Emilone’s Temptation Labyrinth – Chapter 47

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Knowing that Reneben would act like this, I called for Jessie and the maids. The monkeys, who had been sleeping soundly on one side of the room, bathed in divine power, jumped at the sudden commotion, their tails wagging.

“If you two are coming, follow me.”

After washing up and tidying my unruly hair, I donned the robes befitting of my title as Saintess. Lately, I preferred the white priestly robes with elaborate designs that hugged my body gently.

After lightly brushing my hair to the side, I spoke to the two yet-to-be-named monkeys, and they quickly rushed over to me.

“Let’s go.”

I let the little guys chase after my feet and dragged Jessie and Reneben by the fingers.

Jessie, who had been out late yesterday handling business, took the letter from Reneben and chewed her lip to keep herself awake.

“But do you think this is real?”

“If it’s real, I’ll be angry with the Emperor, and if it’s fake, I’ll be angry with whoever sent me the false letter.”

“Aha…”

Now that the letter had reached me, there was someone to be angry with, one way or another.

“But… it’s far too intricate to be fake… and too cruel…”

It was almost tempting to believe the letter was a fake.

Jessie muttered as she got into the carriage and both Reneben and I could hear those words. Eventually, I set the letter on fire and took a deep breath.

“You mean using humans for experiments?”

The letter contained the story of a child.

There was one short phrase that looked like it was written by a child.

I could still see the words that had been written afterward, apologizing for taking so long to tell me this and writing everything about the imperial named ‘Yuina’.

The two animals nuzzled my neck with their tails as if to ask what was wrong. I knew they were sensitive to change in emotions and petted their heads, telling them not to worry.

I stroked the chest fur of the one sprawled on my lap and chuckled as I rested my elbow on the windowpane.

“The imperial family always exceeds my wildest imaginations. I guess this shouldn’t be surprising, right?

My body, which was still tired from working until dawn last night, snapped back to attention. I rolled my stiff shoulders once more, then pursed my red lips.

“But if this is true, I refused to look the other way this time.”

***

I have so much work to do, so much.

Yet, why were so many people getting on my nerves when there was so much work to do?

Even though I wanted to leave the Empire, it was the most populous country in the world.

And it was also the only place where man-eating demons have appeared. Of course, that might not be the case if I, the cause of their existence, were to disappear.

But even though I was trying so hard to tackle this…

“Haa.”

Others just seemed anxious to swallow me whole.

We simply ignored the knights trying to block out path and entered the imperial castle. While the knights debated whether or not to open the door, Reneben made short work of them.

It was quite noisy inside the castle due to the sudden invasion. Perhaps they had already been notified by the front gate, because once I entered, I saw several familiar faces.

The grand chamberlain came out to greet me, but he wasn’t the one I was looking for. It was the job of Reneben and Jessie, who followed me, to stop those following me and their comments.

[Please save me before you go.]

Sadly, I could only put them both on the spot and walk in search of the emperor. The words in the letter flashed through my mind.

“Where is the emperor?”

My heels were much higher than usual, allowing me to look down at some of the servants. I might be shorter than Reneben or Prince Alois, but at least I could look down on the Emperor, who was of below-average height.

“H-His Majesty is…”

“Ha… Ballchain, even though I’m asking, I hope you don’t start racking your brains for an answer.”

I figured he must be in a lofty throne room or an office, so I walked up to the nearest room and flung open the door.

I’m sure they could all recognize me, with my pink hair and white priestly robes, a beacon of the temple.

If there were other people inside, I carelessly apologized and moved on to the next room. The chamberlain tried to stop me but froze when he saw the excited monkeys.

In the end, he had no choice but to tell me where the emperor was.

“He’s taking a walk in the Sibel back garden.”

“…Let’s go.”

Since I knew where to go, there was no need to stay any longer.

“But, Lady Emilone…”

“…?”

“What if the letter was sent from a completely different noble? Then we will have intruded the castle without cause and the emperor will have one more thing against Your Holiness.”

“Jessie, do you know the imperial blood is special?”

“I don’t know all the details, but I have some idea.”

“The letter that was sent to us earlier was enchanted. And it was enchanted with spell that imperials often use to make contracts and transactions, to prove their lineage.”

And the letter was stamped with blood to prove that they were royalty. While I was getting ready, I had Reneben check just in case, so I was sure.

When I heard that the letter was real, I almost wanted to rush to the Emperor and grab him by the throat.

