Chapter 38

Chapter 38

I explained to Prince Camille, “Your Highness, I will have the servants clean your hidden space immediately. We need to have an appropriate ventilation system there. Based on what I could tell, the flooring was very worn, so why don’t we fix that? A fresh new floor would be nice. I will help myself.”

“But, Juya! That space… There are things in there that others shouldn’t touch…”

I expected the prince to say something like this. Prince Camille looked awkward, and I patted his shoulder and replied reassuringly, “You said there was gunpowder, right? I remember. If it is indeed dangerous, Your Highness can come as well and supervise us in person. You can tell us everything that we should do one after another. We will only do what you tell us to do.”

We also had to fix the door and the lock I smashed. I also remembered seeing dirty bowls, pots, and tools everywhere. They needed to be thoroughly cleaned. I also planned on installing glass lights high up in the walls. These would be safe from any fire hazards.

However, before we could begin the work, we were interrupted abruptly.

“Iztal Juya! Please come out now!”

One of the servants told me that several of my brothers were outside, looking for me. They were threatening to come in if I didn’t go out to meet them immediately. The servant looked pale.

Prince Camille seemed scared, “W-what is going on?”

“I will go and check it out. I’m sure it’s nothing, your highness.”

I ran out quickly, and to my shock, Manar and his buddies were in the garden. Some of them had their swords drawn, and the servants were trembling in fear. I pushed aside the servants to get to my brothers.

Punch!

Manar punched me in the face before I could react.

“Arrgh! What do you think you are…!”

“The Virtuous Priestess is here, isn’t she? You promised you wouldn’t lie, Iztal Juya! Tell us the truth! Answer us!”

“What?”

I suppose this was expected. If I could think of this plan, why couldn’t Iztal Manar?

Manar said menacingly, “You have been serving Prince Camille very closely lately, and I learned recently that His Highness can speak a little bit of Hwenian. Someone mentioned that you even got a Hwenian book from his highness. Is that true?”

“…”

“I also heard that a few odalisques escaped the harem on their own recently. It made sense because this is about the time when the priestess would have her monthly bleed. Odalisques aren’t stupid, which means they must have left to serve their lady.” His eyes narrowed in satisfaction as he continued, “I recently learned that those women speak Hwenian, of all languages. Haha… So where… oh, where in this small Minurd… would they have gone to? I wonder…”

I had no intention of giving him the answer he wanted. I stood up and screamed at him, “You! You went into the harem, didn’t you, Manar? You promised me you wouldn’t! You fooled me into letting you know the secret, and now, you went inside the Harem! You went in there!”

“So what? What’s wrong with that?”

When I tried to attack him, I was stopped by the other brothers. This had to be a huge deal! Didn’t it…?

The other brothers asked Manar excitedly, “What? Manar! You went into the harem? Is this true?”

“Did you get to see the odalisques? How were they? Were they pretty like the rumors?”

“You didn’t go in and have all the fun by yourself, did you? Oh, come on… Bastard! You went in, and you didn’t even tell us.”

It seemed that none of them saw the seriousness of Manar’s action. Manar smirked and said to me, “What’s the big deal? Like I told you before, Juya, you went in yourself, so why couldn’t I? I told you I would be able to figure it out even if you didn’t tell me. I don’t understand why you are trying to reprimand me when I only did what you did.”

“Argh…”

Manar walked up to me and looked at me daringly. He continued, “So answer me, my brother, Juya. Did the prince, who loves the Hwenian language, ask you to kidnap the Virtuous Priestess? Have you been spending all of your time here so you can keep an eye on her?”

If it was any other time, I would have claimed ignorance and told him to go inside. I would have dared him to look for himself and see if those women were inside the building because the women were hidden in the Sacred Room. None of the brothers were familiar with Prince Camille’s quarters, which meant there was no way they would find the women.

However, of all days… Today, all the hallways were opened and exposed because we were about to work on cleaning up the hidden area.

There was no time. Did I have to lie? Even if I did, would they believe me? Or… Was it better to tell the whole truth and ask my brothers to be understanding? They were my brothers, after all… Like me, maybe they could feel sympathetic towards poor Prince Camille.

However, before I could make a logical decision, Manar decided it for me.

“I can’t tell whether you are serving the Goddess’ warrior or the prince. Did the idiotic Prince Camille tell you that he is in love with the Virtuous Priestess? Ha! He calls himself the student of laws and ethics, yet he covets his brother’s woman? Did he already have the priestess? Was he satisfied? He is called the ‘Prince’ only in Minurd, you know. In truth, he is the one who killed the Goddess! He is cursed! He thinks he is a man just because he took the priestess? He is only 17 and, therefore, still a boy… Hahaha…”

“Shut up!”

How could Manar say something so vulgar? How dare he? I couldn’t let him get away with shaming the prince. My blood boiled, and my body moved on its own.

What did he know? Nothing. He didn’t know how Prince Camille was framed. He wasn’t the one who killed the Goddess! Did Manar know how much the warrior cared about the prince? Did he know how hard Prince Camille tried to be loved and recognized?

Manar would and could never understand.

I drew my sword but was quickly stopped by the other brothers, but I was able to fight my way with my bare hands and reach Manar. Grabbing his neck, I was about to punch his face when I was kicked and kneed by the other brothers. I collapsed to the ground, and the men began to beat me mercilessly.

I groaned, “Argh… Let me go! Y-you bastards!”

Manar sneered and said to me, “So, you won’t answer me… I see.”

If I couldn’t stop them from going into His Highness’ quarters, what was the point?” Tears rolled down my face, not from the pain but from my own uselessness.

Manar announced loudly, “Listen, everyone. Go inside and find the Virtuous Priestess and her odalisques. Those women left their sacred harem on their own and thereby breaking the law. There is no need to show them any mercy. Do what you would like with them.”

“Y-you bastard!”

Just then, I saw many of my other brothers entering the garden. One of them announced, “Are they here? Yes, there they are!”

I recognized the voice. Desperately, I called to him, “Eriez! Hurry up! Stop these crazy bastards!”

Eriez’s men began to fight Manar’s friends. Eriez, who was ignoring them all, ran up to me and hugged me tightly as if to protect me from everyone.

I couldn’t push him away.

I didn’t care that the others were surrounding us. I didn’t care if they saw us like this. In Eriez’s strong arms, I burst into tears.