CH 41

41 The Thing That’s Carved is Love

For some reason, Father warned me to not approach Bates’ store for the time being. It was as if he was trying to warn me to keep away from dangerous places.

But, sure enough, after some invest- erm, I mean, after some questioning, I learned a certain fact that might be the reason for Father’s warning. Bates-san was researching Saint’s Cane. And the reason for the research seemed to be for the sake of awakening the Saint’s ornament since the second coming of the saint was just around the corner. Although they still had no idea who would become the saint in the end, in everyone’s opinion there was nothing wrong with being prepared, hence the research.

… Could it be… Such a situation really will happen in the future?! I exclaimed in my mind, not really sure, but my father said that the kingdom was still investigating that matter. Really, the matter didn’t seem to be that simple… I meant, if it was about the research of the Saint’s ornaments, the result of the previous king should be enough. There was no need to do additional investigation, was there?

Alas, though I wondered if there was more to this matter than that, it felt like the upper echelon of this kingdom was hell-bent to keep the matter like that. It was as if there were still deeper secrets to this matter. However, I guess those secrets weren’t something they could tell their children just yet.

Hence why I had no choice but to obey my father’s direction to avoid Bates’ store for now. I meant… he looked dead serious when he told me that. I had absolutely no desire to know what punishment awaits me if I chose to disobey… – shudder – 

◇

A party is going to be held today. Yosh~ I’m all fired up! I clenched my fist, encouraging myself for today’s party. Unfortunately, Muriel couldn’t participate in this party… But still, both Frederick and Elliot would participate in it! That said, it’s time for me to commence the ‘Let’s Get Along’ plan!

For the sake of my engagement with Muriel, fight me!

“Let’s go.”

“Where are you going?”

“His Highness, Elliot’s, place of course.”

Uwaa, this bas*tard, Frederick, didn’t even try to hide the reluctant expression on his face upon hearing my destination.

“I mean, you also know that you can’t keep avoiding them, right?”

“Yes, but still… being disliked so much will naturally make you want to give up, right?”

“Nevertheless, this will show the rest who’s the boss, right? And I want to get along with Muriel again, too. That’s why, please bear with it for my sake, my friend.”

“That’s not something you’re supposed to say to your friend, right? But, well, I also feel bad for Miss Muriel… Can’t be helped then, I’ll go along with your plan. You owe me one, okay?”

“Ou, I owe you one. Feel free to use me as your scapegoat.”

“Hey, stop speaking in a way that makes it sound like I’m going to use you as I see fit.”

I smiled when I heard him speak. His tone was rather dumbfounded, sounding especially funny when you consider his usual poise.

“I wouldn’t say this to anyone else but you.”

Good grief, that sounds like a pick-up line… Aaaaah, how shameful, but… Frederick looked really delighted when I told him that, so I suppose it’s alright?

◇

Katrina immediately spotted us when we got there, and she looked really delighted when she saw me bringing Frederick along with me.

“Oh my, welcome, Your Highness Frederick, Theodore-sama. Please sit over there. We’re currently discussing forming our own study group.”

Then, everyone here immediately became lively, enlivening the conversation with that short opening.

Woow~ she’s good. I thought as I participated in the discussion. Now that my eyes were opened, I could see that this girl was most likely worrying that the kingdom might break apart due to the strained relationship between Elliot and Frederick. And that was why, again and again, she had always called out to us without giving up. She was trying to make the two brothers get along.

… As expected of someone chosen as the Crown Prince’s fiancee. She was still so young, yet she was already thinking about the future of this kingdom. Now I felt bad for mistaking her as a gloomy girl before.

Alright, it’s decided! I’ll cooperate with her to make the two brothers get along with each other. Of course, I should not be hasty and do it bit-by-bit, so it won’t backfire on us.

Additionally, I could see the dumbfounded expression Luke made when he saw me forcibly entering everyone’s circle along with Frederick.

“… You really did it, huh.”

“Well, this is for the best for everyone, after all.”

I replied to Luke when he muttered to me, still having that dumbfounded expression on his face.

“Still, though an idiot like me can speak on behalf of His Highness Frederick, the effect will be much better if you guys also do the same rather than other people.”

“… I see. Here I am, wondering from a long time ago whether Lord Goldberg had warned you or not about the dangers that you will face if you keep avoiding everyone, but it seems that it’s not needed when you have finally started to learn to understand the situation. Sure enough, only someone who isn’t two-faced, like you, will be the best choice to bridge the relationship between the two princes.”

As expected, Luke seemed to be able to guess my intention. And he approved too.

Thank you for your understanding. I silently thanked him in my mind.

◇

It was another day and right now, I was in one of the rooms in Duke Lilac’s mansion, participating in the male-only study group that was established at that party some days ago. Seeing that everyone was currently diligently studying and feeling slightly bored, I tried to peek at the paper that Luke had been staring at since a while ago.

Wait… is that… Japanese? I was startled when I saw it. Although the orientation was reversed and it was written horizontally, I was pretty sure it was my native language in my former life.

Still, to make sure, I decided to ask.

“Luke, what is this?”

“… This is an ancient language and these lines come from the letters that were carved on the tiara and the cane. Right now, as I can’t go to the store, I’m trying to learn this language. Good grief, because of my father’s warning, I can’t go there to study about magic power residue… Well, at the very least, though I can’t go there, I can get Trevor’s help to clarify the meaning of the ancient language I’m unsure of. So, don’t disturb me now, I’m busy.”

