4
“Princess Priscilla is a wonderful woman. She is much like a goddess to me.”
As the boy timidly poured tea with shaking hands, he gave his answer to Al’s question. Though his manner of speech was odd, it was still charming in a way.
They were in the lounge of Bariel Manor. Unceremoniously spreading his butt cheeks on the finely upholstered sofa, Al was thoroughly enjoying his break.
“Well, Schult, considering how much you love the Princess, I figured that’s what you’d say.”
With a smirk at the boy, Al lifted the teacup he was handed. Then he softly looked up and skillfully poured the tea down the gap between his head and neck.
Al’s most consistent trait was that he always left his helmet on and never showed his face. Since he only had one arm, his meals were never elegant. He just had one hand to lift his helmet and feed himself—and since he couldn’t do both at the same time, by necessity, he took all his meals the same way he drank his tea now.
“My table manners…do they bother ya?”
Noticing Schult’s intense stare, Al set down his cup and asked him a question in a low voice. Schult quietly gasped in reply.
He was slight of frame, with fair skin and curly pink hair, and his crimson eyes were insecure—in every metric, he was so frail and dainty that he could easily be mistaken for a girl. He was twelve or thirteen years old, but his body did not have the level of development that went with his age, and he looked not a day older than ten.
And this boy, who could easily be called a little boy, was wearing the black uniform of a servant and carrying out a butler’s tasks. Some might smile fondly at the sight of him, and others might feel secondhand embarrassment for him. And the fact was, as Al watched the boy perform grown-up tasks ill-suited to his stature, he felt pity for him.
“I ain’t got any schooling. So turn a blind eye to my bad manners, okay? You can tell, can’t you?”
Al roughly crossed his legs on a chair, acting even less refined than before. Watching this, Schult adamantly shook his head and said, “Like you, Sir Al, I am myself uneducated. I am not grand enough to be griping about the way you carry yourself.”
“Honesty is a virtue and a special privilege of children, as they say. I thought I looked the part by now, but I’ve gotta do somethin’ about what’s inside, too. So, Schult, you’re technically my senior. How long’ve you been working here?”
“About three long months have passed now since Princess Priscilla rescued me.”
Schult didn’t flinch at the sarcastic way Al called him his senior. And it would be cruel to ask him why, as he was a fresh orphan from a poor farming village.
Priscilla had taken the young butler home with her after visiting a farming village on her land. She decided to keep the scrawny Schult on the grounds that he would shine if polished. Lyp had been very cross with her, but Priscilla didn’t seem to care.
And so Schult got to stay, having won Priscilla’s favor. He received the three necessities of food, clothing, and shelter under Priscilla’s care as her butler.
“I’m not sure if winning the princess’s favor was a blessing or a curse,” Al remarked.
“Oh, I am truly grateful that Princess Priscilla rescued me. If I had stayed in that village, I would most certainly be in the embrace of the earth by now.”
“Ooh, blind faith. How cute. Meanwhile, I’m over here like, racking my brain trying to figure out what’s on her mind and what kind of person she really is.”
She seemed like she would never do philanthropic work one minute, then she rescued an orphan the next. Having said that, her hand of mercy did not extend to everyone, and it always came with conditions.
Was Priscilla really a goddess who believed in her people and in Schult? Or was she really a witch who made Al’s spine freeze at times…?
“A witch. Definitely a witch…”
As soon as he said the word out loud, the banality of his own voice made him laugh. In this world, the word witch was taboo. Al knew better than anybody else how dangerous the implication of that word really was.
“Sir Al…”
“Hmm?”
Schult’s worried voice snapped Al out of his thoughts. The way he hugged the silver serving platter to his chest was so feminine, it was almost perverse.
“Princess Priscilla chose you as her knight…didn’t she? So…you will protect her. And you are her ally… It’s okay for me to trust you, right?”
Schult’s eyes latched onto him, desperately searching for an answer. Behind his helmet, Al closed his eyes. The boy was hoping Al would say something bold and confident to dispel all his fears.
“Well, from the way you worded that question, I guess I have to answer: Don’t worry, son, I’ll take care of everything. I am the princess’s most powerful knight ever! That really wasn’t an appropriate question. It’s like, try again later, pal.”
