Chapter 54: The Boundary Line
As I call out, a young boy with hair as cold as ice appears.
Nenel probably recognizes him – it’s Noel, the Ice Prince who saved us in the forest. Ah, I see now. That’s who’s been tailing us.
“Hey, um, does ‘playing’ mean you’re going to fight?”
“………………….”
“What’s wrong?”
“No, I just thought you were one of Simion’s underlings, so I was expecting a fight…”
“I see, you misunderstood.”
“Forget it, that’s embarrassing.”
Don’t give me that annoyed look.
“Anyway, what do you want, Ice Prince? You’ve been following me all morning. Are you a fan or something?”
“I have no interest in you, Third Prince.”
“Don’t you find that kind of embarrassing to say?”
“Oi, kid, don’t butt into adult conversations.”
I get the feeling Nenel’s opinion of me is dropping.
This kid really doesn’t understand adult humor.
“If you have no interest, then why have you been following me?”
“I told you, I have no interest in you. But… I heard you had contact with a woman named Lucille who wields a Fragment.”
“So you were using me as bait to try and find this Lucille woman. …In other words, you were exploiting me for your own purposes.”
“I figured you, with a child in tow, would be more likely to draw her out than your fiancée. Looks like I was wrong about that.”
“Heh, so you were actually just worried about the kid and followed me, huh?”
“…Ridiculous. That’s not it at all.”
The usually calm Noel shows a glimpse of agitation.
He blatantly averts his gaze, as if trying to cover up an unexpected counterattack.
…Wait, seriously? I was just throwing that out there carelessly, but did I actually hit the mark?
“Come to think of it, you started getting confrontational with me even after I said I’d take Nenel in.”
“So what of it? I was just exasperated by your naivety.”
“When I really think about it, in the forest, you were the first one to chase after me. And with that ice magic of yours, freezing just the lower half of the body, you could have easily freezing Nenel…”
“Th-that’s… because as a criminal, I had to restrain…”
“Hmm, well, if we assume you’re fond of kids, then that ‘restraint’ could be interpreted as ‘protecting from the enemy’ rather than just ‘arresting a criminal’.”
“Huh? What…? I don’t understand.”
“Don’t go making your own convenient interpretations!”
Noel raises his voice, unusually flustered.
This is starting to seem more and more plausible. Maybe this prince is just as bad at being honest as the rest of us. If Makina were here, she’d probably say something like “Tsk tsk, you royals really can’t be straightforward, can you? Maybe you need a translator or something.” …Wait, why am I starting to be like that too?
“I keep telling you, I was just using you as bait to see if that Lucille woman would show up. Nothing more.”
“Okay, fine. Then are you just not a fan of kids?”
“…………”
“If you hate them, just say so plainly. Otherwise, we’ll keep misunderstanding.”
“Tch. If you must know, children are…”
“‘Children are’…?”
“…Never mind. It’s irrelevant.”
“I see. You didn’t want to outright say you hate kids, even if it was a lie.”
“That’s not it!”
After lecturing me so much about being ‘sweet’, you’re quite the softie yourself, aren’t you, ‘Ice Prince’?
Maybe I should start calling you the ‘Ice Cream Prince’ instead.
“Well, in any case, Nenel, this prince is just a bit shy, so you don’t need to be so wary of him. Cut him some slack.”
“Yeah, there were some guys like that back home too, so it’s fine.”
“See? Glad to hear it.”
“You two… how dare you look down on me like that…!”
Noel’s icy facade completely crumbles, and he looks like he wants to say more, but realizes continuing the argument would only make the situation worse. He falls silent, sulking.
Wise choice. Pushing it further would have just dug him in deeper.
“…Forget it. It doesn’t matter. As long as I can use you all as bait to track down this Lucille woman and eliminate her Fragment, that’s all that matters to me.”
…Speaking of which, I’ve been meaning to ask about this.
“Hey, why are you so dead-set against this Fragment thing, anyway?”
The expression on Noel’s face turned icy cold again in response to my question.
The cold shadow seeping from within seemed to cling thickly to his face.
“Rather, why are you able to be so carefree? They are the enemy. They are the evil that corrupts this world. And we are royalty. Eradicating them is our duty.”
“I understand that I have to defeat them too. …After all, I have a grudge against Lucille as well. She toyed with and abused my brother Leo. I can’t forgive her. But yours is a bit different. It seems to be driven more by hatred than just enmity.”
