kscans

Chapter 61 - Little One and the Kodoku Curse, Part Five

"Hmm, I wonder if there’s a way."

Dinner was over, and in front of Little One, who was being fed on Zac’s lap, Romel was grumbling with a difficult expression on his face. Chihiro stopped the spoon being brought to her mouth and looked at Romel.

"What’s wrong, Romel?"

Opening one eye slightly, Romel looked at Little One and sighed deeply.

"Well, I was just wondering if there was any way to get my hands on those documents from underground."

The people around him gave Romel, who was worrying with a straight face, an exasperated look.

"What would you do, Romel, if Frontier was asked the same thing? For example, if you were asked to hand over documents and old tools related to the Golden King?"

"There’s no way I could do that! It’s the precious history of Frontier itself!"

You already know the answer, don’t you?

The members of the Frontier party nodded in agreement.

He probably understood that. That’s why Romel was in anguish.

Afterwards, Prince Marcello had entrusted the security of the Magic Circulation Device to the Flowers Knight Order and had stationed soldiers at key points on the way back, creating a very tight security net. On the way out, Romel had whined about wanting to take just one book, but the Crown Prince had shown his disapproval and refused.

"The items here are ancient relics of Flowers. They will all be placed under the management of the royal family. It is not something I can decide on my own... no, I cannot permit these to be taken out."

With a Gnome sitting on his shoulder, Prince Marcello smiled gently, almost shyly. Most of the research in this underground area was related to Gnomes. There was no way the Crown Prince, who was currently doting on his Gnome, would part with it.

Little One, who was watching Romel scratch his head with a lukewarm smile, had another spoonful brought to her by Zac. Today’s dessert was a Hassaku orange tart. The sweet and sour Hassaku orange with a generous amount of custard cream was a delight for Little One. She narrowed her eyes and chewed, mogu mogu. Zac watched her with a blissful face and carefully cut the tart. His hand occasionally reached out in another direction. Chihaya opened his mouth and accepted the tart with a smile. He was sitting next to Zac, happily being fed the tart.

"Is it good?"

At Zac’s relaxed smile, Chihaya licked his lips and smiled back.

"Yes, all of Zac’s sweets are delicious."

Chihaya smiled innocently.

The first time Zac had fed Little One, Chihaya had thrown a tantrum out of jealousy. When Zac also offered a sweet to Chihaya’s mouth, the tantrum-throwing Chihaya had calmed down. A sweet treat being fed to him. A strangely blissful feeling spread through his chest.

Chihaya became hooked on this, and started asking for sweets with his mouth open, just like Little One.

Since then, Zac has continued to feed sweets to the two of them.

The twins frolicked with smiles befitting their age. Zac smiled with a melted expression he rarely showed. The sight was so happy that the people around them also smiled.

A sweet space that no one could enter.

However, there was someone who slipped in smoothly.

"That looks delicious. Here, some tea."

Holding a silver tray with cups on both hands, Adonis placed it on the table. Zac and the twins accepted the cups of steaming tea and offered Adonis a piece of tart. He ate it and was also very pleased.

"Delicious. You’ve gotten better again, haven’t you?"

"I hope so. Miss, give me a bite too."

Zac was also fed a bite, and the tart, which had been a whole cake, was rapidly diminishing.

Eat it yourself.

That was the unanimous thought of the people around them, their eyes fixed and staring, but no one was reckless enough to voice the words that would be equivalent to writing a will.

It was a sweet time where they fed each other.

It was becoming a specialty of the pilgrimage, and it was also a blissful time to admire the adorable twins.

Dorfen and Romel, left out, had sullen, dissatisfied faces.

"Why don’t you go too?"

"Are you telling me to die? Your Highness, you are her fiancé, why don’t you join in?"

"Please stop, Chihaya will kill me."

The two, who were also teachers of martial arts and academics, were, in a way, viewed with excessive hostility by Chihaya.

A man’s heart is a desert landscape. It gets complicated and he gets defensive. Dorfen, in particular, was always with Little One, so the high density of their time together rubbed him the wrong way, and as for Romel, he was intensely disliked by Chihaya after he understood the meaning of ‘fiancé’. Well, time had softened that, but Romel was still glared at with sharp eyes from time to time.

‘You, with your taste for little girls!’

When Chihaya, with tears in his eyes, had shouted that at him, a phrase he must have learned somewhere, Romel had taken a critical hit and took several days to recover.

Ahhh, I really drew the short straw.

