TWFLLYM Ch 35

A Tyrant's Courtship (2)

[Kalart] "Yes, let us go with that. Having learned the truth, I will generously forgive you and forget all your sins. How about that?"

[Roserikta] "Your Highness. Not only is that untrue...... I have never......"

[Kalart] "Think carefully before you answer. You are the sinner here."

[Roserikta] "Because that is a lie. Furthermore, I don't understand what meaning my lying would hold, Your Highness."

He chuckled, his expression cracking like ice.

[Kalart] "It will please me."

[Roserikta] "How could that......"

[Kalart] "The one harboring desires inevitably becomes the weaker party. Just as I remain the weak one before you."

[Roserikta] "Your Highness......"

She widened her eyes.

The Crown Prince stared at her. His gaze remained numb yet seethed with an underlying intensity. He looked as beautiful as ever.

That fact made his words even harder to believe. How could such an untouchable man voluntarily declare himself the weaker party?

[Kalart] "If you refuse to change your answer and insist on remaining a sinner until the end, so be it. Instead, I will become your tyrant."

[Roserikta] "Your Highness can't become a tyrant. I know well you are not that kind of person."

[Kalart] "Not at all. I merely pretended to be a decent man in front of you."

He continued with a bizarre expression, blurring the line between a smile and pure anger.

[Kalart] "Since you admitted your guilt, you are a sinner. I didn't forgive it; I merely covered it up temporarily. A sinner can't enjoy freedom by their own will, and thus, you can't return to where you came from. Your task remains unchanged: stay in the Imperial Palace and undo what you have done."

His words held absolute coldness, but the hand supporting her waist remained incredibly tender. Everything presented a complete contradiction.

[Roserikta] "I...... undid what I could undo. Your Highness will no longer need Clobell."

[Kalart] "That applies to Clobell, yes."

He playfully tapped the bridge of her nose.

[Kalart] "But not you. My feelings toward you remain unchanged."

[Roserikta] "......"

That posed the main problem.

Why did those feelings remain entirely intact? He forgot Clobellina so effortlessly.

Did this mean the antidote remained incomplete?

Or did this situation never involve the love potion in the first place?

[Kalart] "So restore this as well. Until this emotion disappears, you are going nowhere."

[Roserikta] "I......"

[Kalart] "Keep this in mind. I know your crime. If you even entertain the thought of escaping, you should anticipate how a tyrant handles a sinner."

He wore a faint smile as he caressed the bridge of her nose. The gesture contradicted any notion of a tyrant's brutality. It remained sweet and gentle.

The order commanding her to stay in the Imperial Palace as a price for her sins carried the same tone.

It constituted a punishment that lacked punitive force, an order indistinguishable from an absolute courtship.

Everything about Kalart embodied an utter contradiction.

---

[Clobell] "So what will you do now?"

Roserikta returned to the bedroom late at night, thoroughly exhausted.

[Roserikta] "About what?"

[Clobell] "Did you not hear what he said? He said he would lock you in the castle so you can go nowhere. Will he really do that?"

She perched on the edge of the bed with a face drained of all life.

[Roserikta] "No...... He can't do that. Even if I must relocate the pharmacy, I refuse to live locked in a castle. Once I return to Trifolium, I have my broomstick, so escaping will pose no challenge."

[Clobell] "Right, then let us escape quickly."

Clobellina circled her ankles before climbing onto her lap.

[Clobell] "Sigh, I felt terribly guilty when he started spouting such nonsense. If I had not fed him the love potion, this never would have happened......"

The apology arrived far too late.

She held Clobellina on her lap and lightly smacked the cat's nose with a humorless expression.

[Roserikta] "Take this opportunity to reflect on your actions properly. I warned you. You committed an atrocious act."

[Clobell] "Whine...... If only you had fed me better from the start......"

[Roserikta] "Are you still spouting that excuse?"

Clobellina turned away and licked her front paws a couple of times in an awkward display.

[Clobell] "Well, I am not claiming I did well. I will definitely reflect on my actions. That love potion proved undeniably terrifying."

[Roserikta] "The love potion is not the only terrifying element. The Crown Prince is terrifying, too. Witches must never entangle themselves with the imperial family. That invites sheer disaster. I learned that witch hunts started exactly for that reason."

Clobellina nodded vigorously.

[Clobell] "Right, right. This is all my fault. So we will escape as soon as we find the broomstick?"

[Roserikta] "Well......"

Roserikta released a long-held sigh.

Her body still burned with residual heat. The warmth had transferred from Kalart's body, which had remained pressed tightly against hers for hours.

