Chapter 27
※ This episode is a side story. You may skip it if you wish.
"Did you hear? They say there's a ghost living in Yvonne Palace!"
Why are none of the blond-haired lot normal? Hiasen wondered, blaming himself inwardly.
Unlike the girl enthusiastically sharing the rumor she had heard, Hiasen answered listlessly without even looking at her.
"No. You're just trying to drag me along again, aren't you?"
"Aww, Hiasen, don't be like that. Come with meee."
"Take Niobe instead of me."
"But Niobe's taking her afternoon nap right now!"
Josephine revealed that she had already checked even Niobe's bedroom.
"Mother will be very angry if she finds out."
"What about me being here? Who cares? It's petty to make a fuss just because they don't get along with each other."
"That's not the issue, Josephine."
"So you'll come with me, right? To Yvonne Palace?"
"Hah."
Hiasen finally closed the spellbook he had been reading.
From the very beginning, Prince Hiasen had never had a choice.
There were few people in the imperial palace who would dare defy Josephine Floria Kaizen, the sister of Crown Prince Jade.
Even though Hiasen was young, he had felt the strict hierarchy of the imperial family with his whole body since birth.
"Apparently, you can hear a baby's cries every night, too?"
"That's a ridiculous rumor."
"You're scared now, aren't you? Be honest—it's scary, right? Are you getting goosebumps?"
"I-I never said I was!"
Still, Hiasen breathed a sigh of relief that it really was broad daylight.
If Josephine had tried to drag him away in the middle of the night, he would have resisted fiercely, hierarchy or no hierarchy.
Even so, Hiasen couldn't let go of Josephine's hand. Being afraid was a separate matter.
"This is my first time coming all the way to Yvonne Palace. It's creepy—does anyone even live here?"
"I don't know. If there's no one here, let's just go back."
There was no gardener tending the grounds, nor any maids hurrying about.
If anything, the absence of the people who should have been there during this busiest time of day made the scenery even more desolate.
When they reached the main gate of Yvonne Palace, a guard came to greet them.
"I greet Her Noble Highness, Second Imperial Princess Josephine Floria Kaizen. And the person beside you is...?"
"Long time no see, Lupion! Do you work here now? This is Hiasen. You don't know his face because he hardly ever comes outside, do you?"
"Please forgive my rudeness!! I greet His Noble Highness, Third Imperial Prince Hiasen Luminous Kaizen."
"All right, all right. I have business here, so can we go in?"
Josephine naturally tried to pass through the main gate, but the guard blocked her with his body.
"I have orders not to let anyone inside, so please understand!"
"Orders? From whom? Is that enough reason to stop me without permission?"
Josephine's voice turned cold in an instant.
Hiasen found this side of Josephine truly frightening.
Normally, she was an utterly mischievous young lady, but when her eyes went wild like that, she showed her Kaizen mettle without holding back, proving she was a Kaizen through and through.
"I-I'm sorry. It was a message from Head Butler Vargo..."
"Head Butler Vargo..."
Josephine bit down hard on her lower lip.
Though technically below her in rank, he was someone who stayed glued to His Majesty's side.
In practice, he faithfully served as the emperor's proxy, to the point that his orders were no different from the emperor's own.
Although she wouldn't technically be in trouble for disobeying the order, the repercussions would certainly be severe if she were discovered later.
Even so, her inner conflict lasted no more than a few seconds.
"It's fine. Just let us in. We'll be right back out."
"...Please come out as quickly as possible. The head butler will be furious if he finds out."
"But don't tell him we came here, either! Come on, Hiasen, let's go in."
Yvonne Palace was located on the northwestern outskirts of the imperial palace.
From its size and appearance, one could guess why Yvonne Palace was called a detached palace rather than an official palace.
"It's really small. And it looks pretty old, too."
Its outer walls were drab, having been built centuries ago in the Romanesque style.
Josephine couldn't understand why they had left such a shabby building standing instead of demolishing it.
It seemed to rise only three floors, and the creaking of the floorboards was the only sound echoing through the corridors.
Even after Josephine and Hiasen circled the palace's interior several times, they couldn't find any sign of human presence.
"Ugh, this is boring!"
She had even shaken off Jade, who had been assigned to watch her, just to come here. Josephine huffed.
"Aren't you close with Big Brother Jade? You're siblings."
"And what about you? I heard you fought with Niobe recently."
"W-Who said that?"
