Side Story 2: The First Memory
01 The Very First
“His Highness truly was, I’m telling you, something that put people in a bind.”
The young page Martin of the Second Prince’s Palace used to grumble like that out of habit.
For Reiner, it had been a thankful remark.
Other people did not beat around the bush like Martin. They used somewhat harsher language than that. For example….
‘Prince Reiner really was a handful to deal with, you know.’ Things like that.
Well, it was true enough.
A half-witted prince who could not even read properly.
A disgrace to the Empire, too weak to go to the battlefield unlike his older brother.
A nuisance who, though he was a prince in name, acted however he pleased, whined, and tormented his subordinates with his complaints.
An unwanted troublemaker who could not be cast aside because he was the child of the emperor’s beloved second empress.
That was the identity of the Empire’s Second Prince, Reiner von Reutlingen.
But even someone like me was better than that one, wasn’t I?
At least I did not do anything so reckless as that.
Reiner briefly sank into such thoughts. He looked at the small back of the unknown girl who stood blocking him, and those musings came to him naturally.
She was small in build.
Her height was probably not even half of mine?
He tried to gauge it more precisely, but his head, attached to his neck, felt especially heavy today. Reiner lowered his head weakly. A self-mocking laugh flowed over his cracked lips. Once again, useless thoughts filled his mind.
Still, I was in better shape than that girl.
What would become of that child?
Had she looked at her fortune this morning before coming out?
It could not have said, ‘Today, your courage will exceed your limits. Beware your neck,’ could it?
For someone who was covered in blood and could barely hold up his head, it was certainly a carefree thought.
But truly, wasn’t that a reckless action?
To dare stand in the middle of the audience hall and block the Emperor of the Empire.
To be the first to ask a question.
“Were you going to kill him?”
The girl was boldly asking that.
It was a quiet yet powerful voice.
Perhaps because his ear was against the floor, the sound buzzed in his ears.
Even so, it was as clear and pleasant as the sound of the sea in a conch or a shell.
If one spoke with such a voice, anyone would listen. No matter what nonsense was said, it would sound like a mermaid’s song.
Reiner, with his eyes closed and on the brink of life and death, fell into a rather sweet fantasy.
However, it seemed that the father who had brought him to this state, the Emperor who ruled the Reutlingen Empire, had a slightly different thought.
“What did you say?”
A trace of anger lingered in his tone. That was all. Yet Reiner’s body trembled on its own. This had been learned behavior. The beating that followed that kind of voice. Reiner had experienced it hundreds, thousands of times.
He no longer needed to open his eyes to picture what kind of face the Emperor might be making now. The whites of his eyes would have taken on a red sheen, glistening ominously. A twisted grin would be perched at the corner of his mouth.
It was a familiar expression to Reiner.
What would happen next had been all too predictable.
The Emperor would cut down that girl in a single stroke. Without a moment’s hesitation.
Silence weighed on every side. Everyone sensed it instinctively, or knew it from seeing and hearing, just as Reiner did. It would not take long before the flush in that youthful cheek faded from her small shoulders and that fluttering red hair rolled across the stone floor.
He broke into a laugh at the grim thought.
Spending half a day slowly beating someone to death was apparently an act of mercy reserved for one’s own child.
Once he realized that, who could avoid letting out a wry chuckle?
Of course, the moment that small laugh escaped his lips, regret washed over him.
If the mad Emperor saw his son, beaten to a pulp, laughing instead of wallowing in pain, he would not feel remorse. He would think, Oh, he must still be fit to live, and kick him a few more times.
Luckily, at that moment, someone spoke up and hid the small laugh Reiner had let out. That kind soul was….
“Judging by what I see, it looks like the one beneath Your Majesty’s feet right now is your son.”
…Naturally, it was that reckless girl from before.
Yeah, who else but that crazy thing would butt in at a time like this?
The Emperor, surprisingly, did not swing his sword right away.
Instead, he let out a hollow laugh and asked the girl,
“Yes, he is my second son. Does that trouble you?”
“I was merely curious.”
“Curious about what?”
There was a note of annoyance in the Emperor’s voice. The conversation was going on longer than he liked, it seemed. The girl went on in a calm tone, regardless of his displeasure.
“It was the same thing I asked a moment ago.”
“A moment ago?”
