Was that truly the life you wanted? Is that truly all there is for you?"
"All there is... of course. I was... born to become King... other than that..."
"Truly? Did you desire that? Since when did you take it as a given?"
"Since when... That's been the case since I was born..."
Prince Faust muttered blankly, looking confused. "When?" "Mother did," was the only small whisper that reached my ears.
He likely abandoned thinking on the day he gave up on many things. To the point where he believed his overbearing mother's words were his own will. But Prince Faust's life does not belong to Lady Minerva. Unless he realizes that himself, he will never be able to walk his true path.
"Louis, Lady Rachel. I'll handle the rest here, so you two can head back first." Theodore-sama sat heavily on the sofa, crossing his long legs and waving his left hand dismissively. Louis-sama nodded in response and placed his hand on my waist.
"Understood. Thanks, Theodore. Rachel, Prince Ricardo should be arriving soon, so let's leave the rest to them and go."
"...Yes."
With a lingering sense of unease, I left the mansion and the chaotic scene behind.