Al saw the hurt in Schult’s eyes when he answered. But it didn’t affect Al’s conscience at all. Al felt no hesitation in betraying the look of pure innocence the boy directed at him. He would cut down anything that stood between him and his goals. To an extent, the obvious solution was necessary in achieving his dearest wish.
Making the same mistake as before was the one thing he absolutely would not tolerate.
“Oh—I wondered where you’d run off to, and here I find you in the midst of a gloomy tea party.”
The silence in the lounge was broken by the beautiful and condescending voice of a young woman. The mistress of the house shoved the door open without knocking, the hem of her ornate dress rustling as she pushed her way through the room. Resting her ample bosom on the shelf of her folded arms, the woman closed one eye and said, “Schult. A good underling is always at my side when I need him. Failing to do so because you were having tea is simply preposterous. Even more so when you’re in the company of an eccentric dandy like Al. Your cuteness is your only redeeming quality—we can’t have his filth rub off on you.”
“By saying that’s his only redeeming quality, you’ve insulted him miles more than me, Princess.”
“Well, it’s the truth. And when I say it, that truth holds even more power. Schult has no other worth besides his looks right now. Yet that still makes him better than the other worthless plebs. However, if he keeps betraying my expectations, I shall have to rescind my gracious evaluation of him.”
Priscilla looked down at the two in the lounge, spitting and snorting as she spoke. Al couldn’t help but smirk over her arrogant display, but Schult’s face was pale.
“I-I’ll be trying harder, Princess! S-so please…please don’t abandon me…!”
“Oh, don’t cry, it’s such an eyesore. Crying in hopes I’ll show some mercy is the height of stupidity. No underling of mine shall act like an ordinary pleb. Keep proving your worth to me, boy.”
As she roundly criticized his show of fear, Schult quickly wiped his eyes with his sleeve. His eyes were still faintly red and puffy, but Priscilla nodded in approval at the determined way he looked up at her.
“Good little pleb. If you don’t have the grit to change your tune, you’re no better than a corpse. Now, a corpse could fertilize the soil if buried, but we can’t let the dead wander the earth, can we? I won’t have you suck up all my air. Take each breath like it’s your last, boy.”
“Well that’s just heartless…and if Schult breathes that desperately, he’ll hyperventilate and die.” As Schult began to breathe hard, an intense look in his eyes, Al looked at Priscilla and shrugged. “Princess—he’s just a kid. It wouldn’t hurt to show him a little kindness now and again.”
“In this world, uncertainty rains down upon us all, young and old, man and woman alike. Does hunger and famine sort people by size? Does the hand of plague discriminate between the classes? As living beings, we are all equals. As long as you aren’t imprisoned in an iron cage, relying on others for your own peace of mind is only delaying the inevitable.”
“Princess?”
As Priscilla spat out those harsh words, lines of irritation rose on her beautiful face. Al couldn’t shake the feeling that the source of her irritation came from the second half of what he had said. But before he could pinpoint what exactly her irritation was, Priscilla’s expression changed.
“All living things are equal—with the exception of me, of course.”
“Princess…”
She was smiling. With a smile more seductive and crueler than anything in this world, Priscilla spat those words out quietly. It was her mantra, which Al had heard her say many times since he began service as her knight.
“This world bends itself to suit me.”
It was the source of her self-confidence—the highest words that put her very existence on a pedestal.
“Now, Schult, as I just said, if all things in this world are made to suit my needs…then if I am thirsty, do you know what would suit my needs?”
“Y-yes, Princess. I’ll pour your tea straight away!”
“Nonsense. The contents of that pot are surely cold. And it would be treason to suggest I drink the rest of Al’s cup. Your head will fly.”
“P-please have mercy! I’ll brew a new pot right away!”
And Schult flew out of the lounge, hugging the teapot to his chest. As Al listened to his tiny footsteps disappear into the distance, he shrugged at the smirking Priscilla and said, “That’s some rotten personality you’ve got there, Princess.”
“A calm butler who goes about his work with ease is nice and all, but his childish fluster is also appealing to me. If I wanted a normal butler, why would I go out of my way to pick an orphan off the street? I think Schult will prove a good antidote to the boredom that plagues me.”
“Poor kid… Winning your interest was a calamity.”
“‘Calamity,’ my foot. He gets to talk with me and serve me in person. The men of this world would cry tears of blood and lash out in starved desperation for such good fortune. Not an orphan in this world is more blessed than he.”