His words—I might lose my temper if we lose contact—clung persistently to her ears.

The situation remained bizarre. She knew she should have recoiled in fear, yet the sentiment evoked no terror at all. It sounded like a promise never to get angry.

Even if she fed him a suspicious substance, even if she committed worse atrocities, he would not rage. He could not rage.

Because Kalart himself stood as the weaker party.

Ironically, the force shackling her ankles was not the Crown Prince's order to strip away a sinner's freedom. Nor was it his threat to act the tyrant. It was his confession of weakness.

He claimed he would have forgotten her transgressions if she had deliberately aimed for the Crown Princess' seat. Instead, he refused to forgive her attempt to silently return to her original life.

It made zero sense. Every word and action of his resonated like a maddened courtship.

[Roserikta] "I need to observe the situation first."

[Clobell] "What situation?"

[Roserikta] "He will not let us escape that easily. Right now, the Crown Prince is......"

[Clobell] "He has become a complete lunatic."

Clobellina intercepted her words. The statement held an undeniable truth, so she merely nodded.

[Clobell] "No traces of the love potion remain, right? So why is he acting like that? I pitied him until yesterday and told you to treat him well, but now I realize I wasted my breath."

[Clobell] "If we treat him nicely, shouldn't he act a bit kinder too? People sometimes ingest strange medicines in life. It is no big deal, and it is not a terminal illness, yet he makes such a massive fuss about sinners and all that."

Clobell, if you were the Crown Prince, you would have acted far worse......

Perhaps his current insanity allowed him to let this slide so easily.

[Clobell] "Can you not concoct a medicine to restore a madman's sanity? Try making one."

[Roserikta] "That is impossible. That requires magic, not medicine. Wait, if we are talking about a medicine to restore the Crown Prince's sanity, we already fed it to him. That was the antidote."

[Clobell] "Meow? Now that you mention it, that is true. He regained his senses, yet he still acts like this? It is as if he consumed another love potion. Did you secretly feed him another one behind my back?"

[Roserikta] "What nonsense are you spewing? Why would I...... Ah......"

While arguing against Clobellina's nonsense, a sudden realization pierced her mind.

[Clobell] "Did you actually feed him one?"

[Roserikta] "No!"

[Clobell] "Then why did you say 'Ah......'?"

[Roserikta] "Not that...... I am talking about the antidote."

[Clobell] "What about the antidote?"

[Roserikta] "Why did it trigger side effects in the first place?"

[Clobell] "Huh? Was that not because of your sloppy brewing?"

She glared at Clobellina for a brief moment.

[Roserikta] "I never claimed to be a great pharmacist like Grandmother. However, I don't brew defective mixtures either. I double-checked the recipe multiple times...... No, this sounds like an excuse."

[Roserikta] "Fine, let us assume the antidote lacked perfection and caused side effects. But why did they manifest in that specific manner? Why did his vision distort all things? What connection exists between a love potion and a person's eyes?"

[Clobell] "......"

Clobellina blinked several times. Then, feigning complete ignorance, she lowered her head and licked her chest fur.

Her brain had overloaded. Performing a random task instead of admitting a complete failure to understand stood as the ultimate feline pride.

Driven by a surge of excitement, Roserikta yanked her tail.

[Clobell] "Meow! Where are you touching right now!"

[Roserikta] "Hold still for a second. This helps me think clearly. The Crown Prince mentioned an affliction in his eyes. He claimed living creatures appeared grotesquely distorted."

[Clobell] "What did you say? Does such a disease even exist?"

[Roserikta] "That was my first time hearing of it, too. He said he had suffered from the affliction since birth. Anyway, that is why he never perceived anyone as beautiful before."

[Roserikta] "After consuming the love potion, Clobell, you became the sole beautiful entity to him. After consuming the antidote, he said you reverted to looking exactly like the others...... Ah, wait a minute."

The more she spoke, the paler her complexion grew.

[Roserikta] "This...... This sounds exactly like......"

[Clobell] "Meow? What is it? Ah, the suspense is killing me. Spit it out!"

[Roserikta] "Does the affliction in the Crown Prince's eyes not function exactly like...... a mechanism designed to prevent him from loving anyone?"

[Clobell] "Huh? What did you say?"

[Roserikta] "Think about it, Clobell. An eye affliction and a love potion share absolutely zero correlation. Yet the symptoms manifested simultaneously. They interacted directly with each other."

Ingesting the love potion temporarily cured the affliction for a specific target. Taking the antidote brought back the ailment. Right after consuming the antidote, the symptoms even worsened for a short time.

