国产午夜亚洲精品AⅤ

Chapter 266

I suddenly became curious. Did Charlotte dress herself, or did her maids help her? She would have to manage everything on her own in the dormitory.

Well, perhaps there were some items of clothing that she could not wear on her own. In such cases, did she borrow someone else’s hands? Of course, I didn’t ask that.

As I looked around the bedroom, I finally voiced out what I was thinking. “The bed... it’s way too big.”

“... Honestly, the more I listen to you, I want to commend your perspective.”

Charlotte pointed to the enormous bed, far exceeding the size of a king-size bed, as if she had expected me to say something strange again. It was not just wide, but also very long.

“Shockingly enough, though, you’re right. This bed is way too massive. But I only realized that it was uncomfortable after using the bed in the dormitory,” she continued.

The dormitory bed was large as well, but not to such an extent. It was a small exaggeration to say that one could probably have a small party on that bed. I’d seen people living in a smaller space than what that single bed took up. It seemed just slightly smaller than a decent studio apartment.

The princess’s bedroom wasn’t big enough to play soccer in, but the bed was almost larger than a small apartment.

“I used to think I had to crawl just to get off the bed. But with the dormitory bed, I only need to roll over once to get off.”

It was amusing to hear Charlotte describing how she’d finally realized she had been sleeping in an uncomfortable bed her whole life only after having to sleep in a smaller one.

She had such a cute expression, and hearing that she was happy that she could get off the bed by rolling over once was just great. Imagining Charlotte doing that made me want to laugh, despite the seriousness of the situation we were in.

“Do you want to lie down?”

“... I know you think I’m crazy, but I’m not that crazy, okay?”

‘I do have boundaries, you know! It’s just that others don’t agree with them. I’m not the kind of lunatic who would roll around on a princess’s bed, laughing maniacally!’

Charlotte covered her mouth and laughed at my reaction.

“Why? Honestly, if we sleep on either end of that bed, no matter how bad your sleeping habits are, we wouldn’t touch each other all night.”

“Why are you like this?”

It seemed my stubbornness and my nonsense had finally gotten to Charlotte. She didn’t show me around the rest of the vast bedroom, perhaps because there were sensitive items there.

There were a few portraits hung on the walls, but I didn’t ask who the people in them were. An adult woman who resembled Charlotte... There was no need to ask, since it would be a painful name for Charlotte.

At that moment, something that was hard to describe as human... That something made me stop thinking.

“Do you want to see something interesting?”

“What is it?”

Charlotte, with a meaningful smile, grabbed my arm and led me towards the wall where the bookshelves were.

“Things like this often appear in novels. Royals or nobles living in places like this... When chaos erupts, they always escape through secret passages.”

“No way!”

“Yes.”

Charlotte took off her necklace and fitted it into a groove on a part of the wall between the bookshelves, which looked like a pillar.

Click.

With that, the wall rotated, and Charlotte and I found ourselves on the other side. As soon as the rotation stopped, I was left speechless.

“What is this?” I finally managed to croak out.

“Amazing, right?”

In front of us was a staircase leading down. The bedroom was on the second floor, but this staircase seemed to descend all the way into the basement.

“This is the secret passage of the Spring Palace.”

“Isn’t this... an important secret?”

Charlotte nodded nonchalantly.

“Yes. Aside from me, probably only His Majesty the emperor knows about this. Not even Dyrus or Dame Tana know.”

Charlotte touched her necklace, the item she’d used to operate the secret door. “This is the key.”

It had to be an item that had been passed down from one owner of the Spring Palace to another for generations.

“... Should you even be showing me this?”

“Why?” Charlotte asked as she tilted her head. “We’re friends.”

Caught off guard, I had nothing to say.

‘But still, telling me something like this... It’s starting to get a bit scary...’

“So, where does this lead?” I asked.

“This is the heart of the empire. Don’t underestimate a secret passage.”

Charlotte took me down the stairs to a room at the end of the basement. The secret passage ended there. There was only one room, but it was definitely a path leading somewhere.

Or, more accurately, a door.

“This is...”

“Since it’s an escape route, it should allow me to go anywhere.”

There was a warp gate here.

***

A miniature warp gate... Of course, at that moment, it was deactivated.

I didn’t know where it could lead, but if it connected to another warp gate within range, it would be a perfect means of escape.

“You can use spatial magic within the palace?”

“It can be disabled, but what’s stopping us from enabling it in certain areas?” Charlotte said as if it were nothing special.

Why would Charlotte tell me something like that? She had just shared a very important secret with me for fun. It didn’t seem like she had any other reason to.

This wasn’t the sort of thing you would boast about lightly. It was like a child showing off, saying, “Look what we have at our house!”

‘I should keep this in mind when the Gate Incident happens.’

Since it was always deactivated, I couldn’t be sure if the monsters would emerge from it, but I definitely had to keep this place in mind.

After leaving the bedroom, Charlotte continued to show me around the palace. There were many spaces, but we hardly ran into anyone else. Overall, it felt empty.

“It’s big, but not much of it is actually in use. Nowadays, it feels even more deserted because there are fewer people around.”

The Spring Palace felt like a lonely place, though not as much as the White Palace in Arnaka did. It was a different kind of loneliness. The White Palace in Arnaka seemed like it was always meant to be that way, but this loneliness seemed very out of place for the Spring Palace. It felt like a place that was never intended to be so desolate, but was slowly becoming so. Somehow, it felt like it was dying.

The tour around the palace took a substantial amount of time, and by the end of it, the orange rays of sunset were pouring in through the windows.

“Not much to see, right?”

