There had been a lot going on before I was led by Lobelia and finally reached her room.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say we practically filmed a stealth action scene. She sneaked in while carrying a whole person on her back so no one would notice.
“What on earth happened for you to end up in this state?”
“A curse…….”
“A curse? How on earth do you end up cursed in the imperial palace…? Ha! I think I get the general idea. Is it His Majesty’s harassment again?”
It is harassment.
What else would you call this if not harassment?
“When you calm down a bit, Helena will—”
“No…….”
“What? What do you mean by that?”
“I need to… build up… immunity….”
I briefly summarized the key point.
Right now, it was difficult enough just speaking without my tongue getting twisted.
“Why would you do something like that…? Ah, is it a countermeasure against the Great Sage?”
Right on the mark.
As expected, being of the same blood as the emperor, she catches on immediately. It would’ve been even better if she were always this understanding.
But well, having a fiery temper is something that can’t really be helped.
“Whatever the case, you should rest for now. Immunity or treatment aside, if you can’t even keep your body steady, you’ll collapse and die on the road before you get anywhere.”
“…I’m not going to die.”
A sentence I barely managed to complete.
See? My tongue’s already working again. I’m starting to get used to it.
Though I’m not sure whether I’m getting used to alcohol or the curse.
“Well, I suppose not. But do you think you won’t get stabbed wandering outside the imperial palace in that state?”
Ah. I hadn’t thought of that.
Right now, the empire’s public safety could only be described as a complete mess. After all, it hadn’t even been two months since the Great Warrior rampaged through.
The streets were crawling with robbers, and I couldn’t exactly stagger around wearing expensive clothes like a knight order’s uniform.
That would make me a delicious target.
“Damn it.”
I’d been too short-sighted.
Yuna was already hospitalized, so there was no one I could call.
Ariel? I couldn’t possibly summon someone so busy for something like this.
And it’s not like I could call the Misfits either.
For similar reasons, it didn’t feel right to ask Andvaranaut either. Most of the merchants weren’t criminals, but their leader Cattleya didn’t seem like the type to simply overlook a situation like this.
I had already worked them to the bone recently, and with this incident she might try to pull some kind of scheme on me.
If she’s excluded as well, the only option left is Stan.
But entrusting my personal safety to that lunatic would be suicide.
“Well, just rest here for a while. That’s why I secretly brought you all the way here. I won’t let anyone in for the time being.”
“Thank… you.”
With those words, I collapsed backward as if fainting.
Perhaps it should be expected of an imperial bed. The moment I fell onto it, it was so soft that drowsiness immediately washed over me.
***
My body hurts.
Not the sensation of injury, but of illness.
My body feels languid, my arms and legs ache, and my stomach churns with nausea.
Whenever my sweat-soaked clothes cling to my body, the coldness startles me.
It hurts.
A familiar pain.
A familiar pain that had never existed in the life of Johan Dammus.
“Ugh…”
I had forgotten.
Memories that had been quietly sleeping beneath the surface of my mind begin to grow clearer.
The cause of death recorded by my previous life.
Along with the sensations I felt back then, I could feel the weakest version of myself.
This isn’t right. This isn’t something the current me should be feeling. This is nothing more than a memory from a previous life.
The me from back then died, and the pain from that time should have disappeared as well.
Yes, it should have.
“Someone… please help me…”
I couldn’t escape it.
Cold, loneliness, pain, disappointment.
Overwhelmed by negative and murky emotions, tears began to fall.
Curling my body tighter, trembling from the cold, I quietly sobbed.
“Alright, I’ll help you. Whatever it is, no matter how difficult it may be, I’ll help you, so you don’t have to be afraid.”
At that moment, I felt something cold touch my forehead.
“So don’t worry, and get some good rest.”
Those were the words I had needed the most at the moment I needed them the most.
They were words my past self never got to hear.
Just words and actions of that extent.
If I had received something like that back then… would I have been able to live?
***
Lobelia looked down at Johan’s face as he finally fell asleep, exhausted after struggling in pain.