Still, he found the twins unbearably cute and dreamed of one day being able to join their circle. He had forgotten, for now, that children do not stay children forever.

"I can’t take it!!"

Little One was plastered against the rock wall with a pathetic expression like Romel’s from the day before. Spread before her eyes were countless animal corpses. A wide selection, from skeletons to fresh ones that had begun to emit the stench of decay. This was a cavern beyond the eastern cave of Bastok. A carpet of corpses built up over hundreds of years. As far as the eye could see, there were bones, bones, and more bones, and Little One screamed.

"No way, is it past this?"

At Little One’s timid question, Pockle nodded with a cheerful voice.

‘Hou!’

You’ve got to be kidding me.

A cavern deep underground. Beyond it, there was another cavern, and the same sight probably spread out in the distance.

"It’s gross, I can’t do it!"

It was a classic scene from otherworld novels, but there was a world of difference between reading it and seeing it. When she saw it with her own eyes, she couldn’t bear to look directly at it. Rotting, melting corpses crawling with insects. Multiple flies landing on a gooey, fallen eyeball. And below them, skeletons that were clearly once beasts, their forms still intact.

Her jaw chattering gaku gaku, Little One froze, unable to move. But Romel gently picked her up and held her head to his chest.

"Just close your eyes, okay? I’ll carry you."

Her ears tickled by his soft voice, Little One squeezed her eyes shut and clung to Romel’s chest.

The knights advanced, stepping on bones with a paki paki sound. The sound pierced her eardrums, sending another shiver down Little One’s spine.

What felt like an eternity ended, and when Little One looked up after Romel tapped her shoulder, she saw a giant cliff. A beautiful wall stretching upwards like a reverse stalactite, glittering like blackish-purple glass.

"Whoa... this is a magic crystal of the magical beasts?"

Pockle nodded, koku koku.

The crystal stretched as far as the eye could see, shining eerily. The sight was so beautiful that no one spoke a word, and the deep cavern swallowed the silence that fell like snow.

However, for some reason, the clear sound she had heard before echoed in Little One’s ears. A tune like a high-pitched bell, like a glass bell.

Suddenly, Chihaya started to act strangely.

As he stared at the magic crystal, his breathing became ragged, and several streams of cold sweat ran down his smooth cheeks. He unconsciously clutched his chest and collapsed on the spot.

"Nii-ni?!"

Forgetting her fear of the beast corpses, Little One jumped down from Romel’s arms and rushed to Chihaya’s side. Chihaya, held by Dorfen, was grimacing in pain and panting. The beads of sweat on his face told of the pain he must have been enduring.

"Nii-ni?? Nii-ni?!!"

As Little One’s screams echoed in the cavern.

In the royal capital of Frontier, someone looked up.

"..........?"

"What’s wrong, Sakura?"

Sakura looked up at the empty sky and smiled faintly.

"Oh, nothing. I just felt like I heard something."

"It’s been a while since the children left. I hope it’s not a bad omen."

Drago also sighed softly while harvesting fruit in the orchard. At his words, a question Sakura had been harboring for some time slipped from her mouth.

"I understand Chihiro, she is loved by the gods and promised happiness. But Chihaya, I wonder why."

"Hm? Chihaya?"

"His magical power and his magic. I wonder who he takes after."

At her words, Drago also opened his eyes wide. It was often overshadowed by Chihiro, the human mouse firework, showing off her extraordinary abilities, but it was true that Chihaya was also extraordinary compared to other children.

"Physical abilities and studies can be managed with one’s own aptitude and effort. But magical power and magic are different, aren’t they?"

Sakura, who had received her baptism in Frontier after marrying Drago, had become able to use life magic just like everyone else. That’s why she knew. The magical power she had gained according to the laws of Arcadia, matching her hair color, was nothing special.

Then why was Chihaya different?

Although inferior to Chihiro, his amount of magical power surpassed Romel’s, and he was an all-attribute user, which was rare. According to the usual theory, this was an impossible situation.

I thought it was because he was Chihiro’s twin, but.

"That’s true. But well, it’s better to have it than not, right? Having more options in life is a good thing."

Sakura looked up at the beaming Bear in the Kitchen and smiled brightly too.

"You’re right. If it helps our children in their lives, then there’s no problem."

As she said that, a flicker of unease crossed Sakura’s heart.

Excessive power drives people mad and brings ruin.

Sakura, who had been caught up in such madness herself, prayed that this was just a groundless fear.

As an ominous presence lingered, Little One’s screams echoed through the caverns of Bastok.