Hee… So the letters that resemble Japanese in this world are regarded as ancient languages, huh. That’s interesting…

“Do you understand the meaning?”

“I’m in the middle of deciphering it. I mean, it looks the same yet not at the same time. See here, this part. Look at these letters. This one is written with three lines, yet it’s facing a different orientation. Since these letters have some meaning, the different orientation might mean something else. This is worth researching.”

… Uhm, I can’t see it as anything but ‘に(Ni)’ though… Well, the orientation was completely wrong, but I am pretty sure this one is showing the particle of the sentence. I decided as I looked at the letters shown to me.

Then, I looked at the letters carved in the tiara and tried to read it.

‘I, Goldias, offered my true love to my beloved, Selendia.’

Dumbfounded, I moved on to the cane, only to find similar words etched there with only a name difference.

‘I, Griffeel, offered my true love to my beloved, Selendia.’

That was it. That was the only way to read them. It had no other meaning at all.

Incidentally, the letters on the tiara that Luke was looking at were upside down, and he was reading it from the end. Meanwhile, the one on the cane was written horizontally in a vertical position. And that might be the reason why he thought those letters had different meanings. Because of the letters’ orientation.

Should I tell him about this fact? I meant, it was normal for people without any knowledge in Japanese language to misread the sentences and accidentally read it upside down, which caused it to be extremely confusing since it was read in a completely incorrect way. However, how could I point that fact out?

Hmm, perhaps it’ll be much better if I showed him the table corresponding to the ancient language?

… Alright then, since that’s the case, let’s copy the letter first. I decided, but… Uuh, writing these letters in reverse was tough. The letters were also crooked when I wrote them in landscape… Still, it wasn’t that big of a deal since it was written with crayon after all.

I marked the first letter with a circle and the last letter with a triangle, then I added an underline. Furthemore, I also wrote it with different colors. The one from tiara with golden color, and the one from the cane with green one. After that, I cut each letter with scissors.

“Just what are you doing?” Luke asked when he saw what I was doing.

“Well, take a look.” I said, overlapping the golden colored letters and green letters together.

With this, he would soon realize that although those letters had different orientations, they’re literally the same when they were piled up together on top of each other.

“These letters are similar, right?”

Everything matched except for the ‘Goldiaz’ and ‘Griffeel’ parts. The clarification would be much faster after I showed him this, right?

What I didn’t expect was Luke trembling all over when I showed that to him.

“Does that mean… the orientation of the first and last letter is… different?”

Oh, he catches up pretty quickly, huh. And here I’m about to worry about him. I thought, secretly wiping my inner sweat off.

“You, how did you know that?”

“The shape of the letters are pretty much similar, so I think they might be actually the same letter.”

“What have you been doing together since a while ago? It looks rather interesting?” Frederick looked over at us as he asked me that.

“Uhm, studying ancient letters?”

“Hee… if I’m not wrong, these letters should be ‘Selendia’. It seems to be the Saint’s name.” He said as he lined up the letters.

The left of the green-striped letters, and the above letter of the gold-striped letters. Yup, they now looked like proper Japanese letters. Thank you for your assistance, Frederick.

“These were the important letters for the royal family, right, Elliot?”

Being suddenly addressed by  Frederick, Elliot was unable to hide his surprise momentarily. However, he soon returned to his usual sulky expression. Nevertheless, he still came near us when he heard Frederick’s call, which was quite rare.

“Yeah, you’re right, Big Brother. It’s the letters I often see in the genealogy of the royal family.”

When he spoke this time, I noticed that he suddenly became a little bit more zealous than usual. Was he actually a history otaku? Wait, no, forget it. Perhaps it was much better for me to not treat him like your normal everyday children; he’s royalty, after all. Anyway, the fact that he willingly came near Frederick now was a good thing for my ‘Let’s Get Along’ plan.

“I see… so it’s the Saint’s—”

Then, let’s drop another hint to Luke who was still pondering about something~. I cheerfully decided as I opened the Saint’s Legend book which I brought with me. If I’m not wrong, it should be around… this page!

It was the page that depicted the scene where the six Gods were offering their love to the Saint. The letters written in this particular scene had almost the same meaning as the one written in the ancient language etched on the ornaments.

“Maybe, it’s this one? Look, they were presenting the carved words of love to their marriage partner, right? It’s the love confession of the six Gods, right?”

When I said that, the three of them stiffened at once, and I wondered why. I meant, Luke aside, why did Elliot and Frederick have the same reaction?

“Theodore, is that the only thing that came into your head? I mean, these are ancient letters, you know? As if they’re going to do something as simple as writing their love confession on it.”

“Your head is always filled with a flower garden, eh.”

HORAAAAAAAAAAA, I’m trying to help you here!!! I screamed inwardly, peeved.

“No way… I’ve to inform…!”

Luke suddenly stood up from his chair and left the room in a hurry. Wait, could he be going to the store right now?! Even though he had said that he was told by his father to not come to the store just a while ago?!

Wait, wait, wait, that’s not the point. Didn’t my father tell me to not come since it’s dangerous?! Aaaah, anyway, let’s just chase him to prevent any incident now.

I have to stop him from going to the store even if I can’t calm him down. Besides, if he did understand something from our discussion, it’ll be much better for him to inform us and our fathers about it first, won’t it?

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