The face that had been stained with fear and pain only became peaceful after Lobelia’s long care.
“Well now, it seems he has a surprisingly childlike side.”
Lobelia replaced the wet cloth on Johan’s forehead once more and thought to herself.
“Ahem! Since I’ve decided to help, I should do it properly. This is nursing, after all.”
Even now, Johan’s body was burning with fever.
She didn’t know exactly how the curse was affecting him, but whatever it was, having such a high fever couldn’t be good.
For now, all she could do was place a damp cloth on his forehead, but she would have to think about what to do after the fever subsided as well.
“……”
Lobelia looked at Johan.
He seemed to be in a deep sleep.
She had already confirmed it by waving her hand in front of his eyes several times.
“I-It would be uncomfortable like this. This is nursing, so it’s not something suspicious.”
Lobelia who looked more suspicious than anyone else in the world muttered an excuse that no one would hear.
***
In my dream, I walked through the past.
It was surely a past that had ended in the worst possible way, yet… it wasn’t as if there were no happy memories.
If asked to point one out exactly, nothing particular came to mind, but there were many moments when a sudden memory surfaced and made me smile.
If that’s the case, then I must have been happy.
Being able to smile when looking back at those moments probably means exactly that.
So I reflected on my short life.
Its ending had been tragic, but that didn’t mean the life itself was a tragedy.
I had been… fairly happy.
I felt relieved that I could accept it that way.
“Well then……”
At the edge of a lucid dream.
On the road back after looking back on my life.
Standing on an asphalt road where even the streetlights had gone out, I absentmindedly looked up at the sky.
There were no stars.
Only a silent night sky stretched above.
“Is this the end?”
I lowered my head again.
There were no stars in the night sky, yet when I looked down at the earth, there was one.
A small boy stood there, holding a single star in his hand.
A lone star shining brighter and more brilliantly than any other.
“……”
I once again reflected on my life.
Not the memories of my previous life, but those of my present one. The vow I had engraved deep in my heart while gazing at the galaxy spread before my eyes.
Running without rest, I had already reached its end before I knew it.
“Good work.”
The boy smiled faintly.
It was the smile of the person I once was in the past. Someone who had once been called the Demon King.
“And thank you.”
I took the last fragment of the star from the boy’s hand.
With this, the interpretation of Alice’s magic is complete. Of course, it will still take time to fully make it my own…
But it won’t take that long.
“You too.”
“Hmm?”
At that moment, the boy who had kept his mouth shut the entire time finally spoke.
“Good work.”
It was a bright smile and voice that hardly fit the title of Demon King.
“And now, there’s one last thing I have to tell you.”
“…Something to tell me?”
“A story.”
The boy turned around and began walking along the asphalt road where the streetlights had gone out.
“A story for you.”
For a while, I followed that small back through the darkness.
***
The moment I opened my eyes.
Halfway between dream and reality, I shifted slightly and muttered,
“I’m tired.”
Even after sleeping, it didn’t feel like I had rested.
My body was still heavy; my head ached. My stomach wasn’t as nauseous as yesterday, but there was still a twisting pain in my insides.
Surely the nausea yesterday wasn’t actually because of the alcohol… right?
“…You’re awake?”
“Your Highness?”
At the voice I heard in that moment, I quietly raised my body.
“……?”
What is this? My body feels light.
Not figuratively….actually light. Though metaphorically, it still feels heavy like a sponge soaked with water.
The reason my body felt physically light was something I was able to figure out quickly.
“????”
I’m naked.
Right now, I’m naked.
All my clothes except my underwear had completely disappeared.
Only the soft bed was covering my awkwardness.
“Hmm.”
Alright, let’s think. What was I doing before I lost consciousness?
For a moment, I quietly closed my eyes and focused to grasp the situation.
[Thought Split]
For a clearer understanding, I even used the ability that I had finally unlocked.
They said that if I used it too much I’d become an idiot or something, but there wasn’t really a problem.