“Yes, just a short while ago. Unless you already forgot, like a distant memory?”
Reiner nearly laughed again. The girl’s words sounded like she was subtly mocking the mad Emperor. Her manner of speech was refined and dignified, but what she conveyed was not so different from: How feeble is your mind that you can’t recall what we just talked about a moment ago, so I have to repeat it for you?
Apparently, Reiner was not alone in that interpretation. The gathered people stirred. The Emperor, like a beast hiding its claws and growling, spoke in a lowered voice, barely concealing his anger.
“…I was so taken aback by your blocking my way that I didn’t catch what you were babbling.”
The girl, sounding as if she too was starting to get irritated, answered indifferently.
“I asked if you were going to kill him.”
“Kill you? Or my son?”
“The latter, of course. I wondered whether Your Majesty might actually kill your son here and now.”
“You blocked my way just to ask something so trivial?”
“Well, put simply, yes.”
She wasn’t scared at all.
Reiner barely managed to raise himself in order to see that absurd girl’s face. The girl who entered his half-obscured field of vision, clouded by bloody tears, seemed as youthful as her small build suggested. She might have been a year or two older or younger than him at most.
Reiner finally understood why the Emperor had not yet drawn his sword. The sheer preposterousness of such a young girl daring to speak up about what he was doing covered his rage for a moment. Indeed, the Emperor asked in a voice that sounded slightly intrigued,
“What made you curious about that?”
“Isn’t it a bit ridiculous?”
“Ridiculous? Why? Am I not allowed to do as I please with my own son, who shares my blood, in my own palace?”
He spat out his annoyance and his question as though he were spitting at a worthless opponent.
But the girl still did not show fear. Instead, she opened her eyes wide, as if watching something truly laughable, then let out a faint snicker with one corner of her mouth raised.
A snicker.
Was she crazy?
Had she snapped from sheer terror?
Had I been shut away for too long?
Was I the only one who never heard rumors of a lunatic girl wandering the palace?
Reiner blinked. He wanted to get a proper look at the girl’s face, but his vision kept growing blurry, his focus slipping. However, his hearing remained intact. The girl was now laughing a bit more noticeably than before. The Emperor asked in a slightly raised voice,
“Did I say something amusing? What made you laugh?”
The girl replied in a voice still calm,
“Well, isn’t it funny?”
“Funny?”
“You humiliated your son right in front of the enemy kingdom’s princess who came here as a hostage. Wouldn’t that make me feel that the Emperor of the Reutlingen Empire wasn’t much at all?”
Only then did Reiner realize.
Ah, so this tiny girl was the princess sent from Winzerton as a hostage.
Once again, a thought that did not suit the situation crept into his head.
Was this what Father and my brother meant when they spoke of a man’s bold spirit, a prince’s ambition, a knight’s courage? Would Father take a liking to this Princess of Winzerton?
Then maybe she wouldn’t die today…
His thoughts reached that point when hot liquid spilled over Reiner’s face, just as he managed to raise his upper body to get a closer look at the girl’s face.
It was not hot enough to burn him, but the sudden splash of the unknown substance was unpleasant.
Reiner stretched out an arm that had almost no strength left in it. He wanted at least to wipe his cheek. While he flailed helplessly, something settled onto his arm.
At first, he thought it might have been a cat roaming the palace. Or perhaps a baby lamb offered as tribute.
It felt warm and light. He assumed some small creature had hopped over without any sense.
But then a familiar metallic smell stung his nose. The smell of blood. At that moment, his blurred vision regained focus. He looked to see what had landed in his arms.
It was not an animal.
It was a person.
A very small person.
His father’s sword had struck the princess in the end. Not one of the many onlookers crowding the audience hall managed to scream. And so, the princess of the enemy kingdom collapsed heavily into the arms of the troublesome prince.
Breaking the silence, the mad Emperor’s footsteps sounded once again as he returned to his chamber.
Reiner had assumed that today, he would not hear those footsteps fade away but would be beaten to death on the audience hall floor. Until a moment ago, he had thought so.
But instead of Reiner, the girl died. The princess of Winzerton, who faced the mad Emperor of the mighty Reutlingen Empire without fear.
“You… you….”
Not even knowing why he was crying, Reiner wept bitterly. An unbelievable flood of tears poured forth.
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