I strode into the Sibel garden and flung away my hair which was blowing in the wind. The pink hue kept flashing before my eyes and it was getting on my nerves.

“Come to think of it, the imperial family already has a decent crown prince so they could have killed them all, but they kept the child alive for experiments.”

The letter was not only inscribed with words written by Prince Yuina, but also words carefully written by someone else.

It said his biological mother was an elf, so Prince Yuina was a half-elf.

Elves were said to have a strong affinity with nature and a strong life force.

Perhaps thanks to this, Prince Yuina has the ability to ‘heal’, which could be applied and used on those who had life force. Healing was such a specialized skill that it took more than ten advanced mages to heal a faint scar from a papercut.

This was why even though everyone looked down on the temple, no one dared to treat it carelessly.

Because it possessed that much skill and power.

Yet here was a half-elf who could use healing that even elves could not.

I could see what they were thinking. They must have experimented and researched to try and produce the same result.

I bit my lip hard enough to bleed, remembering the child’s short but poignant words.

It made me feel sick.

“It was both an experiment and a backup place in case an imperial was ever injured.”

“…”

“The letter said the prince could heal any wound, but for every large wound healed, the time until the next one would be longer.”

“That… sounds like it had other side effects.”

“You are correct, and it doesn’t have infinite healing power like mine.”

So, they must have used the child’s powers only when a member of the imperial family was injured. Because if they kept asking me, they would accumulate a lot of debt towards me, and since my relationship with the emperor was poor, they obviously took advantage of the child even more.

“How could anyone do this!”

Jessie clenched her fists tightly, also angered by my words.

I cut through the Sibel back garden in a quick stride. It wasn’t hard to find the emperor. I could tell from his face that he wasn’t particularly happy to see me.

As I expected, the servants had already informed the emperor because he looked like he was waiting for me.

“It has been a while.”

“…It has been a while indeed, but I will not accept any more informality, Your Majesty.”

I cocked my head at him impassively, not appreciating the bored expression with which he used to greet me.

Since the emperor and crown prince were older than me, I allowed it to slide but his informal tone was not befitting for someone of my stature.

The emperor looked surprised by the sudden request and questioned.

“You suddenly say you are leaving the empire, then you tell me not to speak informally…please let me know if this King did anything to offend you.”

“Enough. I think I understand how lightly Your Majesty takes my words.”

Even when I stood before him and asked him not to talk down to me, he spoke to me in a tone like he was appeasing a child. My patience, which was already stretched thin, was at its breaking point.

“Reneben, summon the paladins and priests to the Imperial Castle.”

“…Yes, Your Holiness.”

“What do you think you’re doing!”

The emperor bellowed, despite acting unconcerned at my earlier words. I closed my eyes at his screeching voice and raised my head.

With my eyes fixed down, I walked up to the emperor. Thanks to my heels, I was able to stare down at the emperor.

“This is no big deal, no need to worry yourself.”

“What do you mean it’s no big deal!”

“…Ah.”

My reason for summoning the paladins and the priests was really no big deal. It was simply, honestly, just for intimidation.

Whether the child who had come to me for help was real or not, that was a fact I needed to find out. Asking the Emperor if he had a prince named Yuina would get me nowhere.

But when I saw him look more frightened than expected, I realized I might be onto something.

“I mean, just because. Sometimes, you come to the temple and call your knights and servants just because, Your Majesty. This is no different from that.”

I covered my mouth and laughed, repeating exactly what the emperor had done in the past. Seeing the frightened look on his face, the tightness in my chest seemed somewhat relieved.

“When I asked you why back then, I believe Your Majesty said it was no big deal.” I twirled the ends of my hair and finished, “Isn’t that right?”

Then I tilted my head slightly and looked down at the emperor. I could tell how annoying I was being without even being told.

While I moved my stiff and sleep-deprived body, the emperor’s hand continued to shake.

Normally, the emperor would have yelled and asked people to drag the other party out because they were being an eyesore, but he was dealing with me today.

“But this…this is the imperial castle. Even if you are the Saint, this is not somewhere you can act carelessly.”

“Oh?”

It was never my thing to upset people by laughing but I knew exactly what the emperor hated so I did just that.

“But Your Majesty, I have to return your exact words to you. The temple is not somewhere someone like you, who disregards the words of the Saintess, can carelessly enter.”

“You…!”

 

 

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