"Count Aria did."
"Uncle... Niobe is three years old. It's not like I'm a little kid—why would I fight with her?"
"Oh, please. From where I'm standing, you two are exactly alike."
Josephine completely ignored Hiasen's denials and continued her search.
"Niobe ruined my book first, anyway."
"As her older brother, you should be magnanimous enough to forgive her. You're starting to look more and more like Jade."
"It was the only copy I had!"
"Huh? There were stairs here? I guess they lead to the fourth floor!"
From outside, the building appeared to be uniformly three stories tall, but they had found stairs leading one floor higher.
Only a few shafts of sunlight slipping through the gaps in the windows illuminated the fourth-floor hallway, which had no lights at all.
Dust lay thick across the floor, and the ceiling was covered in cobwebs.
Perhaps it was because no insects could enter the place.
The corpses of spiders that had starved to death were scattered across the floor.
"Stop fooling around, Josephine. I'm not scared at all even if you make noises like that!"
"Huh? What are you talking about? I didn't say anything."
"You just made some weird crying sound!"
"I'm telling you, I didn't! Why would I make a sound like that?"
"I definitely heard...!"
[Huuuuuuuh]
...!
"You heard that...?"
"Yeah. What was it?"
"No. I'm not going."
"I think it came from the end of that hallway."
"No, I said I don't wanna!"
"Let's go! Let's meet the ghost of Yvonne Palace!"
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Josephine roughly seized Hiasen by the arm and dragged him along.
With every step they took, the unidentified sound grew louder.
"What if it really is a ghost, Sis...? It could eat us."
"You were the one saying ghosts didn't exist. Be quiet—I think there's something in the room beyond that door."
At first, Josephine thought it was merely the sound of the wind, but as she drew closer to its source, she became certain that it was a little girl's crying.
"The door's locked!"
"Are you seriously going to break it down and barge in?"
"There's a baby crying inside. Hiasen, stand back!"
Josephine immediately took up a stance.
She lowered her center of gravity and read the mana currents around her.
The golden eyes said to belong only to Kaizen's legitimate imperial bloodline glowed and shimmered.
The colorless mana had already formed a golden vortex and gathered in her right hand.
"Here I gooooo!"
It was a single punch, crude beyond belief.
But if even a frail girl's arm was surrounded by aura,
it would rival the most fearsome battering ram.
Kaboom!!!
What had once been a door exploded in the literal sense, sending sharp metal fragments flying.
Hiasen coughed as he felt his way forward, making sure not to lose Josephine.
The cries spilling through the gap in the door were now clearly audible to both children.
As their vision cleared, the first thing they saw was a neatly organized bedroom.
But when they recognized the strange object placed beside the bed, their expressions filled with horror.
"It hurts..."
A cross the size of an adult man.
"It hurts... Save me..."
Large nails had been driven through both wrists and heels of a person and into a huge wooden cross.
"It hurts... It hurts... It hurts... Save me... It hurts... Save me..."
Josephine's legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor.
"Urgh...!"
Hiasen, too, was unable to suppress the rising urge to vomit and fell to the floor.
"It hurts... It hurts... It hurts... Save me..."
The flesh had long since festered and burst, with oozing fluid mixed with blood, while the stench of decay filled the room.
But the prisoner hanging there,
was nowhere near as large as the cross.
"Please... kill me..."
They say the cries of a three-year-old baby can occasionally be heard in Yvonne Palace.
* * *
"The Savior (Asha) of the East (Est), huh? What an ominous name."
"By 'the East'... you mean the demon lands, I presume?"
"Somewhere beyond the Lainris Ice Gorge and the Siela Mountains, I imagine."
"Do you not regret it?"
"Regret? Neither she nor I have much affection for our children. I have no intention of violating the principles I've lived by. Not now, not ever."
"Understood."
When the head butler's receiver rang, he asked his superior's leave and answered the call.
[This is the commander of the 101st Battalion of the Darkstar Demon Extermination Corps]
"The mission?"
[I report that Tennebreia was killed at the scene]
"Well done. I'll receive the rest of the report in writing."
[There's been a little trouble on the other side. It seems to be something you need to come handle personally]
"Trouble? Handle it yourself. I'm busy right now."
Did he even realize who the head butler was accompanying right now?
But the voice coming through the receiver still sounded urgent.
[The Kaizen bloodline is in Yvonne Palace right now]