I chuckled at Charlotte’s blunt remark. Saying that there wasn’t much to a palace with a miniature warp gate in the basement was a bit of an understatement.

“I want to say ‘what are you talking about’... but honestly, you’re right,” I said.

‘So what?’

That was all I felt in the end.

Charlotte seemed pleased with my answer. “You’re honest.”

In the end, a palace was just a huge building. Much of it was empty, and Charlotte wasn’t so much the owner of this palace as someone merely living in one of its rooms. The warm sunset light bathed the corridor red, making it feel even lonelier because there were so few around to enjoy it.

In the lonely light of sunset, Charlotte gazed at me.

“It’s strange,” she said.

“What is?”

“I’ve always thought about doing this at least once.”

Her smile was lonely, reflecting the mood of the sunset. “I’ve always wanted to bring a friend over, show them where I live, and tell them that living in a place like this isn’t that great. Just once, at least.”

Her expression seemed to suggest that a long-held wish had finally been fulfilled. Although she had been reluctant to bring me along, it seemed that this was what she had wanted. I had to play along with her reluctance, but the whole experience had been far from unpleasant. Moreover, she had brought me here despite knowing that the leader of Shanapell would oppose it.

“You seem to understand me so well, Reinhart. It’s really strange... Why do you understand me so well? Why... are you always there when I need someone?”

I could sense what Charlotte needed right then. Just someone to be by her side. That seemed to be what she needed.

“Actually, I’m going to withdraw from the Temple soon,” Charlotte confessed.

My mind froze at those words. I hadn’t yet figured out what my Qi Sense had been warning me about. Was this it?

If I had spent my time preoccupied with other matters, Charlotte would have suddenly disappeared.

It would have been absolutely frustrating for me, not knowing the reason behind her disappearance. On top of that, I wouldn’t even be able to ask Vertus about Charlotte’s well-being.

Vertus and Charlotte...

‘Did she lose to Vertus in the end?

‘What was the murder incident in the Spring Palace all about, then? Did Vertus try to kill Charlotte and fail? If he failed, then he would be in deep trouble, so why...?

‘Is the Spring Palace so empty because of this power struggle, and is Sabioleen Tana guarding Charlotte to prevent any unforeseen mishaps?’

“Is it because of Vertus?” I asked.

Charlotte’s reaction to my question was peculiar.

“If I say it is, what will you do?”

“... What?”

“If I ultimately lost the fight for the throne, if this is what happened to me, if that’s why I’m quitting the Temple...” Charlotte looked at me. “If that’s the case, then what would you do? What happens then?”

I already knew the answer.

“The fate of a royal who loses the battle of succession for the throne is obvious. It’s a matter of facing death immediately, or a little later,” I replied.

Charlotte gazed at the scenery outside the palace.

“I could be killed immediately, or, to avoid any commotion, I could be exiled far away and placed under guard. Eventually, the ministers’ pleas for the elimination of any loose ends would grow, and I would die a quiet death in exile. Or, I could be attacked by bandits or ambushed on my way into exile... Either way, I wouldn’t survive,” Charlotte explained.

Charlotte looked straight at me. “If that happens to me, what will you do?”

I didn’t have to think for long.

Rather, there was no thinking to be done.

“I’ll save you.”

“How?”

“Somehow.”

“Anyone can say that.”

“No.” Ignoring Charlotte’s words, I took a step closer to her. “Have you forgotten about my supernatural power?”

“...”

“If I believe it, it happens.”

Charlotte silently watched me.

“I’ll save you. I believe it, so it will happen.”

“That’s absurd.”

‘It is absurd.’

“Yes, I know it’s absurd,” I said, looking at Charlotte.

‘Yes, this is just absurd, I know.’

“But this absurdity was what helped me become a superhuman, succeed in activating Mana Reinforcement, and enter the Spring Palace despite being a street urchin,” I continued.

‘Everything in my life has been achieved through absurdity, so I will once again use absurdity to my advantage. This absurdity has always become reality, and it will be the same this time.’

That was what I believed in.

“I will save you no matter what, and if I fail to save you, I will kill Vertus.”

Charlotte was startled by that.

Anyone could say that they’d try to save someone else no matter what. But declaring that I would kill the next emperor if I failed to save her was not something to be said lightly.

Charlotte was too shocked by the insanity in my words to speak. But I meant it. For the moment, I saw Vertus as a friend, but if he killed Charlotte, he would no longer be my friend.

Charlotte tried to wrap her head around my words, but eventually let out a hollow laugh.

“Why... Why would you go to such lengths for me? No matter how much I think about it... I can’t understand why you would say something like that for my sake...”

“Because we’re friends.”

My reply surprised her.

“Because we’re friends.” It was a phrase I had repeated several times that day...

Charlotte was left speechless by the finality with which those words resonated. After a long silence, she swallowed hard and looked at me with a forced smile.

“That’s a shame,” Charlotte said.

‘What’s a shame?’

“I know you’ve been worried about me all day. But this is enough.”

Charlotte obviously knew the reason behind my strange behavior.

“It’s not because of Vertus. So...”

Charlotte lightly pinched my cheek. “This time, you won’t have the chance to cause trouble.”

She looked as if she had received a death sentence, a sentence that was unchangeable, not even by the absurdity within me.

Tears welled up in Charlotte’s eyes. “Thank you, Reinhart. In the end, I still wanted to hear you say you’d cause trouble for me.”

It seemed that just hearing the words was enough for her, even if she believed I wouldn’t have the opportunity to carry it out.

Charlotte stood there, laughing and crying at the same time.