Since the Demon King’s assistance hadn’t disappeared, there was no risk.
I just felt a little dizzy, as if information being calculated in real time was flowing into my head.
After analyzing and organizing the situation like that, I came to a conclusion.
“So I guess I have a habit of taking my clothes off when I’m drunk.”
Well, if that’s the case, then the problem is solved.
After all, it was also my first time getting this completely drunk.
Because of the curse, I’m seeing all kinds of ridiculous situations.
So nothing strange must have happened.
“Oh, you’re awake?”
Just as I finished organizing the situation and let out a sigh of relief,
I soon noticed Lobelia walking out from inside the shower room.
“……”
What? Why is Lobelia here?
No, that’s not it. I had forgotten the most important thing. More accurately, it would be fair to call it escaping from reality. In truth, even though I knew this was Lobelia’s room, I ignored that possibility.
“If you stare at me like that, even I feel a bit uncomfortable. Could you look away?”
“S-Sorry.”
“…That reaction is honestly a bit refreshing. It’s a face I’ve never seen before.”
“…What exactly are you talking about?”
“Oh, nothing. Just something I said.”
Lobelia, wearing only a bathrobe over her body, scolded me.
I hurriedly turned my head away, but unfortunately [Thought Split] was stuffing all kinds of information into my head.
Perhaps because she had just finished showering, her cheeks were flushed red.
A single strand of her glossy red hair, not yet fully dry, clung to her cheek, creating a strangely alluring sight.
I could even see a droplet of water sliding down that strand of hair, running along her neck, and slipping down between her cleavage.
“Th-That… I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to stare like that.”
Stop it. Don’t put thoughts that prick my conscience into my head!
Please stop!
“Phew……”
But once activated, [Thought Split] only stopped after cramming information from head to toe into my mind.
What is this…? I thought there wasn’t a penalty, but that wasn’t true at all.
Once it starts analyzing something, it won’t stop until the analysis is finished.
It’s probably because I spent so much time studying Alice’s magic.
In the end, I could only stop [Thought Split] after being forcibly made aware that there was even a mole on the thigh faintly visible beneath the bathrobe.
Only after calming down somewhat did I recognize the seriousness of the situation and carefully ask,
“Y-Your Highness? By any chance… did anything happen between us last night?”
“Which part would you like to hear about first?”
It wasn’t “nothing happened”.
It wasn’t “something happened” either.
The moment she answered, “Which part would you like to hear about first?” I felt dizzy.
Wait… what? Not just one thing?
Did several things happen?
“There’s no need to be so tense. I merely took care of you last night.”
“I-If that’s the case, then the reason I’m without clothes is perhaps…”
“You were sweating quite a lot, so I was thinking of wiping you down with a wet towel and changing your clothes.”
“……”
“Don’t look at me like that. I didn’t even touch your underwear.”
“That’s a great relief.”
Even so, I couldn’t relax.
From the circumstances alone, it already felt like we had crossed a river we shouldn’t have crossed.
“Well, I do apologize for forcibly undressing you while you were completely unconscious.”
“N-No, it’s fine.”
Even so, if she clearly drew the line, I could at least feel somewhat relieved.
“Though, of course, I didn’t expect you to cling to me.”
“…What?”
“Because of that, your sweat and scent got all over me as well. I could have forced you off, but no matter what, I couldn’t do that to someone who was sick. So I just finished taking a shower.”
That statement left my head blank.
Lobelia scratched her cheek awkwardly.
“How should I put it… You had a rather childlike side to you. I never expected you to bury your face in me and whine like that…”
“Y-Your Highness?”
What are you talking about right now? Please stop. Don’t go any further.
“…W-well, certain parts of you were definitely an adult. That, um… how should I put it. I’m not exactly sure, but it certainly seemed like it. Y-Yes. Right.”
Lobelia even squeezed her eyes shut and eventually turned her head away.
What are you thinking about right now? What exactly are you imagining?
“So, Johan. How exactly do you intend to take responsibility for this?”
“……”
I couldn’t say a word.
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