Legitimatizing the way she abused Schult, Priscilla spoke words that were laced with a demand that Al give her gratitude for the same kindness. But Al answered her hungry gaze with a lackluster “Sure, whatever.”
“You disrespectful oaf. It appears you’ve forgotten the time I almost severed your head on a whim. Well…no matter. By the by, Al.”
“What is it, Princess?”
“Your cunning plan… Is it well underway?”
Her tone was so icy that Al stopped breathing and looked at Priscilla. The way she had sent Schult away and made sure nobody was around before she changed the subject was a testament to her shrewdness. The sneaky way she had casually dropped a bomb on the conversation was just as shocking as if a real explosion had happened in front of his face.
If he hadn’t run a simulation on this scenario before it actually happened, he would have disgraced himself.
“It’s nothing grand enough to call a cunning plan… I’m still in the information-gathering phase. So you caught me sniffing around in secret?”
“My eyes, ears, and body are not only more beautiful than average—their senses are incredibly keen. What’s more, this is my land and my garden. I can hear the footsteps of the mice or beats of the insects’ wings if I feel so inclined.”
“Careful—if you have too much control over everything here, old man Lyp will cry.”
“That fossil? Let him cry himself dry—I couldn’t care less.”
While it was doubtful they had a loving relationship to begin with, hearing her speak so brutally about her husband was rather sad. But now was no time for Al to concern himself over the future of their sham marriage.
“What if you don’t like guys creeping around you? Are you gonna whip me?”
He knew no punishment from Priscilla would be so lenient, but it would be a problem for her to suspect him of treason. He should not, however, discount the option of using his trump card against Priscilla—
“No. I won’t throw a fit over a man merely poking around my house. After all, I imagined such a scenario when I welcomed an insubordinate animal like you into my home.”
—but his vigilance was thrown off its target by Priscilla’s unexpected answer.
“You really don’t care?”
“All men desperately sniff around wherever I’ve been, hoping to inhale a particle of my scent. How can I find fault in a man for losing his way in the fog of desire? Besides…”
As Al stood there, perplexed, Priscilla shot him a sideways glance that held a chilling allure, then said, “Lowly scum like you with a precarious position in life must choose carefully the riverbank at which you dock your boat. Finding fault in you for running about aimlessly in search of ascertainment would be as foolish as commanding a bird not to fly.”
“………”
“It has been a scant few days since I first met you, a mere sword-slave-turned-mercenary. And you think I believe your loyalty already rests entirely in me, body and soul? Only an idealistic idiot would. That would require a severe abandonment of reason.”
As Priscilla snapped her bitter insults at him, the tension in Al’s body slowly drained away. At the very least, he knew she meant every word she said. That was enough to make his judgment.
“Huh…I just assumed you’d say, Comparing myself with others is blasphemy. You all should be grateful to lose yourselves in the glory of my beauty, or something like that.”
“Only if I lacked self-confidence would I fear your gaze wandering elsewhere. I am confident that I am the most supreme being in this entire world. Therefore, I have no need for such fear.”
Pulling a fan from her cleavage, Priscilla loudly snapped it open and continued, “I am the most beautiful jewel in the world—I’ve no doubt of that—but to say I am supreme, I must first acknowledge that there are other jewels to be compared with. To fully understand my greatness, one must first compare me with the other plebs. Your hesitation to accept me was born out of a need to confirm my greatness. A roundabout way of praising me, no less. Well? Are you impressed by my outrageously clever deduction?”
“Yeah…it’s outrageous, all right.”
Priscilla hid her lips behind her open fan, but her smile could not be contained. It took Al a moment to give her outspoken arrogance a nod of agreement. But Priscilla did not rebuke his moment’s hesitation. Because she deemed doing so to be pointless.
And Al was so shaken up that he didn’t notice this. He felt like he had just been sucker punched. The young woman standing before him looked different from before. As for what she looked like now…
“Princess Priscilla! So sorry for the delay! I have brought your tea!”
“Too late!!”
But before Al could come up with an answer, Schult burst through the door into the room. Priscilla’s angry roar greeted him as Schult’s dangerously trembling hands set out the tea. Priscilla lowered herself into an empty sofa beside him, making a show of crossing her white legs in wait.
And as he watched his invulnerable mistress and the red-faced boy serving her, Al sank even deeper into his thoughts.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login