Chapter 90: You Deserve That Hit

“I’m telling you! I’m the one who sent that warning letter!”

“What?”

Lucas stood with his fists clenched at his sides. Rather than bowing his head as he should, he held it high and looked straight into my eyes.

“What did you just say?”

I turned to look at Lucas’s face dumbfoundedly, my hand frozen before reaching the door handle.

“To come here with you, I sent a fake terrorist threat to the museum director! I timed it to arrive just when we would be coming, so they couldn’t prepare in advance.”

“Are you crazy?”

I nearly burst out cursing in disbelief.

“How could you do something like this, using yourself as bait?”

“Other people will be fine. I wrote that they’re only targeting us Moirai people…”

Despite his excuses, I was so angry I couldn’t care less whether he was the Crown Prince or not.

While I was glad Xavier was safe, this was causing trouble for the whole country!

“Hey, let me hit you once.”

I swung full force at his back.

“Aaagh!”

He spun around in circles, clutching his back with both hands and crying that it hurt terribly. I glared at him furiously and said in an angry voice,

“You deserve that hit. I shouldn’t be the one saying this, but grow up!”

He was still jumping around dramatically, wailing that it hurt so much.

Though I almost burst out laughing when his raccoon ears and tail popped out occasionally, I gritted my teeth and held it in.

After quite some time, when he seemed to have calmed down somewhat, he came before me looking dejected.

“…We needed to avoid other eyes to get to the archive.”

“You even deceived Aide Eaglin and Sir Eli.”

“Like they said, to succeed you must deceive even your own allies.”

His obsidian eyes glinted as he looked up smugly.

‘Shameless until the end.’

What could be worth going to such lengths?

“Then we should definitely leave now. Everyone must be in a panic.”

“You’ll change your mind when you see those records that are here.”

“Just what are they?”

“They’re records written by the original temple historian that were kept in Moirai, but the Brillante Empire seized them. They’re precious historical records of Moirai that haven’t been returned for hundreds of years.”

“Hmm.”

“The Emperor will never show them to us. Far from returning them, he plans to seal them away forever. We tried infiltrating the imperial court with spies but it was useless, and they weren’t in the temple either. After years of effort, we finally found out they’re here.”

“……”

That leaves me speechless.

I apologized in a small voice.

“I’m sorry about that.”

As a citizen of the Brillante Empire, I was truly sorry to Lucas, the Crown Prince of Moirai. Though it wasn’t my fault, I still wanted to apologize to him.

“You don’t need to apologize.”

“Still…”

“I appreciate the sentiment. You really are a good person.”

“Thanks in advance. So let’s pretend I didn’t hear that praise, okay?”

I preemptively blocked Lucas’s mouth as he was about to shower me with compliments, holding up my palm.

But then he suddenly grabbed my hand that was in the air.

“Follow me. We don’t have much time. Let’s find it quickly and leave.”

“I understand that but… could you let go of me?”

“No, I can’t.”

Without permission, Lucas held onto my hand and started looking around the archive. When we reached the bright window, he casually pulled out a detailed map of the archive from his chest.

“Wow. You keep surprising me.”

“Really? Is that a compliment?”

“As if.”

Lucas mumbled in a small voice, looking deflated.

“Still, be happy. The priest’s records should have at least some information about how to lift the curse.”

“Really? Shouldn’t something like that be in the temple?”

“It was. Like I said earlier, the Empire hid it away long ago.”

I was planning to go to the temple… No wonder His Holiness Melvin seemed unsure about it.

“By the way, I heard the curse can be lifted by going to the Cursed Land?”

While saying this, I tried to subtly pull my hand away, but I couldn’t escape Lucas’s grip.

Lucas spread out the map with one hand and said,

“There’s a legend like that, but there are stories that say the Saintess going to the Cursed Land isn’t the end of it.”

“Re…ally?”

“If it was as simple as the Saintess going to the Cursed Land to solve everything, why would Moirai still be suffering all this time?”

He had a point. Right, it couldn’t be that simple.

“Can we really find out how to lift it?”

“Let’s hope so. My warning letter will buy us some time.”

*

“Is this it?”

Xavier was in the museum director’s private office with Eaglin and Eli.

“Yes. When I came to work this morning, it was sitting on my desk.”