“Of course,”
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Noel’s face became completely covered in ice, as if touching it would carve pain into it. His expression was that cold.
“They took away something important to me. That’s why I’ll kill them. That’s why I’ll eradicate them. Until the very last moment when they disappear, I’ll keep on killing them.”
“Something important?”
“…It’s none of your business, Third Prince.”
Leaving just those words, he firmly shut his mouth again. The atmosphere was very different from the casual conversation just a moment ago. I can probably only approach the tip of his heart from here on out. Close, yet far. A clear line has been drawn. …There’s nothing more I can do.
“Al-kun!”
At the break in the conversation, Charl and the others came running up, looking flustered.
“We were looking for you. So this is where you were. …? Prince Noel?”
“Ah, I just happened to run into him. But what’s wrong? You seem quite agitated.”
“Well, you see…”
Charl hesitated. Not just Charl, but Makina standing next to her also had a dark expression. Seems like something serious happened.
“…What happened?”
“That Lucille showed up in front of Charl and Makina,” Elinne explained in their stead.
“Where is this Lucille? “
At that, Noel was the first to react.
“Umm…I was just trapped in a barrier, and by the time I noticed, there was no trace of Lucille left.”
“I’m sorry, I did fight, but I ended up letting her get away…”
“No, I’m just glad you’re safe. It’s better than recklessly chasing after her and getting into irreversible trouble.”
“I see……”
Charl lowered her head dejectedly. There was no sign of the cheerful Charl who had been excited to come to the Saint’s homeland.
“…Are you alright?”
“N-no, it’s nothing. Yes, I’m fine. …I’m just a bit tired, that’s all.”
Given that they were in battle, it’s not strange for Charl, who has little real-world experience, to have accumulated an unexpected burden.
“A-Anyway, please also check on Makina. It seems she had an encounter with Lucille as well.”
Charl turned her gaze, and there was Makina, standing by,
seemingly lost in thought.
“……………………”
“Makina?”
“Huh? What is it?”
“Well, you encountered Lucille too, right? Are you okay? Any injuries?”
“Y-yes, I’m fine…”
Makina’s condition was clearly off.
“…What happened. Did Lucille do something to you?”
“Ahaha. ‘Do something’? A cute maid like me? No one would do anything to me. I’m just a little tired today, that’s all…”
“Makina.”
I unconsciously grabbed Makina’s shoulder.
“Answer me seriously. Did something happen?”
“W-what do you mean…? I told you, I’m fine…”
“I can tell that you’re not your usual self. After all, we’ve been together since childhood.”
“…Usual self?”
To be honest, my relationship with Charl is still fairly new.
While I’ve had a relationship with her as Leo’s fiancée, we haven’t spent as much time together. Even though the time we spend together as fiancées has increased, it’s still far less than with Leo.
I still have a lot to learn about her, and I want to get to know her better.
But Makina has been with me since childhood. That this Makina is not her usual self is something–
“What do you mean, ‘usual self’? …You don’t know anything about me at all.”
–I can hear in the very small, frail voice Makina just let out.
It’s different from the ‘usual’ Makina I know.
“Makina…?”
“Haha. Just kidding. Wow, you saw right through me, as expected of Lord Al.”
Makina quickly recovered her usual cheerful demeanor.
The words I faintly heard felt like an auditory hallucination compared to how she is now.
“Well, at first, I debated whether it was safe to hand it over. Lucille actually gave me this,”
She handed over a rolled-up parchment, showing signs of having been unsealed.
“I checked it myself, and there seems to be a map inside. It appears to be of this town. But we won’t know what it signifies until we go and see,”
“This… Lucille gave this to you?”
“Yes. I have no idea why she would give me something like this,”
There was an odd pause in her words. It bothered me, and I began to say,
“Makina, are you really—”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll move once we have the information,”
Before I could ask again, Noel reached out and took the parchment with the map.
I tried to speak again, but Makina deliberately avoided eye contact. Her clear rejection in attitude made my voice and legs strangely immobile.
Suddenly, memories of the events at the mansion flooded my mind.
“I can’t say it. I can’t let my feelings out. So, please don’t worry,”
Despite being so close, despite having been together for so long,
it felt like we were strangely distant now—a gap that hadn’t been there before.
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