[Clobell] "Whoa...... Now that you mention it, that makes sense. Rosy, were you a genius all along?"

[Roserikta] "Not quite a genius, but Grandmother always said I possessed the talent to become an exceptional pharmacist. No, that misses the point entirely. If my theory holds......"

Unable to contain herself, Roserikta leaped from the bed. She clenched both fists tight.

[Roserikta] "That affliction...... It is no disease."

[Clobell] "Then what is it?"

[Roserikta] "Magic. Specifically, black magic designed solely for inflicting curses."

[Clobell] "What did you say?"

Her jaw dropped open.

[Clobell] "What nonsense...... Does that make any sense? I have read some books too. Black magic disappeared ages ago, did it not? Even before the witch hunts."

[Roserikta] "Yes. I heard the same. The witches' history books document it exactly like that. However, records don't contain absolute truths. Take us, for example. The records claim nearly all witches abandoned the human realm and severed ties with humans after the witch hunts, yet I run a pharmacy right here in the capital. Unrecorded exceptions must exist."

[Clobell] "Whoa...... No. Think about it. Black magic belongs to an incredibly ancient era. A witch wielding black magic would have to exceed three hundred years of age."

[Roserikta] "She could have passed it down to someone. To keep the lineage unbroken. Or perhaps the power of black magic sustains her life past three hundred years. No witch fully comprehends the exact capabilities of black magic."

[Clobell] "Whoa......"

She scratched her whiskers with her claws.

[Clobell] "Still, black magic is a massive leap in logic. Maybe humans just naturally develop such diseases......"

[Roserikta] "I have never heard of such an illness. A disease that selectively distorts only living creatures into grotesque forms defies all medical logic."

[Clobell] "Now that I think about it, it is quite a ridiculous disease."

[Roserikta] "Exactly. Calling it a curse makes far more sense than labeling it a disease."

She smacked her own forehead with her clenched fist.

[Roserikta] "I am an utter fool. Why did I realize this just now? I should have known the moment I first heard it. I lack any qualification as a pharmacist."

[Clobell] "Don't beat yourself up. Following that logic, the royal physicians here should have bitten their tongues and died of shame ages ago."

[Roserikta] "Ah, I suppose?"

She stared at her palms, marked with red crescent indents from clenching them so tightly.

[Roserikta] "Therefore...... I absolutely can't just run away."

Clobellina leaped into the air.

[Clobell] "Huh? What did you just say?"

[Roserikta] "The Crown Prince's affliction. If that is a curse...... I can't turn a blind eye."

[Clobell] "You want to cure that before leaving? Do you have any idea how long that will take? You never even learned black magic."

[Roserikta] "I must try everything. As a witch, I possess far better odds than those clueless royal physicians."

Clobellina spun in tight circles on the spot. Chaos and confusion radiated from the feline's frantic pacing.

[Clobell] "You have lost your mind. The Crown Prince is already throwing a massive fit of madness, and you willingly want to anchor yourself here? You don't plan on living with him forever."

[Roserikta] "That is exactly my point."

She emphasized her words with firm conviction.

[Roserikta] "I finally grasp the reason behind his behavior. That man harbors immense fear."

[Clobell] "Does a human like him even know fear?"

[Roserikta] "He went his entire life without harboring affection for anyone. Then you appeared. That must have triggered his extreme obsession. He feared losing you. He dreaded never experiencing that emotion again."

That explains his earlier words. His confession of being the weaker party.

Immersed in deep thought, Clobellina stroked her whiskers.

[Clobell] "But he forgot everything after drinking the antidote. He doesn't even recognize me. So he lost the feeling anyway, did he not?"

[Roserikta] "The lust remains."

[Clobell] "You said the love potion caused that, too. Should that not disappear alongside the affection?"

[Roserikta] "Perhaps...... that persists because lust operates independently of visual perception. I lack absolute certainty, but it acted that way from the beginning. He claimed I never looked beautiful like you. But lust relies on physical sensation."

Clobellina shook her head.

[Clobell] "What kind of logic is that? A thing either is, or it is not. Why complicate it? Then he just lusted after you from the start, completely independently of the love potion."

[Roserikta] "No, Clobell!"

Her face flushed crimson as she shot a warning glare.

[Roserikta] "We agreed to ban those words. Well...... Anyway, I don't know the answer to that. We must not jump to any premature conclusions."

[Clobell] "Just admit the truth. He is a male, is he not? It happens, so why make a fuss?"

Prev

TOC

Next