[Divine punishment shall befall the Moirai who visit the Empire. Morning of the second day of the Founding Festival Ꮙ]

The terrorism warning was written on a gray card that the pale-faced museum director held out. Seeing the warning letter, Eli and Eaglin turned their heads away in shock.

“A classic method. Cut and pasted letters from newspapers. And this Ꮙ symbol is indeed used by the beastmen forces.”

Xavier’s eyes narrowed as he rubbed his chin.

“Should we close the museum now? After welcoming the beastm– I mean Moirai people based on His Majesty’s imperial order…”

The director looked up at Xavier, his chin trembling.

Xavier said nothing and looked at Eaglin. Standing at attention with Eli, Eaglin caught his meaning and walked deliberately to Xavier’s side.

Xavier made a circular motion with his finger toward the museum director and pointed to his ears. Not understanding, the director followed Xavier’s gesture and turned halfway around to face the wall, awkwardly covering his ears.

After confirming this, Xavier asked Eaglin in a very quiet voice,

“Now then, Eaglin, tell me. You seem to know something about this fake warning letter?”

“You… noticed, Your Grace?”

“Do you take me for a fool?”

“N-no, not at all.”

“Speak quickly.”

Eaglin glanced at Xavier for a moment. He looked quite troubled. But soon he confessed with a resigned expression.

“This is a method His Highness the Crown Prince often enjoys using. He thinks we don’t know, but…”

“Oh?”

“Since he would try hundreds of times if we don’t play along… we pretend to be fooled.”

Xavier laughed. His laughing face was so frightening that it sent chills down Eaglin’s spine.

“Director, you can turn around now. You can lower your hands too.”

“Ah? Yes, Your Grace.”

The director turned back around and asked carefully.

“Will you tell me now?”

“First, to conclude – this warning letter is fake.”

“R-really?”

The director clasped his hands together with tears in his eyes, looking like he’d aged ten years.

Xavier held up the gray card between his index and middle fingers and added,

“Moreover, the beastmen forces would never refer to the Moirai as ‘Moirai.’ And they mainly use black cards, not gray ones like this. Therefore, this is fake. Though they did imitate that symbol well.”

“I-I see!”

Eaglin and Eli nodded in agreement with Xavier’s explanation.

The director took out a handkerchief from his jacket pocket and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

Xavier looked at him with pitying eyes and personally patted his shoulder.

“Well then. I’ll be going now.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Just then, the office door burst open. Someone who appeared to be a museum employee entered with a pale face and handed something to the director.

The director’s face turned as white as the employee’s when he received it.

“Your Grace!”

The director grabbed Xavier as he was about to leave with Eaglin and Eli.

“Th-there’s… another one.”

Xavier’s black eyebrows rose as he turned around.

“What do you mean?”

“A… warning letter.”

In the director’s hand was a black rectangular card.

[On the second day of the Founding Festival, the heir of the Beast Kingdom shall perish Ꮙ]

*

Thanks to Lucas bringing the map, we could easily find the section where the records should be. However, after 20 minutes of searching, we hadn’t found anything promising.

“They said they definitely saw it here… They told me to check it directly since taking it out would be impossible, but this is strange.”

“Could that spy person have seen wrong?”

“No. They’re capable enough to obtain this building’s map. There’s no way they made a mistake.”

Lucas put the folded map back in his chest and started searching through the organized records earnestly.

I was getting anxious. Xavier must be worried.

If he didn’t know the warning letter was fake, I needed to go tell him.

“I want to know how to lift the curse too, but not like this. As the saintess, if I make a formal request to the imperial family, they might tell me.”

“But there’s no guarantee you’d share it with me, the Crown Prince of Moirai.”

Lucas looked up at me firmly as he crouched searching through the archives.

“Don’t you… trust me?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, Yuria, but that I don’t trust the saintess. You’re only speaking with me because you married the Duke.”

“……”

“The Empire has never given us a saintess. They even interfered with the holy power supply to the cursed people of Moirai. Through nights of flesh-searing pain, as people turned into beasts without access to holy power, I could do nothing! But this time, I want you to help.”

Just as I was thinking how unfamiliar Lucas’s serious face looked, he turned his head back and continued searching for the records. His profile showed his determination not to leave the archive until he found what he wanted.

‘I want to find it too… but this method is too reckless.’

As I was pondering with my hand on my forehead,

「Saintess Yuria found the ancient priest’s records in the Moirai History Hall. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a document but a small black obelisk.」

A single sentence flashed through my mind.