Chapter 123: Four Days
“What day… was it… today?”
With trembling legs, I barely managed to climb down from the bed. Astrid von Miterien picked up her clothes.
Even that simple, basic motion made my arms shake so much that I dropped and picked them up several times before I finally grasped the sports bra.
“…Is it over?”
“Hey, Your Highness. No matter how you look at it, you should at least know how many days it’s been before saying that…”
I glanced at the cracked screen of my smartphone—four whole days.
Four days had passed.
For four days, the two of us hadn’t stepped a foot outside the house.
Not just the house—we hadn’t even left the bed.
The only time we got out of bed was when food delivery arrived, and even then, Leopold von Einthafen fetched it, set it on the table, and brought it back to eat on the bed. So, in truth, this was the first time in four days I’d stepped off the mattress.
“Seriously, what kind of… it’s not like he’s some teenage boy, so what…”
I almost said, What kind of insatiable lust is this? but I swallowed the words in a hurry.
Leopold’s gaze felt off, like he might pounce again any second, so I bolted into the bathroom and locked the door.
Thankfully, no knocking followed, so I turned on the shower. As the hot water poured out, I stood under it for a long while.
The heat warmed my entire body, and only then did it feel like my body was mine again.
Everything ached.
For these four days, my body hadn’t been my own.
It felt squeezed dry, gripped tight, and relentlessly…
‘No, no… enough. Stop thinking about it…’
Ugh.
“So, isn’t it about time we headed back?”
Lunch today was jjambbong.
My bank account was running dry.
Eating delivery food for every meal over four days made it inevitable, but Leopold didn’t seem to have any real intention of leaving.
“We’ll have to head back eventually. But there’s something we need to do first.”
“Something to do?”
I slurped the jjambbong broth and stared at Leopold.
What could he possibly have to do in this world?
He didn’t know anyone here, so his claim of having something to do didn’t make sense to me.
“Astrid, how do I learn more about the advanced science and technology of your world?”
“Science and technology?”
At first, Leopold had acted like the spicy jjambbong would set his mouth on fire, but now he downed the broth with ease.
Watching him slurp it down with a hearty “Kuhhh—” of satisfaction, I seemed to realize something.
“Oh, you mean like cars and stuff?”
“Yes, those horseless carriages that move on their own… things like that.”
“Well…”
Even so, a car was the pinnacle of modern metal technology.
They littered the streets, so people took them for granted, but considering how few manufacturers actually produced them, it was clear—starting with metalworking, cars were the essence of contemporary metallurgical science.
“Of course, I don’t think we could make one in Einthafen right away. But if we could take back even the basics, it could lay the groundwork for research… no, it could spark a shift in thinking no one’s ever considered.”
“Hmm…”
Couldn’t I just look it up on my smartphone?
But this was a dream anyway, and even if I printed out blueprints or papers, there was no way to take them with us.
“Couldn’t you just memorize it?”
I mentally filed away yet another oddity about this strange crown prince.
***
“So, are you finally ready to release the blessing?”
Astein looked noticeably distressed.
Traces of arrowheads grazing him were evident all over, and bloodstains peeked through a long tear in his collar.
The arrows flying at him were so precise that Astein had already rolled on the ground disgracefully several times.
Never had he regretted not securing a combat blessing as much as he did now.
Astrid von Miterien.
He should’ve taken her blessing back when they were kids, when he knew nothing.
Waiting for it to ripen had been a mistake.
—Though it was far too late for regrets now.
A green-haired beauty approached him, her ears twitching as she walked.
With each step, the faint click-clack of her heels echoed through the cavern.
“You’re not an elf, but you’re not human either. What are you, exactly? Why do you keep getting in my way?”
Even Astein’s venom-laced voice didn’t faze Eranya.
Instead, she casually scratched her head with an arrowhead and answered as if it were no big deal.
“Hey, I am an elf, okay? Who’s changing my race without my say-so?”
“…Are you joking right now? Didn’t you just say you weren’t an elf?”
“What are you even talking about?”
Eranya frowned slightly.
It was the kind of face that suggested mild annoyance.
“Hey, I’m an elf. I just don’t call myself one because I abandoned my oath to the World Tree. My race is still elf, though.”
“…You don’t mean…”
An elf who abandoned the World Tree.
An elf who stepped into the mortal world.
He’d heard rumors of an elf who broke her oath to the World Tree herself.
A divine archer elf, said to hit a hundred targets with a single arrow, never missing a shot.
“You’re not saying you’re that…”
“Ahh, stop. That’s enough. No need to go further. Just release the blessing. A blessing isn’t something one person can bear alone. Like I said, Astie’s an exception.”
“…Astrid’s an exception, huh. Hah… you really don’t know anything, do you?”
Astein groaned as he stood up.
Forcing his trembling knees—shaking for a very different reason than Astrid’s—to steady, he tossed the cedar wand he’d been holding far away.
“She wouldn’t know. Of course… I never told anyone, after all.”
“Told anyone what?”
“…Never mind that. You’ll see soon enough. More importantly… as a scholar, how could I resist this?”
Symbols representing the twelve zodiacs of the imperial circle began to glow, four of them shining brightly.
Divine Luck. Fortune so great it seemed favored by the gods.
Divine Knowledge. A mind so vast it might as well carry an entire library.
Divine Sight. Vision that saw farther and clearer than anyone else.
Divine Will. An unyielding spirit that never knelt, no matter the hardship.
“…It’s akin to magic but different… As one who walks the path of curses, how could I resist the pursuit of knowledge?”
“Hey, you’re gonna die for real if you do this.”
Eranya instantly understood what Astein was about to do.
She knew the meaning of those symbols well.
And so, this mad curse-weaver intended to take those four blessings into his own body.
“…Ugh. Do you really have to?”
Eranya didn’t bother stopping him.
A blessing was one per person.
And while someone like Astrid might carry two blessings in her body, that wasn’t the same as arbitrarily forcing them in, like Astein was attempting now.
What would happen if someone tried to impose them by force?
No one had ever done it, so the outcome was unknown, but it was obvious it wouldn’t end well.
“…Fine, go ahead. I’m kinda curious too.”
What would happen if those blessings settled into one person’s body?
Honestly, she didn’t think it’d end well.
“But hey. Why are you going this far?”
“What else could it be?”
Astein grinned.
By chance, the spot where he stood was within the circular array of the twelve zodiacs.
He smiled radiantly, bathed in the golden light rising from below.
His usually half-closed eyes now sparkled wide open.
Those black pupils were fixed on Eranya.
Eyes devoid of any emotion stared straight at her.
“You’re asking because you don’t know? Idiot.”
“It’s just revenge. Revenge. Revenge against the invaders who destroyed my homeland.”
“…Revenge?”
“Yeah. Just revenge. I’ll bring down Astrid von Miterien from the inside—an opponent I could never beat with my bare hands—and through her, I’ll topple Crown Prince Leopold too. I can’t collapse the empire in one blow, but… you know how it goes, right?”
The golden glow climbed toward its peak.
“A fallen prince sharpening his blade for revenge… that sort of thing. And there’s another story like that too, isn’t there?”
Finally, the golden light enveloped Astein’s entire body.
His faintly visible form vanished completely from sight, and the cavern, drenched in the golden radiance bursting from the zodiac array, turned into a place reminiscent of a gold mine.
“…A great empire, having lost its heir, falls into chaos as those vying for the throne tear it apart, leading to its eventual ruin—that kind of story. It’s not unheard of, after all.”
His voice remained calm as ever.
Then the light exploded outward, filling not just the cavern but the entire self-sustaining tower with a dazzling brilliance.